Reflection: "Esotericism"
Reading my old writing is so much like reading someone else's writing. It's a discovery, rife with both amazement and criticism.
Remember back when I used to write fan fiction? Really, that period of time never existed, unless you count February of 2006, during which I wrote barely more than one thousand words for Soul Calibur and Flame of Recca, combined. I milked three fics from that. A similar spurt of fan fiction erupted in July of 2004, when I was very excited about the television show Angel and had a much more productive but considerably lower quality fan fiction rush. (FanFiction.Net keeps an amazing record of my life.)
Between and since those times, fan fiction comes in singular, isolated, inspired spurts, which have been manifesting themselves lately as daydreams and in-depth analyses of characters, motifs, and plot development in my chosen fandom, i.e. no writing. But a recent review alert from FanFiction.Net lead me to take another look at my most recent fan fic, "Esotericism," written in February 2007.
[Warning: The fic is an alternate ending of sorts and is, therefore, full of spoilers.]
The fandom is Sega's Skies of Arcadia. The subject is Ramirez; specifically, the relationships Ramirez has with Fina, Galcian, and, briefly, Mendosa. It was brought on by my utter distaste for the game's ending and the development of Ramirez's character almost entirely through flashbacks, one concerned facial expression, and one scene that would have been much more tragic had Ramirez's English voice actor not sounded like a dying garbage can, for lack of an appropriately distasteful organism. (For all I know, he is a great voice actor, but the monosyllabic voice script did not serve him well.)
It's unexpectedly good. There are certain phrases I would reword, along with some formatting issues, and I don't think I quite got my meaning across in the final paragraphs (I know one of my reviewers did not get it, but FanFiction.Net reviewers are not generally known for their great literary analysis, so you take what you can get), but on the whole, I still like the story. The overall structure has an organized flow, dancing between Ramirez and Fina before delving into the feelings that led Ramirez to become Fina's enemy. The details develop Ramirez beyond canon without going beyond what is plausible: his ambivalence to Fina's touch, his petulant reaction to Fina's offer of water, his mad philosophy of life, and his simultaneous resentment and protectiveness toward Fina.
I especially like the hilarious irony of the first three sentences, hahahahaha.
Remember back when I used to write fan fiction? Really, that period of time never existed, unless you count February of 2006, during which I wrote barely more than one thousand words for Soul Calibur and Flame of Recca, combined. I milked three fics from that. A similar spurt of fan fiction erupted in July of 2004, when I was very excited about the television show Angel and had a much more productive but considerably lower quality fan fiction rush. (FanFiction.Net keeps an amazing record of my life.)
Between and since those times, fan fiction comes in singular, isolated, inspired spurts, which have been manifesting themselves lately as daydreams and in-depth analyses of characters, motifs, and plot development in my chosen fandom, i.e. no writing. But a recent review alert from FanFiction.Net lead me to take another look at my most recent fan fic, "Esotericism," written in February 2007.
[Warning: The fic is an alternate ending of sorts and is, therefore, full of spoilers.]
The fandom is Sega's Skies of Arcadia. The subject is Ramirez; specifically, the relationships Ramirez has with Fina, Galcian, and, briefly, Mendosa. It was brought on by my utter distaste for the game's ending and the development of Ramirez's character almost entirely through flashbacks, one concerned facial expression, and one scene that would have been much more tragic had Ramirez's English voice actor not sounded like a dying garbage can, for lack of an appropriately distasteful organism. (For all I know, he is a great voice actor, but the monosyllabic voice script did not serve him well.)
It's unexpectedly good. There are certain phrases I would reword, along with some formatting issues, and I don't think I quite got my meaning across in the final paragraphs (I know one of my reviewers did not get it, but FanFiction.Net reviewers are not generally known for their great literary analysis, so you take what you can get), but on the whole, I still like the story. The overall structure has an organized flow, dancing between Ramirez and Fina before delving into the feelings that led Ramirez to become Fina's enemy. The details develop Ramirez beyond canon without going beyond what is plausible: his ambivalence to Fina's touch, his petulant reaction to Fina's offer of water, his mad philosophy of life, and his simultaneous resentment and protectiveness toward Fina.
I especially like the hilarious irony of the first three sentences, hahahahaha.