Twisted Path

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Seminal mid-1990s self-insert Fanfic cycle Twisted Path by Darren "Twister" Steffler was an ambitious but never-completed Mega Crossover project. Its central character, Steffler's Author Avatar "Twister", is possibly the most infamous example of, as well as the Trope Codifier for, the godlike self-insert character, if not the actual Trope Maker. Steffler was one of the first fan authors, if not the first, to take the concept of a self-insert character and escalate it all the way up to a literal god mode. He was certainly one of the first to do so and have it become popular.

Steffler's work started out rather crude but improved noticeably as he continued writing, although it never quite reached better than high average in quality. Nevertheless, Twisted Path was incredibly influential, prompting a number of other writers to create their own Self-Insert or pseudo-Self-Insert fics, many of which included Shout-Outs to Twisted Path or blatantly set themselves in the same multiverse. Twister himself was admittedly inspired by the Core stories of Undocumented Features and their heroic self-insert characters.

Twisted Path survives in four main parts:

• Twisted Path: In which a summoning cast by Happosai of Ranma ½ calls not only the Archdemon Malkon but a random schlub from another universe named Darren Steffler. To prevent the two of them from destructively arriving at the same moment in the same place, Malkon tosses Darren into the Event -- a galaxy-sized storm caused by the collision of the forces of Mind and Magic -- as they pass through the Void between universes on their way to the Ranma world. Malkon is subsequently surprised (and then defeated) when a massively-empowered Steffler follows him there. Steffler, now calling himself "Twister", settles into Nerima, acquires a Jusenkyo curse of his own, and starts to explore the new abilities he's gained.
• Twisted Path - What to Prepare For, AKA Twisted Path 2 - Continues in the Ranma world but departs from the usual slapstick goings-on when it branches off into original characters and locations, exploring formal magic use and original enemies, and ends with Twister getting kicked out of that universe.
• Twisted Path 3: Twisted Path -- Another Bubble Started is set in the world of Bubblegum Crisis. Twister arrives in MegaTokyo, only to discover that his female side's magic is going haywire, leaving him stuck there, unable to return to Nerima. He settles in for the long run and inevitably ends up involving himself in the affairs of the Knight Sabers. This installment ends when Twister, the problem with his female side's magic solved, voluntarily exits the world with a massively lost Ryouga Hibiki to return him to the Ranma world.
  • Legion's Quest explicitly crosses over with Twisted Path 3 when Legion arrives in its BGC timeline in the story Tangled Skeins (Also found here.)
• Twisted Path 4 - Nerima Knights, a crossover with The Bubblegum Zone, when SkyKnight gets sent to TP's Ranmaverse.
  • SkyKnight eventually returns to his universe with gifts from Twister in An Alternate History of The Bubblegum Zone written (with Van Vliet's permission) by "Hitomi Ichinohei". This incomplete story outlines a timeline that diverges from the main Bubblegum Zone story starting with the events of TP4.

Steffler also posted fragments of Twisted Path 5 and Twisted Path 10, but copies do not appear to have survived. One of them was known to take place in the world of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, and the other was about Twister's return to his home world and its consequences. A Dungeons & Dragons arc is also known to have been written, but also no longer seems to exist anywhere.

Steffler ultimately abandoned fan fiction and vanished from the fic community in the late 1990s, leaving his grand vision incomplete and fragmentary.

Not to be confused with Twisted Fates.

Tropes used in Twisted Path include:

