Looking Back

VGGTS World has been around a very long time, longer than I ever imagined. So naturally this website has amassed a large collection of pictures and stories. If there's one thing many of us like to do every now and then, myself included, it's take a step back and read over our past works. All of us have come a very long way from our earliest works, and that's what this section is about. Authors, such as myself, will go back and look over their old works and offer up random commentary on those old pieces right here.

You can talk about anything you want in regards to that story. How the story went from mind to monitor. Scenes that you had thought about but decided to leave out or change drastically. Or just a self-review of that old work. Or maybe even all of the above! If you've contributed a story on this site, let me know your thoughts. If you ever feel like making changes to your entry, or just adding in more reflections, you can do that also.

Entries must be at least ONE paragraph, much like story teasers, before they can make it on the site. There's no limit to how long they can be.

Mile-High Dream
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 22, 2010
- Hey, what better way to launch a new section than to talk about my very first story, Mile-High Dream? Yeah, looking at it now, it's painful to read, isn't it? I mean... in the way it was written. The origin of this story isn't that surprising. It was January 2001, two months after I had discovered the laundry list of giantess websites on the internet, including the Video Game Giantesses group (I'll call it VGGTS1 from here on). Of course, I was tremendously excited to be a part of VGGTS1... finally, there were other people wanting to see girls like Peach or Zelda large and in charge, even though it was strictly Final Fantasy and Dead or Alive in those early days (with short discussions dedicated to Tomb Raider and... Castlevania 64?).

Anyway, back to January, and the group is barely active. Nobody is adding anything to the ongoing stories that populated the group back then, and group founder Kronos Recker says he'll probably pull the plug at the end of the month. I'm like, oh no... not now, not when I've found this group that was nothing more than a pipe dream in my eyes during the 1990s. That's when I stepped in, boldly announcing I would write a story for VGGTS1. At first, I thought about doing a Killer Instinct story that would go on to become Wuzilla, but I quickly put that aside knowing that nobody remembered KI anymore. I wisely chose Legend of Zelda, a much more established franchise. And I went with the very first idea in my head, Link has a bad dream where Saria shrinks him for not allowing her to tag along in future adventures.

This was a couple years before I would dump all my ideas to a text file like I do today, so when I starting writing the story after school on February 2nd (one day after my 18th birthday), I just wrote down whatever was in my imagination. I wrote pretty quickly, as I had assured everyone at VGGTS1 that the story would be up by the end of the week. I finish the story late that night, around 1 or 2 AM, and post it on the group the next morning. I was worried I blew it because I had rushed through the project, but the response was fantastic. What helped win the crowd, I believe, were scenes that were favorites to GTS fans like foot rubbing and light torturing.

Like I said at the top, it's amazing to see how dirty the writing looks compared to the clean structure I follow nowadays, but hey, I'm not embarrassed at all. That's just the way I was writing back then, and I don't feel ashamed about my writing skills of back then. I felt I did a great job considering fanfic-writing was a rare thing for me back then. I'll forever be grateful to this story for putting me on the map, basically.

Mile-High Dream 2
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 22, 2010
- If the first Mile-High Dream doesn't feel like a rush job to you, then this one definitely will. I was so excited by the positive response to the first MHD, I came out the following week and said the sequel would be out at the end of that week. Yeah, that's bound to happen when you're young and overly excited about the place you're at and the work you do. Anyway, in that same message, I asked what girl they wanted to see play with a shrunken Link next, aside from Princess Zelda who would follow in a third story. A couple people were quick to suggest not just Malon, but the grown-up Malon. Because we all know how good she looks right?

Well, as I said before, this story was clearly a rush job and it shows as you read this story. Of course, I totally blame that on me. I was caught up not just on schoolwork, but also on Paper Mario for Nintendo 64, which I had gotten earlier that week. It wasn't until I woke up Saturday morning and saw the VGGTS1 link in my bookmarks that I was like DANG! I'm not going to be able to hold onto the promise I made! Some of you know this firsthand, but nobody hates broken promises more than I do, no matter where they come from.

So after brushing my teeth and eating breakfast, I quickly wrote whatever came to my mind as I envisioned this story. I HAD to get the story up on the group, particularly around the afternoon, so I sorta recycled a couple scenes from the first story. I was able to get the story up after about three hours of working on it, and while most everyone there said they liked the story (especially the scene where Link is swimming for his life inside the Lon Lon Milk bottle), some pointed out exactly what I was thinking. The story was really short and it didn't exactly feel original, especially the ending. Some of those same people suggested I drop the dream concept and go with reality for Mile-High Dream 3.

While MHD2 was definitely not as good as the first MHD, I'm still glad I wrote it and don't feel bad about sharing it on VGGTS World to this day. I told everyone that I would take my time with Mile-High Dream 3 (which has a twisted origin story of its own), unlike with the second story. Ultimately, this would be the last story I contributed in 2001, as I spent the rest of that year helping with the group's second ongoing story, VixeNation.

Mile-High Dream 3: Role Play
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 22, 2010
- The origin story of Mile-High Dream 3 is quite a twisted tale. By the time I had finally decided to finally work on the third MHD, I had just discovered Writing.com and its interactive stories. Even back then, there were GTS stories sprouting up everywhere, and the one that caught my attention was titled, well, Mile-High Dream 3. Yep, someone there decided to steal my thunder and make their own MHD3, but make it interactive so that the fans could decide what kind of fate Link had when he met with Zelda. Because of the fascination I had then with interactive stories, I played right along with it, making my own additions to the story.

A few other people contributed as well, though one tried to derail the whole project by making all sorts of joke chapters (many of them with dirty stuff even). His name? Lego_josh, the first to be banned from the VGGTS group. Naturally, when I made the HTML version for the launch of VGGTS World, I either greatly censored some of these scenes or just removed them altogether. Despite all that, the original MHD3 (and MHD4 with its weird crossovers. Conker the Squirrel and Joanna Dark in Hyrule? Yeah, I know.) stayed on the site for about four years. And despite the understandable mixed reviews, people started asking me by the end of 2004 when I would do another Mile-High Dream. In fact, looking through the VGGTS2 archives and my e-mail, one person used to bug me at least once a month to make another MHD.

Then in early 2005, the inspiration finally hit me. I bought the newest Zelda game back then, The Minish Cap, right when it came out. Despite a shortage of GTS interaction, I enjoyed this one. Of course, as I played through the game, I wondered what I could do to make a story out of this part of the Zelda universe, and that's when I finally decided this was the perfect opportunity to "reboot" the MHD series. So in mid-2005, I finally pulled the half-baked versions of MHD3 and 4, and put up the teaser for the new MHD3, letting it sit for a few months while I finished up other stories. Luckily, it only took a day or two to generate excitement as I told everyone... you're looking at the true MHD3.

Anyway, now to the random bits of trivia I thought of as I read this story again. The plot I chose from an actual side quest in the game, where you had to retrieve a key inside Malon's home in order for her and Talon to get back inside. Of course, I changed it to where Link pushed the key outside, thus leading to Malon discovering the shrunken Link. I remembered from the game that only children could actually see Minish, but clearly I threw that logic out the window so you wouldn't be deprived of Link being held by the beautiful teenaged Malon. :)

Ezlo going oogly-moogly at the sight of Malon? I got that from the Minish Cap manga that I found online where Link acted that way looking up at an unaware Anju, and I simply thought, you know? Ezlo, going by his personality as Link's cap, would seem better suited to be caught up in the moment. And I had to find a way to extend the story, or give Link ways to try and escape the giantess. That mini-dream Link had where he was stepped on by Zelda? Yep, a direct homage to my original vision for MHD3, naturally before all the chaos that story went through.

"All is lost! All is lost!!!" and the village being destroyed. Yep, I got that from Men in Black 2. A small part of me wanted to further elaborate on that scene, but I didn't want to deter from the main quest. I figured if I'm gonna do an unaware village destroying scene, I should save it for MHD4. From the very beginning, I had planned a Mile-High Dream 4 to continue where MHD3 left off. That was another salute to the original stories, where 3 ended but set up a much larger plot for the fourth story.

Overall, it was a strange and mysterious journey, but MHD3 of today is one of my favorite stories.

Sky-High Royalty
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 22, 2010 (updated March 2, 2013)
- Hehe, the very first thing that comes to mind when I went back and read this story is the first co-moderator (aside from Kronos Recker) of VGGTS2, The Fallen One. While I have to credit him for giving me the strength to punish rulebreakers at the group, the man simply had no sense of humor. He ALWAYS cringed whenever a comedy story or even a story with just a speck of comedy slipped onto VGGTS2/VGGTS World. So it was no surprise that he had very little to say when I was looking for reviews to this story back in the day.

Of course, back then, I wasn't afraid to be a little silly. I genuinely thought people would get a kick out of the way the characters acted and the way the plot progressed. What made me laugh back then is what almost makes me cringe today, when I go back and read this thing. Man... Ganondorf sure did talk a lot of nonsense in this story, didn't he? Ouch. Makes me wonder why I called this story a Personal Favorite back when that was on the site.

One thing you'll notice, and it's a practice that I continue today because I enjoy it, is I make several references to the games inspired by these stories as well as referencing other VGGTS stories of the time. Some of those references don't make sense (like the OLD MHD3/4 references) today, and I've thought a lot about removing these outdated pokes of the past. Ultimately, though, I just leave this story untouched, just as a friendly reminder of how goofy my writing could sometimes get back then.

Of course, the main reference is the old story, Jack and the Beanstalk. If you're a fan of giantism overall, this story, along with Alice in Wonderland, is likely one of the first things you think of. It's such a popular story to parody, and it's no surprise that more stories that do such a thing continue to come out, all of them better than this story.

In case you don't know, Mario and the gang driving in the Monster to get away from the giantesses... I got the Monster from the trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, naturally the part where it mentions Mario and Luigi driving the vehicle in a Famicom Disk System game named 3D Hot Rally.

Overall, the more time that passes since I finished this story, the more I look at it from a negative perspective. It was nice to leave up to show how far, far along I have come along, but the time finally came recently where I couldn't stomach this kind of horrible writing anymore, hence why the story is no longer available.

I know one thing for sure. Somewhere on this Earth, I have no doubt The Fallen One continues to shun these kinds of stories. :p

Abnormal Ball
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 29, 2010
- When I decided to write my first of what would become many Pokémon GTS stories, it was a good thing I had a reason for doing so. In 2003, when I was still regularly visiting Writing.com, one interactive that caught my eye was dedicated to giantesses in the world of Pokémon. But when I set foot into the story and started reading the many chapters that were up, I was appalled over what I was reading. There was nothing but filth in that interactive, GTSs with their clothes gone and having sex with everyone and everything in sight. I thought maybe you could get away with that in other franchises, but Pokémon? No. No way.

Around the time I announced Abnormal Ball in late 2003, two people had tried to make Pokémon GTS stories but neither was able to finish. My goal was to make a story that fit in with the anime; to make it feel truly like you were watching an episode of the show. The good news is that I was back onboard with the anime around this time. I watched the Pokémon anime regularly for just over a year when it first came on in 1998. I stopped close to when the Orange Islands arc started, and then there were some on-and-off attempts to watch it again while Ash and friends were in Johto. It wasn't until the very end of the Master Quest arc and the start of the Advanced season when I committed myself to watching it again on a regular basis. This helped me in getting a good fix on May and Max's personalities.

The concept of a Poké Ball shrinking a human being was easy to think of. I mean, if the thing can shrink even the largest of Pokémon to fit inside, there's no reason why some kind of accident should cause the ball to suddenly effect humans. The idea was completely original and helped towards the success this story has enjoyed, aside from having a structure that feels so close to the anime. In fact, the opening of the story, where I explain about each of the characters briefly, was mainly put there to show how much I had followed the anime.

Believe it or not, I've had people over the years wondering one thing. Why catch an Oddish? Well, I chose that Pokémon because I remember it showing up often in the early days of the anime, and I remembered Ash's old, OLD mission of wanting to catch every Pokémon (151 up to that point) in existance, on top of becoming a Pokémon League champion. That Oddish scene was an homage to those good old days.

At first, I was a little disappointed that I didn't make May's time with the shrunken Ash a little longer, but over time, I've felt like I've balanced that scene perfectly. May was still a relatively new character back then and lots of people were still on the Ash/Misty bandwagon, so I wisely kept that scene to the bare minimum, focusing my efforts on making sure Jessie is about to torture poor little Ash, until of course the rescue squad comes in.

But the most important thing about this story was that it was the first Pokemon GTS story to truly feel like an episode of the anime, and I'm quite proud of that.
 

