The New Captain N

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The New Captain N revolves around a college freshman in modern-day mid-America, who, at his friend's request, comes into possession of a large television. The same one in fact, that claimed Kevin Keene twenty years earlier. Suffice it to say, he ends up in another world, where many (it is implied that *all*) videogames and their scenarios have, are, or will exist in real life.

The author (Rustedsoda) seems to go out of his way to capture certain tropes, and the arcs often extend for various chapters, if not entire volumes.

  • While it officially has six completed volumes, the website is currently in a process of reorganizing them into a few clusters as a storage issue.
    • The New Captain N [dead link], where Max escapes to the other world and begins a search for Kevin, while trying to win Samus's heart.
    • The Dragmire Conspiracy [dead link], where a plot to revive Ganon tosses the heroes back in time, rendering them unable to prevent his return (but not his demise!!)
    • Max,Come Home!! [dead link], in which Max discovers a means to travel to Earth, only to find it is an Earth inhabited by Earth-based games, and an alternate continuity of his family, where he has a brother.
    • The Legend of the Green Mushroom [dead link], where Max discovers the secret to so many characters remaining their original age for over twenty years.
    • Ridley's Last Stand!! [dead link], Ridley unleashes several of his clones (key to his constant revival) at once in a plot to overpower Samus and the planet. Kevin Keene has an idea to stop him, but its execution comes at a terrible cost.
    • This is Not My Home; Max awakens back in the world he came from, with only a broken power glove as a souvenir. Max is eager to return to the videogame world, but his friends and family will do anything to keep him from leaving. He eventually convinces them that he is needed elsewhere, takes a friend with him, and learns how the videogame world really came to be.
    • CRUSH THE FORCE!!; A continuation of the previous volume and a massive homage to Gradius. Max and Robert are back in the videogame world, but a long way from home. Max wants desperately to return to his friends on Gaia, but before he can, he needs to save a distant galaxy from a planet-eating Cosmic Horror he unwittingly helped create.
    • Resurrection; Max and Robert have successfully ventured to Gaia, only to find that it has essentially become an amusement park, (almost) all of the videogame characters are now stressed out by it, and Samus has gone off the grid, on a mad hunt for Ridley's remaining clones.

The three most recent installments can be found Here, Here, andHere.

Tropes used in The New Captain N include:
  • Achievements in Ignorance: Link believes that all he needs for space travel is to wear is fishbowl over his head. It actually works, although some words by Kevin suggest that Link wasn't entirely out of the atmosphere at the time.
  • A Date with Rosie Palms: Max suggests Link do this, as part of preparing to fight Ganon in The Greatest Tournament In The World
  • A God Am I: Subversion in the form of the pink alien who calls himself "Popcorn". Benevolent and extremely powerful, drawing several parallels to God as we know him. The subversion comes in when he denies holding such status, and states that one day he hopes to "meet the great creator himself"
  • Alien Arts Are Appreciated: If they weren't, things certainly would be different.
  • Alternate Continuity: The Fanfic takes several liberties with the continuity of the original series, modeling characters appropriately this time, and ending that series with the episode "Metroid sweet Metroid"
    • Also, individual videogame series have shown signs of decay, usually for Rule of Funny
  • Ascended to A Higher Plane of Existence: Popcorn
  • Awesome McCoolname: Max Walker's name, a stab at 80's protagonists
  • Berserk Button: Never call Luigi "Second Fiddle"
  • Body Horror: In the three or so seconds it takes for Kevin's Zapper to completely wipe you from existance, you may experience implosion, folding, flattening, and turning inside out, all at roughly the same time.
  • Big Name Fan: Radd Walker started off as one of these for Nintendo, before getting a job as a chief spokesman for the company. So... where does that leave Reggie?
  • Book Dumb: It's stated that Link only learned one song in the original Legend of Zelda because it looked like the easiest one in the included lesson booklet.
    • ...and why he only learned one spell out of the entire magic book.
    • ...and he probably couldn't count past 255 rupees.
