"No More Simpsons" and what came of it
There is a The Simpsons fanfic titled No More Simpsons (Não Mais Simpsons in Portuguese), which happens in a world where Homer is a lazy drunk, Marge is significantly disturbed by her husband's lack of care for her and the rest of the family, Bart is a sex-crazed maniac, Lisa has a best friend, and Maggie (herein Meg) is a boxer. It's probably the longest Simpsons fanfic in terms of chapters, standing at a whopping 218. Its author, a journalism student named Brendon, died in 2023, leaving the story without an ending. This led to "Just Another Simpson", essentially my version of the story's three remaining chapters, intended as a homage to the original author.
Act 1
The story is divided into three sagas, or acts, with appearances from all Simpsons family members, but also several other characters from the show. The first saga, or Act I, contains several plot lines — some of which are only relevant later on. The prologue shows Lisa meeting her best friend, Cristianne, at a library, while Bart ends up trying to join the "Indelinquents", the name given to Springfield Elementary's group of bullies — Dolph Starbeam, Jimbo Jomes, Kearney Zzyzwicz, and Nelson Muntz, although the latter seems to have departed the group temporarily at the time. Jimbo in question challenges Bart to tell one nearby girl to touch his private parts; if she did, he'd be part of the group. The sheepishly honest Bart is upfront about this to a young girl, named Claire, who tells him not to do this and instead kisses him. This would start off a long but important relationship throughout Act 1.
By the time Act 1 is here, seven years have passed since this moment, and the Simpsons family is quite different from last time. Maggie — now 7 years old and only called Meg, relates less and less to her father, seeing bartender Moe more and more as her own father, something she's felt ever since the day he saved her, an event that happened two years prior to NMS' events and five years after the prologue. Her brother, Bart, is described as a slob who's only interested in making sweet, sweet love with his girlfriend, Claire. Homer, even more of a slob than he actually is, frequently enrages Marge, who believes her own stress to be caused by him. Lisa's the only one in the family who hasn't significantly changed, although she remains affected by her parents' constant arguing.
Marge in particular gets very enraged after Homer misses Lisa's school recital, instead sleeping in their own car. She wasn't the only one; Bart and Claire would have a quickie in another school area. When the family came back home, they found themselves being awaited by police chief Clancy Wiggum and a group of soldiers, who invited Meg to a military school in Jefferson City, the capital of the state of Missouri. Though she would later consult this with Moe, who would give his consent, she was already willing to do so; one big reason for this was her lukewarm opinions of the family members, in particular Homer and, to a lesser extent, Bart.
The next big event in the story occurs when Lisa receives a letter from billionaire and Springfield Power Plant owner Charles Montgomery Burns, aka Mr. Burns, inviting her to a hospital visit. Burns, as it turns out, is dying; plugged to at least a dozen different cords, the ailing Burns is only aided by his trustworthy aide, Waylon Smithers, who sits hopelessly next to him at the hospital every day. Knowing that Lisa, who once served as an assistant to him, would be one of the few people he could trust in this day and age, admitted he was never a good person. To redeem himself, even if just for a bit, he agreed to list Lisa in his last will — as the receiver of his trustworthy teddy bear, Bobo, and also 80% of his fortune; conservative estimates would give her at least $796 million dollars, though likely much more. The only requirement was that Lisa would need to spend it from time to time; she agrees to it.
In the meantime, Lisa would also join her friend Cristianne's band; an alternative unnamed band, they would feature Jimbo on drums, Lisa on saxophone, Mat — a friend of Cristianne's — on guitar and herself on vocals. They had only one rehearsal throughout the story, partially due to several breaks and vacations other characters would take. Shortly after this, Meg finally departed Springfield for Jefferson City, where she would remain through the rest of Act 1. The Simpsons family took this as an opportunity to take a break and go to the beach, inviting Bart's childhood best friend Milhouse as well.
Milhouse's background here is something to notice; he'd shown signs of depression and had been self-harming for at least a while prior to the story's events. Part of this is hinted to have been caused by the bullying from the Indelinquents, in particular Nelson.
His friend, Milhouse, was distracted as usual… he was looking around, a little distressed. They were both chatting while the teacher wrote something to be copied on the blackboard. One sat at the desk next to the other, and Lisa stood at the far end of the room.
— Hey, you know what I did today?
