well! i still haven't finished my planned art pieces but i'd like to participate today and share my hypothetical sequel idea for kq 2015 on the proper day for it. just a long train of thought!
my idea would keep the frame story structure of the original game, still focusing on gwendolyn in the modern day while progressing the plot through stories of the past. only, it wouldn't be stories of graham's feats, but of his children.
gwendolyn's first steps into being a queen are very tense. everyone's still mourning graham, but that's not the most stressful part. the most stressful part is that he passed his crown to a child. addendum 48677 being altered so suddenly wasn't something anyone expected! it's a major point of contention, but in the interest of not hurting gwendolyn's feelings, it's kept between the adults.
cassima would, no doubt, come as soon as possible once she gets the news that her daughter, the heiress of her kingdom, has just been crowned queen of a different kingdom an ocean apart from her! with no forewarning at all! her and alexander want to support their daughter, but fear not only what this means for the green isles, but for their family as well. how is this going to work out? neither of them want to be separated from gwendolyn, nor each other. it wouldn't be right to rule over a kingdom you don't live in. the options they've been given are to either live apart from her, or have her abdicate. two people who were removed from their parents and abused in their youth aren't going to be enthusiastic about having their daughter in this situation, but they don't want to crush her dreams!
edgar, too, returns to rosella's side to comfort her. rosella does her best to hide how upset she is. for her entire life, that addendum has never been changed. for the 18 years graham spent not even knowing if his male heir was alive, it was never touched. not even when the son he always wanted came back. she never had a chance for the throne herself, so when she had a son, and he became the heir apparent of daventry, she had to raise him to take that place in her stead. and she did, with her father never doing or saying anything to imply that the crown wouldn't be going to gart all this time. only for him to finally, finally, change that ridiculous addendum. so that her brother's 12 year old daughter could rule. not her.
needless to say, no matter how strong she wants to seem, she needs someone by her side. she wouldn't take out her frustrations on gwendolyn, just keeping to herself and feigning congratulations. the fact that alexander doesn't even want this either is both comforting and annoying – he's the favorite child, and he doesn’t even like it!
gwendolyn is constantly dealing with the actual stressors of ruling, like graham in the beginning of chapter 2. when she can get away, she spends time with gart and taskia. taskia's been staying in daventry a bit longer to learn more about her grandfather and send word back to her family while also learning a bit of the common tongue. valanice would very much be keeping the peace in the background and trying to keep gwendolyn from figuring out the family drama going on with all the other adults.
the major bits would be coming up to each adult chapter by chapter for advice in the form of a story. cassima and alexander would both tell stories with alexander as the central focus, and rosella and edgar would tell stories with rosella as the central focus. i think chapter 5 could have rosella and alexander tell a story together featuring both of their perspectives could be fun? i haven't put much concrete thought into the content of the actual stories but i think cas+alex's would capture a sense of longing for home while ros+ed's would capture a desire to prove one's self, you know? maybe cassima's is about something they got up to back in the isles, maybe alexander's is basically kq3, edgar's could be retelling kq4 based on what she told him about that (the thought of him relaying this rather than rosella is cute because he would only really be a background character so it'd just be him hyping up his wife's story) rosella's could be something set in daventry!!
throughout the stress and the stories, gwen does pick up on the fact that everyone is acting weird. she's feeling homesick and the stories just make her feel even less cut out to do this herself, but she's conflicted because she doesn't want to let her grandpa down. at the end taskia would also get ready to leave and go back home, which would upset gwen, but taskia lets her know that as much as she loved spending time with her, she's not ready to leave home for good and she wants to return and be with her family and friends there again. gwendolyn gets depressed and that's when everyone puts aside the stress to try to cheer her up with a big story. at the end she admits that she doesn't want to be queen of daventry, she wants to go home and be a kid again!
luckily, the addendum already allows for a female heir, and gwendolyn is able to recognize how unfairly rosella has been treated, when she was always so competent in those stories. she'd be a great queen, and graham should have recognized that. as much as everyone loved him, everyone can recognize he wasn't always a perfect father.
gwendolyn passing the crown to rosella is a perfect send off to me. rosella has always been an important figure in the history of video games as a whole and i'll be honest i wasn't a fan of how she's shafted in this game! it also lets gwendolyn have her childhood without being in a position where she'd have to mature and undergo the stress of being in charge of so much. especially with the state of the only town we ever see, no one lives there anymore and the oak tree in the middle (*cough* the one that symbolizes graham *cough*) was overbearing, overgrown, and destroying the very foundation of it (and then it all burnt down if we are to believe everything in chapter 5 really happened). what's the state of the rest of the kingdom if that town has gotten so bad, huh? but yeah go ahead and saddle all those issues onto a little girl, man
(graham. graham. why did you not change that addendum before your death. why does your daughter exasperatedly beg you to "PLEASE, for ONCE, pay attention to ME!" graham. how can you say she can't rule because she's "busy adventuring" and "more interested in raising Gart to be king" when YOU, GRAHAM, WERE ALWAYS BUSY ADVENTURING and can you BLAME HER for raising the HEIR APPARENT to be an HEIR APPARENT??? have you considered maybe THAT'S ON YOU? FOR NOT OVERTURNING THIS STUPID ADDENDUM UNTIL YOU DIED, FOR YOUR SON'S DAUGHTER, BUT NOT YOUR OWN DAUGHTER? DOES THAT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR BIASES, GRAHAM? ABOUT WHICH CHILD YOU FAVOR? ABOUT WHO GETS YOUR ATTENTION?)
anyway thanks for reading, have my concept sketches i had of a young reboot cassima and edgar as a prize 🫴
kianamaiart
romaincrisis
jacobvanloon
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