Interview#3: Bhaalspawn
In the same TV set as before, we see Rosie, accompanied by Sophie.
"Hello, I'm Rosie Kennedy, " said the toddler, cheerful. "I was chosen again to host this interview."
"And I'm Sophie Kennedy, the other host chosen," interjected Sophie. "Tonight we will interview an author known by practically everybody in the Family Guy section: Bhaalspawn!"
A young boy with long black hair entered the stage, welcomed by an applause, as usual.
"Welcome, Bhaal," said Rosie. "And thanks for choosing me to do the interview!"
"Same here!" said Sophie.
"You're welcome," said Bhaal. "Alright, let's do this!"
"Right to the point, huh?" asked Rosie. "Well, we're not going to make you wait anymore."
"As usual, we open the interviews with the guests talking about themselves, and more precisely, books, movies, comics, etc they like, so go ahead," said Sophie.
"I enjoy classic books like "My Side of the Mountain" and "Where the Red Fern Grows", but I've also shown interest in more direct books like "Arthas: Rise of the Lich King". I don't watch a lot of movies, there's just too much crap, but I have enjoyed The Taking of Pelham 123, Red Eye, Jumper, Revenge of the Sith, Legion, I am Legend, New Moon, Book of Eli, Boot Camp, Max Payne, and The Time Traveler's Wife."
"What? You like New Moon?" asked Rosie in shock. "We all thought that you hated Twillight."
"I do. Sometimes sequels are better than the originals, go figure," said Bhaal with a shrug. "As for TV Shows, obviously I watch a lot of Family Guy, but I also watch Two and a Half Men, Friends, That 70's Show, and South Park. CSI can also be good at times, but those times are rare for me. I avoid reality TV as much as I can, and stick with light hearted comedy. The last thing I need in my life is more misery."
"Let's continue," said Sophie. "Your favorite hobby?"
"Several actually. I'm a duelist. I take part in competitions involving melee combat. Personally, I enjoy dual swords when fighting. I also make video games, and have delved into the world of animation. Lately I've been randomly animating Virtual Season episodes."
"Now let's talk about fanfiction," said Rosie. "Why did you start writing fanfiction?"
"I got into writing fanfiction about several months after joining . Ever since I was little I enjoyed writing, but the pre-production made it less interesting for me (Creating characters, a setting, a general consensus for the plot) and noticed that FanFiction allowed me to skip much of that and get right to what I like best: The Plot."
"Come on, that's exactly the best part of writing a story!" said Rosie.
"For an experienced writer, yes," Bhaal stated, "But for someone just starting out, it can be very difficult and painful."
"Well, apparently, he doesn't share your opinion," said Sophie. "Okay, next question: how did you find this website?"
"This is so embarrassing, but I found this site by googling "Kim Possible Stories". Yes, my first fandom was Kim Possible, go ahead and laugh already!"
Rosie and Sophie burst into uncontrollable laughter. Doubled over, they tried to get ahold of themselves.
… you done?" Bhaal smirked, "Alright then. I dropped that fandom quite quickly, and never wrote anything for it."
(A/N: Did you see that I wrote a Winx Club fanfic a few weeks ago? Talk about embarrasing fandoms...)
"You see this question coming: which are you favorite Family Guy fanfics?" asked Rosie.
"Personally, my favorites are The Spellbook and Griffin's Eleven. Not much else worth mentioning. The Spellbook was actually the first big fic I read on this site, and it's format and storytelling methods are what gave me the inspiration to write my own story in the same format. Griffin's Eleven is a big laugh. It's really enjoyable, and I only regret not getting into it earlier."
"We're sure that the authors of said stories will feel praised," said Rosie.
"Okay, time to talk about your own story, Tale of The Valkyre: What sparked its creation? Did the story came out like you originally planned, or you made some changes while writing it? Why did you change its name?"
