Well, this is the first time I've managed to put anything together in months. I could lay out all the reasons for my being absent for as long as I've been, but what matters is I am in fact still here and trying to still get everything done I have started here on the site. I still intend to finish Freedom's Fall, though I am considering shortening it down from 50 chapters to 40. We'll see though. I hadn't planned on adding this entry and I'm sure some of you will be surprised that I have updated this "story" at all since it has been over a year since I've done so. I have at least two more entries after this planned, along with the remainder of Freedom's Fall before I officially retire from writing new content for the site. This entry just kind of came to me while I was busy with other stuff and I thought you guys might appreciate this one.

This is going to be an opportunity for me to share with you my personal thoughts, feelings, and inspirations for many of the characters and ideas I came up for the Wanderer's Series. I don't have any particular list or order in mind, I'm just going to go as I feel led and I hope you guys enjoy hearing my personal thoughts on the topics below. Be warned that there will be major spoilers below for each of my stories, Freedom's Fall included. Enjoy!


Entry Three: My Personal Thoughts on the Wanderer's Series

Kingdom Hearts 3: Into the Depths of Darkness:

When I was a sophomore in high school, I was going through a major Kingdom Hearts kick. The real Kingdom Hearts 3 had not even been formally announced yet but stories were popping up like wildfire on this site and many people had different takes on how it would go. I was very invested in the return of the Birth by Sleep trio(my favorite characters as most of you know) as well as the role that Lingering Will might play. I read quite a few stories as an anonymous guest before realizing that what I really wanted was a darker story. My relationship to Kingdom Hearts as I have grown up was I had always wanted the series to age with me; to grow darker as the series progressed. As such, I lost my luster for a lot of the Disney worlds chosen over the years. That said I have always been a huge fan of the Final Fantasy franchise, so when I started crafting my own I chose the latter in order to pursue that darker narrative I mentioned.

Many people over the years have complained about the lack of Disney worlds in my series and have criticized me for going way out of the box with entries from other properties like Metal Gear Solid, Dragon Age, and the like. The truth is that I found myself unable to use most of Disney without clashing with the dark tone I wanted. Looking back, I think most of the other franchises I used fit pretty well, with probably the biggest misfire being the Walking Dead world in Beyond the Dark Veil.

Into the Depths of Darkness was my first ever story and I was very proud of it at the time. The introduction of Jack(who I will discuss in much more detail in a bit) was simply to give me a little more creative liberty to do extra things with the plot. I didn't want to do a simple copy and paste of stories others had already done, and so I made something entirely original: a fourth member of the Birth by Sleep gang. Jack's introduction at the time was mixed, but as I was just starting out, most of my early readers liked him well enough to see where I was taking the story. Looking back, I think the only Disney world I used in that story was Olympus, though I used other existing ones from the franchise like Disney Castle, Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, and the like. It was a short story all things considered, but I was proud of it at the time and had enough support to do a second story, a prequel based on my version of Birth by Sleep with Jack's involvement.


Wanderer's Chronicles:

Even though I had not expanded too greatly on Jack as a person in the original story, his past and character were enough to warrant a tale based on his perspective in the alternate Birth by Sleep. I didn't know much going into it on where I wanted Jack to end up, except that he was involved with Xehanort in his youth and wouldn't change the ending of the original game. I used the characters of Jason and Mist to flesh him out a little bit more, establishing the very first glimpses of what the Rikkison lineage would end up being. This was also when I came up with the idea of a dark Jack, who I called Illusion. At the time, I only intended for him to be a phantom, akin to Vanitas, but in the third story I made the admittedly brilliant move of retconning him into Jack's actual twin brother. This move is likely why the series lasted as long as it did, for Marek became the driving force in two following stories. Wanderer's Chronicles went as most people expected, though I was able to add a few wrinkles in along the way. For a prequel, I thought it turned out well enough.


