A Perfunctory Introduction

Storytelling and its cousin world building has always been a passion of mine. There’s something truly satisfying about crafting a world in your mind, hewing it from an amorphous idea into specific details that brings forth, if not life, something adjacent to it. I am not alone in this passion and I don’t pretend that this project will be anything special, innovative, particularly good, or even interesting. But if we have creative energies we need to channel somewhere, a blog seems to be safe place to get it out.

Now that we’ve established the purpose (or lack thereof) of this project. Let us decide on a genre. There’s two main contenders here and I don’t claim to be any kind of trailblazer. As you can imagine, someone with these proclivities might have a great love for both fantasy and science fiction. You would be right. But which one should we choose? Or should we blend the two?

When it comes to fantasy, I’ve always struggled with creating that authentic feeling authentic. I think the root of my difficulties—why I think so much fantasy fails to feel real—comes from my lack of expertise in linguistics, which I think did so much to elevate the work of the grandmaster (J.R.R. Tolkien) above the rest of the field. On the other hand, science fiction offers a bit more flexibility in terms of language and culture. Since it’s all ostensibly in the future, I feel the borrowing of real world names (so often done in fantasy yet so rarely does it work), allows me to focus on the potential cultures, technologies, and its impact.

Alright, cards on the table. At the core of this passion project is an intended retelling of Mobile Suit (or New Mobile Report) Gundam Wing, a childhood favourite of mine. The combination of Japanese mecha design, European colonial aesthetics and political intrigue, and techno bangers from the 90’s is a hard combination to beat for me. However, I’m not limiting myself to just those elements. It’s a great starting point but I’ve always thought—despite its acclaim in the West—it never really lived up its potential. It truly could’ve been War and Peace with giant robots.

While I suspect that this project will eventually lead me down many different paths, I’m excited about the journey and the potential that it holds. Ultimately, if nothing else, the joy of world building comes from the ability to create something that satisfies my own aesthetic inclinations. And I hope this blog does that.