"While writing Whispering Illusion, I had an idea for a novel about the life of a girl with a Guardian Angel. The basic idea came from an old Disney Sitcom called "Teen Angel", in which a boy, responsible for his best friend's death, gets to see his old friend again when he becomes his Guardian Angel. It was really funny, and heart felt at times. It aired simultaneously with another sitcom called "You Wish" in early 2001." Bhaal explained.
"Cool," said Sophie.
"I had a bit of trouble getting past some of the Pre-Production, so I decided to recycle my Whispering Illusion Characters, and that's what sparked me killing Matt at the end. The epic prologue for it, with Matt storming God's office and flattening her until she helped him, came from an American Dad episode that aired a week earlier."
"I decided to change it's name after re-reading some of the Debate Thread posts for it, and realized that Ander was right. The first had little to do with the second, and calling it a "2" seemed rather redundant. So I changed it's name to it's video game title, something I had intended to do ever since making the game. A lot of the story didn't come out as I had hoped or planned it would. A person can have all the great ideas in the world, but getting them to work in practice is a whole different ballgame, and you become littered with obstacles you have never anticipated."
"Boy do we know that," Rosie grimmaced.
"One big problem is that the humor is very dialogue reliant, like many standard sitcoms. So without being able to detect subtle tone of voice changes, or expressions of the characters, it makes a lot of the humor either fall flat, or some people simply not get it. A prime example was in Jaina's Innocence, where Jaina's line "Take me home, you pig!" wasn't quite understood by some of the readers."
"When I animate the episodes, and do all the voice recordings and put it all together, it's MUCH better than the text version, and much funnier."
"Interesting," said Rosie. "Ander, as well as many other people, would like to see those animated episodes, they look great, despite he may not like the story."
"Yeah, shame copyright laws don't let me upload them to Youtube," said Bhaal, then mumbled, "F(bleep)king Fox."
"Let's keep going," said Sophie. "Any chapter idea you had to scrap?"
"Oh god, many," said Bhaal. "One idea was early in the story, around Chapter 18, where Matt's adoptive parents died, and Meg and Matt decided to adopt his little sister, Alyssa. It didn't quite go through. I tried it again after Meg's miscarriage, as kind of a bridge to that plot, but again, it didn't turn out very good, and it's scrapping is what caused such a change in persona after Meg's Miscarriage (the lack of grief in the next chapter).
Also, many ideas for the latest season were scrapped. A lot of my initial ideas, such as Frustrated Libidos, had been deleted because I couldn't get them working. I offer them up to either Malcolm or Ander if they would like to try and make them work."
"Now let's talk about the OCs of said story," said Rosie. "What was behind the creation of Matt Ryder and Jaina? From all your OCs, which is your favorite?"
"Funny story about the both of them. I had originally planned to recycle my OC Kevin Cortles from my Animal Magnetism Series into Whispering Illusion, but quickly needed to change the name after realizing that the canon already had a Kevin, and that would have distracted from his character. Although on reflection, maybe that would have been a good thing. Matt is a carbon copy of my own personality, because I felt that it would rebound perfectly off the Canon Character personalities. And I think it still could, if I could just get the Canon Personalities to work on paper.
Jaina is based largely off my own daughter, Emily Gaudet. Everything from Pre-Time Skip Jaina is taken from Emily. Her adorable nature, her clinginess, her general outsider tone.
Teen Jaina is based off simply a fun-loving girl who has a very bizarre sense of humor. As such, her pranks and mind-fuckery... oh wait, can I swear here?"
Rosie nodded.
"Thanks," said Bhaal, "her pranks and mind-fuckery make her come off as a bit of a slut sometimes."
"Out of all my OC's, Jaina is obviously my favorite." finished Bhaal.
"What about Jac?" asked Sophie.
"Who?"
"Nevermind" replied Sophie. "Next question. Do you have any plans for future fics?"
"Oh, sure," said Bhaal, eager to talk about it. "I've been trying to write a new Virtual Season based on a few of the authors on this board. The plot features us getting jobs on Family Guy, and the reactions of living together. Kind of like Friends meets Family Guy and Two and a Half Men. It will feature strange situations, episode titles being lines, and cutaways. However, so far the pilot isn't going very well. I've written and re-written it over twelve times and can't get an intro plot working. But the first episode that sets the scene is always the hardest.