Returning to the Depths of Darkness:

Anyone who has been here long enough will know that Returning was supposed to be my last story, to finish out a trilogy. I spent much of Wanderer's Chronicles building up Illusion as a powerful villain, and revealed him as Marek Rikkison. Jack reunited with Sora and the cast from the games for a bigger Keyblade War than before and upped the stakes. Returning was also when I established the first traces of an idea that would become the Divine Beings. Light, Darkness, and Corruption did appear in this one, but they had not fully become their own characters yet, merely conduits through which Jack, Marek, and Jason drove the plot forward and a plot device to give them extra strength and abilities. Returning also saw me mark the first true death of a character in the series aside from Xehanort and the Organization, Master Yen Sid. I knew someone needed to die in this "last" war as I thought of it at the time. Yen Sid seemed the best choice, as his absence would force Jack and Sora to step up in ways they otherwise would not have. Rayne was also introduced here, along with the idea of a living X-Blade. I found the X-Blade in the games to be very weak and brittle for a supposed "Key above all others", and so I established something truly world bending. The end of Returning saw Jack and Marek freed from the Divine Beings, Rayne supposedly stripped of the X-Blade, and the dawn of a new age. I wouldn't change this ending until much later with the fifth story.


A New Path, A New Wanderer:

My most popular story by a large margin, New Path was something that I put together literally on a whim. At the time I had started multiple small projects as I thought I was done with the big stories after Returning. I did a series of short funnier stories revolving around Terra, Ven, Aqua, and Jack during their apprentice days, along with a Kingdom Hearts and Dissidia crossover that died and I ended up scrapping. But I started thinking about Pierce, who I had very briefly introduced at the end of Returning, and that next generation of Keyblade Wielders. I asked some other authors if they wanted to create a character for my next project, and I got a lot of hits at the time. Two friends of mine gave the templates for Ava and Griffin, and they along with Pierce became the new trio of Keyblade apprentices for the story. I knew that I wanted distance between them and Sora's Generation, so I ended up doing something most people never would have risked: I killed off almost the entire cast from the games, including most of my created characters. To do such a feat, I needed a villain strong enough and memorable enough to defeat Jack, Sora, Terra, Aqua, and everyone else on his own. Thus, I came to Lorans.

Lorans is quite possibly my most memorable villain, due to his feats and the twist reveal of his identity toward the end of the new story. New Path in general had a really strong cast, probably the most diverse set of characters I have ever tried to balance. Along with the three apprentices, I kept Rayne around to show a sibling dynamic with Pierce and I added in Kain Highwind because I love his character and also because of his old friendship with the characters I had killed off. At my friend Herald's request at the time, I added his created character Shin and Final Fantasy's Terra Branford to the main cast, along with Ven who had survived the prologue barely. To finish out the cast, I knew that Pierce would need a new teacher to finish his training, and who better than the previous villain? Thus, Marek became the final member of the team and ended carrying the entire story almost by himself. He ended up being the reason that many saw this as their favorite entry in the series.

Some people called the ending a cop-out, as I used the Ancients to reset the timeline with differences made to the Divine Beings, but I soon realized that I needed to declare this an alternate timeline in order to continue the story threads I had established for the next tale, with Marek taking over as the protagonist.


Beyond the Dark Veil: Finding My Way:

Fresh off of New Path, which was my most popular story due in large part to Marek, I decided to tell a story with him as the main character. I was riding high going into this one, but I ended up being at some of my very lowest points while writing Dark Veil. With the Ancients established at the end of the previous story, I went back in time to just a few years after the end of Returning to tell a new tale. History had been altered, and the previous story would now no longer occur. It wouldn't become irrelevant however, as I made sure in this and the next story.

I knew that I wanted to tell Marek's backstory, because I had always had a story for his past. But how to show his past while setting up for what I again thought would be the finale of the series? I arrived at two answers. The first one was flashbacks, and the second was Eclipse. Aaron Drennan, Eclipse is my personal favorite part of Dark Veil. I love the character that I created with him, and I had a blast putting together everything between him, Marek, and Kalanna. All of the flashbacks are some of my favorite moments in the series.

As for the current day plot, there were definitely some mixed reactions. I confess that at certain points my heart was really not where it should have been. I had grown bored using the same old worlds for the previous four stories, and so I essentially tossed them aside and introduced an entire new slate of places for Marek to go: Dragon Age, Assassin's Creed, Metal Gear Solid, and even Star Wars. Overall, I think many of the worlds worked fairly well, and the ones that did saw a return in United We Stand. The rapport I was able to build between Marek and characters like Aedan Cousland, Solid Snake, and Ezio Auditore I think went a long way toward grounding him as a person. Marek has always been one of the most complex characters for me to write. Everyone loved him, and I loved to write him, but sometimes he was difficult for me, especially in this story.

