#copied my text that I put on reddit for those who don't want to go there

[oneinathousand]

F-Zero Novel "And Then, to the Gods of Speed" Plot Summary

I just read through the obscure official tie-in novel for F-Zero from 1992, which has very little information about it online.

DISCLAIMER: Since I can't read Japanese, I had to use my phone to translate, which certainly didn't yield stellar results, but I was so curious about what was actually inside the book since there's so little information about it other than 1. It's a darker book, 2. The protagonist is named Swan Lee, and 3. It involves Captain Falcon's death, and I just couldn't wait for a full fan translation to sate my curiosity. The goal was basically to get an overall idea of what was going on, which I think I managed to get.

So, for those of you who have been just as curious as I was about this book, I'll be going chapter by chapter, giving a fairly comprehensive summary of the plot. There's a lot of digressions throughout with worldbuilding about the socioeconomics and mechanics of the setting, which I'll mostly be skipping unless they directly relate to the plot.

I want to reiterate that it's entirely likely that I get some things wrong, like perhaps names or plot points. The ending in particular I'm not super sure about because, well, let's just say it gets pretty... weird, you'll see. It comes across to me like it might have been rushed, but that's just idle speculation.

One more thing: I knew going in that Captain Falcon was supposed to die and this would be a darker book, but damn! I was legitimately shocked at how they handled him here, I could not believe that Nintendo approved of this direction. It could have only happened during that pre '93 Mario movie/Phillips CDI era where Nintendo didn't give much oversight as to how other people handled the characters.

Spoilers ahead!

Chapter 1: Team Sprem (a misspelling of Supreme)

Swan Lee is a street kid with no parents living in the poor Port Town along with his gang, Team Sprem/Supreme (which I'll just call Supreme to prevent giggles from readers), which includes his friends Eddie and Mamoru. Despite only being 10 years old, Swan is a very good racer because he has access to a banned system called Soulmatic which allows users to directly connect their minds to their machines, which can be very dangerous. Whenever Swan connects to his machine, he communicates with an unknown entity called the Supreme who guides him.

While chasing down an opponent, Mamoru crashes his vehicle and has to be pulled out of the wreckage by Swan. Afterwards, a futuristic zeppelin passes by announcing the top 4 winners of the recent F-Zero race who are the original four characters from the SNES game (though for whatever reason Samurai Goroh is called Kamikaze Goroh in this version).

Captain Falcon, the 1st place winner, announces his retirement, and he is given the title of Baron of Cosmos by Mr. Richter, the President of the company Big Cosmos, which created and oversees F-Zero.

Chapter 2: Monday Tournament

Ten years later, the adult Swan and Team Supreme have mostly split, with Eddie as his mechanic and Mamoru never being able to fully recover from his injuries all those years ago. Swan plans to race in the Monday Tournament so he can qualify for F-Zero.

However, the odds are stacked against him. At this point, F-Zero -which is ostensibly supposed to be open to everyone who has access to a machine, only wants the pilots that Big Cosmos trains themselves to be able to compete in the races, and they set out traps for outsiders, making it almost impossible for ordinary citizens to participate in F-Zero.

Swan uses the Supreme to help him avoid the traps and win the qualifier, even though use of the Soulmatic system isn't allowed. His cheating goes unnoticed, however, and his darkhorse victory in the qualifier causes a stir among F-Zero viewers.

Chapter 3: Blue Falcon

After the tournament, Captain Falcon reaches out to Swan and Eddie, asking them to meet him at his home. Once they arrive, they see that Falcon has become prematurely aged from his years of racing and he admits to being an alcoholic. Swan is skeptical of Falcon's intentions, but Falcon says that he's renounced his title as Baron of Cosmos and wants to sponsor Swan and Eddie in F-Zero, giving them his blessing to inherit the Blue Falcon and modify it however they please.

