Siriel

While I try to work up my motivation to finally finish the story, I figured I might as well use this to order my thoughts since it's here.

I've never really written a story longer than...two pages or so, so the prospect of finishing one is new to me.

When I started From Azure, I really didn't have much of anything planned out; I had some small idea as to the backstory and how Noel got there, but I only finished figuring it out around Chapter 10 and finished the timeline by Fading Blue.

Likewise, a lot of things changed along the way because I didn't really have the ending figured out. I had a draft of it written, but I've since deleted it from everything including my memory because it sucked. Probably the one who received the biggest change in his role was Kotomine, since I initially intended to use him as a straight antagonist before changing my mind.

Well, Kayneth might actually claim the biggest change now that I think about it; I only decided to use him as the final human boss around Chapter 15. He was originally going to be killed by Rider and Tokiomi would go on to be Kiritsugu's final opponent. I have to say that I don't regret this choice at all.

Hum...thoughts on characters.

Servants:

Assassin: Poor, poor Assassin. He's probably the one who suffered the most from my lack of initial planning; I originally had no idea what to do with him and by the time I settled on an ending I was fully committed to having the big battle take place on the third day, leaving no role for him. Sorry, Hassan. If I end up writing a sequel, I'll definitely try to treat the next one better!

Berserker: Not much to say about this guy. Rage, rage, rage, Saber. He's really just an obstacle in the end, so I wanted to give Saber a chance to win against him without being crushed emotionally in the process.

Caster and Ryuunosuke: The cool duo suffer from not having much variety to offer. I couldn't think of a different direction to take them from canon and Caster is really a non-threat unless he goes Cthulhu and since Saber wasn't wounded by Lancer, that would have been easily solved.

Lancer: Here, too, I didn't really know how to take him away from canon. This time, it's probably my fault for knowing almost nothing about Diarmuid though. Still, I tried to use the final battle to show off some of the dangerous things he might have been able to do if he hadn't gone CHIVALRY mode.

Rider: Rider is another one of those bothersome personalities that don't allow much change to their behavior. He's just like in canon, I suppose? Well, since From Azure doesn't last as long as Fate/Zero, his influence on Waver is lessened. Rather than being a king to follow, he's simply a strong person to admire.

Saber: Seibah! Stuck with Tokiomi! No Avalon! Your life is definitely pain, isn't it? Well, at least you didn't get mauled as much as in Zero here.

Gilgamesh: I bet it seems silly to include an entry for someone who's not even in the story. But when I picked who to replace, I knew it had to be Gilgamesh, despite the fact that I like him a lot. Gil is just too strong; any story involving him must either kill him off unceremoniously or have him inevitably steal the show. So he had to go. (I swear my decision had nothing to do with avoiding a God-Slaying Sword vs Ea discussion.)
For the record, Noel's alternate class possibility was Caster. I wonder what would have happened if I had decided to go that route instead? Ah, if only Alter Memory had come out earlier to show off more of what Ars Magus can do while I was making that decision!

Noel: The main star. I won't lie, most of the reason this fic exists is just because I'm a huge fan of her and wanted to write a fic about her but the Blazblue setting is...somewhat hard to write long stories in because of all the mess happening. At the time I started to write, I barely knew anything about Chrono Phantasma, so Noel's personality here is likely to be different from where she goes in canon.
One of the reasons why I might end up writing more stories in this verse after From Azure is because I feel that there are some interesting possibilities from mixing her abilities with the Nasuverse. Say, I Wonder who would be interested in the ability to determine an event through observation?

Humans:

Sola and Irisveil: It might seem strange to throw these two together, but they were virtually written out of the story for the same reason: I already had too many characters to work with. As such, supporting but non-essential characters suffered accordingly.

Maiya: And yet this one still managed to mock me. But it is I who will have the last laugh; when I add revisions to the early chapters, I'm going to add an interlude where Assassin kills her while stealing Kiritsugu's gear. Makes more sense than just having her vanish from the face of the Earth.

Kariya, AKA Sir Not Appearing In This Story: Jokes about Kariya being the scum of the Earth aside, he's like a bad joke. He can't win. Even if he wins, he dies. I'm not going to waste screentime on him when I can use it for characters that have a slight chance of actually accomplishing something. Thus, Kariya got the boot.

Tokiomi: Tokiomi is one of those characters who suffered in Fate/Zero. He talks a lot, plans, fries Kariya and then...does exactly nothing. I wanted to give him a more active role. Also, his dignity and awareness of lack of natural talent makes him a great contrast for Kayneth.
Incidentally, if I were to write a Fifth War fic following From Azure, I have considered Rin as the viewpoint character.

Zouken: Zouken doesn't play a big role in this fic, much like in Fate/Zero. However, I felt that it was necessary to give him at least one scene to show himself, because if I end up writing a sequel, he has a rather important role to play.

Waver: Waver, Waver. Stuck as a follower to Iskander for all of Fate/Zero, completely goes out of focus after that. I tried to give him a bit more impact here, and took his character in a slightly different direction.

Kayneth: Kayneth is...interesting. Fate/Zero never really gives us any insight into why he's present. We know that he gravely misunderstood what kind of battle the Holy Grail War was, but not why he participated in the first place. He's more or less the archetypical "Superior", who gets by on his innate abilities and has little empathy, which might be why so many fics have him come off as pathetic. I feel that this is a waste of his potential; someone who's born superior should be something to be respected and when they fall, it should be spectacularI honestly can't recall where I got the idea to have Ouroboros be the inspiration for Volumen, but I think it's one of my favourite change.

Kiritsugu: Amusingly, despite him being one of the main characters, Kiritsugu is one of those I had to think the least about. He's a straightforward character and his goal is well outlined in the VN; he has the same goal here. The only difference is that he had to adjust his plans because of his Servant's quirks compared to Saber. Fortunately, there is a happy ending to his story.

Kotomine: Kotomine is the character who needs to undergo the most change in a Fate/Zero story, because he's the only one (save Waver) who is absolutely unsatisfied with his current situation. As well, I had to completely change all of his actions, because one of his two main sources of interactions was replaced. Will he realize evil even without the king's guidance? Will he find a new resolve? Or is the Fourth Holy Grail War the end of his journey?