User blog:Blankslate/Regarding the FC

Ello ello there ladies n' gents. How've we been? I know everyone here has missed me and just begged to know where I've been, as none of you can even hope to edit or even survive without my good graces. Don't you all just thank whatever god you worship to have me? Am I not your second coming?

... -rolls eyes-

In all honesty though, it's good to be back, even if I'm not doing much, and it's even better to see that the wiki is still thriving with activity (even if Bleach itself has hit a dry spot in my opinion). This is especially in regards to the FC, which is the main thing that I was hoping to get back into. However, this also made me think back on what caused the FC to falter and eventually fail entirely, and I think that I shouldn't just keep these thoughts to myself or privately with Sei or one of the other admins. It's high time I start being a bit more vocal with this community as one of it's admins, and here I'll point out what I feel was wrong with the FC in it's latter stages.

The first major (and probably only) issue with the FC is that we were simply planning too far ahead. Kraven Jager was the main antagonist of the FC's beginning arc, Extinction, we know this, but as the story was just starting to pick up it's own traction, we each began adding entire new plot elements that would take place later on in the future and seemed to disregard Kraven entirely. If my memory recalls, we had a plot where Raian was going to rebel against Soul Society and amass an army against them. I had an entirely revamped Wandenreich and Sternritter that were going to take part in said war above. We had an entirely new Espada that we were eventually going to touch upon. Nanja wanted to replace Kraven with an entirely different antagonist with her own disciples. Hell, there was an entire prequel saga that was being worked on and given more focus than the main story itself before said story had even gotten itself off of the ground. Oh, and Osaka was completely nuked within the second RP. That was a thing that happened.

It was all just way too much, and I think that's what contributed to the FC's faltering. We all started getting way too ahead of ourselves and weren't letting the story take itself at it's own pace. Sei once taught me that planning too far ahead in a story can make you lose interest in your story's current place, and that's exactly what happened with us. We were trying so hard to set up for the future of the story that the tale itself couldn't even really progress because we all were getting excited for what was going to happen rather than what was happening. Bear in mind, I'm not blameless in this issue; looking back, I'm wondering why I even felt it necessary to make a new Wandenreich at all, and I honestly don't think that they should be the focus of a plot anytime soon, at least not in the numbers of the Wandenreich.

How do we fix this? Honestly, I don't know. I can't say for you guys to just stop making side stories as I tried to do before, as that's simply not fair to you guys. I understand that branching out in a large story like this is sometimes needed in order to give yourself, and maybe even your characters some time to rest before delving back into the fray. However, major projects, such as Harbinger and maybe even Corrupted Shadow (both of which I was a part of and completely fell out of) I feel shouldn't be given too much focus, at least, not until the primary story that builds this universe has gained some traction and has reached a point where we can develop said projects better. Another thing I'm going to do is disregard the Wandenreich and Sternritter revamps entirely. They aren't needed, nobody was really interested in developing them or making members for them, and it's honestly too soon after the Final Blood War Arc for the Quincy to have regained that much traction once again.

One last proposal I'm going to make is that we start doing some revisions. We need to tackle the problem where it lies, and that's in the latter parts of Extinction's two RP's, where Kraven first introduces himself to Takashi and is thus saved by my own Naomi. There are a few reasons for this: The first is that Kraven's powers were never really well-defined, as Shonen had pointed out to me while this was going on, and I need to seriously buckle down and give him a more clear and understandable set of abilities before I start throwing him out there for you all to combat. The next reason is... Kraven's kind of a dork, if you're going by how I had him act after he revealed himself. Seriously, read that shit, I must've been on something when I was giving him dialogue; his performance would have made Tim Curry blush with embarrassment. Nanja warned me that the way Kraven was acting was contradictory to what his actual personality was listed as on his page, but in my excitement to actually have Kraven do something, I disregarded his advice and... yeah, you guys can read it.

Sound like selfish reasons? They are, to an extent but there is also actual relevance to these concerns of mine. My logic has always been "A story is only as good as it's villain", and that's what the FC needs, a great villain. Even if Kraven isn't going to remain the villain, he needs to be done expertly and carefully, two things that I didn't do at all when he was taking the center stage.

The last concern I feel needs to be addressed is the issue of users coming and going. As I am a shining example of such, users tend to come and go with the times, and if said person who created a very important character in the FC goes on a brief/long hiatus, the story tends to stop dead in it's tracks and not be able to progress until that person returns. It's not that the people leaving are at fault; interest in Bleach is an ascending and descending roller coaster, but we need to have people on standby for when these individuals make their departures, and be able to roleplay the desired characters when needed.

So these are my thoughts on where we should go from here. Do you agree or disagree? Is Blank truly the savior that you all asked for? Am I letting this joke go too far? Tell me what you think in the comments below.

C: