"Good-bye, lover-- It's been fun... And I always did want to go in battle. You get to keep your planet, kid... Don't forget me... Don't forget me"
Bio: Val Armorr was the son of Japan's greatest crimelord, Kirau Nezumi, also known as Black Dragon, When he was born, his mother, the American secret agent Valentina Armorr, tried to hide him from his father, but she failed and was killed for her affront. Japan's biggest hero Sensei Toshiaki, the White Crane, eventually killed Black Dragon for his crimes and adopted the infant Val. He raised Val as if he were his own son, and trained him in all manner of the martial arts.
Origin in scan form ^{(Superboy vol 1 #210})
Alternate look at his origin ^{(Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #2})
Databook entries

• Superboy #205
• All-New Collector's Edition #55
• Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #12
• Who's Who in the Legion of Superheroes #3
• DC Comics Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded
• All New DC Comics Encyclopedia

Original Val

Strength
Note: Karate Kid needs to concentrate and channel his chi to perform feats of strength ^{(Adventure Comics #359})

• In his origin, chops through a steel beam ^{(Adventure Comics #346})
• Chops through a spaceship hull ^{(Adventure Comics #347})
• Lightning Lad flashes back to Karate Kid stopping a car with a single chop ^{(Adventure Comics #351})
• Knocks out a Jovian Mastodon and a Tricorn Beast with a single strike each, and judo throws a Sloth Ape ^{(Adventure Comics #358})
• Chops through two trees in one swing ^{(Adventure Comics #358})
• Analyzes some thick gates, then chops through them ^{(Adventure Comics #360})
• Kicks away a hover car ^{(Adventure Comics #361})
• Chops through a tank, then starts a small earthquake with a stomp ^{(Adventure Comics #367})
• Destroys a practice bot in a rage ^{(Adventure Comics #373})
• Claims his chops could fell giant redwoods ^{(Superboy vol 1 #203})
• Creates an earthquake with a stomp that breaks apart a statue ^{(Legion of Superheroes vol 3 #31})
  • Note: This is a flashback to earlier times, so despite being in vol 3, takes place Chronologically in vol 1, as shown by him wearing the brown gi instead of his more famous white one
• Punches through a robot ^{(Superboy vol 1 #214})
• Kicks a meteor to pieces ^{(Karate Kid #2})
• Creates a counter-vibration strong enough to reverse Major Disaster's artificial earthquake. ^{(Karate Kid #2}.)
• Flexes off six cavemen ^{(Karate Kid #11})
• [MASSIVE OUTLIER] When bound with ropes made of indestructible Inertron, he somehow manages to break free. ^{(Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #231})
  • Album of Inertron being invulnerable/unbreakable/strong enough to resist Kryptonians
• Breaks out of a machine that saps powers, minds and will (Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 004)

Speed

• Moves "with the speed of thought" ^{(Adventure Comics #361})
• Dodges Mano and Persuader's attacks ^{(Adventure Comics #378})
• Dodges Validus' mental lightning ^{(Adventure Comics #378})
• Dodges a blast from the Emerald Eye of Ekon ^{(Superboy vol 1 #198})
• Dodges a blast from *sigh* Radiation Roy ^{(Superboy vol 1 #208})
• Rushes forward and front tuck into a Rider Kick in a fraction of a second ^{(Superboy vol 1 #214})
• Dodges a bolt from Lightning Lad ^{(Karate Kid #1})
• Dodges radiation blasts from Nemesis Kid ^{(Karate Kid #1})
• Intercepts a falling meteor ^{(Karate Kid #2})
• Backflips over a bullet ^{(Karate Kid #2})
• Dodges a laser ^{(Karate Kid #13})
• Leaps over a bullet and behind a guy in less than a fifth of a second ^{(Karate Kid #15})
• Dances around Pharoxx's strikes ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes #309})
• Redirects Pharoxx's own magic against him ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes #309})

Durability

• Survives an explosion that KO'd and nearly killed his sensei ^{(Adventure Comics #367})
• Smacked by a giant robot and recovers being back to fighting shape on the next page ^{(Adventure Comics #373})
• Endures ever-increasing pain through meditative techniques even though the pain was so bad, it made Timber Wolf go feral within a few minutes ^{(Superboy vol 1 #209})
• Clears his mind of mental influences ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #268})
• Wades though blasts from Pharoxx ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #288})
• While sick, takes a blast from Pulsar ^{(The Brave and the Bold #198})
• Pulsar explodes right next to him and he's all good. ^{(The Brave and the Bold #198})
• Gets clawed by a monster and shrugs it off ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes #309})
• Gets blasted by Pharoxx's magic and recovers, while Pharoxx getting hit with the same blast made him immediately flee ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes #309})
• [Limit] Dies after being beaten nearly to death by Nemesis Kid, then missile launches himself into a planet-draining machine. ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 #4})

Skill
Statements and styles

• Great Skill in all forms of martial arts, but especially Karate and Judo ^{(Adventure Comics #346})
• Master of all forms of fighting ^{(Adventure Comics #359})
• Switches from Boxing to Savate to Kendo against a robot ^{(Adventure Comics #363})
• Knocks some guys out with chops to the back of the neck ^{(Adventure Comics #360})
• Mastered every weapon form "from fencing foils to Jovian trident spears" ^{(Adventure Comics #368})
• Temporarily puts Timber Wolf in a Judo hold ^{(Superboy vol 1 #209})
• Falkone IV arm riflie technique ^{(Karate Kid #12})
• Loback III restraining hold for non-powered people to restrain super-powered people ^{(Karate Kid #12})
• Karate, Judo, "Arcturian Sli-tilla", "Venusian Txrxvrx", and boxing ("the good old one-two punch") in one page ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #268})

Against skilled opponents (Solo)

• Beats a boxing champion ^{(Adventure Comics #377})
• Beats the absolute stuffing out of Black Mace ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 #31})
  • Black Mace is stated to be Ganglands's answer to Karate Kid ^{(Adventure Comics #374}) and a fast, strong invincible fighter ^{(Superboy #213})
• Beats Black Mask again, with an assist from Princess Projectra ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 3 #31})
• Quickly beats a dual nunchaku wielding black belt ^{(Karate Kid #3})
• Beats the Samurai known as Master Hand ^{(Karate Kid #4})
• Had the advantage on Black Dragon II, the student of his father he previously beat in Superboy vol 1 #210 ^{(Karate Kid #10})
• Karate Kid vs Black Dragon II in a ceremonial fight. ^{(Karate Kid #10})
• Beats Dick Grayson quickly ^{(Karate Kid #14})
• Wins a tournament and the title of Samurai, going down as the youngest to gain the title ^{(Secret Origins vol 2 #47})

Against Skilled opponents (groups)

• Defeats three Black Belts he claims could waste a battalion of ordinary men ^{(Superboy vol 1 #210})
• Beats six opponents trained by his father, Black Dragon, including the future Black Dragon II ^{(Superboy vol 1 #210})
• Beats a bunch of 20th-century martial arts masters ^{(Karate Kid #1})
• Quickly beats four martial artists ^{(Karate Kid #4})

Against superpowered opponents (1v1)

• Fights Superboy and does so well, Clark says he needs to be in the Legion ^{(Adventure Comics #346})
• Training with Superboy ^{(Adventure Comics #368})
• Gets the advantage over Don Allen, descendent of Barry Allen and a speedster ^{(Adventure Comics #373})
• Defeats Ultra Boy ^{(Adventure Comics #375})
• A brainwashed Karate Kid easily beats Ultra Boy ^{(Superboy vol 1 #205})
• Survives a fight with Superboy, though he constantly mentions he's outmatched and it's taking all of his skill to just survive . ^{(Karate Kid #12})
• Temporarily holds Superboy, but admits he needs help immediately and is losing him and is saved by Mordru's magic wearing off ^{(Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #245})

Against Superpowered opponents (groups)

• Solos the Fatal Five ^{(Adventure Comics #378})
• Manages to hold his own against Lightning Lad, Superboy, Colossal Boy, Saturn Girl, Sun Boy, and Chameleon Boy before being stopped by Cosmic Boy ^{(Karate Kid #13})

Against Skilled Superpowered opponents

• Fights four superpowered assassins and is holding his own ^{(Adventure Comics #361})
• Beats Pharoxx of Orando in a sword fight, forcing Pharoxx to resort to magic ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #286})
• Beats Timber Wolf in a spar ^{(Legion of Superheroes vol 4 #52})

Accuracy

• Splits a rock so each half flies off and KOs a foe ^{(Adventure Comics 361})
• Hits a knight with a stone and KO's him ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #288})
• Uses his sash as a lasso to disarm Pulsar of his power staff ^{(The Brave and the Bold #198})

Agility

• Rushes forward and front tuck into a Rider Kick in a fraction of a second ^{(Superboy vol 1 #214})
• Contorts himself in mid-air to stop himself from falling out of a building then Jumps back in ^{(Karate Kid #1})
• Jumps from the street to a sign to a third story roof ^{(Karate Kid #2})
• Does a series of flips to land safely after jumping out of a building while holding someone ^{(Karate Kid #2})
• Jumps out of a window, does a ton of flips, and starts running on cars ^{(Karate Kid #3})
• Flips on a pole ^{(Karate Kid #11})
• Flips over a car ^{(Karate Kid #11})
• Flips out of Batman's grasp ^{(The Brave and the Bold #198})
• Rolls back to get out of a monster's range, then launches himself into a flying kick ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #309})

Weak Point Sensing

• Finds the weak point in a diamond ^{(Adventure Comics# 365})
• Finds the weak point in a wall ^{(Superboy vol 1 #210})
• Finds Omega's weakest point, but is too weak to capitalize on it ^{(Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #251}). This is the first time it's called an explicit "power" and not a skill.
• Finds the weak point in a hatch ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes #277})
• Originally struggled to find a weak point in massive chains encircling Earth, but after getting a hint from Princess Projectra manages to sense and destroy it ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #279})

Retroboot Val

Despite dying.....Val Armorr's back and in the past! ^{(Justice League of America vol 2 #7}) How? Never explained! ^{(Justice League of America #10}) Here's his feats. Note: All feats are done while he's dying (Countdown Weeks 14-15/ 38-37) from what's later revealed to be the Morticoccus Virus

