Q: I don't want to know about the characters... because I don't like spoilers. I want to know about the influences. How long have you been working on this story in the background, and what would you say the biggest influences are to its creation (aside from the obvious Greek mythologies)?

A: The story first came to me in 2016 as a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfic, after a number of fancomics I quite liked were discontinued. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was, one could say, Baby Glass' First Isekai: a human you're meant to project onto wakes up, amnesiac, in a world of talking Pokemon, as a Pokemon themself. From there they encounter a new best friend, explore dungeons, and save the world. A lot of fanfics followed this same basic premise, so I decided something different...

(Image: Small doodle of a Fennekin and Riolu wearing the Harmony Scarves from Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon.)

I'd let the cast and readers assume the lead was a human-turned-Pokemon, but then reveal the lead was the Legendary Pokemon Giratina, escaped from the Distortion World and forced to save the world, because during its imprisonment something strange happened to all the other Legendaries! This is the reason for the name Renegade's Redemption: Giratina is the Renegade Pokemon.

(Image: Small doodle of the original lead of RenRed: a small grey Poochyena, with facial markings, yellow stripes, red tail tip, and golden collar that vaguely suggest a Giratina. Apparently no one ever guessed this plot twist during the original RenRed's run, though, so perhaps I wasn't as obvious as I thought I was. I remain pretty fond of her though.)

I stopped writing pages fairly early, because I didn't plan it out all that well, but the story just wouldn't die, neither had the post-apocalyptic fantasy world I had created. I tried restarting it a few times, but it just didn't work. Then around 2020, I read Fate/Stay Night. Mythology, multiverse shenanigans, bad ends... Yeah, that was kinda inevitable, huh? But it revived my passion to bring RenRed into existence in a new medium: an original Visual Novel!

Unfortunately, I find building an original world much harder than fleshing out an existing world for a fanfic. I had a stronger idea of the setting this time, but received feedback that the gods, and protagonist's backstory, were too confusing. This, combined with not many people reading my story, caused me to burn out on that version. I decided to recharge with a project that would help me develop the world's backstory and the gods of the setting.

The project would later be given the name Renegade's Redemption: Dust, and other installments would be tentatively entitled Dawn, Disillusion, and Incarnation. (Incarnation would cover the events I originally dreamed up in 2016. You could call it the point of the whole project.)

(Image: I doodled what Elian, Nania, and Talon would be if RenRed were still a PMD fancomic. Elian would be a Torterra, Nania would be a Delphox, and Talon would be a Talonflame. Elian would probably be a Legendary Pokemon after becoming a Hallow. Probably Xerneas? Probably Xerneas.)

If you're interested in seeing the first couple pages of RenRed's very original run in 2016, by the way, I miraculously still have them.

Image: An odd-looking Poochyena is passed out in a graveyard, just before a gravestone marked with Arceus' wheel and Unown runes. The sky is covered in red clouds, and everything looks very desaturated and grey. 'Chapter 1: Reversals and Beginnings' is written across the image.

Image: A panel of the moon above in a starry sky, somewhere beyond the clouds. The Poochyena briefly looks tormented in her sleep, then opens her eyes. She sits up and looks around.

Image: She notices something: the gravestone, which reads 'Remission' in Unown Runes. She growls at it briefly, then turns around and strides away from it, with a 'hmph!'

I recall being pretty proud of these pages at the time I drew them, though my very last attempt at a comic did look a great deal better. I look forwards to someday returning to the orobousian cycle of trying to make a comic adaptation for this damn story.