As a writer, I'm normally against writing fan fiction as a matter of principle/snobbery. (Though I love reading the stuff, and NGE fanfic community has some fanfics that are the only actually good quality fanfics I've ever read, some are even excellent.) However, I recently read two fanfics: Neon Exodus Evangelion (which I loathed with the passion of a thousand burning suns) and Shinji and Warhammer 40K(which I loved, though it was a bit crudely done). So I've decided to throw my hat into the ring and produce a satirical deconstruction of the Marty Stu fan fics.

My objectives are twofold:
1) to parody as many bad fanfic tropes as possible
2) tell a decent peggy sue fic that maintains the original flavour of the series and it's characters.

So what better man for the job than Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF NERV!

What does everyone think? This is an idea jamming session. There are some things I have to figure out before I get started. For one, how do I adapt Cain's backstory so that he fits in this world? Some parts are easy: he was raised in a military boarding school, he is a war hero who served in the UN Armed Forces and was recruited by Nerv, it's not that hard to figure out what his religion would be(Ciaphas narrowly avoids falling into the Sea of Dirac, exclaiming, "God's Teeth!"). I had trouble coming up with what his nationality would be so I pulled an Asuka citizenship trick and decided he would be British but of American nationality.
What I need to figure out is, what his position will be? He can't have Misato or Gendou's job, but he needs to be in a position where he can play the traditional Marty Stu role of peptalk fairy. Should he be Nerv HQ's Section 2 Chief, 2nd Branch's commander, 2nd Branch's Tactical Operations Chief? Should Nerv suddenly have need for a political officer(commissar), Nerv HQ commandante, psychological warfare specialist, overseer of the pilots' security detail, combat therapist?

This will of course be an AU. Ciaphas will be a peggy sue, but he will have blind luck instead of any foreknowledge, and his actions will have consequences that affect the timeline (for better and worse). Timeline alterations will be on the scale of between Higher Learning and Taking Sights. He will not have any memories of the future or of the 40Kverse. Think of him as Flashman in SPACE in TOKYO-3. He will not pilot an eva. There will be two Marty Stu's (Ciaphas will not be either of them), or rather subversions of them. Finally, Gendou will not be nerfed. He will be as Magnificent as he is Bastardly. There will be as much WAFF as there will be It Got Worse.

As for ideas. I want some plots to be more out there, and others to be more true to the source, let's call them Satire Chapters and Orthodox Chapters. I also want to make it so that there won't be such disconnect between the satirical plotlines and the orthodox plotlines, I want them to fit into the overall plot. Fluidity between plotlines might just be something I'll have to figure out as I work on it, but if anyone has any ideas for techniques that might work. Now onto ideas for plothooks, tell me what you think of these ideas:
*Shinji has an evil twin, they were both separated and sent to live with foster families when Yui died, but whereas Shinji became a reserved young lad, his twin became a fabulous magnificent bastard who swore vengeance against Gendou for abandoning him. I even figured a way I can fit this into the original plot. He will double as a Marty Stu and (would be) Usurper of Gendou
*preventing the destruction of the fourth eva
*either Bardiel or Ireul Zombies
*standard kidnapping plot
*An expanded Jet Alone story arc
*An expanded Matarael arc
*An expanded role for Kaji, plenty of spy stuff and intrigue
*the other Marty Stu pilot subversion. A psychotic, young man who, among other things, is under the Delusion that Tokyo-3 is actually his long ago-destroyed hometown of worcester, Massachusetts. He won't be tv crazy either, I'm gonna make him actual crazy. He will be the pilot of Unit 04.
*RIAO- and Rei gets to meet her.
*More Nautical Naming

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas they'd to share, please do.

How should I frame this story?

This might be entertaining, if its handled right. The idea is tripping my 'this could lead to excellence, or serious injury' flag at least.

For the record, I liked NXE overall, excepting some of DJ's earliest appearances. If nothing else, the writing was far above average for a fanfic, and it bears remembering that it was very nearly the grandaddy of them all since it was written in 1997.

