BO Writer Interviews
Hi. Peter here. To find out what the three writers of the BO Stories thought of different aspects, I decided to knock together some questions and interview the three of them. Below is the results I got back from each one of them. Note that Jeremy's replies are done in Balck, Theron's is done in Green, and mine are done in Turquoise.
1. How did you first hear about the forum "Baron Online"?
I first heard about
Baron Online from my Brother, the Administrator there. He was
talking to my parents about having his own site, and the next day
I signed up there and started posting.
This
goes back quite a bit. Heidegger (originally called Sephiroth)
held a FF tournament, where two members compete for a prize. I
ended up in the finals against TG Cid. I lost to him because of
my slow modem. However, when he heard of his advantage, he had
some of the winnings given to me as compensation. I thought of
him as a cool guy. Then, some time later, Necron told me about
Baron online and said that TG Cid, now called Cecil Harvey, was
the owner. I signed up.
From
my friend Rina who no longer is there.
2. What made you create you're BO account name?
Well when I was
signing up, I wanted people to have a way to know that I was
Cecil Harvey's brother, so I thought back to Final Fantasy 4,
where Cecil and Golbez were brothers, then I just added the
Harvey at the end to show kinship and thus, I came up with Golbez
Harvey.
Explosive
Bobcat: Entering "SSJ4 Gohan" into
the MGS name generator, I ended up with Explosive Bobcat. I loved
cats, so I decided to use it.
Explosive Caracal: I saw
a TV show about the Caracal, and when Baron went down, I decided
to re-name myself Explosive Caracal.
Caracal: Realising how
lame the name Explosive Caracal was, I decided to ditch
Explosive, and requested a name change to Caracal.
I
think Edge was my first name. So it was a mere extension of my
first Online account period.
3. How did you meet the other writers, and lead to you speaking to them in a chat room?
Well I remember it
was Theron that I really first met. He joined Baron shortly after
me, and I really admired his writing, and at the time I doubted
my own writing, and he helped me realise to just write for
myself, he really helped me out a bunch. As for Peter, my
earliest memory of him was when I got him to join my
"Club" to flame another member, Rufus. But eventually I
started to read his tales of this guy named Ace in the Final
Fantasy 7 world, and I loved them. Eventually we became great
friends. Both are like brothers to me and because of that,
working on a project like this seemed like the best thing to do.
Jeremy
added me to his MSN list and IMed me one day, or I IMed him. I
can't remember. Anyway, we started chatting and the friendship
started. As for Theron, well he became a writer and when I
downloaded AIM added him to my Buddy List.
Just
being on the Forum and staying there. Me and Jeremy clicked
instantly. Peter and I amigos afterwards.
4. What made you want to write the BO Stories?
Well Peter had
given me a link to another story he had been writing with a group
of friends, the Guest book Stories, and as with Ace, I loved
these stories as well. So I talked with Peter about the idea of
having something like it at Baron. We both liked it and decided
to do it. At first it was open to everybody, Theron was the only
one that joined though, but it works so much better since there
is only three of us, I prefer it this way.
After
posting the GB stories at Baron, I spoke to Jeremy about it, and
we decided to have our own variation - the BO stories. Theron
then joined as a writer.
Self interest. I already had a idea about writing a funny story
about alternate versions of some of those on Baron. The guys
actually went through with it before I had the chance.
5. Who would you say created the idea for the stories?
Well the others
might object, but I think it was me that came up with the idea to
do the BO stories. But if I hadn't read the GB stories, I would
have never thought of it, plus Theron said he was planning
something like it at the time anyway when we came to him about
this... so in a way, I guess we all had a part in it.
Theron.
He originally planned to do something similar, though I'm sure it
would have been completely different to how it's now portrayed.
However, the "final" version had to be a combination of
Jeremy and myself.
Hmm...Honestly
we all did. They were inspired from the ever infamous GB stories.
And the idea came to me around the same time.
6. What is the origin of you're main character (i.e. the one who shares you're name)
Well my inspiration
for Golbez came from my own persona at Baron Online. At Baron,
most of us always played a different Character. When I first
joined I was a dark knight like the real Golbez, but later on I
realised that I really didn't want to be a dark Knight, so I
became a Paladin instead. So when thinking of making the
character for the story, I just translated my Baron Online
persona into the story.
