Taking some time off to get ready for book 2, but also taking a step back to plot out the finale.

Book 2, heaven is going to be dark, cruel, and more importantly, it's going to highlight the complicated nature of the story.

However as I was getting back from school to get ready for the next day, I watched a video about undertale made by a fave youtuber of mine, gaijin goombah and he raised a perfectly valid point that I hadn't considered before.

Games, and stories today, have always been about oppressive atmospheres that give off this sense of despair.

few games, or stories for that matter, have ever bothered to tell happy stories with happy endings.

since the final arc, arguably the most vital one, doesn't actually have its conclusion formed this has lead me to wonder if perhaps it's high time to give this "hope" nonsense a try.

the fact of the matter is the dark lord zero is a story about losing hope, but in a sad way it's also a story about having absolutely nothing BUT hope and literally nothing else.

this is the double edged nature of a plot where the main character is literally hero and villain at the same time, the younger zero lacks hope and is filled with despair because he's having his possibilities stolen from him by his futuremost self, meanwhile the future zero has nothing but hope

hope that his nightmare will come to a conclusion once he finishes his act, as reality's greatest actor it is his sole purpose to be the villain for the sake of keeping the timeline intact, it's his job to be the bad guy, to be the core evil and the pinnacle of darkness.

But at the same time this is still zero, and once he becomes the lord of time and space, he has hope.

hope is essentially a central theme to the story, but it's a two sided expression, there's literally a duality to everything between these two versions of the same character because time has made the future self so radically different from the past self that it's unrecognizable to the degree of being impossible for zero to reconcile with.

in a way, it's a lot like the irreconcilable differences between dracula and gabriel belmont.

the difference is, drac and gabriel never meet, but the plot of the dark lord zero is sort of an homage to the idea of them doing precisely that.

anyway, back on topic, with the finale unformed, there's neither a happy ending, or a bad ending, and so I'm left with this decision.

the dark lord zero is an expression of my own frustrations with life's impossibilities and its grim nature.

the world is a dark, malicious, terrible place, and the earth portrayed in the dark lord zero's first act is basically a parody of real life in many ways.

But should I make good on my promise and give the story a hopeful outlook? would that defeat the message I'm trying to write?
with all things that are organic so too is a story, it shifts, it changes, it transforms, it's a neverending struggle for me when I imagine each situation, because I picture and envision it so many ways that reaching out and capturing just one consistent version of the same vision becomes a nearly insurmountable task.

all the same, I think I should take gaijin's observation to heart.

and perhaps paint a happier ending.

since I've only finalized the overarching plot's foundation, i can be creative, perhaps even go back on my word several times over like the dishonest villain that I am, I don't care!

but I think it's high time to work on a lighter tone for the character, one that doesn't end in tragedy.

they say there is nothing greater than a story, be it tragic or dark.

but I say there is nothing greater than the beauty of a dream.

and that's what a story, to me, is.

it's a dream we try to capture and pin down like butterfly being mounted on styrofoam.

beautiful, but tragic for the fact that we had to tie it down just to get a closer look at the fleeting beauty of its wings at the cost of its life.