This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
SpiriTsunami: Since Renita has said she probably isn't going to be finishing up this three-parter, I'm taking the initiative of jumping in, since I'd been hoping to get in on the fun and it also helps hit some of the tropes concerned with multiple writers—after all, what better way to do that than to change writers in the middle of an episode? I've already got some stuff for the continued adventures of the Vampbenders in the illusory world, where last I checked, they still were, but it may take me a bit longer to figure out what to do with Nucleus, who's really the focus of this episode. I only have a vague idea of how the Vampbenders get out of the illusory world, but I figure they'll probably start to assert their old wills late in this episode and actually break out right at the beginning of Revelations, which will then mostly focus on them getting Nerdly back in control of the body he shares with Nucleus. Of course, if Renita decides she wants to finish this after all, I will pull back without complaint.
Renita: Feel free to run with this, since I don't think I'd ever get around to finishing it, regrettably. And I like the idea of the sudden, jarring change in writing style and plotting halfway through, which I alikened to the final segment of Doctor Who's Trial of a Time Lord in the Episode Guide's chat page. In that instance, the original writer died after finishing the first episode, the replacement writer quit over editorial disputes with the Executive Produer and then the final set of writers had to finish the story in the space of an afternoon supervised by lawyers representing the first replacement writer, who'd copywrited his version of the script and forbidden any of his ideas being used. The Ultimate Foe stands up quite well, considering the circumstances of it's production, but the change in writers at the halfway point does still show. I'd like the idea of that kind of feel being applied to the Nucleus Trilogy here.
Mjb: Excellent.
SpiriTsunami: I hope I did the right thing making up some "accident", since it gives good reason for the old writer to disappear while still leaving room for a return for future episodes (which true Author Existence Failure wouldn't). And, naturally, I had to throw in a little self-promotion—never mentioning it by name, but just putting it out there that the second writer has something of his own for those readers that are interested. I thought that I did a good job of relating back into TV terms the fact that I myself thought the first six "seasons" (thirteen-chapter blocks, although sometimes individual chapters will disappear because they'd be entirely comprised of fight scenes) were utter crap, and I only wish I could figure out some way of rewriting them—since, unfortunately, deleting them completely would detract from the entirety somewhat, even though, as I mentioned there, there was a Retool between the sixth and seventh "seasons", courtesy of a 15-year Time Skip. (And, yes, I do still think of them as seasons. Originally, I wrote the story as if it were an anime, and every thirteenth chapter, save for a couple (most notably Chapter 26, since the "seasons" idea only came to me after my third major cliffhanger ended Chapter 39 and it just so happened that one of the previous two was Chapter 13), has a distinct "season finale" feel to it. Since you'd have to come here to receive confirmation that the show described there is actually something that exists (and one that had plenty of tropes even before I came here and will probably have even more now that I've been here, at that), I think it was a good decision, since tropes like Friday Night Death Slot probably weren't going to come up otherwise and this gives an excuse to put them in.
Oh, and don't worry; the next episode will be less fanservice and more battling. I'll get the use of Nucleus correct by then. Just seemed like most of Nucleus's development had already been provided, and besides, if he was able to take over his own world so easily, and the Vampbenders were what stopped him from doing the same, isn't it only logical that he shouldn't have much trouble taking over with them stuck in the illusory world? They're about to escape, though, which will be fun. I only hope that I'm able to write a decent fight scene for once...
