Forum:FC:Café Fanfic XXIX



Café Fanfic is a discussion topic centered around fan-fiction. Authors are encouraged to contribute to the café's monthly discussion, which are designed to stimulate ideas and encourage engagement between members of the SWF fan-fiction writing community in a criticism-free zone.

Participants in Café Fanfic are also welcome to submit ideas for the next month's topic of discussion.

Previous topics can be found in the archival list at the bottom of the page.

There are three basic premises for Café Fanfic
 * 1) Please restrict this to stuff from your fan-fiction (written or possibly just conceptualized).
 * 2) You can suggest and make observations, but no condemning other people's work
 * 3) "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer.


 * November's topic: Talk about a particularly significant battle in your series. Who was it between? What was it fought over? What type of battle was it (aerospace, ground, sea, duel, etc)? Where did it occur? What decisions or sources influenced your creation of the battle? Feel free to discuss both OOU and/or IU aspects.

Sophia
Hehe, feeling a little weird being first, but hey! This is a good topic right here.

The Most Important Battle (at least to my series) would have to be the Battle of Coruscant and Battle of Naboo (these are concurrent battles that took place at the same time, just different place). These two twin battles took place on the ground, space, and sea (Battle of Naboo only). These battles occurred as part of a territorial campaign for both Sky War and Imperium Alicata. The reason why they fought, was to send Sky War back and strip them from a Core World (Imperium Alicata's side) and to take down important personnel and capture them (Sky War's side).

Primarily, I wished to create one huge battle, but I felt like one huge battle isn't epic enough to fight over, so I decided to make two battles that take place at the same time, but different places. And yes, I decided to make these battles worth the read (even though they are still WIP and need posting :P). So I am pretty interested about these battles, and they are, like a turning point for my series which is primarily Imperium Alicata vs. Sky War, and these battles are important, especially to Imperium Alicata, because they usually were the ones losing territory, and they never possessed a Core World.

That's my 2 cents. ~ Sophia   Christina  22:53, November 1, 2013 (UTC)

Sakaros
Though there are a bunch in fanon-that-may-eventually-be-fanfiction, the Battle of Tizgo V is the best example of a significant battle from my published fanfiction so far. It's the primary setting of The Fall of Keltrayu, and was the turning point of the Great Liberation, the two-year war between the Golden Empire and the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob. The war was the first real test for the Empire's Armada; it had previously only had small conflicts against slavers or single-planet conquerors.

Had the Empire lost the war, it would have been defeated and conquered in relative infancy, and had it lost Tizgo V, it would have lost the war. A major defeat at the Battle of Hudrel had the Empire on the ropes; the Tetrarchy had already invaded its territory and captured Tershin and Irestego. Queen Rin Sakaros was convinced to bet everything on a do-or-die strategy for Tizgo V, the Tetrarchy's military depot in the Xoquon sector. Losing Tizgo V—and Xoquon not long after—permanently threw the Tetrarchy off its game, and it was playing defense for the rest of the war until it finally collapsed.

Tizgo V was fought in space and on the surface. In orbit, the Armada threw every capital ship and fighter capable of battle—and some which should have probably been in drydock—against the Tetrarchy fleet, under the command of Zogryth, captain of the Sith Star. Rin personally accompanied the landing force to the planet; the attack itself was led by Tariun Sakaros and Keltrayu. Rin really was banking everything on the fight, so not only did she throw the whole Royal Army into battle, including all twelve Massassi Cohorts, but all the Novices were also equipped with lightsabers and taken to the fight. The fight itself lasted about a day and a half on the ground; Zogryth had control of Tizgo V's near space earlier than that.

Though the macrohistorical importance of Tizgo V was the survival of the Golden Empire and the road to doom for the Tetrarchy, Tizgo V also has intense personal significance for Rin, because it's where Keltrayu died to save her. Losing him was the most emotionally traumatic experience of her life, and it had an effect on the Empire's military strategy in the future; after that loss, the Armada's policy became "offer surrender once; if it's refused, no quarter, kill everyone". Keltrayu's sacrifice absolutely affected the outcome of the battle, too; if he hadn't done what he did, Rin, Tariun, all the Novices, and a good chunk of the Army would probably have died, and the battle would've been a rout against the Empire.

Tetrarchy loyalists remembered it very dismally; the Tetrarchs themselves tried to paint Tizgo V as a victory, stressing Keltrayu's death, until Tariun hacked their HoloNet and pointed out that the Empire had captured the system. The battle was cause for massive celebration in the Empire's original systems; the ones which had been captured were quickly liberated while the Tetrarchy reeled. A lot of resentful vassal worlds of the Tetrarchy were pretty pleased too, since the Empire came and liberated them as well. In the Order of Keltrayu, Tizgo V was remembered pretty solemnly; it was a victory, but also cost them Keltrayu. The native Gruhhzes of Tizgo V were not happy to be conquered at first; it was a big point of reconciliation with the Empire when they built a battlefield memorial for Keltrayu and all the casualties on both sides.

