For Good

A fledgling epic, For Good is Aleine Skyfire’s Alternate Universe for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. The first and only multi-chaptered fic for the series, Breakaway, is based on the concept of how one person can make a big impact. And with an expanded summary on FF.N, how "a handful of people" can impact the galaxy.

The protagonist, Erin Frame, is an OC, but the unique conceit of the story is that she is a BLoSC fan time-traveled to the Galactic Alliance. Her characterization is carefully developed throughout the fic as a dynamic character; the characterizations of Team Lightyear and Warp Darkmatter are also handled with care and realism. Chapters 9 and 10 introduce some important new characters, along with a Zurg subplot and a new direction for the story at The Academy. The series appears to be headed eventually for some kind of galactic war, as hinted at in the prologue and Chapter 10 - thus justifying the author's use of the word "epic".

The series also includes two collections of one-shots: a sort of eXperimental canon at the XR fan club, and a ships 50 on FF.N One roleplay arc (now abandoned) at the XR forum made something of a secondary canon - most of the stuff regarding Buzz and Erin can be taken as fully canonical, considering that the author played both characters.

Now has its own Character Sheet, for your convenience.

Breakaway
"Mira: Can't take it sober. Warp: Nope."
 * The Ace: Ricki Sunflare, Erin's dorm-mate.
 * Erin's turning out to be one, herself.
 * Action Chick: Zomega, Fringe-woman extraordinaire.
 * Any female cadet is sure to qualify.
 * According to Indy, especially Erin and Windy.
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Erin just can't seem to help it.
 * Ambiguously Jewish: Zurg's given name in the story – Zuriel.
 * An Offer You Can't Refuse: Zurg's offer of employment to a seventeen-year-old Warp.
 * Ascended Fangirl: Erin, from fangirl to cadet.
 * Author Avatar: Played straight in the original version, Watermark; continued, albeit more subdued, in the rewrite.
 * In all fairness, the author's real-life problem, scoliosis, gave her a plot device for Erin.
 * Awesome McCoolname:
 * Janet Astrelle.
 * Zomega.
 * Most of the cadets, including Erin's dorm-mates…
 * Ricki Sunflare, Windy Terrik, and Isadore "Ice" Ellemore.
 * Subverted with Erin Frame.
 * On the other hand, Erin is the anglicized name of the goddess of Ireland.
 * Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other:  dance. And enjoy it.
 * Badass Bookworm: Erin is shaping up to be this.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Buzz towards Erin.
 * Big Damn Starship: The ZVIS Triumphant.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Erin speaks Spanish.
 * So does Buzz.
 * Bonding Over Missing Parents: Erin and "Hayden" seem to start doing this, very briefly.
 * Brown Eyes: Erin. The color acts as a reminder of her Spanish-Jewish heritage and as an symbol of her normalcy amongst so many Blue Eyes (Buzz, Mira, and Warp). In the roleplay, she was established as a pro at using Puppy Dog Eyes, and, for having such a normal eye color, she can still do a piercing stare with the best of them.
 * Call Back: Erin's reaction to the Orion Nebula seems to be a call back both to her initial reaction to Outer Space earlier in the story and to the original version, Watermark.
 * The Captain: For the first time ever, Chapter 11 of Breakaway strongly implies that Erin will end up as this. The author's note all but comes right out and declares it.
 * Character Development: One of the long-established purposes of the series is to develop Buzz's characterization by giving him a sister. The original story, for all its faults, did well in this regard by showing enough scenes with Buzz and Erin that would bring them to a close sibling relationship. The rewrite still shows Buzz awkward with his new-found sibling status in the beginning, and it also shows Buzz giving Erin a brotherly hug before she enters the Academy. On the other hand, a lot of the development of the original in-between the two points in time is lost, including driving lessons, physical training, and pancakes.
 * It seems, however, that the author is also trying to be more subtle about the changes in Buzz: "For Buzz, well… one would rarely ever be able to tell how life was affecting him or not affecting him. For all his many and varied emotional displays, he seemed never to change."
