>Granted, Vader dropping in and obliterating Ko was -cool-, but it was
>just a last little dab of decorative icing on the Awesome Cake as far
>as I'm concerned.

When the time came for Vader's entrance, I had originally planned to just have him show up, deliver his congratulatory speech, Lucasian diagonal wipe to the epilogue, the end - but after all that went before, it seemed so... flat that way. But, by the same token, I knew piling another lengthy fight scene on top of what we already had would just be gilding the lily, as it were.

As is so often the case, Toshirō Mifune and Akira Kurosawa came to the rescue. The duel between Vader and Ko-Enshaku ends up playing out as a classic samurai-film one-and-done iaijutsu battle, most specifically inspired by the final fight in 1962's Sanjuro (the sequel to Yōjinbō).

Similarly, the appearance of the remaining members of the Magnificent Ten (deliberately kept in shadow, except for Lord Alberto) was something of an afterthought. Ifurita wasn't originally intended to appear in Blades, but various developments obsoleted the material I'd intended for a sequel before it could be released (for once!), so I moved that bit over and made Blades as stand-alone as possible.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.