General Info

Name: Sylvan

Personal Quote: "I want to be the Rennaissance Man... wait!"

Gender: Female

Age: 20

Profession: Foreign Language Major/Aspiring Writer (read: really broke student)

Hobbies: Reading, writing, RPGs, Middle Eastern dance, drawing

Interests: Foreign language (fluent in Spanish, conversant in Japanese, horrible in Hungarian), Celtic mythology, JRR Tolkien, Asian film

AIM: sylvanelfgrl

Xanga: www.xanga.com/sylvanelfgirl

Myspace: www.myspace.com/sylvan

Deviant Art: http://likenightrain.deviantart.com

Fiction Press: www.fictionpress.com/~thesylvanelf

General: I love to write, so I update SOMETHING pretty often. It kind of depends on what my focus is at the moment. I draw, too, but that's hardly my strongest suit. I'm a little bit of a review whore, but I try not to beg too much.

Favorite music: Goth and Hard Rock (Evanescence, Disturbed, Staind, Creed, Seether, Chevelle, Trapt, Matchbox 20, Linkin Park, Nickelback, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Panic! at the Disco, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, 10 Years), Celtic (Enya, Loreena McKennit, Lord of the Rings soundtracks), Broadway (Phantom of the Opera, Jeckyl and Hyde, Wicked, Godspell, Les Miserables), Classic Rock (Led Zeplin, Rolling Stones, Heart, Queen, AC/DC)

Favorite authors: JRR Tolkien (if you don't know, shame on you!), Terry Brooks (Shannara), Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time), Hajime Kanzaka (Slayers), HG Wells (The Island of Dr Moreau), Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), Gaston Leraux (Phantom of the Opera), Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities... but again, you should already know!)

Favorite movies: Lord of the Rings, Phantom of the Opera, The Matrix, Willow, Labyrinth, Unbreakable, K-PAX, Finding Forrester, Ju-on, Ring, Raise the Red Lantern, Office Space, Boondock Saints, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Favorite anime: Spirited Away, Millenium Actress, Inu Yasha, Ranma 1/2, X, Vampire Hunter D, Cowboy Bebop, Fruits Basket, Howl's Moving Castle, Avatar: The Last Airbender (I don't know how... but it sucked me in...)

Favorite manga: Bizenghast (greatest manga EVER! Everyone should read it.), Ring, Fruits Basket, Petshop of Horrors

Favorite shows: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Pirates of Dark Water, Animaniacs, Histeria, Pinky and the Brain, Who's Line Is It Anyway, Mind of Mencia, Wings, Batman Beyond, X-men Evolution, Red vs Blue

Favorite games: Chrono Trigger; Kingdom Hearts I and II; Final Fantasy VI, VII, and X; Breath of Fire I, II, III and IV; Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Favorite game/showcharacters: Chrono Trigger - Magus, Frog; Kingdom Hearts I and II- Riku, Axel, Yuffie, Leon, Roxas, Auron, Cloud; Final Fantasy VI -Locke, Setzer, Shadow; Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children -Reno, Cloud, Yuffie, Vincent, Sephiroth; Final Fantasy X - Auron; X-men/X-men Evolution - Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), Rogue; Batman Beyond -Terry McGinnis (Batman); Red vs Blue - Sarge, Grif, O'Malley; Fruits Basket - Yuki, Momiji, Hana, Uo; Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Nabooru; Avatar:The Last Airbender - Zuko, Iroh, Azula, Toph

Favorite Manga characters: Bizenghast - Vincent, Edaniel; Ring - Ryuji; Fruits Basket - Yuki, Momiji, Hana-chan

Favorite book characters: The Heritage of Shannara - Coll Ohmsford, Par Ohmsford; The Voyage of the Jerl Shannara - Bek Rowe, Rue Meridian, Ahren Elessedil; Lord of the Rings - Legolas Greenleaf, Aragorn, Gandalf; Phantom of the Opera - Erik (duh!); Slayers - Gourry Gabriev (so much better in the books!); Wheel of Time - a'Lan Mandragoran, Rand; A Debt of Bones (short story by Terry Goodkind... sadly, haven't read his books... yet) - Zedd

Favorite Fanfic Topics: Any good character speculation tale about my favorite characters; Chrono Trigger - Magus's road to redemption or damnation; the spiral that led Janus to becoming Magus; Final Fantasy VI - Locke's and Shadow's histories; Final Fantasy VII - Reno and Rude's friendship, Vincent's life prior to the game; Final Fantasy X/X-2 - Auron's journey as a guardian of the High Summoner; The war between Bevelle and Zanarkand; Shuyin and Lenne's part in the war; Kingdom Hearts - Riku's internal battle between light and dark; how Leon and Yuffie came to Traverse Town; The Nobodies and their stories; Fruits Basket - Yuki's issues with Akito; Berzerk - Griffith's reasons behind his actions and sacrifices

Current Focus:

1) Twilight - Kingdom Hearts

2) The Fuschia Dark Lord Paradox - Chrono Trigger

3) Basically anything else unfinished. No worries, though, I actually DO usually finish fanfics.

