Hello, everyone. It is I, the author of this fanfic, Nick_of_Fire. Did you like it? If you bothered to read this entire fanfic and even this reflection, then you probably liked it at least a little. Either that or you really hate this fic and have been hate reading it. If you did, please tell me why you hated this fic. Criticism can help me grow so I don't make more fanfics you hate in the future. Also, I'm somewhat starved for constructive criticism so please, tell me anything you didn't like, even nitpicks. They can really help me improve.
Anyway, thank you for reading Fate/Identity Reborn. It means the whole world to me. I never expected my fanfic to get as much attention as it has. It's not much really, but it's still more than I ever thought I would get. Knowing anyone felt any amount of happiness thanks to my writing is all the motivation I need to continue. Thank you so much.
This fanfic has been an interesting experience. This is the second fanfic I've written that's of significant length, the previous being Record of Revelations, a Record of Ragnarok fanfic where I had my own lineup of gods and humans fight each other. It's not completely terrible I guess, or maybe it is. I dunno. Unlike that fic, where I wrote the whole thing before uploading a chapter a day, I was actually writing Fate/Identity Reborn as I was releasing chapters. That meant I was able to incorporate criticism as I was writing, something I think was a good thing overall. It allowed me to actually see how people felt about the way the plot of my fic went and adjust accordingly. There's always the risk that I could become too obsessed with everything my readers say, but I don't think that happened.
This fanfic was originally known as Fate/Identity Crisis. It's a separate fanfic that you can find on my AO3 page. It was the prototype version of this fanfiction that I ended up canceling because it was full of too many characters and factions, and because the pace was way too fast. It's a problem I think I still have. I'm an impatient person and I'm pretty sure I have ADHD, so I struggle when it comes to fleshing out individual moments in a story. I end up getting bored and feel compelled to just rush to the next plot beat. This leads my writing to be very terse and sometimes too fast for important moments to have the time they need to feel impactful. The only real exception is when it comes to fight scenes. They're really easy for me to write, mainly because they're the most fun. I need to learn to slow down and expand on individual scenes I write so they have more power to them.
I also have a problem with having too many characters in my stories. I end up having so many that it's hard to keep track of them all, and it's really difficult trying to make sure they're all fully developed. Characters like Add, Luvia, Henriikka, Waver, and even Caren end up getting forgotten because it's hard to have such a large ensemble cast without focusing more on certain characters while leaving others basically forgotten for dozens of chapters. If I wanted so many characters, I should have better planned exactly what I wanted their character arcs and roles in the story to be.
Speaking of characters, I'm going to go through them all and give my thoughts on how they turned out.
To start out, let's talk about Kirei. He's the character whose actions were the start of the butterfly effect that this fanfic was founded on. You'd think he'd be a more important character to the overall plot than he ended up being, perhaps even the main character. Perhaps he should have been. I struggled a bit when it came to keeping Kirei relevant because he was basically already at the end of his character arc by the end of the first chapter. He works better as a villain given his characterization. I did manage to give him a bit more development by having him internally muse about his struggle to live a moral life, his worrying for his daughters, and his journey of learning to love in his own way. The issue is that most of that came at the end of the story. I should have had that development slowly occur throughout the fanfic. If I did this fanfic over, I'd have Kirei be faced with direct temptation to feed into his desires and perhaps even have him slightly give in, not completely, but enough for his actions to have consequences that he'd have to make up for. It would have made him more active and more compelling. Then again, there is a bit of an appeal to his mellow character arc I suppose.
Rin and Sakura have a pretty clear arc that has ups and downs, development and regression. I think it came out well and it might be the best executed arc in the story. It had set up, it had consequences for the characters' actions, it had dramatic confrontations, and a lot of angst. There's honestly not a lot I can say.
Saber Rin was inspired by two fanfics I heard about, Endless Dream by Pata Hikari and Cooled Ambition by COMegamenexe. Both are fanfics about Rin being summoned as a Caster by Sakura in the fifth war. Both ended up as dead fics which saddened me because I thought the idea of Servant Rin was really cool. I decided to have Saber Rin be a thing as a sort of spiritual successor to those old fics. Saber Rin's backstory was inspired by those fics and the fact they never ended. I imagined 'what if Rin failed in those fanfics' timelines and she just kept trying?' The idea of Saber Rin pulling a Heaven's Feel Archer and giving Rin her body parts was something I came up with early in conceptualizing this fanfic, but I was worried it would be too absurd and that people would think it was jumping the shark. I'm glad it apparently didn't bother anybody too much.