Milhouse didn't even hear him. He scratched a bit under his long sleeve, grimacing slightly.from Chapter 20, "A pill in the coffee"
In the aforementioned beach chapter, for example, Bart invites him for a swim, which he declines; after much insistence, he agreed to, taking off all of his clothes — except the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing. Meanwhile, his sister Lisa uses this time to take her mind off a series of events — and people — annoying her. One of these is with her friend Colin (herein Collin), the Irish boy who was Lisa's crush in The Simpsons Movie. Collin lives in Canada, although he dreams of re-encountering Lisa again; although they are not dating, they have a high enough degree of familiarity, and Lisa thinks to herself that she loves him, something he also does. A moment of unease occurs when Collin videocalls Lisa — while naked — causing her to ignore him for a while, mostly out of shock.
By chapter 35 (Advertising and publicity), Burns is dead. Lisa received an unbelievable amount of money, and the rest of the family (besides Meg, who's upstate) agreed to not tell Homer about it. The rationale for this was simple: Homer would find out and, well known for misusing their money, would manage to zero out their bank accounts. Despite this, Lisa would not directly use this money; it would be Marge, who gifted to her kids a dog named Zero and a cat named Pearl. By this point in time, Marge is more willing to use her maiden name, Bouvier, rather than Simpson, even if in secret, as if the idea of independence from Homer begins to resonate with her. A brief glimpse of the reaction to Burns' death is shown; the nuclear plant workers got two days off, which they used to celebrate. Smithers was now in charge, and Homer had kept his job.
However, one of the many remarkable events in the story is the offscreen reveal of a series of lewd pictures. These pictures, spread throughout Springfield, revealed Bart and Cristianne, Lisa's friend, together in bed, both in compromising positions. Bart, as it turns out, was the last to find out; Claire breaks up with him, and even his own family is horrified by the events. Even Homer offered some insightful commentary on this:
That son of his was nothing but trouble. A worthless piece of shit. What kind of honorable man would do that to his own girlfriend, especially one so beautiful and nice. He felt sorry for Kary… was that really her name? Kary? Or was it Klery, or Cler, or Spoon (Colher, in Portuguese)… maybe it was Fork, or Dish… it didn't matter… what mattered was that his son was useless, worthless and so on - he didn't know many other adjectives.from Chapter 41, "Disappointments"
This is enough to ruin Bart's reputation in town, and the only person who is willing to sympathize with him is his friend Milhouse. One particular day, Lisa went to visit Cristianne, the other person in the photo, to see how she was doing. While Cristianne was in the shower, Lisa accidentally discovered that her best friend not only had a crush on Bart, which she found unamusing, but had also manipulated the photo herself — using an image of a bedroom, an image of herself, and an image of Bart, which happened to be taken on the day the Simpsons family and Milhouse went to the beach. The photo wasn't real; it was a deepfake.
Prior to all these events, other minor events happened in the story. One of them was regarding Homer's co-workers, Carl Carlson and Lenny Leonard, who actually came out as a gay couple. There's even a full-fledged sex scene in one of the chapters with them — but their role in Act 1 is rather limited. In the beginning of the story, there are three to four chapters showing police chief Clancy releasing Robert Terwilliger, most known as Sideshow Bob, from prison. He does not make any notable appearances in this Act.
Back to the present, it's revealed that in two weeks, there will be a party held for Apu and Manjula's children, the Octuplets. This leads to another argument between Marge and Homer, when he notices she spent a horrendous amount of money (from Lisa's bank account) on the presents, something she never did on their home. This would also cause Lisa, aware of the situation going on between her parents, to advise her mom to seek divorce.
Another series of events occur here; this story, Act 1 in particular, has the POVs of many, many characters, most of which make appearances later on. One of them is Bart's first childhood crush Laura Powers, who visits with her mother (and Bart and Lisa's teachers) Ruth Powers. A common theme in this story is the occasional appearances of other minor characters in the protagonists' point of view, even if briefly. Generally, these characters would appear later on, either in a more major role or in their usual minor roles. One of this happens to be the Simpsons' next-door neighbor, Ned Flanders, whose lack of appearances in the story is explained by Homer in another chapter; two years prior to the story's events, his two children went to study in another state and moved away, and so did he. Marked for sale this whole time, he ends up receiving an offscreen proposition from Collin's father to buy the house, which he accepts, and returns to Springfield for about two months to assure the sale goes smoothly and that the house is in perfect condition. After hearing of this, Homer goes livid.
