ROJ Episode 5 Notes

RETURN OF JETMAN

"Battlegrounds"
(Episode 5)
Production Notes
by Christopher Elam
© 2003-2010 Christopher Elam

 

These notes are based on material originally posted on May 8, 2003 on the now-defunct OWARI Message Board (formerly http://pub14.ezboard.com/bowari, currently http://owari.yuku.com/).

Episode 5 - "Battlegrounds" wrapped principal writing on September 20, 2002 (I was working on three separate stories more or less simultaneously at that point). It is based on an earlier version written by Lewis Smith which was completed in two parts - Part 1 was finished July 11, 1996, and Part 2 was finished on September 19, 1996. No editing was ever done on that original version. Lewis' original title was simply "Battleground". This incarnation of the story almost became "Strange Battleground", but I settled on the plural "Battlegrounds" instead.

The fifth installment of ROJ was the highlight of the original version of the series as far as both Lewis and I were concerned, and held the promise of so much more. Alas, Lewis today feels that pouring so much of himself into that story way back when broke him for ROJ, as it was never quite the same for him after that. As I worked on my version, I was struck by how much potential this plot held. I expanded Lewis' original concept into what was the longest episode to date, and still I only scratched the surface of what COULD be done. There is literally an entire novel or two worth of material in this one story. But since this had to be, in essence, a "one off" tale, I left a lot to the imagination of the reader. I still think it works very well, and weaves a potent backstory into the main action.

• The parallel Gai Yuki is 50 years old, which is how old he should be by this time in the ROJ narrative (extrapolating from Toei's promotional material).
  
  
  
• Skycorps is a counterpart of Skyforce, corrupted into an army of evil henchmen. The Razorwings came from Lewis, Ako and Raita being soldiers was mine (their roles in his story were somewhat different).
  
  
  
• "Kurokaze Sentai" (literally, "Dark Wind Task Force") was a name Lewis had applied to the mind-controlled original team in his initial draft of the second installment. He never decided on a good label for his parallel team. Later, when he wrote the retrospective that appeared in OWARI #11 (Aug. 2002), he misremembered the tag as belonging to this team. I liked it so much that I let it stand and retroactively rewrote history. Hey, what do you expect from an idea born in a column called "More Truth Than Reality"?
  
  
  
• Of the evil Jetman team members, Red Kestrel and Yellow Eagle are more or less the way Lewis created them. Red Kestrel is Aya Odagiri, who was the commander of Jetman in the "mainstream" universe and who is Supreme Commander of Skyforce in ROJ continuity (as seen beginning in Ep. 1). In this universe, she clearly decided to give herself powers. Yellow Eagle is Ryu Tendo, the original Red Hawk in the more familiar universe. His status is not nearly so high in this "mirror universe".
  
  
  
• Black Falcon was originally "Black Vulture" and a counterpart to Kei (Green Wyvern) Mizuno's father. This was dropped for reasons I will outline further down. I did keep the name Lewis gave him though, so "Gisaburo Mizuno" became "Gisaburo Maki" ("Maki" chosen for no reason in particular). As for the actual name of Kei's father? Well, I don't think that will ever come up.
  
  
  
• Katsura Tendo (named for the heroine in Toho's 1975 film TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA) was basically the same character in Lewis' first draft, only there she was named "Blue Falcon" and was the daughter of Ryu Tendo and Rie Aoi. "White Crane" was a name I coined to broaden the bird motif just a bit. I probably drew inspiration from Ninja White Tsuruhime in NINJA SENTAI KAKURANGER.
  
  
  
• Rie Aoi (as "Grey Shrike") had completed Lewis' team, but I dropped her for two reasons : (1) she was Maria in the TV series, so her being evil wasn't exactly novel and (2) I was uncomfortable having the evil Jetmen being primarily female. Purely unintentional on Lewis' part, but something I felt needed altering. Rie's place on the team was filled by "Blue Dove", a.k.a. Dan Horiguchi. The name "Dan Horiguchi" is a "Japanized" version of "Don Hall", the secret identity of the original Dove from DC's HAWK AND DOVE superhero comic. I liked the notion of a character with a dove symbol being a cold-blooded killer.
  
  
  
• Lewis observed that the glimpse into the life of the Kurokaze Sentai echoes the WildStorm comic THE AUTHORITY. This is quite a feat, since it is strongly based on a scene from his story (which pre-dates AUTHORITY by several years) and I've never read THE AUTHORITY.
  
  
  
• Since Daedalus was Icarus' father in mythology, it seemed fitting for the evil Jet Icarus to be named "Jet Daedalus". I'm honestly surprised that it does not appear to have been used anywhere else.
  
