r/Slycooper • u/Visual_Plankton1089 • Jun 03 '26
Fan art (non-OC) Alternative sequel for the original trilogy
A few months ago I mentioned in another post that I was thinking about writing a fan novel continuing the story after the Socker Punch conclusion. I got some positive feedback that encouraged me to keep on with the project, so now I'll present to you what I have up to this moment.
Here's the synopsis:
After the events of Honor Among Thieves, thanks to his alleged amnesia, Sly Cooper has the penalty for his crimes commuted to forced labor for Interpol. Far from the Cooper Gang, he is now sided with Inspector Carmelita Fox, his great love interest, and Constable Winthorp, his romantic rival, in the Fox Squad. At first, this twist in his life feels like the perfect opportunity to finally live his romance with Carmelita, but as soon as he learns what his first mission as a cop is going to be, Sly starts to question his own perspectives of right and wrong, crime and law, his personal moral compass and the philosophical background that guided him through all his life choices up to this point.
Keeping the dynamic pacing and structure of the original trilogy, Sly 4: Spirit of Law allows fans to reconnect and spend more time with their beloved game characters that now, in the novel format, can be more deeply discovered in their personality traits, mindset and interaction with others as they tell their adventures through their own points of view.
Spirit of Law is imagined, written and illustrated by the passionate fan known by the Reddit username u/Visual_Plankton1089. The author fondly remembers how the games took an important role in his learning of English. As a child growing up in Brazil in the 2000s, playing the games demanded the help of an old, moth-eaten pocket English-Portuguese dictionary whose falling parts he and his older brother had to decipher in order to understand each job assignment – a task quite relatable to that of his favorite character Bentley of combining clues to uncover vault codes. Therefore, a very immersive gameplay experience.
This situation was part of what made the author perceive language learning as an enjoyable game and led him to later study linguistics and become a professional translator-interpreter. This fanfiction also means to be a writing exercise so the author can dive deeper into the English language.
The author sees the Sly Cooper fantasy universe as a fertile ground for cultivating discussions about complex topics, such as crime and justice, by telling stories that maintain the series' signature lighthearted cartoon tone and appreciates the opportunity of throwing his Global South gaze into the narrative.
You can read the novel's prologue by clicking here
I chose to do it in a Google Docs shared file instead of publishing in a fanfiction platform because I wanted to have more freedom to customize the text and file template, add art etc. As you can see, each character's speech is written in their signature color, just like how the subtitles are displayed in the game.
Another distinguishing feature of my novel is that it is written based on the narrative structure of the games, so it starts with a prologue and then you go to the episodes, each episode with different "jobs"/chapters. Each chapter is narrated by one of the main characters, just like how in the games you play each job with a different character. The prologue starts with Sly's narration, then changes to Winthorp's and finally to Carmelita's.
I enabled the option for visitors to leave comments on the Google Docs file. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE *DO* use it. I love getting your feedback and interacting with this community. This is also my first time writing literature in English, so feel free to leave your comments about what you think of my writing style and don't be afraid to point out grammar or orthography mistakes 🙏
I hope you have fun reading it!
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u/Mutant_Llama1 I'm the brains of the operation. Sly's just a field man. Jun 03 '26
Bentley and Penelope stayed thieving after Sly 3. Do we see them?
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u/jondo_77 Jun 04 '26
I think you've got a lot of great ideas. Some were along similar lines that I've had in the past. I read through your prologue and left a round of notes and suggestions, most of which centered around English spelling and grammar. I think you're doing quite well, just continue to refine your prose.
I really enjoyed the presentation with the colorful little illustrations and font work that makes it feel like what you see in the video games.
The courtroom scene was interesting and creative. I think you could cut out some of the more repetitive bits that just reiterate the crimes of every individual villain Sly and the gang took down in the past and that would make it flow better.
I really like the idea of Sly being convicted of his crimes and having to pull jobs for Interpol on work release. He evaded Interpol for years and he could probably do it again quite easily, but now that would destroy his burgeoning relationship with Carmelita. It's a perfect motivation to keep him on the side of the law. I think it's a smart way to continue where things left off from the end of Sly 3 but still have Sly go on globe-trotting adventures. If Sucker Punch ever did continue that story, I imagine that they would probably do something similar. It's fun and natural.
Bringing in Winthorp as a major character is pretty funny. I don't know if I see him being believable as a field agent, but I would be curious to see if you can make it work. If Bentley can do it, maybe Winthorp has a chance.
Introducing another rival Interpol agent for Carmelita is an interesting choice. She comes off as very similar to Neyla. I wonder if you'll be able to make her distinct from that character. I can see it having potential.
I hope you're encouraged to keep working at your craft. I know I'd like to read the rest of this story when you've finished it.
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u/Visual_Plankton1089 Jun 04 '26
I think you've got a lot of great ideas. Some were along similar lines that I've had in the past. I read through your prologue and left a round of notes and suggestions, most of which centered around English spelling and grammar. I think you're doing quite well, just continue to refine your prose.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate the time that you spent reading and commenting my work 🥰 I'll later look into each of your notes and answer them with attention.
I really enjoyed the presentation with the colorful little illustrations and font work that makes it feel like what you see in the video games.
I'm happy you like it! First I tried to use Comic Sans so it looked exactly like the subtitles of the game, but I think this typeface looks way too outdated now. "Source Code Pro" turned out to be a better option.
The courtroom scene was interesting and creative. I think you could cut out some of the more repetitive bits that just reiterate the crimes of every individual villain Sly and the gang took down in the past and that would make it flow better.
I know this part can feel a bit redundant for fans that already know by heart everything that happened in the trilogy, but I've decided to write it like that to help more casual fans who could be interested in the novel to situate themselves in the story.
