Welcome back to our little 10K special.
A lot of you guys came out of the woodworks for this one, which was really great to see. I'm very glad so many of you guys like the series. It means a lot to me and I'm very lucky to have you guys as a reader base.
There's a lot of great questions to answer here, so let's not waste any time and start getting through them. Starting with one from Happiness Studios on the next season.
Will there be a classic introduction of the cast?
Very simple question with a very simple answer: Yes! There will be more of a classic style character introduction, complete with interviews and contestants establishing their character and all the usual stuff. With Endless I really enjoyed breaking the mold of a competition fic, and it seems you guys have too. For the sequel though I am keen to try my hand at a more traditional season, and that'll start right from the beginning.
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1602jaw had a ton of questions on the new season, most of them following a similar theme.
Will there be new OCs in next season?
That one's a little bit more complicated. See me, Yerdey and my other real world contributor Felipe all have a large extended canon of Original Characters. The catch is (in me and Yerdey's case is) we'd like to publish them as their own series one day. And it may be hard to claim ownership over them if they debuted in a fanfic. Hence why Yerdey and Roy had that name change way back. So, in short, probably not a lot. However, you can expect to see some copyrighted characters in unique roles or acting in an OC manner. What do I mean by that? Well expect more characters like Rodney or Conan or Timmy and Shadow from Unusual Nickelodeon show up. Characters me and my friends played around with and gave our own spin on back before we were truly creating our own characters. It's been fun resurrecting some of those guys for this project and I plan on bringing more in for the sequel.
Will next season has some references and crossover stuff from other author stories (Me, included)?
I'll admit I don't have anything solid planned yet but I'd love to strengthen the Endless Series ties to the broader Crossover-verse (Whatever we end up calling it.) And I'm very open to seeing some of the other author's rogues' galleries as I think it might be fun to take a spin at writing them (Providing I have their creator's permission of course.)
Speaking of rogues' galleries.
Will next season include a outside force that will be an obstacle to the cast, like an outside villain either an original one or one from an existing franchise?
If you're looking for an Endless equivalent to Namora, Gijra or Cherieng, I'll spoil it right now, I don't have any plans for one at the moment.
I know the usual expectation is to go bigger, bolder and wilder for the sequel but Endless was already crazy enough, I don't feel like trying to top it. Besides. Raising the stakes have always felt less important to me in sequels than following through on satisfying character journeys. They'll be plenty of good drama at play even if the fate of the world won't be at stake.
So no big overarching bad guy this time. But maybe, just maybe, there might possibly be some arch villains in the same vein as Sideshow Bob. But you didn't hear that from me.
Is (The Sequel) going to still maintain some serious story arc from the last season?
Absolutely. Though we won't be having any returning players in the game next time, there will be a sense of progression from Endless and its main myth arc. Though that's all I can say for now.
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Right that's all the sequel questions out of the way, let's get to the questions on this story. Starting with two from who like Happy and Jaw is a good friend of mine, MemeKing the Third.
What inspired you to write a story like this?
I got writing competition stories through site called , it's a relatively well-known site but for those not in the know they host a lot of reality television simulators over there. Me and my buddies tried the Total Drama one a couple years back and the result was memorable enough that I wanted to expand it into a full story. Then since we were having fun with that, I planned two more, a World Tour series, and one that would explore fictional worlds instead of real ones, Endless.
Pretty soon after that I stumbled across the Total Drama Everything page on TV Tropes and found out I wasn't the only one writing stories like this. Since Endless was my story with the least amount of OCs in it I decided to throw it online and see what people think.
Do you have everything planned out when writing a chapter, or does some of it come as you go along?
A little bit of both honestly. Big moments are usually solid and planned out, but little things can be fluid and spontaneous. I always have some idea of what's going to happen when I start a chapter, the beginning, the end, the emotional highs, and maybe even a funny joke or interaction. From there it's a process of bridging all those concepts together naturally, which can sometimes happen in ways I didn't expect.