Navi Gets Even
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: January 29, 2010
- You may not believe this, but I actually ripped this story right out of a Zelda GTS interactive story on Writing.com. In fact, I think it was the one that Powor made, which was one of the better interactive stories on that site with its wide variety of storylines, at least a few of them siteworthy I thought. The 'Navi shrinks Link' story didn't really gain much traction, with each chapter having Link shrink smaller and smaller and smaller until he was probably the size of pixie dust to a normal person-sized Navi. Of course, I saw the potential in that interactive, thinking Navi could do so much more than grow to human size and torment the very one she used to force to LISTEN!!!

One change I made right off the bat from the interactive was that Link would shrink down to half an inch tall. Still an extremely tiny height, but enough I felt for Navi to communicate. Not that it really mattered, because what I had in mind was a grand vision for Navi. I don't remember the movie or book it was that I referenced, but that title came to mind and I thought... what if the fairies suddenly decided to rule all of Hyrule? So that's when I decided to make all the guardian fairies in Kokiri Forest grow, but of course make Navi the biggest of them all. And of course, the longer this played out, the more power hungry she would become.

One thing I wisely held back on was describing the looks of each and every one of these fairies, Navi included. This would be the first case of where I felt everyone is going to have their own imagination on how a particular character looked. So I held back on describing the new Navi, letting the readers do that for themselves. Hey, if they can picture the story playing out in their heads, then coming up with a new look for Navi wouldn't be a problem, I thought.

And now... the moment many of you have been waiting for. The ending. Ah, yes. I can still remember the mixed feelings that came about when people saw how the story ended. Some called it one of the most unique and powerful endings ever for a GTS story. Some it took some adjusting too, calling the ending strange but they eventually praised me for doing something different. And then there's one person who is 'NO NO NO NO!!! You don't kill a giantess!!! EVER!!!' Well, something like that, but trust me, she was pretty darn mad.

The ending was actually very easy to think of. If you'll recall, Majora's Mask starts when Link is out in a dense forest, looking for Navi. It dawned on me after I beat Majora's Mask that Link never did find Navi, nor did she ever turn up again. So it got me wondering... whatever happened to Navi? She had to have suffered some kind of sad fate for her to disappear from the franchise after Ocarina of Time. And when I remembered the plot of Majora's Mask, especially the parallel universe part that the old TV commercials tried to paint (something that I carried over with great detail in VixeNation), that's when the light bulb came on. There was my theory on why Navi was never seen again.

I was totally prepared for the 'controversy.' I knew some people might take exception to the fact that I killed the giantess at the end of the story, even though such a thing happened in the 1958 movie, Attack of the 50-foot Woman. For every person (including the one that really hated it) that questioned the motive, I tell them what I just told you above. Fortunately, everyone, including the one lady who despised the scene to begin with, eventually understood where I was coming from and they finally agreed the ending made sense in the end.

The fact that it generated the kind of buzz rarely seen at GTS websites like this one... that's what made that story cool.
 

Massive Gear
Author: Twilight Prince
Entry posted: January 29, 2010
- When I first got my computer handed down to me from my folks about 3 or so years ago, I was overjoyed, though I did still lack internet access for awhile. When my birthday came around in 2007, I was finally given access to the internet. So I began browsing around, and then I came to VGGTS World, and I saw that it was possible to submit a story or picture involving the subject. Now, I was pretty unsure about this...me, a total unknown on the internet suddenly coming up with VGGTS ideas, especially considering I had never written a story in my life...at least, a good one, rather.

But eventually, after much deliberation and pacing around, I finally got the guts to decide to do a story...and I thought why not try something based on what I was enjoying a lot at the current time? I admit, back then, and somewhat still now, I was loving Sonic Riders on the Gamecube. I began to wonder how the races would differ if one of the racers, namely Amy, would sudddenly grow to a giant size, and thus, I began my story. Of course, I was still unsure if Cubed Cinder (known as Cinder at the time) would accept it. I sent him the trailer paragraph, then waited. Probably not more than an hour later, I got a response, saying it looked good to him. Needless to say, that's pretty much how my internet life started.

But, of course, I'm here to talk about the story, not my life. Looking back on this story now, I definitely have to say I'm kinda chuckling at it. I mean, sure, the story was pretty well-written out with only a spelling error here and there, but it was after all my first one. I guess you could say Massive Gear was an experimental story of sorts. I was always one to try things different from the norm, and while I had read many of the Sonic GTS stories on the site, they all seemed to use the same thing...either growth via emeralds, or rings, or whatever. I always like breaking tradition, you could say.

Though one thing is clear as I re-read this story...I sometimes, besides the concept of how Amy got huge, used many references from the game itself. I kept every character pretty true to how they acted in the game...Sonic's all enthusiastic, Knuckles was serious, and Amy's all googly-eyed over Sonic. As for the original character in the story, Blitz the Eagle...well, it's safe to say he was my very first original character creation...and as such, he pretty much had little to speak of, besides the fact he was calm and collected and had various ninja-like moves. I didn't develop him too well...which makes me feel a little off, especially when I compare him to the characters I've created now.

Back to referencing in the story, I used not only bits from the actual game, but from other Sonic games as well. The Omochao with the vdieo mail was kind of a nod to Sonic Heroes at the start of Team Sonic's story...and then other phrases from Sonic Riders were also re-used, only slightly altered, such as what Jet says at the very end of the story. It seems unoriginal now to me, but it fits the scenario perfectly, and helped me visualize better what was going on. Playing the game you're writing a story based on certainly did help, for sure.

In closing, Massive Gear, while it has a few flaws that I only now see, is and still will be the gateway story for me. It helped me gain some confidence in myself, fine-tuned my mind, and got me into storywriting. Matter of fact, I even once had ideas to make a sequel to this story, and even a third one that also featured a few other Sega characters, such as NiGHTS, Ulala, and even Vyse and Aika from Skies of Arcadia....though those never saw the light of day, sadly, as being who I am, I kinda get sidetracked pretty easily. Regardless, sure, Massive Gear may not have gotten the "Best Story Ever" award or anything, but hey...long as I had fun making it, that's what counted.
 

Cyber-Elf Grandia
Author: Twilight Prince
Entry posted: January 29, 2010
- Excited that my first ever VGGTS story, Massive Gear, was a decent hit, I eagerly went into wanting to try another story...but the question was what game to base it on? I mean, I had just finished Massive Gear, and was still pretty into Sonic Riders...until I went to my parent's house one day. I watched as one of my younger siblings was playing some of the Megaman Zero games, most notably Megaman Zero 3, which is also my personal favorite of the quadrilogy. I gazed and watched as he played it, and then the gears in my mind started to click and spin. It was all too clear...have a story where Ciel is grown by the power of a Cyber-Elf, thus enabling her to help Zero take on Dr. Weil.

It sounded simple on paper, but back then, I was kinda clueless on the entire Megaman Zero storyline...but my brother wasn't! So, in a little private chit-chat with him, I explained how I wanted to write a story based on the game. Now, of course, he didn't know of my liking to giantess, nor did my family...at least I had hoped they had forgotten due to an incident back in High School...but I'm trailing off the subject here. Anyways...after I told him the basis of the story, he seemed pretty intrigued by it, and he offered to help me out in giving me story plot ideas, scenes, and even in letting me borrow the game so I could get a better feel for the characters, which I always try to keep true to the original.

So, eventually, me and the now-named Brother_Zero, had the basis, and I began to type it out. I was also very glad I did this story, because at the time, and even somewhat now, there were very few Mega Man VGGTS stories. Then again, there weren't that many notable females in the Mega Man series at the time, outside of Roll and Iris perhaps. Speaking of Iris, I have to say I was somewhat influenced by the story "Maverick Crusher" while writing this, hence the times that Ciel crushed the squads of Pantheon Hunters underfoot...or even under her rear. I have to say, I am not totally a fan of crushing stuff in giantess terms (though MasterOfRa's work has somewhat rejuvinated that), but I wanted to add some variety to the story so that anyone could read it and enjoy it...and I'm probably sure some people liked having Zero go into Ciel's throat to stop her from choking...I admit, I kinda made that part up on a total and utter whim.

Now I did pull a move I did the same on with Massive Gear...and that was to take actual text from the game and put it in the story, maybe tinkering with it only slightly. Again, I wanted to be sure the story stayed true to the game's roots, but still be able to add the giantess aspect to it. Unlike Massive Gear however, I am not daunted by this as much...Looking again at this story, I have to say it flows very smoothly with how the game itself did. And I even added in a little romance hint between Ciel and Zero...probably just for laughs, if anything. I mean, really...a robot and a human...together like that? Eh...it was all in good fun, though.

Finally, there were the action scenes. I am pretty passive by nature, so action wasn't something I was all too familiar with in writing, but once again, the gameplay saved the day. Watching Zero's movements, attacks, and all that helped me visualize how to write out a decent action scene, and they came out pretty well, from every cut, stab, and slash, and then Zero's finishing move on Omega...it all worked out nicely. And I do have to give a nod to the ending...I admit, when I wrote that part, I was kinda crying on the inside, seeing one of the most important characters of the story pass away....and I have no shame in admitting that either.

So, Cyber-Elf Grandia was finished...and it too was well-recieved. Looking back on it showed that in many cases, two minds are certainly better than one. My brother has probably forgotten about this story (I wouldn't blame him, honestly), but I certainly haven't. It not only helped me progress further as a storywriter, but it kinda brought me closer to my brother too...and that's why I love this story even today.
 

Play Date
Author: Twilight Prince
Entry posted: January 29, 2010
- Oh, where to start on this one....hm...Well, for all the 20 or so years of gaming I've had under my belt, it's no surprise that the Legend of Zelda series is in high regard with me. Ever since I got that shiny golden cartidge from my aunt so long ago, I was hooked on the series. Over time, I came to love every Zelda game for various reasons, even the more underrated ones like Zelda 2, Wind Waker, and Phantom Hourglass. But of course, one of the games that had the most impact on me, and very likely many others, was Ocarina of Time. With it's diverse cast, vast worlds, and awesome gameplay, it's no wonder it's probably considered the best game ever by many's opinions.

So one day, a little after finishing Cyber-Elf Grandia, I began to play the game again. And of course, like before, my mind started to click and buzz, and after finishing the game again, it dawned on me...One would indeed think that after the many trials and tribulations Link went through in the game, he would definitely be more serious and less like a child, despite that he was one at the end. So I began to imagine how Link would act to some of the friends he met in the game, most notably my three favorite girls from the game...Zelda, Malon, and Saria. I began to imagine Link, though he was still friendly to a point, would act more like an adult and not more like his actual age. I mean, anyone would after what he had been through, right?

But then where to fit the giantess aspect? That came from a few sources. The first source was (at the time) the longest story to have been submitted to VGGTS World..."Back in her Hands". I suppose you could say that said story heavily influenced mine...everything from the interaction scenes to the gimmicks and humor in that story just seemed to make one idea after another pop into my head. But the main aspect of how the girls would be big to Link came from another source. Have you always wondered how Link is able to carry all that stuff and not be weighed down like a pack mule? Well, one theory I heard was that Zelda taught Link a magic spell that enabled him to shrink objects, thus he could easily carry them, cast it again to re-enlarge them, then shrink them back when he's done. So I took that theory and implimented that into the story, only shrinking Link down instead. Finally, a smidge of Minish Cap was mixed into the story, with Link somehow able to talk to various creatures, like the ladybug in the story, as well as fighting off insect-like creatures like in the game as well, including the dreaded Skulltulla. Also, the name of Saria's fairy, which Link met up with in the story, was a slight homage to the old Legend of Zelda cartoon from way back in the day, though I'm still unsure even to this day if that was the correct way to spell the name. Thus began the inventive journey of having the three girls show Link that he doesn't have to act all grown up so soon.

If I had to choose one favorite scene from this story, it would have to have been the time when Saria shot Link from his own Fairy Slingshot. I look back on it and now I think young Link wouldn't have yelled "CRAAAAAAP!" from being flung forward, but regardless, it still makes me laugh even to this day. After all, if something an author writes makes him or her laugh, then you know it's gotta be good. I also found the scene with Zelda's dollhouse nice too...it reminded me of playing with my sister when she was young. And then there were the interaction scenes...well, to me, interaction was always a key thing in giantess. It's kinda no fun (with some exceptions) when the girl is too big to do anything with the people and things around her, so thus interaction is nessecary, and I think this story still proves to be one of the best ones regarding this factor in my eyes. Finally, there was Link's reactions on the whole matter. Being an avid fan of Wind Waker, I loved Toon Link's expressions in the game, and I somewhat incorporated that into this as well, having Link blush when the girls did something embarassing, have him laugh when funny things happen, and even have him go all stupefied when the girls did something crazy. As a friend once told me, "Expressions make or break a character."...and that couldn't be more true.

