Guardian and
Love Her and Despair always had some sort of non-relationship with each other, since
mintywolf and I were both fascinated by Lulu offering to become the fayth of the Final Summoning in FFX, but tackled the concept from opposite directions: she was primarily focused on what lay behind that offer, whereas I was focused on what might follow.
(I had forgotten that I told
trekqueen my initial brainstorm for LHAD way back in 2007, posting the first chapter in December, and it might've been co-authored if I were better at sharing my toys).
So
Guardian and LHAD went in different directions, since we had different interests and interpretations of certain characters— although over the years some of my views have been influenced by
Guardian. Crucially, Mintywolf had a plan all along, whereas all I had were key concepts, a premise and an ending scene I was writing towards. I was terrible at plot back then. All I could handle was character, combat, dialogue, and poetic description.
Hence my shamelessly borrowing elements of plot structure from FFX and LOTR.
Anyway. You know LHAD has been stuck all these years. In the meantime I've written a fair amount in classic Who fandom. I've learned to structure plot. I'm tempted to apply what I now know to rewrite LHAD with better structure and pacing. But that's crazy-talk. People enjoyed it even as it was, and I'm terrible at finishing things, so I just need to FINISH THE THING, even if most of my readers moved on long ago.
Thanks to
Guardian, I've recently shifted my headspace back in FFX-land, enough that I've been listening to Siri read LHAD aloud to me over the past few months, mulling over the ending (the next chapter was largely written when I got stuck), and making editorial notes on existing chapters.
But first I should say— as I've been saying on Tumblr—
Guardian is an AMAZING and possibly unique fanwork, a fully-illustrated novella-length graphic novel, FFX reimagined with the female characters as primary, and the primary relationship is a bond of love between two women that grows and evolves over the years. I'm still in awe that the artist stuck to a schedule and posted a page a week for six years, apart from a few vacations, which is why Guardian is FINISHED despite being launched nearly five years after LHAD.
So go look at
Guardian (but keep in mind Minty's going to be posting the reraw of 2 and 3 soonish). I've been enjoying rereading it all now that it's over, and I've been taking notes for a not-actually-liveblog of the "remaster."
And get ready to reread LHAD in a couple months! I'm going to start posting my own remaster on Tumblr December 14, eleven years after the original chapter 1 was posted. I'm editing it now, revamping the Dreamwidth and AO3 editions as I go, but those edits are only up through chapter 4. :)