Meg also makes another appearance in the story, after videocalling her entire family (although she remains displeased at them, especially Homer). A few things have changed since she left; classes haven't started yet, but she's met a young girl named Lexanna (the Brazilian equivalent of Leshawna), and also had an unfortunate encounter with her nemesis, Gerald Samson, who turns out is also going to the same place. In the end, the only person she really wanted to talk to was Lisa, who had her own plans. Earlier on, she had called Milhouse asked for his help — something which helps him keep busy for the rest of Act 1 —, instructed Bart to block Cristianne on social media, and had told Claire she was thinking of doing something big, almost biblical — and she'd need her help, even if she didn't want to believe in her. Lisa was already plotting her revenge. It's worth noting that while Cristianne had some reservations about Lisa, and even admitted to herself that her friendship with Lisa was only because she wanted to be with her brother Bart, she didn't hate her. She thought Lisa was a good friend, and even thought she deserved someone better than her. But at that point, it was too late for Lisa to turn back.
A couple of days later, Meg is given permission to go back home by the military school's director: a tall, muscular guy named Boll (a subtle reference to then Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro). Meg appreciates the return home, realizing she did miss her family after all (although she continued to ignore Homer and not show many signs of this), being informed by Lisa of her latest plan. It was Saturday. This is where it began, on the day of the octuplets' birthday. Lisa went to Cristianne's home, much earlier than she'd anticipated, and the two decided to watch the streaming series "Queen" (a nod to TV series The Crown) in her living room. Meg, using her newly acquired military abilities, would climb onto Cristianne's room, where she would stick a flash drive in Cristianne's prized MacBook, climbing down shortly after. Inside the flash drive was a program that can be best described by Bill, a friend of Milhouse's, who designed it:
He created a system as quickly as possible and put it on a USB stick. This, in turn, would open a direct and - unfortunately - weak connection between the device to be broken into and his own personal computer. In other words, if at any point he — or she, he didn't fully understand — arrived in the room and unplugged the device before the files were 100% through, all progress would be lost and the mission would fail.
Bill certainly wasn't a black hat, since even the simplest of infiltrations, that of just copying the files and sending them to another device, took a lot of work.from Chapter 62, "The hacker's help"
Bill later sent Milhouse three folders: one containing video and audio files, one containing a backup of all her messages, and one containing a series of pictures. It is at this point that he also had a glimpse of what Lisa saw that fateful day. She'd told Bart about it, too; he was so distraught that he couldn't react properly, but went along with what she wanted to accomplish. Later, when he ran into Cristianne at the party, he asked her to go out with him, right there, right then; she happily accepted. The party was held in the gymnasium of the Springfield Elementary School, which was a large enough place for everyone to gather. Aware that a movie (specifically The Itchy & Scratchy Movie) was being exhibited there that night, Lisa asked Manjula if she could borrow the screen for a moment, which she did. And so, everyone in the party (besides the children, who were kept away from the screening by Meg) watched the exposé.
An angry, outraged Cristianne tried to attack Lisa, but was unable to do so, being slapped by her instead and falling to the floor, running away to her home instead. Bart, seeing the surrounding confusion, tried to make amends with Claire, who told Bart that despite everything, Bart never considered her a friend; she was only there to satisfy him, and their relationship wasn't healthy. This would officially mark the end of their relationship. When Sunday came, Marge received a call from a Ruth, her two oldest children's teacher, and gathered the entire family on their living room to tell them something. Cristianne was dead. She'd stabbed herself the night before, and her mother, Lenna, discovered it the next day. They were devastated. Homer, understanding the situation, expressed to his kids that Cristianne did not deserve to be mourned, that what they did was right, and that by killing herself, she proved she never deserved to live. Springfield's reaction to Cristianne's death was mixed; although mourned by her (former?) friends, and her death leading to Milhouse quit self-harming altogether, others did not react so well to it. Ned, for example, was horrified to see that Reverend Timothy Lovejoy refused to eulogize or even acknowledge her, leaving him to console her mother, Lenna, all by himself.
Act 1 ends with Gerald Samson, still in the Jefferson City military school, wandering to a wooded area nearby and talking to the "Boss" — a tall, big-footed, almost superhuman, mysterious figure who has given him a mission he must follow, "or else".
Act 2
Act 2 starts with Bart and Lisa playing chess, seven months after the events of Act 1 and the death of Cristianne — who ended up forgotten. She's barely mentioned in the story after this, a common occurence with past and future dead characters. This is a particular characteristic of Brendon, who seems notorious for killing many characters in his stories — such as in his original story "In the assassin's shadow" (Na sombra do assassino, 2018), where half of the story's cast of characters ended up dead. In No More Simpsons this does not occur, but he is much more creative in this Act.
