A mock interview with the creator
(Questions I asked myself as I Offspring was made.)

Why did I start, write, create, and ultimately go through with Offspring?

I wanted to give closure to the Angel saga. 5 years was to short. I actually began the series, with a vision of how I thought the battle at the end of the Angel series would go, but I needed a (show) platform to put it in. Thus Offspring was born.

What was it like working on offspring?

Hard, I had to come up with nearly all the stories by myself. No one I knew who watched Angel was into writting fan-fic. Some people considered writting, but never had or took the time. I also had to write pretty fast, to ensure it would be ready by late 2004.

Why Connor?

Of course there are other intresting characters, that I could have based a (virtual) series on, but I thought Connor had the most untold story left to tell.

I know most people would have prefered Illyria or Spike (or a fanfic season six of Angel), but this is the way it went. I probably did it to somewhat be different, but mainly because there were so many unanswered questions about Connor.

Connor just seemed the best way to go (for me). Maybe because Angel was most connected to him (being it’s his son).

Why did I choose the story line & episodes I did?

As I said before I had a vision of a battle, then I wrote a 1st episode, and it seemed to work. I then came up with a few stand alone episodes, in which we see Connor’s every day life as a superhero/student. These stories just came after I did the 1st two episodes. I just thought what is intresting for a college based show (yet different the Buffy), and I worked it out on a stand alone episosde by episode basis.

“The Changeling” is one of my favorites in the series. Not only is it somewhat of a mystery, but it’s kind of the turning point, where Connor sees there must be heroes in the world. Another of the top stories, is “Wings Of Evil,” this is an over the top apocalytic story. I knew I should do something with an apocalypse in the series, so I looked at stories I had read. The idea of a human finding an artifact is something that was done before, in many many books. I will not which one, but I did take a more specific idea from one. I looked at this one particular book, and said that’s a great story idea to use (obvious if I make it my own).

Then we see a story that deals with Connor’s past in Quor-Toth. I did not know the full scope of this story when I set out to write it. I only knew what the present day was about when I began, then as I wrote I began to see we needed to see what Connor’s childhood was like. Just how bad was Quor-Toth, this darkest of dark worlds? (I hope I brought it out in proper darkness.)

Perhaps Quor-Toth was not the most feared hell because of it’s demon inhabitants, but because Connor was so alone their?

After that we fall into a nice story arc at the end. And this was difficult, cause there were many ways I could have went. I debated as many options as my mortal mind could, and tried to come with something in between destroying the world & saving it. (Plus I love stories where one must travel to another dimension, so I had to go there.

I will not go into them, but I will say that I considered many ending for the stories. Does Connor return to Earth, does Angel get to be human, what is Connor. All these & more I had to think a dozen times about

Regrets?

The one thing I regret most, is not thinking through the “Offering” story. I had this idea of getting back at the slayers. This episode was kind of my response to the episode of Angel called “Damage.” I did not like the episode’s ending, & felt the slayers should be set up as some kind of villain for Angel after that. I didn’t put enough into what I wanted it to be about, so the story turned into one big fight scene.

I actually considered deleting it from the story line, but that would had wasted the time invested, and bumped down the amount of episodes. Later, I went back, and added a scene to the end, where we also give closure to the “Lineage” story line, which I think made it worthwhile.

When your doing a show like about a character that has a dark or traumatic past, there needs to be some flashback episodes. Looking back, I probably should have done 1 or 2 more flashbacks for Connor. It probably wouldn’t have fit most of the stories, but could have been worked in.

Perhaps had I had more time or help, but I am not not going to put blame or wish things went different. I am proud of my story, which went much better then I imagined.

Pleasant suprises?

The fact that my friend Peter came up with the idea for “The Fruits Of Temptation” helped out alot, and more then I knew it would. At 1st it was just another story, and one to make it an even 10, since I was out of ideas. Then Peter pissed me off by getting “writter’s block,” so I wound up writting his story. Fortunatly, it wound up being a very important story for the series.

I loved that we were able to work Angel into so many episodes. In fact he was in most of the episodes, which wasn’t an original plan, just something that was worked in. And on top of that, 4 our of the 6 episodes that Angel was in, he had a major role. Which I think most fans liked (I know I did).

When all was said & done, and I looked back at the story or Connor & Angel, I thought “wow, this was great, & to think I put a big part of it in.” (I really didn’t think I could come up with 9 story lines, but I did.) Then I looked at how many people were reading it, and felt great. At 1st I had doubts if people would read a story of Connor, or read my story at all, but it worked out.

Pleasant suprises?

I ended the series on a strange note, that Connor is related to The Powers That Be, and knows what they are. I figured, rather then just kill the gods (in Xena like fashion), just beat them by denying the fight.

This is my ode to god(s) & how we do not need it/them. Weather they are real or not is not important in this story, but what they do for us is.

I also decided to throw a bit of political lines into the story. Which just kind of felt right, with a tiny modfication of a few lines. (See episodes 6 & 9.)

For my 6 months of work, I thank you all.
If you have enjoyed what you read, then my work has been paid in full.
-Wolverine68

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