Promises: Serah Farron

[Rems]

Promises

guys. guys. guys i did it i actually finished the thing

Happy early birthday gift to myself.

Now where do I even start.

It's no secret that I'm pretty terrible when it comes to shrine making. I'm notorious for coming up with an idea, making a layout, then abandoning the concept because I have to do a lot of writing. And whilst I enjoy the writing, I'm lazy a perfectionist. In my eleven years in the online community I've only ever managed to make one tribute (the less said about that eight year long process, the better!), until now. And it's here. Promises is finally here.

I don't know how I feel about this!!

Serah has been an ongoing project for years, but it really came into fruition this March. I didn't finish it with Dynamic Duos, but I did have a coded layout and a site outline and just under a third of the planned written content. Fortunately those were the more boring ones. Unfortunately that left an entire depth section to do and I... didn't. Not until three weeks ago when I trundled on through because seriously this needed to be done before the year was out - bless you Nanowrimo 2016 for getting me into a groove to write almost every day. And to everyone on twitter (and Larissa! ty bro i am so grateful) for your boundless encouragement, I wouldn't be here plugging this without you guys.

And now I have a tribute for my favourite heroine. It's over 22k words and it's longer than my undergrad dissertation.

SERIOUSLY HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED.

Promises is complete, minus a media section which I might get round to doing in the new year, and sorting out the links out to other FF related tributes and sites which I'll get to in the next few weeks, hopefully. I've combed through multiple drafts for typos, including coding hiccups, but everything should be working a-okay. If something doesn't look right I've missed it, so please let me know!

Thoughts, feelings, feedback, everything's welcome. Merr Crrismas.

Enjoy, y'all.

[Robin]

(I was getting an error trying to reach the site until I realized the URL didn't have Serah spelled with an "h": here is the corrected link.)

Omggggg how lovely! The images changing with each section, the careful intro to the game and to her character, the many articles studying her relationships and her character development ... so well done. I know this has been a long journey of work and a labor of love, and the craftsmanship shows!! <3 Even though I know next to nothing about Serah or FFXIII, your site makes it feel approachable.

I will definitely take a closer look at this when I have more time, but I just wanted you to know you're awesome for completing this beautiful work! :D

[Eunice]

It's beautiful! So much work has gone into it, and it looks amazing. Doesn't matter how long it took, you CAN make shrines! So come on, now we/you know you can do it, more!!! Seriously, great work.

[Stefi]

Congratulations, and also, happy birthday! I'm pretty excited to see an in-depth character shrine to Serah. I was at Tokyo Game Show the year XIII-2 came out, so I thought it was pretty cool for them to really promote a chracter like Serah as the protagonist of a game.

Anyway! I really love the layout; it's very chic and easy on the eyes. The rotating images are really neat, too! I especially love your page on Noel :) And I didn't know she was voiced by Laura Bailey (glad to know there is somewhere else here who likes her, haha!)

Great job on the site--you worked very hard and it truly shows!

Also! I'm not sure if this is just my computer, but I'm seeing a question mark instead of a normal cursor when I'm on the site. I've tried a couple of different browsers and it seems to be showing the same thing.

[dubiousdisc]

I would like to just give you my biggest congratulations for making this! 22k words holy shit you put in the WORK.

I'll read it later! All I know about Final Fantasy is from fandom osmosis, but I'm still super interested in reading your thoughts. :D

[Rems]

Oh geeze did I flake out on getting back to this. (I blame being sick since... well, Christmas. Eck.)

@Robin: Thanks for the heads up on that, I went back and changed the link! (So much double checking for typos and I miss the most important one.) And thank you so much! :D It's been a lot of effort but I'm glad it pays off and feels approachable.

@Eunice: Thank you! And that's the plan! Now I've got the big one down, I can start moving onto more, hopefully. And hopefully with a better ratio of 1:5 in years. haha.

@Stefi: Thank you! I'm still shocked Square actually chose to make Serah a protagonist even five (five what) years on, and still very delighted... I ramble about this a lot on the site tbh. And Laura Bailey is always a priority and my general problem area, I weep.

As for the question mark cursor that's a Rems quirk and something I've done for years and kept, so it is supposed to be like that, haha |D tbh idk why I keep doing it but. There it is.

@dubiousdisc: Thank you so much! So much work.

[Megan A]

I haven't played any of these games, but I really want to and plan on it (hopefully this year). I really want to extend a congratulations on finishing this shrine! I know it's been in the works for awhile so it's really amazing to see it finished! Clicking through, the layout looks great with the many images changing and the outlined sections look really great! Can't wait to read! :D

[Larissa]

THIS IS A LATE RESPONSE bc i suck things have been busy. I know I have babbled to you a lot about this site already but!!! I don't care, it's fantastic and I will continue babbling until the end of time.

Your introductory section is excellent -- it succinctly explains each game and Serah's role, and the terminology section is very helpful. I think it's super great that you wound your own opinions in these sections, which could easily just be fact-based; it makes it much more interesting to read.

A note on the motifs page - the fan arrangement is region-blocked, unfortunately. (I wanted to hear it, boo.) A thought, actually - it'd be lovely to see some of the Serah-related songs embedded on this page.

In general, I really love your use of images throughout the site -- they're always on point and always very fitting to what's being discussed. A+ image use, please bestow your knowledge onto me. ;)

I gushed a lot about all the pages in your depth section during our gdocs adventure and I still love every single last page. Seriously, every page is so good. I love all of the pages that go indepth into Serah's journey, and they lead into one another so beautifully. You have such fantastic insights about the Serah, and the games, that you've given me brand-new things to think about (and heaven knows I have already spent much too long thinking about these games).

And your relationship section is just fantastic. From the key relationships Serah has (Lightning, Snow, Noel) to those with the people she barely knows (Fang) there's so much you have to say, and it's all lovely. And I will forever love eidolon Mog. Yes good.

Honestly, this site is a treasure, and I'm so so so glad to have gotten to read it. Serah is a fantastic character, and it's wonderful to have a dedication that covers all three games. I'm so, so happy that you finished this site! (And I am so happy to have helped at all, honestly - thank you for the kind words on the site page, but really it was all you. )

now if only I could get her sister done............. SOON I SWEAR

[Tara]

Okay first off I just want to say, I really like how the image of Serah changes on every page! It's really neat. The layout itself is just really neat and beautiful. You did a really good job on it!!

I haven't played through XIII, but I loved reading through nonetheless, you explained the series really well to someone who hasn't played past the first game. I especially liked reading about your opinion on Laura Bailey! She's such a great VA.

I also really like the depth you went into in both the femininity and humanity pages. Those werre my favourite to read through, I think, You did a really great job on this, congrats!

[Megan]

Congrats on getting this project done! It's always a satisfying feeling knowing you finally got something up you've been working on for so long!

Your tribute shows how hard you've been working! I love that the layout changes! I love that you give a lot of background information, as well as some great analysis pages as well. I also agree with Tara, the femininity and humanity pages were a great read! Very inspiring. Great job again <3