Birds of a Feather (fanfic): Difference between revisions

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Is followed by a sequel, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3299267/1/Cry_of_the_Falcon Cry of the Falcon]'', an AU of Destiny, and a prequel, ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3636180/1/Soldier_of_ZAFT Soldier of ZAFT]'', covering Ken's ZAFT career before ''Birds of a Feather'' began.

** Doesn't quite qualify for [[Magnificent Bastard]] status, though, if only because when his plans ''do'' fall apart, so does he.

* [[Cloning Blues]]: {{spoiler|Ken is speculated in-story to be a clone of Al Da Flaga, but is stated to actually be the result of a form of postmortem artificial insemination, making him and Mu brothers. His usual [[The Rival|rival]] and former protege [[Tragic Monster|Victor Tempest]], on the other hand...}}

* [[Colonel Badass]]: Technically a Commander, but arguably Rau Le Creuset. In addition to his canon [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bastardry]], during the [[Grand Finale]] {{spoiler|he fights off almost every ace True ZAFT has in succession, several of them simultaneously, before finally being caught in the blast from a [[Wave Motion Gun]].}}

* [[Common Knowledge]]: Thanks to the author naming the Neutron Stampede platform as the ''[[Meaningful Name|Marie Curie]]''<ref> the scientist who discovered Radium & died of radiation poisoning</ref>, almost everyone now believes that to be the name of the ship, despite being officially unnamed.

*** That story is only slightly connected to the Falconverse as far as its own continuity is concerned. The only Falconverse element to appear is Ken's sister Sophia. In the Falconverse, ''Rebellion'' is -with broad strokes- canon, but within ''Rebellion'' the Falconverse isn't quite that connected although it is.

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3714582/1/Beware_the_Left_Eye Beware The Left Eye], by Wild Goose. A pair of sidestories focused on CotF side character Saito, with shoutouts to Full Metal Jacket and Ghost in the Shell. Considered fully-compliant with Falconverse canon.

** [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3805496/1/Owaru_Day_by_Day Owaru Day by Day] by Ominae. It's a fic based on Richard Yamato Chung, Kira's Japanese-Chinese-Filipino cousin after he was recruited by Ken in Section 9. He gets more action for a while than in some of the chapters in BOAF, leading some of the S9 officers after Orban special forces launch the initial attack on S9 headquarters. [[Shout-Out|Even the infiltration stage of the commandos is based on the End of Evangelion when JSSDF commandos launch a raid on NERV headquarters.]] The author admits that he got carried away with the character crossovers.

* [[Expy]]: Ken's [[Mid-Season Upgrade]], the Preybird, is an expy of the Gundam X.

** Also in the same fic, Earth Forces pilots [[Ace Combat|Allen C. Hamilton]] and [[Hellsing|Luc Bernadotte]]

** In the same fic, ZAFT drops the DOM and goes instead for the TRVF-51 Fianna, which is the SV-51 of [[Macross Zero]].

* [[He's Just Hiding]]: {{spoiler|Admiral Halberton.}}

* [[I Call It Vera]]: The swords wielded by the Gray Demons and veterans thereof.

** Also {{spoiler|Rear Admiral Charles Kreitzman of the Earth Forces, in reference to his Coordinator son. This eventually leads to his death, when the embittered son [[Ramming Always Works|rams]] his ship into the father's at Mendel.}}

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: Oscar Goldberg, the pilot given the machine with a nuclear bazooka because he couldn't hit the Moon if he was standing on it with anything smaller.

* [[Implausible Fencing Powers]]: Just about anyone with a sword in this 'verse, but most notably Ken himself. Attempts are made to justify his deflecting bullets in-story--at the least, his sword would survive, due to being made of a material usually used for ''[[Humongous Mecha|mobile suit]]'' weapons--but the author fully acknowledges it's mostly [[Rule of Cool]].

* [[Laser Guided Tykebomb]]: Victor Tempest aka Huckebein the Raven, is brought back to life for the express purpose of killing Ken.

* [[The Mentor]]: Ken to Kira, before the latter begins to surpass the former and their opinions on tactics diverge significantly.

