No question again this week, but I thought it might interest readers to know what first prompted me to start plotting this story. So, here's the image and blog post that started this whole story running in my head....
Readers of the story will semi-recognize a variation of this moment from Chapter 6 ("Kung Fu Queen"); it was what originally got me thinking of what a relationship story between Chie and Yousuke might look like. And that surprised and speechless expression on Chie's face - much like the artist's comments - summed up pretty much perfectly the way that I thought (even an older) Chie might react to Yousuke being so compassionate.
Chapter 48 just went up this week, and I'm fixing up Chapter 49 right now, for posting on January 27, 2010. Not many more chapters left, and the characters have come a long way...but this moment still sticks with me as being at the heart of the story.
23 January 2010
08 January 2010
Giving up the fight
Okay, I get it. I'm a wordy writer; that's just my style. Unfortunately, it makes writing battles tedious or, as one kind reviewer put it, "dull."
Chapter 46, "Bushi no Kokoro" (The Warrior's Heart), has a crapload of fights in it. To add to the confusion, Personas are in this fight. Since I wanted to stay close to the essence of gameplay, I kept the whole you-gotta-smash-your-card-and-say-something-witty technique used in the game. I wonder if that's what's so tedious about them....
Anyway, after the initial reviews, I took out some of the brief fight descriptions, and after the latest review I got, I took out a chunk (about 300 words' worth) of one fight scene in particular. Unfortunately, there need to be enough fight scenes for it to be relatively realistic that the team would feel the brunt of having a mediocre healer, and for the healer in question to feel wasted by the time they got to the eighth floor of the dungeon...and all of the fight scenes need to sort of build off of each other. For example, there's a very brief fight where Kanji uses a new trick and once he has an easy win, he's got this over-confident grin on his face...and then he gets ambushed from behind, and suddenly everybody's hurting. It's meant to be dramatic (well, that's what I was going for, anyway), and I couldn't really leave the first little Kanji fight out before having the Killing Hands come in to fuck everybody up in HP and SP.
It's always a little bit disheartening to see portions of the story that I enjoy get clipped out (or saved for another day), when I really enjoyed writing those sequences in the first place. On the other hand, it's also good to take the criticism and try to figure out where the story can work better for people who read it. (I mean, I lose readers like crazy already...I don't want them to drop the entire story because my fight scenes are mediocre.)
I already knew that fight scenes aren't my forte, and I guess this just sort of proves it. :/
On a high note, though, there's only one (big) fight in the coming chapter (47, which should be up next week on January 13,2010), and then I'm back into a whole crapload of dialogue/emoting, which is something that I do think I do well. "Maturity" (as they call it) also comes back into play shortly, which I'll be glad for...it's been a while since my protagonist had a little bit of downtime.
Chapter 46, "Bushi no Kokoro" (The Warrior's Heart), has a crapload of fights in it. To add to the confusion, Personas are in this fight. Since I wanted to stay close to the essence of gameplay, I kept the whole you-gotta-smash-your-card-and-say-something-witty technique used in the game. I wonder if that's what's so tedious about them....
Anyway, after the initial reviews, I took out some of the brief fight descriptions, and after the latest review I got, I took out a chunk (about 300 words' worth) of one fight scene in particular. Unfortunately, there need to be enough fight scenes for it to be relatively realistic that the team would feel the brunt of having a mediocre healer, and for the healer in question to feel wasted by the time they got to the eighth floor of the dungeon...and all of the fight scenes need to sort of build off of each other. For example, there's a very brief fight where Kanji uses a new trick and once he has an easy win, he's got this over-confident grin on his face...and then he gets ambushed from behind, and suddenly everybody's hurting. It's meant to be dramatic (well, that's what I was going for, anyway), and I couldn't really leave the first little Kanji fight out before having the Killing Hands come in to fuck everybody up in HP and SP.
It's always a little bit disheartening to see portions of the story that I enjoy get clipped out (or saved for another day), when I really enjoyed writing those sequences in the first place. On the other hand, it's also good to take the criticism and try to figure out where the story can work better for people who read it. (I mean, I lose readers like crazy already...I don't want them to drop the entire story because my fight scenes are mediocre.)
