FANFICTASIA is a Web Animation series created by ArtSpear Entertainment as part of Toon Sandwich. It is a direct sequel to the "Super-Hero-Bowl!", "Super-Villain Bowl!" and "Super-Showdown Bowl!" trilogy. It premiered in December 2020, with a new episode every year.
After killing Oscar at the end of "Super-Showdown Bowl!", the victorious heroes and villains from the Movie Arena went into space and, with the power of Ego the Living Planet and everybody else's suggestions, created a new planet to live on, which they named "Fanfictasia". They also freed more fictional characters from the other arenas (from the worlds of Stop-Motion, Cartoons, Anime, Video Games, etc.) and invited them to live on the new world. At the time, they elected the FanficTen to lead them, and they banned the use of the most disruptive superpowers as well as the most powerful objects (kept in the Vault) to keep harmony.
The winners of the previously shown Super-Hero Bowl and Super-Villain Bowl, Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool and Harley Quinn, married together and have now two children, Chimi and Motley. The actual story starts eight years later, with the above backstory told in flashbacks to the kids.
A series of mysterious murders then start shaking this idyllic world, however. Detective Hela takes the case, with her brother, Thor, God of Thunder (and main actor of the TV show Thor & Order), unfortunately tagging along. A wacky investigation begins, with more cameos of fictional characters from various media than you can imagine.
Episodes:
- Episode 1 – The Phantom-like Menace
- Episode 2 – The Vault of Un-Kept Secrets
- Episode 3 – Guiltfinger
- Episode 4 – Penultimategame part 1
FANFICTASIA provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: While still more violent and eager to kill than the heroes, all the villains basically renounce their evil ways after beating Oscar. Even Omnicidal Maniacs like Agent Smith, Ego and Thanos become friendly with their rivals afterwards. Voldemort is seen uncharacteristically laughing and celebrating with Harry Potter. In the sequel series, Hela is a detective and there haven't been any murders in eight years. Probably justified because, as it was established, none of them are the "real" characters but rather beings created in their likeness by Oscar, so it's safe to say they don't have faults as deep as their fictional movie character sources.
- Anti-Climax: After the reveal of multiple other arenas at the end of "Super-Showdown-Bowl!", the heroes are able to return and rescue them with no fuss. Justified due to Oscar's death.
- Apologetic Attacker: Kermit the Frog apologizes when he shoots at Villainous Legion forces with his rifle.
- An Arm and a Leg: Harley and Deadpool's son Chimi cut off his own arm to give to a girl he is in love with. Fortunately, it's mentioned that it will grow back, no doubt thanks to inheriting his father's power.
- Ascended Extra: The original Lara Croft appeared during The Stinger in "Super-Showdown-Bowl!" during the Super-Videogame-Bowl, but in episode 1, she's one of the main characters, exploring a tomb with Harley Quinn and Indiana Jones (where Quinn finds the skeleton head and cowl of George Clooney Batman) before joining Quinn in the murder case.
- Babies Ever After:
- Harley and Deadpool now have two children. A conversation with them reveals that they're not the only ones.
- The girl Chimi has a crush on is the daughter of Peter Quill and Gamora.
- Big "NO!": Harley Quinn lets one out when Detective Hela and the police place her children under arrest.
- Brother–Sister Team:
- Thor Odinson and Hela Odinsdottir team up together to investigate the crimes.
- A villainous example in the form of the future versions of Motley and Chimi.
- By-the-Book Cop: Hela. Actually, the reason she became a detective was to make sure the rules aren't broken or changed due to her backstory.
- Cannot Keep a Secret: Motley blurts out to her parents that Chimi is missing his arm.
- Choosing Neutrality: During war, there are some who don't feel like joining either side of conflict, including The Sewers, where all kinds of heteromorphs live.
- Collapsible Helmet: Used for a Dramatic Unmask in episode 3 by future Chimi and Motley. Their time-travelling costumes, likely based on those from Avengers: Endgame, have helmets that fold and retract automatically.
- The Coroner: This role is filled here by Shuri from Black Panther, who contributes to the investigation with Wakandian computers and tech.
- Dies Wide Open: The original Captain James T. Kirk was found spaced with his eyes wide open.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: The first episode starts with Harley dreaming of Oscar returning to kill all the heroes and villains. The next day, several bodies start appearing across Fanfictasia, each bearing Oscar's symbol carved into them. In episode 3 it turns out to be Metaphorically True as the murders were committed by the "Order of the Oscar", future Motley and Chimi who wish to create a bloody war between heroes and villains.
- Dream Intro: The first episode opens with a nightmare sequence from Harley, who thinks she's back in the Arena and Oscar is alive again, before going to a Catapult Nightmare that reveals everything to be a dream.