I
thought of an idea to have a talking, British cat as my
character, this Caracal was born. I was working out a background
for him, and came up with Silrun Pepin who is basically Ace
Strife. I made a few tweaks to him and made him Caracal
(including a slight rip off of Samurai Jack). His human aspects
are much like Ace Strife. A powerful Samurai/Monk, but Silrun has
a family and a loved one where as Ace is a lone wolf.
Theron
is just the writer in me personified. With special abilities of
course. ^.^ Therony as I said on the board, is an alternate
version of my main Role play character. (And a reason why I
didn't and won't do a BO#1 Prequel for him.)
7. What about the other character(s) you created?
Cecil:
At Baron Online, Cecil owns the place and is basically king, thus
in the story, he is the King of Baron. Also he is Golbez' Brother
because in real life, he is also my brother.
Sujen: Sujen is one of
the most important members at Baron, and she is also my
girlfriend. So I had to give her the part of my wife in the
story. Her personality and style just sort of came as the story
went on.
Immy: Immy is
Imagination at Baron, and is a really good friend of mine. So I
had to give her some role in the story, since she is a Baronite.
It's the same with other Baron members.
Rosa, Edge, Kain etc.:
These characters were all used in order to give Cecil his own
story line to follow. Since in Final Fantasy 4, Cecil was the
main character, I used the characters that were also from the
game to sort of make a link between the real FF4 Baron and our
Baron. Eventually most or all of the FF4 characters will make a
cameo.
Yuno
Imzadi: I wanted my friend Yuno, a fellow
writer to take part in BO#2. I even created a background for him,
which I knew he'd like in the hopes of tempting him into writing.
However, events in his life meant he could take part. So I took
the character. Before I added Yuno, I had watched the Anime
Cowboy Bebop. I liked the design of Spike, and decided to emulate
it with Yuno. I also added some other elements to help develop
the character.
Minkey: I also run an
online Sonic comic called: "Chaos Tales", where Minkey
(now called Minx) is my custom character. With Caracal basically
useless in the story, I needed a character to replace him, and I
decided to use Minkey. Minkey's design comes from the dancing
Kung-Fu Hamster plushie you may have seen in shops. The ability
to morph into a hamster is based slightly from Breath of Fire,
where people can morph into Dragons. As for his enhanced
abilities, well that comes from Spider-Man as Spidey has the
potential speed, strength, reflexes and agility of a man sized
spider.
Janine: She's basically
Ace's girlfriend from the Ace stories. I wanted Silrun to have a
love and compete with his twin brother, so I took Janine from my
Ace stories.
Tameto: I wanted Silrun
to have a rival for Janine's hand in marriage, and I decided for
him to have a twin brother, who happens to be evil.
Meiglan
is basically the same as Therony. Based on the Role Play
character my angel (GF) originally played.
8. What are you're thoughts on the GB Stories?
The GB stories
truly are a piece of art. They formed what the Baron Online
stories are today. The GB stories I think have really come a long
way. at first they were really Final Fantasy characters in weird
situations, but now they have their own plots and are so
wonderful to read. They truly are amazing.
I
helped write them, so it's obvious I like em. They're crazy and
great fun to write and I enjoy writing them, and planning out
future plotlines. They're also loosely tied in with my Ace
stories which is a cool thing.
What
the BO stories try to be. This is hilarity through and through in
my eyes. But we can't make the BO Stories like GB. Otherwise it
would just be a clone.
9. "BO is a clone of GB". Do you agree with that statement?
I don't think that
BO is a clone of GB. Sure the idea came from the guestbook
stories, but we made our own ideas and didn't really take
anything from the guestbook stories. It's like comparing apples
and oranges, sure they are both fruit, but they are totally
different after that.
Slightly. We use a similar writing style, and have FF characters
in it but I guess the similarities are just "skin
deep". We rarely discuss plotlines at the GB. OK, we some
times do, but major events like Happy Noodle Boy just happen with
no warning. We plan what we want to feature in BO.
Disagree
completely. They are completely different. Even though there are
some GB aspects in our stories. IMO I think the BO stories are
much more serious then GB. (Mostly cause of my characters.
>.>) But that's what makes it work.
10. Would you like to see the GB/BO worlds meet as a one off crossover, having the two worlds fuse (with elements and characters from both), or stay separate with perhaps one off cameos in both?
I defiantly would
like to see some sort of crossover story between the two. Having
that many writers on a project would be amazing, but I don't
really think it should be anything but a side story. But I think
that doing that and still having cameos such as the appearances
of Geg and Arthur in the BO stories is perfectly fine to me.