• While disguised as a supervillain, freezes Parasite without Black Lightning realizing Parasite was the target ^{(Justice League of America vol 2 #2})
• KO's Black Lightning with a chop to the neck and stalemates (and arguably has the advantage over) Batman while sick and memoryless ^{(Justice League of America vol 2 #8})
  • Another view of the fight ^{(Countdown Week 2/#50})
  • Doctor Mid-Nite says Karate Kid very nearly took down Batman in that fight ^{(Countdown Week 7/#45})
  • Batman conceeds Val outfought him but claims he wouldn't in a rematch though he may have been being a jerk to get into Val's head ^{(Countdown Week 10/#42})
• Is still conscious and talking despite being loaded up with enough tranquilizers to give Wonder Woman trouble ^{(Justice League of America vol 2 #8})
• Somehow survives Speed Force Lightning that should have insta-killed him ^{(Justice League of America vol 2 #10})
• Finds the weak point in a vault he's sealed in ^{(Countdown Week 13/#39})
• Tears through Oracle's tendrils and punches through a wall ^{(Countdown Week 13/#39})
• Hurts Equus, an enhanced being who bragged he had fought Superman ^{(Countdown Week 16/#36})
• Kicked Equus arm clean off his body ^{(Countdown Week 17/#35})
• Breaks shotguns and kicks a police car over ^{(Supergirl vol 5 #21})
• [Limit] While he can dodge her attacks, can't move Supergirl with his strikes ^{(Supergirl vol 5 #21})
• Chops Equus arm off ^{(Supergirl vol 5 #22})
• [Limit] The closer to death he gets, the less he's able to focus and use Super-Karate feats ^{(Countdown week 32/#20})
• Takes out four Apokoliptians ^{(Countdown Week 41/#11})
• Takes a hit from an OMAC and shows some agility ^{(Countdown Week 42/#10})
• Dies of the virus ^{(Countdown Week 45/#7})
• Time Trapper puts his and Una's bodies in the mainline Earth when they had died in Earth-51 ^{(Action Comics #864})

Misc

• As a Legionnaire, he has a Legion flight ring ^{(Karate Kid #1})
• Invited his 20th-century friend to his wedding, not realizing she was in love with him ^{(The Brave and the Bold #198})
• Man married a princess. Respect. ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes Vol 2 annual 2})
• Brave enough to try to hit Darkseid with a flying kick, though all it accomplishes is knocking himself out. ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 2 #294})
• It's implied he somehow came back/will come back to life again, but this wasn't elaborated on because of the Flashpoint thanks Barry ^{(Legion of Super-Heroes vol 6 #6})
  • Time Trapper also foreshadowed this ^{(Action Comics 864})

As far as I can tell, Season 6 was critically acclaimed as the best season of the show when it first came out. The IMDB scores were consistently higher than any other season before or since, and the main Season 6 discussion thread in this subreddit is mostly filled with people gushing about how great the whole season is.
Scrolling through that thread (and some other ones in this subreddit that came out soon after the season), I did find a handful of dissenting voices about the Lotor plot twist, but people seemed to be largely on board. As far as I can tell, the general consensus is that it made perfect sense given his characterization in the previous few seasons.
Why do you guys think the fandom changed its tune about Lotor's villainy in Season 6? The writers always planned for him to turn out evil, as they've mentioned in interviews, and this is foreshadowed in the earlier seasons (i.e. Lotor's intro where says that the masses are easily manipulated, Keith mentioning that the Blade of Marmora has been tracking a unique form of quintessence that could bring them to Lotor, Lotor telling the Paladins that his plan to improve the Galra empire is to simply give them unlimited quintessence, etc.). Did the Lotor flashbacks in Season 8 make people a lot more sympathetic to him compared to how they felt about him in Season 6?
Do you guys think it would've made sense for Lotor to consistently stay as a good guy from Season 5 onwards (with maybe a minor character arc of him trying to overcome his flaws)? Was the reveal about the Altean colony in Season 6 a simple case of character assassination? Or do you guys think that his Season 6 arc was perfectly fine, but he should've found his way to redemption afterwards, instead of dying offscreen as revealed in Season 8?

With Ncuti's new series now begun, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on the previous eras of the show. A common opinion for the Chibnall era is that there was a lot of unrealised potential, plenty of interesting ideas/concepts but not always fully developed.
I think most of the ingredients were there, and all it needed to massively improve the whole era was to swap around certain elements - i.e. without radically changing anything. Just swapping certain episodes and characters around would have given more meaningful arcs, storylines and character development. And after watching the 60th, I think some of the same criticism applies to some extent.
I will make a separate post for each series from S11 to the 60th, going into detail of how I think each episode could have been adapted.
INTRODUCTION: https://www.reddit.com/doctorwho/comments/1cee488/reworking_1314s_era/
SERIES 11: https://www.reddit.com/gallifrey/comments/1cmmric/series_11_reworking_1314s_era/

Series 12:

Characters & Arcs - Yaz would join as a full-time companion from Spyfall, after being introduced for the first time in Resolution. Series 12 would have a subtle arc around mental health, exploring both Yaz's background and the Doctor's own trauma following the various revelations across the series, as she is forced to stop running away from her past. As the only main companion in this series, generally there would be more space to explore Yaz individually as a character, for example her views on morality and justice as a police officer, her relationships with her family etc, plus some earlier hints at her feelings towards the Doctor.
The Master - Instead of Dhawan's incarnation, Missy would stay on as the Master for 13's era. The whole Timeless Child arc would perhaps fit better in connection with Missy's redemption arc in S10, rather than having a new incarnation? A more conflicted side to the Master would have been more logical here, rather than reverting back to pure evil so quickly. Missy sitill feels some sense of friendship towards the Doctor, but at the same time can't handle the fact that her existence is somehow a result of the Doctor.
Festive Specials & Captain Jack - To fully explore the plot of Revolution of the Doctor, alongside the Doctor's time in prison, and the return of Captain Jack, this story would be split into two parts . The first part (named 'Revelations of the Doctor') would have 13 in prison for the full episode, and Yaz on Earth stuggling to deal with the Dalek plot in her absence. I always thought bringing Jack back in 13's era was a perfect chance for the Doctor to properly confide in someone and process everything, since Jack had lost two years of his memories (removed by the Time Agency, an organisation not dissimilar to Division), and since would have had time to process that trauma. And therefore also giving a bit more purpose to his character returning.
Ep1-2: Spyfall
The Doctor is called in by MI6, and insists that Yaz comes along too (as a police officer). They start to investigate together, and 13 calls an agent she knows to help. This character would be played by Michelle Gomez, but with a disguise making her unrecognisable (a bit like Mr Razor in S10), as well as different accent - revealing herself as Missy on the plane at the end of Part 1.
Yaz spends Part 2 on the run alone - I think this would give an interesting start to a companion's run, having to fend for herself before actually knowing much about the Doctor or the Tardis. This would also start to explore Yaz's police background, as she initially tries to follow her training and protocols, but is forced to go against everything she has been taught to escape Missy and Daniel Barton. At the end of Spyfall, the Doctor invites Yaz to travel with her.
Ep3: Demons of the Punjab
Another quicker start to a new companion - for her first trip in the Tardis, Yaz requests to go back in time to see her Grandmother, leading to the storyline at the partition of India.
This episode would also play a bigger role in 13 and Yaz's arc later on. There were lots of fan theories that Power of the Doctor would be foreshadowed by Demons of the Punjab, so I would make this the reality later on, using Yaz's Grandmother to tease Yaz's own departure from the show, as well as the Thijarians later returning to honour 13 as she regenerates.
Ep4: Arachnids in the UK
Yaz returns home after the emotional previous episode, and the Doctor meets her family in the present day.
With Missy staying on as the Master, I would instead have Sacha Dhawan play an alternative villain, replacing Jack Robertson's role. He would be first introduced in the S11 finale, but not actually meet the Doctor until this episode.
Ep5: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
This episode would see the return of the Paternoster gang - who I think would have been one of the better options of characters to bring back during the Chibnall era, and this episode would fit best in terms of time setting (as well as the detail of the Silurian blaster). Strax's confusion over gender could also have fitted with having a female Doctor. Yaz and Vastra could also work well together, as a police officier and a detective.
I would also use the plot around the Skithra to subtly foreshadow S12's finale. Just as the Skithra steal technology that isn't theirs for their own advantage, the Time Lords similarly took advantage of the Timeless Child's genetics.
Ep6: Fugitive of the Judoon
No major changes, other than Yaz being the only companion. Could further explore Yaz's police background in comparison with the Judoon.
Ep7: Can You Hear Me?
Graham would return in this episode (a bit like Martha in S4) - at the start we would see how he adjusted back to life on Earth without Grace, starting to form a closer relationship with Ryan. Graham calls the Doctor after having nightmares, and they go on to investigate. Graham later confides in 13 about his cancer fears, but an extra scene is added. After Graham leaves, 13 from the future re-materialises and tells Graham what she wanted to say to reassure him. A bit like in S1, when The Doctor comes back to tell Rose that he can also travel in Time. 13 could also gift Graham the psychic paper at this point.
Alongside Graham's storyline, we would also see Yaz's mental health struggles in the past. Later episodes could flash back to this scene, where Yaz takes inspiration from the other police officer, wanting to make a difference to someone else (maybe the Doctor)?
Ep8: The Haunting of Villa Diodati
No major changes - though could give a more direct hint at Yaz's feelings towards the Doctor (when she talks about her 'enigmatic person').
Ep9: Ascension of the Cybermen
As the only companion, Yaz plays a greater role as she has to command the other survivors in the Cyber ship.
Ep10: The Timeless Children
Missy returns to tell the Doctor about the Timeless Child. I would suggest to have less narration for these scenes, and instead add dialogue to the flashbacks of Tecteun and the child.
Also with Missy staying on as the Master, the creation of the CyberMasters (made from the Timeless Child's genetics) would kind of go full circle from the army of Cybermen that Missy presented to 12 when she was first introduced.
Revelations of the Doctor
Part one to the festive special, exploring how 13 spent her time in prison processing the Timeless Child revelations. Feature the Judoon more, and have some of the other prisoners as side characters. Some of the scenes of 13 alone in her prison cell could be more like Heaven Sent? The episode would end on the cliffhanger of Jack appearing in the prison to break the Doctor out.
Simultaneously we switch back to Yaz back on Earth. She has been sleeping in the extra Tardis, and her family eventually track her down there, and Yaz starts to share where she has been recently (travelling in the Tardis). Sacha Dhawan's character is back, using the "defence drones" to make a deal with the new prime minister. Yaz and her family (including her mother, who he previously employed at the hotel), try to confront him, but are unsuccessful.
Revolution of the Daleks
Part 2 then picks up with 13 and Jack teleporting into the Tardis, and then reuniting with Yaz again, who informs them of the Dalek plot. Much of the rest of the episode would remain unchanged, but with some additional scenes to further explore the Dalek's invasion before they are defeated. The lack of Ryan and Graham would also give more time with Jack's character. The scene with 13 and Ryan on the Tardis steps would be replaced with Jack, as 13 confides in him about the Timeless Child, knowing that Jack also had lost some memories. And also making Jack's exit at the end less abrupt.

