Thoughts on WIEDERGEBURT

Now that the first sex scene of the main timeline is available for human patrons, I wanted to express my thoughts and views on the series itself.

While WIEDERGEBURT: Legend of the Reincarnated Warrior is something of a pseudo-xianxia story (I don't think my cultivation system is good enough to call it true xianxia), a lot of the ideas come primarily from Japanese tropes found in anime and manga. I'm sure lots of people have noticed.

The flashbacks are something I thought up as both a means of showing off Eryk's past so you can understand the current him better, but also because I wanted to write sex scenes in a way that wouldn't interfere with the growth and development of my characters.

Japanese harems have always had a major issue when it comes to relationships. The protagonist is almost always too dense to notice the feelings of the women shoving their titties in his face. Meanwhile, the women might smash their breasticles all over him, hop in the bath with him, and even argue over his affection, but they never actually say "I love you." Because no one communicates their feelings to the man who is too stupid to recognize they have feelings for him (and because the man himself either doesn't have any of his own or doesn't recognize his own feelings), the romance is always stagnant.

On the other hand, western harems have the opposite problem. The protagonist might not be dense, but he and his harem get together too quickly. They begin fucking barely a chapter after the girls are introduced, which is just unrealistic. There's no buildup in their relationship, and so the characters feel just as flat and one-dimensional as their Japanese counterparts. While this is okay sometimes depending on how the characters develop, I feel like most of the writing for harem stories is juvenile. Of the authors I've read, the ones I really think do the harem genre well are CebeliusWrites and Mike Truk.

WIEDERGEBURT is meant to be a slow-burn harem romance. I introduce the women who are going to be a part of Eryk's harem, but I don't have them officially get together until Act II. The biggest reason is because I want them to develop feelings for each other naturally. I also felt like adding a bit of relationship drama was necessary for some of the characters feelings to grow.

While Eryk and Kari's relationship was mostly smooth sailing (in no small part due to Eryk already being in love with her), the relationship between Eryk and Fay had a lot of bumps. A part of the reason is because Eryk didn't believe he could love Fay. He felt like it would be unfair to her if he accepted her feelings when he was already in love with Kari.

Of course, we all know polygamy is acceptable in this series since I introduced the concept early with Hilda and her husbands. However, Eryk's feelings for Kari are a lot more complex than simple love. Another reason I showed his past is because I wanted everyone to see how dependent he was on Kari not just for survival but also emotional support. Kari and Eryk's relationship in the past was one in which the two became reliant on each other and could not imagine life without the other. Because of this, Eryk's romantic focus was very narrow. He couldn't see Fay as a potential partner for that reason, which is why he didn't accept her feelings even though he was beginning to fall for her as well.

This actually brings up an interesting subject. It took Kari's machinations for Eryk to accept his feelings for Fay. The past Kari probably wouldn't have let Fay join them, but the present Kari is different. Present Kari did not go through the hardships her past self had, did not grow to rely on Eryk for emotional support, and therefore does not have the same hangups her other self possessed. She also has a clear and concise motive for letting Fay join Eryk's harem: She wants her friend back.

On that note, Lin was basically added because Kari was already giving Eryk permission to court Fay and thought, "Well, if I'm going to let him marry one woman, I might as well add another."

I think giving the characters in Eryk's harem a clear reason to want him to accept another woman is important because it makes them seem more real. Kari doesn't want Fay to marry Eryk because she thinks Eryk just has a big heart and is willing to accept and love all of them equally. She wants her friend back, and she thinks that if she and Fay are married to the same man, it will force Fay to become her friend again. It is a very selfish reason, but I feel that is why it works.

Back to the flashbacks. There will eventually come a time when the flashbacks end. Since Eryk traveled to the past during his battle against the Overlord of the Seventh Plain, the flashbacks will stop after I reach the point in my writing where Eryk goes off to confront him. I'm thinking the flashbacks will probably end in Act III, which is the last planned Act where Eryk and the others remain in Nevaria. I plan to have them travel after that, so it would be a good point to conclude them.

On that note, I'm leaving a lot of background and lore out of the flashbacks since I want to introduce them later when they actually become important. The Northern Plains and Endless Desert are big places with a lot of history. I plan on showing that when they begin setting off on their journey.

Of course, this is still a long ways off. We haven't even finished Act II and there's one more Act after that before they leave Nevaria.

Anyway, that's all my current thoughts on the series. I hope you guys have been enjoying it. Please let me know what your opinions are so far. Do you like it? What do you like about it? Is there anything you feel I should add to the story?