The Penultimate Update

After a solid two month hiatus with not a word beyond the occasional “Thank you” to those who awarded T.B.O.L. a Favorite, I have at long last returned! And as the title doth imply, I’ve come bearing good tidings!

Ch.15(Family, Part Two) has finally, finally been fully discussed. Yeah, crazy how long it took me, right? And there are two reasons as to why:

Reason #1) Lots of IRL stuff. Summer/Autumn cleaning, work, entire day-long shopping trips, mild burnout, other projects, etc.

All of this had the unfortunate result of whatever periods of time I attained to work on the chapter were relatively sparse and short-lived. And given I was discussing a 30k+ word long chapter, that wasn’t exactly optimal. On that note…!

Reason #2) Over thirty thousand words of content to discuss. This should speak for itself, and safe to say, I was extremely thorough, leaving not a single aspect of the chapter unaddressed.

Case in point: I had to quote almost every single line in the Gallus/Ocean Flow scene(Which by itself was over 7k+ words), because I had at least something to say about all of them.

So yeah. Look forward to that.

Including quoted sections, the discussion is just over 45k words in length with an additional 2k in additional tidbits. Yep. You heard that right, the discussion of Ch.15(Family, Part Two) is longer than the chapter itself!

Needless to say, I’ll have to try splitting it into two halves—that blasted curse never ends, I swear! Though it helps I still need to go throughout the thing anyway to make sure I did indeed discuss everything and that it’s presented coherently. Only reason I haven’t done that yet is I wanted to get this update to you guys as soon as possible.

Which returns us to the true topic of today: This should be the second-to-last update regarding the “Writing of The Bonds of Love.” For the next and final one will come after I finish the bloody thing once and for all!

And thankfully: There’s only the Epilogue(Love) to go.

THANK! GOODNESS!

As for when that’ll be…? While I make no promises, my hope is to finish discussing it by New Year’s. Now, that doesn’t mean the “Writing of…” itself will come out before then, considering I’ll still need to do one last sweep through everything to make sure it’s all up to snuff, but once that too is accomplished, then I’ll at last be able to provide the final update, alongside a proper release date.

So yeah. We’re in the home stretch now, my friends! Just a little longer to go!

In other news, I’m relieved to say I’m doing fairly better where the anxiety is concerned. It’s not exactly gone—I doubt it ever will be anytime soon—but it’s thankfully been a far lesser nuisance in recent times than it usually has been. My only hope now is it stays that way.

Octopath Traveler 2 was announced, and that has me unbelievably hyped! Sonic Frontiers, meanwhile, has dragged itself out of the initial mire of cynicism that plagued its announcement, and has gotta go fast become yet another game I and many others are eager to see and experience for ourselves. And do I really need to say anything about Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 Tears of the Kingdom, the present day Persona trilogy being ported to all consoles, and the mere existence of Xenoblade Chronicles 3?

And all of this couldn’t have happened at a more fortuitous time, for a friend of mine has been exhausting themselves trying to sway me into finally acquiring myself a Nintendo Switch, and don’t tell them I said it, but…? They succeeded.

‘Course, that’ll be a debacle for another time.

And before I wrap things up, I wanted to draw attention to this:

As well as the adjacent playlist.

For those interested in the Persona series, this is someone’s phenomenally inspiring work to analyze the entirety of the fourth mainline game, from the related Japanese religious mythos to every major character and their significance to the game’s overall themes. As a massive fan of Persona 4, this is all I could ever wish for and more, and as someone also in process of doing a giant analysis—of my own work, granted, but still—it’s a huge source of relief and motivation.

But I won’t deny: The main reason I wanted to link this is the creator of the analysis, Hiding in Private, has also made a video admitting to their fears that all the work they put into this monumental behemoth of passion—according to them, an entire year of their life spent pouring every last fiber of their blood, sweat, and tears into it—will fall victim to obscurity and disregard.

And, well? I relate HARD to that fear… Thus, I felt an obligation to provide at least some awareness to their project, even if this was the most I could in that regard. Yeah, I know it’s not about MLP, and I know it’s a long video—I’m barely an hour into it myself, and I certainly recommend watching it via Youtube itself rather than the above embed—but nevertheless.

The work they put into it is undeniable, and they deserve to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are deserving of the utmost commendation and respect. So please, go ahead and show them all the support you can, maybe even spread awareness of their analysis as well if you're able. If you can’t do that or are just not interested in Persona, let alone someone’s 10+ hour-long analysis of it, that’s okay too; I thank you for your time reading this section regardless.

Anywho, that’s about all I had to say for now. Thank you all once again for your patience with how long the “Writing of…” has taken me, and I hope you’re all still looking forward to when I can finally release it proper!

For now, though, I’ll leave you all with one final preview for the “Writing of The Bonds of Love.” And as you all likely know by now, the following excerpt will be included in the final version of the “Writing of…” and is subject to change should I decide to edit it.

But if you think you’re getting a peak at the newly finished discussion of Ch.15(Family, Part Two), you’re crazy. No. Instead, I’ll give you a glimpse of one of the very first things the “Writing of…” will go over:

There are many things, both big and small, about The Bonds of Love I am proud of and just as many things I’m ashamed of. But I believe that, objectively speaking, my single greatest achievement with T.B.O.L. was portraying a genuinely healthy romantic relationship.

I’m beyond ecstatic I got that part right because—believe it or not—this was my first foray into the Romance genre. I’m still a newbie author, and Romance has never been a particular favorite of mine. But I had hinted at Gallus-Stream at the end of A.D.F.F., so I obviously had to expand on it. And I intended to do so by following a pretty strict guideline on things not to do.