With Ncuti's new series now begun, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back on the previous eras of the show. A common opinion for the Chibnall era is that there was a lot of unrealised potential, plenty of interesting ideas/concepts but not always fully developed.
I think most of the ingredients were there, and all it needed to massively improve the whole era was to swap around certain elements - i.e. without radically changing anything. Just swapping certain episodes and characters around would have given more meaningful arcs, storylines and character development. And after watching the 60th, I think some of the same criticism applies to some extent.
I will make a separate post for each series from S11 to the 60th, going into detail of how I think each episode could have been adapted.
INTRODUCTION: https://www.reddit.com/doctorwho/comments/1cee488/reworking_1314s_era/
SERIES 11: https://www.reddit.com/gallifrey/comments/1cmmric/series_11_reworking_1314s_era/

Series 12:

Characters & Arcs - Yaz would join as a full-time companion from Spyfall, after being introduced for the first time in Resolution. Series 12 would have a subtle arc around mental health, exploring both Yaz's background and the Doctor's own trauma following the various revelations across the series, as she is forced to stop running away from her past. As the only main companion in this series, generally there would be more space to explore Yaz individually as a character, for example her views on morality and justice as a police officer, her relationships with her family etc, plus some earlier hints at her feelings towards the Doctor.
The Master - Instead of Dhawan's incarnation, Missy would stay on as the Master for 13's era. The whole Timeless Child arc would perhaps fit better in connection with Missy's redemption arc in S10, rather than having a new incarnation? A more conflicted side to the Master would have been more logical here, rather than reverting back to pure evil so quickly. Missy sitill feels some sense of friendship towards the Doctor, but at the same time can't handle the fact that her existence is somehow a result of the Doctor.
Festive Specials & Captain Jack - To fully explore the plot of Revolution of the Doctor, alongside the Doctor's time in prison, and the return of Captain Jack, this story would be split into two parts . The first part (named 'Revelations of the Doctor') would have 13 in prison for the full episode, and Yaz on Earth stuggling to deal with the Dalek plot in her absence. I always thought bringing Jack back in 13's era was a perfect chance for the Doctor to properly confide in someone and process everything, since Jack had lost two years of his memories (removed by the Time Agency, an organisation not dissimilar to Division), and since would have had time to process that trauma. And therefore also giving a bit more purpose to his character returning.
Ep1-2: Spyfall
The Doctor is called in by MI6, and insists that Yaz comes along too (as a police officer). They start to investigate together, and 13 calls an agent she knows to help. This character would be played by Michelle Gomez, but with a disguise making her unrecognisable (a bit like Mr Razor in S10), as well as different accent - revealing herself as Missy on the plane at the end of Part 1.
Yaz spends Part 2 on the run alone - I think this would give an interesting start to a companion's run, having to fend for herself before actually knowing much about the Doctor or the Tardis. This would also start to explore Yaz's police background, as she initially tries to follow her training and protocols, but is forced to go against everything she has been taught to escape Missy and Daniel Barton. At the end of Spyfall, the Doctor invites Yaz to travel with her.
Ep3: Demons of the Punjab
Another quicker start to a new companion - for her first trip in the Tardis, Yaz requests to go back in time to see her Grandmother, leading to the storyline at the partition of India.
This episode would also play a bigger role in 13 and Yaz's arc later on. There were lots of fan theories that Power of the Doctor would be foreshadowed by Demons of the Punjab, so I would make this the reality later on, using Yaz's Grandmother to tease Yaz's own departure from the show, as well as the Thijarians later returning to honour 13 as she regenerates.
Ep4: Arachnids in the UK
Yaz returns home after the emotional previous episode, and the Doctor meets her family in the present day.
With Missy staying on as the Master, I would instead have Sacha Dhawan play an alternative villain, replacing Jack Robertson's role. He would be first introduced in the S11 finale, but not actually meet the Doctor until this episode.
Ep5: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror
This episode would see the return of the Paternoster gang - who I think would have been one of the better options of characters to bring back during the Chibnall era, and this episode would fit best in terms of time setting (as well as the detail of the Silurian blaster). Strax's confusion over gender could also have fitted with having a female Doctor. Yaz and Vastra could also work well together, as a police officier and a detective.
I would also use the plot around the Skithra to subtly foreshadow S12's finale. Just as the Skithra steal technology that isn't theirs for their own advantage, the Time Lords similarly took advantage of the Timeless Child's genetics.
Ep6: Fugitive of the Judoon
No major changes, other than Yaz being the only companion. Could further explore Yaz's police background in comparison with the Judoon.
Ep7: Can You Hear Me?
Graham would return in this episode (a bit like Martha in S4) - at the start we would see how he adjusted back to life on Earth without Grace, starting to form a closer relationship with Ryan. Graham calls the Doctor after having nightmares, and they go on to investigate. Graham later confides in 13 about his cancer fears, but an extra scene is added. After Graham leaves, 13 from the future re-materialises and tells Graham what she wanted to say to reassure him. A bit like in S1, when The Doctor comes back to tell Rose that he can also travel in Time. 13 could also gift Graham the psychic paper at this point.
Alongside Graham's storyline, we would also see Yaz's mental health struggles in the past. Later episodes could flash back to this scene, where Yaz takes inspiration from the other police officer, wanting to make a difference to someone else (maybe the Doctor)?
Ep8: The Haunting of Villa Diodati
No major changes - though could give a more direct hint at Yaz's feelings towards the Doctor (when she talks about her 'enigmatic person').
Ep9: Ascension of the Cybermen
As the only companion, Yaz plays a greater role as she has to command the other survivors in the Cyber ship.
Ep10: The Timeless Children
Missy returns to tell the Doctor about the Timeless Child. I would suggest to have less narration for these scenes, and instead add dialogue to the flashbacks of Tecteun and the child.
Also with Missy staying on as the Master, the creation of the CyberMasters (made from the Timeless Child's genetics) would kind of go full circle from the army of Cybermen that Missy presented to 12 when she was first introduced.
Revelations of the Doctor
Part one to the festive special, exploring how 13 spent her time in prison processing the Timeless Child revelations. Feature the Judoon more, and have some of the other prisoners as side characters. Some of the scenes of 13 alone in her prison cell could be more like Heaven Sent? The episode would end on the cliffhanger of Jack appearing in the prison to break the Doctor out.
Simultaneously we switch back to Yaz back on Earth. She has been sleeping in the extra Tardis, and her family eventually track her down there, and Yaz starts to share where she has been recently (travelling in the Tardis). Sacha Dhawan's character is back, using the "defence drones" to make a deal with the new prime minister. Yaz and her family (including her mother, who he previously employed at the hotel), try to confront him, but are unsuccessful.
Revolution of the Daleks
Part 2 then picks up with 13 and Jack teleporting into the Tardis, and then reuniting with Yaz again, who informs them of the Dalek plot. Much of the rest of the episode would remain unchanged, but with some additional scenes to further explore the Dalek's invasion before they are defeated. The lack of Ryan and Graham would also give more time with Jack's character. The scene with 13 and Ryan on the Tardis steps would be replaced with Jack, as 13 confides in him about the Timeless Child, knowing that Jack also had lost some memories. And also making Jack's exit at the end less abrupt.

I've seen huge praise for this episode on the sub and while I did enjoy it, the episode didn't cover enough ground IMO.
Where the character of Negan leaves off at the end of the flashbacks (killing the biker gang) is still miles away from the character of Negan that coerces women into being wives, burnes peoples face off with an iron, throws a doctor into fire, brutally smiles and taunts someone's significant other with a bat having their flesh still hanging off it, etc.
Now I know that more character development in the episode would require showing his journey through the apocalypse, but they really didn't delve deep enough into Negan's psyche and backstory to foreshadow that he might become so evil.
I also had hoped for a bit more pre-apocalypse stuff, but I guess that would require a higher budget and a lot more effort.
Still cool to watch a TWD episode again though. Might watch the Morgan - Eastman episode again too.
Any other good character based episodes?

