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Welcome to Spring Fanon Con 2024 |
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| Host's Opening Speech
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| Welcome to the final day of Spring Fanon Con 2024! We had an alright turnout this time around. I'm glad we had participants for the contests at all. Hopefully, things will be even better in the Fall.
--Ulti, the host of Spring Fanon Con 2024! | ||||
Submissions
| Sol's Entry |
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THE DEATH OF EARTH-1776. / ENTER... THE SENTIENT UNIVERSE SAGA. Long ago, I started writing all of my series (Starlight's Soliloquy and Sol 10) as stories both taking place in alternate timelines of Earth-1776. Long story short, Starlight's Soliloquy would end with the establishing of the timeline of Sol 10, with the characters from Starlight's Soliloquy forming the mythological background of Sol 101's specific iteration(s) of Earth-1776 . Earth-1776 was birthed in 2015, during my freshman year of high school, and gained its name from lofty ideals of personal freedom. (George Washington was supposed to be a supposedly-ironic universal god, by the way). The original story of Sol 10 revolved around the creation of soul jars (known as MacGuffins) via soul magics . A third WIP emerged, known as Felix Fitzgerald and the Genetic Soda. FFGS sported the themes of ATLA and the stylistic influence of Rick and MortyxJJBA: Diamond is Unbreakable, with a more conventional episodic format. Felix Fitzgerald would meet his grandfather, a scientist who worked for, and subsequently escaped, an alternate fascist regime (the Iron Phoenix
). The stories would still take place in the same multiverse: our most important female character was to learn the same soul magic from Sol 101 and the Iron Phoenix was motivated into action from the SENTIENT UNIVERSE (more on that later). Beyond that, the story was intended to be one of redemption: our Kevin analogue, named Derek, was to be a skinhead kid mirror match to Felix who gave up his powers to join Felix. Over a few seasons, we would watch the bumbling goons pursuing Felix's grandfather slowly turn to the light, and they would all return to the original timeline to liberate it from fascism. But all of these stories came from long ago, before I earned an English degree. Now, I'm not so certain that fascists can be redeemed and I'm not so certain my stories of individualism need to be written. In the nine years I've been working with Earth-1776, the number "1776" has been co-opted by fascist forces and I'm not sure it espouses freedom anymore (if it ever did). I'm retiring the moniker Earth-1776 in favor of a much more lenient Sentient Universe Saga. The Sentient Universe Saga is, well, the story of a universe that becomes corrupted by one individual. No longer a symbiotic collection of life and energy, but under the instruction of one sentient mind, it begins to attack other universes. The rise and conquests of this universe will be featured in the penultimate act of Sol 101. The Sentient Universe Saga structure also allows me to introduce the Source (our interactive point with these fictional characters, as depicted in DC Comics (and Ben Ten + 0 + Infinite)) and the void (the empty space between universes and timelines, which I pinky-promise I invented years before Loki got to it). Starlight's Soliloquy and FFGS are put on hold until I decide I think I need to, and want to, write them. Sol 101 will return, with an epilogue to Sol 10.
THE ADJECTIVES ON THE TYPEWRITER... HE MOVES HIS WORDS LIKE A PRIZE FIGHTER. Sol 101 is the story of two people: Jules and Sol. Sol, unhappy with his life as Alexander Ezra, unknowingly performs soul magic on himself and splits himself in twain. Trying to remove the parts he doesn't like from his heart, Christian manifests. Sol runs away from home, finds a soul jar/MacGuffin Omnitrix on the dying body of Major Tom, and wanders around with Laika, trying to find some sort of sense of meaning in his fractured life. Jules, on the other hand, is the veteran of a war from another timeline. Because of his heroic exploits, he is allowed access into the City of Lore on the Plane of Legend, where the heroes of various timelines gather to lavish in immortality and untouchability while dictating the affairs of their universe and all of its subsidiary realities and planes. Jules, fearing the future incarnation of Christian, kills a Lore politician, and is expunged from the city to his own war-torn timeline, doomed to write iteration after iteration of Sol 10s until he can shape a perfect origin that allows him to either stop future Christian from overthrowing the City of Lore.
Cody 10 never got far off the ground. It was originally about a college kid, on their own, who made a deal with the trickster god of inventions and receives the Omnitrix... I didn't get further beyond the idea of the cold, lonely, solemn-and-spooky walks between my dorm and work on my little college campus. The Tommy 12 rewrite, which I believe was going to be titled something like "Tommy 12: Alien Force", made it a bit further before unofficially being scrapped. Maybe, at some point, I'll bring it back, but for now, here's the pitch: Tommy Twelfham gets the Omnitrix from a galactic courier/soldier named Refrax. Tommy ends up recruited into a MHA/"Young Plumbers"-esque outfit known as the Plungers. The Plungers are split between several teams throughout America. Tommy is specifically placed on the "Heartland team", led by fellow Plunger recruit Zack Zacharies and advised by a mysterious woman named Oracle. Tommy slowly learns to use his roster of 11 original aliens and learns to work alongside various teammates, like lab-grown crystalline Marina Dimundidam, gun-totting cowgirl Lydia, Osmosian team leader Zack, and finally, the gynoid Sophi. The first season climax would see the Plungers fighting an amalgamation of Ben and Vilgax, who teamed up together to try and defeat "It", who is an invading vestige of the Sentient Universe. "It" was able to scramble aspects of Ben 10 lore: for example, Oracle is Gwen, Refrax is Tetrax, and a mysterious trickster god figure known as Trenuso is an all-powerful reimagining of Professor Paradox. Trenuso reveals that Sophie is a Trojan horse bomb - when It attempts to scramble her, it'll kill them both. Tommy refuses, but Sophie accepts her destiny. Tommy storms off to try and defeat It, severing its connection to the Sentient Universe. Season Three: Trenuso disappears. Feeling purposeless, Plumbers squad leader Zack absorbs It and becomes the "Zachtation". Sophi deals with her newfound identity as a purposeless living weapon. At the end, Tommy uses his twelfth alien "Rex Duodecim Angelus" to uplift his friends and defeat the remnants of It.
