Ocean Sailor
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2019
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...and then Mike wakes up in the head of one well-known smug thinker.
You know, I've read Zion killed in a lot of different ways. Canon-but-better, higher power intervention, various super weapons and once by being plugged into the Tyranid hive mind. I think I've seen someone peacefully talk him down... Once?
Is there going to be an epilogue, or are you completely done with this one? (I'll admit to being curious about the eventual fate of the Jacob collective)
Jack Slash figured out 'doorway', and he wasn't as aware of his shard's activities as the Jacobs were. Lisa did her best to conceal how to do Doorway from J1, but he got enough hints to figure out what to do. It's hard to keep secrets from someone whose shard can look over your shard's shoulder and ask them what's going on.The plan absolutely would not have worked out the Jacobs didn't figure out doorway. They wouldn't be able to move fast enough for any to survive. Now that they're out in the wild I suspect they will be a bit like an end bringer but more morally neutral. The personality implant did include an altruistic bent that might stop them from going slaughterhouse 9k on the world, but they're still a bit psychotic.
That's a reader's choice; it's a crack fic, so if you want him to, he did; if not, he didn't.
In Celestial Worm, he wasn't even the real bad guy.You know, I've read Zion killed in a lot of different ways. Canon-but-better, higher power intervention, various super weapons and once by being plugged into the Tyranid hive mind. I think I've seen someone peacefully talk him down... Once?
Heheh, nppe.This.Was.Amazing! Brilliant ending for a brilliant story. Congratulations on another completed fic!
...and then Mike wakes up in the head of one well-known smug thinker.
Mike: "Oh come on!"
Hadn't planned on one. That may change. No promises.Is there going to be an epilogue, or are you completely done with this one? (I'll admit to being curious about the eventual fate of the Jacob collective)
Well, unfortunately, I had to a) show them doing the clones, and b) doing the bombs, because otherwise people might have accused me of pulling one or the other out of my ass.I found the conclusion to be rather underwhelming. The Unspoken Plan Guarantee - that if the protagonists have a plan and the audience does not know what it is in advance, it is certain to work, but if they do know, then it will go wrong - is a common trope for a very good reason. In this case, however, neither happened: the basic plan - use one or more clones of Jack to drive Scion to suicide, then Bakuda bombs to destroy his world - was clear from before they started, and nothing went seriously wrong with the execution.
Don't get me wrong, it was a brilliant plan executed perfectly from an in-universe perspective, but it was kinda boring to watch. I kept looking for the twist - some or all of the Jacob clones go rogue? Blasto's own personal Jack-clone gets decanted and interferes? Bakuda's bombs have, in fact, been sabotaged? Endbringer interrupt? But nothing happened.
Edit: I feel like I might have enjoyed the finale more if I hadn't reread the previous chapter (i.e. Part 30, posted in January, not the first half of the final chapter, posted 2 days ago) before reading it. The ending would have been a lot more exciting if I hadn't refreshed my memory of, e.g., who they were cloning.
Keeping the plan secret is only one of the two options. The other is that the audience knows the plan, but then things go wrong, and the heroes have to scramble to deal with the unexpected complications. The ending of Security, for instance, worked because Scion set everything off early.Well, unfortunately, I had to a) show them doing the clones, and b) doing the bombs, because otherwise people might have accused me of pulling one or the other out of my ass.
...Who knew getting called out could be so satisfying, lol."Finish it off? What are you talking about? It's finished." She pointed at the screen. "See? 'End of I, Panacea'. Says so right there."
"Yeah, but I need to know what happens next. Not to Mike—he can go jump into Scion's head, for all I care—but to characters like the Jacobs. We kind of left them hanging. And then there's the whole Kevin Norton thing. You ended the Amy/Mike story, but nothing else."
She glared over her shoulder at him, then huffed an aggravated sigh. "Fine, but if you read through my stuff again, I swear I'll write something that'll give you nightmares for a month."
"Yeah, yeah, whatevs. So get to writing."
He wouldn't have objected, but he was happy with what he got.