#benjamin ya

Ben is also the start of me writing redemption stories for the misunderstood and ex-villains. Even as a teen, I knew that was my most loved trope. You’ll see that’s a common thread among most of the characters I introduce here, actually. Amon is in good company.

Originally, Ben’s story was my first ever fanfic – written back before there was an Internet in my life and I knew that the term “fanfic” existed. This is still up on the web as Coming of the Darkstar.

When I first wrote it, I could claim that it was in line with game canon, even though it has a lot of wild teenage fanfic ideas flowing through it. But then, the revamped story in the DS version of FFIV came out, as did The After Years, so now I have to claim my stuff is AU. I did not change my characters or stories to fit the change in canon (it happened 16 years after the original game came out!). :P

This story is where the term “Darkstar Dimension” comes from – something I often use to differentiate my characters from other FFIV AU verses, and also the Reflections of FFXIV. Ben's a bit of a dimension-hopper, so he fits right in with the concept of Reflections and dimensions in the game.

Ben is most commonly a part of my webcomics Wayrift and the re-release of Shimmer (which explores Ben’s not-so-happy adolescence).

In FFXIV, I’ve translated him to being an Elezen and a Red Mage, which is as close as it can get for him.

Fun fact: I tired to set up a FFXIV RP blog around Ben a very long time ago, and it just didn’t stick for whatever reason. So now he hangs around as a part of the Spot of Mummery side-character crew.