Perceptor will still be an annoying git, but he'll be treacherous from the beginning. He's someone else's pawn still. I'll wait for the anime studios to call!! Thank you! Again you were a direct inspiration, so thanks for the support - certainly it means a lot. As for Chekov's gun, if you've seen any Babylon 5, that was another inspiration. As in B5 I wanted the solutions to be there from the start. I will say that although Jetfire's death was planned from the start (the ending didn't change much, just the timing of the appearance of Jetfire II), Swerve wasn't intended to be a cover for the alien. That was supposed to have been Vector Prime, and Swerve would have been the one who gave his life heroically to save Jetfire (the death scene would have been great if I could have done it...). Hence the sword needing to be given to Jetfire by VP - originally he just grabbed it! However, someone guessed the ending so I decided to swap it around and have it the other way. It would have made more sense for Safeguard to have shown up as he would have felt betrayed that Vector Prime was the alien, so he would have freed Jetfire for that reason. However, however wink , there is a sequence I haven't used in the story which would have made more sense of Swerve being the traitor. Don't know if anyone remembers the supposedly throwaway joke about Swerve getting a gun that fell off the back of a lorry? He'd been sent off by Jetfire and Vector Prime to hide, but the real intention was to have Swerve captured by Perceptor (who'd just got rid of an Optimus Prime (it would have been his cameo appearance), hence the gun and the joke) and the alien being implanted then. That might appear as a short sequence at some point in the future. This story thing gets more complicated! Better have a good plan for the second series... EDIT: whilst I'm thinking about this, there was a possibility of bringing Swerve back that I thought of, but that would have lessened the impact of killing him off in the first place. Whilst there may be a couple of characters who come back for the next one, it won't be any of the main ones. There were a few "Hi" and "Die" characters I shouldn't have killed so quickly - Cyclonus was the main one, but he fulfilled his purpose. His Armada might have to make a appearance so as to bring him back...
/\ Cool. It's always interesting to read how stories sometimes shift from their initial outline and develop as they get told. I have to say, I think Swerve's betrayal had for more impact for me personally than it would if it had been Vector Prime, as Swerve had a very likable, offbeat characterization that I warmed to, so that's a change that I think was for the better. I understand what you mean. It's always tempting to being a likable character back from the dead simply because people like him, but unless the resurrection genuinely serves the story, it can fall flat and invalidate the drama of the original death. It can take guts to leave them dead, but it usually results in much more satisfying drama.
And there's hardtalk amongst the great writers. JetnotSkyFire, I understand that it can be painful to kill characters off. Sometimes you kill them too fast and you regret doing so.. I haven't dared to kill anyone off yet because I don't know what to do with my story if I do that. But I agree with Coolhand. The way you planned everything for this story has made sense and is very very entertaining and full of suspense. It was very well written and you deserve a lot of credit, especially for sticking to the sole purpose of having the first Jetfire sacrifice himself for the good of toykind.
Thank you and I suspect you're right. I should have planned it a bit better at the start, but that's all part of the Funnies learning curve I think I really don't want to go down the Bobby Ewing in the shower "it was all a dream" route! The various resurrections of OP have often fallen flat, I think. They generally haven't served the story (Animated perhaps being an exception to this, as the resurrection was consistent with the powers of the Allspark). Dark Awakening also worked well, though, or it would have if they'd left OP alone. I must admit to not actually regretting that I have killed characters off, though the 2nd Jetfire angle was my way of dealing with the fact that although he had to die, I didn't want to kill my favourite character In the reverse of what Coolhand said, it's only worth killing off a major character if it serves the story. That's why I'm annoyed with ROTF for the needless deaths. It didn't really impact on the story, so what's the point? I suppose so we get new characters for the next one, therefore more toys Sorry I think I'm rambling on a bit here, and I haven't even had a drink yet (I think there's a bottle of wine that's bound to go off if I don't drink it all this minute!). The moral at the end?: ultimately, I've realised how difficult this story business is. There will be character deaths in the next series, and I make no apologies if your personal favourite is going to be one of them! (Jetfire is now safe though, whatever happens!)
Holy mother of... that brought back some memories. Though the ending of "Newhart" was better IMO "What do you mean, beautiful blonde?"
Oh bummer. The main character awoke at the end of the series, but he was the character from a former 1970's series (The Bob Newhart Show) he tells his wife that he had a weird dream where he was married to a beautiful blonde, owned an inn in Vermont, had 3 hicks named Larry, Darryl & Darryl, etc... she tells him to go back to sleep only to turn the light back on and go "What do you mean, beautiful blonde?"
I must first thank Coolhand for the link in OOTDL to here. I just read the entire thing. So surprises aren't as big of a surprise if you read it all in one shot, but you continue to guess how they will be used. Great story and keep it up. Since Shane is about to conclude the post BW stories I needed something else to get into. This is it. I just don't know how I missed out on this for so long.
Thank you for the comments and welcome aboard! As to how you haven't seen it before, I know I've got dozens of comics to catch up with, and dozens more I haven't even begun to read yet. When I have more time....
Hopefully you won't have to wait too long - I'm planning some bits now! In other news, I've finally started the PDF versions for download. They'll be all available soon, the first two are ready now. jetfire journal part 1.pdf jetfire journal part 2.pdf
J!SF: I really liked that ending - what really makes the appearance of Jetfire 2 work, and not seem at all forced, is that you didn't just show JF2 early on, but you were careful to make it clear that only one duplicate could come to life at a time - making it seem like a minor point, but a memorable one. Very cool! Naturally, I'm all the more eager for the next story!
Yep, and here's part 3! Working on Part 4 right now. jetfire journal part 3.pdf Thank you, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Next story coming soon!
Thank you! Right, last 3 PDFs now finished. All the download links are now here - hope people will find these useful. jetfire journal part 1.pdf jetfire journal part 2.pdf jetfire journal part 3.pdf jetfire journal part 4.pdf jetfire journal part 5.pdf jetfire journal part 6.pdf Hopefully I should have the first part of the next story up in the next week or so. The remaining new characters are all now here, I think, so I can start taking some pics.