I already knew that fight scenes aren't my forte, and I guess this just sort of proves it. :/
On a high note, though, there's only one (big) fight in the coming chapter (47, which should be up next week on January 13,2010), and then I'm back into a whole crapload of dialogue/emoting, which is something that I do think I do well. "Maturity" (as they call it) also comes back into play shortly, which I'll be glad for...it's been a while since my protagonist had a little bit of downtime.
03 January 2010
Q: Is Souji a stranger?
Q: Is Souji a stranger?
Reviewer co426e asks: "You seem to write Souji as some kind of stranger to everyone. He seems the most distant and when they contacted Naoto first instead of their old leader, it made me think. Was this on purpose or not?"
A: Yes.
At least, the answer to the question asked is yes - it was on purpose that Souji is written the way that he is, and that the characters make the decisions that they do.
Seta Souji, the last player in the story, has always been something of an enigma to Chie and the others. He's pretty much unreadable, and he's full of so many mysteries - some small, others not - that no one can ever really tell what's going on in his head at any given moment. With the revelations that start to come in Chapter 46, this should become a little more clear to the reader.
Some of the reason why Souji is so enigmatic as both character and leader is that he's a tabula rasa: in the game, the player can make Souji anything s/he wants: sentimental wuss, womanizing bastard, and anything and all in between. But since no one is ever privy to another's true thoughts, no matter how much is said or expressed between them, I chose to make Souji the pinnacle of that kind of person mystery.
There are all kinds of minor and major conflicts going on with Souji. Some of them he's created for himself, and others are placed upon him by others. Some of these signify that the characters have grown beyond depending him, and others signify that there are still hidden jealousies and mistrusts involved. No one is ever one hundred percent good or one hundred percent malicious; even Shadows have echoes of the truth to them.
Readers who have been paying attention know that Chie is not completely convinced by anything Souji does or says, because she's still more concerned with how he relates to Yukiko and Yousuke (and now Kuma) to give her an unadulterated or unbiased view of what he's actually saying and trying to tell them. Even Naoto - who's usually the first to grasp the answers to these kinds of questions - still doesn't have enough information. But take comfort that the writing of Souji and those around him is no accident. He's meant to be portrayed as an outsider. At least for now.
Reviewer co426e asks: "You seem to write Souji as some kind of stranger to everyone. He seems the most distant and when they contacted Naoto first instead of their old leader, it made me think. Was this on purpose or not?"
A: Yes.
At least, the answer to the question asked is yes - it was on purpose that Souji is written the way that he is, and that the characters make the decisions that they do.
Seta Souji, the last player in the story, has always been something of an enigma to Chie and the others. He's pretty much unreadable, and he's full of so many mysteries - some small, others not - that no one can ever really tell what's going on in his head at any given moment. With the revelations that start to come in Chapter 46, this should become a little more clear to the reader.
Some of the reason why Souji is so enigmatic as both character and leader is that he's a tabula rasa: in the game, the player can make Souji anything s/he wants: sentimental wuss, womanizing bastard, and anything and all in between. But since no one is ever privy to another's true thoughts, no matter how much is said or expressed between them, I chose to make Souji the pinnacle of that kind of person mystery.
There are all kinds of minor and major conflicts going on with Souji. Some of them he's created for himself, and others are placed upon him by others. Some of these signify that the characters have grown beyond depending him, and others signify that there are still hidden jealousies and mistrusts involved. No one is ever one hundred percent good or one hundred percent malicious; even Shadows have echoes of the truth to them.
Readers who have been paying attention know that Chie is not completely convinced by anything Souji does or says, because she's still more concerned with how he relates to Yukiko and Yousuke (and now Kuma) to give her an unadulterated or unbiased view of what he's actually saying and trying to tell them. Even Naoto - who's usually the first to grasp the answers to these kinds of questions - still doesn't have enough information. But take comfort that the writing of Souji and those around him is no accident. He's meant to be portrayed as an outsider. At least for now.
25 December 2009
Holiday hiatus
No questions from readers this week (it is the holiday, after all, so I actually am not expecting any reviews after those that came in the first day of posting the new chapter), but I didn't want to lose the opportunity to wish my readers a very merry Christmas, in Japanese!
メリクリスマス！ ＾＿＾
Hopefully, some thoughtful reader will post a good non-spoiler question for next time.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
メリクリスマス！ ＾＿＾
Hopefully, some thoughtful reader will post a good non-spoiler question for next time.
Merry Christmas, everybody!