When it was all finished, I was most excited when Cubed Cinder not only loved the story's final outcome, but also deemed it part of his Personal Favorites, of which it still holds that title to this day. I literally jumped a few times in excitement seeing that. The only downside to this little endeavor of mine was that since then, I didn't think anything I wrote could top it, but I hope to overcome that soon with my latest story. So, all in all, Play Date started small and ended up as something big, if you'll pardon the expression. It continues to be my favorite written work of mine to date. Whether it becomes as legendary as the game series itself, I have no clue...and while there certainly are better storywriters out there, I am still very pleased with my work on this one.

Date With Donkey Kong
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- It took me a long while before I became a fan of Captain N. I remember seeing it on TV back in the early 90s, both on NBC and in subsequent reruns, but I would always go do something else that morning (or afternoon during the syndication reruns) while waiting for the Mario cartoons to come back on. The next time I hear of Captain N wouldn't be until I found an unofficial continuation on the Internet in 1999, headed up by Mark Moore. I didn't finally become a fan of the show until finding full episodes somewhere on the Internet in 2005. It wasn't all the episodes, but I did get the good ones, and despite all the infamous inaccuracies (some of which I don't mind), I loved the show and still do today.

But enough of that. You want to know what I had eaten that got me thinking about a Captain N GTS story, right? Well, it all started in February 2004 when Edge sent me a Captain N GTS story of his own, subtitled The New Age. My immediate reaction was WOW... a Captain N GTS story? Who would've thought it? Certainly not me. I admired Edge a great deal for coming up with such a unique story idea, I really bought in to his vision for how much Videoland had changed over the years. The changes he proposed made a lot of sense to me. They weren't pretty, but they made sense.

Anyway, jump ahead to early 2007. I find this thread at the Ultimate N Zone, a forum for Captain N fanatics. While they didn't beat on that story with a lead pipe like some satire websites and banned dummies do with this website in general, they obviously poked a little fun over how drastically different this story was from the norm. I briefly thought about responding to some of the observations made on that thread, but I held my tongue for two reasons. One, it wasn't my story, so how could I justify some of the scenes that were written? But the most important reason? Those people, along with the impending release of the DVD set, gave me the kick I needed to finally make a Captain N GTS story of my own, one that was true to the original cartoon (unlike a direct sequel to The New Age that Edge and I couldn't get off the ground a couple years prior).

So I watched the downloaded episodes (before I would dump them for the DVDs) as much as I could, studying the characters and the worlds they traveled in. Of course, the GTS was an easy choice in Princess Lana, and then after watching as much of Captain N's take on Donkey Kong as I could, that's when I had my plot. Donkey Kong is even more ape than usual, threatening to stomp out Kongoland in all his anger, and the only way to calm him down is if someone his own size helped to comfort him.

Reading the story from beginning to end, I'm proud of it, mainly because I got in everything that I had planned. Nothing was dropped out, and I didn't forget about any scenes either. Though that's likely because I did the story in one big update without telling anyone (except Barbie), up until the story was finished. I felt like I had balanced out everything just right, including the big-headed behavior that DiC gave Simon Belmont. Hey, it's not a true Captain N story without Simon acting like that! And of course, I make many references to the original cartoon to show my profound knowledge in the series.

Really, there isn't much else to say except I'm glad I was able to surprise many of you with this fine story.

Real Masters
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- Somehow, I'm still able to remember the different plots I had this story before settling on the story you see today. The first plot quickly became the premise for Abnormal Ball, when I realized that you couldn't call May a Real Master because of her just starting as a Pokemon trainer. The second plot originally had not just Misty, but the other female gym leaders of Kanto growing to gigantic sizes (including Janine, Koga's daughter), and more or less having fun in the region, totally forgetting the fact they're causing mass panic and destruction along the way. I came close to putting this teaser up on the site, but the week it was going to happen, I pulled back, wanting to develop the story more before telling the world about it.

Ultimately, I decided against it and wound up canceling this iteration of Real Masters. Not too long after that, I think it was during one of our family trips to Georgia during the summer, I was playing Pokemon Gold on the Game Boy Color, and it was during the battle with Blue, combined with thinking about past seasons of the anime, that I found my new idea for Real Masters. I remember Gary Oak, or Green as he was known in the Gold/Silver/Crystal games, acting like more of a jerk in the game than in the anime, and that's when I felt like using the plot lines from the video games rather than the anime. Although I tried my darndest to match the personalities of everyone with the games rather than the anime, ultimately this didn't get noticed much because the anime influence was just too good with this story (especially in the Sabrina scene).

Regardless, I remember looking at Blue's personality and thinking, what if he was just a total jerk, always looking down on his fellow gym leaders of the Kanto Pokemon League? And of course, given Sabrina's knack for shrinking people using her psychic powers, that's when I started writing. I didn't really plan much for this story beyond the initial plot, so I thought about my scenes as I wrote, trying to think of what kind of fates Gary should meet given how everyone else acts. I did the best I could at the time, but looking back, I felt like I probably could've extended these scenes a bit further, especially the Erika scene. There isn't much GTS interaction there. It was probably the Janine part that caused the briefness of the Sabrina and Erika scenes, as I was anxious to see what I could do with a character who never once appeared in the anime (which instead gave Koga a hot sister, Iya). And even that was very short.

Oh well, that's the way it goes sometimes. Now, much like with Navi Gets Even, the ending in this story was also met with somewhat mixed reaction (though certainly nothing with vile negativity like with Navi's death). Nobody seemed to mind the conversation Misty had with Gold, which was another scene to try and tie the story with the video games. But many wondered if it was a good idea to leave Gary shrunken at the end of the story. Actually, at first, Sabrina really was going to swallow Gary and end his miserable life. But that was quickly abandoned when I had a sequel in mind for this story, one where Sabrina would teleport Gary to the Johto region and he would have to deal with the female gym leaders there. Ultimately, I put this story on hold to focus on the Misty shrinking Ash plot for Real Masters 2 (later pushed to 3 when the Delia story came to mind).

Finally, in mid-2008, I shared a teaser to this sequel, now called Gary's New Girls. But I didn't feel there was enough interest in the story and I pulled it a few months later. Maybe one day I will revisit the teaser and actually do such a story, but for now, the first Real Masters will have to do.

Shrink & Switch series
Ash in Hyrule, Link in Mobius, Sonic in Kanto
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- I don't need to tell Cubed Cinder how big a pain this was..  It went on a successful start with Shrink & Switch: Sonic In Kanto, even going so far as to earning a *Favorite* symbol in VGGTS World.  Everyone was true to their characters, Jessie tangling with Sonic was cool, Misty's sisters, Nurse Joy, & Officer Jenny provided support for the story, and the relationship between Sonic and The Sensational Sisters (Misty and her sisters) was gold.  This part of the story is definitely my best work, and surprisingly, it was also my first.

The other two parts, however, ended up as total flops, as I was no good with Zelda stories. Personally, I think that if I had replaced Link with Mario and Mario's Dimension, then both stories would have turned out better, but that's disputable.

I attempted to overcome that failure with Shrink & Switch 2, but Cubed Cinder declined me to do any more Shrink & Switch stories.

Added thoughts from Cubed Cinder, originally from VGGTS3: S&S was a total nightmare for me, as I wasn't prepared (being a college student on the edge of graduation at the time) to write three crossover stories and make sure they were all connected together, so that's why I had to cut it loose. Skull was one of many who were disappointed in the cancellation of that trilogy, so much so that he indeed did beg to take over writing duties for those stories. What I liked about Sonic in Kanto was that it stayed somewhat close to my original vision for the trilogy, being more comedy-based than a full-on action story. Ash in Hyrule focused more on action, plus using the same intense drama that held Love o' War 2 back (coming in another reply), and that's why I didn't like it. Link in Mobius wasn't much better, as there was a severe lack of original text, mostly copy & paste jobs from the other stories of the trilogy. Knowing the checkered past of S&S and the deep hole that Skull13 buried himself into, I just had to keep him from writing S&S2. I really wanted to see what else he could do, especially thinking on his own rather than rely on the ideas of other stories.

Love o' War 2: Ash's Triple Trouble
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- I enjoy this one as well. Even though it failed to meet the expectations that Love o' War had, I can't consider it a complete flop. Why I say this is for several reasons. It created somewhat of a backstory for Love o' War (the growth pellets and the failure behind them). I enjoyed doing that. It's also the first story that has Dawn as a primary character. I'm sure that others would agree that we need more of Dawn as a giantess. I think that the reason for my failure was that I released it too soon. In fact, it was released one month before America was introduced to Dawn, and my lack of knowledge about her was a big flop in the story (Not to mention the fact that Team Rocket created a new motto.). Plus, the story was too dramatic.

Added thoughts from Cubed Cinder, originally from VGGTS3: I doubt Dawn making her GTS debut so quickly after the revealing of her English name was a reason the sequel didn't do as well. I think it's more your second reason, the story was indeed overly dramatic. I remember being very worried over seeing what the giant girls were going through towards the end of the story, but I didn't have any alternative scenes at the time. You are right that the story was not a total flop. Some people seemed to like the dramatic style. Of course, that number is nowhere near the popularity of the first Love o' War. Even this year, I still get a comment or two on how great that first story was. Really though, these stories should serve as reminders of where us authors came from, and that's why it doesn't need a rewrite. And for the record, I do not regret letting Skull13 write Love o' War 2 instead of me... I was thinking of a sequel with Misty, May, and Dawn ANYWAY around the time Skull13 made the request to do the sequel himself.

Mona's Big Bad Dilemma
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- I like Mona and was inspired to do a full-length story about her, after reading Mega (Women) Micro (Men) Stories! Mona's Big, Bad Dilemma, from my perspective, is like a combination of stories in one. In fact, at one point, I made a list of areas that this story was compared to and found over 20 different areas. A few respectable ones, aside from the obvious, are Attack Of The 50 ft. Woman, Honey, I BLEW UP The Kid, & Gulliver's Travels. Sonic's involvement in the story made things even crazier, but he was the key to creating a story behind Mona chasing after Wario and ultimately meeting both Mario & Sonic, while taking Kat, Ana, 9-Volt, & 18-Volt along for the ride. Cubed Cinder told me that he took a chance with this story, and I’m glad he did. This story did very well, in my opinion. This is one of my top favorites.

Wario and the Beanstalk
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- But one story wasn't enough, as YamiAmey (Now known as café-delight on deviantART.) had several drawings of Mona that inspired me to do another one. We became good friends, but during my downtime (All I was able to do was send Super Smash Bros. Brawl snapshots from my Wii. Cubed Cinder was really nice about it, and I thank him greatly for helping me through those tough months.), she left deviantART, and I never got the chance to say goodbye. Fortunately, she contacted me after I attempted to type up another e-mail, and I told her about this story. She loves pairing up Mona with Young Cricket in her drawings, and when mixed with a classic fairy tale, I ultimately created Wario & The Beanstalk.

At first, I was going to have Mario pair up with Sonic & Bomberman, but Cubed Cinder convinced me that using Sonic & Bomberman in the story was really unnecessary. So, I used Luigi & Yoshi, instead, and when he wrote back to me, it felt like he ran up and hugged me. He told me that he ends up taking the heat for the negative comments about my stories, and was filled with relief when I made this change, stating that he couldn't wait to hear how this story would turn out.

This story had all the characters acting like themselves, kept true to the original fairy tale, and ultimately developed the relationship between Mona & Young Cricket. I'm very proud with the way it turned out. This is another one of my top favorites.

Mario & Mona: Big & Small
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- This is my latest story, and probably my most innovative and longest one too (Beating Mona’s Big, Bad Dilemma by 1 K!). It’s also the third one I’ve used Mona in (Her character portrays her job in WarioWare: D.I.Y.). For this one, I wanted to try something different. I decided to make this a GTS & a SM story. Mario & Mona constantly grow & shrink in size, but Mona is always larger than Mario.

I enjoyed the way this one flowed. Both of them met different characters, and learned little by little the truth about the Golden Spiny Shell. I also enjoyed several things that both characters went through, like Mona breathing life into Mario, the incident with the Fuzzies, and a small Michael Jackson-type incident (Leave Me Alone).

Of all the girls I’ve used in my stories, Mona is my most enjoyable, by far!

Viruses & Giantesses
Author: Skull13
Entry posted: February 5, 2010
- This is the first Dr. Mario GTS story done in VGGTS World. The beginning of the storyline is a flashback that was stated in Shrink & Switch: Link In Mobius. I really wanted to tie up that loose end of the Shrink & Switch storyline and was finally able to do so here. In fact, I went through the fourth wall (I say "through the fourth wall" because there was no direct comment used to break it.) in Viruses & Giantesses when Bowser said, "I guess someone up there doesn't want us messing around with that device any longer." That comment was actually aimed at Cubed Cinder. Maybe I really should’ve called it Mario & Sonic: Amy’s Inside Story (Then again, the original title is more appropriate for several reasons.) because that’s exactly what happens, and it turns into an Osmosis Jones-type storyline (with a Rocky III style ending). Although rusty in certain areas, this one turned out pretty well.