- Facial Markings: Ariel wears grey warpaint markings when fighting for the Heroic Alliance.
- Fantastic Racism:
- Many "heroes" (characters based off movie protagonists) still tend to assume the worst from the "villains" (characters based off the movie antagonists). According to Motley all the "hero" and "villain" kids are prejudiced against "anti-hero" kids (kids whose parents were anti-heroes in their movies).
- In episode 3 future Motley reveals that in the future Heroes and Villains are in a civil war with each other determined to wipe the other out.
- In episode 4, there is a villain-controlled bar which has an explicit prohibition on heroic and anti-heroic patrons and visitors. In the very same episode, the court audience and court security are segregated with a force field by their archetypes.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In episode 3, you can spot the doll head dangling from one of the culprit's belt, hinting that she is future Motley, even before Harley does so.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Hela is a serious detective while Thor is an actor with no real idea of what he's doing.
- Foreshadowing: The Grand High Witch blames the murders on children. It turns out that she's actually right, though the children have become adults in this case.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Implied with George Clooney Batman. Nobody noticed that he'd been missing for nearly 8 years before discovering his body, with his villains gravitating towards Val Kilmer Batman.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: The FanficTen is consisted of five males (Darth Vader, James Bond, Christian Bale Batman, Hannibal Lecter, and Indiana Jones) and five females (Mystique, the Grand High Witch, Hermione Granger, Black Widow, and Princess Peach).
- Go-Go Enslavement: In episode 4, Jabba being in charge of the Villainous Legion's prisoners, Princess Leia is back in her iconic slave bikini... to her father's dismay.Darth Vader: I find your lack of clothes disturbing.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: After capturing Princess Peach, the Villainous Legion used that technique to interrogate her.
- Holding Back the Phlebotinum: The FanficTen ban several powers and technologies like Mind Control, Time Travel, and Regeneration, while locking down some of the more dangerous objects (like the Infinity Gauntlet and One Ring) inside a secure vault that can only be opened by all of the FanficTen.
- Homage: The opening of episode 3 includes an intro modeled on those of the James Bond movies, complete with original song. The tile of said episode, "Guiltfinger", is of course a nod to Goldfinger.
- Indy Escape: Played with in the Temple of Doom: a boulder starts rolling Raiders of the Lost Ark-style, but Lara Croft stops Indiana Jones from running, just letting it pass overhead them on its ramp. She then wonders why he didn't do that in his movie, but Indy testily answers that's because the boulder is rolling toward the exit, and that it'll be blocking it and imprisoning them inside if they don't run after it.
- Kangaroo Court: The criminal court of Fanfictasia wastes no time in finding Motley and Chimi guilty of crimes their future selves have committed and handing them a relocation sentence under custody of the Goblin King.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Deadpool nearly let out an F-bomb, but then he realize his kids are nearby.Deadpool: Oh for f—... Pete's sake!
- Literal-Minded: During their examination of Ethan Hunt's dead body, Thor takes Hela's observation of "Knife wound in the chest" as a request.
- Luke, You Are My Father: The culprits behind the murders reveal themselves to be future versions of Harley and Deadpool's children. Harley even quotes the Trope Namer in response, while Luke Skywalker watching this on TV asks Doctor Octopus to pour him a drink.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Harley and Deadpool consummate their wedding right on the altar. While everyone else is watching in horror/disgust.
- Mugged for Disguise: Hannibal Lecter uses Alf's body as his disguise when infiltrating the Heroic Alliance.
- Not So Above It All: Hela is swayed into letting Thor film her interrogations with the FanficTen for his show when she hears she's gotten the highest ratings of any "guest star".
- One World Order: The entirety of planet Fanfictasia is ruled by a democratically elected world council known as the FanficTen.
- Patchwork Map: Fanfictasia itself is this, with various different biomes and realms spread across the planet tailor-made for everyone.
- Reformed, but Not Tamed: Hela works as a detective to uphold the law and is far less psychotic and ax-crazy than her movie counterpart. But she still sees herself (in her fictional backstory) as someone who was unfairly imprisoned for war crimes.
- Religion of Evil: The Order of the Oscar are an Oscar-worshiping cult of characters disgruntled with hero-supremacism. They are well-resourced enough to outfit their elite soldiers with time-travelling power armor of their own designs.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Discussed in episode 4. As Harley notes, if future Chimi and Motley were really in the past simply for an assassination mission to turn the tide of the future hero and villain war, revealing their very existence and purpose for doing so to the entire world is rather counterproductive. Harley theorizes that their actual goal was to cause the war by making it seem inevitable, and given that said war erupts a mere five days after their speech, it seems to have worked.
