Not every plot idea makes it into AntiBunny. A lot of things develop, change, or are abandoned. Sometimes even things long planned for future implementation are dropped in favor of something else. Here are a few.
A bunch with Nailbat including:
Mors attempting suicide and failing repeatedly before he figures out that he can’t die. Didn’t fit with the potent willpower he was planned to develop later on.
A version with no super powers at all. In this version he never meats the reaper and instead is diagnosed with cancer and given a year to live. If Nailbat had been a stand alone story, I’d have run with this, but supernatural abilities are canon in the AntiBunny universe, and I needed to introduce some fantastical elements into the story so it wouldn’t be jumping the shark when they come into the Gritty City Stories.
The very name Nailbat sounds extremely violent and it’s because he was likely going to kill a lot more people before his significant encounter with Penelope early on.
Nailbat having 10 years to live rather than just 1. This would have left open more room for sequels, but seriously dragged the story out.
Early on I considered having Nailbat end with NB following Malphas back to city hall, and ending in a martial arts showdown with Malphas that ends in NB losing the fight but Knell slipping him a thumb drive with evidence of Malphas’ criminal dealings and finances that ends up destroying his empire. It felt rushed, so I decided to end in a sort of hollow victory that left room to go deeper and bigger.
NBK: 03 went through a lot of redesigns and concepts before I settled on the Deus design. These include one that looked a lot like Metal, a giant robot that could produce more NBKs, and a robot fox. Ultimately I went with the spare body Malphas design because it allowed me to tie him together with Malphas himself for a more direct final battle rather than the NBK: 03 just being just a final big minion.
If you think the death of Ubermensch story during Nailbat Begins came out of nowhere, that was originally going to be an even longer interlude beginning with an origin story for not only Ubermensch, but even going back to tell the story of each generation of heroes and how Strongo the first superhero appeared after the American Civil War and teamed up with other Victorian heroes like Manowulf, Voodoo Mama, and the Iron Baron. This took up far too much time by its self, so while that is still a canon story, that will eventually be told, I cut it down to what mattered. There were superheroes and there aren’t now.
Nailbat Returns was originally going to have a much darker ending with Metal and Nailbat not being able to reason or reconcile, and ending with a rooftop duel that results in Metal dying a much more permanent death. I decided that NB returns should be a little lighter and just be a fun oldschool comic book adventure, so I packed it full of superheroes, and a generally more positive feel, even if Metal did get shut down in the end. I’d already planned to bring him back by that point.
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