I did want to post a commentary for the first chapter, and since I didn't get to do that, I wanted to make sure to do one with the second chapter.
If you really wish to read the original Nothing's Fair, still, for some reason, it has been taken down from FFN and is hosted in its entirety here.
Recent Updates
Original drafts of the Larxene/Revenge Sequence
A post about the Lingering Will
Nothing's Fair Chapters
Chapter 1 (tag)
Chapter 2 (tag)
NFRW tag (be wary of spoilers deeper in, the entire writing liveblog went in this tag)
I felt really weird posting the first post about Nothing's Fair without posting the finished soundtrack, so, hello, here we are.
Keep in mind that most of these songs address themes that don't come up until later in the story (chapter 8 or so) and, while saying "don't listen because spoilers" is silly, I am refraining from posting a tracklist and liner notes until I'm further along. Listen if you want, listen if you don't want, I don't think anything is obviously spoilers.
I'll post the mix again when I have liner notes for it.
Chapter Time! Per usual, commentary under the cut.
Keep in mind if you are new to the series, these are partially "in depth author's notes" / "what you might expect from an interview with a creator" / a liveblog, at some points.
I mentioned in my notes that 7 is just stone cold. "The only real loss was Master Vexen."
AND IT'S FUNNY!!
But it's not 100% true, because, actually, this comes from the fact that he’s built to save Replicas he knows that there is very little to do for a person—or, uh, a Nobody—unless he was there on the spot to help so it’s easy for him to make peace with the deaths of Larxene and Marluxia and Zexion. TBH he didn’t even like Larxene he’s probably happy to see her go. Perhaps Marluxia, too. Idk about Zexion
Xion is actually intersex...! (Or if you'd rather a wikipedia article.) I'm in no way an expert on this, so you should read either of those, but the basics are that an intersex individual is generally born with characteristics that are a mix of male and female biology. Xion is, of course, a Replica, and built rather than born, and the reason for her being intersex comes from the nature of her creation.
She is not a perfect Replica of Sora, but her appearance is not a perfect mirror of Kairi's, either.
I wasn't sure how to bring this up in story without sounding either really cissexist or really transphobic, so, I just... I didn't. Sorry.
Of course Xion is, in the end, assigned the gender of female, but I'm pretty sure she would've chosen that in the end, for herself, anyway.
As for why she takes the form of Kairi, or more-like-Kairi-than-like-Sora (though her skintone is an identical match to Sora's), it comes from the fact she did not have enough Sora data in her for his appearance to be prevalent enough, and in what data was left of Sora the thought/love/memory of Kairi was very strong, so Xion ended up being a mix of the two.
Perhaps, even they used some of Sora's memories (which, mind you, at least 50% or more include Kairi) to try and fill in the gaps in her data, and that's further where it came from. Of course, they can't have used a lot of data from Sora's memories, otherwise her data would not be insufficient and unstable. We don't have a plot of her data isn't insufficient and unstable.
Roxas's appearance, as we see in chapter 2, comes from the fact Xemnas provided supplemental data of Ven to complete him. In the same way Xion is neither entirely Sora nor entirely Kairi, Roxas is not entirely Sora nor entirely Ven, but that's how he was in KH canon, anyway.
And, initially, in FtPverse canon, he looked like Ven because "they dug deeper into Sora and that is what they found", but, I'm not sure how that makes sense and explains how Roxas doesn't have even more insufficient data than Xion, so we end up with Xemnas providing data. Which makes more sense.
Back to chapter 1!
I wasn't sure, initially, how 7 was going to get around the security cameras, but then I remember about R. Of course he asked R.
I was also going to have him drop Xion off in the basement
and hand her his comset so she could talk to R (so R could warn her if people neared her)
but then I decided it was easier to just have 7 go to R’s room which I’d
already contemplated.
I mean I wanted Xion and R to talk—that’d be easier if they
were in the same room, right? Definitely.
"Where did 7 get the name Xion, anyway?" Well, No. i is not where it came from, but I was sort of operating under the idea he got it from No. 1, and then replaced the 1 with an I, which is a pretty common thing to do.
Onto chapter 2!
The end scene with Xemnas and Xigbar was something I decided I needed literally today. I was going to explain how Xemnas did not, immediately, provide data of Ven (or Aqua, who he also has memories of) out of story. But then I figured that it was important enough to be touched on in story. This also allowed me to touch a bit on Terra, which I was really excited about!!!
Now, in FtPverse canon, Xemnas retains his memories of being Xehanort, and has retained them since possessing Terra's body, because the possession was successful. Does he have any memories of Terra? Maybe, but he does seem confident they won't bother him, doesn't he?
I've spoken about Xemnas and Terra in the past, and if you want clarification, it's on the BBS page. I don't want to talk about it too much, though, because it should all be touched in-story, in the future. So I'm going to test my story telling abilities and keep hush-hush about this as much as I can out of story.
I've been trying very hard not to keep an extra doc for NFRW, and have actually managed, minus two or three scenes that absolutely needed their brainstorms saved. It seemed a shame to say goodbye to this snippet, though:
YEAH I THINK 26 SHOULD TAKE HIM TO
XEMNAS AND XEMNAS WILL BE LIKE “YES GOOD THIS IS OUR KEYBLADE WEILDER WELCOME TO
THE ORGANIZATION”
“babysit him, Axel” someone—perhaps
Xemnas though likely Saix??—says
“WHY ME”
“because”
“WHY CAN’T”
“axel just do it”
“FINE”
Corridor
Corridor
Right next to Roxas
Grabs him by the shoulder
“COME ON KID I’LL SHOW YOU AROUND
LIKE TO WHERE YOUR ROOM IS SO I CAN DITCH YOU”
Say hello to Raymond and Patrick, by the way! They have both been mentioned by name in later FtPverse content (Dead Inside, specifically, though also a few times in Can't Escape, I believe). The original Nothing's Fair was written under the assumption that Joseph was the only one of his kind, before I realized it was kind of stupid to say Vexen only made one kid like this, and later decided that there were more.
I won't say any more than that, because, I perhaps have some new readers to the series drawn in by Nothing's Fair, and I suppose that should remain a secret until it is revealed in-story, as well.
ANYWAY ABOUT RAYMOND AND PATRICK WHILE I'M AT IT
These pictures were made with this dollmaker. Oh, and I suppose if you are new to the series, you're not 100% sure what Joseph looks like either, so:
.png)
Joseph is an old friend to any FtPverse fan, but, yes, he is an OC. He explains himself in-chapter—actually, hang on, Axel does. All three of them are Experiments created by Master Vexen, created to test combining data from multiple people. (These three are not the only three Experiments, but the only three that you will ever see in Nothing's Fair that will have more than a vague mention. There was no more room to include any others, and even these three will only have a minor role.)
Joseph is made largely from Zexion data (and his hair is actually on the correct side of his face thank gosh I wasn't paying attention and the dollmaker may not have given me the right side even if I had known), but also probably possesses some of Xaldin's, and theories are out about having some of Saix's, and perhaps some of Demyx's.
Raymond is created from Marluxia and Demyx data, for the most part, though he takes after Demyx in everything except his appearance. He often plays lookout for any pranks they pull together, because it requires the least work.
Patrick is created primarily from Larxene data, though he also has at least some Xaldin data in him. Think Draco Malfoy in the first and second Harry Potters, because that is what I was channeling for him. He as as much of a mastermind for pranks for Joseph is, though his pranks tend to range on the crueler side.
No comments:
Post a Comment