Upcoming:

Stuff I won't post until I have enough to consider it worthy and free from the danger of hiatus.

Final Fantasy VII

As a Friend: Rude's always looked after Reno, but he's about ready to give him a piece of his mind. (General, somewhat humorous, rated T)

The Turn Around: (Post AC) With Shinra no more, Reno has no choice but to re-examine how he defines himself (General, rated T)

The Art of How I Grieve: (Post AC) Turks lead a dangerous life, and they all know the risks, Rude included. But does that make it any easier when you lose your best friend? (Tragedy, rated M)

Foolish: Elena's learned alot from being a Turk, and she feels like she can handle almost anything life throws at her, but there's one question she can't answer: what do you do when your best friend falls for a guy like Reno? (General, NON-romance, rated T)

Kingdom Hearts

The Smallest Things: A series of scenes through the eyes of Riku's mother fom his birth through his disappearance. (General, rated K+ most likely)

Fireside Chat: An outsider has alerted the cast of Kingdom Hearts to the existence of fanfiction. Now, how will they respond? (Parody, probably rated M because of how graphic some fanfiction is)

Breath of Fire III

The Fishbowl: (based off the alternate ending) "Life continued... unchanging." It seemed to Ryu that he was living in a fishbowl. His home was a small, contained space, completed by an artificial enviroment... But human beings are not meant for life in a fishbowl... Submission hadn't given him his answers. He knew now that it never would. (Angst, Tragedy, rated M)

Legend of Zelda

The Price of Blood: (Modern Link, done different) Joska was used to the idea of being different - it just came with being adopted and raised by a family of a different race and culture. But now he's begun to realize that his heritage is far more important than he ever thought... (AU, rated M)

Witch Hunter Robin

And, Now, Confined: Michael's life before the STN-J and subsequent imprisonment, his adjustment to life as the resident hacker, and his relationship with Kate, Doujima, and Sakaki. Likely a sequel to follow concerning Kate's death, Robin's Arrival, the destruction of the Factory, and life after. (Drama, rated T or M)

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Redeeming: A rather long fic concerning Zuko following the Season 2 finale. Most definitely highly inaccurate once Season 3 begins, but I'm writing it anyway. (Drama, rated T or M)

Chrono Trigger

Seriously. If you want to read my Chrono Trigger fiction, read If I Had Words or even The Fuchsia Dark Lord Paradox. Don't touch the other stuff right, because it sucks.

The Magus Chronicles: Book One - Nightsong: Revised! Because, frankly, the original copy is making my eye twitch right now. Vaguely AU (more expanded universe, really) about what Magus does after Chrono Trigger. Yes, he searches for Schala, but that's not really the point. For the love of God, don't even bother looking at the one that's up right now.

Record of the Chrono Trigger: Revised! Chrono Trigger seen through the eyes of characters other than Chrono. Covers mainly off-scene events.

Sylvan's Notes on the Fan vs the Fangirl: Most of us should realize by now, but there's a difference between a fan of a particular gender and the fangirl or fanboy, but some have difficulty placing their finger on what that difference is. I'm female, so I'll use fangirl. A fangirl isn't just a bad writer; she might have some natural talent with words, but that hardly means her characterization checks out.

You see, a fan of the female persuasion is still just a fan and retains her grip on rationality, sanity, and a life. She has her favorite characters that she loves (meaning: holds in high esteem), and she respects them and the writer who originated them and feels no need to take them out of character without good reason. The fangirl, sweet bane of all fans' existence, has lost all such ideals. Most often, she decimates the personality of her favorite characters, usually using them to fulfill some sort of sexual fantasy by pairing them with either a Mary Sue or some unbelievable but equally hot partner, all the while claiming to love them and behaving as if these characters are her personal lovers/playthings - a Type A Fangirl. Logic and characterization don't really matter to her, because all characters essentially behave the same in her writing - bending over backwards to fulfill whatever desire she has.

If the fangirl isn't the type who's just acting out hormones, she's the second, less common Type B Fangirl,who uses characters as an escape not only from reality but rationality as well. She presses her favorite characters into painfully shallow idealizations of how they should be, no longer respecting the falts that make the character so beautiful and complex. The character becomes invincible, infallible, and intolerable. He's often paired with a Mary Sue, though not always. He always comes off as corny. Fortunately, this fangirl is rare; unfortunately, it makes the Type A Fangirl that much more common.

So, maybe you're slightly more educated than you were five minutes ago. ;)