This is still an idea that pesters me now and then.
I gave a bit of thought to the whole thing, and I think a good idea would be to crib a little bit from Neil Gaiman's work involving Gods. As for the featuring God himself, I think that Loki would be a good one to go with. Lies like a snake and is suitably psychopathic.
Part of the setup would be that Loki puts together a scheme that makes our Protagonist, of his own free will, volunteer to be his Avatar. And it's not something that he would want - he would know about Loki and how terrible of a person he is. But Loki will engineer the scenario such that at the time the Protagonist will feel that he has no choice in the matter.
There's a lot of world building that I'll need to work out so I can have all the elements that I wanted. Pretty sure there's going to be a lot of clark-tech flying around all over the place.
In the Alien Princess slot, I'm planning on someone that's more like Lafiel Abriel. This will be interesting in that it will be a bit like To Love Ru in that you got a princess from a Clark Tech empire having to adapt to life on Earth, but with a lot less slapstick. Adapting will be a challenge still, but it will be one that she actually enjoys, particularly as she begins to think that Earth people are actually more clever than her own people because they actually have to think for themselves a bit.
Trying to decide if Magic + Gods are really hidden/lost Clark Tech or if it's the real deal. Leaning to the latter because the former's been done already and it's honestly kinda boring if you ask me. Very few franchises actually manage to make it as interesting as Stargate did.
Also need to work out how Magical Girls will work in this universe. Tempting to crib from the massive Magical Girl Crossover Project that included everything from Sailor Moon to Nanoha, and from Sailor Nothing to PMMM, with a few other fun bit like Persona... Huh. Come to think of it, did that project happen to have anything from Sakura Taisen? I would have thought that steam-punk stompy robots with magic powers would have fit into that project nicely.
Anywho... those are the biggest issues. I think once I get those settled, everything else will start to fall into place all around them.
One fun little twist: I can probably import the MIB movie and animated series without changing very much because of how far the franchise pushes the theme of anonymity. The characters will have to be different, of course, but that will be easy as well. Although the MIB won't be anywhere nearly as OP - the stuff inspired by Macross must happen, and that would mean that it's something of such a scope that they're unable to keep it under wraps... Which means, at some point the MIB's existence is revealed.
I'll also need to come up with a replacement for the BPRD. That in and of itself won't be terribly hard... but coming up with someone as large as life as Hellboy without it being Hellboy is not gonna be easy. But it will be worthwhile as it will be a place for a John Constantine expy to hang his hat.
I think this universe could also do with something that is like that British Library organization from Read or Die, only rather than just have it be only about books, they'll also work in archeology and ancient artifacts. Although this would mean that they'd probably be under the auspices of the BPRD expy... but then, they could be like what Q-Branch is to MI6, all with their own field agents. (With expies of the likes of Indiana Jones and Laura Croft...)
The Macross elements will also combine Space Battleship Yamato elements. Which I think is very much doable. Gamilons and Zentradi, Protoculture and Iscandarians, Supervision Army and Comet Empire... It almost writes itself. Almost.
The Jurai expy will be the home of our Space Princess. Rather than Tree Ships, we'll be pushing the Clark Tech angle a bit and having them be living nanomachine colonies. Each one is bonded to a particular member of their empire's people. The bond is extremely symbolic and symbiotic - when someone has a child, their bonded ship will fission off a small mass of nanomachines to become bonded to said offspring.
They're taking a neutral stance for the moment, but with Earth being on their doorstep they know they're going to get drawn in pretty soon, whether they want to be or not. So, they're starting to build a relationship with Earth with an eye towards helping them build out their own stellar power so they can be an effective buffer on that particular side of their territory.
The game of 'Tag' is going to be so much more than tag. It's going to be more like one-on-one combat using special batons that, while solid, will leave plainly visible marks. The idea is that they are taking the place of bladed weapons and the marks will clearly tell how severe a 'wound' is. Either side is free to employ whatever tricks they deem necessary. This whole thing is because of detractors on the aliens' side, wondering why they should bother helping the baseliners if they can't fight for themselves. Sending one of the most skilled fighters (their princess) to face one of their own, using most of their tricks would be quite telling.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?
