Etrian Odyssey Q&A Edition

The Birth of Pairings

Anonymous asked:

Hello! I had a question! How did you decide on the couples when you were writing? Like Axel and Lynus, how did they come to be the sappy fluffy couple they are? And Cedric with Hamza, how did they become a couple? Were all of your couples planned beforehand, or did some of them appear later on? Like Simmons/Rahas and Darrell/Ryker. Where they pre-planned or did you just decide on them on the way?

Hi! Glad you asked~ :3 Creating pairings can be a bit hit and miss, right? It depends on the plot of the story.

I started shipping Axel/Lynus from the game, to be honest lol. I would always have Axel at the front/first slot with Lynus behind him. And through the hours of grinding, started imagining fluffy scenarios of Lynus healing Axel's wounds and fretting every time he gets hurt.

Jhon and Tobyn came next because I liked the idea of a protector protecting a survivalist. I'm a simple person, apparently.

Shen and Magnus came soon after because my alchemist was skittish and meek, so of course a ronin would want to protect him, right?

Now, the unplanned ones are;

Lirit/Macerio – Yes, that came as a bit of a surprise. I wasn't initially planning on Macerio being in a pairing as he was the loud, cheerful kid that doesn't shut up. I had figured on him being good friends/companions to both Lirit and Rahas. But as Lirit grew as a character, so did his compatibility with Macerio.

Simmons/Rahas – definitely not planned! It actually came about from a series of conversations on wattpad and I wrote it for kicks-and-giggles. But then I realise the potential there. I had a past mapped out for Simmons before he was paired with Rahas, so he already had meaning. But being paired with Rahas would give them both character growths.

Hamza/Cedric – came about after the novel. I wanted to flesh out Hamza's character a bit more as his past was a bit vague in the novel. Cedric was his link to his past

Darrel/Ryker – came about because I thought they looked cute together. Yup. That's it.

While I think it's important to plan out your story, there's nothing wrong with making things up as you go along. Some things don't click into place until you've immersed yourself into the feel of the story. Drafts are called that for a reason, you know :3