 * But let's not forget Mira, who admits to Erin that she has issues in her own love life.
 * Or Warp, for that matter. Even if he's not dropping everything for The Girl, he's still bothered by a pair of big Brown Eyes.
 * Characterization Marches On: Between Breakaway and the roleplay arc (both developed well over a year's time), one could well be confused about Erin's age and maturity.
 * Convenient Slow Dance: See Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other. Lampshaded by Erin, who calls it by name.
 * Cool Spaceship: The simulated Pendragon V-class Battle Cruiser, complete with a detachable bridge.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy:
 * Warp and Zomega qualify.
 * As do Erin's dorm-mates, especially Ricki.
 * Averted with Ice: "My family is very strictly Tangean Isolationist — that means they avoid Off-Worlder stuff like the plague."
 * As a bookworm, Erin also qualifies.
 * Especially since she's a time-traveled BLoSC fan, who will not interfere with pre-established events for fear of disrupting the time/space-continuum beyond repair.
 * She is the only character thus far to purposefully lampshade any tropes.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Played straight with Warp.
 * Darker and Edgier: Than the show in general, though Breakaway doesn't exactly skimp on the comedic moments, either.
 * The one-shots tend to be angsty.
 * Erin herself appears to be slowly and slightly progressing this way.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Erin doesn't start out as deadpan, but she's reached it by the time she gets to the Academy.
 * And let's not forget Windy. Ai-yi-yi.
 * Earthshattering Kaboom: The explosion that killed the team who brought Erin to the future – also destroyed ALL her roads home.
 * The Empire: Played straighter than the show. Zurg is the head of state of the vastly-diminished Zeretanaen Empire.
 * Epic Song: Erin’s performance of "The Voice" and "May It Be" could well qualify.
 * Establishing Character Moment: Ricki's second-scene-ever has her performing a Sherlock Scan on Erin, after being established as a prodigy. However, the best Establishing Character Moment in the entire fic is the very next scene, which introduces us to Windy and Ice. We quickly discover that Windy is impatient and sarcastic and that Ice is a Genre Blind, Naive Newcomer.
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Warp has his cousin and her son.
 * Everything Is Online: The Internet History Database.
 * Erin learns about her new surroundings quickly, thanks to the Internet.
 * Evil Pays Better: Warp's retort to Erin, as per canon.
 * Expy: Erin, Ricki, and Windy enjoy playing at Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr.McCoy, respectively. Time will tell how serious those roles become.
 * As mentioned on the Shout Out page, Zomega is an expy of Major Kusanagi.
 * Eye Scream: When Zomega was first introduced, she was introduced with her cybernetic red eye. The Backstory for that has never been revealed, but considering her past, it can't pretty.
 * Fandom Nod: Mira names some Zurg fangirls.
 * The chapter in which she does so is a tribute to an old one-shot.
 * There were many examples in the original.
 * Five-Man Band: Dorm-team 76.
 * The Hero: Erin.
 * The Lancer / The Smart Guy: Ricki.
 * The Smart Guy / The Medic: Windy.
 * The Big Guy: None of the girls, as of yet.
 * The Chick: Ice.
 * Flanderization: Averted. For Good takes the characters more seriously than the show does!
 * Foreshadowing: The prologue. Hard.
 * Friendly Enemy:  at the dinner party.
 * And.
 * Forgotten Family: As one reviewer pointed out, Erin's family fades into oblivion. The author admitted to the reviewer that, in the long course of writing the fic (the rewrite has been going since early 2010), she actually forgot about the Frame family!
 * Full-Name Basis: Eda-Ji-Kep does this, although it's said to be a characteristic of his race. And he splits full names into three parts, the way that his race makes names. Erin Frame becomes Er-In-Frame.
 * Green-Skinned Space Babe: Ricki.
 * Zomega is a lavender-colored version.
 * Heel Face Turn:  in a one-shot. And that roleplay arc.
 * Held Gaze: Erin and  during her performance.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Buzz and XR like Mira. A lot.
 * I Need a Freaking Drink:
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Buzz and XR like Mira. A lot.
 * I Need a Freaking Drink:


