Abandoned Designs
Over the course of any project there are time you will arrive at ideas or plans that you will subsequently abandon for various reasons. I thought I'd share a few of those here.
When I began the Book of the Shadows, I originally envisioned a much simpler - much, much shorter - story than what it's become. For one the story was going to be entirely focused on the Dark Magician Girl of Yu-Gi-Oh and Rini of Sailor Moon. I don't recall the epitaph I gave the two of them, even though I'm sure I used it at some point in Book I, but it should have been something like the Queens of Dark Power, or some similarly uninspired title. It was supposed to be all about them ruling some empire they took control over under dubious means and since managed with evil designs. As you should be aware by now, that is not really how things turned out, as despite retaining just a bit of their "dark" essence, the story pegs them not as dubious villainous protagonists, but as anti-heroes at worse, regular heroes more fittingly.
Another idea I abandoned, and this goes into the discussion the past couple days regarding the evolution of Anzu as a character, was the matter of her love interest... in that she didn't originally have one. When I first wrote the story, I had planned on using as the main heroine, or secondary heroine behind Tea. Rini was to be the one that rivaled Tea for Yugi's affection. That idea changed entirely once the cast expanded and I added Runa and Lafiel. Runa's interest in Yugi was meant to be comic relief in effect, only meant to play off her infatuation with Kenshin and Kenshin's playing her off onto Yugi. Lafiel's interest in Yugi was to be forged by some convoluted past that would connect them, something I initially abandoned halfway through Book IV but later rekindled as a story idea, thought not involving Lafiel. As a result there is technically a harem-anime feel to a part of the story in terms of the women around Yugi. But, it doesn't get played up as heavily as can be done because that was never really in my mind.
One of the biggest changes is in regards to the extended family of Yami and the others. A long while back I started planning out and compiling a story for the likes of Yami, Anzu, and Rini's parents, their grandparents, etc. Going off of inspiration from the game Duelist of the Roses, I thought of mimicking the alignments where possible. On that note I planned on making Mai Valentine of the original Yu-Gi-Oh series Yami's mother. I did abandon that, however, and instead created an original character for her role instead.
Along those lines I was never clear about the status of Yugi's parents in the anime. Wasn't sure if they were dead or just travelling throughout the entirety of the series. Made more sense for them to be dead, oddly enough, which is the tact I went with. However, I did consider at one point having them be alive. I had also considered giving Yugi a sister. She was going to be Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura. By that extension Yugi's mother and father were going to be Sakura's mother and father. It shouldn't be too hard to see how that one little change could have opened up a huge array of new story possibilities.
I haven't completely abandoned these ideas yet. The last one I mentioned in particular, Yugi's sister being Sakura, is one that I am working into one of my alternate universe side stories. Nothing is definitive yet, there isn't even a title, but I might be close to bumping it up to a main saga story instead of a side story because I might use it to introduce one of the Two-Six. Stay tuned to see what develops there.
When I began the Book of the Shadows, I originally envisioned a much simpler - much, much shorter - story than what it's become. For one the story was going to be entirely focused on the Dark Magician Girl of Yu-Gi-Oh and Rini of Sailor Moon. I don't recall the epitaph I gave the two of them, even though I'm sure I used it at some point in Book I, but it should have been something like the Queens of Dark Power, or some similarly uninspired title. It was supposed to be all about them ruling some empire they took control over under dubious means and since managed with evil designs. As you should be aware by now, that is not really how things turned out, as despite retaining just a bit of their "dark" essence, the story pegs them not as dubious villainous protagonists, but as anti-heroes at worse, regular heroes more fittingly.
Another idea I abandoned, and this goes into the discussion the past couple days regarding the evolution of Anzu as a character, was the matter of her love interest... in that she didn't originally have one. When I first wrote the story, I had planned on using as the main heroine, or secondary heroine behind Tea. Rini was to be the one that rivaled Tea for Yugi's affection. That idea changed entirely once the cast expanded and I added Runa and Lafiel. Runa's interest in Yugi was meant to be comic relief in effect, only meant to play off her infatuation with Kenshin and Kenshin's playing her off onto Yugi. Lafiel's interest in Yugi was to be forged by some convoluted past that would connect them, something I initially abandoned halfway through Book IV but later rekindled as a story idea, thought not involving Lafiel. As a result there is technically a harem-anime feel to a part of the story in terms of the women around Yugi. But, it doesn't get played up as heavily as can be done because that was never really in my mind.
One of the biggest changes is in regards to the extended family of Yami and the others. A long while back I started planning out and compiling a story for the likes of Yami, Anzu, and Rini's parents, their grandparents, etc. Going off of inspiration from the game Duelist of the Roses, I thought of mimicking the alignments where possible. On that note I planned on making Mai Valentine of the original Yu-Gi-Oh series Yami's mother. I did abandon that, however, and instead created an original character for her role instead.
Along those lines I was never clear about the status of Yugi's parents in the anime. Wasn't sure if they were dead or just travelling throughout the entirety of the series. Made more sense for them to be dead, oddly enough, which is the tact I went with. However, I did consider at one point having them be alive. I had also considered giving Yugi a sister. She was going to be Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura. By that extension Yugi's mother and father were going to be Sakura's mother and father. It shouldn't be too hard to see how that one little change could have opened up a huge array of new story possibilities.
I haven't completely abandoned these ideas yet. The last one I mentioned in particular, Yugi's sister being Sakura, is one that I am working into one of my alternate universe side stories. Nothing is definitive yet, there isn't even a title, but I might be close to bumping it up to a main saga story instead of a side story because I might use it to introduce one of the Two-Six. Stay tuned to see what develops there.
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