When I wrote LIEBESTOD, I prefaced each chapter with comments, and sprinkled author's notes into the endings. This wasn't distracting... but when I combined and rearranged all the 5 parts of the story, I would have had to make, like, 15 footnotes, which is a no-no in fanfiction. I was considering totally deleting them, cause they're not necessary. But then I was all, "but if I was reading his fic, I'd wanna know all the tech stuff! B'sides, Masamune Shirow does it!" So I just copied/pasted the footnotes and intro text into this file. If you want to know about any detail not mentioned here, let me know...
This fanfiction is my take on the Heero/Duo/Relena relationship. I've taken a lot of flak in personal emails for portraying Relena the way I do. Here's my justification. As portrayed in the series, Relena has the tendency to be extremely sensible in a diplomatic arena. However, on the show she tends to lose most common sense when Heero is involved. I don't think I have to list the number of times she does suicidal, ridiculous stuff -- or tries to -- simply for the chance of seeing Heero once more.
One of the reasons that I classify this as AU is that, strictly speaking, I exaggerated this characteristic she has and blew it up into what can be considered an actual personality disorder. Basically, Relena has a marked tendency to disassociate her personal life from her "political/global significance". That's the only explanation I can give for this fic...
Oh yeah, the timeline. The following explanation is for the benefit of any chronology junkies that happen to be hanging around. Non-nitpickers and non-obsessors, you can skip this... LIEBESTOD and possibly some of my upcoming stories, in an effort to be faithful to the show and canon YET slash-friendly in depicting relationships between pilots, take place in a "time-dilated" alternate universe. This allows me to let the pilots interact while they are ALL the following: on earth, aware of each other's existence, and uninjured. Believe it or not, except for the time on Peacemillion towards the end of the series, there is ONLY ONE episode window in which this can happen.
Between episodes 8 and 10 of the series, all of the pilots are recovering from OZ's Operation Daybreak. This static period, we gather from the series, lasts no more than a few weeks.
In this AU, a period of time of approximately /three months/ passes between episodes 8 and 10, while OZ is still cleaning up from their coup d'etat and are too busy to execute Lady Une's Gundam Trap operation. Wufei's doing his own thing for these months; Trowa and Quat are working partly independently, partly together... getting to know each other and spending time together; and Heero and Duo spend this time jumping between prep schools.
I don't think I'll spoil anything by saying this story is 1X2, so here's the explanation. It would obviously be unrealistic to assume that Spandex Boy and Braided Baka get cozy after only a week of acquaintance. This timeline lets them get accustomed to each other's presence for a few months before getting sappy and mushy and romantically attached to each other.
Just for the sake of clarity, all the dates in the series, endless waltz, and episode zero, are still viable. Yes, the Gundams still descend on April 7, AC 195. Yes, the Eve Wars still take place on December 24, AC 195. There are just three random months inside here somewhere.
The only I reason I bothered to type this is that I'm sick of fics in which all the pilots are rooming together at one school EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE NEVER ALL TOGETHER ON EARTH in the series. Just to let you know -- this particular fanfiction has an explanation for it all!
Oh yeah, there are 3 "musical interludes" in this story. I'm aware that fanfic convention is to seperate "side-stories" like songfics and stuff into totally seperate files, but I felt that storytelling circumstances justify the format I've used here.. Basically, in the middle we jump from narrative to vidfic/songfic. Wai! (starts singing) G-wing vidfic, triple feature, Fractalforge will build a creature... see Heero being, glomped by Peacecraft... (stops) ahem.
Basically this fic was an experiment. I attempted to work a theme that's long interested me -- the duality and relationship between love and death, Liebestod -- into a "classical" tragedy. One group of literary critics, the ones that I believe in, considers all tragedies a matter of fate. And if you believe this, they get remarkably easy to write. Besides, as Tom Stoppard so aptly put it, tragedies are all about blood, love, and rhetoric... All you do is set the stage beforehand, so to speak; with the political timeline and characters' motivations and loves and whatnot... and then just watch the chaos as it all plays out. After getting the scenario together, the plot simply wrote itself. Turns out my "scenario" wasn't accurate, though.
I'm more concerned with this fanfic as a morally and philosophically relevant story than as a dead-level treatise on canon characters. To make this interesting, I was forced to write Relena as being substantially different than she was in canon material. Don't like it? Sue me! (looks for predatory Bandai lawyers) ...No, wait..!!
Throughout the story, I refer to Maxwell Church's construction as being made out of wood and steel. Personally I think that a gothic cathedral of wood and steel would be cool... to my mind, wood wouldn't be as expensive as concrete or brick on a colony simply because, with water and light, you can grow a forest there very cheaply; but the materials for brick and mortar must be imported from mining asteroids or, worse, earth. All sci-fi/Gundam Science nitpickers please don't bug me on this, it's dramatic license. Bricks don't burn, okay?! By the way, I realize that my description of the burned-down church is probably off from what was depicted in Episode Zero; it's just that I'm too lazy to find a site archiving it and look up the scan... Gomen, gomen, gomen...