As for your idea, here are my suggestions, for what they're worth:

-Scrap the evil twin. If you really want to do a mirror image kind of character, run it like S&40k and have it be someone who grew up in similar circumstances and took them to the other logical extreme.
-Fourth eva preservation is kind of a wash for me, its been done well both ways.
-Zombies make everything better. :)
-An assassination plot might be fun, not to mention a lot harder to stop in time. Good chance for CC to show his stuff.
-Always in favor of more Jet Alone, the aftershocks from its downfall getting used later on were one of several things I liked about S&40k.
-The problem with real crazy is that no one in their right mind is going to trust them with a billion dollar weapon system. The canon pilots needed therapy, granted, but they had a pretty firm grasp on reality. A full bore sociopath might work, especially if they're capable as well. They'd make a great adversary besides SEELE, who I always found a little overrated.
-If you combine Rei and anti-Rei, do they explode? That could be a lot of fun either for a comedy segment or for a character piece.

update: I've been sifting the entire NGE series and manga(don't worry I'm only using the manga as a tertiary source for obvious reasons), as well as the Ciaphas Cain series(especially Cain's Last Stand), to gain a better understanding of the style and the characters of both series. I've already begun working on the first drafts for the first five chapters of CCHoN.

I've decided to introduce another secret cabal to the story. I tried to avoid it, but Evil Twin Shinji, napoleon of crime that he may be; no one listens to a fourteen year old. The group is a washed-up conspiracy, a group that was devastated by SEELE's secret wars of domination that they ended up falling under the radar, that SEELE didn't even bother tracking down and eliminating the remnant. It will be behind the kidnapping plot arc, and be the secret backers of Japan Heavy Chemical Industries, that seeks a more conventional technorapture. Should this group be called GNOSIS or PLEROMA?

The most difficult character to write/understand is Rei, but I think I've learned her unique speaking style and personality. I actually had to take notes! You have to straddle the line between keeping her creepy and keeping her human. The most trouble I'm having is figuring out the psychological differences between Rei II and Rei III. It's not that big a problem, I'm just unsure of how to tread that area completely.

Another difficulty I'm having is Kaworu Nagisa. He's like some twisted prelapsarian boy. By the way, I'm sticking with Anime Kaworu, not Kaworu Kittenslayer. What would happen if he was placed in the position of fighting an angel? Update's update: The only motivation Kaworu has seems to be that he wants to meet Rei and Shinji before he dies. I might be able to use that.

Due to CCC's self-absorbed narration, I'm going to need to use multiple viewpoint characters. I'm thinking my main viewpoint characters should be Ciaphas and Shinji, but who else: Misato, Gendo, Rei, etc? I want to keep the number of main viewpoint characters under five?

Tabasco wrote:'this could lead to excellence, or serious injury'.

That is how I roll. Everything I do is either pure gold or pure s**t.

Tabasco wrote:-An assassination plot might be fun, not to mention a lot harder to stop in time. Good chance for CC to show his stuff.

*insert cryptic comment* Mwuhahahaha!

Tabasco wrote:-The problem with real crazy is that no one in their right mind is going to trust them with a billion dollar weapon system. The canon pilots needed therapy, granted, but they had a pretty firm grasp on reality. A full bore sociopath might work, especially if they're capable as well. They'd make a great adversary besides SEELE, who I always found a little overrated.
-If you combine Rei and anti-Rei, do they explode? That could be a lot of fun either for a comedy segment or for a character piece.

I think you're right. I've been considering on and off again whether to pull the marty stu deconstruction/parody pilot altogether. If I can't think of a way to reinvent the character, I'm probably going to drop him entirely. As for other potential sociopathic characters and their possible connections to a RIAO, well...

I should have the first chapter up on the sunday after midterm week.

Correction: Release delayed until tomorrow due to sickness.