SilverHawks Arc--Background and History
Twelve years may have come and gone since SilverHawks went off the air, but Lady Moonhawke and I have long since crafted a universe for these and other related characters. Our families and friends have witnessed the creation of stories that go far beyond anything the writers and creators at Rankin-Bass ever dreamed up. As you will see, animated characters on a screen are merely a jumping off place for our imaginations...
Out of the need to feel accepted in a world that was rapidly reshaping itself around me, I put myself into the show, at first. When that wasn't entirely satisfying, my written character evolved into a young woman much like myself--maybe what I wanted to be at that time. Enter Krysten Barter, my alter-ego; just sixteen, the youngest of four children, raised in Mojave(say mo-HA-vee), California. Doted on by oldest brother DeKayne (who was loosely based on a schoolgirl crush), Krysten was raised in a loving home much like my own. My love of high drama and possibly my own so-called teen angst led me to kill DeKayne in a tragic car accident, thrusting Krysten into anger and self-doubt. Her life changes even further, however, when she goes out on a picnic and discovers the Maraj lying in the desert at the end of a swath of destruction--an obvious crash landing--and makes contact with visitors from the future.
To add to the mix, Krysten makes what seems like an impossible match--she falls in love with Bluegrass, the guitar-toting cowboy colonel with a Nebraskan drawl. Bluegrass makes things worse by falling in love right along with her, even though the 24-year old pilot knows he'll never see her again. Terrible inspiration strikes when he convinces the disillusioned, Reagan-era Krysten to come back to the future with them and become a SilverHawk. Against the protests of the other Hawks and without her parents knowing, Krysten agrees to leave all she's ever known far behind, and undergo the painful and dangerous process of becoming partly metal, partly real. She will be the youngest person on record to volunteer for the project. It has been only later that LM and I have explored more of what really transpired just after this event--Commander Stargazer protesting Krysten's youth, warning her of the dangers to follow. Krysten charges ahead, following her heart, as she always does. Krysten becomes Skyedansuer(skydancer), a loyal if unpredictable addition to the team.
Another original character--one created by LM--is that of Aurora Stargazer, estranged daughter of Commander Edward Jahaziel Stargazer(LMH and I provided an endless list of names, filling what the writers did not). Born just before her father took the position of SilverHawk commander, Aurora was raised by Carolyn Stargazer, her mother and the Commander's long-suffering wife. Raised to believe her parents divorced when she was a baby, Aurora knows nothing of her father's top-secret work. She only knows that money is deposited regularly into trust funds for her and her older sister, Amyrya(am-ah-REE-ah), and can be drawn out on the condition that neither of the girls enters into military service. Aurora grows into a wild child, headstrong and demanding, finally escalating into a daredevil teen. Like Krysten, she doubts her own self-worth and turns to bulimia, paring her already-slender form down to an alarming state. This touches off a nearly lifelong battle of wills between Aurora and Carolyn, who continues to be concerned even into her daughter's adult life.
In a strange warp of time, a celestial traveler happens upon Aurora and falls desperately in love; Steven, an immortal child of Olympus. A high adept mage as well as a fierce warrior, Steven (also known as "Starlight") is brother to Jareth, the Goblin King of the Labyrinth. Steven persues Aurora through time, appearing in her teen years as a dark guardian angel, then making a fiery exit in a street racing accident and reappearing as Starlight-aka General Steven Landon-in Aurora's forbidden military career. After a tragic auto wreck(I wonder if there's a pattern here?) that takes the life of her soon-to-be-wed sister, Aurora spurns her father's money and joins the United Earth Star Command, headed straight for the SilverHawk academy. She discovers where her father is and works hard to be assigned a position at HawkHaven, originally going as a hard-nosed, rule-book quoting inspector. She journeys to HawkHaven, intending to get some answers to the questions that have haunted her for all of her twenty-two years...
Like a family, the SilverHawks team lives and works very closely with each other. Each character has his or her own personality quirks, and these have evolved over the years with each new story. Jonathan Quick (renamed Jonathan "Quick" Greyer) fell in love with Aurora nearly on sight. He assumes he is the heir apparent to the Commander's job, and sees the tightly reined Aurora as his perfect match. What he does not realize is that Aurora, with Starlight's help, is slowly regaining her true self, and is going farther and farther from the woman he thought he knew...
Emily Hart, LMH and I both have long assumed, was in love with Bluegrass at one time. We surmised that this was appreciated, but not reciprocated by the Cowboy--at least, not after he met Krysten. Emily originally has a lot of spite for Krys, but as they both grow and come to understand each other, that animosity dwindles.
Will Hart, referred to affectionately as 'the big lummox', has had his share of trials as well. Normally a good-natured, hard-working guy, Will falls in love for the first time at a trade show on Earth. Will's invention--Sentroid, a cybernetic German Shepherd,inspired by Krysten's homesickness for her family dog--attracts the attention of a young blind woman. She expresses interest in Will's invention as a potential for a new type of seeing-eye dog, but is hurt when she finds Will does not trust her with his own half-metal identity. She disappears, leaving Will with Sentroid and a broken heart...
Finally, Bluegrass(named Michael Merino for our purposes) who originally hails from Omaha, was raised in a typical Midwestern farming family. At odds with his parents, who wished he was more like his younger brother Jeff(Moonstriker, a character who appeared in the show's final season), Mike leaves home to join the military. He volunteers for the SilverHawks project a few years later, already astounding his superiors with a meteoric rise to the rank of Colonel. An 'aw-shucks' sort of guy, Mike can be a maverick at times, but underneath his trademark ten-gallon hat lies a brilliant mind. Also hidden behind his silver alloy skin is a heart of gold, devoted to his friends and to Krysten, the love of his life. Later, Jeff, who has looked up to his big brother since childhood, makes a surprise entrance. He immediately thinks of Krysten as a sister, nicknaming her "Astrya" after a Greek goddess of the stars, and develops a crush on SteelHart, which goes completely ignored...
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