Trivia / Ambition of the Red Princess

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Since the writing of chapter 3, Qinlongfei gave Malty a tragic past in which Mirellia sold her out to become the wife to the King of Faubley once she reached a suitable age. Initially, Qinlongfei wrote the scene as a way to reward Malty, even if the latter never became queen, but after getting clearer exposition from redditors that Malty's Arranged Marriage to the King of Faubley was a death sentence in the original canon, Qinlongfei had the scene drastically alter Malty into a much more sympathetic character than what was originally intended.
• Creator's Favorite:
  • Starting off the story, Qinlongfei did not have much interest in Malty as a character, as he mainly felt he was writing her as a Pinball Protagonist to follow Naofumi's journey in going through the original plot points of The Rising of the Shield Hero. As more chapters where written, along with Malty's more sympathetic portrayal of her mother selling her out since as a child, Qinlongfei became more invested in expanding her character, eventually becoming a character Qinlongfei enjoyed writing about.
  • Finding Motoyasu to be the most likable of the Four Legendary Heroes for his tragic past and personality as a Manchild, it became a partial motive why Qinlongfei gave him Katarina, Iris, and Bertia, who are all the main characters of their respective series to become the main female side characters for Motoyasu.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • In chapters regarding the fight choreography of Eclair vs. Weiss, and Zellus vs. Pyrrha, Eclair, and Yatsuhashi, they are all the favorite chapters to be written by Ace-Triad for being able to expand his creativity to make what would be interpreted as a great fight sequence.
  • Getting into chapter 74 to set up Aldrecht in a Good vs. Good situation against the main characters, Qinlongfei enjoyed having to plot out his ideas to expand Aldrecht as an antagonistic force in what would somewhat fit the mold of a "twist villain".
  • Reaching onto chapter 94 and 95, Qinlongfei gets to write out his favorite ideas on having lots of political intrigue onto the story by having those chapters be the main establishments that turn the Three Heroes Church into the Big Bad of the story.
• Creator's Pest: Qinlongfei writing Siegmar Isaac Octavius Consevatie is a character he absolutely despises writing about. As an Allegorical Character, Qinlongfei designed him to have his name be a hidden acronym for the term, Self-Insert Original Character, to deconstruct the concept of a modern person getting reincarnated and having an ego so overblown, that Consevatie comes off as an Insufferable Imbecile thinking himself as superior with his modern world knowledge.
• Dear Negative Reader: The two common criticisms given to Ambition of the Red Princess are the slow pacing the story has to build on its world and the absurd cast of characters originating from other franchises. With those two criticisms, viewers are turned off by the overcrowded content to focus on the main plot of the story and the development of the main characters. To Qinlongfei's response at the critiques, he apologizes for the strain that readers have to go through and accepts his pop culture reference as his out-of-control fetish.
• Diagnosis of God: When it comes to describing Malty's personality, Qinlongei considers her as either The Sociopath that learned to pick up empathy and genuine kindness from the people who showed it to her throughout the adventures she went as Mein of Samphor. Even if Malty ended up being a subversion of a sociopath as shown from the guilt she harbors, personal standards she has, and close connections (qualities that disqualify someone from a sociopath), Qinlongfei sees her behavior as imitated-sociopathy to cope her political lifestyle.
• Promoted Fanboy: Ace-Triad started off Ambition of the Red Princess as a fan looking for Malty related fanfics that had her as the main focus, instead of other Shield Hero fanfics depicting her as a Hate Sink Big Bad. The choice to look for look for Malty fanfics that got Ace-Triad introduced to Ambition of the Red Princess where they joined the writing crew to beta-read, write the fight choreography, and revise any grammar mistakes.
• Throw It In!: Regarding Malty being Unintentionally Sympathetic in how Qinlongfei wrote her characterization and past, he chose to stick with her more sympathetic portrayal and expand upon it, when he learned of her sentence to become King Egbert's wife is more like a death penalty for her, instead of a way to gain more political power.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The story was originally going to just be contained in a single work known, but a majority of its content was split into Ascension of the Red Princess, as to have Ambition of the Red Princess have a self-contained ending focused mainly on Malty and Naofumi.
