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Secret Santa Contest (2016) - Paradox Eclipse

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by
You
, January 3rd, 2017 at 02:06 AM (8690 Views)
First, I would like to thank Kirby for organizing the event, the person who did my prompt, as well as my beta-readers, IRUN and Nuclear Consensus. Here, I kind of want to put down my method and thinking behind this piece. This has become somewhat of a tradition for me.

To be very honest, this isn’t one of the prompts that I wanted even though I know it was considered in the thread as one the “most interesting” prompt. However, I hope I did the prompt and whoever sent the prompt in an iota of justice.

To immediately jump into spoilers, the piece is the ending of a story that develops out of the prompt. I immediately knew that I couldn’t write what the prompt seemingly wanted me to write. The meeting between Araya and Shiki is too nuanced for me and although I knew exactly what would come of it, I didn’t think I could do the meeting itself well.

So, in a manner of speaking, I took the coward’s way out and bypassed everything – like grabbing a book and reading the ending first.

Without going into the piece itself, Araya who fused with Shiki has reached the point Shiki has in Eclipse. Character-wise this is the Araya that has finally completely degenerated; stillness that changed even if nothing moved. The final proof is how he has learned and then accepted himself as Araya-Shiki. The thing he hated and was fighting against but had no idea existed before. He has become the embodiment of the ugly humans that he hates.

However optimistic this Araya has become, I’d like to think of it more sinisterly. Rather than Araya having changed for the “better,” he can also be seen as being taken over by Shiki or humanity – consumed by these eyes so to speak. In that respect, Araya here can be seen as a tragic hero. His hubris is believing that he could take these Mystic Eyes and stay the same; his tragedy is losing everything that made him Araya Souren and actually being okay with that, abandoning what he fought for two hundred years in like ten years.

The corrosion that humanity has on something greater than a human, reducing them to fit the human mold. And at the end, Araya becomes what he would have considered to be a blithe idiot.

-That would be his paradox eclipse.

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Congrats to the writer of Where the Circle Ends (don't really know who it is atm), you definitely deserved to win this contest.
I hope you enjoy your Kirby picture!
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Comments

  1. ItsaRandomUsername's Avatar
    Interdasting blogpost, and yeah, it was great beta'ing this and seeing the thoughts that went into the work.

    2nd place ain't so bad, so good on you for bringing it all together in the end!
  2. Leftovers's Avatar
    My first impression was that you needed a bit more room than a single scene to develop the ideas behind the fic fully. As you said, we had skipped to the aftermath of an unseen story and an ending where everything is laid out and reviewed. A restriction of the narrative device chosen, but then again I don't know if this sense of seeing only half the picture or the result and not the process could be tackled by expanding the scene itself or only through having an entire chaptered work - or snippets of it at least - before it. Or perhaps the ideas that went into this would lose their impact and clarity if they aren't condensed and presented in the manner that they were. As it was, it feels like an exposition of ideas and, perhaps not the best word but, plot points, but that's not necessarily bad, as evidenced by where the story ranked. There's a charm to such as-I-lay-dying-ish exposition confessions too, after all.
    Updated January 3rd, 2017 at 11:52 AM by Leftovers
  3. Daiki's Avatar
    It was a risky and interesting piece.

    Write more, You.
  4. SpoonyViking's Avatar
    I said it before, but yours was my favourite fic of the bunch, You. I wouldn't see it as a tragedy, though, for the simple reason that Araya is not only accepting of having degraded, but even seems satisfied with it.