...I wonder how Shoutarou-kun and Yui-chan are reacting on Christmas morning....
09 December 2009
Q: What's with the honorifics?
Q: A few reviewers commented (in the same week, oddly enough) about my use of honorifics, specifically the "-chan" honorific as regards to using it with men. So, this week I'll address the question, "Why do the characters use '-chan' when referring to a man?"
A: Because they do.
Okay, before you blow back at me, let me explain:
I write these characters by my own ear.
A lot of people are used to the "-kun" honorific when addressing boys informally/affectionately, because a lot of games, manga, and anime use this honorific for the male characters. This is, essentially, correct. However, "-kun" as an honorific for a man is not as widespread. In fact, when I was growing up, I was very specifically told by my (Japanese) mother that I should not be using "-kun" to refer to any male over the age of about 16, even if he is my contemporary. It's very baby-ish to refer to a man that way, and in a society such as Japan's, which is built so strongly around respect for one's neighbor, and social standing, and propriety, it's just not kosher to go around using the "-kun" honorific for a man.
The honorific "-chan" is regularly used by men and by women for women and children - and this is commonly addressed in games, manga, and anime, as well. But "-chan" is also used by women for men of contemporary age with whom they have a certain level of intimacy. A woman will very commonly use the "-chan" honorific for her boyfriend, or her lover, or even her husband (though usually only in private for the latter, again, because of the societal idea that men are supposed to be the providers and the dominants).
Chie has pretty much always called Yukiko (as an example) "Yukiko-chan" or even "Yuki-chan" because they are so close; they're practically sisters (or more intimate, though not in my story). And she does the same with the other women, because she's a woman talking to and referring to other women. No problem, right?
Okay, now, let's move on to the point of contention that some readers have.
At the beginning of the story, Chie calls Yousuke simply "Hanamura," the common way to address a peer being by their last name. Even in the game (the Japanese version, anyway, from which this story takes its cues), Chie calls him "Hanamura"...and Yousuke calls her "Satonaka." I kept them at that same level of intimacy (friendship only) for the first Arc of the story.
In the second Arc, Chie and Yousuke get closer as intimates, to the point where they're calling each other by their given names. (The moment in illustration occurs in Chapter 13, "Old Habits," for anyone wondering.) As noted in the Author's Notes for that chapter, this jump is fairly significant, for the reasons stated therein. He immediately starts using the "-chan" honorific because he's a man referring to a woman with whom he shares a deeper level of intimacy. She also starts to refer to him with the same honorific, for the same reason (just switch the respective genders).
By the third and fourth Arcs, Chie and Yousuke are both so far up into each other that I can't see them using any other terms. They do call each other by their given names only with regularity, but the "-chan" honorific adds a sweetness to the exchanges that just wouldn't exist otherwise. It's akin to an English speaker calling someone "sweetie" or "honey" or "baby" ... because those terms just don't really exist in Japanese language. It's pretty much some version of a name or title, or it's the equivalent of "hey, you" (which is quite ill-mannered in Japanese society).
There are some exceptions, of course:
Rise uses "-kun" for all of the guys, regardless of their age, because she's a perpetual girl.
Yukiko uses "-kun" for Kanji because she still kind of thinks of him as a little brother in a lot of ways (it's the same reason why Kanji slips and calls Yukiko "ne-chan [big sis]" in Chapter 33, "Juxtaposition"); she uses the name "Hana-chan" for Yousuke because she thinks of him as an inferior, much like Konishi Saki did (and I just liked to have someone keep that short form of his name alive). What Yukiko calls Souji will be revealed in more detail in the coming chapters....
But what my choice really comes down to is that I write the way that my mind thinks, and I'm a product of my Japanese upbringing. Having Chie call Yousuke "Yousuke-chan" - and vice versa - just makes sense to my inner ear. When I translate the way that I speak with my own significant other, that's how Chie speaks.
So, I hope that clarifies why I made the honorific choices that I did.
A: Because they do.
Okay, before you blow back at me, let me explain:
I write these characters by my own ear.
A lot of people are used to the "-kun" honorific when addressing boys informally/affectionately, because a lot of games, manga, and anime use this honorific for the male characters. This is, essentially, correct. However, "-kun" as an honorific for a man is not as widespread. In fact, when I was growing up, I was very specifically told by my (Japanese) mother that I should not be using "-kun" to refer to any male over the age of about 16, even if he is my contemporary. It's very baby-ish to refer to a man that way, and in a society such as Japan's, which is built so strongly around respect for one's neighbor, and social standing, and propriety, it's just not kosher to go around using the "-kun" honorific for a man.
