Disney

RIP to the King, James Earl Jones

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RJ Writing Ink Reacts to the Passing of James Earl Jones

D&A Anime Blog focuses on anime, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not fans of other things. Before I discovered anime, one of my favorite pastimes as a little kid was watching movies on my parents sizeable VHS collection. And two things that I loved to watch were Star Wars and the many, many animated films from Disney. Imagine my surprise years later when I learned that James Earl Jones, the man whose voice brought Darth Vader to life, voiced Mufasa in The Lion King. My mind was blown!

That just made it twice as hard on me earlier this week when I heard that he had passed away at the age of 93.

James Earl Jones Was a GOAT

James Earl Jones wasn’t just one of the GOATs; he was a king. His career spanned seventy years, and in that time, he played roles in every entertainment medium. By the time George Lucas chose him to provide the voice that would make him a legend, he had already been acting in Shakespeare and Broadway for two decades, and he had thirteen years in film under his belt to boot. And when he spoke, it didn’t matter if he was a doctor, a navy admiral, an actual king, or the Dark Lord of the Sith. People would stop what they were doing and listened to him. That deep voice of his just had this magnetism to it that made people want to listen to what he said.

The funny part thing is, he used to have a stuttering problem as a kid. It wasn’t until he discovered the theater that he managed to overcome it. And thank heavens he did, because the world was made so much better for it.

But it wasn’t just his voice that made Jones a king in all but name. It was the way he presented himself. He gave off this air of being confident yet humble, wise but also approachable. He had the presence of a king, which showed in almost every role he played. If you were to tell me that he had been a king in a past life, I wouldn’t doubt that. That’s the kind of presence that he had, and it’s what made him one of the greatest actors of all time.

JEJ Will Live on in AI Voice

And, for better or worse, his voice in his most famous role is going to live on after he’s gone. And that’s because he wanted that.

In 2022, James Earl Jones made the decision to retire as the voice of Darth Vader. At the same time, he understood how important his voice was to making Vader who he was. So, he decided to let a Ukrainian-AI company have the rights to his voice as Darth Vader. That means they can legally use his voice for as long as they want. That doesn’t seem like much of a comfort, especially with using AI to recreate voices is considered controversial, but it’s what he chose.

This is the third time this year that I’ve had to talk about a celebrity I care about dying on this blog, and that can get to me. It doesn’t help that I do think that Toriyama and Rachael Lillis were gone too soon. Heck, James Earl Jones was 93 and I still think it was too soon for him to die! But death eventually comes for all of us, and while it may hurt, we shouldn’t let that hold us back. James Earl Jones left behind an incredible legacy, one that’s going to be remembered for decades, maybe even centuries after we’re all gone. So, while I’m going to be taking time to mourn, I think it’s more important to look at how much of a positive impact he had on the world. And when the time comes for us to celebrate Star Wars 50th anniversary and the remaining cast and crew reunite for the inevitable spectacle that will come from it, I know James and those who passed on will be there in spirit.

Rest in peace, King. You have earned it.

The Luz Clawthorne Saga is a Masterclass in Ambition

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RJ Writing Ink Interviews JP-Ryder and BuckJohnson, Co-Author’s of The Owl House fanfic series, The Luz Clawthorne Saga.

Several months ago, The Owl House, the popular Disney show about a human girl in a demon world trying to become a witch, ended its run after three years. This is in spite of the fact that Disney had pulled the plug and shortened its third season to three specials. Yet the show continues to attract a great deal of popularity and fanworks. Case in point, we have one of the most ambitious fanfictions I’ve seen to date, the Luz Clawthorne Saga.

Co-written by JP-Ryder and BuckJohnson, this AU fanfic takes everything good about The Owl House, amps it up to eleven, removes all the restrictions of Disney, and creates a massive shared universe that rivals the MCU in its scope. Having become acquainted with both the author’s over the years, I was lucky enough to get them to sit down and do an interview with me for the D&A Anime Blog. It may not be anime, but after reading this, I hope you won’t pass up on the Luz Clawthorne Saga.

Interview

Let’s start this interview. I’m doing this on behalf of the D&A Anime Blog. They write reviews about anime, anime news, and conventions, but they also have interest in fanfictions. And you two happen to have made one of the most interesting and ambitious fanfics I’ve seen to date. Granted, I’ve only been reading them for about four years now, but I know talent when I see it.

Which brings me to my first question: JP, Buck, I got to ask, what made you guys get into fanfiction? This is a bit of a question for the readers and myself…because Buck’s profile on Fanfic doesn’t explain squat.

BuckJohnson: Well, do you mean reading fanfiction or writing fanfiction? Because I don’t think it was really just “one thing” that got me into both. I’m a writer and a reader. I have been for years. Though a few things did attract me to fanfiction.net the site. A few writers that I used to follow, but also I was really into Total Drama fanfiction back in the day. And I think that and Star Wars fanfiction was what got me into fanfiction and was what got me started thinking about writing fanfiction.

JP-Ryder: As for me, I would say around the time about my teen years, I did think of writing fanfics. It would be about like, Teen Titans and Legion of Superheroes at the time, but so on it didn’t go through. It wasn’t up until college when I decided to get into the fanfic game, writing Teen Titans fics with a previous co-author, along with some anime fics like Naruto and Bleach, and Kim Possible. But I consider them old shame, have them deleted and took a break from fanfics for a while, and just read fics from time to time. Problem was that I never get the basics of a story structure, but over the years I’ve learned how to build up an actual story. Been through a few collabs, some of the darker and edgier parts but I grew out of the early Peter Jackson/Troma phase.