Caren was meant to have more of a presence in the story when I initially planned things, but I sorta forgot about her if I'm honest. It was also hard to think of a way to get her involved that felt natural. I considered having Assassin Alter possess her with one of their masks and that would be how she got sucked into things, but I couldn't find a good time for that to happen. I also thought about having Assassin Alter possess Kizuki, but it felt like it would have been unnecessary fanservice. Back to Caren, she's another character whose development should have been better paced out. It all just happened right at the end.
Artoria and Irisviel's arcs were alright, though I think there was too much of Artoria just feeling bad and helpless. Other than that, they came out well I think. I can't actually think of much to say about these two. I can say that I kept flip-flopping on the whole 'Iri would become the Black Grail and be a threat that everyone would unite against' plot point. Even up to right before Iri got fully possessed, I still wasn't sure if I should go through with it. I felt like it was a big event that could be interesting and could help Iri's character develop. At the same time, by having the cast be split into two sides, it would be easier to accidentally let certain characters on each side fall by the wayside. When everyone was split into multiple factions, the smaller number of characters in each faction required that those characters get more focus to make said factions feel individually fleshed out. My fears did come true, but I'm not really sure where I could have taken the story without such a unifying event. Most of the characters were rather reasonable individuals who I don't think were obsessed with the Grail enough to really risk it all to get it. I needed more truly antagonistic factions to keep the conflict going. The only ones were the Taiga and Assassin team, and the Atrum and Rider team. There was also Chloe's team initially, but we'll talk about them in a little bit.
Gray was a character whose arc I was really excited to write, but it was like Artoria's arc in that there was a lot of Gray just feeling bad. There was also the problem of Gray losing her identity to the Lion King which meant she basically just left the story only to have a bunch of development right at the end. The Lion King herself had development of her own, though it was very little. I actually considered having the Lion King be a villain. She'd recreate Camelot and summon Alter Ego High-Servants that have the names of the original Knights of the Round Table in a way similar to the Fairy Knights. I think I should have had more of Gray and the Lion King swapping control leading up to Gray finally taking full control of herself again.
Illya didn't really have a clear character arc. I didn't plan anything and the only thing I came up with was that she wanted to become strong and save Chloe. Even her personality was somewhat vaguely defined. She had some cool fights though.
Mordred wasn't originally planned to appear at all in this fanfic. Originally Gray was only going to get possessed by the Lion King from the summoning ritual and that would count as her Servant. In the chapter before the chapter where Gray was going to get possessed, someone in the comments guessed that Mordred was going to be summoned. That stuck with me because I thought it was a really good idea, one that I was surprised I didn't think of myself considering it seemed so obvious. Thus, I had Mordred be summoned too. His character arc was completely improvised. I didn't even plan to have Mordred come back after dying against Assassin. Considering how unplanned Mordred's whole existence in the story was, I'm surprised he was received so well. I'm glad I included him.
Add was definitely there sometimes. I definitely didn't keep forgetting he existed. Definitely. If the Lion King villain thing happened, Add was going to manifest as Kay and help the heroes stop her.
Chloe's one of the characters who suffered the most from the rushed pacing. The idea of Chloe's character was obviously inspired by Chloe from Prisma Illya, but they're barely alike. She was introduced very suddenly and she went through her character arc from foe to friend way too fast. For someone with a grudge formed over ten years of torture, it sure didn't take much for her to come around to Illya and Iri. I needed her to be a bit more antagonistic and slowly to open up, but I was impatient and afraid people would find her annoying if she kept hating Iri and Illya. A lot of the 'over reasonableness' of my characters stems from me being afraid that readers will find them annoying if they aren't always being optimally logical and empathetic.
Heracles, Sella, and Leysritt are also underdeveloped. I struggled to think of what to do with them. I decided to have Heracles be an Archer because that's supposed to be his strongest class, it would mix things up from the canon, and what little we saw of Archer Heracles in Strange Fake made him seem cool.
Bazett and Scáthach were the characters I had the most fun writing, but they were also the characters I was the least confident in when it came to how people would receive them. The idea of shipping Bazett and Scáthach is based on nothing, it was just a random idea I had that I decided to roll with. The only reason I even had Bazett summon Scáthach was because I like both Bazett and Scáthach as characters and they have a mutual connection to Cú. I was worried people would think shipping them was stupid or out of character for them. In general I was worried people would find Bazett and Scáthach out of character, especially Scáthach. It seems people liked their relationship though which is nice. Unlike the other couples, their relationship was one we got to actually see develop from the beginning, so it was easier to create intrigue in how their relationship would turn out. I do like that the other couples like Iri and Artoria were already established and thus we could explore an existing couple rather than how said couple formed. It adds variety.
