AFTERWORD - AUTHOR'S FINAL THOUGHTS

Today was a special day.

July 20th is the same day, two years ago that I started this story. I wish I could say that I had planned it out this way, but that would be a glaringly obvious lie.

There's going to be negativity here. But there will also be appreciation, and happiness at the end of this road we've traveled together. After these last two years, this is a release of the feelings I've had since the first review.

I once said that my writing intentions are to take you on a roller coaster ride. Ups, downs, swerves, and after a dramatic, bumpy ride, return everyone safely to the boarding station.

This one was supposed to be the exception.

You're probably wondering where that ending came from. It's probably the most controversial, safest, and most Deus Ex Machina-esque that I'll ever get when writing. Had I not binge watched Supernatural, you'd probably have read a different ending. Hell, through the span of the entire story, the ending changed multiple times. It was always morphing with reader opinions(two people specifically had a huge impact, but were not ultimately the deciding factors in how the ending was written. You know who your are.) The general plot was there, the initial motifs were planted, but most of them became meaningless as the story went on because of your feedback. (Don't read that with an angry, or resentful voice.)

Now forgive me as I explain at length, the concept that allowed me to stumble upon the longest piece of writing I've ever made. It may sound pretentious to analyze my own work, but this is only because I want to share with you all what everything was supposed to mean, and what was supposed to happen.

THE TITLE AND THE ENDINGS

Ending 1: The Original

Look at the cover image, look at the title(a title that I actually despise now) and think about what that means. The original concept was, quite simply, to have our beloved protagonist have a "Change of Heart." But the idea was that it wasn't just going to be one, but two.

1. Aang would kill Ozai. A change in attitude towards his preservation of innocence and wholesome (some would say ignorant) compassion.

Next is why you never write a story with more than one pairing. I knew that this wasn't a good idea. I mean come on! I wrote that in the afterword of Cherry Blossoms in the Wind!

And I still didn't listen to myself, I also said to never start two concurrent stories. Advice that I had given out at one time.

Apparently, in my case, advice is something everyone gives out, but no one ever takes.

2. Aang would end up with Azula.

Yes. I said it. Azula, the evil, sinister, sickening succubus was going to trap our beloved Avatar in her life-stealing, soul-corrupting grip, and fundamentally change who he was.

But did it go as planned? No. Absolutely not. (Again, I'm not angry) It went in the total opposite direction. Azula became "good." The whole schizophrenia thing was a quick, desperate maneuver to give a viable reason, and visual representation for her sudden "Change of Heart." I hated that plot device so much that I hardly touched on it again.

Ending 2: The "Viewer Choice"

My first Naruto stories had a relatively good run with a "Choose your own Adventure " style series of chapters. It was successful enough to the point where I brought the idea back to try it here.

It did not go over as well. I guess I also learned a new lesson: Don't ever do the same thing twice.

Had it gone over well, the ending would have happened at the final battle, Aang flanked by both Azula and Katara, and you, the readers would have decided who got to live, and who had to die.

Probably wouldn't go over so well. I don't really want to end up doing what Kishimoto did. So thanks for the criticism.

Ending 3: The "Two Worlds" Ending

The first ending where ZGS came into play. The foreshadowed "torn between two" prophecy with the blue and red colliding into a mix of violet.

Both Azula and Katara would meet their end. Destiny's promise of "everything will be alright" wouldn't be false, but complicated, Aang would snap, ZGS comes to save the day, putting him into two worlds, one without Azula, one without Katara. Letting him live out both lives in separate realities. Win/Win, right? Right!

Ending 4: The True Ending. a.k.a "send everyone home happy. Including yourself."

A similar scenario to 3. Both Azula and Katara die
Aang loses it. But Toph is placed into her own ending.

While she didn't seem like a main character, Toph is the most important tertiary character. She only had a few moments of interaction with Aang, but I feel that in the context of the story, she helped him through a lot, and became even more important than originally planned. I just loved how I could channel my own voice into her so much that she became quite important to me. I dropped a few hints(and glaringly blatant scenarios) here and there about the pairing, but I'm afraid that it was too late, and was rushed as a result.

Luckily enough, I had a Deus Ex Machina of my own that was created on a fluke. That may seen like an excuse, but in the end, had I not had a character like that, it'd only be solved with vague time scene breaks.

"Some time later..."

So at least, I had some (hopefully) entertaining scenes of dialogue with her/him/it.

And by far, the scariest thing about those endings, and in fact the scariest thing about with fan faction, is change.

A change of characters.

A change of setting.

I always find it easy, because when I say "Aang." You can already see him. You already know what he looks like.

Writing in an established universe gives some leeway in terms of having to create and flesh-out new characters, making it easier to begin working without too much of an exposition dump.

I've made a lot of people angry. But if you read some of my cliffhangers, you know that I like making you angry-not just for the anger, but for a reaction. I wouldn't like it to the point where you'd be so pissed that you'd stop reading, but hey, sometimes people say "that's it I'm dropping this story. :(" in the reviews. I know it'll piss some people off. It'll always happen.

But hatred is far better than apathy. No matter how much it hurts.

If I can illicit an emotion from you. I've done well for myself.

I've said it multiple times now, but: Paul "Triple H" Levesque once said that his worse concern when going out to the ring was "Am I going to hear crickets?"

And unfortunately, towards the end, I wasn't even hearing crickets anymore. It seems like no reviews ever came in after a long hiatus, and it just made me feel empty.

But this in itself, is not the sole reason why this story is ending.

I once said that a story shouldn't go on for too long. (Lookin' at you, Naruto.) And some of the best stories know just when to end. (Avatar, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood) and I had a feeling a during the "Iroh Rescue Arc" that maybe A Change of Heart had gone on for a little too long. Don't get me wrong, if you can write a 500,000 word epic, I have all due respect for you. I, however, doubt that I can write that kind of epic. Hell, 140,000 words? Unbelievable for myself.

And believe it or not, those last few chapters were the hardest to write. Only because it felt more like an obligation than a choice.

I really just wanted to write the endings and have it be over with, because I knew that the final confrontation just wasn't going to be as epic as I'd imagined it.

The one thing that I hated the most was how everything was coming to an end, and there was no logical transition between chapters, so I had to do something that I hope I will never do again.

Joseph Anderson created a video analyzing Fallout 4 on YouTube. In Fallout 4, there's a "prophet" character named Mama Murphy, an old crone who used drugs to see into the main protagonist's future. In Anderson's own words, he explains how lazy it is when writers insert these types of characters into their stories:

"Whenever a story has to incorporate some sort of prophecy or a psychic fortune-teller, then they(the writers) are admitting defeat and are giving up on their own story making sense . . . For a prophecy to exist in a story, it means that the writer is now using their own story planning notes and inserting them into the world so they can come true."(*Fallout 4 Analysis*, 21:31-21:47)

And I wholeheartedly agree. I created ZGS initially as just a one-off, fun, meta-referencing character. Something that I could laugh about, but I ended up using her as a tool, a plot device to get the story going again when it had just gone on for too long.

That is my biggest regret. I'd like to apologize for such laziness in my writing.

I can do better than that.

And more importantly, You deserve better than that.

I'm sorry.

Here are my final thoughts:

There comes a day when a Story has run its course.
There comes a day when Story has nowhere left to go.
There comes a day when a Story has to end.

So, thank you for following, thank you for favoriting, and most importantly, thank you for reading.

Maybe I'll write another story in the future.

And maybe you'll be there to come with me on another journey.

Until then, take it easy.

-WanderingRurouni