This story was also the first time I had Dawnomar around for a decent amount of time, and I tried to give characters like Jack, Rayne, Jason, and Sora stuff to do as well. Though this story definitely had its ups and downs for me, I believe that everything with Eclipse, Jack, Marek, and the finale turned out nearly perfect. Ultimately, this story was a way of telling Marek's past while also setting up for something much bigger.


United We Stand: The War for Kingdom Hearts:

With the previous main antagonists being Xehanort, Marek possessed by darkness incarnate, an insane Sora from the future, and a half-Ancient mercenary, how could I up the stakes in the villain department? With the creator of the entire known universe, of course! Maechil Omnivion, head of the Ancient race and crafter of all worlds, was someone I created while working on the early drafts of Dark Veil. By the time I started that one, I had the entire Council and their characters created. I knew they would become the "Organization battles" of United We Stand and I tried very hard to make each of them unique. Unlike previous villains, Maechil actually had the means and the motivation to wipe out the entire known universe, out of his desire to reset the worlds and start anew.

Jack would return as the main protagonist for the first time since Returning. This story was definitely when I was able to humanize Jack the most as a person, dealing with his insecurities and his inabilities. Even after everything he had already accomplished, allowing him to lose needed battles and display personal flaws lent much to his character, I think. United was the biggest story I have ever written and will ever write, given that it took me almost three years to finish it. I tried very hard to make every character matter and give them something to do, and those like Roxas, Xion, Namine, Kairi, Riku, and Aqua definitely had way more screen time than ever before. This was the first time I accurately portrayed a galactic war raging across the entire Realm, and looking back I'm proud that I even added details of all the battles going on that we didn't see.

United ultimately revolved around Jack's struggle to realize he would be the one to stand against Maechil, and we saw a lot of plotlines and character deaths along the way. One of my favorite arcs in the series is the Keyblade Hunter, one that I planned over a year before we even got to it. United was also when I was able to introduce someone who has become one of my favorite characters to write, the Ancient Zane Alkerias, who my good friend asked for me to include. Zane ended up being my main inspiration to the follow up for this story, Freedom's Fall.

United We Stand saw Jack rise to meet his destiny and die doing so, and the introduction of Oblivion. I created Oblivion as a villain to last after Maechil's death, as I wanted the LE to change hands from Jack to Sora and I wanted to give Sora the chance to establish himself in the new era. I think the fact that Sora had to finish what Jack began went a long toward doing that.


Freedom's Fall:

I will be less on the spoilers with this one as at the time of writing this, Freedom's Fall is still being written. My friend Lucenthia wrote a story set in the distant future called Veritas et Caelum, which I consider canon to the series. After wrapping up United We Stand, I got thinking that there was a story to tell showing how things went from great to terrible between then and Veritas, and Freedom's Fall came to be. I knew that Zane Alkerias would be involved and a story of what happened had already been written, so I decided to go through with it for one last tale. Unlike Returning and United, however, Freedom's Fall will indeed be the true last story in the series, filling in the very last of the gaps.


Jack Rikkison:

I find it funny that at the time, a lot of people told me Jack was a Mary Sue. He certainly wasn't a self-insert. I was not putting myself in the story at all. If I had, then the guy would have been tripping over his own shoes and getting himself in trouble every time he opened his mouth. Jokes aside, Jack's initial creation was to give a little extra to do with the plot and take it places that others had not done. Having him once serve under Xehanort was in my plan from the beginning, which would lead to a sort of mixed background for him, training under darkness and light both. Looking at the Birth by Sleep trio, I felt that Terra would have benefited most from Jack's presence due to the dark influences and his loner attitude. That's how I arrived at the two being best friends.

I was definitely able to get Jack's character across far better in the Final Mix version. He was remorseful, self-deprecating, yet capable and confident. I was very careful not to portray Jack as overpowered, even though in the beginning of the story he is definitely stronger than Sora. I knew when writing my version of Kingdom Hearts 3, I wanted Sora to have a mentor like he had never really had. Establishing Jack as that mentor and protector made his fall at the end of the store much more powerful, as Sora would be facing that very same mentor on his way to Xehanort. Knowing Jack's strength added to the stakes when Sora had to stand against him.

