"Starchild" Notes
Oct. 10th, 2011 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelAll right. With "Starchild" just about done, I feel comfortable posting notes-- but not the ones I wrote up this summer and accidentally cut-n-pasted into oblivion. That was a kind of index of real-life space history figures and technological terms with some pointers as to how they tied into the 'fic (ex: the Saturn V rocket is the analogue to the Ashera rocket, Grigory Nelyubov was the inspiration for the "disappeared" Tear Ring Saga characters).
I used to write exhaustive notes for all my 'fics, in part because I enjoyed writing them so damn much. I enjoyed writing this one, so let's have some real notes.
Q: "Starchild": What the hell is this thing?
A: Fire Emblem meets the Space Race, a mash-up of all current FE worlds pitting humans vs dragons and laguz in a race to the moon.
Q: Why?
A: Well, as I explained here, this started as a Fire Emblem/Neon Genesis Evangelion fusion, but the EVA component was so frustrating I drop-kicked that part of it and went with what I actually know about, which is the US and the USSR in the 1960s.
Q: No, really. Why?
A: I wanted to put Ephraim in a flight jacket! Rockets are sexy! I really wanted to write that EVA 'fic but couldn't figure out how to approach it. Throwing FE protagonists together and forcing them to cooperate (or not) is something I do for fun. I wanted something that would deal with what I consider to be essential themes of the FE franchise without the sword'n'sorcery aspect.
Q: Why's Eirika the main character? Eirika is boring.
A: She's the main character because she's boring. No, seriously. Eirika strikes me as perceptive and even-tempered enough to be an observant POV character, passive enough to not be a disruptive one, naive enough to not be immediately suspicious and/or rebellious, and emotionally strong enough to take the plot twists and keep on flying.
Q: I like Ephraim, and he disappeared halfway through. That was a bait-and-switch.
A: Sorry. I adore Eph, but he was always gonna get kicked to the curb in the storyline-- even when it was an EVA fusion.
Q: I like Hector and you killed him halfway through.
A: Yeah, about that... the characters that got offed (Sigurd, Hector, and Athos) are ones that die in game canon. I was trying to stay faithful to Fire Emblem in my own weird way. So, Sigurd isn't just the Dead Guy because I was trying to evoke the morale-destroying horror of Soyuz 1, he's dead because he's FE canon's official Dead Hero. So, yes, Hector went splat.
For the same reason, Marth ended up being the actual main character, because if you're going to pick the Fire Emblem equivalent of Yuri Gagarin plus Neil Armstrong with sprinkles on top, he's it. Doesn't matter if you like him or not, he's still the franchise poster boy.
Q: Who are those guys in the doctored photographs?
A: Holmes and Runan, the guys from Tear Ring Saga. It was originally conceived as a game taking place on the same planet as Archanea, Valencia, and Jugdral, during the time that FE1 takes place.
Q: What's this Lieberia stuff?
A: Continent from Tear Ring Saga. That's why it's on the planet Terra, but outside the superpower conflict of the United Free Nations/Loptos Empire.
Q: The Loptos Empire are the bad guys. Why are all the laguz allied with evil?
A: I dunno about that. You're seeing things from the perspective of a fairly patriotic human, it should be evident the humans are up to a whole lot of no good, and the human nations are the ones modeled on the USSR-- the "evil empire" from a Western perspective.
Q: But Sephiran was the cause of all the evil things in the human government.
A: Nope. Not that simple. Even Eirika can see through the propaganda barrage.
Q: Are the human nations communist?
A: Yes.
Q: Is Roy actually Eliwood's son in this?
A: Yes.
Q: @#$%!!!
A: :D
Q: But Lyn is pregnant with Eliwood's baby... which would be Roy. Two Roys?
A: She and Hector were an item before his untimely demise, and that's all I'll say there.
Q: Who are the Chief Designers?
A: Gotoh, or G, is in charge of the Human Spaceflight Programme. Marth is his protege. Athos (A) was the head of the unmanned scientific program, and he tutored Roy. Soren (S) is the one obsessed with ballistic missiles. His involvement in the HSF is unknown, as his official position on it is a total lack of interest. Though Micaiah seems to have been up to something sketchy that may or may not have ended when Sephiran was forced from power...