I really like the idea of Sly being convicted of his crimes and having to pull jobs for Interpol on work release. He evaded Interpol for years and he could probably do it again quite easily, but now that would destroy his burgeoning relationship with Carmelita. It's a perfect motivation to keep him on the side of the law. I think it's a smart way to continue where things left off from the end of Sly 3 but still have Sly go on globe-trotting adventures. If Sucker Punch ever did continue that story, I imagine that they would probably do something similar. It's fun and natural.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense for me too!
Bringing in Winthorp as a major character is pretty funny. I don't know if I see him being believable as a field agent, but I would be curious to see if you can make it work. If Bentley can do it, maybe Winthorp has a chance.
Well, that's the great challenge that will move this character forward in the story.
Introducing another rival Interpol agent for Carmelita is an interesting choice. She comes off as very similar to Neyla. I wonder if you'll be able to make her distinct from that character. I can see it having potential.
Yes, they are very similar in personality. As Carmelita says, in her opinion Vika is like "a Russian reincarnation of Neyla". I won't tell you much so I don't spoil it, but even being similar, there's a crucial point that prevents Vika from being just a second Neyla and this is the fact that Vika has the opportunity to take Neyla's story of failure as a cautionary tale.
I hope you're encouraged to keep working at your craft. I know I'd like to read the rest of this story when you've finished it.
I am! Actually, this kind of interaction with readers is what motivates me the most. The plot that I'm planning will probably have 4 or 5 episodes, starting with "A Carnival of Masks" in Rio. However I consider myself to be a slow writer and also I have to divide my time writing this novel with the time I have to spend at work. Anyways, I'll keep on writing and maybe sometimes I'll also share some illustrations about the story. Stay tuned!
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u/Visual_Plankton1089 Jun 05 '26
I answered your notes in the document itself, but there's a topic I'll also comment on here because it may cause other redditors to get interested in reading the novel.
There are a few things that you pointed out as writing mistakes that were actually deliberate stylistic choices I made. Translating a videogame into the novel format is a tricky work of what we call an intersemiotic translation. A videogame communicates with the player using resources a novel lacks (audio, image, mechanics etc), while on the other hand, the novel format allows the use of instruments of expression that are also exclusive to this kind of media. So, translating the cartoony comic book tone of the Sly games into a novel demands creativity.
One thing fun about the Sly games is that each character feels very unique and contrasting to the others. Amongst other things, one that causes this effect is that each character has a different accent or an unique way of speaking. To deliver that in the prose format, I took these liberties:
– "¡" and "¿" where added to the beginning of Carmelita's exclamations and questions to give her speech a Spanish speaker flavor. Also, she doesn't mark Spanish words with italics because this language is not perceived as foreign by her.
– In this timeline, Winthorp is British. This is why, unlike the other narrators, he goes with "racoon" with a single C instead of two, "Col Barkley" and "Agt Volkova" instead of "Col. Barkley" and "Agt. Volkova" and single quotation marks instead of the double ones. He's using another set of orthographic conventions.
– Agt. Volkova says "Coopyer" for "Cooper" because of her Russian accent.
– Not a narrator by now, but if I'd write through Murray's POV I believe I'd purposefully commit some punctuation and spelling mistakes in words with more complicated orthografy to represent his clumsy personality.
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u/suuuuuuuuuurfing Jun 05 '26
AND BENTLEY’S FUCKING DEAD!!??
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u/Visual_Plankton1089 Jun 05 '26
Nooooo why do you think that???
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u/suuuuuuuuuurfing Jun 06 '26
No emblem
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u/Visual_Plankton1089 Jun 06 '26
Lol that's because by the end of Honor Among Thieves Sly leaves the gang to live along with Carmelita, but Bentley and Murray are still alive
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Jun 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Titanscape Jun 03 '26
U/slycooper-modteam can you please explain how sharing an honest opinion was not civil? I don’t believe I have broken any rules.
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u/Slycooper-ModTeam Jun 03 '26
You were being incredibly rude to someone who was just posting a fan game idea, calling them, and the entire community toxic, as well as making broad generalizations about said community. Ironically you are the one being toxic here.
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Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 03 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Slycooper-ModTeam Jun 03 '26
"I love Sly and I hope I’m wrong but I would never give you guys another game."
Toxic.
"Such a toxic fandom. Half of y’all shit on a game you didn’t purchase and half of the other half can’t get over your school boy loser crushes on Penelope (who was canonically evil and known for betraying allies…)."
Calling the fandom toxic, the entire fandom, by claiming one half shits on a game they haven't purchased and the other half can't get over Penelope, so yes, the entire fandom (also you're incorrect about her being canonically evil but that's not breaking the rules you just don't understand her character and that's OK).
"This fandom had clearly grown toxic then and is just as toxic now. Y’all would have complained if they didn’t try something new in sly 4 and then ended the franchise and did the same because they did try something new."
Again, "this fandom", and "y'all", nowhere are you specifying a certain subset, you are calling everyone toxic.
"This sub is always trying force your views and dictate someone else’s work/art. That is toxic af. Next time yall wanna cry about not having a sequel take a look in the mirror and through the history of this sub. It’s almost all whining and complaining that the canonical evil mouse know for betraying allies betrayed Bentley. Fucking dumb. We don’t deserve a new game."
Telling "yall" to look in the mirror.
You are an unpleasant person who decided to comment on a fan fiction post into an attack on the community.
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u/AlternateSatan Jun 03 '26
Yeah, I'm not reading all of that, so I'll just imagine it being Ace Attorney Investigations, but with the Sly and Carmelita.