Hello my readers, both past, present, future. I have an important announcement to make in regards to this series and the future. When I wrote this series back in October 2019, I planned it to be a long epic, full of twists and turns, with a proper ending in mind. And just as I planned, I did just that, but without reaching the ending. And because of this, I come bearing news so heavy that it has been weighing down my heart during my vacation. I have decided to restart from scratch.

But before I discontinue this series, I just want to be clear, I am going to reenvision this series. I am not abandoning my characters but rather, resurrecting them into a new narrative. Over the past two weeks, I've reread parts of my story, feedback from readers, and I learned that The Goblin Nation was far too flawed to continue as a story. There were too many inconsistencies, redundancy, and plot holes. Too many to simply compile in a list and present here. No, I rather pick the most glaring issues I found in this series and what I hope to fix moving forward.

Let us first start off with the goblins themselves. I planned from the start to start the goblins as these stereotypical D&D monsters. Fueled by greed and lust for power, there were chaotic evil incarnate, only for it to be revealed that they were the victims of larger conflict spanning generations ago. A conflict between a god and its creation. As our heroes evolve, so does their humanity until they regained their true form. This aspect of the story was actually well received, at least from what I perceived in the comments. It created a mystery to be solved and made the goblin's evolution closer to their original form, a milestone in the story. But there's one problem. This felt slow and, at worst, out of nowhere. Despite the many hints I've sowed in the story, it still felt jarring that Sun just drastically changed physically, from the short goblin to a taller human-like goblin with feathers. It felt weird, in all honesty. I think for the new series, I would rather have a mixture of the animalized goblins and the civilized goblins living together throughout the world. And to fabricate a unique culture and history revolving around that concept. Instead of relying on magic to explain their history being wiped away, I want it to be a tragedy commonly known by the goblins but widely ignored by the rest of the world. Magic could still play a significant role, as a tool for propaganda but not to the extent of the previous world spell.

The next issue was the mothers in the series and their connections with their children. As I reread the series, I realize how little the mothers (except for Mari) impacted the story. I had a grand vision of the twin beastkin mothers to reunite and be the driving force of the next plot. But they had very little time devoted to them and their relationship with their sons. I don't want to distract everyone from the story by writing chapters of mother and son relationships, so I plan to incorporate their relationship as an integral plotline.

Another problem I had with the series was the tonal shifts. Stories can become darker or lighter as the narrative progresses. But the change should never break the immersion of the reader, and unfortunately, I had those breaks whenever we go from jolly old crew joking around to Sun trying to kill a troll. The change felt too abrupt in most cases. But the true problem I had was that lack of a baseline. There was no foundational setting when it came to how dark or light the series could become. It started very dark, then very light, then dark again. There was no in-between, no rest stop, no normal, just constant changes. I'd like to set the groundwork for how the series should normally feel before moving forward on the story.

And finally, my biggest problem with the series, the isekai aspect. The transfer to a new world cliche. Originally, I planned it to connect with the high concept of gods versus mortals (goblins mostly). And that Sun's specialness comes from the memories he had from his previous life. But we can all agree that I have yet to really reach the full potential of that trope. He never really used his previous life's knowledge and there's no incentive too when there were more fantastical concepts like magic in the stove for me to cook. And so I plan to treat the concept of transferring into another world as another mystery to be solved rather than being the norm off the bat. I want to have Sun remember certain parts of his previous life to help him in his adventures or to warn him of danger. This was something tried to do with the house burning scene, but with little emotional effect.

The ability to remember should have a greater narrative effect, both for Sun's growth and the advancement in the story, with the past life's influence over Sun's decision grow stronger as he grows stronger. And with that being said, I want King to remain the same to contrast the difference between them. It seemed to have worked in the original story well, and I will do it again, but with greater emphasis with Sun and King as rivals of some sort, seeking the same goal. I don't want a Naruto and Sasuke dynamic, though. I want them to have their own story with as little to no connection with each other as possible. Or at least make them seem distant from each other.

These are just the three I had the most problems with as I continued to write the story. And I hope to resolve these issues with my rewrite, which will become an entirely different reading experience. I want this story to feel like an adventure first, and then kingdom builds second. I want to expand the world alongside the characters rather than learning about it through other character's backstory. And after three years of writing, I have confidence in the things I've learned throughout this experience. I'm going to transition into a one-week chapter update, with each chapter having twice the average word count than my previous average (1200 word count). I'm also going to refine my methods when it comes to planning the road map of my story to avoid name confusion and so on.

This new rewrite is going to be a completely different story. I will take elements from my previous work as inspiration, and certain elements in the story will return. I want this series to stand on its own and continue past where I left off—a grand story with greater mysteries to be found. I hope you can join me on that journey once we get there. For the old readers, don't think of this as a goodbye, but the transition to something better. And for newer readers, I welcome you to read this series and find the ending that you feel has satisfied your craving. And to myself, this isn't an end. I still have so much to write and the rest of my life to write them. So let's start all over again.

I will return soon enough.