(ep 1a) changes: Have anne be sad. Thinking about marcy possibly being dead. Have anne and the gang being up sprigs near death anne calamity powers and have serious talk about it.
(Ep 1b) Turning point (30 minutes): sasha sees marcy gets stabbed by andrias. Sasha and Grime arrive in wartwood. The people of wartwood question sasha and Grime. On where is anne and the planters. Sasha tells everyone that King andrias is evil and is going to destroy amphibia. The people of wartwood are shocked knowing that the king is actually evil and going to destroy their home. Sasha and Grime say they are going to protect wartwood mayor toadstool and the rest of wartwood to happy to that someone is going protect them from danger. Sasha gives an unsettled smile and then turns to a sad look on her face. Grime and sash are the planter family home, but sasha refuses to step inside. Grime asks if she is OK, but sasha says she is fine and going to sleep the shed where Bessie and micogeangelo are. A few days late, sasha and Grime see one of andrias's robots near the planter family home. While the robot's not looking, Grime destroys the robot with his hammer. Sasha's talk with Grime stays the same. Sasha goes into the basement of the planter house and reads anne's diary. After reading anne's diary, sasha have full on meltdown. Crying her eyes out, sasha monologues about being a better person stays the same. We then cut to sasha, telling wartwood everything about true colours and anne and the planters being stuck in another world (earth). Sasha tells wartwood that she is going to protect their home. But before anyone in wartwood says anything to sasha. Some of andrias's robots attack wartwood. Meanwhile, Grime thinks about his life choices. We flashbacks back seasons 1 and 2. Grime realised he was a horrible person and went back for sasha. We cut back to sasha as he started to fight the robots. Things are going well until the robots manage to pin sasha down. And just when it's seen to be it for sasha. Grime comes in and saves sasha.the sense between Grime and sasha stays the same. The rest of the fight stays the same. After the robots are defeated. Wartwood After learning about sasha's true colours, betrayal, and everything before. Admit that it is going to take a while for them to trust sasha. But they can see that sasha is trying to change and become a better person. Wartwood asks sasha what to do now. Sasha looks at Grimeand Grime spinks at sasha. And then sasha says to everyone. We start fighting back. As they start building the rebellion.
(Ep 2a) Hop till you drop: gabby mentions sasha and marcy, making anne really uncomfortable. While we see what anne's life on earth was like before, she got stuck in amphibia.
(Ep 2b) Adventures in catsitting: have b plot where anne and her mom are at the dentist cause anne was gone for like 5 months. Over all the a plot stays the same.
(Ep 3a) croaker in war: Mrs. croaker helps sasha with her toxic traits. As sasha tries to protect her from andrias's robots. only to feel snap of croaker. Ending the episode with sasha learning from croaker. Not to use people to get what she wants. Because it's makes people hate her for it.
(Ep 3b) Wally to help: Wally is playing his instrument. Then he sees sasha looking sad while sitting on a rock. Wally goes to ask sasha if she's OK. Sasha tells Wally she's having a hard time being herself as she is both a manipulator and liar. Wartwood is still on edge working with her against andrias and doesn't know how to start being herself in a way that isn't deceitful. Wally then tells about the time anne helped stand up to his father. And express his true feelings. Wally then tells sasha lies, and manipulation may be a part of her, but it's not the whole her. She still has to own up to those awful parts and leave them behind. That way, she can be the best true version of herself. Sasha, thanks Wally about everything. Wally then said no problem, sasha. As the two say their goodbyes.
(Ep 4a) fight at the museum: the episode stays the same but with a few changes. The conflict between the frogs, newts, and toads is foreshadowed in this episode. Anne, at first, would have trust issues, but by the end, she slowly starts to trust people again over time. And make a slow but eventually recovery.
(Ep 4b) temple frogs: No changes. The episode's perfect the way it is.
(Ep 5a) Withered (original 11-minute episode): The story is about anne having a hard time trying to forgive sasha after everything before and after true colours. Anne and the gang find sasha's parents who are living in regret and sadness after sasha went missing. They hate themselves for how sasha acts. Anne talks forgiveness to sasha's parents. Ending sasha's parents pulling themselves together. Anne gives sasha's parents a hopeful look and a tear falling down her eye. Letting them know that she going to be their daughter back safe and sound.
(Ep 5b) ivy and sasha (original episode): ivy after some thought deicide to go comfort sasha who having big regrets about everything she did. thinking if anne actually comes back to amphibia and is probably still mad at her. Ivy After some talk with her mother. Ivy found sasha feeling down. Ivy asks sasha if she is okay. Ansmd sasha no. They talk friendshops with anne and sprig. This episode sasha feeling a bit better after her talk with ivy. Sasha decides to sleep and falls fast asleep.
(Ep 6a) Fixing frobo; the episode stays the same except for the ending. Where frobo is fixed and turned into a race car as we see in s3b.
(Ep 6b) anne-sterminator: The episode would mostly stay the same, but with a few big changes. Like, when anne, her parents, and the planters are in the junkyard, and anne's parents question her about the colckbot trying to kill her. Anne thought her parents saw the same as she was before amphibia. she breaks down in tears and reveals she has been hiding. Her parents are shocked. comfort their daughter and apologies for what they said whileSprigg overhears everything. After the colckbot easpse's with the bomb remove from his chest. Anne tells her parents about what happened to sasha and marcy.
(Ep 7a) sasha and toadie: sasha is chilling until toadie comes out. Toadie and sasha go on a walk and talk. Sasha asks toadie, "Tell toadie about some of wartwood's unhelpful ideas. Toadie tells sasha that she listens to people ideas even if some aren't helpful. Sasha thanks toadie like she did in battle of the bands. Toadie tells sasha he was happy to help. As it looks up the night sky. Ending the episode.
(Ep 7b) thinking about marcy: sasha see maddie sisters being attacked by andrias robots. Sasha managed to save maddie sisters and get to safety. Sasha is thanked by maddie for saving her sisters. Maddie then noticed sasha looking distress and asks sasha what's wrong. Sasha then tells maddie about how marcy is the reason she and anne were stuck in amphibia. Maddie is shocked to hear it. Thinking marcy wouldn't do something as bad as this. Maddie After hearing what marcy has done. Maddie decided to help sasha on why marcy did what she did. Maddie tells sasha how she ignored her sisters as she got older. Making sasha realise she was also a horrible friend to marcy aswell. Sasha ignored marcy's needs and interests like anne did. Sasha realised and attended that she was also a horrible friend. Sasha thanks maddie for helping her about her mixed feelings towards marcy. Maddie then said: no problem sasha. I just didn't think marcy would do something as bad as this. But I'm happy to help. Sasha then smiles a little. Knowing she feels better after her talk with maddie. As she fell asleep. Ending the episode.
(Ep 8a) Mr X:Thee episode stays the same.
(Ep 8b) Sprigs' birthday: molly Jo plays a bigger role in this episode. Since spider sprig in an eliminated from this rewitte. Molly jo plays as a new friend for sprig. Sprig also confronts anne about what he hear back in anne-sterminator. Considered for his friend's well-being. Bu she says not to worry cause she wants Sprigs' birthday to be perfect. But Sprig says being with anne already made birthday perfect. Anne gets all emotional after what is wholesome. Anne and Sprig hug.
(Ep 9a) as life goes on: the episode begins with anne and the planters trying to find marcy's parents. Once they find her home. Someone else is already living there. Anne more so then ever I'd shocked that marcy's parents left without their daughter. Sprig question's why marcy's parents just left their daughter behind. At least sasha's parents stayed waiting for they daughter to return. After some time they managed to find marcy's parents by a discord call. Anne asks them why they leave they daughter behind after she went missing. Mr wu explained that the offer started immediately so they had no choice but to leave without marcy. Anne and the planters reflect on what marcy's parents said and what marcy had done. The episode ends with anne and the planters after the talk with marcy's parents l. Saying goodbye to Wu's and the call ends. Anne knowing why marcy stranded her and sasha in amphibia. Finally understanding marcy more thanks to her parents.
(Ep 9b) Olivia and yunan: The episode stays the same.
(Ep 10a) If you give a frog a cookie: anne noticed that the planters are homesick after she made cookies. Then doctor Jan calls anne about a way back to amphibia but they help with it. Anne and the planters are happy. Later they Go to Doctor frakles and meet Terri. As colckbot comes back but this time to help anne and Terri save the planters from Doctor frakles. By throwing the cookies at frakles causing the kids to attack her. As anne and the planters and Terri easpse. Ending the episode.
(Ep 10b) workout time: loggie deicide to do some training with sasha since war is coming. So he goes to sasha and starts training. While training sasha almost goes too far. Telling her that she can not push people to they limits because it will make people leave people behind like percy and Braddock. As there is still a chance to make things right with anne and marcy. Making Sasha reasiled she almost gone too far and apologies to loggie for almost pushing him to his limit. Regret about what she did to percy and Braddock. Sasha the deicided to not always do things her way. Loggie tells sasha that they would do it in a more comfortable way. That can help them beat andrias. Sasha thanks loggie for realising she almost made the same mistake as she did with percy and Braddock. Loggie then says don't mention it sasha I'm Happy to help. After they are done with the training. Sasha looks at the bffs photo of her anne and marcy. Promising to be a better friend in the future as the episode ends.

The origins of Pirate Island and the Davy Back fight.
Joyboy is the first pirate ever, right?
That means that:
Pirate Island and the Davy Back fight almost certainly (unless there's some first first pirate out there) originated after Joyboy became the first pirate. No one mentions the history of the Davy Back fight or Pirate Island and, given their age, gives us a good chance that they originated in the void century with Joyboy.
Now, I have some speculation to add to this:
Nico Robin specifically mentions Davy Jones was born in ancient times, coinciding with the ancient kingdom which was erased. Davy Jones was mentioned as a pirate.
It could mean that Davy Jones is a character in the Joyboy flashback. And to add to this, Oda once drew Davy Jones:
\"everything is mine\"
He's mentioned as a "greedy pirates that takes everything from the sea floor," by robin. The quote he's given is "everything is mine." A few things:

• Blackbeard and Davy Jones are extremely greedy, Blackbeard seemingly wanting to take over the world (with how he's aligned with Xebec and the quote by Van Augur).
  
• Blackbeard's original name was "Everything D. Teach"
  
• They are very pirate-y looking, moreso than nearly every character in a comic about pirates.
  
• Blackbeard currently runs Pirate Island, which is the origin of the Davy Back fight.
  
• Blackbeard and Davy Jones are the most quintessential "famous" pirates in real life, even if one is more of a myth.
  
• Missing teeth! Blackbeard is also missing two top teeth, and it looks like the bottom left tooth might be missing on Davy Jones (which BB is also missing). Note that these fluctuate a bit on Blackbeard, but the top two are almost always consistently missing, with the bottom row either having one or two missing.
  
• Blackbeard has worn a bandana and large hoop earrings.
  
• Blackbeard possesses two devil fruits, which would make one of his most fitting deaths/defeats being a person that sinks to the ocean floor.
  

I'm wondering if we'll not only get this origin in the next few chapters (or maybe later on when the rest is filled in...) but it will include Davy Jones as a rival to Joyboy. Effectively, they are the Luffy and Blackbeard of their era.
This might mean that the "bloodline" being discussed about Blackbeard is actually being a direct descendant of Davy Jones himself.
https://preview.redd.it/w6knpby3ja1d1.png?width=989&format=png&auto=webp&s=b949c1826f4e27e6d734f968a36bf92637974816
And then there's this:
https://preview.redd.it/mab0q7znja1d1.jpg?width=602&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a643dd0e81a0ca874210be0abab760e67ddb407
Imu has four pictures in this scene, one is of Vivi, the descendant of Nefertari Lily, who was a major problem to Imu. The inheritor of Joyboy's will, also a major problem to Imu. Poseidon, a character who is apparently reborn, meaning that there was a previous Poseidon--given the foreshadowing, Poseidon is a major threat to Imu due to an alliance with Joyboy. That makes Teach the only character in this image without a historical figure they are the potential successor to--and honestly? That could be Davy Jones.

