#when ep 1 was all flashbacks and basically zero dialogue i had a bad feeling

[noirineverysense]

the bear s3 was just ten episodes of absolute nothing. literally nothing happens and it feels like everything that does happen is just to pad time. i didnt come to a show about a restaurant to spend 30 minutes watching a woman get a job or another 30 watching a woman give birth. i didnt come here to watch hours of flashbacks. nothing gets resolved, no conflict feels interesting or the interesting ones are rehashed from previous seasons

[megamanxfanfics]

Looking back at the 1st Nightmare Arc

Well folks, here we are.  It’s the end of the year and I successfully completed Season VI’s first arc!  Today, it’s all about celebrating with an honest take on how I feel it all went down. No backstories on what took so long this time.  Just all Mega lore and analyzing whatever I’ve managed to create in the Fanon.  So let’s dive into it.  This was an interesting one:

tl;dr?  -  Ep. 1: Boring Beginning, Exciting Middle Ep. 2: Steady Solid Stage! Ep. 3: Long Stage, Big Payoff Ep. 4: Strong Start, Very Expository Ep. 5: Another Long Stage, but not Draining Ep. 6: Reverse Pacing Ep. 7: Epic. As. Fuck.

Ep. 1:  I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but Boring Beginning. I wanted it to start just like the game with the exciting narrative intro, except.. written out, it’s not all that exciting, but instead - expected.  The same goes for Gate’s immediate monologue when you press start.  I took the safe, easy route and just added stage directions to his discovery of Zero’s “piece”.  Regardless, this was “A Broken World”, and I loved that title for a new Season #1.  Honestly, I feel like this one really picks up from the middle, onward.  Once we get into X’s first mission, the addition of the new reploids from the X5 ending didn’t really help at all.  I got rid of them almost as soon as I introduced them, but it was supposed to serve a purpose.  It was supposed to show us just how dangerous it is out there for noobies - especially the ones who think they know it all, like Cody.  Once X fights High Max though, we almost mirrored the X1 feeling, which is exactly what I wanted.  From here on, it’s pretty exciting and interesting to me.  Because now X is all intrigued and worried about these new “Investigators” that have sprouted up.  Giving X someone to fear again with High Max made for a really refreshing touch, too.  Once he gets home to learn about them from Alia, the episode heavily leans on flashbacks from Xtreme 2, but they serve as a nice re-introduction to our 8 Investigators. I also really liked their Re-activation scene.  That mirrored the vibe from Mega Missions when Doppler revived his select batch of Mavericks.  Once they pinpoint their locations and X finds out that 3 of the Investigators are in Brazil, he wants to go there first.  I feel such a hyped jolt of excitement at that Cliffhanger.

Ep. 2:  Steady Solid Stage! It took forever to write out, but upon reading it, the pacing is surprisingly smooth as X explores the Amazon Forest. Calling it “The Nightmare Is Real” based on a random Rescued Reploid’s words was a little weak at first, but it comes back around to get real meaning by the end. During the stage, X’s dialogue with Iso kept things interesting, while he pursued that near-impossible sub-tank. [I swear, you can only acquire this with a jump part equipped, or exposing AI with the fire blade or something...]. I really really didn’t want X to use his Ultimate Armor so soon, for nothing, because I’ve added stakes to such a game-breaking power up.  If he uses it, he blows out all of his stamina and needs to rest.  Period.  Using this to rescue Iso was not only a waste, but things probably would’ve gone down very differently, later.  Anyway, that fight with Commander Yammark was perfect. At first, I thought it was a little short, but looking back on it, I love how they both get solid blows in, but then come to a standstill when they realize they’re on the same side. Having Nightmare Zero intervene was absolutely the right choice!!  It gave us a new hook for something to come back to, as yet again, X had someone new to fear, like in X1.  Since it’s an evil Zero, I’ll even say like X2.  This is where the title “The Nightmare is Real” works, because... the Zero Nightmare was absolutely a sentient problem.  And it wasn’t going away any time soon.  X had to retreat and get out of there.  Thank God for Alia’s force-teleporting. Pushing Alia's Love Interest during the debrief was also a very exciting development.  I knew I wanted to do this, but at first I wasn’t sure if it was too soon to happen right here.  Now, I feel like it was just right. 

