Luna Questions? Ask Them Here!

Luna may be the perfect secret agent, but can she survive her toughest challenge yet--fitting in at high school?

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Nunzio DeFilippis
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Luna Questions? Ask Them Here!

Post by Nunzio DeFilippis »

Hey all,

Christina Weir and I write Luna and have lurked on this board since gomanga first launched.

We figure, with Volume 2 a month away, it's time for us to play a more active role on these boards.

So... if you have questions, about the manga or about the characters or about our creative process or anything... ask them here.

As long as it won't spoil everything, we'll try our best to answer.

Hope you all stay excited for Volume 2 and Volume 3, which we're getting to work on now!

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Post by Ryokosha »

I know you have not answered the first quesiton yet, but I have another one.

Given that Aristotle and Luna have become friends, very close friends it seems from his reaction to her at the end of volume 1, will Aristotle continue to appear from time to time as more then just "the school mascot" within the story?
It gives one a great sense of satisfaction to do it in perfect unison. Michelle Cheung

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Nunzio DeFilippis
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Post by Nunzio DeFilippis »

Cavalier wrote:hmm i have one, how important of a role is Oliver going to play now that his popularity is so high?
Oliver has always had a big role to play in the story. That hasn't changed since we found out people liked him. He's Luna's good friend, he's got a crush on her, and he's tied to the main plot in very unlikely ways!

What has changed is his role in Luna's romantic life. Before, he was going to pine for her in the corner, while the main romance was with Luna and Jonah. Now, well, let's just say Shiei is pushing to make this more of a love triangle.
Ryokosha wrote:I know you have not answered the first quesiton yet, but I have another one.
Well, we'll be answering every few days or every week, so the idea is for the questions to pile up here for a bit, and then we come and answer them all in one post. Like this.

So ask away, whether we've answered or not.
Ryokosha wrote:Given that Aristotle and Luna have become friends, very close friends it seems from his reaction to her at the end of volume 1, will Aristotle continue to appear from time to time as more then just "the school mascot" within the story?
Aristotle knows Luna's secret, so he's automatically very important. But expect him to play a key role. He's Luna's cute animal sidekick. Where would we be without him?

Plus, we haven't seen the last of his evil clones, either...

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Post by Kaito The Ramen Bandit »

The count's "evil" clones... you'll never know when they would be coming back. like what Nunzio said.. you haven't seen the last of the clones... you'll never know if :owl: is a clone... I just feel like putting a owl icon on so i don't have to figure out how to spell the :owl:'s name..
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Post by Ryokosha »

Thank you for the answer.

This might be a strange question but it just came to mind when re-reading volume one this question did come to mind. Will Luna or might Luna ever know who donated her genes so to speak?

I ask because Luna finding that out is something which I could see as adding stress and shock to her life, especially at her age, if she learns they are from someone she knows and who knew but didn't tell her. As said I know it is a strange question.
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Post by Ryokosha »

Altair_Specineff wrote: Sorry that I'm coming up with this crazy thought at the back of my mind, but either Oliver or Jonah=Luke Skywalker or Han Solo and Luna=Leia would be... crazy. <_<

Anyway, back to my actual questions; how severe will Francesca and Luna's falling out be? what exactly is now gonna make Oliver so important to the story? can we expect even more important "main" characters to pop up in Volume 2 that'll change the direction AAL is gonna go, and mind giving us teasers on them :sweat: ? and is Luna gonna be the only spy hanging around Nobel High, or is another one from the same org. she's working for gonna pop up, be it to help her around, or actually hurt her?
Actually that was part of what I was thinking too. Someone she knows and deals with might be related which could me other people are also related to her who she doesn't want to be related too.

That is another good question, the Count obviously has a reason to watch the school so does he have spies there as well or only one or two agents? Also slightly different then Altair_Specineff's question, is there a rival agency who is also against the Count that might have agents there too who might unknowingly work against Luna until they both realize they are spies working for the same cause?
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Post by Nunzio DeFilippis »

Ryokosha wrote:This might be a strange question but it just came to mind when re-reading volume one this question did come to mind. Will Luna or might Luna ever know who donated her genes so to speak?
She will want to know at some point, yeah.

Will she find out? That's a different question. It'd certainly be an interesting story...
Altair_Specineff wrote:how severe will Francesca and Luna's falling out be? what exactly is now gonna make Oliver so important to the story?
Those questions will need to wait until Volume 3 for the answers, I'm afraid.
Altair_Specineff wrote:can we expect even more important "main" characters to pop up in Volume 2 that'll change the direction AAL is gonna go, and mind giving us teasers on them :sweat: ?
No new main characters in Volume 2. But some new supporting characters who affect the lives of a couple of the kids... a lot. Luna's grnadparents, Elizabeth's parents, and Oliver's dad.
Altair_Specineff wrote:and is Luna gonna be the only spy hanging around Nobel High, or is another one from the same org. she's working for gonna pop up, be it to help her around, or actually hurt her?
No rival spies in the immediate future. It's a story we've thought about for down the line, but for the time being one student spy is enough at the school.
Ryokosha wrote:That is another good question, the Count obviously has a reason to watch the school so does he have spies there as well or only one or two agents? Also slightly different then Altair_Specineff's question, is there a rival agency who is also against the Count that might have agents there too who might unknowingly work against Luna until they both realize they are spies working for the same cause?
The Count keeps an eye on the school through his science teacher agent, Professor Tromperie.

And Tromperie has some folks working for him who you'll see in Volume 2.