I just finished Oathbringer and am fully invested in figuring out all of the intricate details of this series that has quickly become my new obsession. I’ve loved diving into the lore and seeing how our characters have been handling growing through their serious brokenness. Just wanted to post a lot of my thoughts, ideas, and questions here. Please let me know if any of these can be answered with information through OB. Otherwise, I’m sure most of this is RAFO and I’ll see as I jump right into Dawnshard and RoW!
Radiance

• Will Kaladin even say more of the Windrunner Ideals? There is something weird going on with the Radiants and why they decided to break their oaths at the Recreance and I don’t think we have the full story yet. Perhaps we don’t need our main characters to finish all of the Ideals? Not sure.
• I’m thinking that the 4th Windrunner Ideal might be something along the lines of “I accept that I can not protect everyone” and Kal must learn to live with the fact that sometimes he will fail and it will be very hard for him.
• What is our count on number of Ideals sworn by Shallan? Shallan’s are, of course, the truths that she tells to Pattern and those include the murders of each of her parents as we found in WoR. But what more could she say? There is still a lot of mystery with her family and their ties to the Ghostbloods, especially the mother and Helaran.
• Let’s get Shallan soulcasting more! She’s been way out of practice on that end.
• What about Dalinar’s Ideals? Dalinar becoming Unity seemed to be the second of his Ideals as the Stormfather accepted his words during the Battle for Thaylen City. I’m interested to see more of his development as a Radiant. It seems that the Bondsmiths are particularly important and I want to know more about each of the three of them and what their specific roles are. Will we see the other two appear as the series goes on?
• I’m glad Dalinar learns to read and write, it’s about time we give up some of those old-fashioned Vorin ideas. I was kinda hoping his Bondsmith powers would let him learn immediately in the same way he learns other languages by touching someone who speaks it, but oh well.
• I do not think we’ve seen much of the Surges of Cohesion and Tension (Stoneward territory) and I’d love to learn more about what they are, how they work, how different Radiants manifest powers through them. The Ars Arcanum descriptions of them are vague and mysterious. Dalinar can gain the power of Tension through being a Bondsmith, but I’m not sure if we’ve seen that explicitly yet?
• Just how powerful was Dalinar’s Unity stand? Odium retreated immediately after the conjunction of the three realms. Was Odium’s claim of (paraphrase) “I though we killed you” referring to Honor, or perhaps something different? Is this one of Dalinar’s powers now, i.e., will he be able to regenerate Stormlight at his will? It seems so since he reloaded Kaladin before he flew off to recover Skar, Drehy, and co., but it seemed to be quite taxing on him.
• Man I just want to know all about the different powers that Surgebinders carry. There are 10 surges total, and if each Order of the KR can access 2, then there are 10!/(8!2!) = 45 unique combinations of two surges… too bad there are only 10 orders instead of 45 to match all combinations :( Might have been an undertaking for Brandon to create all of these orders.
• It’s been hinted that upper-level Ideals must be sworn for Radiants to get Shardplate? Maybe we’ll see that happen in RoW.
• Of course Malata is siding with some antagonists. Fits the trope that fire/destruction powers = evil. Bummer. Maybe someone else will come up who can use this power for good.
• Renarin’s bond is interesting to me. His spren is either corrupted or simply one of the Voidspren, but he still seems to maintain good intentions as a character. I’m interested to see what happens with him. Maybe not all Voidspren have to side with Odium/the Fused. He is also mentioned (secretly to Odium) in the Diagram, so he’ll obviously play an important role.
• Similarly, I’m interested in Venli’s role. Seems like she recognizes that things are off with the Voidspren and Odium. Is her spren Timbre a lightspren? Willshaper Venli? Her ties to Odium, the Listeners, the Fused, etc. will be interesting after having said the First Ideal. Especially with the Voidspren that is in her gemheart.
• Jasnah clearly is very powerful (as shown at the Battle for Thaylen City) and it was an interesting choice to make her queen. I’d have figured she would want to devote her time to her scholarly work rather than dealing in politics, but we’ll see how it goes I guess. Might be hard to find time to mentor Shallan on Soulcasting too.
• Man we gotta find a way for Lift to either take in Stormlight in the normal way or to just get her a huge duffel bag full of food all the time, especially during battles.

Gods, Heralds, all things of power:

• What are the different “levels” of power that each of the gods possess? Honor has obviously been killed, but I get the sense that he might still be able to “come back” through DalinaStormfather? I don’t know. These gods can be killed I guess, so not quite true God-gods, just some supremely powerful beings.
• What are the motivations of these different gods (Odium, Cultivation, pre-death Honor, others)? It’s hard to get a reading on why Odium wants to be so involved with the Singers’/Listeners’ return instead of just existing as a god somewhere. I know he’s trapped somehow, hence the barter with Dalinar, but like why does he cause so much mischief in the first place? Just his nature I guess?
• Wit has got to be up here with this crew of gods, no?
• Who is Rayse? We hear about him through the letters exchanged with Wit in the epigraphs, but still so mysterious. Again, what are these higher-beings’ motivations? Perhaps his role is clearer by reading some of BS’s other books prior to the SA?
• I do believe that Adonalsium is the true OG God, and he somehow split into “Shards” that might be these other gods known as Honor, Odium, Cultivation, etc., but that is surmised through some reading online. Not sure exactly where that information has come out and what I need to read for better background on this. How did the Shattering occur? Why did the Shards gain sentience? Why do they have different personalities and motivations?
• This Voidlight is mysterious still. How is it different in nature to normal Stormlight? Can Knights Radiant take it in the same way? Can the Fused take in regular Stormlight? I don’t think it’s been explicitly stated, but this must be what was in the sphere that Gavilar gave the Szeth on the night of the assassination. Also is that sphere the same thing Navani hinted at when Dalinar showed her the Nergaoul-infused King’s Drop?
• I’m interested to find out why are Honorspren looked down upon in Shadesmar at the moment.
• Szeth’s blade is very different — talks to him, needs to be sheathed instead of vanishing, has a very skewed sense of time, drains color.
• I am hoping that the Heralds are able to make somewhat of a recovery from their insanity and we can see them in power. Too bad Jezrien has been killed. I was looking forward to his return in particular. Nale is… coming around? We got a few glimpses of Ash in Oathbringer, and I realized she is the same character as the woman destroying paintings in the WoK interlude. Taln is so noble… was not even mad about holding the gates for 4.5 thousand years, just happy to have given humans the time to develop. Taravangian hinted that Dova in Kharbranth is Battar. Seems like Ishar will come into play given all his mentions in Oathbringer. Haven’t heard much (or don’t remember) much of the others (Kalak, Pailiah, Vedel, and Chanarach), but hopefully they show themselves soon!
• Ok, so the secret came out that the humans are the Voidbringers and came from another planet that they destroyed and caused a lot of problems here on Roshar. The timeline for this is confusing to me. If the humans are the invasive species, then why were the Heralds created in the first place? It’s my understanding that the Heralds (or all of the ones we’ve seen so far) are human. The old story says (or implies) that the Heralds were created to bring an end to the Desolations. So does that mean that the humans invaded, then Honor gave a handful of them additional powers (Surges) to help exterminate the Singers and the other Rosharan inhabitants? And then, of course, the formation of the Knights Radiant. When did they come about? Did the Heralds fight for a few hundreds/thousands of years before the KR were formed or were they around earlier? I’m missing the motivations of the gods here… why would Honor create these powerful beings to help invade a new planet? Not very honorable if you ask me. What kinds of powers did the early Listeners have that required the use of Surgebinding to defeat? How do the Voidspren and Fused play into this? Are they native Roshar spren that are just angry at being taken over by humans with their bonds to other higher spren? Something is fishy with the relationship between the Listeners and the Voidspren — they banished them at risk of being enslaved for thousands of years. Most of the Listeners are rightfully angry at the humans for millennia of enslavement, but very few actually want to kill the humans. Rather, they seem content to just cohabit Roshar. I am hoping for further clarification in RoW.
• The Unmade are so fascinating to me. They are described as being of Odium, but do not necessarily want to remain tied to him, some of them having minds of their own, fueled by the specific Passions relevant to them. Interesting how these powerful spren will continue to influence Roshar. Also being made, then unmade?? What’s that all about?
• Cultivation is being foreshadowed a lot and I am wondering what her influence will be in the coming books. She had the interaction with Dalinar in his flashback, but they talk about her so much more than just referring to this one instance. The Nightwatcher’s powers (with the boons/curses) are still so interesting to me too.
• Have we seen Odium’s analog to the NightwatcheStormfather? I’m assuming that if Cultivation and Honor have these more-powerful spren, then so will he. Maybe you could consider the Unmade to satisfy this role?

Secret Organizations:

• Ghostbloods — I feel like we’ll get a lot of info. on these guys soon. We know somewhat little about them. Members include Mraize and Iyatil, both mysterious, and members of House Davar. They are good at finding Honorblades and Heralds. Lots and lots of secrets. They’re gonna keep on manipulating Shallan it seems… hopefully she can maintain an upper edge.
• The Diagram — I am inclined to think that the Diagram may be right, but I am hoping that it’s flawed. Interesting that there were parts of the Diagram that even Odium couldn’t see (Renarin’s name). Seems they have good intentions, but are ultimately perilous to our protagonists through their means to save Roshar and, thus, are “bad guys”. I seems to me that Taravangian just wants what’s best for Roshar, and it’s too bad his one day of genius has painted all of our main characters as roadblocks/liabilities/etc. Always so sneaky, Taravangian, but also very interesting. I hope he has another day of brilliance, I loved reading the day on Urithiru where he was quite intelligent (still not the same as the Diagram day, of course).
• Sons of Honor — my least favorite of the secrete organizations tbh. Glad Amaram is dead after being infused by the Unmade (can’t remember which one. Yelig-Nar maybe?). Amaram seemed to have met with Odium prior to the battle for Thaylen City though… is that consistent with the SoH or did he break off from the group to do this? Other members of SoH that we know of so far?

Bridge Four:

• The connection between squires and radiants is still kinda vague to me. What are the requirements for these squires to become full Radiants, if at all?
• I think Rock may be my favorite B4 member, so earnest and kind, doesn’t want to hurt anyone. And a good cook. I’d like to know more about his past, his family, really all about the Horneaters. I could tell right away that he’d be pretty distraught over having to take the Amaram kill shot.
• Love Skar and Drehy’s connection with Adolin.
• Teft has gotta figure out his firemoss shit
• How can you not love the Lopen?