 * Informed Messianic Judaism: The definitely Christian Erin is known to be part Spanish-Jewish - her middle name is Elisheba - but that part of her heritage receives painfully little elaboration.
 * Interspecies Romance: Warp and Erin. And Buzz and Mira.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Warp is shaping up to be this as the story's Draco in Leather Pants, with each new chapter and Ships 50 installment.
 * Jumped At the Call: Buzz initially tries to discourage Erin from becoming a Ranger, but, having literally nowhere else to turn, she overrides his objections.
 * Large Ham:  at the dinner party. And how!
 * Also XR.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Ever since Chapter 9, we've been introduced to OC after OC, starting with Zomega and continuing on with Ricki, Windy, & Ice, then Indy, Cody, Clutch, & Eda-Ji-Kep... and likely more to come. Justified in that this is a Next Gen Fic; see below.
 * Love Redeems: Okay, this is not a spoiler... Warp. Because of Erin.
 * Meaningful Name: The series and fic titles. For Good. Breakaway.
 * Next Gen Fic: Roughly midway through the story, Breakaway turned into this, shifting the focus from Erin and Team Lightyear to Erin and her fellow cadets. What makes it Next Gen is that the 3008 & 3009 classes are considered in-universe to be the next generation of Star Command, completely separate even from Rangers like Mira, Booster, and XR, who themselves are still rookies.
 * No Such Thing as Space Jesus: Averted. Erin speaks with Jesus in a more-real-than-reality dream.
 * Plus Ricki, an alien, tells Erin why
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Warp, lampshaded by Zomega.
 * Oddly Small Organization: Star Command, lampshaded by Erin.
 * Older Than They Look: The 60s-something Zomega looks about half as old. She's part alien and looks it.
 * OTP: The author is a diehard  shipper. The Convenient Slow Dance is the first chronological, in-universe hint of this.
 * Overshadowed by Awesome: The protagonist, actually, until...
 * Erin finally becomes awesome in her own right in Breakaway 's Chapter 11 - see The Captain.
 * Played straight thus far with Ice Ellemore, Cody Ricardo, Clutch Donnell, and Eda-Ji-Kep.
 * Parental Abandonment: Buzz, Mira, Erin, Warp, and Zurg can all claim this, with varying circumstances.
 * Plucky Comic Relief: Erin strives for this.
 * Police Are Useless: Invoked by  at the dinner party.
 * Purple Eyes:
 * Ricki is described as having prominent violet eyes, the color and size contrasting sharply in one scene with Erin's very normal, very human brown eyes.
 * Zomega's one natural eye is described as indigo, a flexible name that could describe a dark blue or a blue-purple. It is actually her one visible human trait.
 * Race Against the Clock: Team Lightyear racing to the SCRDW complex.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Buzz. And Commander Nebula.
 * The Red Planet: Planet Z.
 * Retcon: The rewrite.
 * Running Gag: Ice's cultural ignorance.
 * Plus the friendly antagonism between Ricki and Windy, mostly one-sided.
 * Say My Name: Erin plays this for laughs, mimicking Zurg when she "curses" Rocket Crocket. Then realizes maybe that wasn’t such a bright idea.
 * This comes after Rocket shouts Erin's name, to throw off her volleyball serve.
 * Secret Relationship: Buzz doesn't know Erin is keeping in touch with . To be fair,.
 * Sharp-Dressed Man:  at the dinner party. Yes, indeed.
 * Sherlock Scan: Ricki does this to Erin. Lampshaded by Erin calling it such.
 * Shining City: Erin's first view of Capital City.
 * Shipper on Deck: Erin is a definite Beer shipper.  seems to be one, as well.
 * Shout-Out: This series now has its own Shout Out page.
 * The Smurfette Principle: Averted. Hard. With an entire foursome of female cadets.
 * Space Clouds: The Orion Nebula.
 * Super Speed: In keeping with the show, great distances can be covered relatively quickly.
 * Unlike the show, the author uses hyperspace.
 * Not anymore. She retconned it to warp speed.
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky: Warp. All the way.
 * Textual Celebrity Resemblance:
 * Tomboyish Name: Ricki, of course!
 * Took a Level in Badass: Erin leveled up between chapters 9 and 10 (with months in-between the two chapters) - she really shines as The Captain in an almost Unwinnable Training Simulation in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 has a flashback showing her in the process of leveling up, courtesy of her brother.
 * Trapped in Another World: Erin. In an odd bit of story development, she went from Wangst to Angst? What Angst?. See Forgotten Family above.
 * Unexplained Recovery: Erin. Not only did she heal from her life-threatening injuries, she got her scoliosis cured and gained nine crater-freakin' inches in height.
 * Wasn't That Fun?: XR's attitude regarding the dinner party, even while it's in full swing!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Ricki questions the wisdom of  To Buzz Lightyear, no less.
 * Word of God: Used so heavily that the author’s notes and review replies can comprise 20% of chapter word counts!
 * World War III: The "Milky Way War" mentioned several times in early chapters of Breakaway and the roleplay arc. (See this trope in the Roleplay section below.)
 * Zeerust: Subverted.
 * Zeerust: Subverted.

