Okay, so my second Space Outlaws essay, and I kick off with a really heavy and hard subject: Bad guys!
In any adventure story, you need bad guys. Heck, you need bad guys (and girls), aka antagonists in any story. Otherwise, how can your hero/heroine show off their heroics?
So, of course the Space Outlaws have bad guys. It honestly have more bad guys (and girls) than goodies. Hereafter I will refer to them as antagonists and heroes, respectively.
The first ones the Space Outlaws encounter are the rather faceless Genestealers. These are your ordinary bug-monsters, with a bit of Ridley Scott's Alien thrown in. They are gribbly, clawed monstrosities with little reason or tactics. On an ice planet. In this first part, the Eds are greatly aided by the Sisters of Battle (who in my current opinion didn't show what they truly can do!) In short, the Genestealers were, and are, portrayed as dumb animals. Rather sad, in a way. They have greater potential and a short story featuring some 'Stealer hunting in the Armageddon underhives would make for intense reading. Maybe I should add that to Memories? Ah well...
The threat of Xeno species was upped a bit with the entry of the Kanker sisters possessed by the Hive Mind that controlled the bugs. Yet still, the Eds/Space Outlaws were only facing puppets, weren't they? And I felt this myself. These opponents weren't really worthy of what the Eds (and later Commissar Rolf Yarrick) were capable of taking on. Right?
Things took an interesting turn, in my own opinion, when the Eldar turned on the Imperials by thermo-bombing Saim'Hann and leaving the Secondus system without a word. This enigmatic behaviour is something I personally feel should be checked out further, and I probably will in future stories. The Eldar are jokers, in the sense that you never know exactly where you have them.
But the real antagonist is, and always will be (HammerFall reference W00t!), Lord Kevlinn, in all his incarnations. All in all, Kevlinn has four (4) incarnations: Captain Kevin Poole, Lord Kevlinn, Lord Kharn and Deamon Prince Kharn Fleshtearer. Strictly speaking, the last one is not Kevlinn himself, but the point is coming across, I think. He is the constant antagonist, the constant evil. He is opposed not only to the Space Outlaws but also to both Yarricks (Rolf and Sebastian) as well as McGranth and Charleston (not McKenzie, see further down) not to mention the Emperor and the whole of the Imperium. If the Space Outlaws where Star Wars he'd be Darth Vader. If it was Doctor Who, he'd be a combination of the Daleks and the Master. The BIG bad guy!
As such, he needs a well fleshed out character in the same manner of the heroes. And he has. Matter of fact, I think Kevlinn has grown more than Rolf Yarrick and the others combined. Why? He started out as a card-board villain (think Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget) and has since gotten a depth I think few antagonists lack. He has a true "Reason for Treason". In short, this is based on his resentment of McGranth and his outlawhood. For yes, Kevlinn is a Space Outlaw too. He and his 8th Assault Company of the Death Angels Legion was outlawed after an incident unheard of in the history of the Death Angels Legion. They took the name the Berzerkers and the rest is, as they say, history. His treason culminated in the slaughter of Imperial refugees on Armageddon after they had raided an Eldar Craftworld to save said refugees. On that Craftworld, he acquired what came to be known as the Axe of Khorne, a powerful deamon weapon and he also stared down into the Well of Time, after having slain the Eldar Phoenix Lord residing with the Craftworld. Some would say that Kevin Poole lost his mind to the Well of Time, but as he still seems to have some grasp of tactics, maybe the opposite is true: maybe he is more clear-minded than ever?
Anyway, it was after this that Levin Poole became Lord Kevlinn and turned his back on the Throne and the Emperor.
All in all, Kevlinn's evil lies in his destructive power. He is powerful as an antagonist because he is a sort of personification of destruction. He doesn't build up anything. He corrupts it. This is all very dry, I know. But pulling an engaging character apart like this and looking at him, scrutinizing him, is a dry business.
Apart from Kevlinn, the other big antagonist was Metallix, the General of the Necrontyr. An army leader. Completely and utterly driven by one purpose: domination of the human species. And if that failed, he'd destroy them in the process. The Necrons, having a lot of the Dr. Who Cybermen about them, were his slaves, and the human species once had been. Metallix was a C'tan, a star child and demi-god. And he was not alone. His "side-kick" was the scientist, Damien. As both Damien and Metallix were designations that humans had applied to them, their true names remain a mystery. Just as the Emperor's true name is shrouded in mystery. He is referred to as Sorn'henai, which is Eldarain for Eagle Eye, and sometimes even as Sigismund, but his true name is unknown.