Duo's remark about "Ashram-esque capes" refers to Ashram, a cool badass with a massive flowing cape, from the anime series Record of Lodoss War. The operative problem with wearing Record of Lodoss War gear in a combat situation is that the armored shoulder-plates must be way too heavy. What's more, the long flowing capes look tres cool, but are probably impossible to secure and keep out of your way. Too bad... I always wondered if Vampire Hunter D had the same problem. (Vampire Hunter Duo... now there's a fusion! Wonder who'd be the David Bowie guy...)
Oh yeah, people say they like the Pizza Shanty sequence. I hate Pizza Hut myself, their service sucks and their food isn't much better! But no other major chain restaurant makes you wait for your food, and a wait was necessary for the story... besides, describing Heero eating pizza in his anal-retentive way is fun. I know they're supposed to be in Japan, but... well, hey, maybe the Japanese eat pizza on a regular basis by the 22nd century. I know it can't be totally unknown there today because (Useless Anime Trivia) In Neon Genesis Evangelion episode 12, when Shinji, Asuka, Aida, Toji, and Class Rep are at the party for Misato, you can see an open box of pizza on the table. Impress your friends with this stupid fact...
When Heero talks about Relena and how Dr. J got a psych profile of her, this part about the nanomachines is totally made up. It wasn't depicted episode 5, but I feel that Dr. J would only have told her the things he told her if there was a definite reward factor... faithful readers of mine will notice that I like writing about nanomachines. They're a cool plot excuse, AND they were in BOTH Xenogears and Metal Gear Solid! That, by definition, makes them cool!
This discussion on blood types is actually all true! Like, 95% of people in China have one blood type. Fanfic writers: when you want medical mumbojumbo to take up space in your fic, it pays to review your notes from high school science classes. Incidentally, there's a surprising amount of evidence supporting the hypothesis that Heero might have been artificially created, high pain tolerance, superhuman strength... I figure that being able to accept virtually anyone's blood would be an advantage that the Doctors would have built into him... see later notes on Venlafaxine.
About Father Maxwell's teachings: he preaches his own modified version of the original Catholic dogma. By AC 188, the Church has probably become more liberal about other interpretations of the Good Book. Also, the colonies' lack of guidance from the Vatican (after Heero Yuy's assassination and the resulting lack of frequent communication between Earth and the colonies) probably contributes to this...
Duo reads Shakespeare. You know how you had to read Shakespeare in High School? Remember how screwed up the language and metaphors seemed? Well, believe me, future students will only have it /worse/. Language's effective lifetime is actually quite short... 100 years from now, who knows what we'll be saying in slang, assuming we live that long. (HEH!)
Check it out: homophobia never dies! Heero and Duo, along with many other gay couples, are STILL getting shafted by the government two or three centuries from now. Some things never change... I know this may be an anachronism, but hey, the Gundam Wing universe is basically just like today except with really large mecha and space travel. There aren't, like, flying cars and personal robots and things... it's really one of the /least/ futuristic "future" shows out there!
I make passing references to various colonies trying to secede/withdraw from the United Earth Nation, mostly as political backstory.. An allegory for the struggle to escape the economic problems of the United Earth Nation is southern US states rallying for "states' rights" before the American Civil War, as well as the current state of the European Union and the Euro currency.
Hokay... technical drug stuff. Except for the account of Heero's apparent "resistance" to SSRI class drugs (resistance to this is probably not possible in real life...) the medical information contained here, including all referenced drug names, is entirely true. Venlafaxine and Effexor really do exist (I'm not sure /when/ they were created, tho) The main purpose for their existence is as an alternative for people wishing to avoid the undesirable side-effects caused by SSRIs and other "classic" antidepressants such as tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline (Elavil) and imipramine (Tofranil).
I think it's a definite possibility that Heero's body chemistry, metabolism, brain structure, et cetera, were modified by either Odin Lowe or Dr. J and the crew before the events depicted in the TV show. It's said several times in the show that Spandex Boy has an extremely high pain tolerance, physical strength and vitality, and general resilience... maybe he's a cyborg? Anyway, I think that they'd also have loaded Heero up with resistance to nearly every drug out there. An especially sadistic interrogation technique is to get the prisoner addicted to some substance, then give him more when he talks.
Oh, yeah... while antidepressants like these aren't addictive /per se/, sudden withdrawal can totally fuck up your body chemistry, cause seizures, stuff like that. For the REALLY OBSESSIVE: here's some data on Venlafaxine... I can't remember where I got it, tho. I do have this URL, tho... http://uhs.bsd.uchicago.edu/dr-bob/tips/venlafaxine.html... go there for an unofficial FAQ.