OOU, my writing partners and I had the Order of Keltrayu and Keltrayu himself long before we had anything about the Great Liberation. After I came up with Keltrayu and it was obvious he was long-dead (Rin first appeared in our RP in 139 ABY and Tizgo V was in 101 ABY), I started working on background. Tizgo V and the entire Great Liberation (and, by extension, the Tetrarchy of Mezlagob) grew out of that initial backstorying. There was no single or obvious influence in the design process, although the notion of the Empire confronting some other regional power was there fairly early on.

Sakaros Talk 23:47, November 1, 2013 (UTC)

Leiamoody of Ysonesse
The only battles I've semi-created exist in my story notes. One is the Battle of Vouroso, and is both a sea and space battle. My interest in writing about a sea-based conflict comes from a passing interest in naval history, particularly from the Napoleonic Era mixed with ancient sea battles. This particular story might call for duels at some point considering the Napoleonic influence, but that only happens if I get out of notes mode and turn them into a narrative.

The most important battle would be the one which comes six months later, and marks the official end of conflict between the New Republic and the Imperial Remnant in my version of the post-ROTJ galaxy. The battle is space and ground oriented, and occurs on a planet called Saneva. Since it's the last major conflict between the still-emergent New Republic and the dying Empire, I wanted to create a battle scenario which resembled the Battle of Endor, which marked the beginning of the end for the Galactic Civil War. Mirroring the past, I suppose.

Leiamoody of YsonesseTalk 10:40, November 1, 2013 (UTC)
 * Regarding Saneva, did you also plan to include a native aboriginal race? I mean, the Ewoks were dumb, but they represented sociopolitical commentary on the part of Lucas that he felt was important. Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 04:22, November 2, 2013 (UTC)
 * I didn't want to necessarily copy the entire concept of Endor, in particular the overtones George was aiming for in regards to the enemy being overcome by smaller, unexpected forces. I think he already covered that territory. I would just be repeating history at that point. I want(ed?) the population to be a mixed bag of beings who had tried to avoid the conflict until it showed up on their doorstep. (This does sound like Cloud City. Whoops). But the story's ideas are still very much in development mode. I could decide to change everything if I ever write the story.  Leiamoody of YsonesseTalk01:21, November 2, 2013 (UTC)

Solus
As I've said in a previous café, I don't really do battle scenes. Yes, I have written some, but they're usually short affairs. When I write a battle, I see it more as a method to progress either character or plot development, preferably both. Therefore, I don't usually write battles as an end to themselves but more as a means to an end. Character A and Character B need to capture Character C, C doesn't want to be captured, there's a fight, B is injured and C gets away. Progresses plot and characters. Sure, you can do cool things with that and use a cool location, preferably one that mirrors or symbolizes the emotions of the moment. You can also do things with each person or side's skills or advantages or play on the location in your battles to make them more interesting. But again, that's like the decorations, the finishing touches. If the main purpose, if the characters and plot aren't there, then it's just a bunch of pretty lights . You can even have a battle that means something but is so long and overblown that it loses all meaning. Therefore, I would suggest thinking of what a battle would do to progress characters or plot rather than "THIS WOULD BE A KEWL FIGHT."

As for an example of a battle scene, hmmmmmmmmmm. The only battle scenes that I really are proud of are from Fate, and I'm not going to spoil it for you. I can be vague, though, and pick an early event, so yeah.


 * Who was it between? There are some Jedi and space-SWAT against a dangerous serial killer.
 * What was it fought over? He's a dangerous serial killer. They would would like it to stop.
 * What type of battle was it? It's a ground battle. First, it's a chase, then a confrontation between one of the Jedi and the killer.
 * Where did it occur? Myrkr. Because some of the plot/character development needed in these scenes requires some examination of the effect of the Force on people and creatures.
 * What decisions or sources influenced your creation of the battle? Character development and plot development. There's something revealed about the killer and some foreshadowing about one of the Jedi that needed to occur, both of which eventually turn out to be game changers.

Basically, the battle was a way for me to communicate how dangerous this killer was and the effects of the Force on people and creatures. That's the whole point of this and the surrounding scenes. There's also some character revelations, foreshadowing, checkhov's guns, the whole nine yards. If I'm going to have an action scene, I want to pack as much meaning as I can into it. :p - Solus          Talk to the Hand  04:41, November 4, 2013 (UTC)

MPK
I won't promise coherency.