Over the course of the series, I think Jack grew the most with the possible exception of maybe Marek. He was even able to do what Marek couldn't: start a family. As the stories progressed, Jack established himself as the strongest of the main cast, rivaled by Sora. Again, I don't believe this made him overpowered. When considered against the rest of the main cast and what they have all been through, the amount of professional training he received and his bloodline contributed to it, but nothing more than his relationship with the Divine Being Light would have set him apart from Sora. Sora and the others were able to defeat Oblivion mostly on their own, but Jack required Light's help in order to defeat Maechil.

As I was putting together my outline for United We Stand, I knew that Jack's story was coming to a close. I had always viewed him as the main character of the Wanderer's series and the pillar of everything I wrote. Deciding how best to end his tale was bittersweet for me. I juggled between two possible endings for him: a heroic sacrifice or a peaceful retirement. Those of you who know the character well enough will agree with me, I think, that Jack simply was not a person who would have been able to settle down and retire. It just wasn't in his nature to do that. That left me with one option, and that is what happened in the story. Jack sacrificed his life in order to stop the worlds from falling apart. Of course, with the main cast appearing as Remnants in Veritas, I brought him back as a Remnant similar to the Lingering Will at the very end of the story, but even then I believe his tale came full circle. Even in death, he stood eternal watch over the worlds he had spent in his life protecting.

Though I said he was not a self-insert, of all of my characters, Jack is the one I aspire most to be. He had flaws and failings and he fought his destiny for most of the way, but he overcame them and stood tall when he could have run. Jack was selfless and courageous, a true hero. I think most of us want to be heroes like that, too.


Marek Rikkison:

Marek is a very fascinating case for me. He was an unplanned character, in that I only ever intended for him to be Illusion, a dark phantom of Jack. The twist of him being Jack's full blooded brother was something that happened as I was literally writing the chapter it happened in. Since then, his popularity has grown immensely, to the point where I'm pretty certain he has outshined Jack.

I described Jack as a true hero and the character I aspire most to be. Marek would be the rogue anti-hero, who mostly tries to do good but is often ruthless and sometimes cruel about the way he does things. Marek is the character who inherited the most of my own personality. He is incessantly sarcastic and much of what he says are close to my own personal statements. His arrogance did not come from me, don't worry, it was merely a by-product of his backstory. Being a user of darkness and the only one to truly master it because of his time possessed by the Divine Beings, he knows he is on a field above even Riku. Marek is the one I had the most fun writing, hands down.

My favorite moments in the entire series are the ones between the brothers. Jack and Marek were incredibly fun for me to craft conversations for, and the exchanges of dialogue between the two men show clearly how different they both are, but also how much they care for one another. In his own way, Marek loved his brother fiercely and would have died for him. As I look back, as dysfunctional as they were, I wish I could have a relationship with a brother like that.


Jason Rikkison:

Jason is someone who, while not nearly as loved as the brothers, I enjoyed writing. He was a flawed man who never stopped loving his sons. His mistakes cost not only himself but his entire family great man. Some mistakes we never truly get over, but Jason tried his best to do what he could even for the people who despised him. I don't have nearly as much to say about Jason, but that isn't because I didn't enjoy his character. Rather, his arc speaks for itself. He did his best with what was given to him, and in the end he gave his life to protect what was left of his family.


Mist Oenial(Rikkison):

I had a lot of plans for Mist that ultimately fell by the wayside as the series progressed. By the time we got to United We Stand, I realized that there honestly wasn't much I could do with her. Given that there was a young Pierce in the mix and my belief that Jack would have insisted that one parent remain with him despite the war going on. This delegated Mist to a sort of "stay-at-home-mom" sort of role that I didn't intend. By the end of the story, her character basically boiled down to mother and wife, and I regret not being able to do more to make her stand on her own merits. She always stood by Jack no matter what though, and it's why I believed she wouldn't have let him meet his destiny alone.


Rayne Rikkison:

Rayne was another character that I struggled with slightly. In Returning it was easier as she was a child trying to cope with a great power, but as she matured into an adult I wanted her to stand on her own and be her own person. I think I ultimately achieved that, with Rayne being one of the most important figures in United We Stand due to her mastery of the X-Blade. As I was planning for the end of the story after Jack and Mist's death, I kept coming back to the idea of Rayne having to raise her brother, and I loved it. It seemed the best way to finish jolting Rayne into adulthood and the scenes between the two of them are heartwarming. Her crush on Kain was just something that happened and wasn't planned, but I think worked out in the larger scheme. She had her struggles with the X-Blade and it took her most of the series to really come into her own, and I think she's one of the most human characters because of that.