Q: And what do these guys want? What's with grave-robbing on the moon? What's with the city on the moon? And the green glass? And the Fire Emblem? And....?
A: Ah, we'll talk about that later.
Q: @#$%!!!
A: :D
I used to write exhaustive notes for all my 'fics, in part because I enjoyed writing them so damn much. I enjoyed writing this one, so let's have some real notes.
Q: "Starchild": What the hell is this thing?
A: Fire Emblem meets the Space Race, a mash-up of all current FE worlds pitting humans vs dragons and laguz in a race to the moon.
Q: Why?
A: Well, as I explained here, this started as a Fire Emblem/Neon Genesis Evangelion fusion, but the EVA component was so frustrating I drop-kicked that part of it and went with what I actually know about, which is the US and the USSR in the 1960s.
Q: No, really. Why?
A: I wanted to put Ephraim in a flight jacket! Rockets are sexy! I really wanted to write that EVA 'fic but couldn't figure out how to approach it. Throwing FE protagonists together and forcing them to cooperate (or not) is something I do for fun. I wanted something that would deal with what I consider to be essential themes of the FE franchise without the sword'n'sorcery aspect.
Q: Why's Eirika the main character? Eirika is boring.
A: She's the main character because she's boring. No, seriously. Eirika strikes me as perceptive and even-tempered enough to be an observant POV character, passive enough to not be a disruptive one, naive enough to not be immediately suspicious and/or rebellious, and emotionally strong enough to take the plot twists and keep on flying.
Q: I like Ephraim, and he disappeared halfway through. That was a bait-and-switch.
A: Sorry. I adore Eph, but he was always gonna get kicked to the curb in the storyline-- even when it was an EVA fusion.
Q: I like Hector and you killed him halfway through.
A: Yeah, about that... the characters that got offed (Sigurd, Hector, and Athos) are ones that die in game canon. I was trying to stay faithful to Fire Emblem in my own weird way. So, Sigurd isn't just the Dead Guy because I was trying to evoke the morale-destroying horror of Soyuz 1, he's dead because he's FE canon's official Dead Hero. So, yes, Hector went splat.
For the same reason, Marth ended up being the actual main character, because if you're going to pick the Fire Emblem equivalent of Yuri Gagarin plus Neil Armstrong with sprinkles on top, he's it. Doesn't matter if you like him or not, he's still the franchise poster boy.
Q: Who are those guys in the doctored photographs?
A: Holmes and Runan, the guys from Tear Ring Saga. It was originally conceived as a game taking place on the same planet as Archanea, Valencia, and Jugdral, during the time that FE1 takes place.
Q: What's this Lieberia stuff?
A: Continent from Tear Ring Saga. That's why it's on the planet Terra, but outside the superpower conflict of the United Free Nations/Loptos Empire.
Q: The Loptos Empire are the bad guys. Why are all the laguz allied with evil?
A: I dunno about that. You're seeing things from the perspective of a fairly patriotic human, it should be evident the humans are up to a whole lot of no good, and the human nations are the ones modeled on the USSR-- the "evil empire" from a Western perspective.
Q: But Sephiran was the cause of all the evil things in the human government.
A: Nope. Not that simple. Even Eirika can see through the propaganda barrage.
Q: Are the human nations communist?
A: Yes.
Q: Is Roy actually Eliwood's son in this?
A: Yes.
Q: @#$%!!!
A: :D
Q: But Lyn is pregnant with Eliwood's baby... which would be Roy. Two Roys?
A: She and Hector were an item before his untimely demise, and that's all I'll say there.
Q: Who are the Chief Designers?
A: Gotoh, or G, is in charge of the Human Spaceflight Programme. Marth is his protege. Athos (A) was the head of the unmanned scientific program, and he tutored Roy. Soren (S) is the one obsessed with ballistic missiles. His involvement in the HSF is unknown, as his official position on it is a total lack of interest. Though Micaiah seems to have been up to something sketchy that may or may not have ended when Sephiran was forced from power...
Q: And what do these guys want? What's with grave-robbing on the moon? What's with the city on the moon? And the green glass? And the Fire Emblem? And....?
A: Ah, we'll talk about that later.
Q: @#$%!!!
A: :D
