Not that I didn't write any personal opinions into the story, I guess... The bit in Chapter Ten, where Cecil is holding Kain's hand as he recovers, while Rosa is elsewhere, that was sort of symbolic, I guess. Early on, I realized that like Rosa, Cecil didn't have much personality in the game - he was just a generally great guy that everyone liked. In trying to flesh him out, I think I started making him seem a little distant, and sort of too goody-goody rather than a generally nice guy. But Cecil really is supposed to be a good friend of Kain's, and like his counterpart in my life, would stay by his friend's side when he needs it.

I got inspired for this when I read a document detailing the differences in the English and Japanese games, like the fact Kain wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Dragoon, and the king wanting him to be a Dark Knight instead. Since I've never played the Japanese version, I don't know how they had those plotlines unfold, so I guess I could be way off. But I doubt most people would know the difference anyway.

The war they were in is sort of an odd thing... I could have sworn there was something in the game about Baron going to war in the past with either Eblan or Fabul, but looking back over the script, I didn't find any evidence of that. Maybe I was thinking of the Midgar/Wutai war in FFVII? I went ahead and made the war with Eblan anyway, since Edge had more varied attacks than Yang.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with this fic. There were a few things I never got around to exploring, like the fact that Kain felt no remorse over killing the ninjas contrasted with Cecil's reaction to his first battle, and the formation of the Red Wings... Someday I'll probably either rewrite the last half of this fic, or write a small sequel. For some reason, FFIV is the game that inspires the most fanfics in me.