Luvia, Henrikka, Medusa, and the Gorgon Sisters were all intended to be more important characters, with there being a planned arc of Luvia and Henriikka having issues with their relationship they had to reconcile. I decided not to go through with that because it felt rather unimportant and that it wouldn't be that interesting. I really liked coming up with Henriikka, so it's disappointing that she just fell into the background. The same with the Gorgon Sisters. In the end, this whole team just ended up being filler more than anything. The fight between Rin and Luvia was cool at least, it's actually my favorite fight I wrote for this fanfic. Clown was also there as a reference to the El-Melloi Case Files. I completely made up his magecraft to be something that would allow for a creative fight and that would be useful. His fight against Sakura was also one of my favorites.
Waver didn't do much, he just existed to be another adult in the room. He only really came into focus during his fight against Caster Iskandar Alter. He was yet another casualty of the bloated cast. Reines also lacked focus, though she contributed to Caren's arc and that's all she really needed to do. I really like Reines as a character so I do wish she was more important. I think I should have made her a Master rather than Waver. Berserker Iskandar was an old school insane Berserker so he really wasn't a character. He mainly existed so that Waver would not be able to get his wish of seeing Iskandar again so easily since Berserker Iskandar is nothing like the man Waver loved. In an early draft of this story, Waver would have actually summoned Rider Iskandar. Well, technically Waver wasn't a Master, he was an advisor to Luvia and Henriikka who would have summoned two versions of Iskandar, one the regular Iskandar, one an Alter Iskandar that's like Caster Iskandar Alter. Trimmau's as much of a character as she is in canon, that being not at all.
Taiga was a character idea I really liked and I think I actually managed to explore it decently. She could have done with a more gradual character arc, but otherwise she came out alright. She was obviously inspired by Jaguar Warrior's final ascension art. She actually has a back tattoo, but I never got a chance to reveal it in the story. It's of a tiger ripping the head off a dragon, blood gushing everywhere. I might reuse that tattoo design in a future story. I wasn't sure what her ultimate fate should be as I was writing. I didn't want her to just die, but she needed some kind of punishment or method of atonement for her crimes. Then the Luvia butler idea hit me.
Assassin EMIYA was the only Servant that felt appropriate for Taiga to summon. He works very well as an antagonist given he can be ruthless and, though he lacks a lot of raw power compared to other Servants, he makes up for it with versatility. His arc was a mix of improvised ideas and ideas I already had in mind from the beginning. Despite him being a rather important character, I don't actually have much to say about him.
Atrum and Rider Siegfried existed to take up the Rider slot, to help introduce Waver and Berserker Iskandar Alter, and to kickstart Iri's corruption by having her absorb Siegfried. Other than that, there's nothing to really say.
Gilgamesh was Gilgamesh.
Gilles was Gilles.
The Alters the Black Grail summoned mainly existed just to be obstacles to individually test different characters. Their characters were tailored to push the buttons of the main characters in different ways. Lancelot Alter existed to confront Artoria's insecurities, Caster Iskandar Alter existed to force Waver to move on from the past, etc. Hassan Alter existed to act as a group of jobbers for the heroes to fight.
Some other scrapped ideas(many of which having briefly appeared in Fate/Identity Crisis before I canned it) were having a Yggdmillennia faction in the war, an Ainsworth faction in the war, the latter introducing Class Cards into things. Yggdimellennia would summon Avenger Nobunaga and would have Artificial Heroic Spirit Soldiers. The Ainsworths would summon Hassan of the Intoxicating Smoke. An alternate version of Akiha would appear who was a full blooded oni who was a member of the Wandering Sea. She would summon Nero Alter who would represent the Whore of Babylon(I'd like to mention I came up with this Nero Alter just before Beast Nero showed up in FGO Arcade). Akiha would have Hisui and Kohaku as her maids, but they'd be karakuri puppets like Katou Danzou. Monji Gatou would summon Saber Astolfo and Monji would consider Astolfo his god. Monji and Astolfo were conceptualized as comic relief based on their shared lack of common sense. Little Red Riding Hood, the murdered little girl from the Hollow Ataraxia story who shows up in Strange Fake, would be a Master as a ghost and would summon Nursery Rhyme as Berserker. Nursery Rhyme would embody Grimm's Fairy Tales instead of Alice in Wonderland, taking the form of a giant big bad wolf.