After this, a meeting between President Richter and his right-hand man, Owl, is shown, where Richter reveals that Falcon has cancer and doesn't have much time left to live.

Back home in Port Town, Swan is told that Mamoru has collapsed. He rushes to be at his old friend's side, but it's too late. Mamoru is already dead by the time he arrives at his family's home. Swan has a heartfelt conversation with Mamoru's younger sister, Taime, and he lets her ride around town with him.

Chapter 4: Glid (probably a misspelling of Grid)

Richter invites Swan and Eddie to stay at the Crystal Tower Hotel in White Land. Once there, Swan has dinner alone with Richter, who drugs him so that he can analyze his brain with a machine that detects the Supreme's presence in his mind. Swan comes to with no knowledge of what just happened.

The race at White Land takes place, and this time Swan wins by attacking another racer with a concealed weapon. Falcon watched the broadcast of the race from home, and at the end, he fell unconscious.

Chapter 5: Death Wind

Swan's cheating has been discovered this time, but Richter allows this, announcing that the rule against directly attacking other racers will be rescinded. He believes that Swan will usher in a new era of F-Zero where it is more than entertainment, it will be war.

A romantic meeting between Swan and Taime is interrupted by Eddie, who tells them that Falcon is in critical condition. Swan hurries to Falcon's house, where he is on his deathbed. In his last moments, Falcon "looks at Swan as if he were looking at a lover" and implores him to seek out Dr. Stewart, Goroh, and Pico so he may learn the meaning of racing from them, and as he passes away, he can see and speak to the Supreme.

However, once Swan returns to his garage, he sees a ransom note from a gambling organization called Vega threatening him that they have Taime in their clutches and won't release her unless he drops out from the Death Wind circuit.

Swan plans on racing anyway, believing that's what Taime would want, and he gathers a collection of bombs from his street gang days to use against the other racers. In response to this, Eddie leaves Swan. When the Death Wind race starts, the Supreme prevents the Blue Falcon from moving, causing Swan to panic, but Taime is then let go safe and sound.

Chapter 6: Goal Gate

The next session of F-Zero will see the princes of Sand Ocean and Silence participating, and Richter plans on using the new brutality of the races to spark a war between the two planets so he can buy the oil that was recently found on Sand Ocean. At this point, he views Swan as expendable and orders him to be killed.

A cruiser ship piloted by a man named Sekikawa attacks and injures Swan and Taime; luckily, they're rescued by Pico and brought to his fortress. After he recovers, Swan visits Goroh's boat house in Big Blue. Following a short pep talk and a feeling of kinship over their shared "Oriental blood" (the translation's words, not mine), Swan and Taime visit Dr. Stewart in Mute City.

In each of his conversations with the three former pilots, Swan has discussed what racing means to them and what the Supreme is, getting different answers from them. Dr. Stewart encourages Swan to race again, and he leaves Taime behind to stay safe with the doctor.

Immediately after leaving the penthouse, Sekikawa attacks Swan, seemingly killing him and causing Taime to become hysterical. As Swan falls through the air, he sees angels and can feel his body lifting upward. Dr. Stewart contacts Pico and Goroh, asking for their help to create the ultimate F-Zero machine. The three work together to create a new, more powerful version of the Blue Falcon.

Finally, the last race in Mute City with the two princes is about to begin. The Blue Falcon appears at the entry line, much to Mr. Richter's shock, since he believes Swan to have been killed. He tries to shut down the race to no avail, the systems are unresponsive. Stewart, Goroh, Pico, Taime, and the rest of the crowd watch as stars fill the night sky of Mute City for the first time in centuries.

The race goes without incident and the Blue Falcon wins. Swan reveals himself and embraces Taime, telling her that the Supreme is in actuality the collective memory of all those who race, and he has elevated himself above caring about winning or losing.