Well, I’d say your experiences have paid off. The Luz Clawthorne Fanfic is amazing.

Okay, this one’s for Buck. You started out as just another reader of the Luz Clawthorne series. How did you go from that to co-author by the time of the sequel?

BuckJohnson: Well, I was the co-author during most of Book One as well. We already went into this during the Q&A. Even during the early chapters, I was a beta reader and someone JP could bounce ideas off of. I offered to edit chapter ten as a way to help with the past tense and present tense. I was always involved with the project, I just became more involved over time, especially when I suggested some of my own characters like Vanz Ator and Puck Goodfellow.

So it happened organically then?

BuckJohnson: Pretty much. We’ve been talking for years, but this is our first real collaboration.

Nice. This one’s for both of you. So, The Owl House. Great Disney series, it ended a few months ago, lots of fans still not exactly over it. JP, Buck, when did you start getting into the show? Were you one of the people watching from day one?

BuckJohnson: I was interested from its announcement.

JP-Ryder: Same for me. Watched it from the start it premiered.

Following up on that last question, guys, why The Owl House? What inspired you to write a fanfic that started out as one for The Owl House?

BuckJohnson: Well, it was JP’s idea. I give him one hundred percent of the credit there.

JP-Ryder: By the time the first season was over, I did get into reading some Owl House fics. Some even have Luz and Eda having a mother/daughter-like relationship. So I want to take in that idea as my own spin. That being if Eda adopted an orphaned Luz. I asked another friend of mine, ultimate-drax, who I’ve also talked over the years, in how would Luz be like if Eda raised her, and he suggests that Luz would be like a bad girl delinquent. And taking a page from the common rebel characters like Josuke, Hit-Girl, and Spinelli from Recess, I reshaped Luz from the sweetheart sally to the badass betty.

And you did a darn good job at it, too. I’ve also thought that Luz saw Eda as a surrogate mom. This just made it official. For that matter, why don’t you tell the readers what exactly is the Luz Clawthorne Series for those who haven’t read it?

BuckJohnson: Luz Clawthorne is an AU fic that takes The Owl House and asks the question what Luz would have been like if she had been raised by Eda in the Boiling Isles after she was orphaned by a tragic accident. Because she has lived in the Isles her whole life, Luz’s personality and relationships with other characters are very different from what we’re used to. Though along the way, LC differentiates itself from canon in many other ways.

At this point, I’d say its less an Owl House fanfic and more like a massive shared universe. You even have a spin-off.

JP-Ryder: Yeah, it’s pretty much a shared universe. Like do you know how many Guses are there in Disney?

Nope. This is a bit of a spoiler alert, but eventually, the story went from just being about The Owl House and became a massive shared universe with…okay, how many Disney animated properties have you guys included so far? No, I’m seriously asking. And that’s not counting the ones outside of Disney.

Buck Johnson: We haven’t counted. We never kept count, actually.

That’s awesome, though. You’re making Kingdom Hearts look like a chump Well, what other, non-Disney shows have you been using?

JP-Ryder:Helluva Boss may be the one that’s non-Disney. Oh, and using Sly from the Nickelodeon animated movie The Electric Piper is also used as the Pied Piper, who is also a Fae in the LC version.

BuckJohnson: And there’s Rick and Morty.

So, how did it go from just being about The Owl House to basically combining almost every Disney animated property under the sun? Did you plan it out that way, or did it just happen organically?

BuckJohnson: For the Disney shared universe thing, it started with Reunion Falls. That was my idea. The LC AU reminded me of Reunion Falls, so I suggested that both AUs could share the same timeline. And since Eda was obviously Stan’s ex-wife, a crossover was natural.

You have had cameos and appearances from pretty much all of Disney history. Except for any of Mickey Mouse’s friends (save Donald, possibly). Some of your OC’s even end up being descendants of Disney characters. If anything, it makes your story even more interesting.

BuckJohnson: Honestly, part of the reason we do it is because LC doesn’t have the same limitations as canon. So we can get away with having so many other Disney and even non-Disney characters in addition to having more swearing, more violence, more adult themes, and more queer content.

Back on topic, though. Now, this story started before Season Two aired and is still ongoing. How did events depicted in the show affect the direction your writing took? Especially regarding characters like Belos?

JP-Ryder: Well, once we learned more about the show as it lead on, we learn how to work around it. Like, think outside the canon box.

BuckJohnson: And we actually decided to intentionally show near the end of Book One that this Belos had a very different (and thematically relevant) backstory from the canon version, justifying any future changes to his character as just being the nature of the AU.

Do you guys ever get concerned that you’re making the story too big, though? You keep adding in new plot threads and people.

BuckJohnson: Honestly, not as this point. We’ve gotten so much accomplished in less than three years. This is the biggest project we’ve worked on, but we’ve also made so much progress at a good pace.

You could say its your magnum opus. Which begs the question, where do you guys go after this is over? Will you keep writing fanfics or just go out on a high note? Or better yet, maybe give being professional author’s a try?

BuckJohnson: I’ll probably move onto professional writing. That’s my goal.

JP-Ryder: I may go try on going out on a high note. Like keep focus on my artwork and study for an IT job.

Now, penultimate question: Are you guys satisfied with the way The Owl House ended?

BuckJohnson: Of course. It was a beautiful ending.

JP-Ryder: Yeah, same. It became one of my top favorite shows to watch over and over again.

Dana and her team beat the hand Disney dealt them and went out on a high note. That’s impressive!

Okay, guys. I think I’ve got enough for my interview. Thank you both for your time.

If you guys want to read their work for yourself, then go onto FanFiction.Net or Archive of Our Own and look up Luz Clawthorne. Or just click here.

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