We've talked a good bit about the past, but now let's talk about the future.
What am I going to write next? Currently I'm working on both my first original web serial/web novel, but it isn't ready yet, and my first horror novel, which also isn't ready yet. I wanted to start my web serial after I finished Fate/Identity Reborn, but it just isn't done cooking yet. As such, I need something else to write in the meantime. Plus I need to refine my writing ability more. I have multiple different fanfic ideas, but I don't know which to go with. Thus, I'd like to present to you all a list of my current ideas and request that you tell me which of my ideas you like and why.
Being completely transparent, I want to go with a fanfic idea that will attract a lot of readers. I don't care about popularity, it's just that I want more readers so I get more constructive criticism, that way I can improve. As such, I'd also ask you all to tell me which story ideas you think are the most likely to attract readers, as well as give any advice on how to make my fanfictions more popular and attention grabbing so I get more constructive criticism.
I know I'm asking a lot of you all and I apologize. I just want to improve in my craft. Obviously, if you don't want to answer my questions, then feel more than free not to.
Also, if anyone likes my ideas and wants to try writing them themselves, then feel free to. Just credit me at some point in the fic as an inspiration.
Onto my ideas. Most of them are fate fanfics.
Starting off, a fanfic focused on a completely original Holy Grail War with completely original Masters and Servants. This story is mostly an excuse to make use of a bunch of crazy ideas I have for Servants. One Servant is a living computer program, another is a really big clam with a Reality Marble in it, and another can conjure fake Noble Phantasms. This fic is one that would be among the most fun, but I doubt it would attract much attention since it would be all OCs which is a turn off to a lot of people.
My second idea is a story that would basically be a counterpart to Fate/Identity Reborn. Many people have said that Identity Reborn feels like a happier timeline than the canon ones. As such, this new fic would be the opposite, a timeline that is even darker than the canon. It would also be the result of a character making a different decision during the Fourth Holy Grail War. I have some good ideas for this one and I think it could potentially catch some attention, but it would also risk delving into edgelord territory if I'm not careful.
Idea three is actually a sequel to Fate/Identity Reborn that would focus on a Moon Holy Grail War. I would write it to be able to be read standalone. It's an idea that might be some fun to work on, but I'm more interested in most of my other ideas.
The next one is an idea I really think I'd have fun with, but I doubt anyone would bother reading. It would be focused on the Third Holy Grail War and would actually show it. It would be a timeline where the Einzberns wouldn't summon an Avenger nor a Ruler. They would summon a Berserker and they'd cheat in some other way. It would be really fun to explore this concept and the war taking place in the 1930s would lend the war a unique setting. The issue is that it would be nearly all OCs which would probably turn off a lot of people.
Next fic is an alternate Fate/Apocrypha where both the Masters of Red sent by the Mage's Association and the Masters of Black(and their mage families that joined Yggdmillennia) are different. For example, Kiritsugu being a Master of Red who's secretly planning to acquire the Grail to make his wish come true, and Bazett being a Master of Black who joined Yggdmillennia after the Clock Tower rejected her. There would also, naturally, be a lot of different Servants summoned. I think the idea is neat, but it doesn't inspire me as much as the other ones.
My next idea is 'What if the Fifth Holy Grail War didn't happen fifty years early?' This obviously leads to a very different Fifth Holy Grail War. Shirou is an old grizzled veteran and Rin's the Magician of the Second Magic. It's an idea that might be fun, but, again, is an idea I doubt anyone would be that interested in.
How about a Prisma Illya fanfic? What if, instead of underage girls, Illya, Miyu, Chloe and other characters were all adult women? Also, what if Illya and Miyu actually got into a relationship instead of Miyu just pining for a semi-oblivious Illya? I think this idea would be really fun, but I'm not sure about how much I could really do with this concept that wouldn't be the same as Prisma Illya's canon plot besides the characters being older and the Class Cards being different Heroic Spirits.
This next one's a really weird idea that definitely nobody would be interested in. Fate/Type-Redline is a serious remake of Fate/Koha-Ace imperial capital holy grail strange story. At the end of the imperial capital holy grail strange story, it jokingly teases a sequel called Europe Death Front which would be about a Fourth Holy Grail War taking place in London in 1945, like literally right after the end of the plot of Fate/Koha-Ace. It wasn't a real sequel tease, but it got me thinking. What if I wrote a fanfic that was Europe Death Front, but a Redline style serious version of it. It would basically be a fan-sequel to Redline. The issues are, one, it would be mostly OCs which would turn a lot of people away, and two, Redline isn't finished, though it is following Koha-Ace's plot for the most part so it's not too hard to estimate how it will go. Still, I'd have to either make a lot of assumptions about how Redline will go in order to make a sequel for it, or make Europe Death Front completely disconnected from Redline and instead be a sequel to an unseen Holy Grail War that is very similar to Redline's.