 Ep. 3:  Long stage, big payoff. Starting with Isoc’s report to Gate was actually not as boring as the 1st episode canon scenes. I made more of an effort to wake the scene up with stage directions or dialogue that makes more sense...  Them talking about the possibility of Zero still being alive also sets up mysterious intrigue.  Is he still out there??  And if so, how???  Will we see him???? Naming the entire episode, “The Outlier”, however is misleading.  I suppose that could connect to Ground Scaravich, who wasn’t one of Gate’s original creations (in my Fanon).  Still, giving X & Alia that slice of life romantic wake up scene at the near-beginning was absolutely refreshing.  Not only that, but I think it was very necessary. Things are all Doom and Gloom this Season, which is my forte, but this shows that at Home you can still find happiness in Loved ones.  The actual stage itself was an absolute pain in the ass and I knew it was going to be. I'm just glad it didn't completely burn me out.  His fight with Ground Scaravich was bad ass though.  X had the rare upper hand from the get-go as the menacer that Scaravich was afraid of.  So he came in with confident energy and tried to beat him down for information.  Of course, Scaravich didn’t let up and only revealed worse information, that those Reploids were being used for DNA Data.  But that cliffhanger I left at the end, with Zero Nightmare applauding X for his kill...!  It definitely helped me pursue a much sooner Chapter 4. 

 Ep. 4:  Strong Start with the Zero Nightmare fight. I had a big challenge here, because I didn’t want X to win yet.  We needed to build this feud and drag it out as much as possible. Zero Nightmare was gaining new motivation. He apparently knows about Zero’s existence, but thinks of him as a Fake.  And thus we have the title “Where Is The Fake?”. Having X get weakened and willingly teleport away was a really mature choice. I think it shows growth.  He could’ve done that plenty of times in the past.  But here we go, X is wounded again.. I didn't want this to become a trope or slow us down, but it brought upon some very necessary world building and character development for the new reploids. Very much, the expository episode, this was an important chapter, because it set up things for future episodes and kept me on track, months later when it was time to think about the bigger picture. Kassy & Hal went to the Magma Area while Tack checked out the Laser Institute.  The Nightmare System was in full effect now, and the goal was to show how dangerous the Nightmare actually is to some red shirts, before X goes in there.  How effective that actually was in my execution, remains to be seen.  At this point the episode title remains prominent, because X expresses sincere interest in finding the Real Zero, but they have... zero leads. (Sorry, I had to.)  The Villains even had an interesting follow-up about Scaravich’s death and there was an interaction, which vaguely eluded to something new happening, from Metal Shark.  So that will be something fun to look forward to.  Ending at the beginning of a new stage is always a cool cliffhanger. Believe it or not, I wanted this to go all the way through the Rainy Turtloid stage, which would have given the title prominence for a 3rd time.  But that’s okay.