• Alternate Realm Boon: In a variant on the trope, Twister gains his powers when Malkon tries to dispose of him in the Void Between the Worlds by tossing him into the Event -- a galaxy-scale confluence of opposing energies.
• Author Avatar: Twister
• Can't Argue with Elves: Or at least with Twister's elf-like far-future female/magical aspect, who uses the name Valanna.
• Crossover Fic:
  • In addition to the various series incorporated into the story, Twisted Path ultimately crossed over with other fanfic cycles of the late 1990s:
  • One such story was Bert Van Vliet's The Bubblegum Zone, a Bubblegum Crisis self-insert which later had an explicit crossover with Twisted Path in Twisted Path 4. A follow-up story by another author explored the results of a gift provided by Twister to be given to the Knight Sabers in the BGZ universe.
  • Another is Ed Becerra's Legion's Quest. It crosses over explicitly with Twisted Path in its own Bubblegum Crisis segment.
  • Drunkard's Walk II was initially intended to take place in the same BGC timeline as TP3 as well; the author has posted a fragment of the original version featuring Twister on his website.
• Dimensional Traveler: Twister, of course.
• Doorstopper: Even incomplete, it's still massive. The four surviving installments total 1.8 megabytes; Twisted Path 3 by itself is over 850 Kb.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Twister discovers his female side's magic is going haywire in TP3‍'‍s MegaTokyo when a spell cast to create a small underground complex with just a few rooms instead runs wild and creates a monstrous base of almost fractal complexity.
• Gender Bender: After the events of Twisted Path 1, Twister suffers from a water-triggered gender-change curse like Ranma Saotome. Unlike Ranma, though, his two forms appear to be destined to possess their own unique personalities, thanks to the influence of the Event.
• God Mode Sue: The Trope Codifier if not the Trope Maker for "modern" fanfiction, and one of the first, if not the first, to be the subject of a popular work.
• The Homeward Journey: Probably the first major fanfic to use this as its central device. One of the lost fragments of the story actually depicted Twister's return to his home timeline.
• Homing Projectile: The HOMLAS feature of the re-engineered DD Battlemover in Twisted Path 3. See Roboteching below for more information.
• Invincible Hero: Twister gains immense power at the start of his travels thanks to being thrown into a cosmic maelstrom to dispose of him and never really stops getting more powerful through his adventures.
• Lethal Chef: Akane's cookies in part 4 explode.
• Multiverse: A literal infinity of universes, all accessible from the Void.
• Mundane Utility: In TP3, Twister uses his psionics to make decorative sculptures out of scrap metal, and sells them in a shop/gallery to support himself.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Malkon's attempt to dispose of Darren Steffler instead empowers him to godlike levels.
• No One Could Survive That: The erroneous assumption made by the arch-demon Malkon when he chucked Twister into the Event in the Void to get rid of him.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Twister, upon appearing in the Ranma ½ universe, proceeds to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to the arch-demon who had thrown him into the Event.
• Roboteching: The "HOMLAS" feature of the re-engineered, now-Magitech-based DD Battlemover in Twisted Path 3, the Bubblegum Crisis segment. In a moment of need Sylvie fires it on the recommendation of the mech's autopilot, without knowing what it even was. The result was a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• Self-Insert Fic: While far from the first self-insert fic ever written, it is probably the Ur Example of the fanfic which sends its protagonist from fictional universe to fictional universe within a greater multiverse.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The Ranma arc is heavy on the comedy, but starting with the Bubblegum Crisis arc, the humor is much rarer, and by the now-missing Dungeons & Dragons arc it was entirely missing.
• Split Personality: It's revealed that thanks to the Event's effect on him, Twister's male and female aspects will eventually -- over hundreds or thousands of years -- evolve into effectively two separate people, with different names, traits and behaviors.
• Summon Magic: Twister's adventures begin when he is accidentally caught up in a demon-summoning performed by Happosai in the Ranma universe and is carried along with the demon.
• Trapped in Another World: Twister is not so much trapped in another world as trapped outside of his home world. He eventually acquires the ability to move from world to world, but outside of an incomplete story of uncertain canonicity he never makes it back to the timeline where he was born and raised.
• Void Between the Worlds: The Void between the universes is a key plot element in Twisted Path. It is far from empty -- energies spill out of the universes which populate the Void, and where they concentrate in sufficient quantities they may interact, for better or worse. One such place is the "Event" -- a meeting of the sources of Mind and Magic, into which Steffler's Author Avatar is flung by an arch-demon when he is accidentally caught up in a summoning for the demon. Twister survives what was expected to be certain death and comes out profoundly gifted in both magic and psionics. Later installments actually show Twister traveling the Void as he moves from world to world.
  • Twisted Path influenced numerous other writers, some of whom explicitly set their works in the same multiverse, resulting in frequent appearances of Twister's Void. The hero of Barry Cadwgan's Bubblegum Crisis/Shadowrun crossover A Wolf in Crisis even spots Twister and Ryouga (from the end of Twisted Path 3) traversing the Void during his own transit between worlds at the start of the story. Word of God states that Douglas Sangnoir of Drunkard's Walk traverses it when he travels from world to world, but he's unconscious when he does, so he's not even aware of it.
• Yin-Yang Clash: The Event, found in the Void Between the Worlds, is a titanic confluence/battle of the forces of Mind and Magic. Getting thrown in it to get rid of him -- because of course No One Could Survive That -- instead empowers Twister to a near-godlike degree.