News - 12/3/09

The first legitimate chapter of Blood and Gold is on its way. I'd say it's about half done, most of that coming in the last few days. I expect to have it up this weekend, once I get to sit down and write it. I had a lot of ideas, then had to backtrack. I know the gist of the story, but just having a hard time establishing a starting point to pick up the pace from. Once I get the first chapter or two done, I imagine it will run much smoother.

Author Profile

I started writing fan-fiction when I was really little, and honestly it's one of the things that got me into writing and reading in the first place. I always imagined little stories about different characters from random games. From Mario to Final Fantasy VII, I was constantly trying to take the characters I loved and make them do more. Well, here I am, so many years later, and I'm still into it.

But, let it be known, I look at fan-fiction as a tool, and I will treat it as such. I know that the first stuff you write is not supposed to be amazing. I have a few original stories I want to write and maybe get published one day, but I want to find my own style and trudge through my phases of "bad writing" before I get there. So, everything I do here is experimental. I'm trying to find out how I write now so I can do it later. And I can't make any guarantee as for how frequent the updates will be. It's all dependent on how much free time I have. Real life will always come first, sad as that may be at times.

Currently Working On

I'm at the mercy of my muse. She's fickle, and she brings me across fandoms more than I'd like to admit. Who knows what will work out in the end, but here's what I can share at the moment.

Currently, my main focus is Blood and Gold, a Zelda fic that I hope turns out quite epic. I know the general progression of the plot, including the beginning, middle, and the end, but I haven't drove myself mad with details since there's simply so much I want to put into it, from odd plot strings that really pick at the nature of what it means to be the Hero or a Triforce Bearer to the myriad of awesome characters within it. Though it will seem AU at first, I promise toward the end of the first arc (of which there is three), the relevance of the story in regard to the rest of the series will begin to make sense.

The other story I'm working on is a Final Fantasy VII novelization, though that's been cooking for years now. I finally got a decent start at it, but some days it comes easier to me than others. It's in a state of flux at the moment.

On Canon

This section is going to be devoted to some explanation on canon in regard to the stories I post. Many series have an "official" canon that may or may not be clear. More or less, this will be where I clear up my interpretations of the source material so you can get where I'm coming from with my stories. Obviously, there will be spoilers.

My Zelda Timeline

A hotly debated issue within the Zelda community is the official chronology (or "timeline," thanks to Ocarina of Time's ending) of the series. There have been several statements from different people involved with the series, most of which contradict with each other and with the games themselves. It's obvious (and even stated at one point, I believe) that the games are made with gameplay in mind first, then the game's story, and finally the game's overall placement coming in last.

So, more or less, here is the timeline I'm using: TMC --> OoT, which ends in a split timeline. From the adult ending, TWW --> PH --> ST follow. From the child ending, MM --> TP --> FS --> FSA --> ALttP --> LA --> LoZ --> AoL --> OoX.

Why? Well that's a complicated question, and while I had an equally complicated and long-winded answer to give you, I'm opting to be more simple about it. So, here goes.

TMC is an origin story of many sorts, in my opinion, from the origin of Link's hat to the origin of monsters and the explanation of why so many items are hidden in bushes and such, not to mention the lack of the Triforce and Ganon entirely, so I put that first. OoT is obvious, I should think, because that really is the beginning of the whole Link/Zelda/Ganon plotline. After OoT, there's the split, of course, with TWW and its two sequels, PH and ST following the adult timeline. Everything else I put in the child timeline, because, more or less, they relate to Ganon or are direct sequels/prequels relating to Heroes that fought Ganon. I think it's painfully obvious that the adult timeline, at least for the moment, is Ganon-free, since those games are dealing with wildly different enemies and scenarios now.

For some of the trickier placements (read: the spin-offs/older games) FS and FSA involve the same Link, in my opinion, and FSA explains the origins/rebirth/whatever of the "new" Ganon that appears in ALttP and onward. I feel these should be in the child timeline also because of TP's foreshadowing of, or linking to, ALttP. I place the Oracle games last because they require a dead Ganon as well as a Link and Zelda that are not familiar with each other, and after AoL, he's been dead for at least two games.

Honestly, the entire timeline from FS onward is kinda up in the air on the child timeline, but I feel the adult timeline is really free of Ganondorf. Just look at his last lines in TWW. He seems to accept that the Hyrule he envied is pretty much lost, and its time, as well as his, are up. Meanwhile, the TP Ganondorf very obviously states that it isn't over. Plus, the Ganon that's being revived by Twinrova (who is dead in the adult timeline, mind you) in the Oracle games seems very much like the one in the other 2D games, so yeah, I think they should be in the child timeline.

I'm not claiming this to be fact, but hopefully it gives you some perspective on the angle I'm writing from. Who knows how else they plan to mix-match the story in the coming years.