Final Thoughts After that, the book ends with pontificating about the spiritual significance of racing at high speeds felt by pilots and car racers throughout history, hence the title "Gods of Speed," but I didn't know how to word it, sorry. This book seems like it's too short, there's a lot of "and then Swan went here and talked to this guy for a bit", but I also appreciate not wasting my time.

Like I said, there's a lot of worldbuilding and stuff that I left out, there's far, far more of it than you would expect from a Nintendo tie-in novel from the early 90's and I appreciate the effort, even if a lot of it was expressed through info dumps.

How about Captain Falcon going out like that, huh? Can you imagine any Nintendo property tackling alcoholism and cancer, especially with the protagonist of one of their flagship SNES games at the time??? I have to admire such a bold choice. It's so completely different from later portrayals of Falcon where he's basically Future Racing Jesus and got to go out in the anime with a blaze of glory. I wish the other three racers were in it more (BTW, Goroh is given the last name "Sugata" here, and I'll now adopt that as my headcanon for his real last name). If you have any questions about the book, I'll try to answer them the best I can. I know a lot of it still flew over my head.

[thebestsetter]

Okay, this is something serious now.

As some of you already know, some people are accusing me of plagiarism. And I just want to explain my side of the story first

A while ago, I was scrolling through tiktok and found one of those videos with a minecraft parkour happening in the background and a reddit story being read. I'm a portuguese speaker, so the story I listened to was in portuguese (i don't even have reddit lol). So, I thought "Oh, what a cute story!! I wonder how would it happen if it was with some anime boys!!". So, I started to write it while also trying to translate it AND change the phrases.

Since it was from tik tok, I couldn't really see the user that wrote the og post. I now realize I should've tried harder to find it, and for that I apologize. I'm sorry I didn't put the IB on the post, but someone on the comments told me fhe user of who wrote it first, and after posting this "apologie" I'll put it in the post immediatly.

I also want to clarify what verbatim is, since some people are saying that's the plagiarism I comitted. According to the Oxford dictionary, verbatim is:

1. (Adverb)

in exactly the same words; literally, ipsis litteris.

2. (Adjective)

that corresponds word for word to the source or original text.

"minutes v. of a meeting of condominium owners"

And even though I copied the first phrase, the rest of the text is totally different!! I also had no way of knowing I was writing the same first phrase, since as I said before, it was actually from a portuguese post, so I translated it the best I could.

The idea is the same, though, so I should've tried harder to find the IB. Once again, I apologize for this. I'm sorry about what I did and I hope you guys can forgive me and not view me in a different way from how you saw me before!! I just thought it would be fun to write something, and it was the first fic I wrote after going back to writing (I used to write things during March-April, but I stopped). I swear I have no intetions to steal anybody's work to make myself famous or anything like that.

Once again, I'll try to make things right! Dw, a situation like this won't happen again. Thank you for reading this, and once again, I'm deeply sorry.

I'm putting the xreader tags so this can reach as many people as possible

[beekeeperspicnic]

After some of the not-so-nice criticisms I've been getting in the other direction, I thought I should put together a response to this, as the person running Letters from Watson.

I understand that it must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to get straight into reading something you are excited to read and encounter antisemitism. A gut-punch, for sure, and I think the cumulative effect of encountering that kind of thing constantly can't be underestimated.

I've tried very hard to ensure that the letters are presented in a way which encourages criticism and critical analysis, and that people were prepared in advance to encounter difficult content (or to decide to pass on it or wait until another time, if needed). I said this in an email which went out to everyone right before the project started, and which is available on the Letters from Watson website:

Please be aware that the Sherlock Holmes stories are mystery stories which feature various difficult topics such as murder, violence, abuse etc. They were also written over a hundred years ago and contain racism and misogyny typical of their era. Many wonderful people have helped put together a document listing content warnings, which will be linked in each email. The content warning document does contain some spoilers where necessary!

Before the project started, I crowd-sourced a content warning list which is linked at the beginning of every email. I felt it was important to crowd-source it so that it isn't just my own thoughts and ideas, and so it includes a wide range of perspectives and minority voices. I'm very thankful to everyone who was involved in putting it together.