  • Cash Cow Franchise: Radd ultimately sees the videogame world as a big ball of this.
  • Cerebus Syndrome: The series started high and peppy, then gradually let itself roll into darker territory until the Dragmire Conspiracy. In keeping with the author's "This hero is you" intent, Max has been angry, serious, and more grim in general since that unit. "Resurrection" however, gives us Max in a world with no real threat, where his playful old self begins to return.
  • Character Derailment / Faux Action Girl: in comparison to the character of the actual games, Samus sure does need saving a lot. This is later lampshaded by both Max and Link.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Quite a few involving knowledge of actual videogames, in comparison to the inspiring cartoon series, namely the secret beam/power bomb combos from Super Metroid.
  • Christmas Episode: An arc involving Chrono Trigger ends with one of these, which leads straight into a...
  • Cliffhanger Ending: Grows like grass in the fic.
  • Crowning Moment of Heartwarming, when Schala returns, causing Magus to question his beliefs (followed by the typical reaction that occurs in fanfics when they reunite.)
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: An enraged Max shoots himself up with a syringe full of now-deceased Samus's blood. Next chapter, Ridley is totally destroyed by someone wearing the Varia suit.
    • Pretty much any time Link actually gets an opportunity to do his job, he soon starts being taken seriously.
    • The climax of Ridley's Last Stand, when Max defeats Ridley with nothing but the Power Glove.
      • so, he just killed a dragon with his (almost) bare hands?
      • amazing, isn't it?
    • Or how about the fact that Max set out for Ridley's station despite being completely unarmed and stripped of his gear? Sure, he ended up with Link in tow, but he didn't know that setting out.
      • Why didn't Megaman just go with him?
    • "I AM BOWSER!! KING OF THE KOOPAS!!"
    • "What are you gonna do with that gun, kid?"
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Unusual given that there's no actual background music to what is a series of text documents. However, Word of God has stated that several scenes, and even entire chapters have appropriate musical counterparts.
    • The above Crowning Moment of Awesome, for example, was written with the end credits of Super Metroid in mind.
    • Max and Crab building their Bamboo Technology? Original Brinstar theme. (appropriate, given the chapter is closely tied to the episode "Metroid sweet Metroid", which used the same song in a seriously crowning moment.)
    • The entire ending of the first book, starting from the narrative on Ridley, is the ending credits to the original Metroid.
    • In a notably non-Metroid example, the museum "stage" Megaman ventures through: it's Yakogoro Eirin's theme from Mega Mari.
    • Salamander's "Poison of Snake", during major conflicts. This is a Shout-Out to Captain N's use of the "Fortress" theme from the famicom Gradius II.
  • Colonel Kilgore: Damara, one of many a Canon Foreigner from the Metroid series (including Racklass from the Captain N comic!), has grown up to become a cold, power-hungry war mongerer. The irony of her first encounter with Samus in the official Manga is not lost...
  • Colony Drop: The Restricted Area from Metroid Fusion never had its self-destruct properly installed, and the blast just propelled it into space. Not only does it fall into Gaia's Atmosphere, but the building is nigh-invulnerable from the outside: re-entry only serves to warm the interior, which only serves to make the Metroids contained within strong enough to escape. Oh, and they still have to prevent the impact of the structure from turning the planet into an inhospitable wasteland.
  • Complete Monster: Ganon, whose first known casualty in the series is a small child
    • The effect is somewhat lost, due to the fact that the slaughtered child is Bowser Junior
  • Continuity Nod, and how!! Despite existing in the same universe, several games, events, and other canon are implied to have happened exactly, or well near it.
  • Cowboy Cop: Max fears that he is little more than a lucky, irresponsible kid with a gun.
    • Samus carries the traits better than Max does. Her tendencies are the main reason she quit the Federal police to become a bounty hunter, and are the likely cause of her "criminal" status, in the eyes of the Federation.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: Bowser
  • Dead All Along: Mother Brain
  • Deus Ex Machina: Schala arriving at Lucca's house Christmas night.
