#fusionlore

[10bendog]

The thumbnail art that was commissioned for this episode is the image you see right here (and further down without the added text, as usual).

It's this image illustrating a level 17 mission line, where Numbuh 1 starts to wrongfully accuse Grim of working with Fuse after reading the situation wrong.

And I love this piece, because it takes place on the shore of Bravo Beach and I made it super saturated and bright, and colorful, and warm, and oh my god summer is finally coming right around the corner, my favorite time of year;

BUT

There's this scene that's described by the end of the episode that just kinda gets me and I really feel like illustrating it too soon, lol.

I won't describe what it is, but you can (and should 🤨) watch the episode to figure it out.

[10bendog]

Yess, finally entering the more plot-heavy levels and they've started the Book of Prophecy subplot!!

FusionFall is so funny in the way it conveys its story to the players.

The tutorial and the first 4 levels, where you've been sent into the post-apocalyptic future and are trying to get back to the past are such a nice way to hook you in. It immediately establishes the invasion and why you should care about it by showing you exactly what happens when the bad guys win. It's probably the edgiest the game gets and most of it is through the visual design of the future areas - everything is super dark, sky is eternally green, the map is just a few floating island surrounded by a sea of deadly Fusion Matter and most of the characters are missing, including ones you just saw back in Tech Square, which you yourself witnessed sinking under the sea of green.

Then you get to the past and for, like, a 3rd of the game you do the most random-ass non-consequential shit. Like, yeah, you do fight Fusions and there are some lore relevant missions here and there, but for the most part you're just kinda wandering around and not doing much of note. Seems like nobody around give af that there's even an invasion happening most of the time.

But then you get to the Downtown and Wilds and few levels in shit starts to actually get interesting. Matt and Magic are finally getting to that point with the FusionLore episodes. The Book of Prophecy is the first of several arcs that get introduced here and are followed through for many levels ahead, which allows them more time to develop their stories and be overall more memorable. The Master Weapon, Planetoid Fusion, Fusion Coco are some of the other ones and there's even other smaller stories in between them, like Numbuh 1's suspicion of Grim, discovering Zs'Skayr is connected somehow to the invasion, the showdown between Vilgax, Mojo and Mandark and others. This is when the game is at its peak imo.

Then in the last stretch of the game, around the time you get to the Darklands, the missions seriously dry out. Story-wise it's they're fine, because you're still dealing with the Master Weapon and you have the siege on the Fusion Control Centers, but they're just, like, 4-5 missions a level, which isn't even enough for most people to level up without the need to grind. The game just kinda whimpers out and then nothing really happens when you beat the main bad guy - Fuse. I get the game would continue being the same even after beating it, but there's still this conclusion to the story that's missing.

Anyway, another ramble over. Can you tell I've been very fixated on this game for most of my life, lol? 'Aight, get out of here and go watch the video.

But not before you see my artwork down here.

[10bendog]

New FusionLore dropped and this week it features my favorite thumbnail I've done for the series so far!

Not only do we have 3 characters this time, not only is one of them a Fusion, which are always really fun to draw, but also just drawing Father and Prof. Utonium here... idk I kinda ship it now, lmaoo.

Like, do you see that look Father is giving the Professor?; Don't tell me you don't see it! 🙂‍↕️

Anyway, here's the Angular Dad YAOI in full view for y'all to enjoy. 😏

And on the note of shipping;

See y'all tomorrow!

[10bendog]

New FusionLore episode covering the last of the Future missions is out now.

Go check it out! :D

Here's also my art for the thumbnail.

[10bendog]

The relationship between Imaginary Energy and Fusion Matter has always been one of the most interesting aspects of this game's lore for me.

Both of them are used to create life, but in a different way.

Imaginary Energy is created from a person's imagination and with it they are capable of bringing Imaginary Friends to life out of thin air. Meanwhile, Fusion Matter is a substance that is used to infect other things and spread Fuse's influence further. It creates life by corrupting items and turning them into monsters, and Fusions are just an advanced variant of those same monsters, using characters' DNA as a basis of their creation.

But things get really interesting when the two substances mix;

When a Fusion is made of an Imaginary Friend, they never act like they should and seem to have a lot more free will than the rest of Fuse's army.

And then there's the ultimate counter to Fuse's invasion - Nanos, which are synthesized from a mixture of Imaginary Energy and Fusion Matter (along with the given character's DNA).

Magic and Matt talk some about this relationship in this episode, but also go over previous missions together with their special guest - RadioRave.

Go check it out, and also check out my art for this too.

[10bendog]

Something I really love about FusionFall is that at first glance it looks like this "edgy" anime Cartoon Network crossover, where all the characters from the shows you loved as a kid have suddenly found themselves in the middle of an intergalactic war and they have to fight off this gargantuan eldritch alien planet, that's trying to assimilate Earth into its mass; And then, like, the game's story itself is super fucking unserious and half of the missions you complete are asking you to do the most random-ass shit for the CN characters, a good chunk of whom are entirely unbothered that there this massive amalgam of planets constantly looming over the sky and slowly approaching us. It's like if in Majora's Mask, nobody gaf about the damn moon. I like it because imo it's a perfect mix of the tones from the different cartoons featured in the game. I tried to do something similar when writing "CN Akumas". The story was edgier at times, but just as often I wanted to have chill chapters with a heavier focus on comedy.