1) No needless, constant, “Flirtatious” bickering.

2) No “Why U No Twust Meee!?” nonsense.

3) No “Will They, Won’t They?” junk.

4) And above all else: No third party love rivals!

Technically, none of these tropes are inherently bad. They’re tropes for a reason after all, and that’s because they’re great conflict creators. However, I think it’s also fair to say they’re severely overused. And personally speaking, I dislike these types of story beats in general anyway, so from the very beginning I was dead-set on not using them.

Of course, it’s not like I didn’t entirely refrain from indulging them every so often like with Prince Guy from Ch.14-15(Family). But for the most part, I actively avoided them.

“Gallus and Silverstream love each other, so let them love each other and have any conflict between them come as a result of who they are as creatures and whatever personal flaws they may have.” — This was the rule I set for myself regarding their romance, and I stuck to it, writing Gallus and Silverstream as creatures who simply care about each other and enjoy spending time together.

And isn’t that the basis for any good relationship?

There are several other little additions I made to this aspect of the story we’ll get into later, but regarding the overall love story between Gallus and Silverstream, I’m really, really happy to know I did their relationship justice.

And there ya go. I figured it’d be appropriate that the last of these previews concerns the romance of our beloved lovebirds themselves. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Now then, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go help my grandmother pass out Halloween candy tonight, and afterward, put the finishing touches on Ch.15(Family, Part Two)’s discussion. From there, I'll begin work on the one for the Epilogue(Love), and after that...?

Stay safe, everyone, and have a happy Halloween! 🎃

Comments

[Darkevony]

I only began reading it shortly after I finished Diary of an A.I. and I’m roughly 4 chapters in now. It’s been a pleasure to go through. On a good day with enough time, I can average a chapter at best since I’m a slow reader and life keeps me busy with my own work and job. I apologize if I won’t have much to say in the interim, but you can bet I’m enjoying it so far. Which reminds me... There, added it to my library. I already feel like I might need to elevate it in my library to a golden standard, but I’ll wait to finish the story through.

I appreciate the monumental effort you’re taking in considering all of these things. I have no shortage of respect for the sheer amount of work that went into each chapter. The word count alone speaks for itself, and reading your blog has given me a sense of just how much consideration you put into your story. Writing a saga certainly isn’t easy!

I have a story dedicated to the idea that there are always more things to an authored book than meets the eye. Considerations, break-downs, analysis, just general mulling over of ideas, drafts we scrap, and so much more that a reader can never understand from a surface-level viewing of something. To that end, I’m quite happy to see this type of blog post where you detail a lot of your processes. I might not be at the part of the story where I understand everything you wrote here, but I’m sure I’ll read back through it once I do and get a good sense of your headspace at that time.

On another note, although I personally have never touched the Persona series, my discord friend group has and I’ve been exposed to it vicariously through them. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it if I pass it along to them. The least I can do is sit down to listen to the points being said in that video by leaving it on for viewing material when I eat or getting ready for bed. I often watch reviews and analysis videos of media I’ve never consumed mostly because it makes for a great way to get into the know of a fandom, as well as listening for things I can take away to aid in my own writing. Analyzing the analysis, so to speak.

I’m not just saying that either. Have seen probably over a hundred hours of Sonic game analysis by now, even if I’m so far detached from being a fan of the blue hedgehog myself. Let’s not even talk about other franchises/ general reviews. Some of my favorites definitely come from Noodle the animator and RadicalSoda.

[Summer Script]

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I only began reading it shortly after I finished Diary of an A.I. and I’m roughly 4 chapters in now.

Whoops, sorry for the light spoiler then, with the excerpt(s).

I apologize if I won’t have much to say in the interim

No worries, I usually don't comment on stories until I read the whole thing too, and even then, I'm usually too shy to actually comment anyway.

you can bet I’m enjoying it so far.

There, added it to my library

Thank you, once again, for the Favorite!

I already feel like I might need to elevate it in my library to a golden standard, but I’ll wait to finish the story through.

I hope you'll find it worthy of such commendation.

I appreciate the monumental effort you’re taking in considering all of these things. I have no shortage of respect for the sheer amount of work that went into each chapter. The word count alone speaks for itself, and reading your blog has given me a sense of just how much consideration you put into your story. Writing a saga certainly isn’t easy!

I have a story dedicated to the idea that there are always more things to an authored book than meets the eye. Considerations, break-downs, analysis, just general mulling over of ideas, drafts we scrap, and so much more that a reader can never understand from a surface-level viewing of something. To that end, I’m quite happy to see this type of blog post where you detail a lot of your processes.

Thank you for saying this especially! Truth be told, I only went through with this "Writing of..." thing specifically because I didn't want to leave all that extra information, subtext, and subplots to be completely unknown, all that work and consideration having been reduced to mere secrets forever lost to time.

I’m sure they’ll appreciate it if I pass it along to them. The least I can do is sit down to listen to the points being said in that video by leaving it on for viewing material when I eat or getting ready for bed

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the video too.

I often watch reviews and analysis videos of media I’ve never consumed mostly because it makes for a great way to get into the know of a fandom, as well as listening for things I can take away to aid in my own writing. Analyzing the analysis, so to speak.

Likewise.

Have seen probably over a hundred hours of Sonic game analysis by now

Also likewise.

Some of my favorites definitely come from Noodle the animator and RadicalSoda.

Some my faves are from KingK, J's Reviews, SomecallmeJohnny, and in recent times, Bickuribox12.

Thank you again for commenting on this Post and for reading and enjoying T.B.O.L. so far!