In pure power, Metallix came to measure up and surpass Kevlinn, at least in the latter's human form. As a deamon, Kharn/Kevlinn is still unsurpassed.
As I mentioned earlier, McKenzie's main antagonist is not Kevlinn. Instead, he has his own brother, George "grimjaw" McKenzie as his opponent. The reason these two don't get along is in the main because of George's jealousy of his mentally powerful as well as Space Marine brother. George was an ordinary man in almost every respect, except for his ability to understand mechanics. So, to be able to measure up to his big brother, George started to experiment on himself. Somewhere along that line, he lost his sanity. And killed his own family in an attempt to find a "cure" to the McKezie family curse of mutation.
So far I've talked about true antagonists, like Kevlinn, Metallix, and George McKenzie as well as the Kankers and touched the Eldar. But whereas these people are originally good ones turn really bad, what about those that never were good, like the Deamon princes? or those who strictly speaking still are good, but only have slighted our heroes? These last ones are of course minor characters, but they should be brought up to give a wholler picture, but they are the subject of next time.
Why next time? This blog entry is very long... :P
Saturday 27 October 2007
Sunday 30 September 2007
Writing under the influence of Hammerfall
So, this being the first blog written here, I figured that writing about one of the things that created the Space Outlaws wasn't such a bad idea, no?
And yes, you read right: the Swedish metal band Hammerfall has influenced me far more than maybe I should admit.
True, what was initially needed for the Space Outlaws was the wonderful combination Ed, Edd n Eddy and Warhammer 40.000. And my wicked imagination. But, the story lacked purpose and the certain "je ne sais qoui" (which is French for "I dunno what is missing, but something is!") until roundabout summer 2000. Before that, if I recall correctly, I had managed to write the two first series of the Space Outlaws and anyone who has read them, will probably agree with me that the third one was much better, not only in terms of grammar (I was 14 at the time) but also in the way the universe got fleshed out. And another feeling or rather sense of wonder had entered it. At least that is my personal opinion.
It was during the summer of 2000 that I started writing the third, and as I naïvely thought, the last of the Space Outlaws series. And about the same time Hammerfall, a heavy metal band from my hometown, released their third album: Renegade. Having recently been converted to the cause of metal, I bought the album, as the music video for the title track was played in Swedish TV quite frequently, that in itself something noteworthy, as it did not happen that often that metal bands got so much recognition.
There was just something with the way Hammerfall wrote their songs that spoke directly to me. And as can be noted, a big chunk of the Space Outlaw stuff I wrote after the summer 2000, has a heavy influence of just the Renegade album.
And how could I not be influenced by titles and songs like Templars of Steel, Renegade, The Champion, Legend Reborn and The Way of the Warrior? I had found that special something that was missing from my Space Outlaw stories. I found a "purpose" with them.
And that purpose was to capture the feelin Hammerfall had in their music, of adventure and big battles, in writing. But also of a struggle without end. True, this sounds like something I can find in the Wh40k universe, and mostly it is, but there was this sense of wonder that just wasn't there, that Hammerfall's music possessed.
I know this sounds exceedingly intangible and abstract, but it is hard to pin down exactly what I was looking for and what I found in Hammerfall's music. It was just that "je ne sais qoui".
Anyway, their music started to influence my writing, and maybe it is most obvious in Tracks of the Wolf. Much of what happened in the early chapters was entirely ripped from the lyrics of several Hammerfall songs. Even the first chapter has a Hammerfall title: Legend Reborn. And the more I wrote, the more I felt that I had found this feeling I was after. And it was confirmed by the people who wrote to me about it, the few that did. Maybe not the Hammerfall feeling, but that they were getting a great story with great adventure and great heroes. I know that sounded very weird, but hopefully the point comes across.
It was after I wrote Number of the ED, a story entirely based on the Battle for Armageddon board game which also had the Hammerfall feeling to it, but much darker (a bit like Hammerfall's own development from Renegade to Crimson Thunder) and just after starting on Tracks of the Wolf that MaxJordan/Adam Baker contacted me about writing a potential fourth series of Space Outlaws. I read his synopsis and agreed on a collaboration between us, as I am a bit protective of the Outlaws.
However, as I wrote the fiurth series, known as Iron Men, and despite it having titles derived from heavy metal songs and each chapter starting with a qoutation from a famous heavy metal song, the feeling, that "Hammerfall feeling" started to seep out of the stories. Truth be told, it was Adam's service that some inkling of the original Outlaws remained, in terms of feeling. I had gotten a very gothic outlook on life since I started writing the Outlaws in early 2000. Thankfully, Adam steered me up at least in some manner.