While this would be a very fun story to write, I ran into a big problem: I need to rework too many elements of Ben 10 lore for it to work.
Tommy 12 is also scrapped for the time being so that I can focus on writing a foundational Ben 10 reboot of my own. Huge shout-out to Rewri-10: I hadn't known about it until several months into the first few pages of this project. I don't want it to look like there's any competition between us; my story is explicitly a reboot of Ben 10 that will focus on new adaptations and takes on Ben 10 lore as opposed to a rewrite. Think of this as Sol's Marvel Ultimate treatment of Ben 10, hopefully without the edginess. I'm on draft 2 or 3 of my reboot. The series was supposed to debut numerous times last year - hence the name Ben 10 '23 - but Ben 10 '23 is too good of a name not to use, so I'm going ahead and publishing it in 2024 under that title anyways. Contrary to what the title indicates, Ben 10 '23 will not focus on Ben 23, at least not for a while. Series 1 is my take on classic Ben 10: you know, kid on a roadtrip with his cousin and his grandpa. He gets the watch, triggering Vilgax to come out of stasis. Vilgax, who had been defeated by Max back when he was an Adam Strange/Flash Gordon-esque space adventurer, was thrown to the edge of the universe by Alien X. Vilgax sends a series of bounty hunters after Ben while Grandpa Max tries to drive him to meet Azmuth, the inventor of the Omnitrix. It draws heavy inspiration from the original inspirations of Ben 10 with pulp fiction, especially comics and adventure stories. The first series will do a lot of heavy-lifting reinventing a lot of plotlines: Max's secret past as a Plumber, Sunny and Verdona, initial encounters with Kevin, the Forever Knights, Professor Paradox and Ben 10,000, Phil, Tetrax, and Ben's first trip(s) to the cosmos. The second series will be an indeterminate amount of years later, analogous to OG Alien Force. Max is gone; Gwen and Ben are a bit older and based in Bellwood. Ben does not have to deal with the Highbreed just yet, though: instead, he's dealing with Argit, Simian, Albedo, Kevin, Zs'Skayr, Zombozo, and the Antitrix. Imagine it as OV Anur saga mixed with Reboot Kevin set in Alien Force Bellwood. Its tentative title is Ben 10 '23: The Bellwood Files. The third series will immediately follow Bellwood Files and its final battles. Ben will try to revive the Plumbers, though comes to realize that they're an antiquated, corrupt system that struggles to morally address larger political, social, and intergalactic affairs. At the same time, he'll also be dealing with personal demons a la Invincible season 2. With the Omnitrix and a force of Plumbers, Ben is in a ripe position to become a dictator in his own right. Can he rectify the Galvan's antiquated imperialist policies and the monsters (Malware) they've created while defeating a cabal of warlords (Eon, Vilgax, Aggreggor, the Highbreed and Incurseans) who want Ben to join their ranks?
REQUIEM DIES IRAE. OMNITRIX BATTLE ROYALE. Another long-term WIP of mine is the Omnitrix Battle Royale. In the near future, the enigmatic entrepreneur and inventor "Papa" has visions of the Sentient Universe invading his timeline. He organizes a battle royale to create the next generations of heroes via meat grinder method. Each combatant gets an Omnitrix with one transformation. Our story follows Papa's daughter, who enters the Battle Royale only to be partnered with an underwhelming alien transformation. To try and win, she teams up with a group who attempt to storm the arena's headquarters and take out Papa. Things hit a snag when Papa calls in his "Elite Four" - the winners of previous Royales - to defend him. I'm trying to make this one particularly tight. It's my dream to have a comprehensive analysis of the Battle Royale as an event: to tell you where each character is on the field, at each time at each day. It draws a lot of inspiration from my favorite film, Takeshi Kitano's Battle Royale, so I hope you'll all enjoy my retelling.
EIGHT YEARS IN SUMMATION. I started seriously writing Ben 10 fanfiction here in freshman year of high school with Starlight's Soliloquy. Sol 10 came next, then Felix Fitzgerald, and most recently, Tommy 12. In four-ish weeks, I'll be graduating with my English degree. While ideas and perspectives have changed, I still have the same passion for storytelling (that will hopefully amount to something soon!). The current roster is the Sentient Universe Saga, starring Sol 101, Omnitrix Battle Royale, and Ben 10 '23. I'm also looking to write a Batman TV show, and possibly an X-Men TV show (and the inevitable Teen Titans, Justice League, Avengers, and Spider-Man spinoffs...), but I'm looking for places to host them other than TEE... So let me know if you have any ideas! I have begun training my art skill to combat against AI users, so hopefully next time around I'll be able to provide you with some concept art. :) |