A small interview with Flammenwerfer

HB: Recommended Listening Music … From the deep reaches of space, I called forth the galaxy’s mightiest writer: Flammenwerfer! And today we’re gonna find out more about his awesome story: Metroid Equis. Flammenwerfer, how are you?

Couldn't be better, actually! Thanks for asking. How about yourself?

HB: I’m doing well. First question, what’s the origin story of your user name?

Oddly enough there was no special origin or significance to it. As I was learning German, I stumbled across the name while reading up on some history and I had to use it. Since my fanfiction.net day's, it's stayed with me.

HB: How did you get into MLP:FiM?

Around the time when the first season dropped, I forget how far along it was but all over the internet, I was seeing captioned reaction pictures and after a while, I just decided to say 'Alright, let's see what this is all about.' Lo and behold, I liked the story, the characters, and everything, really. The rest is history.

HB: Who is your favorite pony?

Princess Luna. No questions asked. I even have a black silhouette/sprite decal for my car!

HB: Luna you say? I never would have guessed. So, do you have a favorite shipping?

Not really. I enjoy all shippings if the story is good. I have been a bit partial to TwiSpike as of recently, though.

HB: Are there any authors, fanfiction or otherwise, that you look up to?

Fanfiction-wise, I have to give the nod to Tatsurou, both in stories and in general. His ability to formulate incredible ideas is magnificent! In fact, he and I cooperated in many areas. Outside of fanfiction, not particularly. I have favorite books, but no author I constantly adhere to. I do enjoy the writing style of Earnest Hemingway.

HB: Those are my default questions, but now its time to get personal. As I’ve said in a previous interview, I am not a fan of crossovers or human stories. But when I saw Metroid in the title and a picture of Samus, I had to give it a shot. Tell me, what made you decide to make a Metroid crossover?

Metroid is my favorite series/franchise of all time. When I got into MLP, I, naturally, wanted to see if there were any crossovers. To my shock, there weren't many at all. Some weren't too well written, others had a different premise/take to the Metroid universe, and another, I found, was actually fairly good (see Metroid: A Hunter in Equestria. I think you may know this one). I had all these visions of how I saw Samus interacting with everypony, what could go on, the enemies and powerups she'd collect. They say that if you want to read a story that doesn't exist, you must write it. So, I knew what I had to do. I drafted the first chapter (which has since been edited as the story went on, and I feel requires a better edit to 'modernize the quality'), submitted it, and the rest is history.

HB: Did you spend a long time sitting on the idea? How long did it take you to plot out the basic story and how much do you feel it changed from your original plan?

I wrote the first chapter just to see if I could do it. I only planned the beginning at the time. I mulled on it and kept it in my files until I said 'screw it' and actually submitted it. Oddly enough, I had no intention for it to gain that much traction. I was more than content with making it a side project but when I saw that people were flocking to it (either to praise or severely criticize), I knew I had to continue it as a main story project. I plan all of my stories that I'm serious about like this: I know the beginning, I know the end, and I come up with important events that need to be present. Then, I just fill in the details however I see fit to connect the dots. In fact, a lot of major parts of the story were completely improvised. There were a few things that I wanted to insert that did not ultimately make it into the final story, so as for deviation from my original plan... eh, not so much. As I said, a lot of major scenes in the story were thought up of on the fly, so there wasn't a whole master plan to deviate from, aside from my already set parameters.

HB: I will be blunt with you. I love Metroid. I can’t speed run any of the games, but I still absolutely love the franchise. And it is obvious from your crossover that you are too. So would you care to share your history with Metroid series?

Metroid, the series, has been with me since I could pick up a controller. In fact, Metroid Prime was the FIRST, EVER video game I played. Throughout my expanding love of titles like, Halo, Call of Duty (not so much anymore, heh), Star Wars, Ace Combat, etc., Metroid was always the only series I would willingly plug in my older consoles and pick up my GameBoy SP to play. It started with Metroid Prime, then I got Metroid Fusion soon after. Then it went to Prime II and Zero Mission (as well as playing the Original NES Metroid you can unlock when beating Zero Mission). I was able to emulate Metroid II eventually, and then I borrowed Corruption and Other M from a friend to play them (even though I find the Wii controls infuriating in general). The only one I haven't played is Super Metroid because I've been too lazy to emulate it. So, I watched a full playthrough, so it's something! My favorite of them all would have to be Prime 1, either due to first game bias or due to me liking it generally better than the others, though Zero Mission was a very close second (though, I'll still never forget the feelings of dread throughout the entirety of Fusion). Least favorite, I'll have to give the nod to Other M, as many would, without a surprise. The game, to me, served to link Super Metroid and Fusion. No more, no less. I did read the mangas and in fact, I incorporated their material into Metroid Equis. They're excellent reads.

HB: Your first game was Metroid Prime?! Nice. Mine was the original Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt for the NES, but I think you lucked out with Prime. Let’s talk about your characterization of Samus Aran, the Universe’s greatest bounty hunter. We don’t have a lot to go off of regarding her personality from the games (except for Other M, but I try to ignore that as much as possible). What made you portray her the way you did?

This is a VERY good question. I had played all of the games by now, so I had developed what I thought was her personality. Through the Primes, she doesn't speak, so she's clearly the silent protagonist who has her head straight, is focused, oriented, stoic, and knows what she has to do. She never hesitates to dive into battle, and even when she's confronted with foes several times her size, she barely so much as flinches; 'Not taking any of your shit' kind of tough. She's seen unbelievably horrible things to the point where she is rarely surprised. Through Zero Mission and Fusion, she had some dialogue, as we know. From that, I gathered that she's practical. She doesn't sugar coat anything. She's to the point, she's honest with herself (most of the time), and often has a benevolent, yet cynical outlook on things. Can't blame her for that. I read the mangas last, which expanded on her personality incredibly well. As a young girl, she was hot headed, headstrong (still is to some degree), and often doesn't know her own strengths. I amalgamated this as best as I could with her 'aged personality' from the Primes and beyond (of course, rewriting Other M in my head). Thus, I ended with what I felt was the Samus of the present, what I feel is portrayed by the Primes and the past (up to Echoes, since Equis takes place immediately after).