  
  
• One of my stranger ideas was to have the resistance parallel the Byram (from the TV series), with Gai taking Radeige's role. Hence, I added Grey and Rie Aoi to this sequence to go with Lewis' Dr. Strangelove-like take on Toran. As mentioned earlier, Rie had been one of the villainous Jetmen in Lewis' version. I dunno, I sort of found the idea of recasting her as a tragic, heroic survivor more appealing.
  
  
  
• The parallel Kaori Rokumeikan had been cast as an offscreen martyr in Lewis' version, but I tweaked her role a bit for the chronology of this version to make sense. Hence, I cast her as the first "White Crane".
  
  
  
• The scene with Ken and Etsuko took four days to get right. FOUR DAYS! I just wanted to whine about that, because I bashed my head into the figurative wall trying to make this scene hit just the right notes. The idea of including a love scene was a tricky one, especially given the material. I FEEL as if I pulled it off in tasteful fashion, but the final decision is in the individual reader's hands.
  
  
  
• In my rough draft, there was a scene between the Ken/Etsuko sequence and the appearance of Blue Dove in which we saw Yuki and Jetman leave the resistance HQ, followed by dialogue between Rie and Grey. The purpose of this scene was to drive home the point hinted at earlier - namely, that in this reality, the star-crossed love between Grey and Maria (Rie) had grown into a full-blown love affair. Never mind how, just go with it. I spent an entire day on this specific scene. Ultimately though, I couldn't get it into a form I deemed acceptable. Plus, it sort of dragged the story. With some reluctance, I discarded the scene entirely. Bits of it were incorporated elsewhere, but I had to drop a couple of lines I thought were rather good for the sake of the story as a whole.
  
  
  
• The "thumbs up" thing just makes me laugh. Sorry.
  
  
  
• In Lewis' story, Yuki accompanies Jetman against the evil team and dies at the hands of Red Kestrel. This always struck me as a little unsatisfying, considering his fate in the "real" universe. To me, what happens to him now makes a bit more sense in the story as a whole. After all, SOMEONE has to rebuild when the fireworks die down. I also enjoyed throwing in an allusion to Ken's rivalry with Jet Phoenix back home.
  
  
  
• Originally, Jetman had fought the evil Jetman within Jet Daedalus itself. This was marvelously claustrophobic, but a tad abrupt the way it played out. Plus, the castle in the sky was more or less forgotten. Well, if you put a castle in the sky, I think it is only right to knock it down! So, Jet Daedalus is captured rather than destroyed, and used to infiltrate Skycitadel.
  
  
  
• The Reiko/Gohan/Black Falcon sequence - Oooooh, this was hard to write. What I mean is that I do have an affection for the characters, and to have to hurt one of them in such a painfully realistic way troubled me. It doesn't last too long, and nothing especially horrible actually happens, but the implications and trauma of it cut deep. This scene bothered me, and I toned it down from some of the other concepts I had considered. Trust me, don't ask. This scene nearly drove me to tears as I wrote it. It felt like a punch in the gut. I don't know if it affects anyone else this way, but that's just my personal take on it.
  

  ANYWAY, since Kei's true father never appears in the story proper, I didn't like the idea of such a heinous character as Black Falcon being the reader's only image of her father. So "Mizuno" became "Maki" with no real harm to the story. Maki's ultimate fate is my reaction to many of the so-called "fan-fiction" tales in circulation that glorify characters like him. While Reiko may have been equally traumatized by killing him, I was glad to see him go.
  
  
  

• By contrast, Ken/Etsuko/White Crane is played a bit more farcically. This was intentional, because I didn't want to dwell overly long on the intensity of the previous scene. There is some dark humor here, and also the hint that Ken and Etsuko's new feelings won't change how they relate to each other.
  
  
  
• He could never forgive them. - This line is a bit of a reference, I guess, to the standard dialogue of "Yurusanai wa!" and its variations in Japanese fantasy shows. That sort of things crops up over and over, particularly when the villains have done something especially vile and dastardly. It is often translated as "I can never forgive you!"
  
  
  
• The climactic sequence was one that was filled with urgency for me as a writer, as well as the characters themselves. It was one of those times when I truly felt "in the groove". Red Kestrel came across particularly well, I thought, and the bit of business with the King Saber (another of Lewis' ideas) added a certain symbolism to our heroes beating the twisted senior Jetman team.
  
  
  
• And of course, we'll return to Jet Phoenix and Green Wyvern next time. Their absence from this story was a conscious one. They had threatened to take over the story entirely in the original version, and I wanted to give the team the chance to stand on its own and shine. To me, this really was their baptism of fire. I think they came through, because I finally felt like I had a grip on all of them by the time this one was done.
  

 

© Christopher Elam.