Added thoughts from Cubed Cinder, originally from VGGTS3: I didn't really catch that jab, but oh well. Yeah, I almost shot down Viruses & Giantesses too... I was that sick and tired of anything S&S, plus I felt he was playing the 'Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games' card a little too much already. Once he told me more about the story, particularly the inside body exploration parts, I figured, why not? If it finally gets S&S out of my mind once and for all...

Twisted Tales of Mobius
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: February 19, 2010
- I consider Twisted Tales of Mobius my first true Sonic GTS story since I made Rouge the Empress in 2003. In the time between Rouge the Empress and Twisted Tales of Mobius, my time in Sonic GTS storywriting was rather twisted itself. All the details are rather fuzzy, but I can distinctly remember going through 2004 and 2005 either announcing and then cancelling Sonic GTS projects (and there were quite a few of them too). And the ones I DID make were ones I co-authored in instead, usually with kat_warlord.

Finally, in late 2006, I decided to give it yet another go, but this time, I wanted to hear straight from the fans. Back then, I was an active participant at the MacroSonic forum, and I told them to lay out whatever was on their minds. After a few suggestions, I went with one that a user named Sonicrailin made, and I quote, "As for plots, how about some mini- to normal GTS material? Like Amazon action or telling your own versions of classic Giant fairtales? I haven't seen anyone anywhere try that yet." On top of that, he suggested I use ladies that hadn't been made into GTS, like Vanilla, Lupe, or Blaze.

Sonicrailin further set me on the right path by naming some of the fairy tales I could parody right out of the gate, "Some of the obvious ones I can name are doing your own variations of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "The Brave Little Taylor", you just decide the cast of who plays which roles and just have fun. Of course any senario can be given a Fairytale feel just by hosting in a Medival setting--with countrysides, villages, and castles instead of modern cities--and adding in a touch of magic. Also if you go with Dulcy and increase her size and "appearance" you can play around with the old "Knight and Dragon" routines." As you might be guessing, I took two of those tales, making them into Sonic and the Beanstalk as well as Knuckles the Dulcy Dragon Slayer.

Oh, and putting that teaser together also gave me the strength to use all the Sonic cartoon series as far as characters and dialogue among all four of the fairy tales, except for Sonic Underground because I hated that one (and still do).

Anyway, finally looking back at each of the mini-stories. Sonic and the Beanstalk was nothing special. Much of the dialogue and story progression I borrowed from the Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode, Mario and the Beanstalk. Simply take the normally rich Thorndyke family and make them dirt poor instead. Sonic's the one who feels bad for his friends and family so he volunteers to run up the beanstalk (literally) and he encounters the giantess of the castle, Blaze the Cat (who was just as humorless as in Sonic Rush). Oh, and the beautiful golden princess he rescues is Sally. I felt like using her instead of Amy Rose because Amy would've been too obvious. And that's pretty much it. Again, nothing special, just your regular ol' retake on the Jack and the Beanstalk formula.

Oh, you might be wondering, where did I think of Sally stretching out her stomach like a kangaroo's pouch to pull out those rings? I'm gonna put this lightly so he doesn't think I'm insulting him, but kat_warlord has a thing for pouches (his original character is a kangaroo, after all), no matter who the GTS was. I figured I better put something like that in so he would thank me later (which he did).

Cosmo's Travels I thought of on my own when putting the teaser together. She was my favorite character out of all the Sonic X exclusives (it's that nice and sweet personality of hers), so I just HAD to give her some kind of GTS story, and it was reminiscing about Gulliver's Travels that gave the edge I needed. That Cosmo log entry at the beginning I set up as safe haven knowing this wouldn't be the first Cosmo GTS story I would make (by the way, if you've played a LOT of Sonic 2, you'll recognize the passcode!). My only regret with this mini-story was that I made it too short, not giving enough time for Cosmo to try and reason herself with Elise and the rest of the town. Fortunately, I would rectify this by making a sequel of sorts for Twisted Tales 2.

Knuckles the Dulcy Dragon Slayer is my favorite of the four mini-stories. I'm proud of the amount of humor I put into this one, but of course, that wasn't hard considering I brought the Chaotix group into this one. I immediately thought back to the scene in Shrek where he rescues Princess Fiona from the dragon, and that inspiration is as clear as day when you see I ripped some of the dialogue straight out of that scene. But hey, as long as all of you loved it, and you did!

Then there's the fourth story, The Littlest Giantess. It's here where I truly emphasize the Twisted in Twisted Tales of Mobius. I chose Vanilla for this story because I'm sure she would've been the least expected choice for a story like this. Amy and Rouge as the bullies? I got that from the many times they have been chosen as the GTS for stories, so naturally they've gotten so big-headed they push around anyone else that would dare copy their act. The whole story was derived from a similar concept I saw from an old Ren & Stimpy episode, where Stimpy plays the part of the littlest giant and is easily ripe for picking by the bigger giants, until of course he runs away to a village that had probably never even heard of the concept of giants.

After already sending this story to the twisters with Vanilla as the 'littlest giantess,' that's when I remembered the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog toon, specifically Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts. That's when I decided to add them to the story, as goofy as ever. In the end, feelings were mixed on this story. Some people took exception to the fact that I referenced the Adventures cartoon, which is not really surprising. Hey, I don't think highly of Adventures either when compared to SatAM, but it had its moments.

In the end, when I was done making this story, I was very happy with it. First time in three years I could say that about a Sonic GTS story.

Make Room for Hera
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: April 16, 2010
- After playing the first two God of War games on PlayStation 2, I felt the pressing need to write a God of War GTS story. After all, it seemed right after seeing all the gigantic statues, monsters, and gods that came after Kratos as both games played out (on top of communicating with the titaness, Gaia). It took me over a year, but finally around the beginning of May 2008, I finally thought of a good plot that made sense for God of War. I wasn't about to come up with something half-baked or clichéd at this point for a God of War story. I felt it had to be special, or at the very least, slightly different.

After months of research on the gods (and their children) themselves, that's when I pondered... how come Hera hasn't played some kind of role in the God of War series? As the queen of Mount Olympus and the wife of Zeus, I felt you would think she would play some kind of role in the series, let alone make some kind of cameo along the way. But when I realized that she herself wasn't in ANY God of War game at that time, including the PSP game (Chains of Olympus), that's when the pieces fell together. I would have Hera return after years of being away on a "spiritual journey," and her newfound confidence would allow her to take her place instead of Zeus as the giant-sized god who would lay waste on Sparta, as in God of War 2. That was probably my second favorite moment of that game, behind the ending itself.

Still, when I announced the story as part of a big wave of upcoming projects that May of '08, many were surprised. Some people thought that wasn't something I wasn't used to writing, an M-rated story based on a very much M-rated game. While it's true I do usually prefer gentle-based stories with little to no violence, I still liked taking the challenge of making something dark and bloody, something that most GTS fans still loved to see. It wasn't very fun at first... I had struggled with the Mortal Kombat story, Height Buildup, because it wasn't something I was comfortable with. But where did that confidence suddenly come from? My sister. Yep, thanks to BiggerBetterBarbie, who never hesitates in adding some blood and gory death scenes, I felt like if she could do it, so can I. In fact, during the sequence where the giantess Hera arrives in Sparta, many words were actually pulled from a cancelled Sailor Moon story that never made it to the anime site (and Barbie asked me to keep that story a secret).

As I wrote the story, I kept playing back cutscenes and gameplay video from all the games (including the giant statue battle in the second game, using this as direct inspiration for Kratos' battle with Hera), making sure I would get all the characters right. Especially Kratos... that is one angry man right there. That's actually why I kept his dialogue in this story to as minimal as possible... trying to keep him to words that make Kratos who he is, especially as he became consumed with his mission to seek revenge. I think I did a good job there... maybe there are some sentences I could've kept him from saying, but I feel like I did a good job managing everyone.

There is one scene that I had planned from the beginning but later pulled. Originally, after Hera was killed by Kratos, I planned on having Athena come down from the heavens and grieve for Hera's death. And once she became enraged, she would've grown as well, leaving Kratos to fight against a second giantess. But eventually, when I realized that it would've been redundant to do another GTS battle, plus the fact Athena despised every last bit of Hera in actual Greek mythology, I dropped that scene and replaced it with Zeus coming down. I felt that would shake Zeus' confidence right to its core, and it would be a perfect segway for when Kratos started to stab the heck out of Zeus, thus leading directly to the ending of God of War 2. I was a bit nervous about including the actual ending from the game (as I knew there would be some God of War 2 players who wouldn't want to spoil themselves), but I couldn't think of any other way to end the story.

In the end, there will be only chaos... no no, just kidding. I really liked writing this story, and it made me all the more happy when quite a few of you agreed this was a great story. Oh, and as I expected, my vision of Hera was nowhere near what Sony Santa Monica had in mind when God of War 3 came out. Oh well, I'm just thankful I didn't make this story with that game out. :)

Roll's Power Trip
Author: Cubed Cinder and Ramsus (entry written by Cubed Cinder)
Entry posted: April 16, 2010
- Roll's Power Trip didn't start out as a story I would end up writing. The story was born when gamdann used to request often that someone should do some kind of Mega Man Battle Network story, particularly one where Roll was somehow the giantess, and even more somehow, Mayl was one of the victims. You might think it sounds crazy, but luckily both Ramsus and I played enough of the Mega Man Battle Network games (and seen some of the NT Warrior anime) to know that something like this was possible. Eventually, Ramsus came forward with the teaser, and that made gamdann happy. I'm sure I even commented on VGGTS2 how cool an idea this was for a story.

But of course, things don't always go right in the world of storywriting. It took months before Ramsus could share the first chapter, and VGGTS World waited months for the next update. Eventually, I think when I inquired about the future status of the story in early 2006, Ramsus finally told me he had given up the ghost and would not work on the story anymore. I felt bad for both him and gamdann, especially the latter since he was so insanely excited to see this story. Thinking of that, that's when I offered to finish up the story. Ramsus complied, sending me one more chapter before I added my name to the author list. Three months later, I finally found the time to work on the story.

It was kind of a bold move, because by then, my interest in Mega Man Battle Network had somewhat waned after the disappointment of both the NT Warrior show as well as the Battle Network games after the third one. Still, this was a story I believed in and very much wanted to complete so I wouldn't disappoint gamdann too say. He was very nice enough to help me think of many scenes for this story, and for that I am grateful to him. But there isn't really a whole lot to share on this story for that very reason. You might think that I was a pawn to gamdann, but I don't feel that way at all. He really got me out of a jam on this story with unique scenes like Mayl being trapped inside Roll, as well as Roll flirting with Lan, really firing the shrunken girl up.

Still, I really liked this story.

Hyperactive
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: April 16, 2010
- Mega Man wasn't getting much love at VGGTS World before I made this story. Out of a few possible stories, only two ever reached a conclusion. Giantess Roll from Crazy Bum (which is another one of those ultra-funny stories that made The Fallen One want to rip my spine out), and Maverick Crusher from Wind Chaser and C-102. I felt the need to change that, and despite the inaccuracies that plague the show today, I chose the Mega Man animated series from 1994-1995 as part of the background for this story. The other part? I'm sure everyone here remembers Roll's hyper move, hence the name of the story Hyperactive, from Marvel vs. Capcom (and its sequel) where she grows in size by merging with other robots (like Rush and Beat) and fires off all sorts of weapons at the opponent, including the boob missiles. ;-)

Anyway, I had always wanted to do a story revolving around that power, and I picked the Mega Man animated series because I liked how Roll was portrayed in that version, unlike in the video games where she was always on the sideline (unless you played Mega Man Powered Up on PSP). Despite the fact that Proto Man is definitely not evil (something the cartoon got wrong), I went along with that, including having Cut Man and Guts Man as part of the group of robots that would help Wily. Right off the bat, I went with robots from Mega Man 6 since that game was never represented in the show, even though it was out by the time the show premiered.

One scene that was roundly criticized, and rightfully so, was the fact that Roll was protecting three young children throughout the latter half of the story. I think what really made the scene so unpopular was the fact the kids were still around even at the ending of the story (when they were accidentally shrunk even as Roll returned to her normal size). If the kids were just a quick cameo, maybe people wouldn't notice them as much. Ultimately, and I told him I would publicly say this too, it was gamdann's insistence that Roll have some children to protect. He requested that more than any other suggestion that helped me out with Hyperactive (much like he did with Roll's Power Trip).

But the great thing about gamdann is how understanding he is when I explain something to him. When I told him how the scenes where kids being cared for was not getting a warm reception, he understood and apologized, even saying he would be careful in the future about insisting on scenes like that. And for that, gamdann earns my respect, because I've seen other people in the past flip their lids until they either got what they wanted or I told them to shut up.

