Secret of Mana Theater

Ah, mittens! Welcome to Secret of Mana Theater, a webcomic adaptation of Square's classic game, Secret of Mana, but with a few twists, created by Sprite Monkey. Updates, instead of coming in the form of comic pages, are short videos created using sprites from the game. Its also generally an Affectionate Parody rife with twisted alternate character interpretations, but it has the flexibility to be serious when needed. The author also takes just enough liberties with the plot for those who have played the original game to be kept on their toes by unexpected events.

It began back in May 15th, 2002 and sporadically updates to this very day.

The webcomic has a forum that can be found here.

Examples of Tropes associated with Secret of Mana Theater:

• Action Girl: Faun.
• Adaptation Expansion: Like no one else's business! The author isn't even halfway though the game's story, and we're already up to 303 videos, each of which is about five minutes long!
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Of course.
• Affectionate Parody: Of Secret of Mana.
• Alpha Bitch: Elliot from Potos Village.
  • Those spiteful witches in Pandora who ruined Elinee's life.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Oh, boy. Where to even begin? For starters In Universe Examples include, the Boy, named Seth in this rendition is almost Too Stupid to Live, incredibly naïve, and has a bad case of Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny. The Girl, named Faun is a Heroic Sociopath Jerk with a Heart of Gold, and The Sprite, named Autumn is the Only Sane Man.
  • Oh, and the Village Elder back in Potos village is a pedophile.
• Ambiguous Gender: Subverted with Autumn the Sprite. Unlike in the original game, but author decided to simplify matters just by making her a girl and calling it day.
• And Call Him George: Paco from episode 141. Burr...
• Ascended Extra: Somewhat, with Elinee the witch and Neko the Salescat. Both are featured in the game, but their roles have been increased in one form or another in Theater.
  • Henry and Doir the lullabuds, spring to mind.
• Author Avatar: The Author, but he only shows up in Specials.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Seth. Full stop.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Seth. Easy-going, dull-witted, fun-loving, and extremely amiable. Do something to harm innocents, though, and watch out.
• Blatant Lies: Too many to count.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: A few, mostly used for laughs or Audience Participation, or both.
• Butt Monkey: Everyone, to some extent, but especially Seth.
• Catgirl: Well, Cat Man, actually: Neko.
• Catapult Nightmare: Induced on the party by Thanatos at one point to get into their heads.
  • Crosses over with Dreaming of Times Gone By, Dreaming of Things to Come, and Your Worst Nightmare.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Started to set in with Thanatos's first appearance in episode 168. Boy has it taken off since 279.
• Character Development: In spite of the generally light-hearted nature of the comic, the characters are well-rounded enough to experience all kinds of this.
• The Chick: Seth and Autumn play this to Faun's Action Girl status a lot of times, but Seth's been catching up with her more recently.
• Cliché Storm: Lampshaded.
• Cloudcuckoolander: This webcomic basically takes place in Cloud Cuckooland almost on Ansem Retort levels. Almost.
  • Grandma in Potos Village comes to mind right off the bat.
• Comedic Sociopathy: The Series just absolutely thrives on this. Just look no further than the couch gags.
• Con Man: The Dwarf Village Elder and Autumn, but unlike the original game, the Elder does not relent.
  • Neko, as well.
• Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded. Unlike in the game, when Seth first used Cannon Travel, he just wanted to go far away and just happened to land near the location he was told to go to.
• Cool Old Guy: Jema, of course, whether he likes it or not...
• Couch Gag: At the beginning of every episode Marle casts a spell with often different results.
  • Since the beginning of the series, she's been crushed, fried, crushed some more, set on fire, mocked, hanged herself, been replaced a few times, been electrocuted, crushed some more, shrunk, exploded, atomized, chased, run over, been eaten, and has been stripped naked.
  • When not being mutiliated beyond recognition, Merle has also engaged in riding the title card like a horse or walking on a giant ball, circus-style.
  • Lucca and Magus from the same game have also appeared in openings.
• Creator Breakdown: Sprite Monkey put the series on a 2-1/2 year hiatus when he realized that, by killing Seth in the story, he had broken free of the game's story, but couldn't figure out what direction to take the series in afterwards.
• Darker and Edgier: Sometimes.
• Deadpan Snarker: Faun and Autumn. Unfortunately for Seth, his own bumbling nature gives them tons of ammo to work with.
• Deal with the Devil: How Elinee got her powers in this version.
• Death by Adaptation: Elinee and Seth.
  • In the original, Elinee is never fought and she gives up her witch-craft ways and is never factored into the story again. In this retelling, her role is expanded and she goes onto enslave the dwarves of Gaia's Navel into readying a cermony to summon the Fire Gigas to attack Pandora Kingdom. Immediately following the success of the ceremony, she is murdered by Thanatos much in the same manner Sephiroth killed Aerith.
  • Seth, the hero, has also been killed by Thanatos when he tried to prematurely pick a fight with the Evil Sorcerer.
• Depraved Homosexual: Potos's Village Elder, no description can do him justice, so perhaps we should just let the series speak for itself:
  • In Episode 299: P.O.P.:

