EMPOWERED story notes, pt.3 (Patreon)

More Empowered story notes from very early on in the series. And now, some quick annotations. 

Left-hand column:

*Ninjette did, of course, end up moving in with Emp and Thugboy after the EMP3 ninja fight, which was indeed originally set in a fast-food joint, before I came to my senses. (Vastly easier to draw a forest than a restaurant interior.)

*In my own experience with the malady, I always preferred the phrase "weathering" or "enduring depression," as "battling" always sounded too energetic and zesty for such a debilitating experience. (Er, not that I actually talked about my lengthy, early-20s bout of clinical depression with anyone, back then.)

*Alas, more's the pity that Pimpotron Alpha didn't return and spirit Major Havoc away, which would've presented Emp with quite the conundrum.

Right-hand column:

*Yeahp, Emp's vol.6 "origin flashback" was a long-brewing idea.

*The fanfic riff would blossom fully in EMP3's yaoi story, of course.

*"SUIT HAS EXAXX-STYLE GM (meaning 'gravitational manipulation')  AND INERTIA CONTROL" refers to Kenichi Sonoda's manga Cannon God Exaxxion, which I handled the rewriting on when Dark Horse published the series. The alien tech in Exaxxion included such unearthly effects, hence the reference.

*Interesting that I had twigged so early to the unintentionally autobiographical aspects of the series, at least on a thematic level. Could've sworn I didn't notice this until later on, especially involving the idea of someone (like Emp) who lands the supposed "job of their dreams," only to gradually figure out that it kinda sucks. (Any parallels with my own career are, of course, strictly coincidental. *WINK*) 

*No idea what the heck Decade-Ago Me was driving at with the "*TRICKY" sentence in the first "AUTOBIO AHOY" section, though. Yes, sometimes the notes' hastily scribbling wound up being a bit too hasty to be of subsequent use.

*The "Hastur-style" reference is to the Cthulhu mythos from AD&D's old Deities & Demigods manual, in which ol' 600-foot-tall Hastur would appear if you dared speak his name aloud. Similarly, it seems, Sistah Spooky might've materialized if you badmouthed her online in an obnoxious enough manner.