So... Hey. Been a while.

I'm sure everyone has been wondering what happened to the Spyro loops. Why it seemed to disappear all of a sudden, and why I just seemed to disappear off the face of the net for a few years. I have an explanation; both long and short.

The short version is: My life went to complete and utter hell inbetween the previous chapter and this explanation/wrap-up I'm writing here. :D /shot

The long explanation: It all started two or so years ago. At the time we were living with my grandma at the time. We've never exactly been the most finacially stable family at the time, but we were adquate enough at the time that we could easily keep our heads above water at the time. However, Through a series of circumstances that I'd rather not go into, another few family members wanted us to move in together so that we could afford a better neighborhood and a bigger house. They were considered good family and friends of ours at the time, so it seemed like a win-win, right?

Unfortunately, at the time, we had no idea that it basically meant: 'Hey, mind if we mooch off you while sending you all into massive credit card dept in the process? K thx! :D'

By the time we already figured this out to be the case, the damage had already been done. We're still trying to recover from this disaster, and the bad blood it caused in our family at the time, naturally, didn't make for the best writing environment.

At the same time, while I was still in the loops community on Space Battles, it was less than... Pleasant at the time, too. There was a a lot of bad blood between the writers at the time who weren't directly involved in the Spyro loops. I could go into detail but, to keep things short, it could be summed up as everyone trying to impose their views of how the loops should work on everyone else's loops compilation and inciting massive infighting almost every other day. It got so bad that, at one point, a mod had to come in and basically threaten to pull the plug on the entire project unless everyone got their act together... Which only served to cause even more infighting at the time.

Naturally, this also didn't serve well for a productive writing environment at the time, either.

It didn't help that pretty much any idea that I had that wasn't 'extremely morally ambiguous 'funny' situations and shenanigans' was almost immediately shutdown by anyone who wasn't involved in the Spyro loops directly.

Try to explore the implications of a person being forced to go through a bad loop/baseline (again)? 'WTF, why aren't you having them curb stomp everything!?' Try to explore the implications of someone else messing with a loop when they do not want them to? 'Jeeze man, lighten up! It's just a fic!' Try to actually have character developement and not exaggerate them to the point that even season 20+ Simpson would raise an eyebrow at them? 'What is this angsty emo crap!? The loops are for funny one hundred percent of the time, even if it completely rapes the original characterization of the character in question!'

These were just some of the responses I got over my time writing this. Needless to say, this made trying to work on further chapters of the Spyro loops... Difficult, to say the least. The point that finally broke me out of disgust was when one loop writer, who was in no way involved in the Spyro loops at the time, threw a massive hissy-fit when he found out I was going to try and write GoldenGriffiness' Cynder from her fic The Legend of Cynder into the story as a looper seperate from canon Cynder. He went on a massive tyrade about how he despies original characters being in the loops in the same exact thread that the Mod posted threatening to pull the plug on the loops altogether for this exact behavior!

This, also, was not going into the blatant hypocritisy in his 'argument', since this same exact person also worked on the Friendship is Magic loops, which had Nyx, an alternative take on Luna's evil alter ego who originated from a popular FiM fic at the time, who was basically in the same boat that I wanted to do with LoC Cynder. And Nyx wasn't even the only one! About half the looping cast consist of background characters from the show who are basically OCs in their own right!

Naturally, this was another major blow to my will to write for the loops since it seemed like the Spyro specifically were being targeted over the years simply because they weren't some massive mega popular show/game/movie at the time like FiM. Heck, even when I logged some legitimate complaints at the FiM loops, like how half the FiM characters barely resembled their show selves anymore, or how they were reaching blatant Mary Sue levels in power/fixing ability, I just got insults thrown my way because how dare I question anything that is done in the FiM loops, characterization wise or otherwise.

The crower was when I was hoping to drum up some hype for an amazing looking indie game on kickstarter at the time (which, unrelated; if you haven't checked out Nefarious on Steam, you really should! It's really amazing by Indie standards!) By having the main character from it show up and attempt to kidnap one of the Princesses by using a smoke grenade to distract the cast.

Almost immidately after posting that snip, someone damn near gave me a death threat because I didn't portray the cast immidately stomping his ass into the ground from the very second the smoke grenade came through the window. Because as we all know, being trapped in a time loop completely gets rid of delayed human (or in this case, pony) reaction time and Twilight 'Sue' Sparkle should have obviously teleported the grenade away before it came through the window, and should have obviously blown Crow's head off with a mere thought. After all, it's just common sense.

Before you ask; Yes. That was the exact argument he made about it. Because 'common sense' apparently now means 'this character is a flawless golden god who can never get caught off guard'. Somehow, I don't think that means what they think it means.

Despite this, my loop was rejected. Because how dare I portray any of the characters as flawless beings. :/

Yeah. Again, this did not do much for a productive writing environment.

To put it short; the loops just, sadly, is not a healthy fan community, at least at the time when I finally broke away from my Stockholm syndrome and left. Everyone thinks their opinion is law and that if you don't follow it then you're the problem... Even if you don't bring it up to them in the first place!

