#rexathor

Time to Cut the Cheese!!’

Truth be told, I have never seen the Smurfs before, even growing up. (I know, what kind of a G/t fan am I? 😅) I didn’t even know any of the characters’ names. So I had to do some research. I eventually found an episode from the old cartoon (I’m assuming that’s the version you’re referring to),

AND OH BOY.

Johan Vs. Rex

Medieval fantasy setting

Noble and courageous

Dark hair

Tunic with a cape

Good with a sword

Blond sidekick

Kind to tiny folk

And the second he opened his mouth, I screamed with laughter. That is, without a doubt, 100% what he would sound like. I, I just...

Just a Video Game....Right?

Wrong!

Hoooo boy, do I have a story for you. (A story about a story, I guess you could say 👀)

I got into deviantArt in high school, and I eventually stumbled upon the G/t community. I was nervous to interact with any of the artists and writers. Plus I didn’t want to out myself to my IRL friends, as I was using a “normal” account at the time. So I ended up lurking for a year or two, just loving their G/t content from afar.

There were a few creators who would put video game characters in a G/t setting, and that hit a chord with me. I especially fell in love with the idea of Link as a giant. Plus with Minish Cap, there is a whole Zelda game where G/t is cannon. I wanted to give back to the community and create something myself. So it only made sense for me to create a Legend of Zelda G/t fanfic. I had dabbled in writing video game fanfic in the past, but I never got too far.

As I was kicking some ideas around in my head, I fancied the idea of publishing this story in the future. But that would be impossible if I used a company’s characters. (Especially Nintendo. They don’t mess around, sheesh.) I had started an original story a few years before, featuring my other obsession other than G/t -- time travel. So I figured why not write an original G/t story? Thus my featured giant changed from Link to an original character. I didn’t have a name for him yet, let alone a design.

At the time, I was playing a game called Chrono Cross. It was a sequel (well, kinda - it’s complicated) to an amazing game called Chrono Trigger, which was all about time travel. Chrono Cross wasn’t so much about time travel as it was about exploring alternate timelines. The game follows Serge, the guy with the blue hair.

So my new giant character kinda absorbed a lot of his design ideas. 😅 He had blue hair, the bandana, the whole shebang. But I wanted a fantasy setting, so his clothes got swiped out for a medieval tunic. I realized blue hair probably wasn’t going to fly, so I changed it out for black. Later down the line, I would further change his hair to dark brown (for story reasons, I kid you not)! I borrowed from some other concepts as well - mainly exploring alternate dimensions.

I carried a notebook around with me everywhere, jotting down ideas when I got them. It was the summer before my senior year of high school. I was at band camp (yes, I am that nerdy) and had some free time, so I decided to workshop my giant’s name.  So here is the very page where his name came into being!

I really liked how “Rex” sounded, but just Rex was a little short, so that could be his nickname. He needed a full name so I tried combining Rex with a couple of names, like Nathen and Nathanial. He was nearly called Rexathen, but it didn’t really flow. I changed the ‘e’ for an ‘o’, and Rexathor was created. 

And yes, that is an anime(?) doodle of Bob and Larry from VeggieTales. Don’t @ me 😱

I later thought I should keep a naming convention for my different groups of people. For my fantasy human names, I decided to use Latin words to signify something about their character. I was super bummed that I was going to have to change Rexathor’s name. Oh well... it needed to happen if I wanted a system for my names. I translated a bunch of words into Latin and checked to see if any words sounded pleasing. If I found one I liked, I might switch letters around or add to it. I was shocked when the word for king translated to Rex. Of course! I had heard that before, but it didn’t come to mind. I must have subconsciously thought of that or something! Rex’s name didn’t have be changed after all! Yay! 🤩 

I started to hand-write the story in my notebook that summer. I was calling my tiny character Shelia, but that didn’t vibe with me. My older sister loved the name Leilani, and so I ran with that. My convention for the future names are just normal names (mostly - sometimes I broke that rule), but usually, I’d add or remove a letter. So Leilani became Lelani. Here is the first drawing I made of her sometime in the fall of 2010/spring of 2011.

This story (like a lot of my stories) started with a single idea or question, and then mutated from there. [Uh, spoilers ahead for up to chapter 15, I suppose. Jump down to the stars ⭐⭐⭐ if you’d like to avoid that.] Keep in mind that each of these questions/ideas did not happen all at once. It was defiantly a trickle over time. 

“What would happen if a character found their way into a new world where everything was giant? What if she had superpowers to come to this dimension? What if the giant (normally sized person) had an elf friend who tagged along? What if the giant was a prince? A prince on the run, being framed for his father’s murder? Is that too cliché? Wait a minute. That sounds just like Prince of Persia. (The movie had just come out earlier that year.) I didn’t mean to take this plot line. Will this bother people that it’s very similar?” Not the first time I would ask myself that question. I can’t go into detail about other similarities to other well known stories for major spoilers ahead. 

“OH! What if the different dimensions used different languages? What would happen then? What if the elf boy could speak the language the tiny gal could? What if... the elf boy was her little brother? How could I make that work?” I chose the title “My Brother’s Keeper” because it can be interpreted several different ways. Rexathor is watching over Lelani’s little brother. Rexathor is trying to find his older brother Altunus. (Just to name 2 of them.)

In creating the travel to other dimensions, I was directly inspired by C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. The characters jump to new worlds (literally) by hopping into puddles in a hyperdimensional place they call the wood between the worlds. The puddles act like windows to other dimensions. Lelani doesn’t have full control of her own “wood between the worlds”... yet. 😉

⭐⭐⭐ Spoilers over ⭐⭐⭐

I got brave and posted the first few chapters on my original deviantArt page. One of my IRL friends started reading it... and was very critical. I wanted to keep posting more, but I didn’t want her to see it. So it only made sense to create a new, G/t themed dA page over here. I archived the original chapter posts and resubmitted them on my new one in 2011.

Over time, these ideas and more trickled in. I was inspired by a song to create a whole new story with a new fairy-like race, and decided to somehow work it into the same universe. The escapades of those characters worked themselves into the main story, set a couple of decades in the past. I think now I have come up with something like 4 different stories (so far) that take place in this universe. If I ever actually get down to writing them all, that would be a miracle!

As I have often dreamt, I wish there was a machine that could take the thought cloud in my brain and convert it into written words. But that would take out all the hard work, I suppose. These days I can’t go too long without doodling my characters. Usually it’s Rex, because I’m biased. I work as an art/music teacher, so whenever I need to draw a quick example, I’ll often draw Rex. Here’s a little doodle from a week or so ago!