I gave a bit of thought to the whole thing, and I think a good idea would be to crib a little bit from Neil Gaiman's work involving Gods. As for the featuring God himself, I think that Loki would be a good one to go with. Lies like a snake and is suitably psychopathic.
Part of the setup would be that Loki puts together a scheme that makes our Protagonist, of his own free will, volunteer to be his Avatar. And it's not something that he would want - he would know about Loki and how terrible of a person he is. But Loki will engineer the scenario such that at the time the Protagonist will feel that he has no choice in the matter.
There's a lot of world building that I'll need to work out so I can have all the elements that I wanted. Pretty sure there's going to be a lot of clark-tech flying around all over the place.
In the Alien Princess slot, I'm planning on someone that's more like Lafiel Abriel. This will be interesting in that it will be a bit like To Love Ru in that you got a princess from a Clark Tech empire having to adapt to life on Earth, but with a lot less slapstick. Adapting will be a challenge still, but it will be one that she actually enjoys, particularly as she begins to think that Earth people are actually more clever than her own people because they actually have to think for themselves a bit.
Trying to decide if Magic + Gods are really hidden/lost Clark Tech or if it's the real deal. Leaning to the latter because the former's been done already and it's honestly kinda boring if you ask me. Very few franchises actually manage to make it as interesting as Stargate did.
Also need to work out how Magical Girls will work in this universe. Tempting to crib from the massive Magical Girl Crossover Project that included everything from Sailor Moon to Nanoha, and from Sailor Nothing to PMMM, with a few other fun bit like Persona... Huh. Come to think of it, did that project happen to have anything from Sakura Taisen? I would have thought that steam-punk stompy robots with magic powers would have fit into that project nicely.
Anywho... those are the biggest issues. I think once I get those settled, everything else will start to fall into place all around them.
One fun little twist: I can probably import the MIB movie and animated series without changing very much because of how far the franchise pushes the theme of anonymity. The characters will have to be different, of course, but that will be easy as well. Although the MIB won't be anywhere nearly as OP - the stuff inspired by Macross must happen, and that would mean that it's something of such a scope that they're unable to keep it under wraps... Which means, at some point the MIB's existence is revealed.
I'll also need to come up with a replacement for the BPRD. That in and of itself won't be terribly hard... but coming up with someone as large as life as Hellboy without it being Hellboy is not gonna be easy. But it will be worthwhile as it will be a place for a John Constantine expy to hang his hat.
I think this universe could also do with something that is like that British Library organization from Read or Die, only rather than just have it be only about books, they'll also work in archeology and ancient artifacts. Although this would mean that they'd probably be under the auspices of the BPRD expy... but then, they could be like what Q-Branch is to MI6, all with their own field agents. (With expies of the likes of Indiana Jones and Laura Croft...)
The Macross elements will also combine Space Battleship Yamato elements. Which I think is very much doable. Gamilons and Zentradi, Protoculture and Iscandarians, Supervision Army and Comet Empire... It almost writes itself. Almost.
The Jurai expy will be the home of our Space Princess. Rather than Tree Ships, we'll be pushing the Clark Tech angle a bit and having them be living nanomachine colonies. Each one is bonded to a particular member of their empire's people. The bond is extremely symbolic and symbiotic - when someone has a child, their bonded ship will fission off a small mass of nanomachines to become bonded to said offspring.
They're taking a neutral stance for the moment, but with Earth being on their doorstep they know they're going to get drawn in pretty soon, whether they want to be or not. So, they're starting to build a relationship with Earth with an eye towards helping them build out their own stellar power so they can be an effective buffer on that particular side of their territory.
The game of 'Tag' is going to be so much more than tag. It's going to be more like one-on-one combat using special batons that, while solid, will leave plainly visible marks. The idea is that they are taking the place of bladed weapons and the marks will clearly tell how severe a 'wound' is. Either side is free to employ whatever tricks they deem necessary. This whole thing is because of detractors on the aliens' side, wondering why they should bother helping the baseliners if they can't fight for themselves. Sending one of the most skilled fighters (their princess) to face one of their own, using most of their tricks would be quite telling.
Any thoughts? Suggestions?