Comments | puella_nerdii: Grasping at Shadows [5/5] (Suikoden II, Jowy and the Highlanders)

puella_nerdii

Grasping at Shadows [5/5] (Suikoden II, Jowy and the Highlanders)

Oct 04, 2012 15:27

Seven months, 38.5k words, 88 pages, three garbled save files, two lost notebooks, one additional playthrough, way too many weeks of writer’s block, hours of whining, and a ton of attempts to make sense of the weirder parts of SII’s script later, I stick a fork in this fic, for it is done at lastAnd you know what, I don’t say this kind of thing a ( Read more... )

fandom: suikoden ii, genre: gen, rating: r, multichapter: grasping at shadows, length: 5000-10000, fic

Comments 16

daffodil_brill October 4 2012, 22:38:55 UTC

I'm afraid that I'll have to see an LP before I can properly comment on this, but I did want to congratulate you--this definitely sounds like a project that had a lot of love and time put into it.

Hope you've been doing well. :)

puella_nerdii October 5 2012, 03:04:19 UTC

Thanks! :D And yeah, it kind of nibbled away at my life. But in a good way. Mostly. Even when I wanted to throttle certain characters/passages/etc.

As far as LPs go, my friend has one for the first and second games up over here (and it's hysterical). There are a few playthroughs on Youtube too, though I haven't watched through any of them so I can't vouch for which ones are good.

I have, more or less. Sorted out some necessary things. Haven't been around on LJ too much, but I'll try to check in on you more often. ♥

seta_suzume October 5 2012, 02:09:15 UTC

Wow! That was great! I'm glad you were able to push through all the obstacles to this last section to finish it!

I loved Jillia in this fic and Luca was really scary. I look forward to whatever other Suikoden fic you write next! :D

puella_nerdii October 5 2012, 02:50:42 UTC

Thank you so much! :D And yeah, there were a few obstacles. Like losing my notebook and thus the first five thousand or so words of this section. And then the document on my computer got corrupted. ._. Jowy, your misfortunes have infected my writing materials.

Jillia kind of ended up becoming my favorite in this, not gonna lie. She manages to keep her composure while surrounded by crazy people, and is very clear that she can and will make her own choices, thank you, and I love characters with her kind of strength. ♥ Writing Luca can be, uh, harrowing, but it was interesting to explore exactly what about him fascinated Jowy in the first place, and I think that ended up giving me an interesting window into what the hell is going on inside his head. Well, other than the crazy.

Lord, I barely even know which Suikofic to work on next, I feel like I have a million things in my WIP folder. But there will be something. Oh yes.

surskitty October 5 2012, 02:21:00 UTC

Eeeee :D

I'm not sure what in particular to comment about for this segment, but eeee :D Congrats on having finished it!

Okay, I do know what in particular to comment about: your Sasarai is a giant asshole and I approve.

... I did notice a typo though!
No sign of any nasals bringing explanations with them, either, but what bird could fly through that?
I think that should be 'nasel', but I'm enjoying the image of flying noses. Maybe Luc keeps breaking wind from his mysterious fourth rune slot. That would explain it.

puella_nerdii October 5 2012, 02:40:12 UTC

Thank you! :D It feels good, and no worries about what to comment on, a lot of stuff happens in this chapter. ...in all the chapters, really. There are so many terrible life decisions that Jowy makes!

I DID NOT REALIZE HE WOULD END UP BEING SUCH A DICK. But then I was just like "okay, exactly how many ways can Sasarai insult Highland and/or the Blight royal family and/or Jowy in this sentence," and it turns out that the answer is usually a lot. I guess being a little bitch is another trait Hikusaak's clones share.

Oh, it's nasel? I have never been sure whether it's nasel or nasal. *goes to fix* And seriously, where else could True Wind be located, it's not like it's any of his slots...

i was going to upload another sasarai-related icon but i noticed this one's keywords surskitty October 5 2012, 02:48:00 UTC

I think the only way he could've been more of an asshole is with shitty jokes. 'At least /I/ look over thirty' and 'BRING IT ON, WEE FLAME CHAMP ... OR SHOULD I SAY /CHUMP/' indeed. But he doesn't have any reason to be attempting smacktalk, more's the pity. Fucking Sasarai.