* [[Mentor Occupational Hazard]]: {{spoiler|Very nearly inflicted on Ken by Kira himself.}}

* [[The Mole]]: Section Nine has one, leaking very important information to the Earth Forces. We just don't know who it is yet.

* [[My Country, Right or Wrong]]: A major theme of the [[The Verse|Falconverse]] as a whole. Of the major characters who aren't [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]], many struggle with the implications of remaining loyal to nations whose actions become increasingly extreme. Some decide all they can do is fight as honorably as they can themselves, while others abandon their previous allegiances entirely. A handful in between decide loyalty to the military is not the same as loyalty to the nation said military protects, and take the view that they can best protect the nation by breaking with the military. Such a viewpoint is, in fact, what kicks off the entire story.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: When you get right down to it, almost every single problem {{spoiler|Ken}} has was his own fault. {{spoiler|He deserted ZAFT after accidentally creating a [[Wave Motion Gun]] capable of [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroying the Earth]], suffered severe injury from his former subordinate Victor Tempest out of [[Honor Before Reason|a misplaced desire to finish the poor bastard "honorably"]], and almost got himself killed and his mission catastrophically failed through his unwillingness to talk things over with Kira.}} And, as if that weren't enough, {{spoiler|creating the weapon to rectify the first mistake resulted in an arms race that, as of the sequel, has pretty much destroyed the technological advantages that allowed his small group to be so effective.}} Oops.

* [[No Sense of Direction]]: Having been born in space, with little time spent on Earth, Ken is almost incapable of navigating on planet in daylight without computer assistance. This {{spoiler|leads directly to the fic's version of Cagalli's first meeting with Athrun, as she has the bad luck of being in Ken's mobile suit when it takes damage to its navigational systems in the middle of the Indian Ocean.}}

* [[Retcon]]: No, {{spoiler|Kira and Cagalli are ''not'' related to each other}}. [[OTP|Why do you ask?]]

** A retcon that caused the author to nearly tear his hair out several times, and finally resulted in him having a character with the requisite knowledge ''state outright'' that {{spoiler|Kira and Cagalli ''were not related''.}} A reviewer of some note promptly assumed the author was, rather than attempting to put an end to controversy, trying to be sneaky.

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Villified]]: Essentially the entire point of Ken DiFalco's existence. This is the defining aspect of his character, and ''keeping'' the Revolution like this causes his desertion and everything that follows from it.

* [[The Rival]]: Victor Tempest in the first story, Neo Roanoke, and Karen Willet in the second.

* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: Rather than the brief, fairly unimportant piloting opportunity she gets in canon, here Cagalli enters the fight as early as the Desert arc, acting as Ken's gunner during the battles against the Waltfeld team. Moreover, she gets her own mobile suit much earlier, acquiring the Strike Rouge in time for the Earth Alliance attack on Orb.

* [[Running Gag]]: Any time Ken enters combat outside of his [[Humongous Mecha|mobile suit]], he ''will'' get shot. Also, in ''Cry of the Falcon'', he never gets to use his new rifle very long; it's always destroyed almost as soon as the battle begins.

** Another example crosses with [[Black Comedy]]: the Earth Alliance's [[Four Is Death|Fourth Fleet]] has been destroyed twice while attempting to carry out nuclear attacks on the PLANTs, and the Atlantic Federation's Fourth Fleet was the one humiliated in the Blockade, as shown in ''Soldier of ZAFT''.

** When Halberton and Ken meet prior to the Orbit Battle, they remind each other that '' "There is only one rule in war: Survive."'' This was Ace Combat Zero's tagline.

** In ''Cry of the Falcon'', one of Ken's former ZAFT teammates begins her story by saying "[[Ace Combat Zero the Belkan War|It was a cold and snowy day]]."

*** "The Homeland" is actually used in canon several times, particularly early in the series.

** Ken destroys GENESIS by [[Airstrike Impossible|flying inside the satellite]] and blasting it with Preybird's antimattor cannon, an homage to the penultimate stages of various Ace Combat games.

