Facing Fearful Odds and Taking Sights

[lavanya_six]

Work on Facing Fearful Odds continues with all due speed. Chapter 5-A has been completed, and I'm whittling down the super-rough incomplete draft of Chapter 5-B before I start building it back up. I figure it'll take about two more months before I can start posting FFO in public. When I do so, it'll go up on my new Dreamwidth account -- this LiveJournal has become my public work diary.

Once I finish with Book 1 of Facing Fearful Odds, it'll be time to sit down and finish Book 1 of Taking Sights. The speedy process of writing FFO has given me new insight into the problems I've had with the recent chapters of Taking Sights. As I'm sure you've noticed, the update rate for Takings Sights has slowed dramatically this year. Partly, this is due to the fact I can't write a chapter under 15000 words to save my life. It is also due in large part, however, because of the story problems I've discovered.

At it's core, Taking Sights is supposed to be the journey of Gendo Ikari and how he deals with trying to make amends with his life. These tasks range from saving the world from his own plots to convincing Rei of the value of her own life. The MOST important task is repairing his relationship with Shinji. The problem for me, the writer, is that that plot line resolved itself fairly early on. Gendo tried to manipulate Shinji, Shinji sniffed out his father's true intents, and any chance for future reconciliation went down the gutter. End of story.

The thing is, Shinji doesn't have a whole lot to do with the story now. That's why he's pretty much vanished into the background and why Asuka's taken Shinji's place as the lead pilot character. Because the reader feels a sense of danger for Asuka -- she's the one main cast member (in a general Evangelion sense) that Gendo's absolutely willing to sacrifice. He's counting on her dying, the only question is how to make the most use of her. And out of the main cast members, Asuka is the only one not directly connected to Gendo Ikari's bullshit. Shinji, Rei, Misato, Ritsuko, Fuyutsuki, Keel... their lives have all revolved around Gendo at some point. But not Asuka. She's the foreign element, and a symbol of how Gendo is still a selfish bastard willing to do horrible, immoral things to anyone he doesn't value.

Shinji and Rei are the offspring of his past life, but Asuka's ultimate fate will be the child post-time travel Gendo fathers. It's also why Asuka has become the second main character of Taking Sights. Unless Gendo can find some place in his heart for someone who has no value to him, there's no hope for the rest of the human race. Gendo Ikari is still the same man, just with different priorities, until he proves otherwise.

So how does this tie in with Facing Fearful Odds? Because while these problems will continue as we muddle through to the end of Book 1 of Taking Sights, I've been thinking long and hard about how Book 2 is going to play out. And now I have a plan to make Book 2 more character-driven and cohesive than Book 1 has been.

While Gendo will remain the main(est) character in Book 2, he'll be joined by a new co-main character -- and it isn't Asuka. The Second Child's current arc will climax with the explosive finale of Book 1, and Book 2 will carry all the cast members in a radically new direction. It'll be intense, I promise you.

Now I just need to write it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

When I first started reading I figured you were just rehashing Evangelion Retake, and then when you deviated too far from the story of Retake that you didn't know where to focus the story and your writing started to spiral away from the main characters and more on the side characters. I'm glad to hear that you will re-focus the story back onto the main characters by adding a new co-main charater. Writing a few characters is hard enough, please don't make it harder on yourself.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

I actually hadn't read Retake until after I'd started Taking Sights. I learned about it via the TV Tropes wiki, which was the same place that lead my to the Peggy Sue article and back into fanfiction in general. Having read it, I'll agree that it hits a lot of the broad strokes as Taking Sights, but so do most Peggy Sue time travel stories: character 'X' gets a second chance, does things 'right' this time, and saves the world from NERV/SEELE/Third Impact.

I'm still undecided about doing that last one in Taking Sights, though. The big, shiny, super-happy ending I had planned in my original plot outline wouldn't fit the tone of the story. And a big part of me is leaning towards just having everyone die. If you look at my non-crack one-shots, I tend towards fairly dark or morally ambiguous endings. Taking Sights will probably conclude in such a vein.

But yeah... I've really lost focus in the 'mid-season' of Taking Sights. That's why I've adopted a policy of not post new, long-form fanfics until the whole thing's in the bank. It helps weed out the "really more of a one-shot than a long-form" fanfics (Color of Blood) and the "I love this idea but I don't have time for it" fanfics (Doctor Who and the Defence Against the Dark Arts).

That's why -- after I finish the 'Apple Peel-Off' two parter -- I'm going to do the rest of Taking Sights in two blocks: the rest of Book 1 (9 more chapters), and then -- after finishing a Harry Potter fanfic project -- all of Book 2 (which will only be 10 chapters). It'll help me a LOT with pacing, character roles, and plot holes. If I had been posting "Facing Fearful Odds" as I wrote it, I would have never discovered a major plot bunny in Chapter 4 that made me go back and rewrite a character's motivation in Chapter 2. Doing the whole fanfic as one big novel has helped me *immensely* with overall quality.

A big reason I switched to the side characters is that it's hard to maintain a lot of drama with Gendo outside of crisis situations. He's not a terribly talkative character, and he's isolated enough that Fuyutusuki's really the only person he can talk to, human being to human being. Asuka being extroverted is one reason why I used her so much to being with -- back before I realized she was the co-main character. I really abused her as a plot hammer in earlier chapters, and it's something I've tried to shy away from recently (emphasis on *tried*).

Heh. I just realized, Asuka really *did* replace Shinji as the main character. She's "friends" with Touji and Kensuke, while Shinji has his only close friendship with Hikari. Never noticed that until just now...