    • And Alttp Link returning to Hyrule, once the character is mentioned by Zelda.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: Ganon is a horrible person, but convinces the general public that he is a decent, even generous politician. The heroes, consequentially, are not well liked.
  • Did They or Didn't They?: Played with very early on between Max and Samus, though nothing actually happens. Though much later on...
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulu: Future Max frees Schala from her fate as part of Lavos by assembling the Chrono Cross and firing a beam representing each element color, in the correct order.
  • Disintegrator Ray: In a homage to the original series, Kevin Keene's orange Zapper is equipped with a beam that does this. It becomes central to the plot in both "The Greatest Tournament In The World", and especially in "Ridley's Last Stand".
  • Doom Magnet: Samus Aran's tendency to be this is why she suppresses feelings for Max at first. Eventually, it becomes pretty obvious that Ridley would kill him anyway
  • Downer Ending: The first half of The Dragmire Conspiracy, majorly.
  • Evil Twin: Dark Link, though Radd Walker was on his way there for quite a bit.
  • Fallen Hero: The B-plot of Ridley's Last Stand
  • Fanservice: Samus, off and on.
  • Fan Sequel: Natch, also somewhat of a Fan Remake.
  • Flashback Nightmare: Bowser's backstory fluctuates back and forth between this, narrative, and

his own mind.

  • Fridge Horror: It is subtly implied that both Max and Samus are hiding mental problems brought on by unfortunate pasts. Both have been dealing with them since childhood, but taking into consideration just how old Samus really is...
  • Furry Confusion: Taken to hilarious extremes when Falco and Fox watch a nature channel on Earth. To them, the program is High Octane Nightmare Fuel, and they run screaming back to the Great Fox.
  • The Game Come to Life: Derp
  • The Goggles Do Nothing: So far in the long run of the series, Max has only used his NES controller belt once, pausing time to get out of a confrontation with Solid Snake. It is implied to be capable of far more than even the cartoon would demonstrate, but so far has not done such.
    • The Zapper gets used far more often, but Max isn't very trigger-happy with it.
  • Green Aesop: Self-righteous Fox tries to force one on Max, regarding debris orbiting Earth. Max throws it in his face when he informs him that we're a little busy fixing things on the planet itself., and proceeds to dig into Fox for letting his hatred generalize the entire human race.
  • Halloween Episode, relying on heavy Fridge Logic to gather tons of people at the North Palace. Also, a lead-in to the Mario episode.
  • Heel Face Revolving Door: Bowser
  • Heroic BSOD: Happens to Magus, of all people, when Schala appears seemingly out of nowhere on Christmas night.
    • Samus has an... interesting one at the end of Ridley's Last Stand. Let's just say it involves her Metroid DNA.
  • Hyperspace Is A Beautiful Place
  • The Reveal: Crab, a young(ish) hermit Max meets when stranded on an old asteroid of Mother Brain's. Max has no idea who he really is, until Samus points it out: Kevin Keene
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Mario, in a different continuity.
  • Idiot Hero: Link, also a Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
    • Max has these tendencies as well sometimes.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Plasma Beam Mk. I. Only seen once in the series, to provide a red element for the Chrono Cross.
    • Of interesting note is that Samus causes a clone of Ridley to internally combust, using the beam's green cousin (and her weapon of choice), the Plasma Beam Mk. II
  • Inferred Holocaust: Averted, in SUPER RIDLEY, with a scene detailing the aftermath of Resurrection's Metroid attack. Radd is surrounded by a crowd of injured and angry tourists, including a woman who tells him that her husband was killed.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mario likes to put his brother down, while hogging attention from Max. He does worry a lot about Luigi, though.
    • Arguably so with Max's brother Radd, as well, except more on the "Jerkass" side.
  • Killed Off for Real: Who would have guessed it could happen to Ridley!?
    • Also happened to Damara very recently
  • Legacy Character: Captain N himself. what the "N" actually stands for is not firmly established, but it isn't "Nintendo".
