Cutting Room Floor: One World, One Ocean (2023)

The following is a list of stuff that got cut from my 2023 plot. To spare myself from doing huge reams of text, for the sake of my own sanity, I'm trying to condense this into a bulleted list. Any further questions will be answered in the comments. Note that some of this may be reworked into plots for next year, depending on my mood - I won't say which, but you'll know which ones it'll be when/if I do them.

Rejected Plot: The Last Cult

• My initial plot idea for this season was in direct reference to Gorillaz' new album, Cracker Island. Essentially, a book called "The Book of MAN" would appear in stores around Whalestrand, with people who'd read it acting oddly as a result. In turn, strange events would happen on an offshore island called Cracker Island, prompting Kobber investigation.
• It would be revealed almost immediately that Murdoc and the rest of Gorillaz were starting 'The Last Cult' on Cracker Island as a means of spreading the band's (well, Murdoc's) personal philosophy and to promote their upcoming album. Unfortunately, their efforts would face a pincer attack of complications - the actions of the Forever Cult next door and Russel's upcoming predictions of 'The Rupture', an apocalyptic event.
• The Book of MAN would also be revealed to be an acronym - Book of Murdoc Alphonce Niccals.
  
• By this time, the characters would be much older and match their current incarnations.
• Noodle and Stephen would have broken up due to the latter not being able to handle the reality of dating a member of a highly popular and scrutinized band, with Murdoc's decision to start a cult being the straw that broke the camel's back. As a result, she would be much more dour and less talkative than usual.
•  2D would have started getting a big head due to being named the 'Chosen One' of the Last Cult, slipping into something closer to his more arrogant Demon Days persona. He would have gotten quite friendly with the female leader of the Forever Cult next door - a bad decision.
• Russel would have essentially become a non-entity due to being completely whacked out from staring into TV static trying to divine the secrets of the universe. Maybe the Kobbers could have scooped him. He would have been running around in the background trying to prepare for the 'Rupture'.
  
• Murdoc would still be Murdoc, obviously.
  
• Scenes planned include: Visiting Murdoc during a mass of the Last Cult, Murdoc trying to pitch his 'Essence of Murdoc' bathwater at people and rescuring 2D from the Forever Cult, who would turn out to be the actual villains.
• By the end, Stephen would have returned and reconciled with Noodle, although wherever they would rekindle their relationship was up in the air. Murdoc, rather than bailing and leaving his band to get arrested, would take the blame. The Last Cult would be disbanded and all copies of the Book of MAN recalled and destroyed. The Rupture would turn out to be nothing at all since Russel read the clues wrong, disappointing him but snapping him out of his trance. The album would be a success, however. And maybe a Smirnoff cocktail party would follow.
  
• The ultimate lesson of the plot would be 'Utopia is what U make it'. Tomorrow comes today and it's the same as yesterday. So rather than chasing the impossible, work hard now with what you have so that tomorrow can be a little better. Also, don't drink Essence of Murdoc.

I dropped this plot because I realized there really wasn't anything going on with it. There weren't really any things for Kobbers to do that I could think of, besides investigating and possibly a battle with the Forever Cult. It wasn't so much a plot as it was a series of happenings, and there wasn't much reason for Kobbers to get involved in any way outside of a final battle. Also, I didn't feel comfortable writing stuff involving a cult, or subjecting people to the unhappy revelation of Stephen and Noodle breaking up.

Plot Events Overall

• There were plans made for if any of the Kobbers decided infiltrating Sharpe Manor was in order. It would have been revealed that Sharpe would have had a bunch of supernatural security to keep his mansion safe, including a pet that had a Stand akin to Pet Shop from JoJo. Any Kobber infiltrating this mansion would have faced this pet.
• More artefacts from Sharpe would have been present or made appearances. 
• Plans were drawn up to include the Ruinous Quartet from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, who would have been artefacts bought by Sharpe for his collection and would be awakened by Sharpe's ever increasing greed, needing to be captured or subdued.
• The mezzotint is a reference to the M. R. James story, and at one point there would be an actual event where somebody got trapped inside it with the ghost and needed to be rescued.
• Other artefacts from M. R. James stories planned to appear include the whistle from O, Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad, the papers of Canon Alberic, the wood carving from The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral and the cursed crown from A Warning To The Curious. I was in an M. R. James mood during that time period :P
  
• The ghost of the Beast of Gévaudan would have stalked the grounds and become an obstacle for the Kobbers to fight.
• Stand Arrows, Majora's Mask, a piece of a Dalek and various Sentai/Rider artefacts were planned to appear.
  