Anywayyy, here's the thumbnail. Some background editing went into this thing, because the bumper cars were a little too small, but I bet you can't even tell, lol. Now go watch the video.

[10bendog]

The monster behind Townsville Park has been one of the strangest mysteries about FusionFall's lore, at least to me.

I remember when I replayed through the game in more recent memory and paid very close attention to every mission and dialogue, taking notes of it all. (It was during my first year of uni when Retro had finally brought back the original game from the dead, and I was finally a certified English speaker, having passed IELTS and was now studying in the UK,) There's a lot of things I learned about the game that younger me never learned about because I couldn't understand it, and a lot of them were really interesting too. However, the mystery behind the monster below Townsville Park always just kinda stuck with me.

Could it have been yet another big bad monster that the Powerpuff Girls would fight in the show? But if so, then why did Fuse need that ancient magical rune to wake it up, and why was it sleeping underground when most of the PPG monsters are from Monster Island? Maybe it was something more related to Juniper Lee, seeing the magical relation. But June never got involved in that mission line. It was really only the trio stationed at the park + Gwen who deduces that the rune is an alarm clock.

I can't honestly say what the game's writers had in mind when writing this mission line. Magic in the video jokes it's probably the Blowfish from "Uh-Oh Dynamo", but I don't believe that... especially since the Blowfish itself appeared out of the sea at Candy Cove during the 2010 Mother's Day update.

In any case, I kinda like how little we actually know about this supposed destructive entity below Townsville Park. It gives this mystique to it, y'know. The less we know about something, the more ominous, illustrious and dangerous it sounds. Yapping session over. Go watch the new FusionLore video!

[10bendog]

Here we go with yet more drama from the Cul-de-Sac. Eddy is really out here, full audacity, stealing candy from Stickybeard, of all people. Like, hi, hello, were you expecting anything but a full scale attack on the Cul-de-Sac by the Candy Pirates?

Anyway, this and more is being discussed on the newest FusionLore episode linked above.

And, of course, my thumbnail from the video is down here.

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Heyyy! Remember mentioning being busy last month? Well, I'm now making the thumbnails for The Magical Dealer's ongoing YouTube series - FusionLore. It's a podcast going over the missions in FusionFall and discussing the game's story and lore.

It's quite fun, give it a watch! :D Also, here's just the drawing I made.

[10bendog]

New FusionLore episode is out, where Magic and Matt talk about the Lv. 11 missions. My favorite part about those is definitely the mission line depicted in the thumbnail, which ends with Professor Utonium, of all character NPCs, going to Fusion Fuzzy's lair to throw hands with him and you have to help him. Like, sir, I wasn't familiar with your game, lmaoo! Anyway; The backgrounds in all of these thumbnails are just screenshots from the game and this is the first time I decided to play around with it a bit more after finishing the characters. I wanted to turn the scene to nigh, but the game itself is perpetually stuck during the daytime, so I had to improvise. Here's the final image and the background it started with.

[10bendog]

Earth is being invaded by aliens.

Blossom - unbothered, moisturized, happy, on a picnic, focused, flourishing.

Check the new FusionLore episode out! :D

And, also, here's my art from the thumbnail.

[10bendog]

Really enjoyed drawing Fusion Mayor here. It was very fun to try to replicate the slimy gooey texture the Fusion's green skin has in game, as opposed to the simpler and cleaner look the Fusions have in official art.

Anyway, check out the new FusionLore episode out now! And here's my thumbnail art on its own.

[10bendog]

I wish Ms. Bellum was properly featured in FusionFall aside from a few broken statues in Townsville Park. To somewhat remedy this, I offered to add her in this thumbnail to at least give the feel like she's in the game, lol.

Go watch the new episode of FusionLore!

Magic and Matt cover a lot of interesting topics, like the war the Glorft won against Planet Fusion, Fuse capturing and draining heroes of their powers and more.

And, as usual, the artwork for the thumbnail on its own;

[10bendog]

If I'm completely honest, my biggest disappointment with FusionFall's story is just how little attention they give to the Belladonna subplot. The gist of it is that a year prior to the Fusion invasion the Powerpuff Girls were in an altercation with Mojo Jojo and in it Buttercup was knocked out of the fight, following which she went missing. In the present day she's reappeared as Belladonna - the new member of the Gangreen Gang and the vocalist of their band, all the while having amnesia and not remembering a thing from her old life. No one, but Ace and his boys know about her being Buttercup. (Tho you really don't learn the details about this from the game itself, rather from outside sources, like Words Collide, where Buttercup is absent and the girls are much more hostile to Mojo.)

Interesting story, right?

And the set up is also quite fun, since you start the game with the first 4 levels taking place in the Future after Planet Fusion has taken over Earth. There you actually meet Buttercup for the first time, where she's one of very few survivors from the war. Moreover, the first Nano you obtain during the tutorial is Nano Buttercup.

