Blur Havok 2: The Nexus Campaign
GENERAL TRIVIA
The author made several attempts and a conscious effort to give characters weapons other than:
M4/M16 Rifle
Barrett .50 Cal Rifle
Glocks
AK-47
The Dirt Hounds were added mid-first draft.
The language was toned town from “Paragon War”. The author wanted each swear word to have more punch.
Like “Paragon War”, there is a scale for how severely each character swears.
The author has a strict “no sex scene” rule in Blur Havok. Blur Havok 2 has gone the furthest in terms of how close an actual sex scene has been depicted.
The author had far more experience with firearms since “Paragon War”. To ensure accurate depiction of most weapons, extensive research was done. Only two liberties were taken for entertainment value. The lack of research on firearms was one of the author’s biggest regrets in regards to “Paragon War”.
The classes for the Ski’tal were abandoned to portray them as more human, electing to describe each Ski’tal individually.
Blur Havok 2 also marks the first time any character has been (directly or indirectly) depicted as nude. It is actually one of the few times nudity is directly referenced.
Blur Havok 2 is the first Blur Havok Story to have a dedicated Pre-production phase. “Paragon War” had nearly no pre-production done before the first draft was written; only a beat sheet with three acts filled out was completed. Here is a list of all pre-production work done for Blur Havok 2:
Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (BS2)
Character Personality Traits
Character Weapon Loadouts
Dialogue Practice
Continuity Notes
The combined pre-production notes amassed into 3 1/2 legal pads. Blur Havok 3‘s pre-production is even more extensive.
Blur Havok 2 may seem more explosive. The author reached Chapter 4 and saw the writing on the wall.
CHARACTER TRIVIA
Alastor’s design and loadout is designed to convey how Alastor has put himself together since “Paragon War” and how he is less reckless.
Alastor almost “tele-fragged” a Ski’tal in Chapter 2. This broke the entire novel and had to be removed.
Alastor’s original safe word in Chapter 1 was “government”.
Melonie’s personality had a slight retooling after the author was “a bit underwhelmed” by her in “Paragon War”.
Sreda is the only Knight who has a history outside of the Official Canon.
The specific speech impediment Sreda suffers from is called “Verbal Paraphasia“.
Sreda personality had a drastic overhaul. After the author realized how problematic Sreda’s original personality was, she was severely toned down. During the first draft, the author realized that Sreda came across as socially inept rather than manic. After a few more tweaks, Sreda was turned into Blur Havok’s first character on the spectrum.
Sreda is the second oldest character in Blur Havok. Characters in order from oldest to newest:
Alastor
Sreda
Ozzi
Melonie
Ryze/Synthetic Blur
Bria
Velanna
Everyone else (that has been established)
Sreda’s non-canon bio alludes to the supernatural elements that were in the original Blur Havok.
Sreda has had her “legs” since 2012.
Velanna was designed to physically be the exact opposite of Melonie:Tall vs. short
Dark skin vs. light skin
Wavy and curly hair vs. straight hair
Sultry appearance vs. innocent appearance
Under current U.S. law, Velanna’s TAC-14 is not a shotgun; it is considered an “other/firearm”. It is called a shotgun in Blur Havok 2 because it functions similarly to one and for simplicity’s sake.
Velanna originally had a “second form” that was reminiscent of Kerrigan from Starcraft franchise. This was one of the “supernatural elements” removed from Blur Havok.
Velanna rarely curses because it portrays her as losing control if she swears.
Velanna’s personality was not finalized until after “Paragon War”. Velanna was originally much more mysterious and aloof, but was changed to be more mischievous so the reader can “love to hate” her.
The author found Velanna to be the most entertaining character to write.
To get a better feel for Velanna’s TAC-14, the author actually purchased the gun. There was a steep, steep learning curve.
Velanna’s personality actually takes most of its cues from the earlier version of Sreda.
Velanna’s “femme fatale” demeanor was inspired by the likes of The Black Puddle Queen from Courage the Cowardly Dog, Lola Bunny from Space Jam, Kiyora from Robotech: Battlecry, and, as previously stated, Kerrigan from Starcraft.The Black Puddle Queen was the main influence. The author was absolutely terrified of this character as a child. So much so, he would turn the TV off at the sight of just the title card.
The author has created a new rule for Blur Havok content after Blur Havok 2 was completed: Velanna’s back story will never be explained. Any attempts to explain her back story are officially non-canon. He has stated: “The answer will never be greater than the thought of the answer.”
There is a version of Blur Havok 2 that does not have Ozzi in the plot until Act 3.
The “heavy ordinance” comment is a reference to a moment in “Paragon War” where Ozzi uses “ordinance” instead of “ordnance”.
Blur Havok 2 is only the second time Ozzi has ever used the F-Word.
Bria was given the M110 rifle because the .50 Cal rifle is one of the most impractical rifles for combat against infantry.
The author has stated that The Knights of The Blood were created as a direct response to the Knights of Ren from the Disney Star Wars trilogy.
Roark was designed similarly to characters like Sentinel Prime from Transformers: Dark of the Moon; older, but still capable.
