Trivia / Star Wars Paranormalities Trilogy

• Author's Saving Throw: One criticism of some early Episode I chapters was the cameos of canon or Legends characters that don't do much when the story is predominantly original character-focused. Episode I - Chapter 12 addressed this by having Luke Skywalker mention that he was helping fight against the Valkoran Empire while Zolph was recovering from losing his arm as a way of acknowledging that he actually does stuff off-screen. Episode II also went the extra mile to have Luke be present (and not just Mission Control) for some of the Archfiend-related missions and the Battle of Ockla Prime. Also, when Luke was given attention in action scenes, he was portrayed as incredibly powerful on his own compared to Zolph (to the point of triviality) and acknowledged as powerful enough to be considered a threat or an asset to the Forceless Collective. Later chapters also cut down on the number of canon/Legends character cameos.
• Creator Breakdown: After Episode III - Chapter 3 was posted, Matt admitted that some of the delays came from a number of stresses and real life factors, especially when the United States got hit by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Specifically, Matt was considered an essential worker, and a visiting relative (whose visit was extended by two months due to the quarantine) also meant his attention was taken away from working on the project.
• Development Hell: Episode III - Chapter 3 marked the longest point of publication time between chapters (being two years), with Matt admitting that there were points where the document for the chapter sat in his hard drive for months with no further progress aside from a few revisions. Eventually, as Matt realized the chapter was getting too big for an early-Episode chapter (and the amount of time passing), he decided to split it into two chapters.
• In Memoriam: Chapter 1 of Episode III was delayed to include a minor role by Leia Organa as a way of paying tribute to Carrie Fisher after she passed away in 2016. Matt has admitted that even though she might show up only once in the story, he felt it needed to be done despite him otherwise being conservative about the usage of canon characters.
• Schedule Slip: Paranormalities, as highly-developed as it is for a fan fic, Matt works on this project alone, so it can take varying amounts of time to release content for it, whether be it concept art, the chapters themselves, or other real life factors. The longest drought between concept art was over a year, while it took two years between Chapter 2 and 3 of Episode III. Being aware of this (and this being mostly a passion project), Matt generally avoids giving specific publication dates for upcoming chapters.
• What Could Have Been: Sometimes, chapters that take place on one planet were originally one chapter split due to length.
  • Chapter 2 and 3 of Episode II (both taking place on Dagobah and dealing with Zolph's repressed trauma) were originally one chapter before being split.
  • Chapter 5 and 6 of Episode II (both taking place in the Onderon system, revolving around the threat of Fafniros and Zolph taking steps to mitigate his PTSD) were originally going to be a single chapter, but split due to increasing length, mainly in response to Chapter 4 being the longest chapter Matt had written at that point.
  • Chapter 3 and 4 of Episode III (both taking place on Felucia) were originally going to be one chapter. However, the increasingly apparent length of the chapter, some writer's block, and the increasing Schedule Slip prompted Matt to split the chapter.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Matt has admitted that even though he has an outline of the narrative in his head, some parts are conceptualized during the writing process, including other characters. This alongside other works and concept art are a factor in the series' occasional Schedule Slips.

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