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that your fanfic is supposed to be about Gendo. He is afterall the only character to get his second chance. You did flesh out his new motivations and reasons behind them. I just think you need to refocus on Gendo and Shinji. The reactions between Asuka and Gendo in your earlier chapter worked rather well. However, I would like to point out why Evangelion fanfics are popular, everybody hated the first ending, and when the newer ending came out, everybody hated it even worse. Thats why everybody loves a good eva fic,(Higher Learning, Eva-R: Redemption) because even though the main characters all struggle, most find some sort of happiness in the end of the story. If I wanted to see a bad ending where everybody dies i'd just watch NGE again. I think you should stick to your original ideas and outline of the story of a love triangle (or square) and a happy ending.

Oh, and please add the incomplete evafic "The Gods Within" to your Fanfiction Mausoleum-'n-Grill "http://www.geocities.com/the_vault_fortress/GWI.htm" as you should check it out if you never have read it.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

I've added "The Gods Within" to the Mausoleum-'n-Grill.

I can't make any promises to Taking Sights' ending. It's changed quite a bit as I've progressed through the story, and I'm only two thirds of the way through Book 1. Any discussion of the end would be mostly academic at this point.

[shanghairain.livejournal.com]

This is idle speculation, but might we get a scene with Gendo and either Yui Ikari (in flashback) or possibly Unit 01?

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Oh, there will be a rather important flashback scene(s) with Gendo and Yui in Chapter 22. There is far, FAR more to Gendo and Yui Ikari than has been shown so far. We'll also be briefly seeing Yui and all the other important parents in Chapter 18, the 'Second Impact flashback chapter'.

As for a Gendo + Unit-01 scene... no comment.

[darksidevoid.livejournal.com]

"At it's core, Taking Sights is supposed to be the journey of Gendo Ikari and how he deals with trying to make amends with his life. These tasks range from saving the world from his own plots to convincing Rei of the value of her own life. The MOST important task is repairing his relationship with Shinji. The problem for me, the writer, is that that plot line resolved itself fairly early on. Gendo tried to manipulate Shinji, Shinji sniffed out his father's true intents, and any chance for future reconciliation went down the gutter. End of story."

I should probably check the relevant chapters before talking about this, but IIRC,

1) Gendo tries to manipulate Shinji so that he can be sure his son is dedicated to his duty as a pilot.

2) Gendo's "Well done, son guy" line falls flat and Shinji realizes that his father is trying to manipulate him.

3) Shinji leaves Tokyo-3 relatively soon after that.

4) Gendo, internally despairing of ever making up with his son, thinking that doing so would be "too painful" for the both of them, and absolutely needing Shinji to pilot Unit 01, has Shinji call him and attempts to solidify his son's hatred toward him.

Action 4, although it was a really horrible thing to do, can obviously be seen as a logical move from Gendo's perspective. However, I think Gendo simply rationalized his desire to break himself off from his son through the lens of logical planning. He was unwilling to face the idea of trying to reconcile with Shinji due to a fear that things would turn out badly or be more painful. Thus, he is, in effect, running away from his problems with Shinji by pushing him away. In fact, you might have even mentioned something to this effect in the fic itself, but I can't remember.

Shinji, of course, returned to NERV looking for "answers", as Gendo put it. In the latest chapter (The 22nd one on FF.net), we see that the issue of what Gendo did still occupies some part of his son's dreams. And in prior chapters, I recall Ritsuko (or maybe it was Misato) theorizing that some of the reason Gendo wasn't sleeping well was because he was extremely distressed about not being able to make up with Shinji.

Of course, Gendo's stress and dreams also involved the Third Impact, but I don't remember whether that was before or after Shinji returned to his Uncle's, or both. Gendo also went through that little period of epiphany when he realized that he wouldn't see Yui again, and then strengthened his resolve, but... I also can't remember whether or not it was implied or shown that his nightmares ceased after that. ^_^;

Anyway, as of late, it hasn't seemed that Shinji is dwelling on his father very much, at least not consciously. I would argue, however, that his internal conflict is still there, just buried deep down after the situation had been "resolved" with Shinji "accepting" the fact that he hates his father. And with the second (third?) scene in 22 seeming to foreshadow that Shinji and Fuyutsuki's dinner conversation might involve Gendo as well as Yui (i.e.: Gendo is obviously still concerned about Shinji's happiness, knowing he'd want to know more about his mother, and the "Does that freedom extend to discussing you?", "I don't feel the Third Child will be at all curious as to my personal history." lines). So it seems to me that a renewal of that particular central conflict wouldn't be at all implausible.

What do you think?

P.S.: And was any of my writing incomprehensible? I tend to get carried away with my wordiness.

[lavanyasix.livejournal.com]

Re: Gendo's nightmares -- Yeah, that plot thread was lost a bit in the recent Asuka-centric chapters. The implication was that his sleep is less troubled now, having accepted the fact of Yui never returning. He's still having a few dreams, though, and they'll play a big role over the next nine chapters. Shinji's dreams will too, to a lesser extent.

Re: the hate -- Yup, that was deliberate on Gendo's part. Both as a way to bring Shinji back to Tokyo-3 and as a way to cauterize the wound of their father-son relationship.

I feel that Shinji and Gendo are of similiar dispositions -- both are afraid of other people -- but they deal with that fear of Others and fear of loneliness in different ways. Shinji runs away from human contact but seeks validation of his existence through the approval of others. (Asuka, comparatively, seeks validation from others in order to sustain her fragile ego.) Gendo also runs away from human contact, but instead of practicing avoidance he just makes himself into as an unlikeable a bastard as possible in order to drive people away. Yui's his only real source of human affection and so his whole life is focused on getting Yui back so that he's not alone.

But you're right that a thread of hope remains with both Shinji and Gendo. Shinji telling his father he hates him was cathartic, but one declaration of hate isn't the end of the world.

As for the dinner conversation... that'd be spoilers if I said anything.

Re: P.S. -- No, I get what you're saying.