Other mysteries and thoughts:

• Aimia — what happened here? What caused its destruction? It’s hinted in Mythica that one of the Unmade, the mysterious Dai-Gonarthis, may have caused the destruction of this country. There are still secrets lying in Akinah as suggested by the Oathbringer interludes that I’d love to discover more about.
• What of the Aimian people? Reading online hints that there are two types, iirc. The only things I remember are of Axies the collector and the Sleepless that Lift encounters in Edgedancer. I remember being thoroughly spooked by him, hordelings crawling around all the time. Perhaps as intended, every time there is mention of cremlings in the main SA series, I think it’s one of the Sleepless keeping an eye on things (Taln’s kidnapping at the end of WoR, e.g.).
• Zahel has a lot to yet reveal in these books. I feel like he’s pretty dang powerful and should have a bigger role in all of this.
• The country of Natanan is somewhat interesting right now too. Still surviving as a city-state over so close to the Origin. How are they doing? I want more on them too.
• There’s some sketchy stuff going on at the Origin too. We’ve got information about that story (from Wit’s story in WoK if I remember correctly) that people may live there and have their own kingdom and whatnot. This place gets hinted at from time to time. Was the Oathbringer interlude about the lighthouse taking place here?
• There’s something going on in the Horneater Peaks. There is a Perpendicularity there, but I feel that can’t be all.
• What’s the deal with the Greatshells? They seem important and… wise? Perhaps some relation to the Chasmfiends (unless they’re classified as Greatshells too? I’m mostly thinking of those that live in/near the Reshi Isles).
• So much of the Cognitive realm/Shadesmar still needs to be explored and understood from our perspective.
• Will the assassin hired by Jasnah on the night of Gavilar’s assassination come into play again? Can’t remember her name rn.
• Speaking of that day… why were the Heralds (Nale and Ash? Any more?) at the party?
• Who is Restares and why did Gavilar think he may have been involved with his murder? Is there some deeper involvement by House Sadeas in the assassination of Gavilar as well?
• We still don’t know the full details of Gavilar’s plan. What was he up to? The Listeners killed him for the desire to bring back their gods (which has proved disastrous), but what else was he getting into? He had clear ties to the Sons of Honor I think.
• Will Adolin be able to revive Maya and perhaps gain some Radiant powers?? I’m rooting for it to happen.
• Man, what’s going on over in the West? Iri and Rira just decided to submit to the Voidspren/Listeners immediately? And Shinovar is going to have an interesting story with it being the first-landing of humans and the storage space for most of the Honorblades for thousands of years.
• Wit found a Pattern at the end of part 5 and mentioned some of the First Ideal (interesting…). He’s always going to be a mystery to me, I fear. But also easily one of the, if not the, best character in the series.

The return of The Strongest
As the latest chapter has demonstrated to the faithful, the time of Gojo's return has come. A billion crackhead theories insist it's a hallucination or Kenjaku, but we're not going to focus on those today. Instead, I will demonstrate not only why Gojo is returning now, but how he is returning, and why others will return with him.

Part 1: Foreshadowing

In Chapter 248, Gege set up a detail that has been overshadowed by later drama and speculation. He revealed that Ui Ui has been teleporting away the bodies of the fallen!
Sukuna speculating on The Groomed One's activities
Sukuna speculates that they're being teleported to Shoko, dismisses it because her reverse cursed technique isn't powerful enough to help, then moves on to moping about how he misses Gojo. Ui Ui returns to teleport Yuta and Kusakabe away later, but it's not been revealed what he's doing with the bodies. While Yuta and Kusakabe may not have been dead, we have good reason to think Gojo and Higurama were dead when Ui Ui took their bodies, so why risk his life for them?
Sukuna's speculation set the readers up to assume Ui Ui was putting them away for some desperate healing that was unlikely to work, and not think too hard about it. That way, we get emotionally invested when we see them on death's door. But Gege wouldn't set up and emphasize this detail for nothing, so there must be some plan. That brings me to my second point:

Part 2: Shoko

The time for her to be useful has come
What is Shoko's deal? She has basically existed as background dressing for Gojo's character, failed to explain RCT, and irresponsibly promoted smoking to the youth. But we all know Gege would never waste a strong female character. Much like Todo, Kusakabe, Mei Mei, and even Ino have had a chance to shine this arc, Shoko is about to get her moment.
There's something special about Shoko and her natural intuition for RCT. Despite Sukuna's slander, the next chapter will begin with a flashback where Shoko reveals her true power. Through binding vows or a Domain Expansion, we will find out that Shoko has gained the ability to revive the mortally wounded and recently deceased. The terms of this ability is that the ones brought to her for healing are stuck until she drops the ability, and once she drops it, it can't be used again without at least a cooldown period. (Edit: Galaxy brain suggestion that Aratta Nitta, a side character with the ability to pause wounds, is involved).
The terms of this ability explain a lot:

• Why is Ui Ui teleporting dead people away? Because Shoko can bring them back.
• If Ui Ui is teleporting people for healing, why haven't they come back yet (especially Yuta)? Because as soon as she brings them back, they can't use her healing for the rest of the fight.
• Why did Yuta plan to take a lethal hit and drop his domain just to get Maki a sneak attack? Because he knew that Shoko would be there to revive him.
• Why did Gojo return now? Because there's no one left to be evacuated for a heal, so Shoko can bring everyone back.

Part 3: The Finale

I miss when Tengen was a bad bitch
The final proof lies in the Chekov's Gun that has been staring us in the face since Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Merger. This has been set up for so long that the manga can't end without it going off, but if The Merger beast appears, who's left to deal with it? Even if Sukuna dies now, Yuji and Todo are exhausted, and no match for the merger. Maki is hanging by a thread, Miguel fucked off, and the assorted grade 1's and 2's sitting around couldn't even touch Finger Bearer.
There is only one way for this to end: everyone comes back to jump The Merger. Sukuna can't keep up with Yuji and Todo, and with his DE countered by my glorious blue-eyed king, he's well and truly cooked. Sukuna will throw his final tantrum and through Gege bullshit binding vows, summon a half-baked Walmart brand Merger despite not meeting the conditions of the Culling Games. The binding vow solves another problem: Sukuna will use his spirit to power the Merger, adding a Sukuna flavor to the final battle against what would otherwise be a generic monster that the audience has no investment in defeating.
To defeat this monster, the heroes will need Gojo and Yuta's power, along with everyone else Ui Ui teleported to safety. This is the only path remaining to narrative satisfaction and the real Jujutsu Kaisen.
btw only the people Ui Ui teleported out are okay, sorry Chosobros and Kashimohos, they're dead af.

Part 4: The Summary

tl;dr buy Shoko stocks
I'm all-in baby

I’m thinking they will go into more depth about how Seattle hospital was ground zero for that area and the implications of how powerful ALL cordyceps will become over time as foreshadowing before the big reveal. Also I really found it fascinating how shamblers basically exist in the PNW because of the rainy climate. Maybe along with more rat king “lore” we will get to see some more pseudoscience on CBI, how it will evolve even further, flashbacks to when scientists were trying to figure out what the hell it is and how it was able to manifest so fast in humans etc.
I realize TLOU has always been about the survivors and their story arcs FIRST but always appreciate any extra info or world building around CBI. If Part II will be multiple seasons I wouldn’t mind an entire episode of screen time dedicated to this stuff.

One of the age-old questions of the Internet that still persists to this day is one with many layers. It confounds the jobless, strikes fear into the hearts of those with multiple Reddit accounts, and makes even the seasoned interactive text-heavy visual and audio lawyer entertainment enjoyer question if the truth is worth seeking: “SO I JUST HAD THIS SHOWER THOUGHT, RIGHT, SO LIKE WHAT IF TGAAA 7 TOOK PLACE WHEN WOROLD WAR 3 IS HAPPENING, LIKE COOL, Y’KNOW, AD THEN THE GAME IS ABOUT WHO DIES LIKE IN MY LEAST FAV GAME Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc? so who dies in the game, guys :BrushelSmile:? Aaaaand ‘Post!’”

No, I’ll actually be honest: these days, I have no clue what anybody online or otherwise has had to say about this series in damn near half a year if not more. I no longer give a fuck about having a stake in anything Ace Attorney unless it’s an actual release that I can judge for myself at this point. I’m well and truly over the period where some of my most crushing sadness was motivated by not everybody liking the thing I like enough, and that’s exciting. But it also means the end of this rankdown will be like the end of a very long, laborious era in itself. So as a special treat, consider this following cut not just dedicated to Susato, but to many of the women in her role across Ace Attorney history.

The core reason why Ace Attorney might just have an assistant problem is more of a byproduct of the series’ formula than anything else, and no, it’s not because of any interchangeable similarities in each of their characters per se. It’s more about how, especially in comparison to the male protagonists of each game, the arc of their woman assistants is generally muted almost to the point of being treated as afterthoughts. Both Athena and Rayfa, simply by virtue of having arcs with allusions to their stories being present elements that are worthy of focus throughout their respective first appearances instead of only being mentioned in the eleventh hour, are characters that represent a huge step forward for a series for which this should ideally equate to a small step. However, like as not, for much of their appearances, these assistant characters typically end up filling a role, intentionally or otherwise, as stand-in mothers, sisters, or girlfriends for Ayana more than actual characters, the emotional struggles of Maya and Trucy in particular only ever being deemed relevant towards the end of the final cases of AA1, T&T, and AJ. But just take a timeout for a second, because as much as I’ll continue to speak on this issue further, let’s not be unfair: it’s worth noting that “the series formula”, places men in a similar but more escapable conundrum.

The terms and conditions for defining what constitutes a “filler case” is not universal, but it’s very easy to see what would be considered a “main plot case”, and thus what could be “non-essential” for a given AA main plotline to function. But from a character progression standpoint, each male character that has been slated to have a massive character-defining arc receives the vast majority of that development over the course of a single case each, and any exceptions are rare. AA1 Edgeworth in 1-4, Phoenix in 2-4 & 3-5, Godot in 3-5, Apollo in 6-5, Ryunosuke in TGAA2-5(??), etc. Obviously character-defining moments will mostly be in the finale and of course there’s brief instances of foreshadowing to set up the background for each of these developments, but because so much is weighing on the final cases to do all sorts of heavy-lifting, the protagonists themselves can feel like real deadweight on a case-by-case basis until they very suddenly have a story where their specific presence as characters matters (particularly Phoenix’s role in 3-2 and 3-3, as well as Ryunosuke throughout much of TGAA2, stick out as examples for me where playing as them feels like going through the motions). I highlight this to suggest that, despite the fact that final cases may be exceedingly long, the assistants are not the only characters competing for relevance in the surprisingly tight window of these final chapters. The difference, however, is as I’ve already stated: the protagonists largely are given greater opportunity to have their conflict be foreshadowed, lightly or otherwise. A brief flashback to Phoenix’s class trial and a few sentences about his resulting personal conviction in 1-2 informs his character early and presents an incident to be expounded on later whereas Maya is left with an sudden and just as abrupt inferiority complex and overt depression arc for all of one case, and 5 hours of her continued presence elsewhere never presents anything about her inner world that’s deeper than the surface level (despite her supposedly having that depth). Only one of these arcs from AA1 is out of nowhere and could be reasonably described as an afterthought. The disparity between the relevance and tasteful treatment of the protags’ stories as opposed to their assistants’ has subtly existed since the series inception, so as the subject finally pertains to Susato herself, the actual truth I intend to divulge here is that this gap has become the widest it’s ever been, and at the perfect time for it to suck the hardest.

