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The Shattered Reflection
& The Dancing Shadows
Brief:
A young girl who believes she is an angel
witnesses a fight between angels and demons.
Synopsis:
Andrea Williamson, twenty-seven, grabs a
set of angel's wings she's made for herself and flings them across
the room, destroying them in frustration. Realizing that her
halo is gone, she reminisces about how she came to believe she was an Angel
to a stuffed bear.
Twenty years ago: Andrea is scolded by
her mother to get to bed, but after a restless night, she's
tormented by a shadowy demon. Two angels come to her
rescue but after a second demon appears, the angel Hanna blasts
them. The blast weakens her, though, causing her to
collapse. After
returning to consciousness the two angels are confronted by the
seven year old who hopes to help them with a glass of water.
Hanna sends Diana, her other angel, back, leaving her alone with
Andrea. Tucking the child back in, Andrea calls for Lord
Morningstar to test Andrea.
Plot Points:
- The first mention of the human Michael occurs here,
although we're not told who or what he is.
- Andrea's mother calls her an angel, which, being a child, she
believes.
- The first appearance of the Shadows
and Angels.
- In a later episode, it's explained
that the Angel's masks and veils help hide them from humans, yet
Andrea can see them.
- A shadow accuses Hanna of
recruiting humans, not for the Angels, but for the Shadows.
Notes:
- The characters and events of A Wish for Wings represent an
allegorical retelling of the author's life. Many of the
events in story are events that really happened, but are
twisted into a fantasy plot.
- Andrea represents the
author's wish to be an artist. Lise represents
inspiration. The Shadows represent (at this time) a group
of people
hoping to destroy the artistic drive (Morningstar representing
the unnamed head of the group). Hanna represents the
author's muse.
- Andrea's seven year old design is based on a
young girl, now a young woman, named Hanna, living in Central
Pennsylvania. The twenty seven year old design is loosely based on
King from SNK's King of Fighters. Lise is based very
roughly on Lisa Hayes of Robotech. The Shadows designs
were based on images the author saw as a small child, but
would be redesigned later in the series. Hanna was
based on the "Seraph" angels seen in the original Battlestar
Galactica.
- Even the houses exist: Andrea's
apartment was the author's from 2000-2001. The
interiors of her childhood house were based on the house she
lived in from 1992 to 1996.
- Panel 6 of "The Shattered Reflection, Part
Two" was altered a few weeks after it went up. Originally,
Andrea had a halo in her reflection, which was removed after a plot
change.
- The Shattered Reflection was
originally going to be an arc over the entire flashback
story, with Andrea providing commentary as she went through
her story. The only time this happens is "The
Shattered Reflection, Part Three." Eventually, the
titles were dropped from the "bookends" of the older Andrea.
- The wings Andrea throws were
originally going to be built throughout the series,
finishing only days before she destroys them. The
series was revamped, bringing the wings back only once more,
just days before they're destroyed.
- A small detail that was never
followed up on was that True Angels can appear anywhere they
wish, but Human Angels must enter and exit through mirrors.
- The faded text for both the
angels and shadows are meant to emulate barely-heard voices.
Unfortunately, most people were unable to read the comic,
and it is the most complained about aspect of the art.
The book version has legible speech in the word balloons.
- "The Dancing Shadows, Part
Four" was almost the end of the series. A catastrophic
hard drive crash destroyed the printing masters for these
episodes, and left the author with just a 40 megabyte hard
drive. The episode was finished in an old DOS Program
called DISPLAY, after installing Windows 3.11 on the drive.
For a time, the series was cancelled, although a "reboot"
was considered with artist Jenni Bravo. The series was
halted for several months, and returned once a
barely-suitable 800 megabyte drive was installed.
- Hanna destroys the Shadows
with a white blast. At this time, the "Colors of
Magic" plot hadn't formed and The Shadows would have used
black magic, the Angels white magic. The colored eyes
were originally just for emphasis.
- Hanna removes her mask as Diana
protests. In a later episode, it's explained that the
masks and veils help hide them from humans. The two
marks on her face were originally a way to mark Hanna as
looking different from the older Andrea. Eventually
the "killmarks" would be explained in "The Lesson of Patience."
- "The Dancing Shadows, Part
Eight" introduces a new outfit design for Andrea.
Originally her outfit would have been a standard outfit for
all the angels, but was differentiated so readers would be
able to tell them apart.
- "The Dancing Shadows, Part Ten"
began a serious plot change from the original outline of the
story. Originally, Hanna was going to test Andrea to
become an angel now by sending for the demon, Morningstar.
Instead, a new plotline developed adding more menace to
Hanna, which would be developed later, and completely revamp
the original outlines and creating the "Color War."
-
  The "Next
Episode" title cards
were inspired by the "Next Episode" titles used in early
Doctor Who episodes.
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