Take the Star Wars arc as an example, I knew for over a year ahead of time it would involve Indy and Peach being brought before Jabba, a fight with the Rancor, and a climax on the sail barge that would end with Bob and Tyler dead. The actual moment Peach kills Bob had been bouncing around vividly in my head for a very long time, as that's a climatic moment not just for the story but for her series spanning character arc. By contrast someone who never showed up in my outline until I sat down to write was the Stormtrooper Commander Ran Haraka. I had no plans for Haraka going in besides the vague goal of humanising a Stormtrooper without turning them into a hero. For the whole chapter he was something of a rogue agent and It was entertaining seeing him weave his way through the plot. Right until the end I didn't know if he would make out alright or die in the end. Similar situations happened with the Scotsman in the Samurai Jack episode, as well as Squidward in the most recent one.
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Our next question comes to us from a Guest who askes.
Were their any scrapped challenge ideas that were unnecessary, complicated or just doesn't make sense?
There were definitely a lot of things that didn't make the cut. Sometimes I write myself into a corner and I have to backtrack. Sometimes I have scenes planned that when I finally sit down to write them I find the plot weaves itself in such a way that they don't make sense anymore. Then they are whole challenges and worlds we were going to visit that just didn't make the cut. Way, way back in early predevelopment their were some more original settings I had planned to make challenge locations before I decided to cut back on OCs. After that their were too more challenges that were purged.
The first was Ravnica, a city spanning planet full of magic users from the card game Magic: The Gathering. That one was originally Yerdey's suggestion, but he ended up requesting I change it after growing frustrated with the card game. Since I had already planned out an arc where Beatrice was going to be transformed back into an animal (originally a cat) temporarily I requested he replace it with another magical location. He suggested Holy Terra which I had to turn down, for while I do like Warhammer 40K lore, it doesn't play well with other franchises. By which I mean I couldn't see any way in which my contestants wouldn't be murdered by inquisitors. So, he gave a third option, Falconia, which was the one we ended up going with.
The other location that didn't make the cut was one of my own suggestions. I wanted to cut my teeth on writing some Alternate History as that's a genre I enjoy immensely. I had this whole scenario with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom surviving to the early 20th century and warring with a resurgent Mongol Empire lead by the crazed Russian warlord Roman von Ungern-Sternberg. The idea was it would involve traveling from the heavenly palace of Tianjing to the Bogd Khan's palace in Urga. Ultimately though, the I realised that the premise was going to take way to much exposition to work properly in a single episode so it was cut and replaced with a much more familiar setting, Springfield, which I feel turned out for the better.
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Next batch is from the guest That Guy, who's always pleasant to have around.
Any characters you were surprised you liked writing?
Beatrice and Tyler hands down. I knew nothing about either of them before I started writing as they were suggestions from my friends. However once I started Tyler immediately assured himself on the Flower Girls, and though it took awhile Beatrice ended up being a very interesting character to follow through her arcs. Although to be fair I knew I had to do something to make her interesting since she was going to make it to (at least) the semi-finals.
So begs the question of course of why I would have them make it so far without knowing them ahead of time. Which ties into Endless's dirty little secret. Unlike most competition fics where the contestants placement were decided by the author. Endless's rankings were completely randomised. Before the season I ran everyone through a random name selection to see what place they got. I recognize that might be a controversial way of doing things, but I'm glad I tried just this once. Since I made me invest time and effort into characters I would have dismissed as throwaways. Speaking off.
Favorite new characters?
Quite a lot Beatrice and Tyler again of course. Amethyst, Larry, Janna to some degree. Conan himself is great. A lot of the one offs like Hornet, Joker and Harley, Willy Wonka or Jack. But hands down the weirdest thing Endless has done was make me a huge fan of Princess Peach.
Peach was my pet project this season. She's been a very fascinating muse. A character everyone knows but nearly everyone dismissed as shallow or worthless, as did I. Peach absolutely would have been an early boot if I was in charge of the rankings. but I wasn't, and when I saw how far she was going to make it, I took the hint and decided it'd be goal to turn her into I character I personally would be invested in, and I definitely succeeded. Admittedly a lot of my feelings for the character comes from my own writing but theirs bases for it all in the proper Mario Canon. I'm not saying Peach is secretly this amazingly written feminist icon or anything but there's more there than people like me give her credit for. It's just so spread out it's hard to see the big picture. Nintendo definitely makes an effort to with her when she's around but she'll always have her role in the story as the damsel set in stone and there's only so much they can do to work around that.
