Okay my birthday actually falls on a Tuesday, which are my busiest days so I might have to post this the day before or after. Happy 26th!
Chapter 63/Appendix 1: Behind the Scenes
I first discovered this site for TMNT fanfics, back in 2012. And I just ate up the "protective big brother" genre. I love it, it's beautiful. All those stories give me life. I'm a huge sucker for sibling relationships. And around that point I had started to become obsessed with the Koopalings. I mean, a team of 7 or 8 siblings? Yes please! And so I started thinking of ways to contribute to that theme with these crazy Koopas.
Back when I started writing Chapter 1, I had only intended on this being a Roy-centric fic, and I had nothing planned for the main antagonist.
I had also originally planned on hiding the number 64 in each chapter but I quickly gave up on that. Didn't stop me from putting it in on occasion. Just not for each chapter.
For each Koopaling's section, I had planned to have them saved by someone who would be able to connect with them. Roy related to Mario in terms of big brother instincts. Koops' confidence issues helped him connect with Lemmy. Ludwig reacted strongly to Pauline's trust of Donkey Kong despite DK dragging her into dangerous situations.
I never planned for the whole Thousand-Year Door party joining the story, but I love them all so I just had to throw them all in. Flurrie in particular doesn't get enough love for her personality — I was a theatre kid in high school so a lot of my closest friends had similar flairs for dramatic speech patterns. I didn't originally plan to have Koopie Koo tag along either, but there's not enough wholesome boyfriend-girlfriend depictions between her and Koops in the fandom, so I wanted to amend that as well.
I originally wanted Ludwig and Wendy to end up in Sarasaland with best princess, but two problems arose for that plan well before I even finished Lemmy's section. 1) I had no idea how to shoehorn a connection between Daisy and Ludwig. 2) I would have needed a lot more OCs for the connection to even work. So I'm glad I went with Pauline. I didn't even need Kraig and Blue Koopa, but I just wanted someone for Pauline to interact with while Luds was still out of commission. I never really planned on Kraig and Blue to stick around, but after I established that they had family in Darkland, and that they were both barred from their jobs, I figured there was nowhere else for them to go but on the adventure. In fact, even after establishing Kraig as part of the main cast, I hadn't planned on adding Blue to the story yet. But she's a Ninjakoopa, so of course she was going to jump in. I also never intended to ship Kraig and Blue but ALL ABOARD THE S.S. BLUEDOC! Yes, they make it past that first cup of coffee. I just made up that ship name now.
I came up with the concept for the Umbra towards the end of Lemmy's section of the first act. Everything about Orphan specifically, except for his name. When he was formed, his goals, how he gained power, his Penumbra in all the Koopalings except Junior and even the one in Luigi, and even how he would be pacified but not eliminated. Everything. And then almost immediately after, I learned about the Bittercold from Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, which is also an evil entity that fed off and perpetuated negative emotions. Funny coincidence. Also a funny coincidence, I hadn't realized that the Umbra are personifications of PTSD until AmethystGoldenwind pointed it out in a review. I never even considered it, but everything lines up. Even the solution of warmth and love to help pacify it fits. It's too perfect. So I decided to have Pom Pom outright call it that in Chapter 54: Accelerated Conference.
Now let's talk about The Promise. This part I had always had planned since Chapter 1 in 2013! I always planned Bowletta being heavily involved. In fact, my first publishing of Steel-Eyed Wish actually said her name outright, but I since changed the line to "the brothers he had sworn to protect since…" and simply replaced Cackletta's name with an ellipsis. No point in spoiling things! Also gave one possible explanation as to why Junior was absent from Superstar Saga — he was 1 year old. I bet he was stinkin' cute back then. But I digress. I came up with the whole thing with the Nomore Spell later. I don't remember how much later, but obviously it was before I wrote Ludwig's section of the first act. Unlike Orphan whose name I only came up with in the last half of the fic, Nomore was always the name for the spell. Oh and speaking of spells, I named the Felnas spell from Chapter 16: Nothing Left directly after the Mask of Disruption from Bionicle, where it made a power or ability of the target go haywire, chosen by the mask's user, often with fatal results to the target.