My aim is for it to be a living document and that if anything has been missed, the community can add it. Unfortunately that's been hampered at the moment because the project has been shared around by a conservative "trigger warnings are censorship!" crowd who have sent me some defamatory emails, and I thought I should lock the document to protect against vandalism. I'm hoping to unlock it in a week or two when those people have got bored and moved on.

The content warnings document has an introduction which goes into more depth about my reasoning, and which makes clear the historical context of the emails:

The Sherlock Holmes short stories were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between 1891 and 1927.

Some of the depictions and attitudes in them are outdated and racially insensitive. They are also mystery stories which can contain murder, violence, war, and other difficult topics.  Critically engaging with literature from the past can be a rewarding experience - and a lot of fun, too. Sometimes, however, it’s easier to engage with content you find difficult and challenging when you are prepared and informed. This document is created as a guide during the Letters from Watson project so you know what’s coming and can make informed decisions.

To address a few specific points of your criticism:

...A publication from 2022

I would argue strongly against this - this is simply a sharing of a series of publications from the 1890s - 1920s, the same as a printed hard copy book. I will not edit or censor the texts (and I don't think you would want me to.)

Additional text added at the beginning and is always, always indicated by italics.

Why not include critical analysis within the emails?

I wouldn't want to gatekeep what critical analysis ends up in the emails and which don't - everyone's perspectives are valid. Instead I've tried to provide lots of channels through which people can discuss and share critical analysis as we go.

I've set up and manage a discord and reddit to facilitate this. Within the discord I created a whole resources section dedicated to scholarship of the Sherlock Holmes stories including minority perspectives. I link the discord in every email. I also encourage people to use the #letters from watson hashtag here on tumblr.

I'm pleased to say that as well as light-hearted memes we've already had plenty of incredible historical discussion and critical commentary here, including some thoughts on the passage which you mention specifically.

Why not include content warnings at the top of each email?

I decided not to do this because I want to give people the choice about whether they want content warnings or not. Some would prefer not to - and many of the warnings are large spoilers.

Also thanks to the wonderful work of the team who put together the document, it is quite comprehensive. I wouldn't want to choose which content deserves to be mentioned in the top of the email and which you have to dig around in the content warnings document for.

****

I tried very hard to ensure that nobody had the experience you've had - I wanted to have "care and concern", to not be "irresponsible", however those provisions failed for you, and I'm really genuinely sorry for that.

I hope that you'll still want to stick around, and can feel excited about the project again.

(Apologies once again for everyone who started following this blog for updates on me making a computer game, unfortunately my main blog is still downand i want people to see this, so I had to share it here!)

Me, a Jew: I sure am excited to read Sherlock Holmes in it's original form

A Study In Scarlet Extract #2: "The same afternoon brought a grey-headed, seedy visitor, looking like a Jew pedlar..."

Me, a Jew: can't we just have one thing

Seriously though, apparently ACD had (at best) a very complicated relationship with Jews in real life, and presenting his work without so much as a mention of the harmful tropes perpetrated in Sherlock Holmes is pretty alienating to minority readers. I was really excited about the Letters from Watson thing since I'd never read Sherlock Holmes before, but seeing a publication from 2022 (which I'd argue this technically is) use the phrase "Jew peddler" completely uncritically was kind of a gut punch.

I'm not saying we shouldn't read Sherlock Holmes and I'm not saying Letters from Watson is a bad idea. But what I am saying is that presenting a massively popular work to a ready-made Tumblr fandom without any care or concern for the fact that the work has explicitly racist elements is irresponsible - and that since it's only Jan. 6, Letters from Watson has an opportunity to make changes to its structure in order to address this (perhaps by incorporate minority commentary, critical analysis, and historical context into its publications?) before this thing really gets off the ground.