That Guy's final question is one I'm going to combine with a very similar one from Steel Robot
What's your favorite episode/favorite challenge?
Don't make me choose between my babies! No but in all honestly that's a hard one. A lot of my favorites are usually the fan favorites as well which is great, I'm glad that you guys kind of like the same things I do, and that if a put a lot of emotional effort into a chapter that it pays off. I've really enjoyed a lot of the merge, especially the stretch from the Crossover with Cruise and Infinite 2 all the way through to Narnia. The Tatooine arc was another highlight for me. But if you twist my arm and make me pick my absolute favorite, I'd have to say Rodney House Part 3. I still think some of the early episodes of Endless are a fun read but Rodney House is definitely where I found my footing with this cast.
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Finally, we have two more from questions from Steel Robot. Steel it's great to see you again. I really enjoyed your reviews last summer and when they stopped, I was a little afraid the hiatus had scared you off. I'm glad to hear you're still reading.
Any characters you wish you put into the season but didn't?
That's another one of those questions that's got some layers to it. Me, Yerdey and Felipe are equal parts responsible for picking the Endless cast. A lot of Yerdey and Felipe's picks turned out great. Yerdey gave us chararacter's like Roy of course, but also Peach, Beatrice, Larry and even Perky. Felipe contributed main stays like Bentley, Amethyst, Rick, and Tyler. My picks however were less weildly. I do like most of them, but I gave a lot of emotionally walled off characters that don't speak out in a group. Ramona, Lapis, Wednesday, Tomoko, Indy and the likes, and while some of them got the time and effort to let their hidden depths shine through, others were eliminated to quickly to fully explore. Ramona and Lapis especially.
If I had to go back and do everything again, I probably would have swapped some of my personal picks out for more extroverted characters. Maybe some one from Adventure Time or Futurama, another franchise we didn't touch. That being said despite the missteps I'm very happy with how the story turned out, as well as most of the characters.
We haven't seen Conan for a while, what's he been doing while everyone's been competing?
Conan's been taking it easy mostly. Besides the odd feud with 1602jaw Chris Mclean he's been in a good headspace. He gave the interns some time off and has been keeping an eye on the game from a far, as well as getting things ready for the finale.
That's the questions wrapped up but I do have one last thing to mention on Conan before I go. While a lot of you have been openminded about the real world character, I know it's also a major turn off for others and if I'm being honest I can't blame people for that. It's not a coincidence that the Real Conan, Tyler and Larry are all pretty easy-going public figures with what are essentially stage personas and a good sense of humour about themselves. But still people are fair to think this sort of thing is creepy and if I was publishing the story today I wouldn't have included them. So after the Endless is complete I'll be going back and renaming them, so as to put some distance between the Endless characters and their real inspiration. Conan will become Conner O'Gleeson his assistance Jordan Schlansky will become Jeffery Sawicki. Larry will be Lenny and Tyler will become Mark. Again, this happen retroactively after the story is finished however the name changes will carry over into the sequel. I know these are paper thin disguises but I can't do any sort of drastic character changes at this point without the story collapsing like a house of cards. I also feel it's worth pointing out that all it took was some basic name changes for Total Drama Revenge of the Island to turn Paris Hilton into the Hulk and make her fall in love with Seth Rogan. Not condoning that kind of thing. But you know… Something, something glass houses and all that.
In all seriousness I apologies for anyone I offended with the inclusion of people like Conan. Between the real world fic stuff and the script fic stuff I realise that I didn't enter this community on the best footing. Which only makes where we are now so wild to me. One last time I really want to thank you guys for sticking with the story. I have a lot of fun doing this and I want to keep posting here semi-regularly for the foreseeable future, long after Endless is done.
Next chapter will be out by at most the end of the month, then after that all we have left is the finale and a little something of an epilogue after that. I've been looking forward to the finale for a long time as it's gonna to be pretty seriously out there, but I promised when it's finished a lot of long-standing mysteries will be solved.
Until then, thank you for reading, and for all the questions. I hope you guys didn't mind me rambling a little.
Norbert out.