Author's Note

This story really surprised me with it's popularity, becoming my most reviewed and second most visited fanfic on the site. The inspiration for this story came, interestingly enough, from a Youtube video. It was a Sharptooth Tribute, naturally, set to the song "Do or Die" by Papa Roach. But it wasn't the video that inspired the fic, so much as it was the comments. The comments stated things like "They should make one more LBT movie and bring back Sharptooth!" Or "Sharptooth was the real mofo! You can tell when it's him and when it's a sequel." These comments also influenced the first few plot points and a few of the early character deaths; like Redclaw, Cera's father, and Littlefoot's Grandma.

Unfortunately, the original posting of this video had long since been taken down so these old comments can't be found anymore. However, it's interesting as I don't know of any other fanfic that has ever been inspired by an AMV. Along with that video, two more also helped to drive me when I was writing. Both were character tributes, one set to "Dance with the Devil" by Breaking Benjamin, and the other to "Fear" by Disturbed. Unfortunately, these videos are also unavailable.

As it has taken me almost seven years to write this fic, there were a lot of ideas, things that I thought of and things I decided not to use in the story. From the first few chapters you might be able to guess that I didn't have any really long term story in mind when I started. It was about when I choose to bring Doc into the story that I set about making plans. This is also why Chomper had to translate for Sharptooth in chapter 4, but never again. Much later on I had an idea that maybe Sharptooth's return would result in gangs of leaf-eaters violently attacking sharpteeth out of fear, desperation and anger; almost like a hate crime. And that this would then drive sharpteeth to band together and fight back, resulting in pretty much an all out war between them which Littlefoot and Chomper would have to somehow stop after Sharptooth was dead. This would have made the story drag on much longer than it already had, so I decided to make it a much more personal story, rather than some grand epic.

The decision to make Sharptooth and Doc have a history with each other came about mostly because of the resemblance between Sharptooth and the T. rex in the Lone Dinosaur legend. It may seem a little superficial, as quite a few sharpteeth look like that, but it eventually worked out for the best. It turned him from simply a rampaging beast into a more complex and tragic character. And as far as I am concerned, he was tragic, but not redeemable. Sharptooth had already gone too far to ever be saved. However, I had some misgivings about this. Part of his appeal in the first movie, at least to me, was his unstoppable-ness. The idea that he was just a force of nature that couldn't be contended with, like a slasher villain. And if I took a badass, unstoppable, killing machine and gave him a long lost love and a sad back story, I was afraid I could ruin him. Like what happened with the shark in Jaws the Revenge, or Anakin Skywalker in the prequels. Used to be awesome, is now pathetic. I think it works better here because we know in the Land Before Time universe, sharpteeth are just as intelligent as any other dinosaur. Also, I wanted to make them a reflection of what Littlefoot and Chomper might become, since in the TV show Doc mentioned that to Littlefoot about how friendship with a sharptooth would never work. Wouldn't it have been better if Doc knew that from experience?

Retconning Sharptooth to be as old as Doc and saying their first fight happened a hundred years ago also carried a few issues. I had a rule in place to make nothing supernatural, as there is nothing supernatural in all the movies and TV show. You could make an argument for movie six with the whole "Bad Luck" thing, but that's about as close as it gets. Ironically, the most supernatural things get is in the first movie with the ghost of Littlefoot's mom watching over him. Other than that, everything is pretty well grounded. The Stone of Cold Fire is just a blue colored space rock, (yes, I know. Alien dinosaurs, but still nothing magical.) the Longneck's saving the world is just a Solar Eclipse. As such, the reason for Sharptooth and Doc being as old as they are also had to be grounded in realism and an old idea that they were effected by a real Stone of Cold Fire was thrown out.

One of my biggest problems was trying to figure out how to kill Sharptooth. Since I'd already turned him into this ultimate T. rex of pure unadulterated badass, it became a bit of a dilemma. For a while I thought maybe the final fight with him could take place on a volcano and he falls in the lava, or something to that effect. Having Littlefoot kill him also present a problem, as I didn't want Littlefoot to become a killer. Then I remembered that little bit I put towards the beginning where Cera says that she'll kill Sharptooth herself, and choose to go that route. That's right, it was not always planned to be that way, and it would have been really silly if I hadn't done it. But then I had a new problem. After Doc died, I realized Littlefoot hadn't done much fighting. He'd done almost nothing to show off the fact that he was supposed to be strong enough to fight Sharptooth by himself, which was always planned. So I added a few scenes of him alone facing off against a pack of raptors by himself and then a larger sharptooth, which also helped to cement the idea that he didn't want to be a killer.

If I have one major regret with the story, it would be that Ducky, Petrie and Spike didn't get to do much. For main characters, they contribute little to the overall story. Let's face it, if you're one of the main group and your name isn't Littlefoot or Chomper, you don't get to do much. Cera escaped this a little, but she's the only one. In fact, I introduced Pterano into the story so that Petrie might have something to do, but he had more interaction with Cera so it kind of defeated the purpose. Allowing Ducky to learn how Sharptooth survived the first movie helped a little, but not much.

One thing that you may have noticed, and a few have pointed out, is that Ruby just kind of disappears after the first few chapters and is never mentioned again. There is a very good reason for this. I didn't watch mush of the TV show. Now you're going to say, "But you referenced it several times." Which I did. The episode with the Hidden Canyon in and out of the Great Valley, the episode when Ali met Chomper for the first time, and the episode when Doc returns. But those were the only ones I ever really watched and I never got that much of a feel for Ruby's character. So, she just kind of disappeared since she didn't have any impact on the story and wasn't one of the original five.

At the end of the day, I am proud of this story. I liked that I kept it focused on the characters and that I was able to basically give a fitting conclusion to all things Land Before Time. (Which is my favorite movie.) Thanks to everyone who's been following this story for so long.