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About

Boring but necessary content, I choose you!

This site was created in August of 2003, though I had been planning it for at least six months before then. Of course, it was really sucky in August of 2003, and much more incomplete than it is now. It was my first shrine, and though I had some vauge ideas, I didn't know how to go about them.

With practice and ever more English classes, I reinovated the shrine in July of 2004, adding much more original content and a new layout that didn't suck completely. I was fairly happy with it, until I made my Zelda shrine and I realized how much better that was. Since then, the site has gone major reinovations in the summer of 2005 and the first half of 2007. Locke doesn't deserve to have my second-best shrine, so I try to rewrite all the content periodically to make this something more deserving of him. I'm slowly realizing that I'll never make a site that fully displays just how much I love the character, but by gum I'll keep on trying.

Generally, any time I refer to or quote the game, I am speaking factually, and I'm pretty sure I'm correct in all the information presented here. Not that I'm perfect, so if you think you've caught an error, email me. Other places, such as character speculation and thematic analysis, I'm completely making stuff up. I do that a lot. I've tried to make it fairly obvious whether something is fact or opinion, but again, emails are welcome if you have any questions.

The Name

The name Renaissance is just about the only thing I still like from the earliest version of this shrine. I toyed with the standard shrine names, such as Mirager, the name of his desperation attack, Wing Edge, like his best weapon, or things like Valor and Treasure Hunter just because. (Note that I eventually did name my domain after Locke's best weapon.) But in the end I chose something related to the character in a more subtle way, and in a more concrete way related to the site I wanted to make. I love being difficult. Quoth Noah:

re·nais·sance noun
1 capitalized a : the transitional movement in Europe between medieval and modern times beginning in the 14th century in Italy, lasting into the 17th century, and marked by a humanistic revival of classical influence expressed in a flowering of the arts and literature and by the beginnings of modern science b : the period of the Renaissance c : the neoclassic style of architecture prevailing during the Renaissance
2 often capitalized : a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity
3 : REBIRTH, REVIVAL

The site name relates most directly to the third definition, though it's been suggested that Final Fanasy VI has a Renaissance setting. I place it firmly in the Age of Reason, but there are anachronisms with that, and most people place it later still, somewhere around 1850 so whatever you want, I guess. However, the time period really has nothing to do with it. The word comes from the middle French renaistre, to be born again. Final Fantasy VI has this theme of rebirth running through it. It's most evident with Locke's adventure with the Phoenix esper, where a physical rebirth is traded for a spiritual one. But that whole cycle- revenge, renewal, redemption - is central to the character of Locke.

The Layout

This layout is the fifth version of Renaissance and, for the first time since 2003, has something besides Amano art as its focus. Yes, that's right, it's a layout featuring my own crappy fanart. You're all rejoicing, I'm sure. In principle, I'd like to be able to use my own art for every layout, but in practice I don't like my art quite that much. So, this is the first time in a long time it's reared its head. The combination of how tired I am of working with the same three official Locke images and how personal I feel this tribute has become are what made it this site that gets the fanart treatment.

I have a pretty specific way of drawing Locke that I've been building on for a few years, so the general shape of the image was a given. The pose, one hand in front of his face, was a spur of the moment thing I like a lot. I left most of the image not colored in deliberately, both because I can't color things in very well and because this site is about coloring in his character. (Metaphor! Oooh!) Otherwise, there are some bright and funky colors just because, really. You'll notice that Locke has black nail polish in my drawing. Because he'd totally shop at Hot Topic if he could. He's a super gawth. The eyeliner doesn't lie!