Another round of cuts! · 2:47pm Jul 13th, 2016
Welcome to yet another episode of tales from the cutting room floor!
This time, we have a physical altercation between Firefly and Skywind. The bulk of the source material is too rough to publish, but the idea of the scene has been around since the story's inception. It was originally supposed to be a climactic confrontation between the two where Skywind finally lets his true colors show and Firefly finally gets some catharsis by beating the shit out of him.
I originally wrote Skywind as an incompetent asshole. But as the story was developed, his character started to take more shape as a super straight-laced by the book officer who ran a tight ship. I found that it enriched the story to contrast his tight and methodical demeanor against Firefly's fast and loose instinctual actions and have them clash over methodology rather than efficacy. In his backstory, Captain Skywind is still an asshole, but he's also an uncompromising perfectionist and a brilliant tactician. In a way, that makes him even MORE offensive to Firefly because she can't make fun of his incompetence and laud herself as the better person and soldier. This dynamic worked much better for the story than the initial Skywind concept so I kept it.
As for the fisticuffs cut, I did it because it no longer fit into the story I was writing. Despite it being one of the first scenes outlined, it thematically mimicked another scene from Chapter 13: Demon.
Spoilers: Firefly punching Thunderlane was far more impactful than Firefly punching Skywind because Thunderlane is one of her best friends at that point. The fact that she injured her friend in a fit of rage leaves a much larger mark on the characters and the story than striking a rival in anger. At one point I considered having both in the story but narratively and thematically they stepped on each others' toes, so I ultimately decided to cut the second altercation.
Hope you enjoyed a look into the creative process!
Chapter 15: Megiddo should be out later today. I got a huge burst of inpsiration yesterday so I hammered out what I needed to and I think it can go live after a tiny bit more polish.