Yeah it's nasel. I take perverse joy in moving his wind runes in I and II. Because what the fuck.

Re: i was going to upload another sasarai-related icon but i noticed this one's keywords puella_nerdii October 6 2012, 02:55:21 UTC

(Sasarai, hon, there is literally no universe in which you look over thirty.)

I upgraded them to Cyclone because Shining Wind Shining Wind I love me some Shining Wind~ And okay I guess it would be slightly gamebreaky to give Luc access to all the stuff he can do with True Wind in III but it's not like there aren't other characters you can break the game with, anyway...

Thread 5

urbanesombrero October 5 2012, 03:51:07 UTC

An excellent conclusion to an amazing story. I love the interplay and outmaneuvering going on throughout this chapter, with Jowy, Leon, Culgan, Seed all trying to play Luca and hope that the Unicorn Army responds accordingly. Sasarai & Yuber seem to be the less likely allies, and Leon seems to be attempting to run the entire show ( ... )

puella_nerdii October 7 2012, 18:17:14 UTC

Thank you so much for reading this one all the way through! I'm glad you liked the outmaneuvering -- when I first played SII, I was really curious about exactly how long Leon and Jowy had been planning Luca's death, and how much of it they'd planned from the beginning (and who else was in on it on Highland's side). And over the course of that plotting, I had a lot of fun playing with Jowy's shift from "I have to figure out a way to kill Luca" to "I have to figure out a way to kill Luca and replace him in a way that doesn't cast too much suspicion on me."

I had so much fun writing Sasarai, I have to say. :D He's such a smiling little jerkface. And the Highland-Harmonia political angle is tricky! It's a protectorate, but Harmonia seems a lot more hands-off in its governance than it is with some of the other states under its control, and whenever citizenship is brought up it's Highland citizenship rather than third- or second-class Harmonian citizenship. And Harmonia doesn't really get itself involved in the Dunan Unification War that ( ... )

val_tanelle October 6 2012, 02:33:43 UTC

I lost my original comment but I just wanted to say that I loved this fanfic the moment I laid my eyes on it. I couldn't help but reread through it when you posted the fifth chapter ( ... )

puella_nerdii October 6 2012, 15:43:11 UTC

This is a really thoughtful critique, and thank you for it. I'll try to answer as much of it as possible.

fff, you aren't the first person to point out the repetition. I was trying to do it to reinforce Jowy's state of mind, but I guess it weakened the effect instead of strengthening it. Oh well. Lessons for next time.

Hm. I think I see what you mean about this chapter feeling like an epilogue. Jowy completes one of the most important parts of his arc (going from thinking the war will be over once he kills Luca to realizing he has to take responsibility for what comes after that, and that he's going to have to use some Luca-style tactics for the sake of future peace) in the first scene, so in a way I suppose the rest is almost denouement. He's come into his own as a strategist and learned what it actually means to do whatever's necessary to get what he wants, and he's cut himself off emotionally from, well, a whole lot. That might be part of the reason why he's feeling stagnant -- instead of growing into his abilities the way Riou ( ... )

val_tanelle October 8 2012, 13:01:28 UTC

I suppose it's the game's fault why I felt Jowy was the more vocal one between the two, what with Riou being a silent protagonist and seemingly following every Shu's command. I do understand your interpretation; it reinforces the difference between the two of them so I would have really wanted to see Jowy try and failing, and I doubt it would always be so amusing. I wound find it personally painful what with all the ideal he has, he lacks (as per your interpretation) the power to bring people together (I guess that makes him better suited as a strategist). Most of us seem to accept Jowy's statement of how he envies Riou to be able to bring people together but from what we've seen so far, Jowy isn't really that different despite what he says. The only understanding there is to what he said was because of the whole 108 SoD thing ( ... )