• Following the Brawl, the plan was to have another pod of Merfolk make their appearance. Led by the son of Boreal aka Heartful One, this pod would have been highly aggressive and distrustful of humans, becoming a secondary antagonist alongside Sharpe as they tried to influence humans into releasing the Merfolk inside Aqualand. The Kobbers would have had to face them in order to prove that they could be trusted.
• Rahab was going to be a much bigger presence in this plot, possibly tied to the second Merfolk pod, but with the focus shifting towards Sharpe as the main villain, this couldn't be worked in.
• The second part of the Mermaid Rescue was going to be much different. It would have been an actual raid on Aqualand and not a different facility. Knaggs would have played a vital role, and it would have ended with one of the Merfolk dying due to Knaggs' actions. This would have infuenced Vilfred's character development, briefly shattering him but increasing his resolve to fight Sharpe.
• I was planning to use a lot more music from Endless Ocean. Unfortunately, I listened to a whole bunch of it, which made me realize that, as fitting as it was, I didn't like a single instance of it. So I stopped using it after the one moment.

Heroes

• Vilfred and Vent's first meeting was planned to be slightly different. Vent would have startled Vilf into falling into the tank, wherupon Vent would try to fish him out, only to fall in. Both would be rescued by Blue, establishing that, unlike the other captive merfolk, she was recognizing the potential good in humans.
• Speaking of, Vilfred's attraction towards Vent would have spanned the entire season and formed a major crutch of his character development. His idolization of Vent as a model Kobber, while played for laughs at first, would have eventualy started to affect his judgement as he went out of his way to try and impress his new mentor, not knowing about Vent's own marital situation despite idolizing him. There might have even been a moment where Vilfred impulsively kissed Vent, causing their working relationship to crack a bit and leaving Vilfred wracked with guilt enough for Sharpe and/or Knaggs to get the drop on him. I pulled back on this entire thing and ended it prematurely because I was starting to get the nagging sensation that people would think the entire thing was weird and kinda creepy.
• On the other hand, the plot was originally heaving much harder towards Vilfred and Blue having an attraction to each other, with a scene planned where the two of them, ah... re-enacted The Shape of Water, if you get my drift. If I had gone through with my plans of offing Blue, it would have left Vilfred heartbroken and driven by vengeance, which leads to...
• Vilfred was originally intended to have the ability to completely understand Merfolk language, which I hinted at early in the beginning. As a result, he would have have nightmares of Rahab's approach as he heard the despairing cries of the Merfolk. This would culminate in Rahab trying to influence Vilfred to take vengeance for the suffering of the trapped merfolk, which would eventually manifest as Vilfred becoming an actual Kamen Rider - Kamen Rider Poseidon, controlled by Rahab's will.
• Of course, none of that went in because there was literally no time anymore and the focus was now completely on Sharpe as a villain. Not to say that the threat of Rahab is gone, however...
  
• Grey was planned to be a lot more anti-heroic, threatening staff members and actively killing one. I dropped this one like a hot potato because it was too close to the plot's overall inspiration.
• Kaydence's character development would have taken a lot longer than what it turned out. She would have dropped training with Julia when it became too hard and, following the Brawl, would have tried to use martial arts braindances and other VR sims to cheat her way into becoming stronger. This would have developed into an addiction, which would then spiral into actual cyberpsychosis that needed a healthy dose of Kobber fist to shake her out of it.
  
  As you all saw, I began to regret sending Kaydence into the Suspense when I did because then it looked like I was skipping too much of her character development, that she hadn't had the time to show off what she could do on her own and that the opportunity for stuff like this would be lost. Of course, that's all been worked out and I'm generally okay with what I have now, but I still kind of regret not going through with it to begin with and I wish I'd taken more time on her development. That said, nobody's perfect - people do backslide into bad habits and ideas sometimes...
  

Villains

• Sharpe being descended from DIO was a last-minute addition. He was intended to originally be just a human, albeit with good fighting skills as a Bartitsu/cane fighting practitioner. He would have also interacted with the Kobbers in public more, trying to win them over by being his usual smarmy self.
  
• Knaggs was going to be involved a lot more in the plot, being much more of a backstabbing prick than he ended up being. In the final raid on Aqualand, he would have shown up and, identifying that Vilfred had feelings for Blue, would have held her hostage and threatened to kill her and/or the entireity of the Merfolk population unless the Kobbers backed off. The ensuing scuffle would have killed Knaggs, but also resulted in one of the Merfolk (possibly Blue or Grey) dying.
• The Jyamato were thrown in to give Del something to do with his Geats Riders. Needless to say, it didn't work out :P
• There would have been more to do with the Cyberpsychoes and a bigger examination of what causes the condition. Kaydence would ultimately admit that becoming a cyberpsycho is one of her greatest fears - she's terrified of the idea of not being in control of her mind, having already endured living in a world where she had little control of her own life.
• I was gonna have a brief moment where Arktos, the villain from the German film Tabaluga, showed up as a one-off fight solely because he was voiced by Benedict Campbell, aka King K. Rool. I didn't go through with it because I imagined the responses would have been a collective "Wait, who?"