Plus, the Count has got a few other tricks up his sleeve. But those I can't talk about without revealing future plots.

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Post by Ryokosha »

You mentioned Luna's grandparents, these are people that will be supporting characters in Volume 2 that we haven't met yet, but might b ecome important supporting characters for more then just Volume 2?
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Post by Lord Styphon »

I've got a few questions, myself.

Just what agency *does* Luna work for? It's probably not important, but I just like to put names to foces and/or organizations. At least in regards to the good guys. What little I've seen reminds me alternatively of the Abwehr, the NSA as it's been depicted in fiction, and Section 31.

Like I said, probably not important, but it's something that's caught my interest.

Secondly, just where is Nobel High? The UN connection suggests somewhere close to New York, but this isn't explicitly mentioned (unless I missed it) (EDIT: which I did). This also factors into the whole agency thing, since it would (theoretically) rule the CIA out as Luna & Company's employers.

Most of the questions my mind comes up with deal with these minor details. =/
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Post by Ryokosha »

I know it's British, but for some reason I kept thinking something more like MI-6 for the agency, since at least "officially" I am not sure the NSA would recommend theft or possible "removal" of a threat at least through any means they themselves possess or that might be tied to them if anything goes wrong.

Yet that is an interesting question and to follow it up slightly, how official is this agency suppose to be?

Is it more a "shadow group" where maybe 9 out of 10 people working for it don't know who they are working for and one most people aren't aware of it existing or maybe what it does even if they know of it's existance?

Another question that came to mind for me is how much does the Principal actually know? Maybe it is just what I was seeing in various scenes but at times it seems she or even Mr. Dreyfus might be getting an idea more is going on then meets the eye since Luna's arrival.
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Post by Lord Styphon »

I know it's British, but for some reason I kept thinking something more like MI-6 for the agency, since at least "officially" I am not sure the NSA would recommend theft or possible "removal" of a threat at least through any means they themselves possess or that might be tied to them if anything goes wrong.
Well, one of the agencies I named is German (and hasn't existed since 1944), and another exists only in the universe of Star Trek. =P

As for the third, "officially", the NSA is only a SIGINT agency, and as a result lacks the manpower to carry out theft and "removal" of threats. At the same time, though, there are enough interesting elements surrounding the NSA (such as its budget being larger than the CIA's, and at least $21 million of it annually goes to pay their electric bills) and the high level of secrecy that it operates in (which has led to it being given the nickname "No Such Agency") have piqued the imaginations of many writers. When it shows up in fiction (particularly television) it has frequently morphed into some kind of secret police organization, and involved in all sorts of black projects. (See things like The Visitor and Enemy of the State.) Which is why I qualified the NSA bit. ^_~

But, going back to the whole theft or neutralization element, intelligence agencies are all about doing things like that, be the agency the CIA, MI6, the KGB, Mossad, or the British Library Special Operations Division. =P

Say, there's an agency I overlooked when thinking about this...

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Post by Ryokosha »

Lord Styphon wrote: Well, one of the agencies I named is German (and hasn't existed since 1944), and another exists only in the universe of Star Trek. =P
I was wondering about Section 31 thinking DS9, but was not sure what all new departments have been created in the past few years.

Well I do think the NSA (as well as all the other agencies) do a lot more then they are known to do or will admit to doing. I mean it is crazy to think they spend something like 5 million a year on toilet paper. Remember too at least officially some of those agencies are only suppose to work within the boundaries of their own nation. Now obviously the KGB and MI6 perhaps don't qualify in that vain but I think the NSA technically does, that is the NSA is suppose to rely on the CIA for overseas operations.

Yes the British Library Special Operations Division, with their top agent "Agent Paper". Well much like MI6 and the KGB they are not limited to working within the boundaries of one nation, officially at least.
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Post by Lord Styphon »

No, NSA is one of the foreign intelligence agencies in the U.S. Intelligence Community. What it does is intercept signals, decode them, and glean intelligence information from them. (Hence, Signals Intelligence, or SIGINT. =D ) That being said, its operations are (supposedly) mostly concentrated at its headquarters at Fort Meade and various listening stations; it's not supposed to have any combat forces at its actual disposal.

Also, the signals it intercepts, decodes, reads and such are all supposed to be foreign; it, and the rest of of America's vast intelligence apparatus, are legally barred from conducting spying operations domestically. But, intelligence agencies being the secretive things they are, and doing the things they do, it's easy to suspect them of doing things domestically.

This is where the NSA is especially feared, since they're responsible for listening in on foreign communications. With that capability, they could easily listen to domestic communications, as well, thus making them Big Brother's unblinking eye. (Or ear, as the case may be. =P) As I recall, they also have control over the U.S. cyberwarfare program, which gives them even more tools to work with. All this, combined with their extreme secrecy, is what fires both imagination and paranoia.

But, as I said, it and America's other intelligence organs are legally" cut out of domestic operations. Which is what makes Luna's operating authority an even more interesting question for me, since she apparently is operating domestically under that same authority. In World War II, Germany's foreign intelligence services (both the Abwehr and the KGB-like RSHA) also ran counterintelligence and internal security, much like the KGB did in the Soviet Union, but the U.S. hasn't combined them since WWII (when the FBI ran intelligence ops in the Western Hemisphere). The FBI was responsible for the postwar division of those fields, too.

And YOU thought Amazing Agent Luna was just a simple (yet rad) story of a teenage girl spy and her trying to adapt to high school life. =P

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