On the flip side, probably the most popular scene in the whole story, and my favorite personally, is when Roll is on the verge of exploding and Mega Man has to literally go inside Roll to disconnect the malfunctioning Hyper Drive. The giant Krang from the first 'season' of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 helped me out here, but it was something else that got me thinking. Many years ago, I read a fanfiction series of novels called Mega Man: The Series, and one of the stories was called The Mysterious Shrinking Robots. One of the scenes of that story I remembered was little Mega Man going inside one of the robots and destroying it from the inside out, and that was something I really wanted to do for Hyperactive. Of course, the big difference was Mega Man saving his gigantic sister instead. Mega Man taking Guts Man's power to disconnect the Hyper Drive was a result of Mega Man never taking Guts Man's power in the cartoon series (even though Proto Man did so in the first episode).

So despite the problem with Roll and the children, the rest of the story did very well and I enjoyed writing it. I feel like Roll acted perfectly in line with any other girl who is excited about growing and taking the spotlight when she had anything but that prior to the changes.

When Final Fantasies Collide series
1. Incredible Shrinking Thief
2. Little Nightmare
3. Shrunken Guardian
4. A Sorceress's Little Knight
5. When Final Fantasies Collide
Author: Final7Darkness
Entry posted: April 16, 2010
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The Incredible Shrinking Thief
September 1 2006

Well then where to begin? Might as well at the start, way back at the 4^th August 2006 I put up my very first teaser which was known as The Incredible Shrinking Thief. At the time I was really into Final Fantasy and still do to this day I'm still am. As I was writing my very first story, the plot I had was very different to what it ended up in.

The plot I originally had for this still followed what it is today but instead of having anything to do with Darkness as well as plot of Unknown, it was going to have (coming from what I can remember) a strange twist that the world of FF9 was in fact growing and that Zidane remained normal size. There was even another twist were that a made up character was going to be a human shaped spaceship with holds aliens and that Zidane would have to meet them in order to grow along with the world.

...thinking about it...I had no idea what I was thinking when these plots were popping in my head. So along those lines, the idea of Darkness was born so I scrapped those old ideas and based it around the idea. Towards the end, there was a scene that have Zidane asking Cloud (at the time it was unknown person) if they had met, I based this scene on an Easter Egg inside FF9 where Zidane was inside a weapons shop looking at a Buster Sword talking to himself about meeting a man with spiky hair that carries a sword just like it.

Before I finished writing the story, I had plans on carrying on Darkness plot  so far as having the basics of When Final Fantasies Collide all planed out so I left the first story in a cliffhanger like ending and went straight ahead towards into writing the second story which was Final Fantasy VII.   

Not once when I was writing the story had it had anything to with Darkness along with main characters being kidnapped. I have no idea as to where the idea came from or why   

Little Nightmare
September 22 2006

Truth be told, when I sent part one of The Incredible Shrinking Thief the story was already written up. I think at the time it was to give me time to write the next story. When I finally sent the final part of The Incredible Shrinking Thief I accidentally sent the first part of Little Nightmare as I wanted to wait another week before doing so.

Well then...what is there to say about this one, its the shortest of all the FF titles I written. When I was writing this one I...pretty much had no plan what's so ever on what the plot was to be about. Everything in this story was made on the spot as I had no idea as to where I was going. Most of the time I found myself getting confused as to what it was that I was writing.

I was a little disappointed with this one. Cubed Cinder even sent me an Email asking me as to what was going on with the story so without saying to much about the overall plan I had, I explained to him as  little as possible about everything and he was okay with it and wished me luck with writing the rest.     

Shrunken Guardian
October 20 2006

Well then, after I've done with Little Nightmare I moved onto one of my favourite Final Fantasy titles, FFX. I worked a little harder as it has become the second longest from all five stories. The plot of this pretty much the same. The basics of this story without the plot of Darkness in it was inspired by an unfinished story called Guarded Guardian. This was at a time when the site kept unfinished stories.

I really like this story, I like it so much that I even have plans on rewriting it as a stand alone title. The plot will pretty much would be same without anything to do with Darkness as well as making it longer. The only problem is to come up with a new title.

A Sorceress's little knight
November 10 2006

In this one, I pretty much use the plot based upon the game rather than having it as a original story, which disappointed me as I found this one a little harder as I try to follow the scenes of the game more than the others. Well I can't really say much about this so I move on over to final story.  

When Final Fantasies Collide
November 17 2006

Well then, after a long wait (for me anyway) I began writing the final story 'When Final Fantasies Collide' and I have to say...I really, I really and I do mean really...have no idea what was going on through my head when I wrote this. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I was at college by the time I was writing this or it had something to do with the past stories but I just can't believe that I wrote this. Granted that I did enjoy writing this and I do tend to enjoy reading this when ever I come back and read it.

My only regret in this story is that I never really gave it a proper ending (something that seems to carry on with my other stories). I promised that When Final Fantasies Collide would end the series I was doing. At the time I was planning on doing a sequel called Shadows of the Earth where it was to include more FF characters and reasons I shall not talk about the story was never made. But I do have a stand alone sequel in mind though; which I hope I get round into writing.  

Well, after the whole Final Fantasy GTS stories; I felt I should try and do something different so I went to do my first story for the sister site Anime GTS, a Danny Phantom story called Little Hero, Huge Trouble but I tell that story another day. 

The Joy of Legends
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: July 16, 2010
- My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure a story with Nurse Joy and/or Officer Jenny as a giantess had been tried before I wrote The Joy of Legends. But alas, the story never got far and was cancelled. Nevertheless, after the huge successes of Abnormal Ball, Abnormal Ball 2, and Real Masters (with Real Masters 2 in development at the same time), I felt like I should try to bring these two common characters into the VGGTS arena. But I can still remember wanting to try something different from the very beginning.

I thought the Joy/Jenny story shouldn't be simply a growth story, a story where one Joy and/or Jenny suddenly is gigantic and trying to continue their jobs, only from a new perspective. I felt that would've been a little repetitive, even if I had done just shrink stories up to this point. While thinking of the plot, I quickly remembered the "Island of the Giant Pokemon" episode from the anime. Definitely one of my favorites, and that's when I thought, what if the 'island,' after being dormant following the events of that episode, was suddenly overflowing with real giant Pokemon this time? Gigantic creatures that had been in hiding for many years and chose now to come out, and they are not too friendly because they're looking for the ones that cared so deeply for them. Enter Joy and Jenny.

When I wrote that prologue of Jenny and other officers entering the newly appearing island, which came flowing out of my head almost in real time, I was ecstatic. It looked dark, mysterious, and almost scary, all things I wanted to have to help set the future tone of this story up. My excitement reached such a level, this story is one of only a few that I gave the folks at VGGTS2 a sneak peek of, early in the week. Some, as I suspected, were skeptical of the dark and seemingly violent nature of the story, but I told them in later messages to stick around... this story was not what you would expect.

I remember running into one problem that became the signature moment for Joy and Jenny throughout the events of this trilogy. I had wanted all of the Pokemon, even normally small ones like Pikachu, to be so big that any humans they came across (like Ash and company) would look like ants. Of course, what I forgot about is that Pikachu is normally only about a foot tall. So if Pikachu is at least 300 feet tall in the story, that means every other living thing on the island has to be almost 300 times bigger as well, and that's how Jenny and Joy are mega-sized throughout the trilogy. Despite these miscalculations on my part, I figured I'd run with them anyway, especially when the mega Jenny was very well received at the groups.

I remember forgetting a lot that the Jenny and Joy in this story were originally Jenny and Joy, but their bodies were later taken over by the spirits of the goddesses that once ruled this island. So why call them Jenny and Joy? That's when I came up with the idea of both having impossible-to-say names, including to each other. Including the fact they like the 'new outfits' they are wearing, just to make it look like time has really passed for the two mega-sized women.

It was kinda confusing even to me at first, but just the fact that Joy and Jenny were mega-sized was good enough for everyone else, and the story earned just as much acclaim as my other Pokemon GTS stories of the time.

Apple's Grand Tour
Author: Twilight Prince
Entry posted: July 30, 2010
- Almost two years...Almost two years it took to complete this story. I hear that now, and I think, "Why did I take so long writing this?". The answer was quite simple, actually: As I mentioned before in one of my past "Looking Back" entries, I get sidetracked very easily. ...But I think I'm jumping the gun here, so let's rewind to back then.

I decided that once and for all, I wanted to finish another VGGTS story, especially since I had not finished one since Play Date despite many attempts at other various VGGTS stories that seemed to work, but just got lost along the way. At the time, I was pretty, pardon the pun, big on Mario games, playing ones such as the Mario and Luigi saga. I then asked Cubed Cinder that I wanted to write a story with his original character, Princess Apple. Of course, he naturally agreed, but I still needed a plotline. After playing some more classic Mario games, I then got the idea...Apple had not been outside Giant Land very much due to her royal duties. It somewhat reminded me of Peach, in a sense. So, I decided she would go on a "Grand Tour" of sorts around some various locales of the Mushroom Kingdom, and that is where I got the title and basis of the story.

Apple's first locale of choice, Sarasaland, came from me playing Super Mario Land a good amount. I always love playing that game when I had some time to waste, and I've always naturally been a fan of Sarasaland's princess, Daisy (given I use her in many games she's featured in also helps). So that was Apple's first destination, and she'd meet up with a fellow princess as well so that Daisy would act as her tour guide. With a little of Cubed Cinder's backstory behind Apple in "Birth of a Big Apple", I was also able to help out with when Apple recalled her sister, Aska. This section of the story was probably the one I had the most fun writing, especially when I thought up Apple's look for when she used the Frog Suit. I should draw her as that mermaid sometime...

Now came the trouble of me getting sidetracked too easily. There were no excuses for it, I had found many things on the internet that got my interest hooked and away from this story. Nevertheless, at some point along the way, I began to play Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door again, and then I remembered I was working on that story with Apple. Thus, after completing the game again, I got Apple's second locale. However, despite I did, I still was getting sidetracked...so I allowed Cubed Cinder to write in a portion of the story when Apple arrived at Rogueport, in which I later edited slightly. Slowly over the next year, I finished up Apple's time in Rogueport and allowed her journey to continue. I think I found it rather cute when she met up with the Punies, since I've started to get to like the "Smallest meets biggest" sorts of scenarios, given that they work out well enough, and this one did.

Now for the biggest bump in the road...Apple's final destination was to be Diamond City, which if you know from Apple's backstory, used to be her hometown called Jewel Town. This is where the blockade hit me the hardest, because despite my knowledge of the Mario universe in general, the WarioWare part of it was generally new to me, despite I had played a few of the WarioWare games. I had almost given up on this story like I had my previous ones...ah, but no, Cubed Cinder wouldn't have that! After knocking some sense into me (thank you!), he showed me to the Mario Wiki page, and thus is where I got much of my information about Diamond City. After dragging myself through most of Apple's time through the city, one key thing surfaced to allow me to finally finish this story...a little something called WarioWare D.I.Y.. After being shown this little trinket, I finally got the urge to finish this story with a fervent passion! ...Well, maybe not exactly like that, but you get the idea.

With it all done, I was feeling very refreshed, like a great weight was off my shoulders. Two long years have been put into this story, but only due to me being lazy on my part. Yes, I admit, I was lazy. If I say I'm going to write something, I need to learn to focus on it. Of course, I am very proud of myself for finishing this story, and I (and Cubed Cinder, and hopefully all the rest of you) loved the outcome. I look at this story again, and to me, it's like looking in a Time Capsule...you see stuff that you wrote a good time back, and then try to continue along with it after so long, or add in a little bit of it and then re-bury it again to allow it to be opened at a future date. Let this be a little lesson to all of you (and especially to myself)...When it comes to writing stories in general, be they VGGTS ones or not, don't ever try to take that long of breaks between writing parts of it. Believe me...the thought of not finishing it will just creep up on you ever more faster the more you hold it back.

In closing, after I wrote and completed this story, I feel like I've grown up a little myself. Maybe, and it could just be me...but maybe Princess Apple has that sort of influence on people. And if she does, I personally want to thank her very much, as well as her creator. Also a personal thanks to my friend Jackurai, for having shown me WarioWare D.I.Y.. I now wonder...is this story going to me my swan song from VGGTS storywriting? ...Nah, that's a definite NO!

Abnormal Ball 2: Tainted Love
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: July 30, 2010
- I honestly didn't believe Abnormal Ball would be as popular as it became. I mean I was happy with how the story turned out, but I didn't think it would be such a smash hit that some people would already beg for a sequel! So only three months after I finished the first story, I put up the teaser for this one. Easy to come up with a plot... make Brock the next victim of a Pokeball with a laser gone crazy.