The honorific "-chan" is regularly used by men and by women for women and children - and this is commonly addressed in games, manga, and anime, as well. But "-chan" is also used by women for men of contemporary age with whom they have a certain level of intimacy. A woman will very commonly use the "-chan" honorific for her boyfriend, or her lover, or even her husband (though usually only in private for the latter, again, because of the societal idea that men are supposed to be the providers and the dominants).
Chie has pretty much always called Yukiko (as an example) "Yukiko-chan" or even "Yuki-chan" because they are so close; they're practically sisters (or more intimate, though not in my story). And she does the same with the other women, because she's a woman talking to and referring to other women. No problem, right?
Okay, now, let's move on to the point of contention that some readers have.
At the beginning of the story, Chie calls Yousuke simply "Hanamura," the common way to address a peer being by their last name. Even in the game (the Japanese version, anyway, from which this story takes its cues), Chie calls him "Hanamura"...and Yousuke calls her "Satonaka." I kept them at that same level of intimacy (friendship only) for the first Arc of the story.
In the second Arc, Chie and Yousuke get closer as intimates, to the point where they're calling each other by their given names. (The moment in illustration occurs in Chapter 13, "Old Habits," for anyone wondering.) As noted in the Author's Notes for that chapter, this jump is fairly significant, for the reasons stated therein. He immediately starts using the "-chan" honorific because he's a man referring to a woman with whom he shares a deeper level of intimacy. She also starts to refer to him with the same honorific, for the same reason (just switch the respective genders).
By the third and fourth Arcs, Chie and Yousuke are both so far up into each other that I can't see them using any other terms. They do call each other by their given names only with regularity, but the "-chan" honorific adds a sweetness to the exchanges that just wouldn't exist otherwise. It's akin to an English speaker calling someone "sweetie" or "honey" or "baby" ... because those terms just don't really exist in Japanese language. It's pretty much some version of a name or title, or it's the equivalent of "hey, you" (which is quite ill-mannered in Japanese society).
There are some exceptions, of course:
Rise uses "-kun" for all of the guys, regardless of their age, because she's a perpetual girl.
Yukiko uses "-kun" for Kanji because she still kind of thinks of him as a little brother in a lot of ways (it's the same reason why Kanji slips and calls Yukiko "ne-chan [big sis]" in Chapter 33, "Juxtaposition"); she uses the name "Hana-chan" for Yousuke because she thinks of him as an inferior, much like Konishi Saki did (and I just liked to have someone keep that short form of his name alive). What Yukiko calls Souji will be revealed in more detail in the coming chapters....
But what my choice really comes down to is that I write the way that my mind thinks, and I'm a product of my Japanese upbringing. Having Chie call Yousuke "Yousuke-chan" - and vice versa - just makes sense to my inner ear. When I translate the way that I speak with my own significant other, that's how Chie speaks.
So, I hope that clarifies why I made the honorific choices that I did.
20 November 2009
Q: Why Yukiko?
Q: Reviewer Viktor Mayrin recently asked the question, "Why does everyone have Souji/Yukiko?"
A: I have no good answer for that.
While other authors may put Yukiko and Souji together, there are lots of other authors who like pairing Souji with Rise, or Chie, or Naoto...as well as with Yousuke and Kanji (though I don't see that one very often). In all honesty, given the open-ness that the player can take with the Hero Main Character (for ease, we'll call him Seta Souji), the romantic/sexual relationships can go any way you want. I've read a few stories that made Ebihara Ai his one true love, and I've seen a few pieces of artwork that put Souji with Ozawa Yumi and even Matsunaga Ayane. As I said, it's really up to the individual's personal tastes and outlook.
As for me, my Hero MC hooked up with Yukiko the first time I played the game, because I thought they just "fit" together. Listening to the Drama CD, I'm even more convinced that Yukiko and Souji are the best fit. Besides, I immediately put Yousuke and Chie together as the bickering would-be lovers who just couldn't admit their own feelings to themselves or each other, and Kanji and Naoto work great as a couple exploring their own feelings as well as the societal barriers and baggage that come along with their personal choices (I like the way that Kanji takes a more traditionally feminine role - sewing, cooking, emotionality - while Naoto takes the more traditionally masculine role - guns, stoicism, logic). And Rise (especially based on the Drama CD) just seems to fit with her fellow kouhai, even though most of the time she's really just playing matchmaker. So, that left Yukiko and Souji.