In this Act, two characters are introduced. One is Professor John Frink, albeit not the one in the show — it's actually his son, John Frink Jr.; the original Frink reportedly was eaten by a shark while working on a blood-based sunscreen lotion. Frink Jr. has a son, John Frink Junior Junior — though he is frequently called "Grandson" —, who can be best described as a deeply curious Ritalin kid. His POVs are very interesting because he has a tendency to repeat himself very often, especially when it comes to separating himself from his father, Frink Jr. For example:
The car continued for 500 meters, until it reached the SBRC — Squabbletown Biochemical Research Center. Squabbletown, by the way, was the town where he, Frink — not him, because that would be redundant, but his father — and Mrs. Frink — Frink's wife — lived (Frink his father, not John Frink Junior Junior/John Frink Grandson [especially since he was only 13 years, 3 months and 17 days old {who knows if it was still the Middle Ages}]).from Chapter 77, "Floorplan"
These two will be more relevant later on. In the meantime, Ned has been getting along with Lenna, the mother of the deceased Cristianne, and has been living in his old house (alongside his two children) since then. For reasons not explained in the story, Collin's move to Springfield was delayed. In Act 1, Collin's father, Mr. Manbre, had been recently fired, and getting in touch with some of his (virtual) friends from Springfield led him to discover some insider information: Smithers, now head of the power plant, would repeal and replace 40% of all factory workers with more efficient ones, meaning there would be a job opportunity for him (see chapter 44, "Good news").
Among the houses he's considering buying is the old Flanders house at 744 Evergreen Terrace, and he tells Collin they would start moving right at the start of December; however, the move does not immediately happen, and only seven months later we hear from Flanders that the Manbres' furniture would arrive in a week, although the family only would arrive at the end of the month. It's possible that Flanders requested to Collin's father (Mr. Manbre) for more time to make sure the house was in good condition, or other events in the Manbre family prevented an immediate move. And Ned, now too interested in Lenna, agreed to move his two sons into her house, as there was enough room for all four.
Around this time, Bart found out about Milhouse's self-harm scars while showering in the school gym's bathrooms. (Afraid of being noticed by him, he distracts him by going to third base with him.) He later informed Lisa of this, shocking her — although she suspected Milhouse had undiagnosed depression, she did not imagine he was cutting himself, and the two agree to take a look at this issue. Meanwhile, in Jefferson City, Meg and Lexanna are getting along with each other and attempting to avoid Gerald Samson. However, one day Director Boll gathered the student body to inform them of a grave transgression: one of the laptops in the computer lab was stolen. After a few hours of searching their dorms, Boll informed everyone they found the laptop — in Meg's room, and she's called to his office. Lexanna, knowing she couldn't have done it, told her that she would find the real culprit.
In Springfield, Flanders took Lenna and his two sons to a restaurant to eat a fairly standard Brazilian plate: rice, beans, chicken and salad. His intentions were to tell them that he and Lenna were officially dating, but also that he was gonna make sure both boys would be transferred to Springfield schools, as he would be staying for good. His oldest son, Rod Flanders, disagreed with the latter; up until then he was living in Worecester, Massachusetts, where all his friends where, and, skeptical of living under his much more religious father, lashed out at him. He was, quite frankly, tired; his father, besides being hyperreligious, was also overprotective. Ned didn't know that Rod had a girlfriend, that Rod had sex, that Rod was not the perfect angel he thought he was. Lashing out at him, Rod left the restaurant shortly after. At home, the two however would make peace, especially after Ned realized he was creating mini-Neds instead of letting his sons be themselves.
Super Secret Agent Lexanna, after asking questions to Quimberly Hills, a teacher of theirs', discovered the laptop was found under Meg's bed, and that the window in her room was open. In Director Boll's room, Meg is left off with a very stern warning; although Boll informed her that she came from a troubled family (and not in the conventional sense), her in-school behavior combined with words of approval from her friend Lexanna made him go for a lesser punishment. She was prevented from using the school's computer labs until the end of the semester — four months from that day. After a bit more investigating, Lexanna confronted Gerald on his home. The day before the laptop ordeal, Gerald had visited Meg's house to annoy them, and Lexanna explained that, with his hands around his back and himself slumped near the window frame, only he could have done it. Surprisingly, he admits it was him — but is even more surprised after finding out Lexanna also saw one of his emails on the computer lab, all of them directed to "Boss" at the catchy email totally.ano@nymous.com. It was at this moment that Samson threatened to, in case she revealed it was him, to leak a secret of hers to her religious family, but also the school officials: she was lesbian.
This is still a work in progress. I might finish this someday. Maybe.