Jema: (of being wrongfully imprisoned) "Why have you done this to us?" Potos Elder: "You--you took all my little boys away from me!" Jema: "I did it in the name of... Wait, what?" Potos Elder: "All the sexy young boys have left town. One by one they all ran off. And it all started when you showed up! You made the villagers mad at Seth. Autumn: "Seth?" Potos Elder: "And his pink, supple ass!" (Autumn and Faun exchange shocked expressions.) Jema: "You're insane!" Potos Elder: "Hmm. Maybe, but I'm in charge. I can't let you take away my sexy soldier boys. Toodles." (Elder exits.) Autumn: "That's one pissed of pedophile."

• Disproportionate Retribution: What the nobles of Pandora did to Elinee for telling them off. What Elinee was about to do to Pandora in return.
• Distressed Dude: Dyluck. This should come as no surprise to anyone whoever played the original.
• Easter Eggs: Left in a lot of episodes for the viewer to find either for added humor or to advance the plot.
• Evil Empire: Played completely straight with Vandole. Frighteningly so, in fact.
• Evil Sorcerer: If you don't know, we're not telling.
• Excalibur in the Rust: The Mana Sword.
• Expy: Seymour is one of... Seymour.
• Fan Web Comics: A very triumphant example.
• Fire-Forged Friends: A lot of relationships form this way in this 'comic.
• Fluffy the Terrible: Mittens the Spiked-Tiger.
• Freudian Excuse: The comic takes Elinee, a one-dimensional boss from the original game and fleshes her out to the point that people formerly indifferent to her now outright pity her. She was ostracized by her fellow nobles back in Pandora for using her wealth to help out commoners. Said nobles then framed her entire family for being Empyreal spies and she was made to leave town by dawn after the night it happened, else by arrested and executed along with the rest of her loved ones.
• Genre Blind: Seth and Dyluck.
• Genre Savvy: Faun and Autumn.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: The Scorpion Army.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck: "Fugging" and "mittens" are just a few choice exclamatories in place of actual swearing the author uses. "Damn" and "hell" are still used, though.
• Grand Theft Me: What Thanatos is planning with Dyluck.
• The Hero Dies
• Grimmification: Believe or not, when not poking fun at the game it's based on, this 'comic can get outright sadistically dramatic.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: Just about every soldier presented thus far has been this. Hell, you can enter just about every location just by asking nicely.
• Hilarity Ensues: Just about everytime Seth is left to his own devices.
• Hive Mind: Pancake, Seth's Spirit Advisor.
• Honest John's Dealership: Neko's whole business plan, basically.
• Human Cannonball: Anyone who gets around by Cannon Travel. The results are played for laughs quite often.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Seth. He's got the weight of the world on his shoulders, and all he wants to someone to help him ease it up a bit.
• In the Back: Thanatos to Elinee.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Seth is the master of these. Faun sometimes dabbles as well.
• Interface Screw: Some of the Easter eggs will affect the replay screens at the end of various episodes causing either the replay buttons to not work or removing the ability to view other Easter eggs if you click the wrong Easter egg first until you replay the episode.
• It Got Worse: Well, the words Secret of Mana are in the title, you know.
  • Plus, given some of the levels of Cerebus the author was dreamed up, God only knows what will happen next.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Seth's attitude towards his status as the Mana Knight. He learns to cope with it better in time (having two companions helps), but initially he had an outright temper tantrum about it at one point.
• It's Up to You: Completely subverted. As much as Jema would love to do this, he's been pulled into the plot much more prominently than in the game.
• Jerkass: Faun, before Character Development.
  • She did have her reasons, but nothing that justifies some of her earlier actions.
  • Elliot, through and through, though. This comic makes him an even bigger jerk than he was in the original game.
  • Gnorm also counts.
  • General Morie, too.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Faun, in an earlier on appearance, when she gave Seth advice on how to survive.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Faun, after Character Development.
• Just Like Robin Hood: Choppin Hood, eventually.
• Kick the Dog: Thanatos, again.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Seth, for the same reasons as Beware the Nice Ones.
• Lighter and Softer: Other times.
• Dwarf Eating Plant: Tropicallo.
• Mass Hypnosis: As if you don't know.
• The Multiverse: Used as a gag in one episode.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Thanatos.
• Non-Action Guy: Seth, early. He gets better.
