Commentary
Alright, this is a commentary of both Sympathy for the Devil and Veni, Vidi, Vici. I assume you have read VVV, but if you haven't read 'Devil yet, I really think that you should. These two stories are very heavily entwined. I also reference Kingdom Come so you should probably read that. For all reference, the time chronology is:
Sympathy for the Devil takes place sometime before Halo 1, one or two decades.
Kingdom Come takes place two years after the end of Halo 3.
Veni, Vidi, Vici takes place one year after Kingdom Come, three years after Halo 3.
Personally, I like how Kingdom Come came out. I worked Kimber well, I worked Thantus well, I worked Rtas well, and I worked the colonel well. The only problem in retrospect was the colonel killing Colt. Kalashnikov cold bloodedly shooting his fellow man went against everything that I had done with the character. What I really should have done is Colt jumps him, and Kalashnikov shoots him in self defense or as a reflex. The colonel then goes as far as dismissing some of his guard to get medical supplies for Colt and Savage, because the colonel wasn't meant to be an evil character. I really tried to develop him into, at the very least, a characters who's motivation is understandable and is sympathetic. And then he executes someone, pop, pop. No real reason, just him being…not even a monster…just a dick. What the hell was I thinking? But I did what I did, and I couldn't go back and change it.
As I mentioned, I started writing what would become VVV before I even thought to do 'Devil. I wrote out an opening three chapters, which involved Felicia skipping through the woods as in chapter 1. She stumbles upon Lazarus, and Lazarus sends her off. Chapter two she returns home, tells her parents she saw "a giant vanilla ape" (her not knowing what a Brute is). Her father realizes there is a Brute in the forest, and the story would go as it did with a platoon getting killed, though they would be killed on screen. Chapter three would be a Sangheili coming down and going into the woods. The rest of the story would be allying with the Jiralhanae, fighting the Flood. The Jiralhanae and the Sangheili wouldn't have a prior relationship, and things would be much more tense. But after the third chapter, I just hit a wall and had no idea what to do. I decided the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae had to have a prior relationship or them allying, even against a common enemy of the Flood, just wouldn't work, so I started working on a prequel. Because Sangheili and Jiralhanae just hate each other so badly, that they needed a lot of time to ease their tensions.
The sequel was meant to show two important things: set the stage that the humans were planning to use Flood as weapons, and give a lot of screen time to Jiralhanae and the Sangheili character's relationship to them. Since it was a prequel, I could use Thantus, who was a central character of Kingdom Come. But he couldn't be the central character, since he dies before VVV, so I needed to introduce a Jiralhanae youth, who would most likely be Orff's age (or the Jiralhanae equivalent, I assume Jiralhanae age slower than Sangheili). So Lazar was born.
The italic prologue in the beginning of each chapter: Those were originally going to be said by an anonymous person, and they were originally very minimalist, robotic, like a service report. I couldn't figure out a way for Orff to find out how the humans had the Flood or what their intentions for them were, but this allows the audience to understand. By VVV, Orff either finds out through contacts or deduces what they were doing.
I remembered how disappointed I was with that one scene of the colonel shooting Colt, and I began to think about incorporating him. He was always going to be beaten by Orff in the last chapter, since he mentions he was hurt in the war to Kimber, but the prologue was not going to be attributed to him.
The prologue went through a lot of drafts. Finally I started writing them progressively darker. Chapter 1's is very basic explanation of how they have a sample of Flood. I needed it just to get things out of the way. Chapter 2 is his arguing in favor of such an offensive. Chapter 3 is his willingness to murder innocent in war, his belief that innocence doesn't exist amongst the enemy. I like Chapter 4 because I hope that it shows a level of tragedy to the colonel's character. He is more than willing to sacrifice everything he has: his life, his name, his legacy. He would go down in the history books as a monster. In Kingdom Come, Kimber even pleads with Kalashnikov, mentioning that his raids will be his legacy, which he just shrugs off. He doesn't want glory at all, he wants humanity to be safe. I've read a lot of classical literature where the heroes seem to go to war for no reason other than glory. So the colonel is the opposite of that. Chapter 5 is the main turn of darkness, and his tone kind of shifts. He is fully aware that he is a monster and damnation is inevitable, which is why he's so willing to kill civilians and damn himself. Finally, Chapter 6 really speaks for itself. Kind of the "Dun dun dun!" moment. I always love those.
Lazar is still young enough he hasn't really felt the Sangheili oppression yet. He just sees Orff as a fellow soldier. Sornelus has felt it, and is filled with anger, but struggles to maintain his devotion to duty. Thantus similarly is angry, but he is able to recognize Orff's value and dedication to duty. So the three of them are three dots on the spectrum.
Shifting Lazar to Lazarus was interesting. He's a little rougher, he's cruder, more like a Jiralhanae, yet at the same time has the deep respect for Orff. Orff's changes from 'Devil to VVV: he's calmer, more mature, more adult, and more respectful. Bare in mind, nearly a decade and a half separate the two, they are going to grow. I'm actually thinking of doing an interquel, that will show more evolution of their characters. Perhaps just Orff talking about sympathy for the humans, and Lazarus talking about Sangheili oppression. Them sharing a ship or something.
