The Quest for the Legends

Part VII: Downfall of The Fall of a Leader has been posted. It is the final part of that story.

Random factoids for no particular reason about The Fall of a Leader, cut for spoilers about the ending:


- If somebody else had actually written all of my fics so far and I were just some random reader, The Fall of a Leader would almost definitely be my favorite of this hypothetical writer's stuff. Or in other words, while I love The Quest for the Legends to bits for all sorts of nostalgic reasons and general excitement about finishing it, I think The Fall of a Leader came out far better than I first thought it would, and it's absolutely filled with the sort of stuff I am weird enough to love reading about, more than The Quest for the Legends is.
- There are at least five parallels to the story of the pearl in the actual story.
- While writing chapter XXXVI, where Shadowdart pondered the meaning of the Code, I was so in-character that I honestly felt like I was uncovering the meaning of life. When editing it, I found it anticlimatically unremarkable.
- I actually didn't originally plan for Shadowdart to die, but while I was writing part six I realized that it had to happen. I originally meant to have Razor meet him again in a chapter of The Quest for the Legends.
- I didn't originally plan to have Nightmare appear, either. She just kind of did.
- The end of The Fall of a Leader is considerably in the future of The Quest for the Legends - it ends in the late winter after the summer that's going on in the main fic right now.

We're on the same wavelength here. xD I was just thinking, how much of an accomplishment FoaL was, and how it might even be better than the main fic. It's really difficult to compare, though. I mean, one one hand, you have a very personal story about life as a Scyther, and on the other hand you have an epic tale about saving the world. It's hard to believe a NaNovel turned out that great. I know mine turned out to be absolute crap. xD

And I find stuff like this interesting, just so you know. :P

hmm…Again, I really liked that, and thanks for clarifying that its considerably in TQFtl's future. As for Nightmare, characters sometimes have a way of appearing like that, but it's not a bad thing. If anything, it just shows how developed you have this universe.

lol. Looks like the Scyther need to do those duels Shadowdart mentioned in chapter 6 to decide who the new swarm leader is.

Lunar, I think that the implication at the end there was that Stormblade was pretty much nominated/accepted as the new leader after how he kinda showed Shadowdart up there.

That… that was a good story, though. It's really involving and deep, and though it's a bit odd, I like it in its own way. You may, indeed, have outdone TQftL here. I also like to note that culture shock through reading about non-humans has turned out to be a highly interesting experience.

I agree with Chrom. Nightmare said something about the "new Leader" and Stormblade had washed the two Scyther's blood off his scythe. In the rest of this NaNovel, it's commonly the Leader that performs that ritual.

Now, Butterfree, you certainly have surpassed TQftL in awesome greatness with FoaL. Also, as Chrom had mentioned, reading about non-humans is extremely fascinating. Especially when you relate them to us so much. In those chapters where Shadowdart was pondering the meanings of the Code, you had written so passionately that it made me feel as though Shadowdart was a real, living Scyther that I know personally. The characterization in this fic is fantastic, and I've grown so attached to FoaL, and even its prequel, that I'm beginning to think just as Stormblade, Pearl, and Nightmare. I feel as though I know all of them, and relating to Stormblade's feelings after he lost Pearl to the Letaligon almost made me cry - and it is certainly quite an amazing feat to make me cry from reading something. In fact, that was the first time I ever cried when reading, and only the third time I've cried when witnessing any type of Fiction. I feel much older and wiser than my actual twelve years, and I've actually learned much from this fic. I thank you, Butterfree, for I feel you've left me better prepared for life simply by writing this wonderful work of fiction.