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Getting Started with Eyrie Productions
Getting Started with Eyrie Productions
#1
Hey, guys and gals.
I kept putting it on the backburner, but I finally got some time to read Undocumented Features. Problem, though.
I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sheer SIZE of it, so I can't tell whether or not the reading order is what it seems to be.
Is it as straightforward as it seems, starting with Core, then going through to Golden Age, Exile, and Future Imperfect in the order listed on the webpages?
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#2
You -can- do it that way, if you're a chronology purist.

But, realistically, the Core is honestly the weakest of the lot. It's 20 years old by this point, written at a time when the authors' writing career was just beginning.

And it was written as a joke. A crack-fic, never intended to become the megaverse that it's grown into.

My advice:
Read the first volume of Symphony of the Sword (found here: http://www.eyrie.net/UF/FI/SOS/symphony-1.html )
It's the best kind of high-school hijinx, a great introduction to the universe (through the eyes of someone completely new to it), and sets up pretty much everything about the current main story arcs.

Then go back and read the Core, and treat it as basically an in-universe movie about how everything got started, sort of like the Nanoha movies.

Then move on to Golden Age, Exile, and the rest, into the Ragnarok, the rest of SoS, the Korra stuff, et cetera.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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#3
Thanks! *Maito Gai smile and thumbs up*
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#4
Don't be afraid to go on the EPU forums and ask questions if you get a little lost. The EPU team often get sidetracked, and their publishing order can bounce up and down the timeline. You may run into versions of characters that seem a little odd, but were actually introduced in another story
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#5
People keep saying the Core stories are the weakest, but I find that the original time period, when it's just Gryphon, MegaZone, and ReRob plus Kei and Yuri hanging out in Worcester, is my favorite of them all, with the possible exception of Hammer Time #1.

ALso, the original version of Cybertron Dreams is officially a movie about the actual events in-continuity, or at least was declared so circa 2005 when they were trying to do a rewrite with the updated universe, since it had grown beyond the vision they'd had of it in the original.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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#6
I've been re-reading the Core and while I like the characters the fact is that the feel is different and the quality simply hasn't reached current levels. (My own feeling is that EPU really hit its stride about halfway through NXE).

Symphony of the Sword is a good place to start although you may then want to work backwards to things like Twlight.

As an alternative, asking here or on the forums to see if there's a part of the EPU writing drawing characters from shows you already know and like might work out - if you're a Mass Effect fan then you could start with Shepard's Eleven, if you're a Strike Witches fan then Our Witches At War... you get the idea. Then follow the threads of stories elsewhere.

(this is one reason I think a wiki would be a good idea since it would help chase threads through the various stories).
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
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#7
drakensis Wrote:(this is one reason I think a wiki would be a good idea since it would help chase threads through the various stories).
(anybody can start a wiki at Orain.org - just saying)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#8
It's come up before. Gryph's asked we don't.
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#9
Quote:Matrix Dragon wrote:
It's come up before. Gryph's asked we don't.
*Blinks* Bwa?  Any particular reason why?  I mean, he knows some of us - so he'd know that we'd treat the worlds and characters of EPU with respect.  (Well... not toooo much respect, anyhow.)
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#10
I have considerable respect for him as a writer, but I get the impression Gryphon's a bit of a control freak when it comes to "his baby." That's his prerogative, I suppose, even if it seems a bit silly to me when the material in question is almost-by-definition-unauthorized fanfiction.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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#11
Quote:ClassicDrogn wrote:
I have considerable respect for him as a writer, but I get the impression Gryphon's a bit of a control freak when it comes to "his baby." That's his prerogative, I suppose, even if it seems a bit silly to me when the material in question is almost-by-definition-unauthorized fanfiction.
I would imagine that it's because Gryphon is often his own worst critic, and removes stories at his own whim. Several pieces of the whole have been scrapped, removed, rewritten, and purged over the past 25 years. The Bubblegum Crisis fics have gone through at least two incarnations, there's half of his little cyberpunk story that he keeps down in the Vaults missing, and he's redone the Cybertron stories twice. A wiki would likely keep those around, and if he wants them gone, he wants them gone, rather than someone saying, "There's this other version of this story that can be found here." And he doesn't want to run the wiki himself. Ergo, no wiki.
And, isn't "unauthorized fanfiction" inherently redundant?
  
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
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#12
On the other hand, he seems to have no problem with people compiling and hosting epub/mobi copies of his stuff for ebook readers, so long as nobody tries to, like, sell them, or stupid shit like that.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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#13
Ebony Wrote:isn't "unauthorized fanfiction" inherently redundant?  
The Star Wars Expanded Universe, Mercedes Lackey, J. K. Rowlings, and Naoko Takeuchi suggest otherwise, for a sliding value of "authorized."
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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#14
It's not so much that Gryphon's a control freak as it is he's worried that anything large like a dedicated wiki might draw Official Attention that EPU has so far avoided.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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#15
That makes sense, I suppose - you never know when some IP holder may get a wild hair up a fundamental aperture and insist on things being followed to the letter rather than letting relatively respectful fan creations slide, and incorporating so many different elements in so many places makes for a wide field of potential corporate overlords to offend. Stripping any of them out (even if not one of the core things, like Robotech, Dirty Pair, or SKU) would be a herculean labor, for that matter, and even worse if there was a wiki/other hosts/etc. not under Gryphon's control.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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#16
Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:
It's not so much that Gryphon's a control freak as it is he's worried that anything large like a dedicated wiki might draw Official Attention that EPU has so far avoided.

This is pretty much it. It came up in a discussion on the Tropes page, if I remember right.
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#17
Well, I've gone through all of Undocumented Feature, even parts of the discussion boards.
And really, Bob, a "Stanley Cup War"? LOL! Who would be the Servant Class: Ruler moderator for that, anyway? Heroic Spirit Wayne Gretzky?
Just about to start The Great Fanfic Adventures of the Dirty Pair...
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#18
DeputyJones Wrote:And really, Bob, a "Stanley Cup War"? LOL! Who would be the Servant Class: Ruler moderator for that, anyway? Heroic Spirit Wayne Gretzky?
Nah, Gretzky would be one of the participants. For a judge, you want Foster Hewitt.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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#19
Given the original source material and the writer's preferences, I'd think it would be likely that the judge would be 'Legendary News Anchor Stephen Colbert' or similar.
"Not this again!" Minerva said. "Albus, it was You-Know-Who, not you, who marked Harry as his equal. There is no possible way that the prophecy could be talking about you!" - Harry Potter and the Method of Rationality, Chapter 84
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#20
After seeing this, I see Gryphon's point.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015 ... y-planner/
“We can never undo what we have done. We can never go back in time. We write history with our decisions and our actions. But we also write history with our responses to those actions. We can leave the pain and the damage in our wake, unattended, or we can do the work of acknowledging and fixing, to whatever extent possible, the harm that we have caused.”

— On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
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#21
Oh that's just plain fucked up! >Sad
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#22
That's Nintendo for you. While in many ways they're one of the best game companies out there, their attitude towards their honest to god fans is nothing short of disgusting, and their understanding of modern culture is trapped on the other side of the invention of the internet.
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#23
Nintendo of America, maybe.

Nintendo Japan, IIRC, is a different beast. Miyamoto would never work for them, otherwise.
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#24
IIRC Japan has an extremely different approach to the whole copyright law thing in the first place. If they didn't the whole doujinshi thing would be a clandestine black market thing rather than a way for artists and writers to make some extra cash along the sidelines in a respectable manner.
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#25
Okay, folks, the Nintendo/Pokemon thing is a digression from the topic of the thread. Please take it to its own discussion.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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