u/OG-Name-Do-Not-Steal

gonna ramble, but i keep seeing posts about the one storyline being retconned or poorly written, but i fundamentally disagree. you know what my REAL problem with modern tpot is? pacing

take one's storyline, specifically her death. its clever and well written. in tpot 20, we get her backstory, which is ambiguous in places and neither leaves her in a fully sympathetic or unsympathetic light, but then, in tpot 25, we get the reveal that its told from her perspective and she is an unreliable narrator.

thats revealed at the very end of episode 25, and nicely, it was not very in your face, the scene passes by and you go "oh. oooooooh." its underplayed because of all the other nonsense going on

"shocked, One remembers Six showing Ten a prank that Six pulled on Seven by blowing soap bubbles into his eyes. One then remembers the same moment from another perspective, revealing herself shouting at Six and Ten. She also recalls being trampled by Zero and yelling at him and Fourteen."

(its her epiphany, as paralleled by pencil)

"As Pencil approaches One, she repeats the question and explains that she once believed she was kind as well. However, after reflecting on her past behavior, Pencil wondered what her former self had been doing. She recalls how easily she became upset and how frequently she grew angry before again asking One whether she was truly kind. "

but, big but, i honestly wish all this wasnt buried under everything. even in one's death scene, you get a CONVEYOR BELT of narrative/movie/book tropes in succession. like, literally, here's my reaction to the whole death sequence:

• "pencil paralleling one make sense, yeah being a good person vs thinking you are" 
• "oh. oooh. yeah that makes sense, unreliable narrator, we see things from her perspective" 
• "okay, one giving three the power to fix everything, yeah that makes sense, her 'plan' all along and part of her justification to herself" 
• "three trying to kill one, yeah, yeah that makes sense, she would harbor resentment and it shows that one was pathetic and didnt solve anything + death as redemption"
• "pencil saving one? makes sense. again, showing pencil's growth + death as redemption"
• "one realizing shes the bad guy while dying + one's shattering calling back to three's? yeah, makes sense, extra cinematic. also, yeah, death as redemption"

i was satisfied but more in a "yeah its all adding up, good job writers" instead of being immersed in the story lol

its not bad, not at all. im glad that they kind of took the standard, by the books route with devices such as bookends, parallel character arcs, foils, unreliable narration, death as redemption, taking the bullet, etc etc instead of trying to be clever and fumbling it. 

but that also has the consequence of feeling like every book and movie ever synthesized into one lol, and i dont even know why. usually when i see these tropes, im all in and enjoy the hell out of them instead of detached inquiry. id cry at a good taking the bullet, cheer out of my seat to get a villain get comeuppance, left a little hollow at like an unfortunate demise.

and its not like bfdi CANT do this. I was jawdropping at Three's initial death in TPOT 20, extremely engaged in One's not too atypical backstory, cheering Leafy on when she was beating Three. here, i think the difference is the episode just keeps... moving. long denouncement, rejoin, post credits scene

the thing that got me to say this was that i hadnt even internalized the tragedy of one's death until NOW lol. i understood WHY it was tragic and if someone asked, id be able to tell them why its tragic, but its that feeling that didnt come lol. and that shows me that the pacing really did fuck with my perception

tpot 23-25 is paced like an incomprehensible 3 issue comic book crisis crossover event, except theres no tie in series and everything is just crammed into the mainline "tpot" series

its the worlds worst balancing act, you NEED to decompress stuff, but the thing is that the arc is extremely polarizing so some people dont want more time given to it, but then you contract it and lose the effect on stuff, plus putting in comedy for the casual viewers not to make the tone shift too dramatic, etc etc

this one https://www.reddit.com/r/ConnedIntoAFubar/comments/1wixp79/conned_into_hispanic_commenters_not_understanding/

disclaimer: i think the current anti-trump sentiment is good but so many people seem to just vote based on vibes alone, which cost us 2024 in the first place

based on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/whenthe/comments/1w7707g/you_dont_fucking_need_that_you_are_never_going_to/

based on this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/whenthe/comments/1w7707g/you_dont_fucking_need_that_you_are_never_going_to/

based off of this sub's relationship with that one tweet

(no this isnt a smuggie, i dont have an inherent position on veganism)

losing faith in humanity core

EDIT: noticing many people link the wrong post, sincere apologies, I was fubaring this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/ihatethissmug/comments/1vqu5fx/i_hate_that_appearance_is_everything/

This took about 2 weeks to make, but I think it came out very good, if I do say so myself.

Also, apparently its Leafy''s birthday, so take this as a small celebration of my favorite character lol.

Here's them in ranked order plus letter if it helps:

1. Hide + Seek Japan (S)

2. Capture the Flag Japan (S) (yes i know "thing, thing: japan" lol)

3. Race to the End of the World (S)

4. Hide + Seek NYC (S)

5. Tag EUR It: All Stars (A)

6. Battle 4 America (A)

7. Tag EUR It 2 (A)

8. Taiwan: Rail Rush (A)

9. Au$tralia (A)

10. SnaKe (A)

11. Arctic Escape (A)

12. Tag EUR It (A)

13. Hide + Seek UK (B)

14. Schengen Showdown (B)

15. Hide + Seek (Switzerland) (B)

16. Tag EUR It 3 (B)

17 Circumnavigation Around the World (B)

18. Connect 4 (B)

u/Mr_Wisp_ asked, and I delivered: here's the version of that TPOT Days Before Release post I made but for BFDIA.

I have less to say then last time but:

1. This supports the conclusion I came to last post: the most sustainable speed for a modern BFDI episode is about 2 months. The difference here is that, in TPOT, the ONLY time episodes released in a month or under was if they were produced at the same time as the last episode, meaning right after a non-competition episode (TPOT 12 following the EXIT special, and TPOT 19 following the post-split throwback episode). While there are three examples here of the same thing (helpfully marked by the "pt 2" label), BFDIA 7, 10, 11. and 17 were genuinely made in a month without that caveat, which is impressive ...but the relative rarity should tell you that this is still not "sustainable."
2. Following that, counting all two-parters as one episode and recalculating the mean for BFDIA 7-25 gives you 61 days, almost two months exact. This is the more accurate production picture because, again, all two-parters and non-competition + competition pairs are produced together.
3. BFDIA 25's YouTube release date was announced by Cary in a video, which is why I was able to do the whole season.