Gods Willing

megazone@world.std.com,gryphon@world.std.com

Hello, everyone...

Recently, I've noticed traffic on one of the mailing lists I'm on, traffic to the effect of, "Has anyone noticed that there's almost no fanfic out there for 'Oh My Goddess!' [or whichever of the myriad interpretations of the title you choose to use], and what is out there is almost all ecchi?"

Well...

Some time ago, I finally got to see the English translations of the OVA series, and fell immediately in love with the series and its wonderful characters. Being one of the primary Undocumented Features authors, I naturally started preparations for integrating as much material from OMG as I could into UF; but some of the ideas I had didn't fit in with the fabric of that increasingly-complex universe, and I had been feeling near to burning out of late anyway. It occurred to me, as I wrestled with recalcitrant ideas, that the last time I felt that way, I had branched out and started a new universe (Hopelessly Lost, to be precise). Why not, I figured, do it again? It's not like my life can get any -more- confusing... what's one more prefix to add to characters' names when discussing them? :)

So I approached Zoner with the idea, and he was enthused by it. We conceived of the new series as a more compact and episodic series, not unlike the OVAs; only one or two major events per episode, to keep things under control and hopefully avoid getting bogged down like we have in the aforementioned Hopelessly Lost.

[DIGRESSION: For those of you wondering about HL, no, we haven't scrapped it or stopped working on it. The next couple of episodes are more complex than we had anticipated, and the fact that one of the members of the team working on Episode 4 lives in Brockton, so Zoner and I only see him every couple of months, doesn't make it any easier. Please bear with us. Now, back to your regularly scheduled intro, already in progress.]

The result is a new and significantly smaller universe. Notice how we seem to be telescoping inward... UF is galactic in scale, HL encompasses an enormous city and occasionally branches out to other parts of the world, and the new series, which we call Gods Willing, takes place almost entirely in the beautiful city of Worcester, Massachusetts, which, as some of you may know, is home to Zoner and me.

The following first episode is, like all first episodes, somewhat slowly paced and admittedly not overwhelmingly exciting. However, it does provide valuable background information, and begins to show where our universe's events diverge from those of Mr. Fujishima's. [That is his surname, right? I can never keep them straight.] Keep with it, and it'll get more interesting.

And now, whatever comments Zoner wants to throw in.

Voila, and enjoy.

--G.
4 January 1995

Well... hmm...

Gryphon was certainly eloquent, hard act to follow...

Gods Willing basically came out of a lot of silliness while watching Oh! My Goddess, and imagining the story transposed into our lives. I think you may be noticing a trend here: UF -> HL -> GW In all of the the author's appear as characters, and usually people we know show up. Why? Because this is pure wish/fantasy fulfillment, pure and simple. (Gryph may not totally agree, but...) It is fun to imagine these silly things happening, and sometimes not so silly things, to ourselves. And it is an outlet for creativity and for the stress in life. The three universes have taken on a different feeling: UF is grand and overwhelming, space opera and melodrama; HL is distopian, fast and violent, and a bit philosophical (mostly in 5 & 6); whereas GW is basically fun and funny, the stories write fast and the plot is loose - and I'm sure we'll upset some die-hard OHM fans with it. Too bad, this is not the OMG universe, so don't look for any real continuity. But you will also see a lot less cross-over, another trend it seems. UF is *based* on crossovers, HL has a number, and I can't think of any in GW at this point. Same thing with length, the stories are much shorter this time, to keep the pace up and the spirit lighter than in our past works.

Aside: Rob and Ben are doing HL 4 themselves really, I'm not terribly involved. Whereas HL 5 is basically all mine. HL 6 is Ben and myself. And there are many UF stories in the works; I have Crash and Burn (with an assist from Ben) and Rebirth. C&B is nearing completion, Rebirth, well, I'm trashing everything I have and starting over. It happens sometimes. It's only 15-20 pages worth so far anyway. And Ben and I have other stories falling together, not to mention the rest of the Eyrie crew...

Well, I can't really think of anything else to say... I will be at Arisia95 and AnimeExpo95, and probably Katsucon95... I hope you enjoy it.

--
   megazone@world.std.com   megazone@hotblack.gweep.net   (508) 752-2164  
"I have one prejudice, and that is against stupidity. Use your mind, think!"
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