    • Link, of course... though not necessarily male
  • Les Yay: Peach is not too subtle about her attraction to Samus.
  • Loser Gets the Girl: Averted by Bowser, who learns what he must do to win over his estranged wife, but ultimately fails.
    • Not to say that it's impossible, given Max's recent Reset Button
  • Mama Bear: Max's mother gets much more personality when he goes back home in recent chapters, defending her son from a bully by suggesting they compete in challenges... not to mention she insulted the guy and called him a pussy in front of her son.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Max eventually shot and killed Solid Snake for getting on his nerves, although the whole thing was retconned from existence by the Reset Button below.
    • Damara Attempts to take advantage of Gaia's deserted state at the end of Ridley's Last Stand to invade it claim it for the Federation. It takes a call from Chairman Keaton himself to put a stop to it.
  • No Endor Holocaust: Addressed and justified in Ridley's Last Stand. See Disintegrator Ray
  • Obstructive Bureaurat: The Galactic Federation, in general.
  • Older Than They Look: Several characters, for reasons related to their being A-list heroes.
  • Open-Minded Parent: Max and Radd's father, in the videogame world version of Earth. ...or so he tries too hard to be...
  • Our Hero Is Dead: Except not
  • Put on a Bus: Ridley after the first book, up until the end of book 3.
    • Also, most of the Chrono Trigger cast. They never write, never call...
  • Rape as Backstory: Bowser's Ex, Cyndi, was raped by her restaurant manager when she was a teen.
  • Refused by the Call: Radd Walker, by his (not corrupt) bosses at Nintendo. The reason? He's not mature enough. Based on how he reacts, it appears they are right.
    • Arguably (in universe)The Call Has Bad Reception: Max admits that Radd is, in fact, much more knowledgeable on games than he is, and this is what scares Max the most. However, Lana prefers Max, for reasons beside just gaming knowledge.
  • Reset Button: Max's wish on the Triforce.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Ridling is a federation-born Ridley clone that was genetically altered to reach its third "Dragon-like" form at an infant state, with no Genetic Memory whatsoever. In other words, a good Ridley that is also adorable.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Turtle's big green sweater, and again when she finally throws it away.
    • Ganon, who is cast with the influence of Satan and the charisma of the Antichrist.
  • The Smart Guy: Samus
  • Samus Is a Girl: Subverted, as everyone already knows she is a woman, but they have no idea she's the weird shy girl they see running around.
    • Also played straight later on, when a time-traveling Max and Samus encounter the Link from A Link to the Past. Those smooth legs Link has are there for a reason.
  • Schizo-Tech: Link owns both a pickup truck and a pilot's license.
    • Justified somewhat in that many world's cultures diffused ages ago, people in Hyrule just like being rustic for unexplained reasons.
      • Which says nothing about the fact that they're exposed to futuristic peoples and cultures.
  • Screening the Call: Subverted. Max is marooned back in his normal life quite some time after answering the call, but his friend Robert deliberately prevents him from returning.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Max arrests Dark Link and ruins every chance he has of reviving Ganon.
  • Shotguns Are Just Better: Probably the best trope description of the default beam in Max's Zapper. In reality, the beam seems to simply explode on contact with a target, but it travels at the speed of light (hence it being named Flash Beam) and with much more kick at close range (as demonstrated against Ridley in its debut.)
  • Shown Their Work: It's mentioned that some time in the 90's, people on Gaia learned that Nintendo was creating games disturbingly similar to the heroic escapades of certain characters and scenarios. People got irate on Gaia, and have been questioning the distant planet and its policies ever since.
    • Although Radd reveals that many games were released on the exact same date on Earth that their real life events happened elsewhere, so something else might be going on here.
      • This includes Zelda 1, of all things. But not Dragon Warrior, apparently. Or Chrono Trigger. Or A Link to the Past.
