Afterwards

Someone once asked me exactly what an "afterwards" section of a story is. I told her that the "afterwards" section is the section after a story that contains the bullshit of the author about how he or she made this story and whatnot, and that no one bothers reading it. But let's put that aside, and get to the real rant. Here we go.

Good Lord, I don't think I want to do a fan fiction this long, ever again. Hundreds of pages…it must be five, six times larger than anything I have ever written before. Back before I wrote Phoenix, most of my stories were averaged at one hundred and ten pages. This? Ha. This is the longest, and I don't aim to break my own record for a very long time. Maybe never. But who knows?

While I was writing Phoenix, I was getting a lot of questions as in concern of the plot. I started writing this when the Japanese version of Megaman Zero 2 came out, and people were wondering, "How the hell did this guy place everything logically, according to the game?" Well, there are a few loose ends that I missed, but there were some things I improvised. In the initial "storyboard" I wrote, I wanted Vincent to kill Jerome Jacob. But then, I realized that the creator of the Dark Elf, Dr. Wiel, would make an appearance in Megaman Zero 3, so I decided to have the name Jerome Jacob as an alias for this Dr. Wiel, and he would need to re-surface in Megaman Zero 3. And I also interpreted the Elf Wars rather sloppily. But I was lucky; Phoenix struck me like a thunderbolt, fully-formed. Then again…I had expected it only to be a hundred pages or so. Can you guys imagine this story minimized to only one hundred or so pages?

Giordano Mendel has ties to some of the storyline that I've plotted so far, but I can't reveal that much yet. He was someone I kept having in mind, but never getting around to write much about him. I thought, hell, I'm writing Phoenix anyways so I might as well throw him in. So what I lacked was a name. Giordano was the brand of one of my sweaters. As for Mendel, well, I kind of thought that one up, although I do think Mendel isn't a very uncommon name. As GattlingGunMan/Meiousei/F-Reaver Type II puts it, "his last name kills me". So as much as the epilogue lacks in explanation, we now know he isn't normal. Since we all now know that Lance is a Zero Clone, I'm also anticipating for him to show up once more in some future Megaman fan fiction. But we won't know for sure.

Exactly what were my goals in this endeavor? Well, I had a few in mind when I started. One of them is to finish it. Those who know me very well know that I hardly finish what I write. Something better always pops up, and I always toss one aside, and after several months, its in my recycling bin, bye-bye, you've been purged. I'm lucky that Phoenix struck me like a thunderbolt; it allowed me to write faster and get to "the point of no return" fast enough.

The second goal was to set a certain standard in terms of Megaman fan fiction. Finding good writers online are hard enough these days; you can imagine how hard it is to find a good Megaman fan fiction. I mentioned to a friend of mine once that I was writing fan fiction on Megaman. She laughed; she knew I loved to write, but she didn't understand why I would write a fan fiction on Megaman. "Someone of your caliber should've done Final Fantasy," she said.

I replied, rather simply, "My reasons of doing Megaman is because there are too many writers that want to write Final Fantasy, enough good writers writing Final Fantasy, enough bad writers writing Final Fantasy, not enough room for further development for an excellent fan fiction, and too much stories that are written for the sake of getting the male protagonist and the female protagonist in bed."

The third goal was to try to write a fan fiction in the form of a "what if the Zero in Megaman Zero was not the real Zero". This was before Megaman Zero 3, so I had no idea that it would be compatible by such a degree (I nearly pissed my pants when I discovered that Zero's body was a fake, realizing how well it matched with Phoenix) Hell, even I didn't expect it to turn out like this. On the second thought, maybe I should've written this as the first goal instead of the third. But I don't like taking back what I've written, so I'll leave it as it is.

And to conclude everything, thanks go a lot of people's way for a five-hundred-something long story, so let's dish out the thanks, and not be greedy.

First off, GattlingGunMan/Meiousei/F-Reaver Type-II is definitely high on my list of thanks. He gave me helpful feedback, helped me maneuver around writer's blocks, allowed me to use Fireside as a character, talked trash with me every time we met on AIM, and urged me every three days or so to post the next chapter of Phoenix within a reasonable amount of time before he nukes China. Thank you very much, Gats.

Thanks also goes /LeChevalier's way. Like Gats, he gave me an endless amount of feedback and critique, compared storylines with me, helped with a lot of proofreading, and pointed out a lot of stuff even I didn't think about. I don't think the second half of Phoenix would've read this way without his help. Thank you very much, .

FanFicGuru also deserves some credit for allowing me to use his character Mithrandiel, and giving me feedback as well (although he disappeared some time later to a location unknown; where the hell are you, Snow?).

Starglo also helped me to handle a lot of writer's blocks here and there around the first half of Megaman Phoenix, and I don't think I can ever find a better poet out there that can help me out with writer's blocks.

Of course, I'd also have to add Eric Chen/Unlocated334 into the list. I'd email my chapters to him every time I was finished with it, and he gave me some helpful feedback. Naturally, he also talked trash with me, and told me how un-anime-like it was. He also helped me in writing Chapter Fifty-Three. But mostly, his critique was useful, and he never complained about me nagging at him for a reply…well, hardly ever complained.

Thanks to Phantom Kensai. Faithfully reviewing Megaman Phoenix every time I posted an update, he always managed to bring some laughs by comparing Phoenix to Gundam Seed. Thank, and damn, you, Phantom Kensai. (And thus, I run off laughing as Phantom Kensai chases me with a sword.)

I express my gratitude also to Rioni Riishu. Like Phantom Kensai, she managed to read through the first nineteen chapters at lightning speed, and gave me a shower of reviews to keep me going.

Another remarkable reader on is Uzu-Chan, who, like so many other of my readers, gave me a plethora of comments and reviews, following each chapter and posting her thoughts.

Thanks to everyone else I didn't mention; you all know who you are.

Thank you very much. It was my pleasure writing Megaman Phoenix.