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Re: "I heard you have a dragon problem?"
This is actually kind of insulting.
A deus ex machina is a device defined by a twist that comes out of nowhere, was not foreshadowed in any way, and makes up new rules/contradicts the established ones for the sole purpose of resolving a conflict that the author was too incompetent to resolve using the means given to them by the story itself. So essentially, by saying that, you're calling me a talentless hack.
This is the second time the possibility of a deus ex machina has been brought up, so I'm going to do something out of the ordinary and go very in-depth about what happened in my last update, so you can see what thoughts went into it and exactly how "out of nowhere" this development was. I'm only going to do this once, and for all future instances of "deus ex machina" calls I will trust you to think it all through yourself.
If we analyze what happened and then take a look at what has been established and lead up to it, we have a plan made by Edo, involving a Birdo, disguised as another character, distracting Mario to buy me enough time to patch up Walkazo behind his back.
There are two relevant factors here: Motive and execution. Why would I even do that? And where did I get the tools to do it?
It has previously been established that my character has an odd emotional attachment to his heritage and those that share it.
That attachment goes so far that an unproven rumor of some rotten egg making every other dragon's life harder is enough to make him want to investigate, accepting the possible consequence of having to detain or even kill the target if negotiation proves impossible.
Following the battle, all rage and desire for revenge subsided when he acknowledged his defeat, so from his point of view there remains no bad blood between them, which is further exemplified by him readily healing the minion of his former enemy.
The natural conclusion of all these elements is that, as soon as 876 told my character about Mario's escapades, he'd want to end the oppression of his fellow kinswoman. That is his motive.
Which brings us to the method. What was used here is the same trick the Beanbean royal family used to protect Peach's voice from Cackletta: Use a decoy Birdo to get the villain to target the wrong person.
The events of Superstar Saga are considered canon by this comic. You can see Prince Peasley standing here, next to the Mario Bros.. Superstar Saga has to have happened, or else they would not know each other.
That means the Birdo decoy thing has already happened once and was proven to work reliably.
Furthermore, a Birdo with money-troubles...
...and a person sympathetic to Walkazo with extra money have been introduced beforehand.
Put all of these elements together and you get...
...the Birdo decoy strategy from Superstar Saga used to save Walkazo.
So essentially, you can call this update out for a lot of things, especially the absolutely horrendous pacing which I admit is very shitty and I feel like I have to apologize for doing such a shoddy job.
But it is not a deus ex machina.
It has to be Birdo.
...
Actually, I have no idea if it really HAS to be Birdo, but to my knowledge she's the only one who could (somehow) pull off a Princess Peach convincing enough that you could look at her from the front and not notice the difference. When Luigi does the same later in the game, he still looks like Luigi.
I'm sorry. I really am. If I could go back and stop myself from rushing it, I would do it.
This update really needed time to ripen, which I did not give it, and I feel like it shows. I thought that maybe keeping the momentum was more important, but in retrospect that decision was dumb.
In my headcanon, the narration is the story that 876 told me/us.
Hackmon said:
This is actually kind of insulting.
A deus ex machina is a device defined by a twist that comes out of nowhere, was not foreshadowed in any way, and makes up new rules/contradicts the established ones for the sole purpose of resolving a conflict that the author was too incompetent to resolve using the means given to them by the story itself. So essentially, by saying that, you're calling me a talentless hack.
This is the second time the possibility of a deus ex machina has been brought up, so I'm going to do something out of the ordinary and go very in-depth about what happened in my last update, so you can see what thoughts went into it and exactly how "out of nowhere" this development was. I'm only going to do this once, and for all future instances of "deus ex machina" calls I will trust you to think it all through yourself.
If we analyze what happened and then take a look at what has been established and lead up to it, we have a plan made by Edo, involving a Birdo, disguised as another character, distracting Mario to buy me enough time to patch up Walkazo behind his back.
There are two relevant factors here: Motive and execution. Why would I even do that? And where did I get the tools to do it?
It has previously been established that my character has an odd emotional attachment to his heritage and those that share it.
That attachment goes so far that an unproven rumor of some rotten egg making every other dragon's life harder is enough to make him want to investigate, accepting the possible consequence of having to detain or even kill the target if negotiation proves impossible.
Following the battle, all rage and desire for revenge subsided when he acknowledged his defeat, so from his point of view there remains no bad blood between them, which is further exemplified by him readily healing the minion of his former enemy.
The natural conclusion of all these elements is that, as soon as 876 told my character about Mario's escapades, he'd want to end the oppression of his fellow kinswoman. That is his motive.
Which brings us to the method. What was used here is the same trick the Beanbean royal family used to protect Peach's voice from Cackletta: Use a decoy Birdo to get the villain to target the wrong person.
The events of Superstar Saga are considered canon by this comic. You can see Prince Peasley standing here, next to the Mario Bros.. Superstar Saga has to have happened, or else they would not know each other.
That means the Birdo decoy thing has already happened once and was proven to work reliably.
Furthermore, a Birdo with money-troubles...
...and a person sympathetic to Walkazo with extra money have been introduced beforehand.
Put all of these elements together and you get...
...the Birdo decoy strategy from Superstar Saga used to save Walkazo.
So essentially, you can call this update out for a lot of things, especially the absolutely horrendous pacing which I admit is very shitty and I feel like I have to apologize for doing such a shoddy job.
But it is not a deus ex machina.
And I'm Javert said:
It has to be Birdo.
...
Actually, I have no idea if it really HAS to be Birdo, but to my knowledge she's the only one who could (somehow) pull off a Princess Peach convincing enough that you could look at her from the front and not notice the difference. When Luigi does the same later in the game, he still looks like Luigi.
Walkazo said:
I'm sorry. I really am. If I could go back and stop myself from rushing it, I would do it.
This update really needed time to ripen, which I did not give it, and I feel like it shows. I thought that maybe keeping the momentum was more important, but in retrospect that decision was dumb.
In my headcanon, the narration is the story that 876 told me/us.