  • Shrinking Violet: Samus Aran
  • Space Is Noisy: Mostly Averted. The author deliberately states that while there's no sound out there, that would be boring. So, "for the enjoyment of readers, I've added dramatic sound effects and epic music."
  • Start of Darkness: Bowser, also doubles as his Crowning Moment of Awesome in the courtroom scene.
  • Stun Gun: Interesting subverted during Resurrection. Rather than stop an enemy, Samus uses a low-level wave beam at point blank range with a dying woman's head so the woman loses all conscious thought and nerve, passing away in comfort.
  • Stylistic Suck went into full swing during Operation JET, as Link got a hold of Rusty's computer, screwed with his deviantArt page, tried his hand at art, and finally wrote his own chapter (the last real sign he was ever there)
  • That Poor Cat: The first episode of "The Adventures of Max Walker", when Link shoves Max "offscreen".
  • The Stoic: Iggy Koopa, now a young man, is a cold scientist who has run out of patience for his father.
    • Luigi is becoming something of this as well, largely feeding into his being cast in Mario's shadow.
  • Universal Ammo: Max and Kevin can use the same "beam cores" as Samus's arm cannon, although each of the characters typically has a weapon of choice. It played a strong part in Max delivering Schala from the Darkness Beyond Time.
  • Vague Age: Several, several characters, and events as well.
    • Hyrule's Timeline making up very little of it.
    • Justified slightly in that 1-up shrooms are supposed to slow aging forever.
  • Villain Decay: Rather than play it for laughs, Bowser's is used to paint him as The Woobie.
    • For the most part, Bowser has become a neutral character, maybe even a hero.
  • Weapon of Choice:
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: The Stoic Iggy Koopa flatly accuses his father of turning him into one, in front of Max, who knows better. Bowser is deliberately trying to kill this trope in Iggy, so he can piece his life back together.
  • Wham! Episode: Unit 1, "The New Captain N" has tense moments, but generally remains on the bright side of adventure. "The Dragmire Conspiracy" follows immediately after, and people start dropping. Although 95 percent of the damage and death is undone by the Triforce, nobody (including the reader) is given any kind of indication that it *will* be undone until the very end. Plus, heavy implication seems to suggest that memory of the events is the direct reason why Max got a lot more grim in later chapters.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Occurs very much with Max, off and on.
    • The first notable instance occurs near the end of The Dragmire Conspiracy, when Max kills someone solely for getting on his nerves. Even though this deed was retroactively removed from continuity, he still remembers doing it.
    • Many of the skirmishes he gets into with Radd, though Radd typically provokes him.
    • Max was able to convince Peach to let him find the titular Macguffin of The Legend of The Green Mushroom on the grounds that he would be able to defend the galaxy for much, much longer. The underlying reason? He wanted to outlive his Jerkass brother, so he wouldn't have to give up his role as Captain N to him. In the end, he actually ends up performing an extremely noble deed almost by accident, and is thus congratulated
    • In CRUSH THE FORCE!!, Max and Robert happen upon what once was an entire planet, consumed by the Cosmic Horror they are chasing. Said horror? An unholy fusion of two Chrono Trigger characters: Lavos and Dalton... Wait how does that happen!? Apparently, it has something to do with being trapped in a void back in The Dragmire Conspiracy while in the distant past, and Max wishing on the Triforce to have that and the rest of said chapter retconned from existence. It's confirmed that it held vast civilization, too... given, This was something he really didn't have control over in the first place, but still, way to go, Max
    • Samus seems to sometimes encourage this behavior, which does not do much for her in the eyes of the Galactic Federation.
  • Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The settings of several Earth-like games are all on one planet, for the most part. It's never explained WHERE exactly each one is, but it is implied that Hyrule and the Mushroom Kingdom are not far from each other.
  • The Worf Barrage: Attempting to stop Ganon, Captain Falcon drives his Blue Falcon toward him at full speed, Stops on a dime (ejecting at the same time), flies through the air, and delivers a full-power Falcon Punch to his face. Ganon is mildly annoyed to have his head get twisted 90 degrees.
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