Last one is a more comedy focused idea. The stone that Tamamo no Mae was supposedly sealed in broke recently in real life. This fic would be about Tamamo now being freed from the stone and getting involved in a Grail War in an attempt to wish for the perfect spouse she can be the wife of. It would mostly be a comedy. Then again, my attempts at comedy stories usually devolve into serious narratives rather quickly, so I'm hesitant to try this story out. The biggest advantage to it would be that it would definitely be short.
Now for non-fate fanfics.
I have ideas for sequels to both YuYu Hakusho and Soul Eater(the manga version). They'd both be standard next generation type stories about the children of the main characters of the original series. The plot concept is trite, but I have quite a few ideas I think have potential. I really don't know how much interest these fics could pull in, but they'd be very fun to write. They would also be long fics which would force me to delay beginning my original web serial even longer, which is my main hangup with these ideas.
I've had quite a few ideas for a RWBY fanfic. It would be a reimagining and fixfic at the same time. The main gimmick would be that the members of team RWBY as well as some other characters would have opposite personalities due to being raised differently than they were in canon. A Ruby who's a rebellious punk who fights with her fists, a Weiss who's a friendly and muscular resident of Vacuo, a haughty and spoiled Blake, and a timid and reclusive Yang. I've got a lot of ideas for this one, but it would be a rather long fic which has the same problem as the fics mentioned directly above, and the RWBY fandom has become so toxic that I'm hesitant to post anything related to it.
I've got an idea for a Medaka Box fanfic that would be really fun to work on given it's my favorite manga, but nobody cares about Medaka Box besides me so nobody would read it. It would be about a timeline where Medaka never met Zenkichi and ended up deciding to reject her talents, deciding to live as a normal girl while actively avoiding anything that could make her stand out.
Until I decide on my next major fanfic, I'll write some shorter ones, perhaps some one-shots, so watch out for those. Once I decide on my next fanfic, I'll upload one more chapter to this fic to let everybody know so remember to follow this fic to stay updated.
If you want to check out any of my other fics, there's Record of Revelations as mentioned at the beginning of this reflection. It was my first fanfiction so it holds a special place in my heart despite its problems. It's a decently fun little romp if you can excuse the amateurishness of it and the lightspeed pace. There's also Isekai'd Into My Old Shitty Evangelion Fanfiction, a parody of self-insert fanfictions, specifically ones that many people often write when they are young. The main character is a man desperate to avoid falling into all the cringey tropes of bad fanfiction/anime as he tries to figure out how he got isekai'd into a fictional story based on a fictional story.
Finally, the last thing I want to say is that I hope you can share your opinions on this fic in the comments. What did you like? What did you dislike, or even hate? Is there anything in the story that appealed to you specifically? Is there anything about this fanfic that made it stand out amongst other fanfics, or even amongst other stories in general? How do you feel about this fanfic overall? Will this story stick with you, or will it merely be a passing fancy? Please be as honest with me as possible, I genuinely want to know what about my writing works and what doesn't work currently.
Once again I'd like to thank every single person who has read even a single one of my chapters. It moves my heart in a way that nothing else can. My love has always been writing. As long as I can remember, I've been imagining stories. When I would watch TV shows as a six year old, I would always get the most enjoyment from them by imagining my own versions of the shows. How would I write it? What would I change? I do this even now. My primary method of finding enjoyment from things is by contemplating how I could incorporate said things into my own narratives or take inspiration from them. I'm never not putting together a story in my head. I genuinely don't know how else to perceive the world and few things bring me joy if I don't look at them through the lens of using them to hunt for story material. My mentality has left the realm of interest or even obsession, becoming a genuine lifestyle centered around stories. I know this sounds pretentious and like an exaggeration, but I am being honest and open right now. I'm saying all this to make it clear how much I care about stories and the act of creating them, which is why it means so much to me that anyone cares about my writing. No matter how down I feel or what real life struggles I face, I always find solace in the fact that there's a small number of people out there that have been made just a little bit happier thanks to my stories.
Thank you to every single one of you for the last time, at least for this fanfic. I hope you come read my next story, and if not, then good luck in your future endeavors and I hope you find stories that resonate with you.
See ya, have a good one.