Saint James Infirmary #902: “Acceptance”

[Daphne]

Script: Daphne • Inks: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

[lifmcs]

<John Mellencamp> "Daphne you make it hurt, hurt so good." :guitar_riff:

[jmundt29]

I hear Terry Jacks, not Mellancamp.  Which is why I'm reaching for the dial.

Oh look, a wannabe Bill who doesn't know anything about pleasure or training but thinks he is God.  This is really Zenon?  He feels like a someone Vik would see as a "bro."  Okay Vik-Bro.  Go ahead and monologue.

[grimtidings]

This is a classic villain blunder: you hold all the cards for a moment but then, victory "assured", do something else.

Dude, if you have your primary target... finish the job.

[jmundt29]

I applaud this because it means there may be a way out, but my opinion is pretty clear.

[GodWilling]

I suppose we have to accept that "the journey" is over and we're now into "the destination".

It would frankly be ridiculous if Erin were to turn out to be bluffing again. The only thing that leaves me wondering if she might be is that all we saw for pretty much the entire journey was her body. For me it would have been much more "enjoyable" to see what was happening from Erin's point of view rather than Zenon's. While I quite enjoyed Zenon's rather casual treatment of Erin's body, as journey's go he may as well have just held up a magic ring to have her fall to her knees at his feet.

Another damper to the drama here is that we're so disconnected from what I would see as the real plot. Everyone is so out of context now that it's hard to think of them as real characters. Plus when it comes down to it, we really have no idea who Zenon is anyway. So if he has undergone some kind of corruption journey of his own, we're none the wiser.

[Daphne]

I guarantee you that whatever happens, a significant subset of you will hate it, so enjoy the ride!

[mns_95125]

I guarantee you that whatever happens, a significant subset of you will hate it, so enjoy the ride!

Ah, the lament of the creator.  Yes, you can't please all of the people all of the time.  Plus we're inconsistent in our wants.  People say "not enough on screen mind control".  Daphne gives us an on screen programming sequence that goes on for literal months and then we complain that the plot isn't moving fast enough.

My own hope going forward is that the loss here will push Adrian out of his passivity.  He seems to think that keeping his harem happy by giving them what they want and otherwise letting them make their own choices is all he needs to do.  Hopefully this will teach him otherwise.

[Haight]

I guarantee you that whatever happens, a significant subset of you will hate it, so enjoy the ride!

For my part, it's less the outcome that happens to any particular character, and more the pacing and exposition. Too much decompression can make plots uncompelling.

[GodWilling]

Daphne gives us an on screen programming sequence that goes on for literal months and then we complain that the plot isn't moving fast enough.

I'm not really complaining; I was more thinking out loud about why this scene wasn't quite hitting the buttons. And my conclusion was really that having a picture on screen of someone being programmed isn't necessarily quite the same thing as an on screen programming scene - not as far as my kink is concerned anyway.

As far as the rate of plot progression goes, it's hard to tell what is or isn't a plot point in The Cloud. But I don't think we've had many plot points in the last year. I'm perfectly happy for the plot to take a back seat for a hot scene, but that's where my thinking aloud was coming from.

[caseyx]

But I don't think we've had many plot points in the last year.

Yeah, the last year seems like it might be a case of PK and/or Daphne getting excited about exploring tentacle porn.