LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-16 AT 02:12 AM (EDT)
 
... as I've been re-reading NXE both to refresh for X5 and in the course of the HTML conversions, I'm rediscovering stuff we did that... well, I won't say I'd forgotten about it, but it had gone off the top of the stack, for sure. For instance, I love the way Asuka and Truss are buddies after 2:3—and the way we kept remembering to call back to it in later episodes. Their little scenes always make me smile.

The re-read has also brought back to mind how unexpected DJ-and-Asuka was, and how we decided to run with that inside the story as well as out. That reaches its logical culmination with their conversations in 3:6 and early in 3:7, which I'm still quite pleased with all these years later.

Honorable mention, as well, to the moment later in 3:7 where, at the end of a long damn couple of days, DJ does the only thing that makes sense:

DJ looked after [Rei] for a moment, then turned and went to his bedroom. After a few restless minutes, he decided he couldn't face solitude tonight, and went quietly to Asuka's room.

She was asleep, but that was all right; all he wanted was to be near her. He slipped carefully under the covers on the far side of the bed, moving slowly and quietly so as not to disturb her, and wandered off to sleep after only a few minutes.

I think of the email I got from people scoffing that their relationship wasn't "real" (whatever that means in a fictional context), and then I think of that passage, and I just shake my head with a smile. One toke, you poor fool?

I realize I'm sort of congratulating myself here, but given the amount of time that's passed, I prefer to think I'm congratulating 1997-2000 me, and the rest of the team from that era. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.