Secret of Mana Theater

Ah, mittens! Welcome to Secret of Mana Theater, a webcomic adaptation of Square's classic game, Secret of Mana, but with a few twists, created by Sprite Monkey. Updates, instead of coming in the form of comic pages, are short videos created using sprites from the game. Its also generally an Affectionate Parody rife with twisted alternate character interpretations, but it has the flexibility to be serious when needed. The author also takes just enough liberties with the plot for those who have played the original game to be kept on their toes by unexpected events.

It began back in May 15th, 2002 and sporadically updates to this very day.

The webcomic has a forum that can be found here.

Tropes used in Secret of Mana Theater include:
  • Action Girl: Faun.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Like no one else's business! The author isn't even halfway though the game's story, and we're already up to 303 videos, each of which is about five minutes long!
  • Advancing Wall of Doom: Of course.
  • Affectionate Parody: Of Secret of Mana.
  • Alpha Bitch: Elliot from Potos Village.
    • Those spiteful witches in Pandora who ruined Elinee's life.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Oh, boy. Where to even begin? For starters In Universe Examples include, the Boy, named Seth in this rendition is almost Too Stupid to Live, incredibly naïve, and has a bad case of Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny. The Girl, named Faun is a Heroic Sociopath Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and The Sprite, named Autumn is the Only Sane Man.
    • Oh, and the Village Elder back in Potos village is a pedophile.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Subverted with Autumn the Sprite. Unlike in the original game, but author decided to simplify matters just by making her a girl and calling it day.
  • And Call Him George: Paco from episode 141. Burr...
  • Ascended Extra: Somewhat, with Elinee the witch and Neko the Salescat. Both are featured in the game, but their roles have been increased in one form or another in Theater.
    • Henry and Doir the lullabuds, spring to mind.
  • Author Avatar: The Author, but he only shows up in Specials.
  • Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Seth. Full stop.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Seth. Easy-going, dull-witted, fun-loving, and extremely amiable. Do something to harm innocents, though, and watch out.
  • Blatant Lies: Too many to count.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: A few, mostly used for laughs or Audience Participation, or both.
  • Butt Monkey: Everyone, to some extent, but especially Seth.
  • Catgirl: Well, Cat Man, actually: Neko.
  • Catapult Nightmare: Induced on the party by Thanatos at one point to get into their heads.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: Started to set in with Thanatos's first appearance in episode 168. Boy has it taken off since 279.
  • Character Development: In spite of the generally light-hearted nature of the comic, the characters are well-rounded enough to experience all kinds of this.
  • The Chick: Seth and Autumn play this to Faun's Action Girl status a lot of times, but Seth's been catching up with her more recently.
  • Cliché Storm: Lampshaded.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: This webcomic basically takes place in Cloud Cuckooland almost on Ansem Retort levels. Almost.
    • Grandma in Potos Village comes to mind right off the bat.
  • Comedic Sociopathy: The Series just absolutely thrives on this. Just look no further than the couch gags.
  • Con Man: The Dwarf Village Elder and Autumn, but unlike the original game, the Elder does not relent.
    • Neko, as well.
  • Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded. Unlike in the game, when Seth first used Cannon Travel, he just wanted to go far away and just happened to land near the location he was told to go to.
  • Cool Old Guy: Jema, of course, whether he likes it or not...
  • Couch Gag: At the beginning of every episode Marle casts a spell with often different results.
    • Since the beginning of the series, she's been crushed, fried, crushed some more, set on fire, mocked, hanged herself, been replaced a few times, been electrocuted, crushed some more, shrunk, exploded, atomized, chased, run over, been eaten, and has been stripped naked.
    • When not being mutiliated beyond recognition, Merle has also engaged in riding the title card like a horse or walking on a giant ball, circus-style.
    • Lucca and Magus from the same game have also appeared in openings.
  • Creator Breakdown: Sprite Monkey put the series on a 2-1/2 year hiatus when he realized that, by killing Seth in the story, he had broken free of the game's story, but couldn't figure out what direction to take the series in afterwards.
  • Darker and Edgier: Sometimes.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Faun and Autumn. Unfortunately for Seth, his own bumbling nature gives them tons of ammo to work with.
  • Deal with the Devil: How Elinee got her powers in this version.
  • Death by Adaptation: Elinee and Seth.
    • In the original, Elinee is never fought and she gives up her witch-craft ways and is never factored into the story again. In this retelling, her role is expanded and she goes onto enslave the dwarves of Gaia's Navel into readying a cermony to summon the Fire Gigas to attack Pandora Kingdom. Immediately following the success of the ceremony, she is murdered by Thanatos much in the same manner Sephiroth killed Aerith.
    • Seth, the hero, has also been killed by Thanatos when he tried to prematurely pick a fight with the Evil Sorcerer.
  • Depraved Homosexual: Potos's Village Elder, no description can do him justice, so perhaps we should just let the series speak for itself:
    • In Episode 299: P.O.P.:

Jema: (of being wrongfully imprisoned) "Why have you done this to us?"
Potos Elder: "You--you took all my little boys away from me!"
Jema: "I did it in the name of... Wait, what?"
Potos Elder: "All the sexy young boys have left town. One by one they all ran off. And it all started when you showed up! You made the villagers mad at Seth.
 Autumn: "Seth?"
Potos Elder: "And his pink, supple ass!"
(Autumn and Faun exchange shocked expressions.)
Jema: "You're insane!"
Potos Elder: "Hmm. Maybe, but I'm in charge. I can't let you take away my sexy soldier boys. Toodles."
(Elder exits.)
Autumn: "That's one pissed of pedophile."

"Heroism. Unrequired love. Pancakes."

    This article is issued from Allthetropes. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.