Pierce Rikkison:

When I first decided that Jack was going to start a family, I knew I wanted him to have a son. This probably stems from my own desire to have a son one day, but I loved the interactions that the two had together. Pierce became the main character of the story that ended up being reduced to an alternate timeline, but I pulled some narrative strings to bring him and some of his friends back for United We Stand and people appreciated that. Pierce was a character who grew from a child to a man and a hero over the course of a single story. Add to that the fact that he lost more than anyone else ever did, and that he and his team failed multiple times, that is probably why so many of my readers view A New Path as their favorite in the franchise. Pierce led a team of fugitive misfits on an adventure to save the world from a time traveling lunatic, and we had a lot of fun with him along the way. Pierce was a joy because it was the first time I hadn't focused on Jack and had someone new as the protagonist. Pierce is his father's son, but he isn't his father. The two had substantial differences that allowed them each to shine. Having him back for United We Stand was a blast for me, and the moment where he vanishes and leaves the protection of the worlds to Sora is one that I still go back and read quite frequently.


The Divine Beings:

I won't put too much in this one because the next entry in the Lore journals will be about them, but I will say a few brief things about each of them. The concept of a sentient Light and Darkness is one that I really played around with almost from the beginning of the franchise. It wasn't until A New Path that they really came into their own, with Light especially showing a persona all his own. I found it very important to establish that with the Divine Beings, there was no good and bad in terms of motivations. Light was no better than Darkness with his desires and Corruption was somewhere in between. As the series progressed I delved deeper into their origins and their connections to Maechil and the Ancients. As I did, it made sense to me that they would have had names that predate those given to them by humanity. And so, the Ancients knew Light as Justice, an absolute concept with no gray lines. Extreme order, discipline, and at times, vengeance. Justice is cold and unyielding, offering no mercy and no quarter. His reach extends the farthest, which is why the Realm of Light bears much of his influence and the famed Keyblade Wielders are most closely associated with his power.

Darkness was known as Discord, due to his disruption of that cold stagnation brought about by Justice. His power was a perversion of Light's, a mockery made more unstable and chaotic. Corruption was born from the energy forged by the conflict between the other two, the resulting sentience requiring the energy of other beings to thrive. Thus, he was called Decay, as his life required the slow whittling of all things around him. For a long time, I only planned for there to be a trio of Divine Beings.

However, when I was planning for the last part of United We Stand, I needed a villain who could compare to Maechil, creator of all realms. The answer, I found, was Death itself. Oblivion, as he is commonly called, was not born until the days of humanity, and his irreversible essence was used to keep humanity in check. Such power was too great for even Maechil to control and he was locked away as a result. The Divine Beings as a concept added a lot to the series I think, and more than just conduits for greater power. The struggles that Jack had with Light and Marek with Darkness were intimate parts of their character. The Divine Beings, along with the Ancients and the Rikkison family, are by the far the biggest contributions I have made to Kingdom Hearts lore.


The Ancients:

When I first decided to bring in a race of powerful beings that predated humanity, I wasn't fully sure of how prevalent their involvement would be. At first, I needed a device capable of explaining the resetting of time at the end of A New Path. But, when I started Dark Veil, I realized that the Ancients would have to exist outside of that time. As such, the Dawnomar and Maechil that we see in Dark Veil and United We Stand are the same ones we saw in A New Path. Time was reset for the human realms, but the Ancient Realm was unchanged. This ended up posing some problems for me narratively that were mostly solved when I declared A New Path an alternate timeline.

I was very careful with Maechil in particular, not to make him a God figure. Due to my personal beliefs, I will never portray a character as God, especially one that ends up being the villain and dying at the hands of the hero. Maechil's origins were something I intended to include in the story but never found the right place to. He is simply the descendant of an even older race, described within United We Stand as "a never ending cycle of higher powers and older beings". The Ancient Council was my own version of the Organization and I had a lot of fun putting them together. Adenar, a master of arms and tactical prowess was the perfect early antagonist for Jack at the start of the story. Maynaimar, commander of the magical elements seemed to be a foil for Aqua, but I had Sora fight him instead so that the battle didn't seem redundant. Anetar was perfect as the final villain of Dark Veil, as his power over illusions gave Marek the opportunity to come full circle. Kunomar was a good obstacle for Rayne and a means to draw out Dawnomar's character. Tsunetar provided a scheming secondary antagonist and her underwater battle with Roxas, Aqua, and Xion was probably the most difficult fight for me to write in the entire series. Saenatar's rivalry with Marek was always fun and his lust for battle was inspired by Garland from the original Final Fantasy.