 Ep. 5:  Another Long Stage, but its not half as draining as the Central Museum. In fact, all of the Reploid Interactions kept it really lively. Especially by the end. The Inami Temple was the first stage that I could hint at our location with the episode title - “Nightmare Rain”.  I wish I could’ve done that for the previous episodes, but it’s alright.  I took some interesting risks, during this stage write-through.  I almost forgot about that frickin Monbando Reploid unit. I took a real risk by giving him an AI, but he keeps things interesting, giving X someone to talk to, which actually added levity to the situation where appropriate. That Nightmare Zero encounter mid-stage was what it was all about for me, though. I'm really proud of that one, using the stage layout to my advantage in an innovative way. All of that Levy stuff with Rescue Reploid 6 was another interesting choice. I have more in store for her, but I'm really hoping there will be more of a payoff, than just an Easter Egg Cameo. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can do with her in the next arc.  Need I bring up X’s Reploid rescues in the Gaia Armor!??  That was a bright idea that I came up with after post-planning.  The original plan was to have X revisit the stage later, but I thought about how this Acid Rain was killing them, so...  time to settle the issue of an unused Armor. [X6 granting us the gift of using a modified Fifth Armor was nice, but it made me wonder, why can’t he access the Gaia anymore?]. The answer was just that he doesn’t really like it.  But he used it to his advantage here, and now I had a new challenge ahead of me. I had to get rid of it. Another challenge was posed when X discovered a fucking portal in one of the tunnels.  I wasn’t prepared for that!  But thankfully, I was able to come up with a viable excuse rather than just X being scared of the portal.  He ran out of teleporter rings!!!!  This gave me new Fanon Mega-science to add to the stakes.  Teleporter Rings now need a day to recharge, and it was clear that plenty more needed to be made.  This gave Alia & Douglas something to do, so in the end, this was all good.  But now it was time for X to face off against Rainy Turtloid.  He’d have to come back for the others later. [Time will tell, how well or poorly that is handled, depending on how long it takes X to actually get back there.]

 Ep. 6:  This one basically had Reverse Pacing, but I liked it. It started with a Climactic, Rainy Turtloid fight. I mean, this was Epic and fucking Brutal.  Thanks to my brilliant bring-back of the Gaia Armor, now Turtloid had to take it away and break the shit out of it. This is where “The Fight Becomes Dire” and I thought it was amazing.  In my planning phase, that was never remotely on the table, but it worked out wonderfully.  What was on the table was X possibly using his Ultimate Armor if the battle got too brutal, but I wanted to avoid that.  [I had done practice playthroughs where I managed to get X to win in Normal Armor and definitely in Falcon Armor with some select weapon spamming and pattern memorizing.  I was open to keeping it simple, I really was.]. But after X got smacked around like a bitch, it was time for payback.  Especially considering Turtloid’s motivation to fight was “But I have to listen to Master...”  Here we had the interesting case that both Men respected each other and didn’t want to fight, but they had to. {Even though X thought the Reploid Trapping and Nightmare acceptance was reprehensible}. X primarily focussed on that and tried to change Turtloid’s mind, but once his Gaia Armor was destroyed and X nearly died, it was time for some Ultimate payback.  I’m really surprised by how epic and dark it got. I’m very proud of it.  After the mission, due to some very necessary stakes and power limiters, X had to sit out for a day again, once again slowing our pacing down to a screeching halt. This one hurt me, I think.  At least he wasn't injured this time... As I stated before, when I made the decision to include the Ultimate Armor into this Season, I did so knowing that there needed to be a price. It comes with him using up all his stamina. Therefore, he can't spam it with every mission or battle. The same rules applied to his shotokan moves in Season I & II, which have basically been replaced by the Ultimate Armor at this point. With more opportunity at exposition, however, I was able to follow up on the new reploids, who were now in trouble at their respective missions. [This is the stuff I needed to give X motivation for his mission choices during the planning phase, but it just wasn’t there]. And yet, one was debatably set up too soon. I had a new dilemma, where X was forced to sit out, while Kassy & Hal are stuck at the Magma Area, hurt.  The choice to show X training the recruits in the meantime was a fun risk to take though. It showed productivity and progress in the downtime, hopefully eluding to the idea that these newbies can fend for themselves, while it inevitably takes X a while to save them in the future. I also got to develop Levy more and even create some juicy tension between her and Alia, which wasn’t originally planned. I had intended for a 2nd sex scene with Alia to happen at some point, but I didn't want it to be forced. Just more of an implied - ‘this is what’s happening while we wait’.  But the addition of Levy’s flirting played into Alia’s insecurities, which gave it more of a purpose.  And poor Douglas! Hahahaha.  I was so tickled when I put that in out of nowhere.  We got some much needed levity when he wanted to show X a new part, but instead he overheard them having sex and walked away with a “Nope!” lol!!! Its becoming very clear that I enjoy the in-between mission slice of life stuff Way more than the missions themselves. But then, when we get back to it... after X gave it a night, he and Signas found every excuse not to save Kassy & Hal yet, because my Stage Order plan still needed to be in play...  At least Tack discovered that Portal at Sheldon’s stage. This saved my Stage Order Motivation, but it was still weak.  If only Zero was around, then they could split the difference.  But what I liked about this was that it showed just how bad of shape that X and co. were in.  Yet again, the episode title remained prominent.  “The Fight Becomes Dire”!  The truth is, they were all over the place and X didn't know where to go first. For the first time in a while, our Hunters are overwhelmed and understaffed. And that was really noticeable here.  I still think the ending is kinda weak though. There's no real cliffhanger other than knowing that X will pursue Shield Sheldon next. But overall, I liked the flow of this. There's a lot of forced slow downs in the momentum to have us sit with the characters and their decisions. It makes for a very different, sort of dismal pacing, which adds to the atmosphere of this looming Nightmare that won’t go away.  One noticeable thing, however is that I failed to follow up on the Villains this time around. I had an ample opportunity to follow up on Gate’s thoughts for losing Turtloid again, who was debatably his favorite creation.  I really botched that up, but I simply didn’t think of it at the time before posting.  So who knows?  That could be possible room for improvement in a future edit.  Either way, the Villains are sure to be due for a check in soon. 

