REFERENCES AND INSPIRATIONS
PROLOGUE
Setting a bar crawl in Leuven was an obvious choice, since I know the town so well; I'm a student there. (should any of you ever find yourself in town and be of legal age: The fakbar Letteren is a great place to hang out on weeknights for those under the age of 25. For older readers I can recommend cafè-restaurant Den Appel and bar het vliegend varken)
CHAPTER 1
As stated, the Concusus-spell comes from 'Nightmares of Futures past", one of the best pieces of fanfiction I've had the pleasure to read on this site. Go read it, if you haven't already.
The idea to use Tear gas or other muggle weapons to best the Dragon is widespread in fanfiction. There are more examples than I care to count and I can't in all honesty tell which one was first to use the idea.
CHAPTER 2
The names Churchill and Bigglesworth are references to the famous general John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and victor at Blenheim and Oudenaarde, and James Bigglesworth, a comic book character, respectively.
CHAPTER 3
The exchange with the twins at the beginning of the chapter was inspired by a book (I believe the fourth or fifth) in the Belgarion-series by David Eddings. Eddings has a great feel for writing characters and I strongly advise everyone to at least try his work. He has also written a book on the process of planning and writing a fantasy novel, which might be interesting to anyone wanting to improve their writing skills.
The description of the van appearing in the woods was inspired by Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. In that passage I attempted to imitate his style a little bit (quite horribly, if I may add)
Andrea Miller is a composite character of a close friend and my girlfriend. The "chunky salsa rule" is a shout-out to Dungeons and Dragons.
The MPS is a shout-out to UPS, one of my former employers (I did some sorting in one of their distribution centres over the summer once).
CHAPTER 4
Nothing here (apart from the Bond-reference, of course), as I managed to stop myself from having Harry refer to his new wand as "his boomstick".
CHAPTER 5
The moving Rhododendrons were inspired by seeing several plants "walk" by the living room window one day, courtesy of my father moving them inside before the frost. I know, my mind works in strange and occasionally disturbing ways…
Those that don't get the "smell of flamethrower in the evening" need to quit reading fanfiction until they have watched Apocalypse Now.
CHAPTER 6
Discussion on the validity of "the greater good" as an argument was brought on by having to cram philosophy and having a professor with a liking for Thomas More's Utopia.
CHAPTER 7
The craziness inside the DoM was inspired by pictures of Arizona's Wave rock formation.
No reference, but a little bit of trivia: the areal battle was one of the first pieces of Evolving Combat that was written, originally as an alternative to the evacuation from the Dursly's in the last book. It changed shape several times until it became the 15-chapter fic it is today.
CHAPTER 8
Weather the "This is War !"-line refers to the 30 seconds to mars song or to the movie 300 is something I can't for the life of me, figure out.
CHAPTER 9
The Argus being chosen on the assembly line and being shrouded in secrecy are references to the silverplate B-29 superfortress's from the 509th composite group, most famously the Enola Gay and the Bockscar.
CHAPTER 10
The numbers of the regiments are references to famous (fictional) units. 666 refers to the squadron commanded by Biggles in "ball of the spitfire". 13 is a reference to Legio XIII, a roman legion that remained famously loyal to its commander, one Gaius Julius Caesar, by crossing the Rubicon with him.
The lines of Lieutenant Goldsmith are references to Major Werner Pluskat, commander of 352nd Artillery and the first German to spot the allied invasion on D-Day. His exchange with his disbelieving superior officer was immortalised in The Longest Day, for which he worked as an advisor.
Tonk's reaction after the Battle over Goyle Manor were inspired by the accounts of writer and fighter ace Roald Dahl after the Battle for Athens, as written in his autobiography Solo.
CHAPTER 11
I was originally going to make a joke akin to jesus' chistmas party by Nicholas Allan, a book of which I have fond memories. Fortunately, wiser council prevailed as it would have ruined the tone of the chapter, so it was scrapped.
"Solid Snake" was an involuntary reference to a series of video games, which I honestly haven't even played.
CHAPTER 12
'Scorch' is a reference to Star Wars : Republic commando, an excellent game albeit a little on the short side, in my opinion.
CHAPTER 13
The Village of the year award is a reference to Hot Fuzz, a brilliant, ridiculous, over-the-top Action flick.
Use of the Airborne's comes from me being a great fan of Band of Brothers. Most pointedly Nixon and Winters are direct references.
CHAPTER 14
Olivier Wood's sacrifice was inspired by brave actions of a single, unnamed pilot of a fighter squadron of the French air force during the battle for France in May 1940. In order to provide his squadron a way to escape murderous German flak, he, when hit, crashed his burning M.S. 406 into the German battery. He was the only casualty of his squadron in that engagement.
The bravery of Sergeant McPearson was inspired by Homer's account of the Spartan's last stand at Thermopylae.
The group viciously defending the castle when the memorial service is interrupted by an enemy attack is based on the accounts of soldiers of the Welsh Guards who served in Afghanistan in 2009, as relayed in the BBC documentary series Our War.
The bombing of Azkaban was based on the accounts of various American and British airmen who flew over Europe during the second world war.
Hermione's line when seeing the Dark-lord killer was shamelessly nicked from Exterminatus Now, a webcomic combining Sonic the Hedgehog with Warhammer 40k and a sauce of Black comedy.
SELF-CRITISISM
When I started this story nearly two years ago, I had no idea it would turn into the massive 70k behemoth it is now, and one of the things in which that is noticeable most clearly is the pacing and the truly ridiculous amount of subplot. I did not have any clear idea where to go with the story beyond fourth year/fifth year. After that, I was in uncharted territory, and it shows. Seriously, my next project is going to be planned right from the start! The first chapters are Harry-centric, but after fifth year he just disappears off the radar completely. While it is logical and internally consistent with the kind of world this takes place in, it is still a shame. He's supposed to be the main character, and it was difficult to write a story when you suddenly "lose" your central player.
I guess that also accounts for the convolutedness of the story. While I was more inspired by "traditional" fantasy-, SF-, spy-, and military stories at first, something changed that drastically. I rediscovered an old favourite of mine around the time I wrote chapter 9 (and gained a new one): The longest day by Ryan and Band of Brothers (based on Ambrose). It seemed I had found the perfect solution to keep things going while Harry was off-screen: jut add lots of viewpoint characters and cut away the boring bits if needed. Unfortunately, I failed to take into account the fact that I am nowhere near the level of Ryan or Ambrose in my writing, so a lot of characters turned into one-scene-wonders, got name-checked just for action to happen or to preform general acts of badassery before fading in the background. The worst example was chapter 13, in which I injected Harry just to add something of a familiar face. It's a chaotic mess of plot threads in a massive, Gregorian knot, but I'm afraid it's the best I can do at this level I'm at.
That all said, I'm still pretty proud of managing to bring this project to an end. In that time I've gone through two years of University, four rounds of exams, an ultimately failed relationship, a car and two computers. It's been a great experience, and I hope you all enjoyed it (with all its ups and downs) as much as I have.
This is Roman-Five, signing off for now.