Doing a crossover would be great to see the reactions between
characters such as Golbez and Arthur.
I have
considered for a while doing a GB/BO cross over story, but I wana
get my current Ace story done and BO#2 before I go on. It'll
probably have BO characters fight GB characters, while the four
baddies - Ikonboardia, Tameto, Iviv and Rytthew plan some kinda
world destruction. I've had a few ideas (mainly having Silrun and
Ace fighting) but it will be done as a regular story rather than
in a script style (the style BO and GB use).
Right
now, I wouldn't like seeing it period. Bo I think is still trying
to find its identity. Instead of the title of GB clone. Once
that's done. Then I would like to have them on a alternate world.
(Neither BO's or GB's world.)Where they fight, squabble...etc.
You get the idea.
11. Is there anything you don't like about the stories?
The only thing I
can think a bit negatively upon is the constant fights between me
and Peter about how things in the story should be. Both of us
want the stories to be the best possible, so of course we come up
with ideas that we think work best, so often our ideas clash and
it's hard for us to compromise...but in the end everything seems
to work out nicely... That's what makes the stories grand.
Since I've been a kid, I've had a powerful imagination. When it
comes to story writing, I often play around with an idea and
develop on it. I do this for GB, BO, Ace and my comic Chaos
Tales. Now for a certain situation, Jeremy and I may think up an
idea and both toy with it and end up with two completely
different results. And we end up arguing on how it should be
done. Now granted, the first time it happened it wasn't to bad. I
hadn't quote stated everything I wanted for an idea, but we had a
real bad fight over the end of Blue Bow in BO#2. But the time it
hurt the most was when we were discussing BO#3. I had already
thought out an idea, yet about one/two months later, Jeremy
states one, and says mine should be made into a sub-plot!
Hmm, I
guess it would be the arguments the guys have. They are so
passionate about this. IT's bound to happen. >_< 12. If
there were one thing you could change in BO, what would it be?
12. If th ere were one thing you could change in BO, what would it be?
I would say that I
would change the fact that we planned out BO#2 too much. It
really didn't seem to have the effect the first one had. But it
all worked out in the story, but times during writing it I got a
little bored because it was so planned out.
The
way BO#1 looks on the site was all done by me. It took forever to
write the coding that made the page look so wonderful. I wish the
two of them would do the HTML coding for color etc., making my
job MUCH easier!
I
don't know off hand one thing. I guess changing Therony's name.
So Peter doesn't keep getting the Writer and the character
confused.
13. What is in store for the BO stories?
We have quite a bit
of ideas that we are playing with at the time, but we are almost
certain that there will be a BO stories #3 and #4. These stories
will really test the limits of our characters, and also look for
a few new additions to the cast.
BO#3 and 4 has been planned. I've also thought up an idea for a
BO "Movie". This would follow the DragonBall Z rule for
movies - set it during a particular plotline, but make sure it's
outa place (e.g. #12, set during the Buu Saga but Buu isn't
around destroying things and the only time Goku and Vegeta are in
the afterlife is when Goku returns to otherworld and helps train
Gohan). I would also like it if we didn't have the writers and
narrators making contributes, and it's all the characters.
However, we haven't discussed this in a while and I dunno if
we'll ever finish the idea. I am also considering writing a GB/BO
cross over myself at some point.
That's
info only our minds know.
14. I (Peter) will be leaving for University in a few months. Do you fear this could affect the story in some way?
We all have things
in our lives that could affect the story, just as he is leaving
for University, I could get grounded. Besides, I don't think any
of us could just leave the stories without a proper ending.
Depends
how much of a chance I get to access a computer. However, Arthur
is in Uni, and he rarely contributed for GB#5 (though he once did
a part that was 11 posts long). Besides, my friend Dan was able
to write Blue Soldier, so if he can find time to write a fan fic,
so can I.
Yeah,
College (US equivalent.) drains both creativity and time for side
projects. I'm living proof of this.
15. In you're opinion, which writer is: Crazy, Sane and Funny (please write it next to their name)
Jeremy:
Funny
Peter: Crazy
Theron: Sane
Jeremy:
Funny
Peter: Crazy
Theron: Sane
Jeremy:
Crazy
Peter: Funny
Therony: Sane
I'm often the voice of reason here . And that's not a good
thing... So I take the role of Sane one.
So there ya have it. The thoughts of the different writers. I realise ya probably didn't give a shit, but well :-p to you.