"Venlafaxine hydrochloride is a structurally novel antidepressant for oral administration. It is chemically unrelated to tricyclic, tetracyclic, or other available antidepressant agents. It is designated (R/S)-1-[2-(dimethylamino)-1-(4 methoxyphenyl)ethyl] cyclohexanol hydrochloride or (_)-1-[a [(dimethylamino)methyl] p-methoxybenzyl] cyclohexanol hydrochloride and has the empirical formula of C17H27NO2 HCl. Its molecular weight is 313.87. Venlafaxine hydrochloride is a white to off-white crystalline solid with a solubility of 572 mg/ml in water (adjusted to ionic strength of 0.2 M with sodium chloride). Its octanol:water (0.2 M sodium chloride) partition coefficient is 0.43."
Shooting! Um, the assassination method used here deserves some explanation. An electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, is a basically a massive electrical discharge. Normally occurring locally with a nuclear explosion -- or globally, with the simultaneous detonation of several nuclear devices; an EMP totally overloads and destroys any electrical circuit within the blast radius. In this story, the technology to create an EMP has been miniaturized and controlled to the extent that it's possible to target only building or city block with it; and no nuke detonation is necessary. The Gundam Deathscythe's ECM (electronic countermeasures) work on the same principle; except they include an thermoptical cloak field too.
Oh yeah, about DS-Hell. The fansub I have of episode 33 or whatever it is, when the escort squad is out in space and sees the cloaked Deathscythe-Hell, and Duo kicks ass for the first time in his new mecha, the OZ squadron is translated as "Crack Escort". When I watched that, I was like, "CRACK ESCORT?! Bwahahah!" Can someone who's seen the CN dub mail me, please, and tell me what the "official" translation of that is...?
Okay, anyway. Here, the sniper aims the night-vision scope for Relena, closes his eyes to become accustomed to the dark before the pulse affects the lights in the room (but not his electrically shielded rifle), and opens his eyes after the lights go out. His eyes are now perfectly-dark adapted, unlike the security force, and he is free to shoot.
I didn't think of an electromagnetic pulse as a catalyst for chaos... It's appeared in such places as the online comic "Sluggy Freelance", which rules, and is found at http://sluggy.com, as well as Frank Miller's angsty graphic novel "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns". Both of these are highly recomended. Oh yeah, and that John Woo movie "Broken Arrow", too... and of course, the Matrix. What would people say to a MST of The Matrix...?
By the way: the overworked and cheesy writing preceding this part, talking about the moment of dawning comprehension, describes the "It's a GUNDAM! AHHH! (explosion effect)" moment experienced by countless OZ soldiers on the TV show.
Epilogue: Who was the sniper, anyway? Assuming it's a canon character, there are a number of possibilites... I'm not going to get into potential motivations, but by my count there are more than six suspects. One, though, is better than the others. Think you know who, and can tell me why, and your choice is who I think it is, and you'll automatically earn my respect...
And those are the notes!
BONUS LIST FOR WRITERS! While writing this story, I was often tempted to dip into cliché. Tired stuff in Gundam Wing fanfiction! Try avoiding these phrases and ideas if you possibly can.
"Koibito/Koi" (HIGHLY overused, especially "koi"... "I love you too, my carp/goldfish!" But Kawaii Kaworu sez it in Evangelion, so it's sort of ok...)
"Perfect Soldier" (think of another way to describe him, please! My suggestions are Spandex Boy and 'Jibaku Shonen Heero', which is a japanese fan term. Literally, 'self-exploding boy.')
"Boys don't cry" (most cliché Duo phrase in existence. If I start reading a fic and hear this, I just go, "okay, this is stupid." Ever notice that whenever Duo says this, he ends up crying anyway?)
"Shattered" (this one's a cliché in EVERY fandom!)
"blond/black-haired/brown-haired/chestnut-haired Angel" (I think 'angel' itself is okay, but try not to include hair color in the phrase. Especially for Quatre. "My little one. My blond angel..." Org, that's too much sap for even ME! I had Relena use the phrase here, but only to show how tired and ridiculous her reasoning is...)
"Little one" (It's adorable, I know... but how did this get started anyway?)
"Broken mask" (refering to anyone, not just Zechs)
"Star-cross'd" (refering to absolutely any relationship... GOD I hate this term!)
"JUSTICE!" (you know.)
"Terminal cancer" (G-boys drop dead of this in nearly every deathfic)
"There's a SIXTH GUNDAM?!" (fics like these usually have 15,000 chapters and self-insertions. Avoid. oh, and I'm not talking about Epyon as the 6th gundam...)
"When they met, it was like love at first sight." (used to describe meeting of 2 GW characters... ignores fact that they tried to KILL each other when they first met... works with nearly anyone on the show, including straight couples! I'm not kidding...)
"Ai shiteiru." (not always, only when an emotionally mute type like Heero says it to someone with absolutely no provocation.)
"How many times, (character name)?! Tell me! How many times do I have to kill that girl and her puppy?!" (ripped straight from Endless Waltz, total Heero angst cliche. Reminds me of a Led Zeppelin song... How many more times, dooo do dooooo...)
"(character name).... Arigato/Thank you... for everything." (thanking someone 'for everything' is also a universal cliché.)
"Nataku! I am not worthy of you!" (Wufei already says this enough during the show.)
The End
(:./fractal/notes)