Dawnomar started out as a character meant for a single chapter, but he ended up being one of the most important characters in the later stories. He gave us a good look into the Ancient culture outside of the hostile perspectives of the villains. But, one character did better than any others to show the Ancients as they really are.

Zane Alkerias was someone I never intended to include, until my friend asked me to. Looking back, he has become so intricately connected to the series' later installments that I can't imagine the Wanderer's Series without him. He showed anger, hatred, a lust for revenge, and a lack of comprehension for humanity as a foreigner in their lands. But he also showed compassion, wisdom, and courage in the face of defeat and personal loss. I am immensely proud of how Zane's journey has gone, and I am looking forward to seeing it finished in Freedom's Fall, where he now serves as a surrogate father to the son he never had, Raelyn Yoric.

Other Ancients I created along the way include Zane's family, especially his father Zatorian, creator of the original Keyblades and the X-Blade. He was heavily inspired by Celebrimbor from Lord of the Rings, though his personality and motivations are vastly different. The Kingdom Slayers were fun antagonists in the second half of United We Stand, especially Sacron who had a brief but memorable arc. Alix Crescent was also created as a bridge to draw the Ancients and humanity together and to show that the Ancients as a people were not blind mobs all unthinking and loyal to Maechil. I tried very hard to give some depth to this new race of people I had made, and I look back thinking that I did a decent job of it.


The Freedom's Fall Cast:

Once again, I won't dig too deep into spoilers for this one, but I'll speak enough that it will still be relevant after the story is finished. Zane served as the inspiration for this story, though I knew I wanted someone new and younger as the protagonist. I toyed with the idea of a fallen son who is betrayed and blamed for the very things he fought against. I wanted someone who had already been through his Keyblade training in contrast to previous protagonists like Sora and Pierce. Raelyn Yoric was born, a young man already a Keyblade Master and in a place of high honor among the order. Despite this, he is not truly his own man. When his brother was killed, he stepped up to fill the void and essentially forced himself to become the man his brother had been. It takes great loss for him to realize this, and after a journey beside a colorful band of rebels, he returns home proud and confident to retake it from those who betrayed him. In a time where the Founders' legacies were being questioned, he stood for the truth and proved himself worthy of the power left behind by Sora.

Raelyn's three major companions, Drea Korian, Kyan Ferix, and Taelor Eryen, were created individually to bring a contrasting dynamic to the team. I wanted there to be major personality differences and different strengths. Freedom's Fall marks the first time that I crafted a character to be a team member who has no fighting skills at all, being Taelor. I wanted an older, more experienced and grumpy personality in the party and Kyan came to fill that role. Lastly, I wanted a younger but very capable and slightly naïve voice to contribute to the conversation, and so came Drea.

Zane obviously has a major role in the story, something I planned from the very beginning. I wanted him to mentor the new generation and be the character who can call back to the earlier stories because we know he was there. The fact that he is the only remaining person from the previous entries makes his voice that much more powerful. This story also gives him a chance to show how much more human he has become in the years since, forging a bond with Raelyn and coming to view him as no less than a son.

There are two more characters who will become a temporary but major part of Raelyn's team have not yet been revealed in the story at this time, so I won't mention them by name. I'll simply call him Nighthawk here, and those who read Freedom's Fall will in time learn his identity if they have not already guessed it. The concept of a last survivor of a powerful bloodline is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy, made most powerful by Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Though Aragorn is my example, he was not the inspiration for Nighthawk. Nighthawk's family has been building up toward greatness for most of the series, and the current state of things in his world are a sign of how things are progressing in the series, from the glory days of United We Stand to the broken and despairing world of Veritas, where many of the heroes have been written out of history and forgotten. Nighthawk is the last of a once powerful and legendary bloodline, a last bastion of hope.