I'm also working on an Original Fic called Daughter. It's about an IRS Agent who, after being forced to close down an orphanage, adopts one of the remaining orphans, a little girl. I'm writing it in both novel, and screenplay formats.
Lastly, this in on the bottom of my list, but I'm working on a re-write of Whispering Illusion 1. I want it to be longer, more detailed, and (if I can) a little less serious. I'm also tweaking dialogue so it sounds a little less robotic, and a little more human. I was coming off a crappy Pokemon fic when I wrote that."
"Now tell us what do you expect to see in a Family Guy fanfic," said Sophie.
"I expect to see the work of someone who has taken great care in what they're writing. I want to see a story that has had all it's aspects thought out carefully, and has characters I can endear myself to.
I also don't want to see someone shackling themselves to the Canon too much. While ripping off the old jokes can net you great traffic, writing your own Family Guy Style jokes (while incredibly difficult) is much more rewarding." said Bhaal.
"Interesting answer," said Rosie. "Now let's talk about Family Guy itself; which are your favorite/less favorite characters?"
"I really like Peter and Stewie in the show itself. Their personalities are perhaps some of the funniest things I've ever seen. Peter is a bumbling idiot who, while aware of the world around him, isn't quite sure on how things are supposed to work. Some of his situations are so riduculious that you can't take them seriously, and respond with "Only Peter."
Stewie takes great pleasure in humiliating people for his own amusement, and bending any possible rule that could prevent him from aquiring his goals. On the whole, he is the kind of person who sees other people as pawns to use for his own amusement of any kind… hang on, I'm gonna write this down. I think I can finally write a Canon Adhered, non rip-off Stewie. And Bitch-Stewie, I like Bitch-Stewie."
My least favorite characters are Brian and Meg, for reasons I simply will not re-iterate.
I think I can honestly say that I'm the only member of the forum who watches Family Guy with an unbiased manner. I laugh at the Meg Bashing Jokes, because they're just so ridiculous that you can't possibly take them seriously."
"There are still some people who wonder why did you choose to follow the Meg/OC trend if you dislike Meg," said Sophie.
"Well I didn't hate her at the time," replied Bhaal, "But over the last few months, Meg's my least favorite of all the characters."
"Now tell us about your favorite/less favorite episodes."
"My favorite episode of Family Guy is Go Stewie Go. It was funny, and the only episode that I have ever been able to look at and say "That was cute." I have it on my ipod."
"I hate that Julie bitch," growled Sophie.
"Ha! My least favorite episodes? Probably anything Brian-centric. They're just not funny, since Brian is such a pretentious douche. The only good Brian Episodes are the ones where he's being ridiculed and humiliated."
"Okay, that was all," said Rosie. "Is there anybody special you want to mention?"
"Several. There's Liana Gaudet, my ex-girlfriend, who without I wouldn't have gotten as many ideas as I have.
Emily Gaudet, my little girl, who gave me the inspiration for Jaina and gave me ample amounts of time to write by keeping me up at all hours of the night.
Ander Arias, for getting me the traffic I needed to get going and kept up the help even after abandoning the story. And who doesn't take issue when I blatently rip-off ideas from him.
Satine89, who leaves VERY detailed reviews and allows me to more easily see the flaws of certain chapters. Though she hasn't done it lately.
Tanadra, my dedicated Beta, who without my story would be littered with typos from typing at 240 words a minute.
And lastly… Liana-Wolfe, who's silly nature and ridiculious responses to things keep me chuckling enough to keep writing jokes.
Well that's all, thanks for having me."
"And thank you for taking this interview," said Rosie. "On our next installement, we will interview Satine89, so don't miss it!"
"This is a fanfic, not a TV show," pointed out Sophie. "They can read it whenever they want after it's posted."
Rosie glared at Sophie coldly.