#I’m just really amazed at how fast my gap year flew by lol

[gatheryepens]

Tonight’s my last official night at home before moving

[megamanxfanfics]

Smoother Start Than Expected!

SURPRISE!  Another exciting Episode of Season IV just dropped.  And to be honest, I have no idea how I’m cranking them out so fast!!

This one was more of a transitional aftermath Episode, which ultimately lead us to the Stage Select, but I’m really happy with all of the character set up and world building that went on in this chapter.

More detailed thoughts below.

One thing that’s funny about the writing process for this one.

I basically wrote the whole thing backwards!

Of course the first thing I did was a copy/paste of Rainy Turtloid’s recent death from Xtreme 2.  The original scene dragged on so much between the dialogue and directions that I had to do a lot of flashes and ellipses within the scene.

...but anyway, we get to be reminded about Turtloid’s death, and the mood of that whole thing gets to somewhat tie in to the present, as we parallel Gate’s grief with Dr. Laye’s grief that the Sky Lagoon has fallen.

Writing Process wise, this is where it gets fun.

In order to keep the momentum going and get more excited about filling in the gaps between canon material and transitional fanon, I wrote the Stage Select scene out, practically in full.

There was a bit of Pre-planned writing done already for this scene, only for the Cyber Peacock mission.  

But now, I was able to have fun blending the dialogue between X, Double, Zero and Iris together, as if they were all in the same room, exchanging those words at the same time.  It was a lot of fun, and was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Then I figured, it’d be best to keep Captain quiet and have his Computer take care of the directives.

The Stage Select scene mostly plays out like the game, except for the fact that X and Zero react accordingly to each mission directive.  Zero, perking up at the Repliforce missions and X being intrigued by the mysterious threats.

There was an opportunity to have Iris get worried and panic about their impending war upon the Repliforce and I was happy to explore it.

Then I reached a point where I couldn’t really continue.  X had the perfect epiphany to himself, and I started to think, “Whoa..  Did I just end the episode?”  I thought it best not to continue until I wrote everything else first.

I literally took it a step back and handled the aftermath of General’s press statement.  Originally I thought the episode would open with this, but I realized that other things had to be in place before I could show this scene.

In the aftermath of the press statement, Red looks at his TV worried.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to show Repliforce Incidents happening or not, but it was the best choice to make.  I was able to go into Red’s head and have him quit, while we saw most of the Repliforce members prepare for war amongst their crew [quite quickly, I might add.]  And then Jet Stingray’s attack on Sydney had to be a big deal.

This was becoming epic man.  I was very proud of myself, and that was only maybe my 2nd session really putting this together.

I chose Sydney simply because it’s different.  In Season I & II, everything’s been based in California.  Season III, I based Doppler in Florida for that reason, just to have more of the U.S. get affected.

There isn’t much room for it, but I wanted to attempt at getting more global here, as much as I could.  This Great Repliforce War is supposed to have big consequences!!

So yeah.  That instance with Jet Stingray propelled the following scene further and definitely changed the dialogue between X and Zero in certain spots.

For my 3rd/4th session, I took a look at what I had and the only thing that I had left to tackle was the immediate aftermath of coming home the fallen Sky Lagoon.

The pattern here was, show Hunters upset - show Mavericks celebrate.

Showing the Hunters coming home right after their failed mission was necessary to me, because I felt that the Opening Stage needed a bit more explaining.  Especially to Zero who was only there for half of it.

I will completely admit, I was afflicted with Writer’s Diarrhea in this scene.  I couldn’t shut the two of them up or get to a point quick enough.  I went back a bunch of times and tweaked what I could, but eventually I dealt with the fact that after Gate and the science community quickly lament, our heroes take a moment to really delve into what the Hell happened back there.

And for a 2nd episode that builds things up, I didn’t have a problem with it.  [This is probably due to the fact that Season III’s episode 2 was nightmare long for seemingly no reason.]  What makes this one different was that, actual things were happening.  It wasn’t all fanon garbage that would be dismissed halfway into the season.

