#for real out of all the various niche 'combining my interests'-style au ideas i've come up with

[primatechnosynthpop]

Hmm you know what I haven't done in a while... talk into the void about a niche self-indulgent crossover au... Well anyway it's time to break down New Adventures on the Zone (Balance edition, although you could easily do it with other taz arcs as well)

The B.O.B. fills the role of the Studio, sending the THB off to shoot films in different dangerous locations

With maybe a bit of variance between who gets which lines/does which specific thing in which scenes...

Neil -> Taako; Kevin -> Magnus; Ryan -> Merle

Angus fills the roles of both Kyle (the kid Kevin leaves standing alone in a field in episode 1) AND the kid who defends them from Max at the start of episode 3

John Smith -> Magic Brian. He lives in a secret lair underground and guards a treasure. Also is lit in purplish lighting. C'mon, this is obvious

Wendy -> Julia, but in this au the reason why the date goes poorly is because half of what Magnus says she just hears as static and it weirds her out. But instead of pretending to be dead it ends with her agreeing to go on another date with him (I know that's less funny but c'mon, it's magnulia, what else do you want from me)

Max -> Maarvy. Maybe the THB blowing up his battlewagon is less of an accident and more of an ""accident""

The Ghoul in Spooky Manor is a mysterious red-robed lich, and Barry Bluejeans is an innocent old groundskeeper....

The vigilante plotline stars Hurley and Sloane rather than the THB, but it resolves the same way, with Taako sneaking up and chloroforming Sloane immediately after an emotional moment in which Hurley shows her the error of her ways

There's also a B-plot about Taako lying to Merle about his relatives for no particular reason because that part is really funny and I don't want to change it

Rocky -> Steven the goldfish (he kinda rolls around inside his bowl to get around, I guess?)

Spencer -> John, as illustrated in this animatic I made a while back. Instead of using novelty ironic t-shirts to lure him into a box, they use a novelty chess set

Kravitz is the Misery Meister and he encases Merle in crystal (but the plot point of using a hairdryer to undo this spell is unchanged)

Frosty -> Upsy

The luck demon from the lost episode is Edward and Lydia. Instead of Taako's horseshoe necklace pulling him toward the electric car and choking him, the car battlewagon gets pulled toward him and lands on top of him, much like that one "bad luck" scene with the piece of heavy machinery

The ambiguous "President" -> Lucretia; she also brings Davenport with her and gestures at him when she says "it's like my best friend, the vice president, once told me". She puts the money tree in one of those things she put the relics into and wheels it off rather than just setting it on fire

Daxter Flaxter -> Garfield the deals warlock

Mitch Dollarton -> Lucas Miller. Originally I had him as Lord Artemis Sterling but Lucas is a gamer and also an antagonist so he works better

Even though Max was Maarvy before, I think his role in CF is filled by Klaarg because it also just works better

The Quackers are a bunch of gerblins, and Gunfoot is one of the judges from that judge planet

Instead of saying the hollywood east url, the THB look into the camera and say "www.maximumfun.org!"