The Blood design trivia:
Roark’s design was inspired by the Feyarch skin for Oberon and his body language was inspired by Harrow in Warframe.
Iskander’s design was inspired by Atlas from Warframe and Onslaught from Transformers: Fall of Cybertron.
Sreda’s design was inspired by the Summoner demon from DOOM (2016).
Arashi’s stature and design was inspired by Jazz from Transformers (2007).
Malachi’s body type was inspired by Ezra Miller’s Flash from the DC Extended Universe.
The way Ryze behaves in Blur Havok 2 is much closer to his source character than his behavior in “Paragon War”.
META TRIVIA
References:
Alastor saying “This has got to be an out of season April fools joke.” is a reference to the infamous “Diablo: Immortal” announcement.
Also, Alastor saying “How in the shitting universe do we stop this thing?” is a reference to MauLer’s “The Predator: An Unbridled Rage” video.
Malachi’s line “You ain’t shit…” is a reference to the intro of the music video to the song “Finish Her!” by Aja.
Bria’s comments on the “high ground” are a reference to Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
The author’s favorite joke is when Alastor is being choked and he says “I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously.” in italics.This is a joke that is in the vein of the original Blur Havok. In the old canon, everything was reflected exactly how it appeared on the page; including speech and thought bubbles.
The reference to Andre the Giant was originally a reference to Shaquille O’Neil.Also, the author stated that the “really tall person” had to be a real person.
When Alastor says “stealth missions don’t work”, he is alluding to advice the author heard before writing “Paragon War”.
Spoiler Trivia
As stated before, Alastor’s design and loadout is designed to convey how he is less reckless. However, by the end of the book, all of his equipment is lost or destroyed excluding one item: Leah’s 1911 handgun.
The red stripes on Alastor’s chest represents spilled blood. Specifically Melonie’s spilled blood.
Originally, Alastor was supposed to lash out at Bria after Melonie’s death, but Alastor becoming catatonic and unresponsive seemed more haunting.
Mason was originally going to betray Blur Havok and join the Blood Hounds, but this felt inconsistent with the character and was removed.
The Battle of The Nexus was designed to feel like a “reverse D-Day”.
Alastor takes several cues from Scorpion of Mortal Kombat after Melonie’s death:
His face below the eyes is consistently covered.
He uses his teleporting ability for offense instead of defense.
Alastor yells. A lot.
His uncontrolled anger transfers to his body language.
The author deemed Malachi’s death the most difficult to write technically, while he found Melonie’s death the hardest to write emotionally.
The reason why Malachi’s death was so difficult to write was because it needed to satisfy all of these factors:
It had to make Roark look callous and uncaring.
It could not directly be Alastor’s fault.
It had to show Malachi’s fervor for his father’s approval.
It had to give Iskander a reason to turn on Roark.
It could not make Alastor look like an irredeemable monster.
Ryze’s change of heart was engineered from the beginning. In “Paragon War”, Ryze does not kill any of the Blur Havok troops himself. This was done to make his Heel Face Turn more believable and digestible.
The comedy is ramped up a bit more in “The Nexus Campaign” so Melonie’s death hits harder. The jokes are pulled back tremendously after her death.
Alastor had a scar on his left eye in multiple previous canons.
The author’s favorite line is Alastor’s “Melonie is dead! And so are you.”
Sleeper drones are another idea from previous Blur Havok canons. They kept their tongues.
The violence and gore are turned up after Alastor arrives at the Nexus in order to convey the anger and lack of restraint behind Alastor’s rampage. The overall goal was to make the reader somewhat uncomfortable and afraid of Alastor.
Melonie’s death was not decided lightly. The entire trilogy was designed and planned around this one moment. “Paragon War” was written because “The Nexus Campaign” would not work without it.
Velanna was originally a much more sympathetic character who was far more morally complicated and would dither in and out of Alastor’s life periodically. For obvious reasons, that can no longer be an option.
“The Nexus Campaign” is the first time in any Blur Havok canon that either of Alastor’s parents have made an appearance.
Alastor’s brutal kills in the climax were inspired by the Glory Kill System from the Doom series. The Doom Slayer’s influence will not stop there…
Velanna loses her hand because the author had his own internal logic and “karma” for writing: “Although Velanna will be in Blur Havok 3, she can’t leave the novel completely unscathed. She killed Melonie, so she has to lose something.”
Act III (everything beyond Chapter 10) was a test to see what kind of tone Blur Havok 3 will have. Blur Havok 3 turned out to be even darker than this.
Valhalla has been the remnants of a destroyed Australia since 2014. The method of its destruction has varied drastically.
The Battles at Wolves’ Den and The Nexus were the author’s deliberate attempts to describe a Michael Bay action scene.
After writing Melonie’s death, the author cried. He did not write for the rest of the day.
“The Nexus Campaign” marks the first time the original Blur Havok team has been broken up permanently since their inception in 2010.
During the Post-Production/Editing phase, the author watched “Star Wars: Episode 2 – Attack of the Clones” and realized that Melonie’s death mirrored Shmi Skywalker’s death. The resemblance was a complete accident, as it had been nearly a decade since the author had seen the film. Mainly because it is one of his least favorite Star Wars films pre-Disney Acquisition.