The One-shots

 * A Father to His Men: Zurg is called a “twisted sort of father figure” in semi-canonical "33. Too Much".
 * With Warp as the big brother in Planet Z’s weird family chemistry.
 * Being Evil Sucks: Played more or less straight with Zurg's employees.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: Played straight with Zurg.
 * Disney Death: According to Word of God in no. 5 of the Ships 50.
 * Interspecies Romance: Warp and Erin, especially in the Ships 50; also Buzz and Mira.
 * Smoking Is Cool: Warp in "33. Too Much". He’s the one canonical character who could get away with it.

The Roleplay Arc

 * Action Girl: Mira Nova, Erin Darkmatter, Liz Sherman, Cora Lightyear.
 * Mira becomes an Action Mom once Cora hits the scene.
 * Adorkable: Buzz as a dad.
 * Antagonistic Offspring: Cora is a pretty sassy kid.
 * Berserk Button: Buzz's is, interestingly, family - do NOT mess with the man's sister or daughter.
 * Big Brother Instinct: Buzz, in overdrive, at times.
 * Bilingual Bonus: Erin is still speaking Spanish.
 * Boldly Coming: XR on Liz. Erin rebukes him, but Liz is actually flattered.
 * The Captain: Buzz remains this, though he finds himself trying to balance his work with his family...
 * Card-Carrying Villain: Invoked by Zurg.
 * Character Development:
 * Warp in a Heel Face Turn.
 * Hellboy in a Face Heel Turn.
 * Buzz and Mira as they explore their increasingly romantic relationship.
 * Crossover: With Hellboy - Hellboy (Red) and Liz Sherman were played by the same person.
 * Also a crossover between two different authors' universes, For Good and Beginning of the End.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Any time "Red" fights Buzz - Captain Galaxy really gets the tables turned on him.
 * Darker and Edgier: Once Hellboy hit the scene, literally, things quickly got dark for a while.
 * Despair Event Horizon: For Hellboy, the realization that he is effectively Trapped in Another World. He's helped along in his Face Heel Turn by Zurg.
 * Dysfunctional Family: Let's see... a time-traveled teenage daughter to parents who want to be but aren't yet married in present time? Plus the mom's racist father very much objecting to his daughter uniting in matrimony with a human? And the dad's adopted sister's husband being the guy who used to be The Mole and the dad's best friend and ended up doing a Heel Face Turn? Not to mention the veeery subtle Fandom Nod to One Hundred Days, implying that Da Chief is the dad's grandfather. Are you confused yet?
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Both Zurg and Hellboy attest this.
 * Heroic BSOD: Erin upon seeing the church on-fire - she has a flashback of her arrival into the BLoSC era.
 * Heroic Resolve: A dream version of Erin spurs Buzz on to rising to his feet after receiving a pretty heavy pounding from Hellboy. Serves as a Crowning Moment of Awesome, considering that Buzz is even able to stand.
 * Interspecies Romance: Warp and Erin; Buzz and Mira.
 * It's Personal: Interconnects with Buzz's Berserk Button.
 * As well as Warp's... sheesh, do not mess with his girl.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Warp - most of the time, anyway.
 * Kirk Summation: Erin (and Buzz) try this on Hellboy in the hopes that he'll leave. His basic response is a Shut Up, Kirk.
 * Large Ham: Zurg, of course!
 * Love Hurts: Though the heroes firmly believe in The Power of Love (and their faith is justified), they go through a lot of things for love.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: A realization, though, rather than a declaration.
 * The Other Darrin: Done twice, first with Zurg (switched with consent from Saron to EEZ), then with King Nova (switched from EEZ to Skyfire, but in completely different threads and parts of the story).
 * OTP: The fans who roleplayed Buzz and Mira are notable Beer shippers.
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A fairly mild version by Zurg, directed at Buzz. It gets creepy when you consider that Zurg sounds more like some sort of dark mentor rather than Buzz's archenemy.
 * Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids: The gist of Zurg's ideals in one conversation between himself and Buzz. Justified when you think of his Dark and Troubled Past as written by his roleplayer.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: With the players providing Buzz & Erin and Warp on one side, the players providing Zurg and Hellboy & Liz on the other, and the player providing Mira and Woody in-between (usually further on the idealistic side, though). It made for interesting dynamics.
 * Storming the Castle: Buzz, Booster, and XR try this on the Z Tower. Turns into an Epic Fail when they're Out-Gambitted by the Evil Emperor.
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky: Warp's roleplayer lived and breathed this trope.
 * For that matter, Hellboy was pretty much this trope, himself.
 * Time Travel: Used so much that it gets deconstructed!
 * Trapped in Another World: Played straight with Erin and Hellboy (Buzz even compares and contrasts them once), then subverted with Cora and Liz.
 * Troperiffic: With so much talent and creativity collaborating on the story? You bet!
 * Wedding Smashers: Zurg's plot for revenge against his ex-henchman, enacted by Hellboy, who initiates a Curb Stomp Battle. At least he waits until Warp and Erin say their vows.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: This happened fairly often as a result of several different roleplayers with different ideas about the BLoSC universe and life in general, sometimes to unintentional comedic effect.
 * World War III: Discussed between Erin and Liz.
 * It was nuclear. Berlin was leveled. And Erin’s brother Paul was in the thick of it.