  • Malty's personality in this fanfic was that she was going to be more conniving and manipulative towards her allies, but due to the Fridge Logic of Qinlongfei getting questioned by Comrade Broseph as to why Queen Mirellia would want to kill her own daughter, Qinlongfei remembered the King of Faubley's perverted attitude towards women. It resulted in Malty's backstory painting her as a more sympathetic character, Queen Mirellia getting a more villainous portrayal, and later down the story, the reveal that King Egbert had forced Mirellia into surrendering Malty as his bride.
    • Alongside being more of a genuine sociopath that simply is smart enough to not be reckless with her actions, Malty was going to be more of a Pinball Protagonist that follows around Naofumi, until the decision to give Malty a more tragic and redeeming portrayal once arriving at chapter 3.
  • In chapter 23, when writing up Malty's injuries after getting mauled by a Hell Hound, Qinlongfei only wanted Malty to suffer only facial scars because it seemed more personal for her. To Comrade Broseph, however, he preferred for Malty to have one of her ears removed to have the consequences be more severe for having abandoned Raphtalia on her own in chapter 19. When Comrade Broseph suddenly disappeared, Qinlongfei chose to give the harsher injuries to Malty, so that Comrade Broseph would have a paid tribute.
  • The original plans for Chapter 44 "Biohazard" was to have Katarina Claes receive a cursed scar from fighting the giant tree of the miracle seed. However, giving the scar to Katarina would have been an obvious reference to her canon counterpart, so it was changed to Iris getting a scar as a way to get a Laser-Guided Karma for wanting the miracle seed.
  • Initially, the story was suppose to only have Malty side with Naofumi, and the other characters stay mostly in their same canon alignment, alongside the canon setup. However, the longer Ambition of the Red Princess continued, the authors progressively got annoyed with the idiocy and nonsensical setup of The Rising of the Shield Hero. This then led to Ambition of the Red Princess diverging heavily from the original Shield Hero story.
  • Chapter 65 and chapter 66 were supposed to be a single interlude chapter that describes the viewpoint of all four of the cardinal heroes. However, when Qinlongfei started writing, he realized that he was filling up too many words for a single chapter. It was then decided that the interlude chapters should be split into a two-parter.
  • The original plan for Malty burning her nanny to death was supposed to be told from Mirellia's perspective to give the latter as to why she would give Malty the Parental Neglect treatment and be a Doting Parent to Melty only. However, since the death of the nanny was first told in Malty's perspective in chapter 48 and not Mirellia in chapter 28, the former ended up being Unintentionally Sympathetic to Qinlongfei and the co-writers. As an attempt to replay more of Malty's negative traits as a princess, the scene was retold from Anne's perspective in chapter 89's omake where she was traumatized by Malty's violent outburst that scarred her and killed another nanny.
  • Qinlongfei didn't want Malty to become the wand hero in chapter 94, as he believed that her obtaining King Aultcray's wand would have been a Story-Breaker Power for Malty. Commissar Gaunt, however, managed to convince Qinlongfei into giving Malty the wand, because it would be in line for Aultcray's character to save her at all cost. Besides that, the wand could have been at the hands of the Three Heroes Church, if the weapon had not been given to Malty.
    • There was originally a plan to have an omake be added right after chapter 94 to what would happen if a weak vassal hero that lacks the divine powers of Web!Raphtalia appeared to fight the people prepared for the third wave. The result would have resulted in the individual getting defeated from their own clumsiness, but the idea was scrapped to not ruin the serious mood of the story.
      Qinlongfei: Heck. Originally I planned a non-canon omake at the end of 3rd wave arc of my own story. Where she gets into Medea instead of Goddess Raphtalia. And the four cardinal heroes (with Malty giving Naofumi 'Unstoppable Force' buff) just kills her without help from the other strong fighters. The only reason I didn't actually write that planned Omake out is because it would completely ruin the solemn mood I worked for in the main story.