Back in the day when I wrote articles here all the time, I wrote a modest count of about fifty bajillion battle articles. I had this crazy post-ROTJ Sith war thing going on, and I wanted to meticulously detail all the different commanders and political intrigue and campaigns and secret weapons and yadda yadda yadda. Such topics still interest me now - they appeal to that tiny part of me that loves history, and to my adolescent days during which I was obsessed with Star Trek Armada, the X-wing/TIE Fighter series, Galactic Battlegrounds, and Empire at War. I don't even want to look at my old articles, so I'm not going to bother writing about them.

As it happens, only a few fanfics I've actually written have to do with battles. I'm not writing about Through Glass because I already did on one of these café things. But, my story Legends of the Jedi: Burning Bright is set in an ancient war over the planet of Malachor V, which I figure counts enough as a battle. The story is that the planet was conquered and occupied by a certain Mandalore the Visionary (named so because, unknown to the Mandalorians, he was a Force-sensitive who experienced prophetic ), and a lone Jedi Knight named Deyrus takes it upon himself to liberate the planet. Deyrus ends up sparking a revolt and assembling a hodge-podge army of dissidents, which if I recall my own damn story correctly had to constantly be on the move to avoid being crushed by the superior Mandalorian forces.

Honestly, I didn't think very much about how the war logically ought to have been waged - I was must more concerned with the characterization (and all-over-the-place narrative). Someone (Karo?) told me that the way I portrayed the battles was a bit too Napoleonic which it should have been more Vietnam-esque - aircraft inexplicably never play a part in it; there only seem to be soldiers and the occasional tank.

Yyyyyyeah, not much else to say that wouldn't just be me recapping the whole damn story for you. Like I said, Burning Bright was meant to be much more of a character piece (what with Deyrus angsting about the dark side and shit) than a war story in particular, and it shows. My other stories I've written (Through Glass excepted) don't really feature any battles (unless you count one-on-one duels, which I don't). Actually I would talk about duels I've written anyway but I'm tired so bugger off. -MPK, Free Man  02:18, November 5, 2013 (UTC)
 * It's been awhile since I've read Burning Bright, but other canonical publications have used the "After the End" trope (case in point: Rattatak) to show industrial regression that reduces the ability of both sides to use lots of technological terrors. Or perhaps there's some kind of electromagnetic interference (yay for hand-waving space physics!) that interferes with repulsorlifts--though that begs the question of how people landed on this planet in the first place. Would such considerations help to explain the story? Atarumaster88  ( Talk page ) 17:24, November 26, 2013 (UTC)
 * I suppose such things would, if you were to insert them within your own brain as you read. Like I said, I had only the most basic of ideas about how the war was actually being conducted. The focus of the story is far more mythological than most I've done, hence the focus on its characters. Or whatever. -MPK, Free Man  02:24, November 29, 2013 (UTC)

Brandon
The battle I’ll talk about is called the Battle for the Serendipity, which was created by my Executive Admin on SWRP, commonly known as Boli (username here is GreenRangerBoli). It’s set around 980 ABY, long after the Sith of Darth Krayt have fallen and the Sith haven’t been heard from in years. In this age, the Sith have yet to return, and haven’t been seen for centuries. So in the decades before their official return, the Sith attacked a small transport carrying Jedi hopefuls from Imperial space (the Galactic Alliance and Empire are allies) to Tython for training.

Serendipity started out as a very basic tie-in between two of Boli’s characters, Tyrn Lightell and Kara Vaalki, and was a fairly underdeveloped idea. It was meant to be a flashback RP thread that never went anywhere, but the idea was always in the backstory because it was a big aspect of why Kara went from a young noble to the Rebel badass she eventually became. So for that reason, there weren't really any sources that Boli used in initially creating it, and few decisions went into it.

That started to change once we both started working on a novel tentatively titled The Jedi Guardian. It’s set in that era, and is our own adaptation of the events of the Star Wars Legacies role-play and its backstory. This novel includes Kara and Tyrn, as well as my character Jhon Cordatus and a brand new/non-RP character named Sara Umbra. It ends up making Serendipity a much bigger part of the story than it was in the RP. Now, the battle is a pivotal moment in the return of the Sith and the destinies of all four main characters.

As for the details, the battle is fought between a few Jedi and a Sith boarding party&mdash;though at the time, the Jedi only suspect them to be Sith, since there's no concrete proof about what kind of dark Force users they are. That suspicion drives a lot of the plot, particularly for Sara Umbra who is a Jedi Shadow and tasked with investigating the alleged return of the Sith. The battle is set in space, since the Sith board the ship, but there's no traditional space battle. It all takes place on the ship, which is attacked in the badlands between Alliance and Imperial territory. It was fought because the Sith boarded the ship in order to steal Jedi hopefuls, in order to convert them to the dark side.

For the novel, which we’re currently writing, it’s the first action sequence of the story and occurs about 4-5 chapters in. - Brandon Rhea (talk) 20:09, November 27, 2013 (UTC)