After posting a short first chapter just to get the story warmed up, gamdann e-mailed me. This was before the days when he would assist me with cool scenes for stories on franchises he very much enjoyed. Anyway, after he gave his review on the first chapter, he gave me the great idea of Nurse Joy getting frustrated with Brock not only being his usual self despite the size difference, but because he wanted to do everything Nurse Joy did, just to give her break. I had planned something like that beforehand, just without a few extra details like Brock wanting to play nurse's little assistant, and the Nurse Joy in Lilycove City just happened to be the most passionate of all the Nurse Joys in Hoenn.

After writing the scene where Joy snaps and walks away, that's when I felt Brock had to feel sorry for her, when he finally for once stopped to think of what his feelings were meaning to all the Joys and Jennys of the world. It was a nice scene that got some rave reviews.

The ending is the only thing I significantly changed between planning and actually typing the story. The ending would've been similar to the first story... the normal-sized heroes get a cure from Kurt and apply it to the shrunken victim. Quickly I abandoned that, not wanting to dance the same dance and be criticized for that. That's when I changed it to the 'power of love,' a feeling of relief as Brock and Joy expressed regret for their actions towards each other.

Overall, a fun story to make. Some people didn't like that it was so short and that there could've been more interaction between Joy and Brock, but oh well. I constantly get those messages with any story I write. The story was too short, or the story was too long. It's a balancing act that cannot be beaten, so I just write the stories with absolutely no regards to length.

Abnormal Ball 3: Casual Acquaintance
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: July 30, 2010
- Originally, Abnormal Ball wasn't meant to be a series. I had tried to make that clear with the way AB2 ended, but ultimately, I kept getting requests for a third Abnormal Ball story. I didn't make it a priority, but I finally decided in the spring of 2006 to make it. The plot you see now wasn't how AB3 was originally planned. At first, the story would've revealed that the Abnormal Ball was an invention by Team Rocket, and that they had snuck it into the hands of Ash, and eventually Brock, with the hopes of capturing them once and for all.

But I dropped that plot when I wasn't feeling too comfortable with tying all the Abnormal Ball stories together with the whole thing being an elaborate Team Rocket plot (although I wound up doing that anyway, but in a different fashion as you'll see later). Once again, gamdann comes to the rescue by offering the simple request of Misty shrinking May and Max and more or less kidnap them because they've been with Ash. I immediately took that and made a little adjustment thanks to Love o' War. While I was happy that story did so insanely well, I always thought what if Misty and May met each other under much friendlier terms (similar to how they met in the anime)? The shrinking would be purely accidental but there would be no hard feelings despite the name Ash Ketchum being mentioned? So that's when I decided on the new plot for AB3, with the new subtitle, Casual Acquaintance.

Even better, I took up the challenge of writing a Pokemon GTS story without Ash or Brock. I thought it would be a refreshing change of pace, even though nobody complained about Ash getting too much face time in my storywriting (someone on VGGTS2 had once requested a Zelda GTS story without Link whatsoever).

And so as I wrote the story, gamdann once again assisted with ideas on the kinds of games that Misty could play with the shrunken Max and May. Of course, I didn't take everything that he suggested, this way it wouldn't look like that he was pulling the strings (as one person harshly accused me of doing in Real Masters 3). Again, the goal was for Misty to be friendly with May, unlike back at Love o' War. But I definitely like some of the scenes he suggested. I still get a laugh of seeing May trying to pick a fight with Misty after she's getting close with Max.

The big scene where May and Max are nearly Caterpie food was all me. I had thought of that scene early on and I thought it would be cool to see Misty stand up for a change to bug Pokemon (like she did in the anime to protect Togepi) and take them on so she can save her new friends. I could've made it longer, but I didn't want to take away from the GTS part of the story.

Right around the part when Max is trying to reverse the laser on the Poke Ball, that's when I thought about that connection again with Team Rocket. But this time, I also thought about Pokemon Ranger, both the DS game that I enjoyed so very much and the appearance of the playable female character in the game, Solana. And that's when I finally found the loose connection that would tie all the Abnormal Ball stories into a series. Naturally, to add a little suspense following the conclusion of AB3, I left out the Pokemon Ranger part, making people think this was a crazy Team Rocket plot until I started writing AB4.

May in Wonderland
Author: GiantessUniverse
Entry posted: May 5, 2012
- Of all the stories I've ever written, I think "May In Wonderland" was probably one of my best. It took me quite a few months to write it, but considering how it turned out it was well worth it. I enjoyed writing it a great deal and I got a chance to focus the story on things other than the concept of a giantess. In fact, if I remember correctly, there was at least one chapter of "May In Wonderland" which didn't feature any kind of giantess scenes at all.

This story also means a lot to me because it was one of the first that I ever wrote at VGGTS World. I believe the first story of mine that was posted at the website was "Attack of the Giant Misty", but to be honest I'm not too proud of how that story turned out. "May In Wonderland" was a huge step towards professionalizing my writing and adding more to my stories than shrinking and growing. After all, a story can only be a story if it has a backing, a plot, and is embedded with imaginative scenes and details. I'm not saying that any story focusing purely on a giant girl can't really be called a story. I've written several stories like that myself.

Another thing that I take pride in about "May In Wonderland" is the effort I put into it. It took me almost a year to finish the story, and in part that was due to me not updating the story often enough. At a couple points during that duration I was simply too busy to write a new chapter, but at other times I was focusing on other stories. Despite that, however, I did eventually finish the story, and it turned out to be a grand total of 20 pages in length, a sum that most of my solo-written stories don't reach.

To summarize, I think that "May In Wonderland" was a great story. I really enjoyed writing it, and I'm very glad that Sean suggested the idea to me. In truth I had never read "Alice in Wonderland" or seen the movie, but despite that I think the story turned out pretty well. I've received a lot of good feedback on the story, and I am very excited and hopeful about "May In Wonderland 2: Through the Mirror". Hopefully, it will be as enjoyable as the original.

Dawn's Inside Story
Author: GiantessUniverse
Entry posted: June 2, 2012
- Heh heh...I have to chuckle looking back at this story in particular. Looking back it's much more comical than my last few stories, mainly because Team Rocket is present in the story so often. A lot of people thought that I got the idea for this story from "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story" because of the title, but that's only partially true. The idea actually came to me after I noticed that there weren't any stories that featured an in-body adventure (besides my own story, "Attack of the Giant Misty") at VGGTS World. I actually had the idea for an in-body adventure for a while, but I never acted on it because I was so sure that someone at VGGTS World had already done it. When I found that no one did, I had the idea to do a Pokémon story featuring an in-body adventure.

When deciding how the story should play out, the hero-and-villan scenario in "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story" inspired me to have Misty and Team Rocket get trapped in Dawn's body and be forced to work together to escape. I chose Team Rocket because they always fail to accomplish their goals in the anime, and I thought them trying to survive inside Dawn's body with Misty would be very funny. Turns out I was right; they basically caused trouble for Misty or got stuck in a comical situation that Misty had to pull them out of throughout the entire story. I chose Misty to be the shrunken hero in this scenario because of her irritability. Her attitude just seemed to make her the perfect girl to be unwillingly paired up with Team Rocket, because her short temper made it so easy for Team Rocket to get on her nerves, kind of like the fighting you see with a bantering couple.

A couple of people emailed me asking why I wrote a story with such little amounts of giantess content. I did it because I wanted to, and because it was something no one had tried at VGGTS World. There was still a good deal of giantess content in "Dawn's Inside Story", with a slight amount of vore at the beginning and a shrunken Team Rocket being blasted off by Officer Jenny and later put inside of Misty's sneaker. Besides, I liked the comical feeling in "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story". It was a fun game full of humor and adventure. I liked how easily Luigi got scared so easily, which was the main reason Team Rocket was selected as some of the starring characters in the story (they always were quick to get cowardly in the anime, and screwed up a lot). I also liked Bowser's temper in the game, and tough attitude, which is yet another reason why I chose the tomboyish Misty to star in this story alongside Team Rocket.

All in all, "Dawn's Inside Story" was quite a handful, but it was a lot of fun to write. I'm glad I was able to replicate the humor in "Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story" within a Pokémon spin-off. I really do feel good about how well this story turned out, and I consider it to be one of the most adventurous and comical stories of a hero-villain team up that I have ever pulled off. I'm happy and proud to say that I am the author of this story, although Nintendo should also be thanked for giving me the idea. Hopefully that last sentence won't opt them to hit me with a copyright infringement lawsuit.

Big Dreams for Christmas
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: August 10, 2013
- You'll find this hard to believe... but I had not played the actual Christmas NiGHTS game on Saturn when I wrote this story. That situation wasn't rectified until I got a desktop computer in 2009 finally good enough to run a Sega Saturn emulator and then found an ISO of Christmas NiGHTS online (which became moot three years later when I bought the NiGHTS HD upgrade, complete with Christmas NiGHTS, on XBLA). Of course, that didn't mean I hadn't heard of the game, far from it. I was well aware of the existance of Christmas NiGHTS, but that was all. No reading about the short & sweet plot that the story's opening and ending cutscenes told. I don't remember whether it was thinking of that or simply playing the original NiGHTS (which I DID have as a $5 purchase from K-Mart), but I'm sure it was one of those two things that got me into thinking of this kind of story.

Either way, one thing was for absolute certain. I was determined to do another Christmas-themed story for VGGTS World two years after I wrote A Peachy Christmas. And this time I wanted to almost treat it like any other story I wrote, not as a quicky four hour project on Christmas Eve of that year. With final exams that semester just completed and after updating the site on Sunday, December 18th, that left me with six days to put something together. Like I said before, I don't remember if it was just playing NiGHTS or just the mere thought of Christmas NiGHTS, but one of those two situations led me to deciding to go with the NiGHTS franchise for this story.

Again, I had not played Christmas NiGHTS nor read too much into the storyline that made that game possible, but it was pure luck that I thought of a plot for Big Dreams that was similar to the game. The hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping has made Claris worry that the Christmas spirit is fading away, and that's pretty much where the similarities end. I thought making both of them older and romantically involved would be a fresh change of pace for the two characters, and it was LOTS of fun writing out how their days went, concluding with their trips to Nightopia.

My memory, unfortunately, is a bit fuzzy when it comes to how the scenes were planned and went into the story. I guess I just thought of whatever made perfect sense for a NiGHTS story taking place 8 years after the first game, especially with Claris and Elliot both grown up, and put it into the story. And it all worked out... for some people even better than I imagined it.

It brought a big smile to my face when people like Fez and Senkou told me this was not only a very touching holiday-themed story starring a giantess, but it was brightening up their dismal holiday season. As the years passed, more people (like Twilight Prince) said very positive things about the story. In fact, this story has done so much better than I thought, I have yet to write another Christmas-themed story. A couple years I tried it, but ended up cancelling those stories because I felt they couldn't be anywhere near as good as Big Dreams for Christmas.

So if you ever enter the holidays with life beating on you with the negative side of the stick, give Big Dreams for Christmas a read. Maybe you'll feel a lot better like others did. :)

Curse of the Crystal Starman
Author: Chris Waters
Entry posted: August 10, 2013
-               It was a dark and stormy morning.

                No, seriously, it was when I first conceived the idea for “Curse of the Crystal Starman”.

                At the time, I was working a job that allowed me a lot of free time to do things like writing or playing games on my Game Boy (and later, my Nintendo DS.)  One morning, when it was raining pretty hard, I had just finished playing “Wario Land II” just before the battery power on my GBA had died out.  With a few hours still to go in my shift, and thinking about the site for some reason that I can’t remember for sure, I thought “Hey, why not try a story with such a forgotten character?”

                So, that’s pretty much how the idea got started: I wanted to take a video game character that hadn’t been seen in years up to that point (keep in mind, “Wario Land: Shake It!” was still a few years off from being released) and see if I could tell a good story with it.  But I didn’t want to just make any giantess, I wanted to make a force to be reckoned with.  How to do that, I wondered to myself?

                The answer to that second question actually came in the form of Super Mario Bros. 3.  Thinking about all the power ups there, it made me realize that if Mario were to ever be able to utilize every power up at once, no force could truly stop him.  From there, the idea of the Crystal Starman came to my mind, and to make the threat even more dangerous than it already was, a craziness curse being added to it added to the tension (or at least I hope, haven’t gotten TOO much feedback on it).

                And before anyone mentions it, yes I do realize the similarity now between the Crystal Starman and the Alicorn Amulet in the show “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.”  Kind of makes me wonder if someone on the show read my story and got ideas.

                Anyway, where was I?  Oh, right, Giant Captain Syrup.

                So yeah, looking back on the story, I remember how quickly it flowed on hand written paper, but how slow it got typed out due to other distractions being around me at the time.  Still, I am satisfied with the story, but had “Wario Land: Shake It!” came out before I got to write it, I might have wrote Syrup a little differently than I did in the original story.  Still though, I am proud of what I had accomplished in it, my first fully finished fanfic, and am glad the few people who have given me feedback enjoyed the story.