 Ep. 7:  Epic. As. Fuck. But it took a minute to get there. Shield Sheldon's stage was more complicated to write through than I originally thought. Its the shortest stage in the game and yet all those damn lasers and their angles made for quite the challenge. This in itself, was a “Laser Light Phenomena”. Another immense challenge that I wasn't expecting was Sheldon's battle completely Flipping the Narrative on X. Admittedly, I really had a hard time finding motivation for those 2 to feud. Especially since he wasn't holding a grudge based on the past. I noticed a while ago, all of Gate's creations are so very willing to sacrifice themselves for Gate's cause. Like, to a nonsensical degree. Maybe that's their degree of Maverickism. They're just crazy... Anyway, this Deadlock Standstill might really play into my favor, since this recent Portal Experience is going to change X's motivations. I... don't want X to take a backseat, but... Rescuing the Reploids is going to be his 1st Priority from here on in. Especially since he wasn't able to save Tack and the bunch. Again, thats where stakes come into play. I didn't come into this episode knowing I was going to make that decision. But when I saw the layout of the "Pocket Dimension" as I'm calling it, and I factored in the time Tack spent in there, trying to rescue the Reploids by himself, there was no way I could have them all just hang out at a narrow ledge by the gate, or stuck in the gateway, scared. I wasn't gonna pull a lame idea that they managed to somehow unlock the gate, like I did with Data. (That can be the one trait that makes Data special and could play into his advantage in the future. But no one else's). Nightmare Zero wouldn't spare them either. He'd absolutely kill them in bloodlust. So... stakes were created. X took too long to catch up to him and thats what he gets. That last battle with ZN though... I'm really proud of where it went. I had some obvious limits this time compared to past Zero fights. That could be an analysis for another time.. But, I was happy to get pretty gorey by the end, there. And that pay off Cliff Hanger was so satisfying! It gives me all the feels. 

The 2nd Arc is going to feel very different. But we ain't out of the woods yet. Rereading the 1st Arc served as a dual purpose. Not only could I gush about my favorite moments or be open about my choices and how things came out, but it is starting to reveal where else it's going. Kassy & Hal still need rescuing at the Magma Area. Cody & Data are at the North Pole! Tekk is at the Weapon Center. X still needs to save whoever is in the portal at Inami Temple!  Let alone revisiting the Amazon and Central Museum again.  Exposition is just waiting to happen, and now that Zero is back?? Things are going to get easier, but also a little bit harder for X. One thing I can definitely say is that seeing him will bring back some Unwanted Memories. And its gonna be very interesting to see how he deals with that. I'm definitely looking forward to writing the 2nd Arc out in the New Year.

Until then, folks.  I hope you enjoyed reliving this with me.  See you in 2021, which should hopefully prove to be a far more stable year than 2020. [God, I hope I didn’t just jinx everything...]