** {{spoiler|Millenia Crescent in ''Cry of the Falcon'' has a prosthetic body due to crash injuries, had trouble adjusting to her body at first, is 99 percent machine, and has purple hair and amber eyes}}.

** Construction of an ''enormous'' sandwich as a ''light snack''; a shoutout to a similar scene in ''Miss Midshipwoman Harrington'', Honor's [[Lower Deck Episode]] in the ''Changer of Worlds'' anthology.

** The {{spoiler|''Odin's''}} emblem is a direct reference to [[Final Fantasy VIII]].

** The name of Ken's sword, {{spoiler|[[Meaningful Name|Griever]]}}, is another reference to the above RPG.

** The Shiva Option is a nod to the third of the ''Starfire'' books.

** The [[Red Baron|nickname]] and eventual ship name ''Asmodeus'', in addition to the obvious demonic reference, is specifically a [[Shout-Out]] to a perhaps obscure fantasy novel called ''Ariel'', which is where the author originally came across the name.

** The {{spoiler|program that created Ken in the first place was a clumsy [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''.}}

** The commanding officer of the '' {{spoiler|Odin}}'' is named [[Syphon Filter|Jason Chance]], though he doesn't share his namesake's treacherous nature.

** Several Earth Alliance flag officers in ''Cry of the Falcon'' are named after extras in the Starfire and [[Empire From the Ashes]] books, and Wing Commander games.

* [[Shrouded in Myth]]: Ken's master Sasaki Kojirou, who uses an obvious pseudonym and appears to be more than meets the eye. His only explanation: ''"I wasn't always a ronin."''

* [[Super Prototype]]: Subverted. {{spoiler|Ken is a pseudo-prototype of the Ultimate Coordinator project, born of the artificial womb as part of a related project with differing goals. As ''Cry of the Falcon'' reveals, however, he's degenerating on the genetic level, and was not expected to reach adulthood; he's beaten the odds, but will never be as effective as he once was, and continues to slowly slip behind the capabilities of the "final product", Kira.}}

* [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]]: In early chapters, Ken's adoptive sister Sophia, an Earth Forces officer, repeatedly stresses that she has no ''space'' combat experience. {{spoiler|She's an ''atmospheric'' jet fighter ace; when the ''Archangel'' breaks out the Skygraspers, Skygrasper 2 becomes Sophia's machine instead of Cagalli's - and she uses it to greater effect}}.

** Kind of [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]; the author didn't come up with that particular twist until the chapter in which it was [[The Reveal|revealed]]. A case of [[Throw It In]] that meshed well with established information.

* [[Technician Versus Performer]]: Discussed in-story. Being an Ultimate Coordinator, Kira (Performer) edges out Ken (Technician) in terms of natural ability and raw talent; in terms of training, tactics and experience, the advantage goes to Ken. {{spoiler|Events prove Ken to be the superior pilot, but it's acknowledged that given enough time and experience, Kira will surpass him, blending Technician and Performer traits.}}

* [[Theme Naming]]: Almost anything to do with the Gray Demons will have a name either avian or [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|demonic]] in origin.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Most of them seem to be on the battlefield; unfortunately, several of them are people who really need therapy themselves. The lack thereof is one of the triggering factors for the entire plot.

* [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]]: Ken's tactical philosophy throughout most of the story. Subsequent events show why taking it to the extreme was a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Bad Idea]].

* [[Warrior Poet]]: Ken, sometimes to extremes; possibly [[Justified Trope|Justified]] by the [[Heroic BSOD]] he spends most of the first story recovering from. By the time the reader meets Ken, he's not entirely sane, making his forays into philosophy more understandable. Also, they sometimes serve a point, as he's additionally a...

* [[Warrior Therapist]]: Several characters, including Ken himself. Sometimes backfires, though; in ''Cry of the Falcon'', he's successfully taken Shinn under his wing--so far, at least--but in ''Birds of a Feather'', the results of espousing a philosophy very different from the person he's talking to are shown {{spoiler|in his duel with Kira at Jachin.}}