                As for the sequel that had been hinted at near the end…who knows?  One day soon, perhaps Syrup will have enough Crystal Starman pieces to strike again.  After all, there are even more power-ups revealed this time around than there were when I originally wrote the story, so there is plenty more to work with, and this time around possibly even have Peach and Daisy put up a better fight with the giant pirate.

Not Staying Hidden: Ivy's Revenge Rampage
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: October 5, 2013
- (NOTE: This is the sequel to Staying Hidden. I know it sounds strange that I'm looking back on the sequel first, but my memory is much more vivid with the development of this story.)

Hard to imagine, but it seemed not even VGGTS World was immune to murmurs from the people of the Internet that suddenly grew loud enough to become a rumor, a rumor that some people either misinterpreted as fact, or wished so badly it was fact because it would make their heads explode in excitement. You know... the kind of rumors that allow things like Capcom vs. SNK and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to be born (probably not true of a statement, but what the hey).

Early in 2010, someone e-mailed me about a rumor supposedly being spread around outside the friendly confines of VGGTS3 that I was teaming up with the popular author, Discipline, on an epic story that was going to blow every other VGGTS World story out of the water. I'm still very curious to know where and how the rumor started, although I can't help but wonder, like I mentioned above, if this was one guy's wish to get the two of us together to write a story because we were his top two favorite authors. Of course, at the time I denied the rumors and said there was no such project being planned at this time. I apologized to Discipline, as he was e-mailed by this same guy, but everything got sorted out and we both moved on from there, although he closed by saying he wouldn't at all object to the possibility.

Six months later, another e-mail pops up, this time from another person who is a fan of both my writing as well as Discipline's. This e-mail was a page and a half of high praise for both me and his friend Discipline, although it was probably more me than Discipline as he says I was a role model to Discipline. Then came the request that set this thing in motion. Like the previous e-mailer, he wished to see a story written by a tag team of myself and Discipline. Not only that, but he says it ought to be a sequel to the amazing SoulCalibur GTS story, Staying Hidden.

Once again, I forwarded the e-mail to Discipline and he apologized for any confusion, once again offering to help out with a story if possible. This time, now that I was three months into accepting co-writers for my stories, I gave him the chance. I offered a choice between three stories of mine that were looking for co-writers at the time: The Wrath of Tanya (Mortal Kombat), Feeling Like Goddesses (Zelda), and Duplica's Little Helpers (Pokemon). If he didn't like any of them, I offered we could give this e-mailer and maybe several others what they were wishing for... a SoulCalibur story set as a sequel to Staying Hidden. Thus the birth of Not Staying Hidden: Ivy's Revenge Rampage.

Discipline could not have been a better partner. First of all, like DJYellow22 once upon a time, he was crazy excited. He could hardly contain himself the way he was wording the e-mails. He was very easy to work with, basically not having any trouble with taking the writing torch. The story seems kinda silly when you look at some parts of it, like Taki using an illusion to grow and train Cassandra in taking down the giant Ivy, which at her size wasn't supposed to be as easy as we made it, but there's nothing ordinary about the SoulCalibur franchise.

As I kinda expected, nobody really said anything about the story in the end despite all the buildup and hype amongst both our fans. Oh well... a beautifully action-packed story was written (and it had a giant woman with giant boobs too!) and I sincerely thank Discipline (wherever he is now) for his help.

Peach Down Under
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: October 5, 2013
- Fanboys of certain women, whether it's anime, cartoons, or video games, can be hypocritical sometimes. I was once upon a time accused of wanting to slurp (or worse, 'hump') all over Princess Peach because I used to show great public affection for her, especially when she was at a giant size. And yet, they seemed to have no problem doing the same thing with a far sexier woman, like someone from Dead or Alive. Not only that, others considered it 'okay' while those who admired a far inferior woman like Princess Peach were considered the most extreme in mentally unstable.

What also bothered me was my love for Peach was actually quite tame. There's someone who used to contribute to the site (I won't say his name) who once had a whole website dedicated to Princess Peach, going as far as showing off his massive plush/figurine collection of the Mushroom Kingdom princess. I'm sure he probably got much more flak than I did (and it didn't help that I was redirecting the critics who IMed me to that website just to show I'm not THAT crazy).

So that's when, early in the summer of 2007, I decided I should write a story about a TINY Princess Peach trying to survive in a land of other giantesses, most notably her counterpart, Princess Daisy. That way, I don't look like a sick fanboy of a giant-sized Princess Peach by showing I'll respect her even when she's shrunken. I didn't need to look far for a device to shrink Peach. I remembered the cute little cameo the Pikmin made in Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (GameCube), so naturally that got me and a few others thinking that some Pikmin must make a living even in the Mushroom Kingdom.

Pikmin 2 further pushed me in the right direction as far as plot went, and so off I went with writing. You'll notice the story feels kinda short at only 10 pages. I originally had plans to have Peach and her new friends (including the Pikmin of course) somehow warp to other lands to gather 'treasure' for the ship. Ultimately I backed off on that as I was worried the story would get too long and there weren't any other giantesses that could unknowningly almost stomp the microscopic Peach. I still try to cram as much GTS scenes as possible rather than the so-called 'setup' scenes because I feel like that's what most of you read these stories for, to see the GTS. But one thing's for sure, Daisy was the obvious choice to play the GTS that stomps the 'little bugs' out. Her tomboyish personality made her the perfect fit to raise her glass slippers and try and mash everyone into the ground.

In the end, this story did its job. I suddenly didn't hear anymore jabbing from people that felt I should be oogling over a giant Lara Croft instead of a giant Princess Peach. One guy even said well done on the story. That comment still puts a smile on my face.

The Big Sister Act
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: October 5, 2013
- I can't take all the credit for the story idea. It was GiantessUniverse (back then known as caddadosky) who pitched the story idea to VGGTS3 for inclusion to the Idea Box. I believe he had put Misty's sisters into a couple of his past stories interacting with shrunken people; this would've been the first time the trio of sisters actually grew. His original idea (titled Attack of the Cerulean City Gym Leaders) was similar to what you read today... Misty invites not only Ash, but also Lyra (from the newly released at the time HeartGold/SoulSilver games) and either Dawn or May depending on who won a poll, to her gym to show off her newly acquired size-changing berries. Misty's three sisters swallow the growing berries and they grow gigantic and decide to roam around the Kanto region, causing mass panic and destruction.

When I volunteered to take the story, I decided to make some important changes. First, Attack of the (whatever) was an overused title, so I quickly came up with the new title, The Big Sister Act. I also felt Dawn and May had both been used a lot in stories (okay, so had Misty, but she was key to the plot of the story) and I wanted to add in another character alongside Lyra who hadn't grown in a story up to that point. My digging through the archives led me to choose Marina, aka the girl trainer from Pokemon Crystal (Marina being the name given to her in a special GSC-themed episode of the anime).

Even without the idea of Marina's appearance, I had been thinking of writing a story with Misty's three sisters for a while anyway. I felt they were perfect characters, given their personalities, to be gigantic and somewhat evil and want to submit all of the Kanto region under their will (and feet). Once I had written the beginning of the story out, I pretty much went into a mode where I think of whatever I can for the giantesses to do and then write it into the story, going for as long as I could before it was time to set up the obvious catfight between the three.

Of course, I wanted to make things interesting for Misty and her friends. It'd be somewhat uncharacteristic if she out of the blue said let's grow to the same size as my stupid sisters and beat the snot out of them. I wanted to do something that would push her over the edge to committing such an act and have Marina and Lyra support her action. That's when I came up with Misty trying to negotiate to the giant Daisy, since those two, judging by the Pokemon Chronicles series, are the closest to each other, understanding each other better than the other two sisters. Naturally, the power is fully in Daisy's head to the point where she decides to hold Ash hostage.

I give thanks to gamdann for coming up with ideas on this story, namely on how Lyra could defeat Lily and how Marina could beat Violet. Obviously, three giant catfights would've been too much and too repetitive to write, so I had wanted to have different 'takedown' scenarios for Violet and Lily while reserving the big catfight for Misty vs. Daisy.

Finally, I set up the ending where the three sisters shrink to one inch tall as a potential sequel to this story where Misty gloats over not being the 'runt' of the quartet anymore and almost goes too far in playing with them. Obviously that hasn't happened yet, but maybe one day it will. Regardless, with this story making it to 25 pages, it's one of the longest stories I've ever written and I'm sure, combined with the mixture of scenes that suited many people's different tastes, that has contributed to this story being one of the most popular Pokemon GTS stories I've written.

Duplica's Little Helpers
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: October 5, 2013
- I mainly conceived this story when I realized I could right a wrong committed by GiantessUniverse. He had held a poll asking which female, out of a choice of five, he should write a GTS story about. Although Zoey won the poll and Duplica was second, GiantessUniverse later made a post saying Zoey already had a story so he would skip her. He then said he didn't know enough or feel comfortable with writing about Duplica, so he basically discarded the poll entirely (since nobody else had any votes) and I believe he wound up writing another Dawn story. I don't recall ever saying anything either publicly or privately, but I clearly remember being annoyed by this action... as I felt why even put the character in the poll in the first place if you were never comfortable with her to begin with? It basically made the poll pointless. So I decided I would give Duplica her own story.

And then the calendar turned to 2011. Ultimately my silence in the matter made me almost forget the whole ordeal. It wasn't until my sister watched both of Duplica's anime appearances (Ditto's Mysterious Mansion and then Imitation Confrontation) that she provided a solid idea for a Duplica story. As the teaser says, an accident involving Mini-Dit (from the second episode) causes some of its DNA to absorb into the skin of Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu, and given Mini-Dit's unique trait for staying the same size even when transforming into something large like Onix or Lapras, it would cause the four to shrink to a tiny size.

After I got that e-mail with that idea, like a roller coaster it hit me on what would make this story funny. Duplica's flirting with Ash (most obvious in her first episode) would be irresistable when Ash is shrunken, and it'd be just as funny to see Misty throwing a temper tantrum as a result of her once secret feelings for Ash. Jackpot, as you might say!

At the time, I was knee deep in my job and other stuff in real life, so I offered this story for co-writing (a process that I had started in mid-2010), where I would start the story, the other author would essentially do the middle, and then I finish it off. DJYellow22 quickly volunteered to help out, and given how much I liked some of the Pokemon stories he wrote (namely Dragon Goddess), I right away chose him. And he did a great job, including what little scenes I requested and taking some creative liberties.

There were only a couple people who expressed disappointment that either Duplica didn't grow instead or DJYellow22's writing couldn't compare to my own, but for the most part this story was a success and I'm glad to have written it. Duplica was owed one and we delivered. :)

Icy Invasion
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: November 2, 2013
- Even today, I still regret not doing a VGGTS story themed around the 2008 Summer Olympic Games from Beijing. I tried hard to make some kind of story where girls from the Mario AND Sonic series were gigantic some how, some way, in the Chinese city. Perhaps it was thinking too hard for the right plot that led me to not write anything, but when the 2010 Winter Olympic Games from Vancouver started getting close, I was determined not to miss out this time around, and I have Square Enix, of all video game making corporations, to thank for this story.

In the summer of 2009, with the Winter Olympics about 6-7 months away, PolarityManX e-mailed me about a newly released Japanese Nintendo DS game, Blood of Bahamut. It's an action RPG where your party battles and tries to tame the Gigants, giant creatures (some of them humanoid) that have cities built on their backs. These weren't just any creatures, though. The Gigants were actually incredibly supersized versions of Summons from the Final Fantasy series. Of course, one of the Gigants that raised the collective eyebrows of the VGGTS community? Shiva, and she certainly made a fine giantess, especially in that one piece of official art.

The idea for Icy Invasion hit me almost immediately after seeing that picture, especially when Super Mario RPG sprang to mind as well. Mario, Sonic, and his friends (especially the females) are all out in Vancouver, scanning the area looking for places where they could hold their own Olympic Games to coincide with the official Vancouver games. At the same time, the mega-sized Shiva has been sent to Vancouver to not only conquer the region under the orders of Culex, but also capture Mario & Sonic before they can stop her, because when a teamup is so legendary that some of my friends couldn't stop talking about the first M&S Olympic Games teamup (and using adjectives like historic and legendary), you HAVE to make sure those two aren't around to interfere. Leave those tiny little princesses to panic and watch as Vancouver is frozen solid. :p

Anyway, it wasn't until October that I put the teaser on the site, and quickly anticipation for the story was high. There was one person who tried coaxing answers out of me on how the story would go, but I kept telling him he would just have to wait like with everyone else. Alas, my limited free time (mostly thanks to my job) kept me from starting the story right away. It wasn't until November that I got around to finally writing the story, but another month before I could write the next chapter. I hunkered down the middle of December and got to finishing the story ASAP, wanting to get the story done not just before the Winter Olympics, but before the end of 2009 as well.