Anyway.  The Hero lament was lengthy, and then the Villain celebration was almost just as long.  I needed to tone this down and get to a point, quickly.

Unfortunately, this was another instance where Canon got in the way.  During General’s press statement, we get to see Sigma chilling by himself in a random apartment or whatever-the-fuck.  [I can’t say it’s a base, because in the game, we see him fight at the Final Weapon.  And he certainly ain’t there in this scene.]  So I had to make something up, and my best guess has always been that he found a nice little pad to stay in during the Repliforce War.  This has been my theory for years.

So...  During the Villain Celebration, I had the unique challenge of Sigma decided he was content with his plan to manipulate the Repliforce into fighting the Maverick Hunters.  And now he wanted to uncharacteristically kick back and enjoy the fireworks.  [Perhaps it is debatable that that is characteristic of him.]  But either way, I basically had to give Split Mushroom his stage back.  Without Isoc or Dark Necrobat there.

Basically I had to split up the team, lol.  But make it look like they were all going on their own respective missions.

Cyber Peacock was easy.  He’s in Cyber Space.  He can be anywhere at any time.

Dark Necrobat was actually easy too.  I thought it would be harder, but due to the nature of his Canon back-story.  He was built by Sigma and never really... used.  So he went off and did his own thing, ignoring the Maverick Agenda, not exactly seeing a purpose for it.

I knew way back in the day during my initial Grand Planning, that the best place for Dark Necrobat to be created and feel indifferent towards the whole Maverick thing would be during the Great Repliforce War when the Mavericks are scarce and not doing much.

It was tough to convince Isoc that this is what needed to be done.  But I had him give in to Sigma’s idea, and suppose that he could probably find a better lab to work in.  This initially pissed off Split Mushroom, who was happy to have the company.

I took this route at first, but after the scene became SO long and had gotten nowhere, I decided to take a more evil, selfish route, and basically have him kick them out.  I enjoy this a little more, because it shows that the little guy doesn’t give a fuck.

I looked at that Villain scene so many times this past week, (and the Hero scene too, to check for transitional flow) that I had enough.  I definitely tweaked a lot, and I feel, I got the Villain’s to talk about leaving way quicker in the end.

There was still good stuff on Sigma’s end, foreshadowing a far more wicked plan in X5, and I was glad to be able to hint at that.

A lot of things definitely went on in that scene.

One of the primary X6 Villains was basically kicked out of X4, an X5 Maverick flew away, Sigma went to look for a place of his own to relax and “enjoy this”.  Timing wise, I suppose it’s believable that he found an apartment to inhabit in one night.

The very next day is General’s Press Statement to the public.

I didn’t feel a need to show stage directions in here, because we all know what that scene looks like.  (If that’s lazy, maybe I’ll go back and change that, but the directions only break up the flow of dialogue.)

And then the rest of the episode was basically done!!

I gave it a couple of reads in full, and definitely changed a sentence here and there.

But then, I realized it really was done.

X has an incredible parallel thought between Zero and Web Spider’s Guerrilla Unit.  They all dismissed him as a Maverick and left the Hunters at the very end of X2.  But now all Zero is doing is dismissing the entire Repliforce as Mavericks without giving them a chance to explain themselves.

When I realized this amazing parallel, I thought it was gold.  I’m still really impressed how that all came about, because I did NOT plan that, back in X2.

All that was left to do was create a final Narration from our Mystery Man.

Even back when it was Dr. Cain, the final narration was always the hardest part. Not every episode calls for one, but sometimes that final thought really clinches the whole thing and ties it all together.

I’m happy with what I came up with though.  And if you read Ep. 0, it was described that this guy is kind of analyzing both the Hunters and the Repliforce.  So I like having this Narrator come off as unbiased, and laying out the facts of what both groups are doing.

So yeah!  This was good and fun.

I loved having X & Zero argue about where they should go first.  But the decision has been made.

They’re going to Web Spider first!

I’m looking forward to figuring that out.  See you guys in May.