Then you travel back to the past and learn that Buttercup is missing from Blossom and the Professor. You can even see a statue of Buttercup has been set up in Hero's Square as an apparent memorial, one which Blossom is literally facing all the time.

All that cool setup and then you reach level 14 and get to Buttercup Belladonna in Marquee Row...

And nothing really happens. She gives you one mission where's she's like "I had amnesia, but I'm starting to remember my old life. Could you tell my family I'm okay." A nice mission in theory, but that's it? Like, problem is already entirely resolved by the time we get there and this is the mission we should've gotten at the end of a long line of missions where we actually help Belladonna regain her memories as Buttercup.

There's that Nano Project mission you can take right before you meet Belladonna for the first time, which hints to you that Belladonna and Buttercup are one and the same (in case you couldn't tell by just looking at them), but the hint's inclusion is confusing because half the mission already refers to Belladonna as Buttercup, so it's not really a reveal.

And then the Fusion Buttercup mission line has Ace worried that if Belladonna sees Fusion Buttercup she would start remembering her old life, but she's already started to remember, because the "tell my family I'm okay" mission is already available.

And then by the next level this subplot is entirely discarded. Compare that to the Planetoid Fusion subplot or the Totems or the Master Weapon, all of which span several mission lines across multiple levels and the difference is drastic.

Anyway, rambling aside, do watch the video, where Magic and Matt discuss the level 14 missions. And while you do that, see how much time they spend on the Belladonna bit, because I promise you they talk about it more than what the game gives us.

[10bendog]

Matt here is the first time I've done more detailed render work in quite some time, lol. Definitely the first time I've sculpted with shadows like this since I started exclusively using the airbrush tool for the shading.

I tried to emulate the FusionFall art style a bit, while still using the sky colors on multiply for the shadows, as I have with all of these thumbnails and the CN City art.

Tbh, idk how much he resembles the FusionFall renders, even if we don't factor the purposeful changes I made. Maybe it's also the face he's making here, cuz you can't see those iconic FusionFall eyes, which are a big factor.

Eh, others have emulated Sung il Ji's concept art for the game way better than I have here, but I'm still proud of how it looks regardless. Also *spoilers* a few thumbnails later I try this style again and I think it's a bit more recognizable there.

Anyway, go watch the episode. And, of course, here's the art on its own.

[10bendog]

Yay, we finally got to this thumbnail, which was very exciting to make. Firstly, Matt was also excited about the totem plot line, so he took it upon himself to make all the edits to the background that you see here, which, imo, really gives some oomph to the scene and showcases the magic of the mysterious magical totems (that also have Hanna-Barbera characters etched onto them, for some reason).

And secondly - I got to draw teen Gwen in the Classic Ben 10 art style (tho this time without my outfit redesign). I hinted at this when I posted the art for Ep 18, which featured Grandpa Max - I brought up this topic before doing that thumbnail and we had a talk about how I should represent the Ben 10 franchise in FusionLore. We settled on everyone being unified under one art style and that being Classic's, a.k.a. the superior one, which means Ben, Gwen and Kevin needing to be adapted to it. The reason for why I even brought that topic up in the first place was because; (WARNING: Long probably autism-fueled explanation ahead!)

Ben 10 has a bit of messy history with FusionFall, because when the game was being developed, the Classic series was still running on Cartoon Network. This is why you can see 10-year-old Ben in the prequel/promotional FusionFall manga - Worlds Collide, as well as him and 10-year-old Gwen having official art, and also Ben being able to be seen in some old crusty pre-beta footage.

But then, very close to the release of the game, Alien Force came out, which caused Grigon (the people behind FusionFall) to hard pivot to representing the sequel show instead. They changed Ben, Gwen and Kevin to reflect their teen selves and altered some of their missions to fit better, while also adding Nano Swampfire and Nano Humungosaur to the pool, replacing the Nano Ghosfreak and Nano Upgrade that were left behind in the files.

However, they also didn't change enough and left a lot of stuff from Classic in the game, like Nano Four Arms, Tetrax, Hex and Vilgax, the villains' Nanos, Grandpa Max's old design and Fusion Kevin being 11-year-old Kevin's amalgam form. Gwen is also very heavy on magic in the game (as you can see in both the thumbnail and the video, which you should totally watch after this, of course), while Alien Force at first tried to retcon her powers to being only alien in origin and not magical.

Funny thing is that both Gwen's magical side and the three OS characters - Hex, Tetrax and Vilgax all later appear during season 3 of Alien Force.

And in regards to FusionFall, eventually Gwen, Kevin and Vilgax were updated to their designs from Alien Force season 3, while the game added a ton of Ben 10 missions items, NPCs and Nanos from Alien Force and later Ultimate Alien. By the time the original game was shut down, Ben 10 had dethroned the Powerpuff Girls in both the NPC and Nano count.

Anyway, thank you for coming to my yap session. Here's the full art of the thumbnail and now go watch the video. Adiós!