There was one change I made literally as I was writing the last part. I had originally planned for one of the Final Fantasy 7 girls, either Aeris or Tifa, to be the Final Fantasy girl that comes in to help turn the tide in favor of the four good giantesses. But then I remembered the White Mage making an appearance in Mario Hoops 3-on-3 for the DS and how she was a good friend with Daisy, and so I threw her in, also allowing her to turn Shiva over to the good side instead of having the five giantesses outright defeating her.

Perhaps from the way these three venerable video game franchises (Mario/Sonic/Final Fantasy) were combined for this story, it has seen tremendous success and become a fan favorite. I tried to develop a sequel four years later to tie to the London Olympics, but alas I couldn't make that happen. I cancelled the project because A) I tried to crowd too many giantesses from Mario, Sonic, and Final Fantasy into one story (that was looking more comedic than action/adventure anyway) and B) Much like with Big Dreams for Christmas, I feared the story wouldn't hold up as strongly as Icy Invasion and would instead feel like a step backwards.

Wuzilla
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: November 30, 2013
- Killer Instinct and I go waaaaaaay back. All you have to do is look at my full username, CubedCinder128, in which the Cinder part is named after the Human Torch lookalike of the same name from KI1. It was watching people play the original arcade game back in 1995 and the crazy combos (with that crazy announcer!) that made me a fan of the game. I remember playing the Super NES game for hours, always challenging my friends despite losing a lot because I always kept forgetting the Combo Breakers.

Things only got better once Killer Instinct Gold came out for the N64, especially with Maya sporting that famous finishing move where she shoots a laser from her forehead that shrinks her opponent to a tiny size. I can still vividly remember late one night when everyone was asleep, I set my VCR to record Maya shrinking every playable character. Even the other ladies. I whipped myself into a frenzy with size-changing codes once I had acquired the N64 GameShark. Of course, I made sure to keep my masculinity from declining by always choosing TJ Combo when fighting with friends.

Starting in 1997, I typed up a few very short stories based on Killer Instinct and uploaded nearly all of them onto AOL. All of them were terrible, especially Killer Instinct Basketball. The writing was the kind of stuff you would probably find on a poorly made Saturday morning cartoon, definitely a far cry from what you see out of me today. Eventually I quietly stopped writing these stories and simply waited for KI3. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. In 2009, I could wait no longer. With Rare practically admitting to sleeping in bed with Kinect, I gave up and shortened my name to just Cubed.

Anyway, you want to know more about this story, right? Like I mentioned in the Looking Back for Mile-High Dream 1, I had briefly considered doing a Killer Instinct story for my first VGGTS story. I quickly backtracked from that because I knew KI didn't have the staying power of something like Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider, or Legend of Zelda. If I was going to write at least a few VGGTS stories (not knowing of course that would balloon to over 100 today), I had to write on a series everyone would be familiar with. So the KI story I decided to save for another day.

That day would be mid-2002, very early in VGGTS World's tenure. More people would know about Maya's shrinking move in KI2/KI Gold thanks to the Where? section, so I thought now was the best time to get out that KI GTS story. Progress was slow for the story, as I was busy with other projects, including the old Giant Melee series, at the time; I wasn't yet on the one-story-at-a-time approach I take nowadays.

Looking at the Update Archive for VGGTS World, I pitched Wuzilla as a test story for the epic battle scenes I wanted to put together for the Giant Melee series. Turns out I was showing the rest of the internet how silly I was treating Killer Instinct in fanfiction. I was fixated on Kim Wu's age, pegging her as a fiery and bratty emotional girl because she was getting her butt kicked in KI matches. I borrowed scenes from Sailor Moon to Lexx, almost word for word. I reduced Gargos to a level much like the Shredder from TMNT had stooped to when going from the comics to the 1987 cartoon. I made Chief Thunder a partner of Orchid in 'Team KI.' In other words, I don't know what the hell I was writing from the very beginning. :p

But easily the worst part was that I struggled mightily to put together the fight scene, having a hard time putting together the words to describe the combat that was going on between giant Kim Wu and giant Orchid. Fortunately, when I admitted as much to someone named rain_icecolt, he volunteered to help and wrote the fight scene for me. With that, the strange experiment that was Wuzilla was over. Like Sky-High Royalty, this isn't exactly a story I'm proud of writing, even though it wasn't as bonkers as something like Sky-High Royalty (hence why I leave Wuzilla up on the site). I had thoughts of doing another KI story revolving around Maya and her shrink ray, but those plans never came to fruition.

But with Killer Instinct back in the limelight thanks to Xbox One, and my name back to Cubed Cinder as a result, suddenly another KI story doesn't sound like a bad idea. :)

Kirby Overload
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: April 19, 2014
- I'm always thinking only a handful of people read any brand new story that I put up nowadays, but I knew that would be Kirby Overload's fate no matter how well I wrote the story. Really and truly, I was writing this story for those, myself included, that felt Tiff of the anime series (known as Kirby: Right Back at Ya! in most territories) was one of the ultimate in underappreciated girls to become giantesses. Of course she wasn't a pretty sight to look at compared to the likes of human females like Lara Croft or Princess Zelda, but I thought her serious personality made her a perfect fit to be part of a GTS story.

I started to think of a Tiff story as far back as late 2010, keeping my thoughts on the topic a secret feeling nobody would want to talk about Kirby on VGGTS3. The untitled story was never anything more than this quote in my notes: "The stars from Kirby's Dream Land that made a Kirby a balloon make Tiff grow. She's scared at first but vows to protect everyone in Cappy Town, including of course Kirby." That's pretty much all I thought of the story, saving it for when I had finished all my major storywriting projects (again, thinking people would wonder why I was wasting my time on a Kirby story).

Then at the end of 2011, two things happened that got things moving and turning. First, Kirby: Mass Attack came out for the DS. At the time, I loved the idea behind the game of Kirby being split up into 10 copies of himself and having them team up to do tasks that one Kirby could do in his sleep. When various enemies and blocks in the game looked supersized as I was playing along, I got the impression that the 10 Kirbys might have been teeny tiny as well. And so keeping that in mind and then thinking back to the anime (thanks to some special videos of it popping up on Nintendo Video for 3DS), that's when I had my new story and final title in the form of Kirby Overload, changing Necrodeus from the master villain of Mass Attack to a general monster from N.M.E. The other thing that pushed me to finally write the story was DekuDave5 telling me in early 2012 that he shared my feelings (and that of DJYellow22's) of wanting to see Tiff finally get some GTS action, which eventually prompted him to make this cool Flash video on his deviantART page.

Alas, as I've said before and namely on Twitter. Planning a story and getting excited for it is one thing, but actually putting it into words becomes the true challenge. As I was writing the story, I was once again reminded of how Kirby was the last thing 98% of the visitors to VGGTS World would be thinking of, so that's what pushed me to keep the story as brief as possible. I was determined to keep the story under 10 pages, and even then, I was already bogged down by page #3 on the dismal belief that nobody except diehard Kirby fans would bother to read or comment on this story.

I tried my best to stretch out all the GTS scenes, such as describing the little Kirbys climbing up Tiff's body, adding Sirica (from episode #60), having Lady Like's husband be one of the victims to be shrunken and cloned. In the end, I just couldn't shake the feeling, stronger than any other story, that I was writing a story for only two or three people to enjoy. If that ending seems awfully rushed to you, you'd be absolutely correct. When I found myself concentrating more on Sirica and Meta Knight's battle with Necrodeus, that's when I simply felt it was time to literally untie the anchor and send this ship sailing.

Kirby Overload is not really a story I'm proud to have written, but at least it's a story with Tiff interacting with shrunken living beings (in this case Kirby split into 10). Still, I probably would've done a lot better just sticking with the original idea of Tiff growing.

But at least this story wasn't an epic disaster like Shy Shrinker (a story I wrote where Sailor Mercury shrinks her fellow scouts). That story was so bad, even my most diehard fans called it a disappointment. Grey even called it utter garbage or something like that. It's a sting I still haven't recovered from, even though he was totally right.

Apple's Smashing Army
Author: Cubed Cinder
Entry posted: February 23, 2018
- What a looooooong and strange journey it's been for this story. It all started January 2015 when I came up with Girl Power 2. Basically, the gist of the story was that the playable ladies of Super Smash Bros. on both 3DS and Wii U would come together along with some guest giantesses (such as the Inkling Girl from Splatoon and Lip from Panel de Pon) to stop an army of invaders no doubt cooked up by Master Hand. That's all I remember, but it was undoubtably too grandiose for my writing style, as it only took me six months to change the story to Apple's Grand Tour 3: Smashing Tour.

Smashing Tour was just as it sounds. Princess Apple (my original character who made her VGGTS World debut 15 years ago) decides to take a vacation, this time visiting the other worlds of the same SSB4 ladies (plus DLC that had come out since then like Corrin and Bayonetta) such as Hyrule and Wuhu Island. I worked off and on the story while working on other stories, but in September 2016, I was just plain disgusted by how the story was turning out and cancelled it. Some people were disappointed but understood, and there was one Fire Emblem fan who was utterly disgusted and begged me to reconsider. Ultimately, though, this was coming at a time when I was tired of storywriting and wanting to wind down my workload, if not stop writing entirely. 16 years of doing this can wear thin especially when you have other things to do, such as manage A&C GTS and VGGTS Worlds.

7 months later in July 2017, I get a story request at the time I was taking them (from someone who wants to remain anonymous). He wanted a story where all the playable ladies from Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U all come together and grow to a giant size. Sound familiar? Yep… that's what led me to bringing Apple's Grand Tour 3 back from the dead. With nearly all my stories uploaded on DeviantArt and getting views and comments again, I was fired back up and this time I would see the story through.

Until February 2018. Again I was disgusted with how the story was turning out (which I wrote all throughout January after finishing Alola to MicroBerries). Any of you who've known me all these years know I refuse to release crap. So I scrapped almost the whole story (except the battle between Apple+Peach+Rosalina and Wendy Koopa), and greatly simplified things. I thought back to YouTube footage I watched of Fire Emblem Warriors, cutscenes and gameplay and all, and that's when the light bulb went off. It's certainly not an epic battle like Girl Power 2 could've been, but when you have over a dozen giantesses all dealing with groups of shadowy monsters in their own unique ways… I'd call that a fun story.

*takes deep breath*

And that's the story behind this story (thank you, I'm here all next week). I hope you like it. If you don't… oh well. Not since Jenny, I BLEW UP My Sister! have I given this much to a story. Never again, I hope! :p

The Trial of the Spirits
Author: Nodqfan
Entry posted: January 24, 2020
- Figured I’d write one of these since the story has been the on the site a for a bit, not as long as some stories on here but anyway let’s get to it.
 
So after I had asked Cubed Cinder to remove my Yu-Gi-Oh GTS stories (I do plan to write/re-write those one day) from the Anime and Cartoon site in 2011 I wondered if my writing tenure for the sites would be a short lived one. When I write one continuous problem that I struggle with is pacing, not just the story but myself as a writer I often rush through writing these stories to meet deadlines and fail to slow down, pace myself and let the stories that I write breath which is why most of them look like crap and have so many errors in them. I swear one of these days I’ll learn to pace myself when writing.
 
Then in 2016 I ended up volunteering to co-write the Pokemon GTS story Revenge Rampage with Cubed Cinder I don’t know what came over me because at that point I hadn’t watched the anime since early in the Advanced Generations season (I’ve been trying to get back into watching regularly and as of this writing am 20 episodes into the first season on a re-watch on Hulu) and had only gotten back into the games with the release of HeartGold and SoulSiver games. Thankfully Revenge Rampage went over well and helped me land co-writing duties on two other Pokemon GTS Stories in Shauna Mega Evolves and Cynthia’s Super-Sized Vacation. I’m thankful for these stories and for Cubed Cinder for giving the opportunity to write these stories and helping me gain the confidence to be a writer once again.
 
In 2017 or 18 I had received Pokemon Ultra Sun for Christmas and was playing through the game and got to the Ghost Trial on Ula’Ula Island and thought to myself that this would make great idea for a story and thus Trial of the Spirits was born. I’d thought be a fun to use a different trainer class than the usual player character and I liked the designs of the Ace Trainer class so I used the male design as the protagonist for the story.
 
Remember when I said that I had a tendency to rush through when writing? Yep that reared its ugly head and I was so in the zone that I didn’t catch the multitude of errors when I was writing and the formatting issue as well as not explaining Keith (my name for the protagonist of the story) team and backstory
 
Overall I enjoyed writing the story and thought it was an okay comeback solo story, maybe one day I’ll rewrite the story with a better version with less errors.

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