The Naruhodo bloodline may have a family allergy, but what is expressed about Ryunosuke’s life and journey in Great Ace Attorney: Adventures gives him one of the richest internal progressions of any lawyer, each case being an essential, valuable experience in defining how he thinks about his profession and who he will become. Ryunosuke provides a generally strong point of view to see each case from, meanwhile, with the exception of her reaction to Kazuma’s death and yet again a sudden inferiority complex to occupy the distant background of the final case, I could be fooled into thinking that Susato doesn’t have any interiority at all. Cut to the second game, and even in a different circumstance where Ryunosuke himself feels as though he’s playing second fiddle to more interesting characters, even when the Mikotoba history is more paramount to the plot itself this time, Susato’s presence once back in England is made even more concerningly irrelevant – her father coming from behind and almost stealing her thunder entirely. It’d be staggering for this character that tries to symbolize the new outreach of women’s rights at the turn of the century into someone so easily removable if it wasn’t so unsurprising. Anyway, what’s important is she’s nice and has a real job, unlike you.

So Long story short I stumbled onto a Post by u/pigsonbroadway talking about their take on The Mollusk. and in that thread was a very rad post by u/alwayspolite1999 where they spun a very interesting full story to go with the album that really inspired me. I spent the last 3 hours typing up this response but i think the thread is locked because it wont let me comment. I will post my long thoughts about it here for anyone that might appreciate it. Stay cool yall.
Hey hey, I know I'm nearly 7 years late on this, but thank you for giving me a framework for a very rad hour long relaxing daydream. I changed a few things in my head from this plot but i think it's safe to say you've irrevocably altered this entire album for me. Well done mate.
I wanna share my take on it, just in case you're feeling it or someone else likes it.
I'm imagining a story a lot like yours, about a man growing up and dealing with processing trauma, finding love, and ultimately watching his child leave. I kinda cut the Narrator character and replaced him with a thematic recurring violent masculinity "character" of sorts, like no one character is to blame for the protagonist's continued trauma and misfortune. I couldn't help but also imagine it as a play, so here goes.

1. Dancing in the show tonight: A montage of sorts, with a young boy being raised by a mother and father, as the father slowly loses interest, neglects the child, and displays acts of violence, that are sometimes seen, but sometimes obfuscated from the boy by his mother. Eventually he experiences it directly at his father's hand. Blood/Violence, and subsequently the boy's traumatic thoughts, would be depicted with swirling red ribbons around him, fabric dancing about, etc, and these moments are all intrinsically tied to the ocean/beachside, where they live. By the end of the song, the boy's father gets on a boat and leaves the two on the beach, establishing a dreadful feeling for the viewer and character tied to the ocean. These events don't exactly suit the tone of DitST but that's part of the experience and ties into the ending.
   
2. The Mollusk: The boy, slightly older, finds a little mollusk, seeding some type of positive connection with the ocean that could counteract his trauma, and perhaps (foreshadowing ;) ) represent his ultimate positive reconciliation with the ocean. He is desperate for a father figure and finds himself spending time around a few these untrustworthy and unsavory seamen. Perhaps they are mocking the boy by the end, tossing the mollusk around. The boy gets the mollusk back eventually and takes it back to the beach and lets it go. I hate that the whimsical nature of The Mollusk lends itself so well to a dissonance like this. In a vacuum The Mollusk is a very peaceful lovely song.
   
3. Polka Dot Tail: The boy comes close to experiencing another traumatic situation, involving one of these drunken sailor men, but as you wrote, escapes and runs, trailed by the telltale red cloth setting in place further a lifelong discomfort/trauma response to the ocean. He returns home to his mother, who packs up everything and they move far away from the ocean, leaving their traumatic past behind, running somewhere.
   
4. Jonny on the Spot: A Montage of the boy, now older, working hard, helping his mother, exhausted, a young man but already turning to getting wasted, staying out late, and associating with the wrong people, filling a hole somewhere in his heart. Eventually he does crash his car, stumbling out onto the beach, anxious, and running into a nearby bar, looking back at his fucked up Chevy.
   
5. Mutilated Lips: A chaotic bar scene, surrounded my men, most outfits incorporating the color red somewhere. The Boy haunted by his pervasive trauma in this place. Until, while he's downing glasses, a waitress brushes his hand and sees his scratches, and meets his gaze. The drunkenness of course paints the scene as a merpeople atlantis ass underwater scene, bringing back ocean imagery to tie to the Boy's pain. The waitress has got some type of trauma as well, a cloth or ribbon or light effect (how do stage shows do mental effects like this? lol.) in her own color, let's say blue. They share a long passionate loving night together in her beachside shack, understand each other's pain and loneliness in a way the typical crowd at this seaside bar dont. They symbolize this my giving each other a piece of that fabric, trading blue for red. The blue and red cloth tangles and mingles in a new way and they're draped in purple, finding a peace.
   
6. The Blarney Stone: They return to the bar and the girl he met gets pulled into song and obnoxious drunken partying, the two young protagonists submerged in a loud, crass scene. She plays her usual role in this, though can't help but glance over at her new love. He starts to see her as part of this world, untouchable, so closely associated with this oceanic world of pain for him that he can't handle it. He panics and tries to leave, starting up his messed up car. She runs out to try to stop him but almost lashes out at her, realizing his aversion to this place and these people brings up too much agony, and associating her with that would be unfair to her, and he leaves. Realistically you dont fall in love with someone and run away in one night but it makes a good play.
   
7. It's Gonna be Alright: The Boy wanders out, into a warped undersea version of the previous beach scene with his crashed car. He kinda hits an emotional rock bottom after experiencing the first thing he could consider love or companionship and fucking it up, assumedly. He feels broken, and stares out over a deep dark chasm of fish and kelp and shit as he tries to convince himself he did the right thing, staying there all night. Meanwhile, throughout the song, the Girl goes back to her shack, looks at an old ring she keeps in a box, and by the end of the song, while Boy finds himself in the darkest place, she takes the ring and goes out to the beach, seeing a ship approach as she holds it.
   
8. The Golden Eel: A majestic Golden Eel appears to the Boy, it comes to him in... a vision? A mental realization? a spiritual awakening? He's face to face with this beautiful creature. Slowly all his red cloth is taken from him. It's wound up by the eel and wrapped around him, turning to his new outfit, the red effect that represents the trauma replaced by a strengthened gold cloth resolve that now accompanies him. The Eel swims away. He wakes up on the beach (we drop the underwater imagery here) and finds the Girl's blue scarf tucked into his jacket, and jumps up and starts running back. (mirroring the scene earlier with him as a child running away on the beach, but this time he's in control, running towards something.) He gets back to the bar and the owners point out to a boat leaving, sailing away. He's just missed her.
   
9. Cold Blows the Wind: Meanwhile, we go to the flashback to the Girl, (back to the aquatic imagery from here on out until She Wanted to Leave.) before her facial disfiguration, a montage of her being courted by some other fish sailor man. He's wearing bright cobalt blue. They're sailing together with a crew, and they're very close, eventually him proposing and giving her a ring. Immediately after, their ship gets hit by a cannonball and there's a big battle with another ship. Everything's on fire, she gets injured, and her love dies, as he hands her his bloodstained blue scarf. Later, she makes him a grave, and is wearing the ring still, eventually finding that same seaside bar. She starts working there, all the men there draped in blue fabric, reminding her of her pain. Present day, we see her on a boat, holding the Red scarf. She takes the ring and throws it into the water.
   
10. Pink Eye: The Boy, renewed with zest and energy to go find the Girl, works on his "Car", making a wild looking boat. He says goodbye to his mother then he just starts sailing.
    
11. Waving my Dick in the Wind: Fun upbeat montage. He sails around, showing people the scarf, and every time he meets some new wild sea person, they point, as if they're slowly leading him to her. He grows a beard, becomes a captain, slowly picking up a colorful crew of people helping him. By this point he's fully embraced the red, but wears that blue scarf everywhere. He sails his wild Chevy boat around. Song culminates in ol "Jimmy Wilson" doing a crazy tap dance, and at the end, informing the Boy about the woman, and showing him a picture of her and her Child (without and eye).
    
12. Buckingham Green: (This is my favorite song on the album) We go back to the girl being born, living with her mother somewhere. Lets say the child is missing one eye rather than both, half her face disfigured. Her mother tries to protect her, perhaps too much from judgmental eyes, telling her stories, raising her kindly, but one day she opens her (supposedly) missing eye and it shines gold, and they decide to hide it. Meanwhile, The Boy braves a fierce storm, following a golden glow on the horizon towards where the Girl and the Child are, even helped through the worst of the storm by the Mollusk (Hell yeah). Eventually he arrives and meets the child, and there's a big dramatic ass reunion scene with the Boy, the Girl and the mollusk and all the fish people. The Boy and the Girl wrap their scarves together and put them around the girl, and the scarves transform into a golden one, symbolizing the Boy's commitment to love his child and break a cycle of neglect, and the Girl's closure, being able to move on from her lost love and onto this new family. (or something, idk) The girl opens that other eye and it glows gold again. and The Golden Eel bursts out of the Mollusk as everyone celebrates. The Boy and Girl get their new Opalescent Mollusk outfits and everyone gets hype. Bring in Boy's mom too, fuck it. How all this is supposed to happen in 3:18 i dont know but that's for the director to figure out.
    
13. Ocean man: Exactly as you described. No fucking notes. Hype ending. Maybe this part starts with the Eel haha.
    
14. She Wanted to leave: Now the girl is older. The story of course takes a somber turn where, a tale as old as time, a sailor comes along and woos the young lady. The Boy dips back into his trauma a little bit, swearing revenge, practically begging his girl to stay, going through the throes of a parent watching his child grow up and leave him behind. She obviously refuses, following her new life and her new path, apart from him. Not as heartlessly as he'd like to imagine though. Its melodramatic.
    

