A Bulldog's Legacy (USS Oregon in Azur Lane)

One-Year Anniversary Celebration

A couple of days ago last year, September 7, 2021, the first two chapters of "A Bulldog's Legacy" were published.

Back then those chapters were the beginnings of only a side hobby. I knew about a ship I loved and wondered how it would be if it was in Azur Lane. I didn't even know if it would be noticed by the community, and I was fine with that.

Now, one year later, ABL has over 30k reads and is nearing it's end with over 20 chapters, the majority of which are story chapters.

I never expected this little hobby to become one of the greatest creations I have ever accomplished. And I have all of you wonderful readers to thank for encouraging me to continue and persevere with this story. Without all your support and appreciative comments (especially early on), I doubt this story would have gone as far as it has.

Thanks to all your support and those who gave me helpful recommendations, I am pleased to officially announce that this story will not be over once it's reached its end.

I have full plans for making bonus chapters that shouldn't be considered canon to the main story but instead are more like slice-of-life or what-if scenarios that wouldn't really fit in the main story.

(The very first one will be the quietly but probably long-awaited beach/pool chapter. Warning: no lemon content though. Oregon was not designed with sexual encounters in mind and therefore I cannot allow any attempts to that effect to exist. It simply goes against his personality and mindset in my opinion. Plus I have serious doubts I could even write a satisfying chapter about that sort of thing.)

I also have plans to revamp the story since I feel it's a little stale and empty compared to some other stories I've read. That means re-writing chapters to be longer and more content-filled (and finally fixing that damn chapter disorderment).

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You might be wondering why Oregon was designed with such a poor mental condition. My explanation?

At that time I myself was not in the best place. I was having thoughts that I was useless and was only in the way. It wasn't actual depression, but I felt I had to work that off by writing a character with what I was feeling before it could potentially get serious.

My idea for Oregon to have depression and a permanent feeling of uselessness combined surprisingly well with the real USS Oregon's history.

To summarize, Oregon was built as part of a project to modernize the post-Civil War Navy, and for a while was the top of the tech tree in a manner of speaking.

When the Spanish-American War broke out Oregon made a monumental 14,000 nautical mile journey in then-record time, and at the same time garnered a huge amount of public support for the construction of the Panama Canal. I mentioned this in an earlier chapter but Oregon was allowed to be the first ship to traverse the Panama Canal when it was completed, and righteously so.

After the Spanish-American War, and not long before WW1, HMS Dreadnought was launched. Instantly all ships built prior to her were obsolete.

Still in its prime Oregon was already made useless by conventional standards.

However, Oregon was not useless yet. She was assigned as an escort for the secret but ill-fated Polar Bear Expedition.

Yes, her sister ships Indiana and Massachusetts were sunk as practice targets in the Atlantic. They were used as training vessels before being sent to the big blue's bottom.

After WW1, Oregon was treated basically as an afterthought. Recommissioned and decommissioned multiple times, shifted around, but finally some peace as a museum ship in her home state.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed FDR had to make a choice between keeping Oregon and USS Olympia. He chose Olympia, and the rest is history.

I found I could somewhat sympathize with Oregon's problems and decided "Why not? Why shouldn't I kill two birds with one stone?" Thus Oregon and his instability was born, which allowed me to work off some of my own insecurities at the same time.

Now I'm much better off, as is this story. I have the final story chapters in various stages of completion, and hope to release them in the near future. Right now I'm trying to make the final battle chapter(s) as satisfying as possible, and making the ending worthy as well.

I've loved your reactions to most of the various video game references I've added, with some being quite obvious. And I only plan to add more.

You would not believe how easy it is to make Team Fortress 2 references anywhere. And Undertale references too. But I prefer TF2 more, to the point I have basic plans for a TF2/Azur Lane crossover.

As to my future plans as an author in general, my planned content will not be limited to only Azur Lane (unless you have some good suggestions). I also have plans for a DDLC fanfic, for instance.

I'm not good with ceremonial endings to chapters like these, but neither will I pull a Bilbo Baggins and simply vanish.

I want to once again sincerely thank my readers for reading this story and all your encouragement for me. Without you I'm certain this story would not exist beyond a few tentative chapters.

Until next time, I wish you all the best day possible.

Ever sincerely,

A very grateful author