heraldaros | on that Hatake Riku identity arc, and other fic-thoughts

In a lot of ways, BN is very much a projection story. I started writing it when I started college, which was new and exciting but also scary. Going back through it now (notably, I started it...right around when I went to Washington DC, which was my first major trip without my parents; I'd been at the same job for a couple of years, so I was a little more secure, and then a month later I'd get moved to another site, with all the upheaval that entailed), I can see what things I was working through; as I've revised it, I've added, changed, and taken out different things.

one of the things I noticed early on were offhand comments of girls as kinda weak, emotional, etc. There were some lines like "he wasn't a girl, so he wasn't going to cry." Those lines were cut with extreme prejudice; I'm kinda disappointed in younger!me for writing them in the first place
Riku's dad is gone because I wanted my dad gone. My family's...patched itself back up, mostly by dint of my mom, but when I started this story, I very much did not like my dad. It's probably for the best that I wrote Sho out of BN, anyway, because...
...the paternal relationships Riku does have are...strained. In the original draft, he did not interact with Gai AT ALL. Like, Gai showed up for the first time at the genin exam. That was it. Iruka is clearly a teacher (I had models for male teachers, and also canon, to work with). Kakashi doesn't escape unscathed. I think, if I were writing this story from the ground up right now, the Riku-Kakashi relationship would look very different. I don't necessarily think that would be a good thing, or a bad thing. As it is, I'm not totally happy with how Kakashi's characterized throughout, but I'm pretty happy with where that relationship arc ends up. I really like some of the beats, and some of their scenes were fun to write.
Sasuke was a non-entity in the first draft, which is...weird, considering that I wrote a Riku/Sasuke fic write around when I was thinking about/starting/working on BN. Like, it's tough to ship people who don't interact, and I liked this crackship enough to write a separate fic about it... idek what happened there. First-draft!Sasuke got the scroll from Riku and Naruto (and was a dick in that scene), showed up for the scene where Kakashi tells everyone what's gonna happen for Chuunin Exam training, and...that was it.
- quick reminder that the first draft only got to the Chuunin Exam and Dive to the Heart. I ran out of draft, hrm, right around when Riku and Hayashi leave the stadium (there might've been some parts past that, but I had to edit so heavily, I don't remember and don't feel like checking right now).
I'm not gonna put in details bc chapter 17 lays some of them out, but I decided on Riku's path a long, long time ago.
Essentially, I looked at his characterization and decided what would be augmented and what would shift. Some people commented that Riku's v much a Mom Friend to Naruto, and I feel that, even though we don't see that in canon, it's within the realm of possibility:
- We do see Riku as the oldest of his friend-group. He seems to also be the de-facto leader. Sora challenges him (at sparring, at naming the raft), but there's never a question over Riku's right to the title or to pick the name.
- Wakka is the same age as Sora and Kairi; Selphie and Tidus are a whole year younger. This means Riku is running a group of six kids, two of them much younger than him. Even if the others mostly stick to themselves as a kind of satellite group (which...maybe, maybe not), they still acknowledge Riku, so there's some interaction there.
- Riku takes immediate responsibility for his fuck-ups as soon as he realizes they are fuck-ups; when he's hurt someone, he goes full-tilt at making it up to them. I think he latches onto ideas quickly and doesn't let go; you see this is KH1 with the whole...Kairi thing, and then in Days/KH2 with his repenting arc.
- Riku is, in other words, Everyone's Big Brother.
- That's why I had him grab the forehead-protector. I think, if he had the choice in canon, it'd be in KH1 and he would've chosen what Sasuke did (pick offense/ditch defense, with neutral magic). His choice in this story is probably what he'd pick if he could choose in KH2, though.
As soon as I dropped him into an apartment with Naruto, it was done; Naruto's younger than Riku (automatically makes Riku responsible for him) AND Riku's been inflicted upon him (therefore Riku needs to make up for this). Plus, Naruto's good at ninja stuff, but not at taking care of himself (allows for some interesting power dynamics -- Naruto has the combat skills/power Riku wants, but Riku has the self-assurance/life skills Naruto wants).
The story would have been completely different if any of those early factors changed: if Riku stayed with Sasuke instead (Sasuke very much DOES NOT WANT any kind of older brother) or in the Hatake estate (probably would have felt isolated and...honestly, that's the Riku who goes back to the Islands after the Konoha Crush); if Kairi came with Riku (...like, THE WHOLE STORY WOULD CHANGE, and I'd need to figure out at what point Sora tries to sneak into Konoha).
Speaking of Riku in KH2, this fic really kind of grafts his KH2 emotional arc (I hurt Sora and now I'm making up for it) onto a younger Riku. That's part of why I didn't write him as cocky/headstrong/self-assured as he would logically be at this point; Days/KH2 Riku is sometimes those things, but it's buried under guilt and repentance.
I kind of really want to do a major edit of BN now that it's all done and I know where it's going.
- I also kinda want to put off the edit until I write the story into Chain of Memories, because, you know, Namine has memory-editing powers. :) :) :)
- I'm saying it's very possible that I'll be editing BN to reflect NAMINE'S edits (with, idk, mouseover text with what the ORIGINAL lines were, or mirrored chapters somewhere so people can look for the differences), but also, there are some things I just want to...tweak. Adjust. Clean up.
I'll probably add onto this at some point but I should've been in bed two-three hours ago, lol. so that's enough for now. hopefully this makes sense. I...might just private-lock this in the morning/tomorrow, we'll see.
drop a comment if you've got any questions about the story, choices, process, etc etc