AND THERE IT IS! That's the Path of Revan!
There was another scene or three I wanted to do, but I think I'll leave it be. The core of what makes the story what it is now written and should be kept to itself without ruining the ending with a mile of gunk.
It has been a good long ride. I was really kind of hoping for a few reviews, but I am completely blown away that this story has reached the top five in that area of all Galen Marek stories! There have been chapter's where I've been afraid of pushing my vision of Varus too far or too weakly. I was originally very skeptical about even having Ahsoka, as I wasn't sure how her character worked, just as much as Varus's character, but I found that if I made that 'unsurity' understood between the character's themselves, that helped build things up to the point that there have been times that Ahsoka actually outshines Anakin imo.
This was originally meant to be focused entirely around Anakin and Varus. As the original idea was a GOOD Darth Vader with a GOOD Starkiller, and the whole "crap, I don't remember a thing." was merely a means to an end, that immediately became the very core of the whole thing.
I also didn't originally plan for there to be subplots or a lot of characters. But in… I forget which chapter, I decided to have Varus pulled aside for a moment, Anakin wasn't happy, and then I thought 'ok, let's have a big bad guy be involved here. No, that's cheesy…' but I actually got it to work. And even I DIDN'T KNOW it was going to be Darth Nihilus until the chapter I presented him before Sidius and went 'BAM SON! IT'S HIM! He's noticed what you're doing with Starkiller and HE AIN'T HAPPY!'
The Revan thing was well… because I think Revan is the most epic Sith Lord ever besides my version of Nihilus (my version is like 10x better than the one in the game…) and because I realized how CLOSELY similar Revan's path and Starkiller's Path would be, and decided to make that actually the theme before I published the first chapter. The reason the first 5-8 chapters drag out so much was because I was still trying to figure out what the main plot would be…
Maris was someone I wanted… near the beginning. I knew she would be essential pretty soon. More out of what she represented than her character and personality itself. I may have made her bland, but my focus was on what she represented anyway, and what her appearance would do in starting to mess with things, and I feel it did pretty well in that category. I'm thinking of keeping her as a kind of guilt-ghost thing. I like Farscape and having the relationship between John and Scorpius reimagined as Varus and Maris in the second Season just sounds like so much fun! :D (that isn't a huge give away unless you've actually seen Farscape)
Now with the first season complete, I want everyone to know some thoughts on the sequel. I've made lots of plotlines in my head to use, potentially, and some of them will be based on which romance option people choose. Options include: Ahsoka Tano (Someone he has history with.), OC1 (A princess dumped on Varus), and Visas Marr (Who he was betrothed to at birth.).
People have also suggested Starkiller's canon love, and a Mandalorian woman. I don't mind having them in the story to some capacity if I can work them in or figure their character out, but I don't see them as romantic options.
The Plotline of the second season will take place 5 years after season one, so there will be a lot of noticeable differences in the characters and galactic environment.
I won't say what the plotline is. Oh no, I expect you all to be on the edge of your seat for the ride.
Now… Season one is over. So here's a little survey:
What is your overall like of the story? (0-10)
Any huge problems that require me to go back and edit? (please don't just say you dislike characters. Too late for that now.)
What was your favorite plotline? (meaning something that spans multiple chapters, if not most of the season.)
What was your favorite chapter? (or episode)
Ahsoka? OC princess? Or Visas Marr? (I'm leaning toward the first two. But if a loooooooot more people want Visas… I might oblige. Maybe.)
What do you want in the second Season? Any ideas you wanna throw at me? (I know 99.9% of this is from my own head, but I ain't that big and high and mighty to not use another person's idea if they are willing to offer it and if it works.)
"In the Path of" will continue in Season Two as In the Path of the Ravager