  • Introducing the Web!Raphtalia as a goddess that appears after the third wave, Commissar Gaunt was the one who had suggested for Web!Raphtalia to have no face and have a Mysterious Veil be acting as a mask in the author's notes of chapter 95. The reasoning for the decision is to ensure the characters don't turn Ambition!Raphtalia into the Fall Guy by associating her web novel counterpart that endangered the lives of many soldiers.
  • Chapter 100 was originally supposed to have Malty cross-dress herself as a man to give herself another secret identity, but was never implemented on by Qinlongei. The idea was removed, since Malty looking as a man was not necessary if people couldn't tell she is a princess.
  • Revealed in the author notes of chapter 101, Malty and Naofumi were supposed to escape together with Firo and Raphtalia from the Church of the Three Heroes, but the ending was that only Malty and Naofumi escaped. For the official events of the story, Malty and Naofumi were the only ones that escaped, but their assistance was given by Farkas and Kyubey.
  • Chapter 105 changed the direction by having Malty and Naofumi play a bigger role in the planning with the demi-humans to overthrow the Three Heroes Church off of Graile. Qinlongfei originally wanted the chapter to be Malty and Naofumi just spectating the characters doing their planning, but changed the idea from having read the reviews back in "chapter 103/chapter 88: Dark Tide Underneath", and watching some Filmento to improve his writing capabilities.
  • In the death of Alderic by the end of chapter 109, Qinlongfei planned for him to live, but changed the idea to kill him, as to invoke Death Is Dramatic and because he could not find a way to utilize his character for another story event.
  • Had Qinlongfei stayed with his original idea to follow The Rising of the Shield Hero's plotlines, he would have had the Three Heroes Church go for making their attempts to assassinate Melty. However, because Commissar Gaunt brought up a Fridge Logic question as to why Pope Balmus and Malty would go for murdering Melty, if the two are smarter than their canon selves, Qinlongfei ditched the original plans to instead go for the Three Heroes Church conquering Graile, as written in his chapter 110 author notes.
    • As part of setting up his original ideas for a Three Heroes Church assassination attack on Melty, Velvet Scarlatina was meant to be an assassin sent directly by Pope Balmus. Ultimately, the ideas were scrapped once one of the readers, Commissar Gaunt reminded Qinlongfei that Melty would have been the more ideal candidate for the Three Heroes Church to brainwash and indoctrinate due to her young age and inexperience, instead of Malty being the more competent and cautious princess. So the employer of Velvet changed to be someone yet as unknown in the story.
  • Chapter 114 and 115 were supposed to be a single chapter, but Qinlongfei underestimating his writing capabilities ended up making the single chapter idea too long, so he had to split it in two.
  • The original plans for Malty and Naofumi's enslavement in chapter 118 was that the Three Heroes and their allies were supposed to be the ones that saved them from the clutches of the Three Heroes Church. However, because the Three Heroes Church and Pope Balmus were given lots of depth from how they operate, the plans were scrapped in favor of Qinlongfei taking Datnoob's contribution for Leon Bartfort making a Villainous Rescue to have Naofumi and Malty be kept alive, just so revenge is enacted on Consevatie.
  • Between chapter 121 and chapter 122, there was originally going to be a conversation with Pope Balmus regarding the antics of Consevatie the Younger's stupidity in the former chapter. However, the discussion about Consevatie was moved into chapter 122's omake to not disrupt to tonal shift of chapter 121.
  • The original plot for chapter 127 would be about Naofumi, Malty, and their travelling companions working together with Bed-Chan to have the brute force needed to overpower the Three Heroes Church. Instead, Qinlongfei scrapped the ideas to opt for the protagonists and their navigators escaping the Three Heroes Church, before more reinforcements are summoned.
