DEVELOPMENT OF AFTERMATH COMPLEX

This is definitely the oldest version of the story, so its contents are probably typical of what you'd expect from a 12 year old, but alas, I must come clean with my creation. Last time I had edited this document was likely in 2022, but my biggest inspirations behind this work were likely Hannibal (NBC) and likely a mix of other American TV shows and 80s movies such as Karate Kid, Heathers, Beetlejuice, etc.

But that's beside the point, I was very interested in creating a compelling story, and while I believe I did hit the nail right in some areas, some not so much, and I feel like I bit off far more than I could chew... that likely contributed to me completely rehashing the plot and characters, making them a bit more likable. I began treating them more like I was critiquing characters written for a show.

(For the sake of convenience I'm going to be referring to the  characters via their old names. There's a list below if you're interested!)

Main Changes made from Aftermath Complex

1. They were now all Asian! At least nationality-wise.

2. Rafael became a charming and (generally) well-liked fella. Not to mention, he also became more of a well-rounded character altogether because at first he just... kind of dies. He also just does kind of die in BAKSO! but at least he goes out in style.

3. Of course the biggest change is that it no longer takes place in California, and instead, Selangor.

4. Surprisingly, most of the main characters were actually aged down to become teenagers, and some were separated into being side characters (Aka The Band).

5. Only one member of the aforementioned council exists now! Not really, the others do, but I wanted to just focus on one of them here.

6. Lestari luckily doesn't destroy anything with touch now, but she has to share a body with Rafael. And this genuinely caused me a lot of problems, because I was at writing level 2 at this point, I wasn't sure how I would make this work while maintaining Lestari as the main character. (I scrapped this concept for Berkembang.)

7. Guywei is now a single man, NOT ready to mingle.

Creative Development

Initially, the story sort of served as a test run, due to the fact that I basically just killed the previous iteration of the characters with my iron ruling fist, so I was really just rolling in the sand and seeing what would stick to the body. And even though there was so so many plot holes that I found within, I'm grateful for its existence because I ended up rockin' the things I found an issue with out of the story. But also, as a completely seperate side tangent, I hated how loved Rafael Flores was. Like, people were all over him and I had to do something about it!! And made him more unlikeable, or just bad as a person. And while I will admit that was done out of hatred at first, it paid off storytelling wise!

Since I have already talked about the plot crumbling, let's discuss the characters. They were rewritten to be given fresh new coats, and they were much stronger of course, but when it came time for me to connect them together and to the environment it just felt like a bunch of crayons thrown onto a piece of paper. Lestari stayed relatively the same, as she's optimistic about life and all of the opportunities that present themselves to her, but now she's a child, so it just feels much more overbearing for her. Oh but she has friends now!! Which of course, is one friend. Which is Mayūri, who is definitely NOT as optimistic about life as she is. I wouldn't say she was a pessimist but she was more of a realist when it came to the grand scheme of things. Now I feel like I had slapped their personalities from this iteration to how they are currently. Now Guywei, not much has changed I cannot lie, he is just too good to change majorly, but the biggest thing is his relationship with Lestari. Now he's much older than her, and Guywei does NOT like talking with children, but I think he'd dote on her as if she was his own child over the course of the story and afterwards. The rest of the cast was slightly underdeveloped, but I did introduce Liem during this time, and I wish that the purpose I've given him here ends up paying off. He kind of acts like a mom to Lestari, constantly nagging her, telling her this, telling her that, just saying it's all for the best, even though he's unsure if he believes that himself, but overall while the audience only sees him in his relation to Lestari, he definitely is his own person and has time to show that. When however... wait and see....

Finally, as to why I wanted to change the story so drastically? I already addressed this earlier but I wanted to understand the culture of Southeast Asia better, both socially and politically even though I admittedly still have a lot of research to do, especially on the topics the story covers, or things that affect the characters and their current environment. Considering the year it takes place in as well, 1997, it takes intentional searching for old sources and most importantly of all, finding sources written by Malaysians themselves, I don't think I can stress that enough if anyone who is reading this wants to create a story that takes place anywhere in the world. And make sure you get people who live there to read your stuff! Trust me, it will make you see things you're not so sure you saw in the first place!