Black Crystal Battlers

TIDBITS

Here are some special facts — important and miscellaneous — about the Black Crystal Battlers series. They relate to either a character in the series, a popular place in the series, or something else.

The series contains small, subtle elements of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Big, Bad Beetleborgs, and The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.
The character J.J. is named after my nickname in high school.
The character Aaron is named after my real-life younger brother.
The other six main characters are named after real-life friends of either mine or my brother.
Every aspect of each Battler’s family matches the real-life person he or she is based on (except Diahandra, whose family I didn’t know all that much about).
The concepts of using Battler Animals to fight and sealing those you want to make yours is a blend of Pokémon and Cardcaptors.
The concept of the girls traveling on the road and earning orbs was adopted from Pokémon.
Kit, Howler, and Grizz’s attempts to eat the kids comes from Count Fangula, Frankenbeans, Mums, and Wolfgang, the four monsters who live in the Hillhurst house on Big, Bad Beetleborgs.
J.J.’s middle name is Alton, after his father’s middle name; Aaron’s is Gregory, after his father’s first name.
Maurice and Kesse are the only Battlers with mixed-race half-siblings. Their names are Precious and Brandon Kukawski (see Maurice and Kesse’s profiles).
J.J.’s real first name, Jamison, was given to him after his mother’s maiden name.
Both of Maurice and Kesse’s biological parents are the only ones who’ve divorced and gotten remarried (to different people, of course).
Jon, like the one in the book, also lived in Belgium before returning to the United States.
Maurice and Kesse are the only Battlers who aren’t fans of the Matrix series.
J.J. was eaten for the tenth time in Book 14. He’s been eaten more times than any of the others.
Felicia Hooper, the girl traveling with Shauna and Diahandra, is named after an acquaintance of mine who attends the University of Mary Washington.
Jon’s parents don’t know Liam DiCapa in real life — while the Crawleys exist, the DiCapas don’t.
Aaron and Jon are the only two Battlers with birthdays in the same month. Jon’s birthday is September 15. Aaron’s is September 25.
In Book 25, J.J. and Aaron’s paternal grandmother died (off-page) in October of 2001. In real life, J.J. and Aaron’s paternal grandmother, Annie “Rose” Johnson Rountree, died in March of 2001, but the cause of death (a brain tumor) was the same.
Excluding the books of the girls’ journey, the only regular titles Deyon and Kesse didn’t appear in were Books 18, 38, and 39 (if you consider the fact that Aaron and Jon appeared in the prologues and epilogues of the last two books). The only regular titles Maurice didn’t appear in were Books 34, 38, and 39 (again, if you consider the fact that Aaron and Jon appeared in the prologues and epilogues of the last two books). The only regular titles J.J. didn’t appear in, while he was a Battler, were Books 25, 35, 36, 38, and 39 (once more, if you consider the fact that Aaron and Jon appeared in the prologues and epilogues of the last two books). The only regular title Aaron didn’t appear in was Book 25.
Fenrir Lupus’s first name was named after the Norse wolf god. His last name was inspired by the species name of the wolf’s full scientific name, Canis lupus. (See Book 25.)
Like Maurice states in Book 25, J.J. does like the Everworld series by K.A. Applegate. He also likes the Animorphs series, which is by the same author.
Mount Vernon High School is, in real life, only J.J. and Aaron’s school. Maurice and Kesse went to Swansea High School in South Carolina. Deyon, Jon, Shauna, and Diahandra’s real-life high schools were unknown.
Regina and Janice are, and Terre was, ONLY pregnant in the series. They’re NOT pregnant in real life.
J.J. and Kesse made their last appearance in Super Battlers 4. In the same book, Richard and Jay take their places (although both newcomers were added to the series sooner than this — in Book 32, in fact, which stars Deyon).
J.J. was eaten a total of nineteen times throughout his run in the series! Eighteen of these times were on-page. The only time he gets eaten off-page is in Book 7, which stars Shauna.

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