But that doesn't mean that even in my story, Souji didn't occasionally have feelings for the other girls. In fact, in the most recent chapter update (Chapter 39, "Let Go, Hold On," posted 18 November 2009), Yousuke makes a telling observation about Souji regarding his old leader's romantic proclivities. And Chie jumps to a bit of a strange conclusion on her own (earlier in the same chapter), simply because she's projecting her own fears and doubts. And because we all think the world revolves around ourselves.
Now, there is a snag. Yukiko, as my readers will know from Chapter 33 ("Juxtaposition" - read it here if you've forgotten), is currently on the mend from a relationship upheaval of her own. How will that translate to her affection for Souji...if any of those feelings still exists at all? Curious readers will just have to wait and see.
So, I don't know why a lot of other people choose Souji to be with Yukiko. But those are my reasons.
Hope you're all enjoying the story, and these little glimpses into how I make the story work!
A: I have no good answer for that.
While other authors may put Yukiko and Souji together, there are lots of other authors who like pairing Souji with Rise, or Chie, or Naoto...as well as with Yousuke and Kanji (though I don't see that one very often). In all honesty, given the open-ness that the player can take with the Hero Main Character (for ease, we'll call him Seta Souji), the romantic/sexual relationships can go any way you want. I've read a few stories that made Ebihara Ai his one true love, and I've seen a few pieces of artwork that put Souji with Ozawa Yumi and even Matsunaga Ayane. As I said, it's really up to the individual's personal tastes and outlook.
As for me, my Hero MC hooked up with Yukiko the first time I played the game, because I thought they just "fit" together. Listening to the Drama CD, I'm even more convinced that Yukiko and Souji are the best fit. Besides, I immediately put Yousuke and Chie together as the bickering would-be lovers who just couldn't admit their own feelings to themselves or each other, and Kanji and Naoto work great as a couple exploring their own feelings as well as the societal barriers and baggage that come along with their personal choices (I like the way that Kanji takes a more traditionally feminine role - sewing, cooking, emotionality - while Naoto takes the more traditionally masculine role - guns, stoicism, logic). And Rise (especially based on the Drama CD) just seems to fit with her fellow kouhai, even though most of the time she's really just playing matchmaker. So, that left Yukiko and Souji.
But that doesn't mean that even in my story, Souji didn't occasionally have feelings for the other girls. In fact, in the most recent chapter update (Chapter 39, "Let Go, Hold On," posted 18 November 2009), Yousuke makes a telling observation about Souji regarding his old leader's romantic proclivities. And Chie jumps to a bit of a strange conclusion on her own (earlier in the same chapter), simply because she's projecting her own fears and doubts. And because we all think the world revolves around ourselves.
Now, there is a snag. Yukiko, as my readers will know from Chapter 33 ("Juxtaposition" - read it here if you've forgotten), is currently on the mend from a relationship upheaval of her own. How will that translate to her affection for Souji...if any of those feelings still exists at all? Curious readers will just have to wait and see.
So, I don't know why a lot of other people choose Souji to be with Yukiko. But those are my reasons.
Hope you're all enjoying the story, and these little glimpses into how I make the story work!
11 November 2009
Tanabata and the Duel
- All chapter links listed below will take you to the Fanfiction.Net versions. -
Now that Chapter 37 ("Agonies and Thrills") has been up for a full week and we've moved on to Chapter 38 ("Two Steps Forward....", posted 2009 Nov. 11), I think it's relatively safe for me to go off on a tangent as regard to the duel challenge plot and its culmination.
But just in case, I'm going to SPOILER mark it for those who have not read Chapter 37, so rollover to view the rest.
In Chapter 30 ("Star Princess"), Chie's grandfather Kazunori relates the story of Tanabata. The chapter title refers to a couple of different things. One is the heavenly princess Orihime, the heroine of the Tanabata story; the second is Kuma, whose Arcana is the Star; and the third is Chie, whose fate, at least so far as the duel is concerned, is linked very closely with sweet Orihime's.