Lorne and Caleb obviously serve as the two main antagonists for the story, Lorne being the personal betrayer to Raelyn and his equal in capability. Though we have not gotten far enough to fully see it, there are many sides to Lorne's character and he is very much the wild card of Freedom's Fall. We should never be too sure that we know where he stands and whose side he is on. Caleb on the other hand is motivated by both greed and fear and is being influenced by powers he cannot control. The biggest danger is, he does not yet realize that he is the one on strings. I wanted to shake things up in the villain department for this last story, and it is refreshing to be working with lowered stakes than the universe-breaking ones of United We Stand.


Abandoned Concepts and Cut Content:

This was the original topic for this entry, but I ended up expanding on everything else, so this is just folded in as a much shorter part. Over the nine years I have been working on this series, there are a lot of things that I had planned to include and put in but ended up leaving out for various reasons. Some I was talked out of doing by trusted friends, some I simply forgot to include before the credits rolled, and some I simply decided not to.

The first and biggest one that comes to my mind was a plotline in the early stages of United We Stand where a big twist would have been revealed: Rayne actually being Marek's daughter instead of Jack's. In my mind, it made total sense given what happened between Mist and Marek when he was possessed by Xehanort. It would have greatly impacted Jack, Rayne, and Marek, especially Marek. Ironically, Rayne would have been the least affected of all three, as she still would have seen Jack as her father despite the realization. Though this plotline was left on the cutting room floor, you can still see some of the groundwork I laid for it in Dark Veil, like emphasizing that Rayne's hazel eyes were actually closer to Marek's green ones than Jack's which are a mixed brown and green, plus the fact that Rayne is never said to resemble Jack in her features as she takes after Mist. I was persuaded not to do this arc by trusted friends who advised me that such a plot should have been done earlier in the series and that it would be a distraction from the larger things going on. Despite not using this, the arc involving Rayne traveling with Marek as his apprentice later in United We Stand was repurposed from an earlier draft where they traveled together to bond as father and daughter.

Another cut concept would have involved Alexander Rikkison, Jason's father and Jack's grandfather. It would have involved time travel, shown some more of the bloody history of the Rikkison family and even show the creation of Jack's trademark black vest, but I couldn't find anywhere to fit it in to the narrative and so I scrapped it.

Likewise, in United We Stand, during the Keyblade Hunter arc I had originally planned for Jack to visit a world based on Shadow of the Colossus. During his time there as the Keyblade Hunter, Jack would have fought Zack in a similar manner to how he fought Kain, as well as a few battles with the Colossi and meaningful moment seeing the character from the game mentally destroyed by his quest to save the woman he loved. It would have served to break Jack's psyche and been the catalyst for Darian finally taking over. I ended up not having the time and space to put it in and I realized that it wasn't really needed, anyway. This cut is why the instance of Jack losing control of his heart to Darian Voltare happens between chapters during Part 2 of United We Stand.

Gilgamesh was also planned to have a bigger role in United We Stand, including some scenes during the big Battle for Kingdom Hearts, but I simply forgot about him.


Final Thoughts on my own journey here:

I have had a lot of fun on this adventure, writing these stories. It's already been eight years as of now that I have been dedicating time to these characters, stories, and the series that I can now look fondly back on. In this time, I have met a lot of people that I considered friends. Most of them are gone now, and I haven't heard from them in years and probably never will. But there are still a couple that I speak to regularly and I am grateful for their friendship. I have learned a lot throughout this series, not just about writing but about life and maturing into adulthood. I think my stories have reflected my growth as a person and as a writer both. You can definitely read through the series and tell when I was riding high and at my lowest points in my own personal life. Looking back now as I am about to get married and start a new chapter in life, I'm proud of everything I've done here. I'm glad for the adventure and the things I've learned along the way. Even after I finish these entries and Freedom's Fall and retire from the Wanderer's Series, I'll always carry Jack Rikkison with me, and the lessons I learned alongside him. It sounds cheesy but the characters really have written their own stories. I would sit down with a plan and then the chapter would go somewhere completely different while I was writing it. I've been along for the ride almost as much as you guys have. I thank all of you who have come along, and maybe some of you have been here since the very beginning. If you have, then I give you major credit for sticking by me through eight years of inconsistent updates, retcons, and often confusing plot twists. It's been far from perfect, but it has definitely been fun along the way.