Lazarus is a difficult character to write. I love Jiralhanae, but you can't make them squeaky clean good guys like you can humans or even Sangheili. He's a Jiralhanae: he's vicious, he's violent, he's cruel and hates humans and Sangheili. At the same time, he has to be sympathetic and likable so that the reader does care about him. The fact that Jiralhanae are not well liked to begin with didn't help matters, since I had to make him extra likable. Where as Orff can be the loner badass, and probably could have killed a few innocent people but would be liked simply because he's a Sangheili, Lazarus had to be brutal, yet complex. Like I did with Rtas in Kingdome Come, I use Kimber to settle these problems. He can be cruel and evil, but at the same time he does show a lot of restraint. I mean, if he blew hard enough she would probably break in half. At times he protects her, but is he protecting her or protecting himself?
Kimber wasn't originally going to be in VVV. Instead, I was going to introduce a Spartan-III, Lisa-106. I wrote all of VVV out with Lisa in Kimber's role, but looking at it, I thought that Kimber's history with Thantus would give her an in with Lazarus, and she would also show her growing admiration for the Sangheili. She's begun to get over her fiancé's death, though still carries those scars. Also, her size is important. A Spartan-III who's 6'8" without armor would be able to hold her own against a Sangheili or a Jiralhanae. Maybe not win, but she would be able to survive a fight for a while at least. I originally made Kimber so small so that Rtas would have complete dominance over her. There was never a time when she wasn't in his mercy. Similarly, both Orff and Lazarus could, if they wanted to, do whatever they want to her. She knows this, and they know this, so it's a bit of stress on both parties. At the same time, Orff is very protective of her, viewing her either as a sister or a daughter, maybe a bit of both. Lazarus' actions are a bit ambiguous, whether he does consciously protect her from harm, or it's just a right place, right time type of thing. I think it's a bit of two.
Ameday was always going to die. He never ever had a chance. It was going to be Major Jones executing him, then Kimber was going to sneak into his room through the ventilation shaft, kill him and make it look like a suicide, then sneak back out. She was going to do this under orders from Lord Hood, and Rtas or Orff wouldn't know about it. In the end I didn't want Jones to commit such an evil act, so instead it was a Sangheili. First, Kimber was going to sneak into his room and kill him, but I wondered, how could she have the strength to position his body to make it look like a suicide. So then I figured Rtas, disgusted by the murder as well as having gained respect for Thantus, aids her. But I didn't want Rtas' involvement to be clear. What did he mean by "I'll handle it, you have to trust me"? Its meant to be open ended. Ask yourself: could Rtas kill one of his own men in such a way? Even if he order Kimber to do it, there is that detachment of him not killing him directly.
Orff went through a lot of drafts. When I was doing VVV (this was before 'Devil was under way and his back-story wasn't solid), he was going to have joined with the Heretics from Halo 2. He survived the Arbiter and Rtas' raid on their colony, and was imprisoned. With the schism, he isn't freed, but is forgotten about in the jail. He is finally freed following the treaty, and accepts a position as black-ops directly under Rtas. Following Kingdom Come, Rtas, Arbiter, and Lord Hood all decide they need a force of peace keepers. Orff would be a disposable agent, already considered a heretic, his betrayal wouldn't be seen as anything surprising. Instead, his bit of shame and glass ceiling came from his association with the Jiralhanae.
Every chapter of VVV was going to open with a dialogue in italics. At first, it was going to be a series of short dialogues, spoken by Orff and to be delivered to his son when he came of age. After I found out about Sangheili father/son relationships, I changed the words around, and it was going to be Lazarus addressing Ameday (even now, Ameday was going to die. He was fucked from the beginning). When I really started writing out 'Devil, I shifted that device to that story, which I think was for the best, since it worked so well. Otherwise I couldn't think of a way to explain how the humans obtained the Flood and what they intended to do with them. I hate that Bungie doesn't explain their stories out too well.
Way back when, after I had just written the first chapter and had no solid idea, Lazarus was going to die. He was going to sacrifice himself, either holding back the Flood until the base is destroyed or throwing himself onto the Gravemind with grenades strapped on his chest. Orff (Kimber wasn't in this draft) was going to be rescued by the Shadow of Intent, only to find out that Ameday had been executed before he even left the colony. The final transmission thing at the very end was going to be Lazarus telling Ameday that everything was going to be alright, that he loved him, and that Orff would protect him, then you were going to find out it was Lazarus speaking. Prior, it would have been ambiguous, with implications to Orff talking, or even the Jones type of character or Rtas or anyone but Lazarus. I didn't use this for a few reasons. For one, I figured that if I keep killing off my Jiralhanae, I'm going to run out of them. I still kind of feel bad for killing Thantus. Similarly, his dying seemed too similar to Thantus. Also, this seemed even more depressing than what I ended up doing, at least immediately. Actually, what I chose is in some ways worse, because Lazarus now has to live with the knowledge of his son's death and live out his days without him. All alone, locked in a cell, mocked and ridiculed by the crew of the Shadow of Intent, until eventually his planet is destroyed and he is put to death.
So, as far as the future goes, the finale of my canon has been and still is Que Sera, Sera. See my profile for details. I've been building towards that this entire time. I have an idea of how to do that story and how it would go, but nothing solid enough to start writing, let alone give you a serious date. The next story I will probably be writing is Justice for All. I've got a few chapters down, but I just can't focus on anything. If you want me to contact you when I get that under way, let me know. And please, leave a lot of purdy reviews to tell me what you think.
Thank you, everyone who's been reading,
-Exilo