HB: Love the answer! Speaking of things I love, I personally love the attention to detail you put into making it feel like a Metroid game, particularly a Metroid Prime game, what with the scanning. Was it difficult to get that tone across in your writing?

Surprisingly, no! This stemmed from where I wanted to place this story: between two Primes. Thus, I could, in fact, write her as I feel she would act in the Primes, such as her thought processes, inner monologues, expressions, etc. I specifically wanted to make it feel like a Prime game while incorporating a few elements from the side scrollers. All I had to remember were the characteristics of the Prime games, and apply those when needed: straight forward thinking, environmental elements to aid her, such as statues, new powerups, scan data, energy/ammo recovery, and bosses... especially bosses, boss battles that would test her to the limit. I merely tailored these very ideas to the MLP universe, and attempted to create the same 'game feel' while writing a crossover, and ensuring I preserved as much canon as humanly possible (and interpreting in my own way, where canon about a particular subject is nonexistent or unknown). Adding in optional soundtrack, I feel, helped it along, as well as adding in new dynamics not present in the Prime games, but very well could be.

HB: You make it sound so easy. The Metroid series is near opposite from MLP in the atmosphere. MLP is very bright and full of characters and friends, and the interactions between them. Metroid has always felt cold, gritty, and a very lonely exploration of an alien world. Yet I think you did a good job bouncing between them in Metroid Equis. Did you ever feel you were favoring one side or have trouble balancing the two themes?

Not always, because I would rigorously keep myself in check. I also had to remind myself that this is indeed a crossover. It comes down to: is this a Metroid Story with MLP elements, or an MLP story with Metroid elements? I feel it's the former, but as such, I had to make sure that the ponies were not merely extras: everypony had to play a VITAL role to helping Samus achieve her goals. Of course, she did the grand majority of the fighting as we'd expect, but I had to add in dynamics as well as emphasize the general theme of 'finding friendship’, where the ponies could help her in a both physical, and metaphysical manner. To ensure I favored no side and made sure to balance each other out, I asked myself these two questions while writing: Can Samus actually do what she's doing right now without the ponies? Could the ponies help themselves from this trouble without Samus? If the question to either of those was 'yes' at any point, I'd have A LOT of problems. Dialogue was just the more contentious point, and I just followed the personality example to ensure nothing was 'not believable.'

HB: Again, you set a few ground rules and run with it to success. I’m getting a little bitter hearing how easy it came to you. Let’s fix that. What part of the story would you say you had the most trouble writing?

The most trouble writing? I'd have to say Chapter 30 was the absolute hardest. It took me well over a month to complete because everything was just starting to come together, and I needed to make sure it flowed seamlessly. I will say that the introduction of Federation troops to the ponies was an interesting but pivotal point, and I needed to make sure that it was at least marginally believable.

HB: Well, I believed it, so I guess you succeeded there. Now, Metroid Equis is complete, but I can’t help but notice that new story on your page: Metroid Equis II: Duality. Tell me Flammenwerfer, what compelled you make a sequel?

A sequel had been in the pipeline for about a year (halfway through Equis 1, though not developed by any means). I had been toying with the idea and by the halfway point of Equis, a bunch of readers were passively asking for a sequel come the inevitable end of the story. By the time I knew what I wanted to do, and how EXACTLY I wanted the story to end (despite my initial, vague planning), I knew that I couldn't leave it at that. She had to come back at some point, and the only logical time would be after Fusion. Fusion is the last Metroid game chronologically, and thinking about it, I'd love to tell that story, and I'm having so much fun with it so far!

HB: I am digging the enthusiasm. How do you plan on surpassing Metroid Equis I with your new sequel?

I know for a fact that the sequel will never achieve the upvote/downvote ratio that its prequel has... as is the usual pattern of stories in a series, so I'm not looking for that kind of 'surpassing.' I'm looking for critical acclaim from those who have followed me since the beginning, as well as new readers... readers that could TRULY tell the difference between Equis 2 and 1 in quality (setting stylistic differences aside, as Equis 2 won't have so much of the Prime feel). I want, come the middle and end of Equis 2, for my readers to say 'holy crap... this was SO much better than Equis 1,' and I hope to say that to myself as well. With coordination with Tatsurou to provide the Equis Interlude while I finalized preparations for the sequel (laying necessary groundwork), Duality is healthy and doing incredibly well! Good things are to come, and even though the story will lack a lot of the Prime feel of Equis 1, I still have quite a few surprises up my sleeve!

HB: I look forward to seeing them. One last question: do you have any words of wisdom for other writers?

Write what you like. Practice. The main person you should be writing for is yourself, no one else. Once you have gotten the hang of that, THEN you can start expanding your boundaries and writing things completely out of your comfort zone. All the greatest stories have their HARSHEST critics, so, don't let that deter you from writing. Use it to build upon your weaknesses. Eventually, you must come back to realize my first assertion: write for you.

HB: Thank you for your time. It has been a pleasure interviewing you.

Of course! It's been super fun answering these questions! Thanks a lot for your time!

HB: Everyone, that was the super chill author Flammenwerfer. Please don’t forget to check out his home page: Here. While you’re there, be sure to read Metroid Equis. Once again, thank you everyone for reading. HB signing out.