I'd always planned on Lemmy pulling rank there too, with the same shocked reactions from his brothers. Showed he wasn't messing around. And for him to be the reason for Iggy's brain condition. Originally, it was the zany insanity we see in games, but I really don't know how to write insanity. I tried in Lemmy's first act, but I quickly did away with that after I came up with the Umbra and Penumbra, making it an active attack from Orphan. Oh! And while I'd always intended Cackletta to be the reason Iggy's brain broke because his mind was too powerful to brainwash otherwise, that was even before I came up with the Umbra. And I just now realized that means it was originally going to be completely Lemmy who told Bowletta to break him, not Orphan speaking through Lemmy's mouth. So I just now realized that I would have needed to find a way to cheer Lemmy up while having him be right to blame himself. Yikes. I had always planned on Lemmy healing Iggy's mind at the end there, but the more I think about this, the more I realize there's a good chance Lemmy would have still been hating himself up to that point had I not come up with this villain. Which means in my little fun chapter where they captured me, Lemmy would still be unhappy about his mopey story counterpart. He'd still like me on principle of being Lemmy, but still. He's supposed to be the happy Koopaling.
Originally I wanted the final battle to be the Castle, but I didn't want to cause even more destruction. And I especially didn't want to write all that. So I moved it to the special meeting place, since that made it personal to Junior. Which reminds me, before coming up with the Umbra, I never planned on having Junior be a central plot point aside from Roy protecting him in his first chapter, but I'm happy with it, since it also helped me give Ludwig a central goal.
But let's get back to that final battle. I was writing it by the seat of my pants, trying to just figure out how everyone's abilities could come into play while still being able to back them into enough of a corner to force Ludwig to use that spell to make his, Lemmy's, and Roy's magic overload and kick Orphan's tail. Which is also always planned since I first came up with Orphan, but originally it had a twist. The spell was originally supposed to be activated by reciting words to a lullaby that Clawdia had always sung to the kids, and that Ludwig had sung to Junior in Four Years Ago. Which also was supposed to be sung and recited to bring Ludwig, Lemmy, and Roy back after they vanished, right after those three had an encounter with their mother telling them how proud she was of them, but it wasn't time for them to go yet. But I simply could not come up with words that could work in both scenarios, nor could I come up with justifications for how the remaining Koopalings could have figured out that the lyrics would bring their oldest brothers back. So I just scrapped that plan altogether. Equilibrium seemed like a much better and less corny route to take. Plus I got to have a little fun with the author's note there, instead of splitting that into yet another chapter like I'd originally planned. Yup, it was supposed to end on a cliffhanger right after they said that last "We love you" and the chapter after that was supposed to involve more crying, then reading Kamek's book of forbidden spells as everyone learned just how powerful Clawdia's lullaby actually was, then the kids setting the words in action together to reunite the family. Can you imagine?
Oh yeah, when Ludwig, Lemmy, and Roy were magically powered up, I imagined them looking kind of like how Dialga and Palkia look on the start screen of the original Pokémon Diamond and Pearl games.
Lastly, that finale was always planned. With Mario, Luigi, and Peach becoming legal guardians of the Koopalings, and everyone agreeing to keep the kidnappings going as a training regiment and admittedly fun recreational activity. That last cheesy line and the idea for the end credits and Super Mario 64 ending theme was also always planned. I went back and forth on who was supposed to say "Wait, now?" and who would drag that Koopaling along. It wasn't always Ludwig and Jr doing that exchange. Oh! And Wendy was supposed to still be in a wheelchair with two broken legs, but I had no reason not to get her healed on the way back to Darkland.
On that note, happy birthday to me! I'm 26 now. Next bonus chapter will be on this fic's 10th anniversary, in January. I have a lot of time to write some hilarious outtakes.