Pet names are not common in Japan, but I felt it was important for Yousuke to give Chie the pet name of "hime-chan" or "princess," because that's what she is to him. He's a bit of a chauvinist in this regard - wanting to protect and take care of Chie...not necessarily because he thinks of her as a lesser person because of her gender, but because he thinks she needs someone to protect her and take care of her. (I'm not saying he's right - and she needs to prove time and again that she's the better fighter of the two of them - but that's the way that he thinks. Chalk it up to a patriarchal society.) The princess symbolism doesn't end there, of course...but that's a topic for another day.
Nevertheless, readers who have been paying close attention to what happens in the story will notice that the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi - which Kazunori relates to Kuma and the others - relates almost directly to what occurs with Chie and Yousuke at the conclusion of the duel fight. In the simplest of comparisons:
Chie (Orihime) goes to her father, Hitoshi (Tentei), and begs him to let her stay with Yousuke (Hikoboshi), the man whom she loves. It's specifically Orihime's tears - much like it is with Chie's - that sway Tentei's/Hitoshi's heart in favor of his daughter, despite what his feelings may be for her future or for her lover.
Now, I also felt it was necessary to have Yousuke and Chie grow as adults, as well as both friends and lovers, during the trials of the training chapters. And it was very important for the characters to venture into the Mayonaka TV world, because the Shadows (and Personas) come into play quite significantly in Part IV. And I wanted to build up some tension in the latter chapters, especially, to keep readers interested in seeing what was going to happen in the fight itself. But, for readers who were paying attention, I was giving away the ending of Part III very early on, all the way back in Chapter 30.
END SPOILER
So, this was just a small glimpse into the workings of the mind of an author who's trying to keep everything in a plot moving toward a culminating goal of neatly-woven entertainment. (Or maybe not so neatly-woven. You can judge that for yourself.)
Now that Chapter 37 ("Agonies and Thrills") has been up for a full week and we've moved on to Chapter 38 ("Two Steps Forward....", posted 2009 Nov. 11), I think it's relatively safe for me to go off on a tangent as regard to the duel challenge plot and its culmination.
But just in case, I'm going to SPOILER mark it for those who have not read Chapter 37, so rollover to view the rest.
In Chapter 30 ("Star Princess"), Chie's grandfather Kazunori relates the story of Tanabata. The chapter title refers to a couple of different things. One is the heavenly princess Orihime, the heroine of the Tanabata story; the second is Kuma, whose Arcana is the Star; and the third is Chie, whose fate, at least so far as the duel is concerned, is linked very closely with sweet Orihime's.
Pet names are not common in Japan, but I felt it was important for Yousuke to give Chie the pet name of "hime-chan" or "princess," because that's what she is to him. He's a bit of a chauvinist in this regard - wanting to protect and take care of Chie...not necessarily because he thinks of her as a lesser person because of her gender, but because he thinks she needs someone to protect her and take care of her. (I'm not saying he's right - and she needs to prove time and again that she's the better fighter of the two of them - but that's the way that he thinks. Chalk it up to a patriarchal society.) The princess symbolism doesn't end there, of course...but that's a topic for another day.
Nevertheless, readers who have been paying close attention to what happens in the story will notice that the story of Orihime and Hikoboshi - which Kazunori relates to Kuma and the others - relates almost directly to what occurs with Chie and Yousuke at the conclusion of the duel fight. In the simplest of comparisons:
Chie (Orihime) goes to her father, Hitoshi (Tentei), and begs him to let her stay with Yousuke (Hikoboshi), the man whom she loves. It's specifically Orihime's tears - much like it is with Chie's - that sway Tentei's/Hitoshi's heart in favor of his daughter, despite what his feelings may be for her future or for her lover.
Now, I also felt it was necessary to have Yousuke and Chie grow as adults, as well as both friends and lovers, during the trials of the training chapters. And it was very important for the characters to venture into the Mayonaka TV world, because the Shadows (and Personas) come into play quite significantly in Part IV. And I wanted to build up some tension in the latter chapters, especially, to keep readers interested in seeing what was going to happen in the fight itself. But, for readers who were paying attention, I was giving away the ending of Part III very early on, all the way back in Chapter 30.
END SPOILER
So, this was just a small glimpse into the workings of the mind of an author who's trying to keep everything in a plot moving toward a culminating goal of neatly-woven entertainment. (Or maybe not so neatly-woven. You can judge that for yourself.)
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