If I could give an example of a healthy fan community, I would easily point towards Fallout Equestria. (Also, I apologize for all the pony examples; I haven't cared for the show since season two myself.) Everything about it is given broad strokes from author to author; everyone is allowed to do their own thing with their own stories even if it comflicts with anothers view or canon. Stories can intersect but not every detail needs to fit the others stories to a T. Heck, even the characters from the original story that started it all are actually allowed to have legitimate flaws and are allowed to actually lose some battles, despite the fact that they live in a post-apoclyptic world and would have far more legitimate reasons to be on edge and have a good amount of power on under their belts.

This, in my personal opinion, is what the loops should have tried to emulate. Not this massive mess of a continuity that everyone is trying to hammer together with blow torchings and then turning said blow torches on each other when someone disagrees. In the end, a community like that only ends up driving people away more than it brings people in.

I know this from experience; not just from this fic series, but from several RP Forums as well, most of them having long since gone belly-up because of this. Heck, the whole reason I turned to fanfics over RPs was to escape this exact behaviour.

I digress, though. I don't want to completely leave the loops on a sour note either, so I will say; the users who actually gave the Spyro loops a chance, actually attempted to do something that hasn't been done with the premise yet, were absolutely amazing. AbZ, Ukelele... I don't know where you guys went to after this fic, but thank you. You guys really helped make the Spyro loops what they were. I don't think I could have gotten as far as I did without you guys, and you really helped me improve as a writer overall.

So, now that I've gotten all this off my chest, I suppose I should at least give an idea of where the meta-plot with the entire looping cast acting together in the joint city was going. It's been a long while, so I only remember the very basics of the plot, but...

Basically, when Classic went into Flame's mind, he would in turn encounter this universes Malefor's mental world. He would then learn about exactly how mess-up his past in the loop was. He was basically one giant science experment to the Aquarians, who were attempting to use Malefor to tap into Convexity. The result is that, after taking one of their experients too far, Malefor because the dragon we all know and love and created what would become known as the fall.(? I think that's what we called it?)

Once Classic returned to lucidity, he would tell the group about what happen and about Malefor's past. After some discussion, Legend finally asserts that despite what his tragic past may be, that still doesn't excempt him from his actions now, and that they must stop Malefor at any cost.

So, after they finally stormed his lair, the pre-insane Malefor, thanks to Classic's tampering with his mental world, would start to assert himself again. He would subconciously start using his power to create a version of his younger self out of vines that would act as pre-insane Malefor's body for the time being.

After a massive fight, Classic encounters pre-insane Malefor and the two talk things out. Pre-insane Malefor states that he can't stop his insane self and that they have no choice but to stop him, even if it means he'll die too.

The massive battle finally ensues between Legends Spyro and Malefor. Being much more experienced at this point, Legend Spyro easily has the upper hand, mopping the floor with the crazed Malefor before finally having him in between his claws. He's about to strike the finale blow before Classic shows up in the nick of time.

The two argue about whether or not Malefor deserves to die for what he does. I don't remember the specifics of the argument but, I believe it would bring up Legends overall development in the arc and how Classic doesn't want him to go dark again. After much convincing, Legend Spyro finally stands down. Classic then talks to Malefor, who, after a while, realises he met him in his mental world.

Pre-insane Malefor shows up and the two talk, finally able to let go of their grudge against the Aquarians and merge back once again. Realising all the terrible acts Malefor has done, Malefor apologises, using all his energy to shut off his army of golems and heal any dragons he's hurt in the process. However, with the last of his energy finally drained, he begins to fade away.

After returning home, the characters discuss everything that's happened. Legends thanks Classic for everything, from helping him settle things with his inner darkness and turmoil and help keep him from going through with an act that may have brought it back. They shake hands and, at long last, the mega-arc would come to a close.

Had the loops gone on, pre-insane Malefor would have become a 'glitch' in Yggdrasil's code. Think Vanellope from Wreck-It-Ralph meets Danny Phantom, basically. His characterization and redemption would allow him to get around the 'no evil entity' looper patch Yggdrasil has and soon become a regular looper alongside the main cast. His characterization would have likely been what I think Malefor was like before he went batcrap crazy in canon; basically Classic, but with a more sense of responsibility.

There were more plot elements I know we were working on but I'll be damned if I can remember them at this point.

So, there you have it. Not a perfect ending, but an ending none the less.

If I could have provided an actual ending, it would have likely been with some massive MLE causing the Spyro branches to start coming together. The characters would fight and beat it, but the end result would be their realities merging into the one seen in the meta-plot throughout these loops, minus the batcrap crazy dragon and his killbot golem... Things.

Naturally, I doubt people would have been happy with that, even if I didn't end the loops themselves. I don't see it actually happening if I continued this, but I can dream.

So, I bet you're wondering why I didn't work on anything else in the meantime once I broke off from the loops. At the very least, why didn't I give this massive explanation far earlier than I did?