• Non-Idle Rich: You do not want to be this in the Kingdom of Pandora in SoMT. You do not. Just ask Elinee.
• Obviously Evil: This is an adaptation of Secret of Mana. Guess who.
• Oh Crap: Several, but episode 279 comes to mind the most especially since it's the audience giving that reaction.
• Only Sane Man: A few. Luka, Jema, and Autumn all come to mind.
• Our Zombies Are Different: They're just brain-washed Pandoran citizens, but they sure do fill the role.
• Overprotective Dad: Faun's father. He sent Dyluck on a Suicide Mission to split the couple up. And we all know where this is leading.
• Point and Click: Implemented a few times.
• Prison Episode: In the latest episodes, Jema, Faun, and Autumn have been imprisoned for being mistaken as Empyreal spies. In reality, it was Potos's Elder's fault, because he blames Jema for taking his beloved Seth away from him.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Luka, though Seth still thinks she's hot.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Mittens, after being Midged.
• Schedule Slip: If you're a fan of this series, learn to be very patient.
• Self-Deprecation: The Author to himself in the Specials he appears in. Often crosses right into Take That Me.
• Shout-Out: Let's see... Little Shop of Horrors, Saturday Night Fever, Mission Impossible, and many, many other things.
  • In episode 1, we have "Oh my God, you killed Timmy!"
• Slapstick Knows No Gender: Being a woman will not save you from grievous bodily harm for the sake of a laugh.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Mittens the Spiked-Tiger. In the game, he's just a Wake Up Call Boss who the party kills. In So M Theater, he's instead Midged and goes on to be Seth's pet.
• Spirit Advisor: Pancake. Don't ask.
• Sprite Comic: More like sprite web show, though.
• Standard Status Effects: Played straight, mostly for laughs. Autumn the Sprite appears to have been permanently Midged along with Mittens.
• The Starscream: If you really don't know: Thanatos.
• Straight Gay: Potos Village Elder, though the portrayal is hardly flattering and strays right into Squick territory, considering he seeks intimacy with young teen-twenties guys. He's hit on everyone from the seventeen-year-old Seth to a Military Captain.
• Suddenly Voiced: Most of the time, viewers have to read the word and thought bubbles. Every once in a while, though, voice acting will be supplied.
• Suicide Mission: Given to Dyluck and his men by the King and Queen of Pandora as requested by Faun's father to get rid of him so that his daughter will have to marry a suiter of his choice.
• Sweat Drop: Whenever Seth has said anything particularly stupiid and/or just plain weird.
• Talkative Loon: Grandma from Potos Village.
• Tim Taylor Technology: At one point, the Cannon Travel Guys try out a new setting on customers. The results were the stuff episodes of Tool Time are made of.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Faun and Autumn, respectively.
• Too Stupid to Live: Seth early on, the dwarves of Gaia's Navel, and several authority figures.
  • The Scorpion Army counts even more than they did in the game this is based on, and that's...impressive.
• Took a Level In Badass: Seth has come a long way from the nigh useless twit he used to be.
• Trauma-Induced Amnesia: Autumn. she was taken from her home by a flood, which caused her to lose her memories.
• Tsundere: Faun. She likes Seth (not romantically, but as a friend), but she will not admit it. At least, not until he's seemingly been killed by Thanatos.
• The Unchosen One: Seth.
• The Unpronounceable: Tropicallo, for Seth.
• Unreliable Narrator: Both Seth and Faun when they were recounting how they first met to Autumn.
• Upperclass Twit: The King of Pandora. Just... Just the King of Pandora.
• Uptown Girl: Faun is this to Dyluck's Unlucky Everydude. Faun's father does not approve.
• Useless Useful Spell: So far averted... Though that one spell that turns people's hair green raises questions.
  • Magic Rope is this in this retelling.
• Villain Song: Feed Me, Seymour.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Seth and Faun; Faun and Phanna.
  • Actually, anybody and Faun would count.
• Wake Up Call Boss: All of 'em so far, but Thanatos in particular.
• Webcomic of the Game
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Vorn, the Hamster Slayer. He single-handedly rid Tasnica of it's plague of hamsters.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: A plague of hamsters. Yeah...
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Seth. Assumes the best of just about everyone he first meets, often with hilarious results in which he usually ends up brutalized, swindled, robbed, or all the above before they're done with him.
  • However, his big heart has also worked in his favor as his good nature charmed two very cynical individuals (Autumn and Faun) into joining his quest.
• Wham! Episode: Episode 235-237, as well as 279.

"Heroism. Unrequired love. Pancakes."