- Show Within a Show:
- Thor & Order, a show starring the God of Thunder playing a detective. They end up helping Hela with the murder investigation due to the deaths of Ethan Hunt, Alita and George Clooney Batman being the first murders in Fanfictasia history.
- Episode 2 opens with a fictionalized movie version of "Super-Showdown-Bowl!"... with all the parts played by The Muppets and the cast of Sesame Street, featuring, among others, Cookie Monster as Dr. Manhattan, Kermit and Ms. Piggy as Deadpool and Harley, and Oscar the Grouch as... Oscar.
- Something Else Also Rises: When Vader's daughter and wife are brought to him during the Hero-Villain war, Padmé rips off a piece of her shirt in an offer to cover Leia (who's in her slave bikini outfit), leaving Padmé in her midriff-baring outfit from Attack of the Clones. Vader's lightsaber ignites upon seeing her like that and he quickly makes an excuse to go to his meditation chamber.
- Spit Take: At the end of episode 1, where Thor declares they're dealing with a "Serial Killer"... cue Count Chocula nearby spitting out his cereal.
- Stealth Pun: In the Flashback of Deadpool and Harley's wedding, the maids of honor are the Bride of Chucky, the Bride of Frankenstein and Beatrix Kiddo a.k.a. "The Bride". Hence when the priest announces "You can now kiss the bride..." they all pucker their lips and he has to specify, "Not you!"
- String Theory: After the intro to episode 3, a board with all the FanficTen linked by pair with red strings is shown. It is Thor's work, and like most of his contributions to the investigation, it's entirely pointless. Although in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, you can check the associations and all of them match, although sometimes with weird logic. For example:
- Hannibal Lecter & Black Widow: "gushing red ledger"
- James Bond & Darth Vader: "killing henchmen"
- Indiana Jones & Princess Peach: "underground tunnels"
- James Bond & Princess Peach: "Nintendo 64"
- Indiana Jones & Darth Vader: "Lucasfilm"
- Princess Peach & Hermione Granger: "childhood crush"
- Indiana Jones & Hannibal Lecter: "eats gross stuff"
- Hannibal Lecter & Darth Vader: "amputating"
- The Grand High Witch & Mystique: "weird skin"
- Batman & Princess Peach: "custom ride"
- Black Widow & Princess Peach: "only girl on team"
- Hannibal Lecter & Princess Peach: "play games"
- Batman & James Bond: "dead parents"
- Tempting Fate: When Motley and Chimi are put on trial for their future selves' actions, Wade assures Harley that the judge will be fair to their kids. Unfortunately for them, said judge is Judge Dredd, who immediately declares them guilty.
- Time Skip: Takes place eight years after the events of "Super-Showdown-Bowl!"
- Toilet Humour: Shrek in the 4th episode:Shrek: [to the dragon] You shall not pass... But I shall. [farts]
- Trojan Prisoner: Mystique infiltrated a Villainous Legion-affiliated Star Destroyer under disguise with Leia and her mother Padmé as her "prisoners".
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In episode 3, it turns out that the murders were committed by future time-traveling versions of Harley's and Wade's kids because they would become the generals in a future war between heroes and villains.
- Utopia: Fanfictasia is shown as this. According to dialogue, in all of its eight years of existence, there has not been a single murder until the start of this story, which is rather impressive considering the massive amount of heroes and villains who live on the planet.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: After learning the true identities of the murderers, Hela vows to prevent the War for Fanfictasia from happening by abducting their past selves Motley and Chimi. Unfortunately, this doesn't work, as the war has broken out in full swing five days later.
- Wham Episode: Episode 3 reveals the culprits behind the murders. A pair of armored individuals from an organization called the Order of the Oscar hail from a Bad Future locked in a Forever War between heroes and villains, and they plan on winning the war by killing the lieutenants of the Heroic Alliance. Also, they're the future versions of Motley and Chimi.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Christian Bale Batman calls Thor out for assisting Hela in abducting Motley and Chimi.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- When Harley is filled with self-doubt over what the future Motley and Chimi have done, blaming herself for not rearing them properly and believing she's been a terrible mother, Wade assures her that she isn't one, and that whatever their future kids have done, it's not on her, while pointing out that they can still save their current day children.
- After the trial of Chimi and Motley, Hela initially brushes off Thor, stating that she's a villain and that's all she'll ever be. Thor replies by throwing his cybernetic eye at her and points out that he has it because a scene in a movie had him lose his real eye in a battle with Hela. Despite this, Thor explicitly says that he doesn't blame her for it at all because he knows her and knows that she's not that character, nor is she a villain simply because Oscar made her one.
