Well. It’s been quite a ride, hasn’t it?

“Power comes at a cost.” I swear if I see that sentence one more time I’m going to Mamlukify someone.

I don’t want this afterword to go on too long. Just enough to say thanks and to ask for opinions on certain issues now that you can look back on the story as a whole.

Thanks

A very big thanks to everyone who has shown interest in this story. I wouldn’t have gotten through it if I didn’t know people were actually reading it and wanted more. Since I first starting planning crappy fiction in primary school, I have never finished a story longer than 40 pages. I always left off in the beginning or in the middle, having lost interest or brainpower to keep going. Antiphony is a milestone for me not just as an aspiring writer but as a person. It helped me conquer my fear of being uncommitted and half-assed at everything I do. And readers are such a big part of keeping a writer going.

Thanks to everyone who’s reviewed and told me their thoughts. Too many names to mention here, but those of you who have been reading since April or May 2007 are especially awesome for staying with the story and sending me so much encouragement.

Thanks to Katie Ann, demonegg, Geniusgirl, and Mengde for reading over my writing and helping me edit and revise!

Special Thanks

Demonegg. There’s a reason she’s actually a character in Outtakes. She is the savior of the M/J pairing in this story. She started reading Antiphony on the Library of Agrabah and eventually we started emailing each other in April. In one email, I said this:

“I know you like M/J, but can you actually see a believable scenario where they would be together? I can’t…”

She responded with a truly epic email with one central paragraph the size of a short story, detailing how she could indeed see Mozenrath and Jasmine together in a believable way, trying to save the pairing from my bipolarism toward M/J and A/J. Needless to say she convinced me. We talked for a while and soon I forgot (as Katie Ann will testify) that I ever found M/J to be unrealistic. So. More reason to go read demonegg’s writing now! Of course, it’s M/J.

The Beginning

For anyone who’s curious, when I started off Antiphony I had a very different vision for it. I had just gotten back into the Aladdin fandom on a whim after not watching the series for almost 10 years. I wanted to write an M/J pairing as a challenge, because I was disappointed by the lack of quality M/J fics out there. I also wanted to see if I could write a non-canon pairing realistically as a challenge to myself. Could I keep the characters’ original personalities intact, put them in situations that tested them and stretched them thin while pushing them closer together? Could I do that with arch enemies, like Mozenrath and Jasmine?

The pairing took on its own charm as I wrote the first few chapters. I had originally planned the story to have a much smaller scope. Most of it was going to be dialogue between Mozenrath and Jasmine, and the latter would fall into obsession, but not through a mirror. I had planned for Mozenrath himself to narrate his past to Jasmine. The conceived ending was radically different and lacked closure. Thus, I stopped writing for several months in 2007, not sure where the story was heading. I didn’t want it to disintegrate into meaningless and repetitive banter.

I came to China last September, and the change in environment provided new inspiration for me to continue. I started to elaborate on the themes a lot more, themes that were too slippery for me when I first began writing the story. Since then I think I have updated at least once every month. I am being totally honest when I say it sucked a whole lot out of my personal life. Good thing I wasn’t taking courses for credit this year.

The Themes

Here is where I would like your feedback. I know that many of you have already responded with your own thoughts about themes as they have developed. But it’s different analyzing a theme when a new chapter has just been posted, as opposed to analyzing a finished story as a whole. If you get the chance, I would like to hear from you about the more prominent (or unnoticed!) themes and how well they are woven throughout the story.

I admit I am a helpless M/J fangirl (though the A/J remnant in me twitches at times), and this story has generated a lot more fanshipping than I imagined. While it’s been really fun, I kind of feel sad that it may have taken away from the seriousness of the story and my goals as a writer.

I always try to write meaningfully. Plots and characters are only devices to communicate greater ideas, morals, ideals, personal experiences, feelings, etc. Of these I can identify several that I really hope have made people think.

-The nature of power. What exactly is it, how is it used, how does one come to obtain it, how does one deal with the great responsibility that comes with it, and is power itself a neutral force? I have repeated throughout the story that it comes at a cost, but is that really true? What do you think?

-The nature of evil. While planning the Mirror chapters, I had this question constantly in my mind. What makes a person evil? Certainly most people who are evil don’t consider themselves evil or at least don’t see anything wrong with themselves. I could only think of these clichéd ways of turning evil – a history of being downtrodden and abused and oppressed (conventional Mozenrath fanfiction), being plain crazy (Destane), having good intentions but choosing the wrong way of accomplishing one’s goals, and being hell-bent on revenge (kind of Antiphony Mozenrath). I wanted to show Mozenrath’s slow but sure “fall” in a realistic way that elicited sympathy but at the same time judgment. He made his own choices. He wasn’t purely a victim of abuse and evil, he was an agent of wrongdoing himself. I really started on the development of his dark side in Chapter 15 where he almost kills his best friend. I also hope that this wasn’t too cliché in the sense that he went from “light” to “darkness.”

-Compassion. While Mozenrath is evil, Jasmine still longs to see something good in him. She starts off on a quest to defeat him, but ends up trying to help him instead. And despite how far he has fallen (or walked, rather) Mozenrath also has a bit of compassion left in him, mostly because of his memories of Raniye.