However, I didn't realise what had happened until I went to a Hammerfall concert in January 2007. Standing there, in Scandinavium hockey hall, I was forcefully reminded of what the Space Outlaws was, and is, all about. I can write deeper meaning into them, which is what had happened, the stories had gotten too deep; and at the same time give people the time of their life when they read. And accompany this with the best art I can give.
The Outlaws are there to entertain, and always have been. At the same time, I want to feel I do what I like with them. I have to be honest with myself.
What this has to do with Hammerfall? They work in exactly the same way: they aim to entertain people with something they like.
Hopefully this rather peculiar first attempt at a Space Outlaws' essay has shed some sort of light. Dunno yet what the next will be about.
And yes, you read right: the Swedish metal band Hammerfall has influenced me far more than maybe I should admit.
True, what was initially needed for the Space Outlaws was the wonderful combination Ed, Edd n Eddy and Warhammer 40.000. And my wicked imagination. But, the story lacked purpose and the certain "je ne sais qoui" (which is French for "I dunno what is missing, but something is!") until roundabout summer 2000. Before that, if I recall correctly, I had managed to write the two first series of the Space Outlaws and anyone who has read them, will probably agree with me that the third one was much better, not only in terms of grammar (I was 14 at the time) but also in the way the universe got fleshed out. And another feeling or rather sense of wonder had entered it. At least that is my personal opinion.
It was during the summer of 2000 that I started writing the third, and as I naïvely thought, the last of the Space Outlaws series. And about the same time Hammerfall, a heavy metal band from my hometown, released their third album: Renegade. Having recently been converted to the cause of metal, I bought the album, as the music video for the title track was played in Swedish TV quite frequently, that in itself something noteworthy, as it did not happen that often that metal bands got so much recognition.
There was just something with the way Hammerfall wrote their songs that spoke directly to me. And as can be noted, a big chunk of the Space Outlaw stuff I wrote after the summer 2000, has a heavy influence of just the Renegade album.
And how could I not be influenced by titles and songs like Templars of Steel, Renegade, The Champion, Legend Reborn and The Way of the Warrior? I had found that special something that was missing from my Space Outlaw stories. I found a "purpose" with them.
And that purpose was to capture the feelin Hammerfall had in their music, of adventure and big battles, in writing. But also of a struggle without end. True, this sounds like something I can find in the Wh40k universe, and mostly it is, but there was this sense of wonder that just wasn't there, that Hammerfall's music possessed.
I know this sounds exceedingly intangible and abstract, but it is hard to pin down exactly what I was looking for and what I found in Hammerfall's music. It was just that "je ne sais qoui".
Anyway, their music started to influence my writing, and maybe it is most obvious in Tracks of the Wolf. Much of what happened in the early chapters was entirely ripped from the lyrics of several Hammerfall songs. Even the first chapter has a Hammerfall title: Legend Reborn. And the more I wrote, the more I felt that I had found this feeling I was after. And it was confirmed by the people who wrote to me about it, the few that did. Maybe not the Hammerfall feeling, but that they were getting a great story with great adventure and great heroes. I know that sounded very weird, but hopefully the point comes across.
It was after I wrote Number of the ED, a story entirely based on the Battle for Armageddon board game which also had the Hammerfall feeling to it, but much darker (a bit like Hammerfall's own development from Renegade to Crimson Thunder) and just after starting on Tracks of the Wolf that MaxJordan/Adam Baker contacted me about writing a potential fourth series of Space Outlaws. I read his synopsis and agreed on a collaboration between us, as I am a bit protective of the Outlaws.
However, as I wrote the fiurth series, known as Iron Men, and despite it having titles derived from heavy metal songs and each chapter starting with a qoutation from a famous heavy metal song, the feeling, that "Hammerfall feeling" started to seep out of the stories. Truth be told, it was Adam's service that some inkling of the original Outlaws remained, in terms of feeling. I had gotten a very gothic outlook on life since I started writing the Outlaws in early 2000. Thankfully, Adam steered me up at least in some manner.
However, I didn't realise what had happened until I went to a Hammerfall concert in January 2007. Standing there, in Scandinavium hockey hall, I was forcefully reminded of what the Space Outlaws was, and is, all about. I can write deeper meaning into them, which is what had happened, the stories had gotten too deep; and at the same time give people the time of their life when they read. And accompany this with the best art I can give.
The Outlaws are there to entertain, and always have been. At the same time, I want to feel I do what I like with them. I have to be honest with myself.
What this has to do with Hammerfall? They work in exactly the same way: they aim to entertain people with something they like.
Hopefully this rather peculiar first attempt at a Space Outlaws' essay has shed some sort of light. Dunno yet what the next will be about.
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