• Word of God:
  • Qinlongfei got Naofumi's name for his brother, Takeru, from the Chinese translation of the former's name. Coincidentally in history, there was a famous Japanese prince named "Yamato Takuru", and his name ended up being used for the name of Raphtalia's father.
  • According to Qinlongfei, the name of Lord Commander Cloud of Adeptus Astartes is based off of the Romans and a broken translation of the Latin language.
  • Part of the reason Abby was given an Adaptational Species Change to be the Bitch Lord of her bandits was because of Qinlongfei seeing furry art pictures of her.
  • Eclair being given a demon sword in this fanfic was the result of Qinlongfei finding Eclair's potential to become the katana vassal hero being a wasted route that never happened that could have made her stand out within the Shield Hero cast.
  • The idea of Flangley and its people brought in a religious discussion at chapter 116 was brought by Comrade Broseph wanting to introduce the idea of Christian missionaries wanting to go to India, but were instead transported into Medea.
  • Qinlongfei got the idea to have Consevatie come up with the fake Vicar Vittorio trap to lure Naofumi and Malty was an inspiration that came from Streibough making out Oersted as a villain in Live A Live.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants:
  • Beginning the initial chapters of Ambition of the Red Princess, Qinlongfei wrote Malty as a more genuine sociopath that is high-functioning, but while writing chapter 3, he ditched the idea upon remembering the pig king wanting to have Malty be raped. The result was a last-minute decision where Qinlongfei was convinced by Comrade Broseph to give Malty a more sympathetic portrayal for future chapters.
  • Malty and Eclair's manipulation-stringed friendship that just so happened to be an attached subplot into the story by Qinlongfei and the other writers.
  • As revealed in chapter 56, Malty having Aldrecht as a parental figure in her life was never discussed by the other writers, nor was planned by Qinlongfei from the start. Aldrecht's expanded relationship with Malty is described as simply something that happened while the story was written.
  • Qinlongfei wrote Mouse as just an Original Character that served the Bitch Lord, but upon getting Mouse killed by Raphtalia in chapter 64, Qinlongfei admits to not having planned Mouse act as a personal demon that would trigger Raphtalia into her Heroic BSoD.
  • Sir Crepe wasn't originally revealed in chapter 66 to be a princess in disguise of a knight. That idea came to be when Qinlongfei partially incorporated The Familiar of Zero lore into the fanfic to make Sir Crepe as the daughter belonging to Prince Joseph and Lady Sheffield.
  • For the aftermath of the Three Heroes Church betrayal, Qinlongfei reveals in chapter 101 that he doesn't have a plan for most of the Church saga, since he can only think up of some major plot points that the story will need to eventually get by.
  • Chapter 105 was going to just have Malty and Naofumi to be listening to the members of the Okami Clan and Uranus planning, but the idea was changed and went into a direction Qinlongfei didn't put a lot of planning on, as he'd seen reviews from his previous chapters, and watched Filmento to get a better grasp at being a writer.
  • Back in chapter 43, Qinlongfei had Jarl Balgruff elected the title of thane to Naofumi, because the author wanted to do so for Rule of Cool reasons. Fast-forward to chapter 111 where Naofumi's title as thane becomes a legal plot point for the Three Heroes to potentially exploit against the Three Heroes Church, Qinlongfei admits to not having planned the title to become something important, as written in the author notes.
  • Writing about the characteristics and role of Pope Balmus, Qinlongfei author notes in chapter 121 mentions that he had no direction on whether the former should be portrayed as a villainous antagonist like what the pope used to be in The Rising of the Shield Hero, or be kept a vague personality on what motives lie inside of Balmus' mind. Which had resulted throughout various chapters, the vibe of Pope Balmus had omitted in the story had either came off as mysterious, villainous, or supportive of the main characters.
  • The mysterious necromancers Balgruuf once mentioned back in Whiterun were people Qinlongfei did not put thought on who they would be. Bringing in Bellatrix and Rudopholus, Qinlonfei then chose to have them be the necromancers Balgruuf mentioned, as written in the chapter 122 author notes.

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