-Freedom. This is elaborated on more in the side stories about Mozenrath and Raniye. What does it mean to be free, does this come at a cost just like power supposedly does, and what is one willing to do to obtain it? None of the characters in the story are truly free; all of them are chained in some way. Jasmine by her status as a woman and her obligations to her kingdom vs. her love for the enemy, Mozenrath by his initial desire for revenge and later the gauntlet, Aladdin by his social status and limited experience with political affairs, Xerxes/Raniye/Laila by power politics and an evil madman, etc. etc. Even the minor characters – all the people in Xerxes’ city after the revolt, Aladdin’s inability to save the prostitute he loved... I would love to see more exploration and thoughts on this.

-Trust. As one of the words in the magical book, Jasmine quite literally had to face this theme head-on and come to grips with it. Early on in the story she and Mozenrath talk about trust. She comes to realize that her whole obsession with beating him stems from her trust that he is telling the truth about taking over everything. She trusts her enemy more than the people she loves. This is one pitfall that leads her into obsession quite quickly. Mozenrath on the other hand has to concede that he trusts her as well. He really was making a gamble with his bluff. Trust goes through inversions in this story. Jasmine’s trust in Aladdin is tested, because she realizes that she didn’t really have a choice but to trust him on the first day she met him, and then the first few days of their budding relationship consisted of him weaving a big lie about being a prince. Her perception and trust in reality is also warped through the Mirror and Morbia, where she doubts reality itself. Finally, her trust in herself is tested through everything that happens to her. Does she still think she will make a capable ruler? A faithful spouse (uh, no)? Yet in the end this theme returns with her trust in Mozenrath’s ability to make the right choice for himself, and in Fashir’s vision for them both.

-Forgiveness. I started off with Jasmine as a rather unforgiving character. She goes by a strict moral code and is pretty judgmental, even of Aladdin and her father whom she loves. She judges everyone by her high standards and perfectionism, and is made insecure by Mozenrath, who is smarter and more experienced than her in the ways of life and politics. She refuses to forgive Raeven and pays a price for that. She also has trouble forgiving Aladdin for keeping a secret about his past from her, though the scene on the magic carpet reconciles that. In the end, she must realize that while other people need forgiveness from her (namely Mozenrath), she is also in need of forgiveness. At the end of Chapter 22, her thoughts about Raniye serve to turn her perspective around. Raniye is a foil to Jasmine in a lot of ways. Gentle, tolerant, and forgiving while Jasmine is often stubborn and unforgiving. Raniye challenges Jasmine to change, as the latter realizes how the Chyrilian princess means so much to Mozenrath, even long after she died.

-Love. Of course. This is a theme in so many stories, I was hesitant to emphasize it to the degree that I did in Antiphony. But I hope that in the end it was not hackneyed or stale. I think Jasmine’s thoughts already sum up the importance of this theme. Heck, the Prohibitionary Theory book summed it up pretty well. Love is powerful. More powerful than hate and death. The Aladdin movie showed it is more powerful than social conventions and laws. I hope that this story shows that it is more powerful than evil and tragedy. Even at the end when Jasmine leaves, she still has hope in her love for Mozenrath, despite the fact that it’s forbidden and landed her in an impossible situation.

Okay, that’s enough expulsion of gray matter from my brain for now. Please, if you find any of the above ideas intriguing, if they inspired new thoughts or perspectives, let me know. Let everyone else know too, I do have a forum for these things. This is what I love about fanfiction – the universe already exists and thus facilitates communication and common understanding between fans. And as I said, my highest goal as a writer is to make people think, and rethink what they already know and believe. I sure rethought a lot of my own life and beliefs through writing Antiphony.

The Sequel

Well, this is probably what all of you are reading this afterword for.

I’ve decided on the title already – The Height of Faith.

I have a general outline, meaning a beginning, middle, and end. I have written several snippets of chapters and have decided on major themes.

It will be narrated from four points of view, finally liberating me from the pain of writing over-angsty, over-paranoid, over-thinking Jasmine alone. As you may have guessed, the four main characters will be Jasmine, Aladdin, Mozenrath, and…Sadira! Surprise? She doesn’t show up in Antiphony at all, but she will have a major part to play in the sequel!

However, it will probably be a while before I post anything from the sequel. Put me on your author alerts to find out when I do. I have abandoned Consacra, my DBZ epic, for way too long now in favor of Antiphony, and in many ways I think that is a deeper and more challenging story than what I have been writing in the Aladdin fandom. I will go back to it and hopefully finish it within a year. I will probably write The Height of Faith simultaneously, but give more attention to Consacra.

I would love to hear your thoughts about what you imagine or want to see happen in the sequel (other than a M/J reunion).

In the meantime, I will continue writing Antiphony: Outtakes, Circum, and one-shots or more drabbles about Mozenrath, Raniye, and perhaps even Jasmine and Aladdin (non Antiphony-related).

Well, I could rave all night, but I’ve got a story to write. (please tell me you know this quote)

Thank you again and I look forward to hearing from you!

P.S. Songs that inspired me in some way – I’m curious as to whether they remind you of the same story elements that they reminded me of.

OneRepublic ft. Timbaland – Apologize

Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah

Jars of Clay – Work

Dream Theater – In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 2

Elfen Lied – Lilium

Aladdin – A Whole New World (duh)

Nancy Ajram – Enta Eih (thanks to Geniusgirl for this one)

Googoo Dolls – Iris