Midquel

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A midquel is a neologism for a story that is neither a sequel nor a prequel nor an interquel, but which describes previously-undescribed events taking place during the chronology of the original story. It can be considered as "during this time" or "meanwhile". For example, in the Fire Emblem video game series, Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 is the midquel of Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu. Thracia 776 takes place during the intermission of Seisen no Keifu. Another example is C.S. Lewis' The Horse and His Boy which takes place entirely during Chapter 17 of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Orson Scott Card's science fiction novel Ender's Game, which was followed by two midquels: Ender's Shadow and Shadow of the Hegemon, focusing on the adventures of Ender's friend Bean and his siblings, respectively. Mario Puzo's novel The Sicilian is a midquel to The Godfather, as it involves Michael Corleone during his exile in Sicily. The film, however, removes all references to the Corleone family.

In movies, an example of a midquel is the 2004 direct-to-video animated film The Lion King 1½, which is a midquel to 1994's The Lion King. It takes place during the first film but in the original films' secondary characters Timon and Pumbaa's perspective.

In much the same fashion, Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is a midquel of sorts to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, taking place during the same time frame but from an exactly inverse perspective... the minor characters are the leads and Hamlet is a minor player.