In short, after everything that happened, I fell into a mass depression spell for the past two years. Even after breaking off from those mooching family members, thing just seemed like a downward spiral with no light at the end of the tunnel. There was still a lot of family in fighting, with threats of my core family splitting up because one of their attitudes at the time, and it was not helped by the fact that the place they work at is run by the biggest cheapskate we've ever seen. The dude once ripped us off a goddamn penny from our paychecks! I'm not exaggerating here!

And then, after we moved back in with my grandma, we found out she had stage four cancer...

Yeah. This didn't help my depression at all, to say the least.

I don't think it's far fetched to say the last year was easily the single hardest year of my life. Because of all of this, opening a doc to write was a massive uphill battle, let alone actually writing anything more than a sentence. There were several points I was almost driven to do... Something drastic, putting it one way. I had to go on medication at one point to help me get out of bed in the morning; medication that also made it incredibly hard for me to think up story ideas, even if it helped curb my depressive spells at the time.

In short, everything kept falling apart and just trying to push forward with daily life was a challenge, let alone doing something I actually enjoyed for a change.

I'm not sure what else to say really. It just sucked horribly to be me at the time. Not to mention the massive gut punches the universe like to taunt me with when things finally seemed to get better. It was one step forward, two steps back. The crowner has to be when we finally found out that my grandma had beaten her cancer; something thought impossible since she had only a 15% survival rate! ... Only to die a month later because her lungs ended up giving out on her thanks to catching pnemonia ontop of alreadying having bad lungs.

Yeah.

...

Despite everything, though... I think we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The family infighting has more or less stopped at this point. We're finally looking for a new place of work after dealing with an asshole boss for the past few years. While it sucked massive to lose a family member, at least she's not in pain anymore, and we're finally starting to move past the grieving process.

We're still recovering from the dept but at least we have a stable home for the time being. Not the best of places, admittedly, but at least we have a roof over our heads.

I'm also finally stable enough to no longer need medication of any kind. I've actually been exercising regularly recently; something I would have seen as pointless a year or so ago. The best part? I'm finally getting back into writing!

... However, it's not Spyro fanfiction I'm writing.

Or fanfiction of any kind, for that matter.

I'm currently working on an original novel, using everything I've learned over the years from my friends and fellow writers. In the span of week/two weeks, I've already broken the 20,000-word mark. May not seem amazing to you guys but after two years of not even being able to open a doc, this is a massive accomplishment for me.

I guess you can say this is my 'final goodbye' to fanfiction for the time being. If by some chance, I do get this book published, I'm not sure of the legality of these fics I've written over the years. I may need to remove them, I may be able to keep them up... It'll depend on the legal grey areas and how they react. I don't think I'll be able to continue to write for my fics, at least, if it happens.

So, to everyone who's followed me over the years, and those who kept checking back to see if I've done anything in the meantime; thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. If it wasn't for you guys, I probably wouldn't have had the guts to pursue my dream of being a writer in the first place. I wish I could have done more for you guys. I really wish I could.

So, with that, I bid you all farewell. However, I do have one final request:

If you enjoyed the Spyro loops, please, continue to use the Spyro universe in creative ways. Interpret the characters in ways not amoung the norm in the fandom. Heck, I'd like to think I'm partially responsible for there being more vocal Ember defenders on the net who are tired of the 'psycho yandere for Spyro' characterization she's been given since the very start of the Legend of Spyro series. Ember really is a character with a lot of potential, so it's nice to think I helped people realize that with my stories.

It doesn't even have to be about Ember, either. We've all seen the sheer number of 'Mr. Marty Mc Navy seal Stu Pants from the 'real' world gets sucked into the game universe' or 'Ms. Flawlessly Perfect Silky Smooth Sue Pants from the 'real' world has been sucked into the game world AND turned into a dragon in the process' flooding the archive as of late. I think it's impossible to at least take note of it.

However, this is seriously squandering the potential of the franchise as a whole. The Spyro loops are the only fic I've seen in the archive that has attempted to at least have the two (or even three, if you consider Skylander's a Spyro universe) interacting with each other.

We've seen Cynder angst about her past countless times. How many fics have attempted to show how the war has affected Spyro's psyche, though? How he's attempting to readjust into a dragon society when he was raised by bugs? The possible implications that his and Cynder's relationship may just be a mutual way to keep each other sane?

Even the Classicverse has a lot of potentials. How would the characters react if Spyro just disappeared one day when he was whisked into the Legends reboot? Who would fill his place to stop the villains of that universe, and how would everyone handle losing a close friend? Heck, Spyro not having any known parents in the Classic universe has so much potential for character development and exploration in itself!

Heck, there's also this one big fan theory that the Legend universe is actually a prequel to the Classic universe. This is an amazing premise and I'd love to see some stories on the subject!

There are so many good ideas and situations available to the Spyro universes than just 'wish fulfillment character enters game world and proceeds to do wish fulfillment things'. Don't let it go to waste! As I used to say back in the day before everything happened:

'Challenge the norm! Don't be afraid to think different!'

And with that; this is TokoWH, signing off for the final time.

Have a nice day!