14b. Dancing in the Show reprise: This time though, instead of being alone in his pain, his mother and wife can be there to hold his hand, pick him up, and wave goodbye to the sailors' ship together as it leaves for sea. She waves back happily from the deck. Its a sad departure but doesn't have to be a hopeless goodbye like the ones the characters felt in their youth. It can end with the three of them sitting on the beach together and then settling back into their home, the red and blue and gold scarves are hung up somewhere on the roof of something as the sea breeze blows through them.
I don't know who you are but I'm really glad your interpretation touched me in the way that it did. Whoever you are I hope you're having a good life, and rock on.

Warning : this is probably the longest post I've ever written. It's awful. If you're expecting something short, run for your safety. Otherwise, take your time and have fun.
So Kaiser and Ness have always been pretty interesting characters since their introduction, but with the most recent chapters and especially ever since the Ness flashback, things have been intensifying and there's a lot going on around these two, especially with potential developments that might happen during the PxG match. Definitely some of my favorite characters in the story thematically.
This will be a huge post analyzing, dissecting and aiming to understand the psyches of both Ness and Kaiser, by following their stories individually, as well as how they intertwine together, how their pattern of relationship is very important to the story as a whole, as well as trying to review a lot of information in hindsight that might make a lot more sense now that we virtually have their entire stories.

Part I : Ness, the Wizard

So it all starts with Alexis Ness, a German kid born into a very stereotypical scientist family of reddit atheists, as well as the following sentence : "(my parents) taught me that it's possible to explain everything that happens on earth".
https://preview.redd.it/467quusc7s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8c94fce3eb7d93edfad74f154bcb62b3f0cc072d
This first sentence already sets a very important tone with Ness' character. He is dreamy, he's a child full of wonder with a bit of an obsession for finding magic in things, born into a family that dismisses the existence of unexplainable concepts as a whole and lambasts him for believing in them at all, even as a child. Ness is an irrational being, born into an extremely rational environment, and that fact alone alienates him from his passion, and drives him to keep going until he finds something or someone that will understand him.
Ness has a passion for the unexplainable, not the scientific unexplainable, but more the "incredible" unexplainable, things that seem too fantastic to be believed at first, and yet are still true. He also assimilates his sadness with the lack of understanding from his family among the things that he deems to be unexplainable, whether by his family or himself. Ness has a passion for magic, cannot explain why, and that's part of why he believes in magic so much. His passion is self defined.
And that passion for seeking magic in things, is also what drives him to soccer. The joy that people feel, the roaring fans, the celebrations that come from goals, Ness feels as though soccer is what will allow him to truly bring magic into this world. Which is why I theorize, that with Ness' drive for playing soccer being to bring magic on the field, he might be a self-type ego that seeks to bring magic, the same way Barou seeks the feeling of being the king of the field, or Bachira to become one with the ball (this is a very common theme with self type egos, I might make a post about this one of these days). This is a very important point if we want to understand where Ness' current development in the PxG match could be going.
https://preview.redd.it/2pwr3hio7s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=467615cdabc6a0ae6cebea3896dd0d4a29f74989
Ness then takes matters into his own hands and trains relentlessly to pass the Bastard Munchen tryouts, the best club in Germany, so he can have a shot at turning his dream into reality. Ness plays quite well and even shows skills that should allow him to be better than the current BM selection, but he runs into a massive problem ; his individual skills do allow him to keep up, but his plays are ineffective. His magic doesn't work on the world, and the biggest reason why is that no one on the field can keep up with his thinking. Ness lacks the partner that will help make his vision come true.
https://preview.redd.it/h3t5pj628s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20fa753b3d1e362981725295f453e7df8c592712
And that's when a certain someone makes their appearance.

Part II : Kaiser, the Blue Rose

It all starts with Michael Kaiser, a different German child with a very different upbringing, but whose destiny would end up crossing paths with that of Ness.
Kaiser grew up in the ashes of a destroyed family. His dad was a theatre director, his mom was an actress, who ended up leaving his dad soon after his birth. His father, unable to bear the weight of both an unwanted child and a failed love life, ended up sinking into alcoholism, gambling addiction and domestic violence.
His father having wasted his fortune completely and being unwilling to work, Kaiser was forced to learn how to steal very early in his life, but his disgusting father's self loathing, resentment and regret towards Michael's mother still ended up reaching him through his father's constant abuse. The treatment he got from his father was the only definition of love Kaiser has ever had, and he ended up internalizing this notion, as well as the feeling that he was not wanted in this world.
https://preview.redd.it/pbjmwago8s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d8e88e9839891a7c7ac9e26abd27403fde3c1331
Kaiser grew up, and started saving up money from selling the more valuable items that he would steal. For his twelfth birthday, he decided to buy something for himself that would actually allow him to feel alive and closer to his far away objective of leaving his father one day. And that is how he stumbled upon football.
Unlike Ness however, who developed a passion for football simply because he saw magic in it, Kaiser developed an unhealthy attachment to football that would mimic his relationship to his father. It didn't matter how much he abused the ball, the ball wouldn't respond or protest, it'd just stay by his side silently. Kaiser saw in the ball the same form of attachment that his father showed him, he saw himself in the ball, an unwanted piece of trash that would silently take the abuse that was dished out to him. Because that was the only behavior that his father ever showed to him, Kaiser ended up assimilating abuse and violence to love. That is how Kaiser became an abuser himself, which is a very important facet of his character : cycles repeat themselves, and abusers create potential future abusers.
https://preview.redd.it/1nw0aoxs8s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0fb7ff24ec0a70cd1c141a6084d231931d1c1b0
Where Kaiser's story really begins though is when he is framed for a crime he didn't commit and the police enter their home for a search. Kaiser gets hit by his dad, the police find the money he was keeping from his father, and he's about to lose everything that would allow him to leave this life. Kaiser, at that moment, accepts the abuse again, and decides against his own heart that he'd simply take whatever sentence he gets and start saving up money again once he's out. He instinctively changes his mind when his dad decides to poke a few holes into his soccer ball though.
https://preview.redd.it/419kda1z8s0d1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd23734280fee0a5e45b3b2f432dd3a4bc1a4437
Though Kaiser has an awful definition of what love or attachment really is, the love that he developed for football was still as pure as he could muster. And instinctively, as he sees his father about to destroy the only thing he's ever managed to feel attachment towards, Kaiser rises against the odds and fights as hard as he can. As the narrator says it himself, this is when Kaiser's identity was truly born. This is another very important element that we'll have to keep for later.
https://preview.redd.it/bwc3c8i09s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=db6e687a46405976f724c2a652d139f9e8618dd1
Kaiser then goes on to get scouted by a certain PIFA executive named Ray Dark, who heard of the fact that he managed to take out multiple police officers with just a soccer ball. Kaiser is encouraged by Ray Dark to pass the BM tryouts, and is already determined to get as far away as possible from his former life, and this is where Kaiser's ego starts to badly mutate from its purest form, all because of the consequences of his father's abusive behavior : Kaiser is incapable of accepting any form of kindness and is very incline to violence.
Kaiser, from the second he enters the facility and starts training with the rest of the potential recruits, manages to make enemies through his extremely antagonistic behavior. He consistently picks fights, which obviously leads to situations where he's systematically in the wrong, and to people refusing to play with him in the moments that matter the most. This is where the Kaiser Impact is born ; Kaiser decides to create a weapon that won't just help him, but make sure he asserts full and total dominance over others. But he doesn't stop there.
https://preview.redd.it/vru5ubo89s0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=47b1282e4c7c8a7e9f351e1624d440b5759a12c7
Kaiser starts studying elements of psychology, and his goal is strictly to find out how to manipulate someone and make sure that they would serve him during matches. He needed a lackey, that would serve him under all circumstances, and the best way to find that lackey was to find someone that was close to breaking under pressure and despair.
And this is where the BM tryouts start.

Part III : Perspectives

This is where the duo meets for the first time, and their perspectives on the situation are very different from one another, but very similar in one aspect : they provide each other with what they need.
https://preview.redd.it/vyrcjzv8as0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5d0c94fb7754c4ad6ea8c6cd5eeb352149c4e994
Ness starts out the BM tryout match very hopeful, but realizes that his individual abilities are his only functional tool and that he can't manage to spark magic with the teammates that he currently has. Ness is in a situation of despair, where he is realizing that he might not make it, and that his family was right to treat him the way they did.
Kaiser in the meantime, is in the exact opposite situation. He is alone, certainly, but also not worried : all he is doing is looking for someone with good enough skills, and in a precarious situation whose heart he can safely erode and tame. Ness needs someone to show him that magic does exist ; Kaiser needs a lackey that he can use to reach his goals. Ness needs a friend, Kaiser needs a test subject. Their relationship, is by definition profoundly unequal, and for that reason, Kaiser is also the only one of the two to be aware of that fact.
https://preview.redd.it/v9ezbkfjas0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4b0613b95305a64ebc6041d1c2b8a73052a6473a
The rest of the match is pretty obvious : Ness finds a good partner to make his imagination come to fruition, Kaiser finds a dog to feed him passes, they get a hat trick together and are selected for the BM team. The important point though, is that Ness didn't actually find despair in that match : he was on the brink of realizing that he couldn't bring magic alone, but the second he was about to either give up or awaken, Kaiser came to him and became his provider for the magic he was seeking. That is the best way to make Ness' ego, his very being, dependent on Kaiser's existence.
This panel shows this best : Ness' play would've been suboptimal for anyone else, his magic would not have been sufficient for a different player. Kaiser's individual ability however, is so overwhelming that he effortlessly brings Ness the magic he seeks. Ness' magic wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for Kaiser.
Ness has never known what it feels like to create magic alone, and therefore he associates magic to Kaiser's presence. If Kaiser himself fails, that implies a personal failure on Ness' part since it means his magic didn't function. That's an extremely important element to understand for the codependency element of these two characters, and that's part of the reason why Ness has constantly been extremely defensive of every single one of Kaiser's failures so far in the story : the same way Kaiser's dream slowly became his own, his failures feel just as much his as they are Kaiser's.
https://preview.redd.it/0pl31b2abs0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1137ca6530c1ec0ae89b1a7f0a3be49cf24f1ba3
Kaiser then goes on to become a very vicious player that specifically tries to scar his opponents as much as possible. The impossibility that Kaiser strives for, has become something he wants to incarnate for his opponents, an impossible behemoth to slay, the same way his dad was to him. Kaiser acknowledges this, however he associates the feeling of losing to such impossibility to weakness. To Kaiser, the fact that he let his father mistreat him for that long seems to be proof that he used to be a weak person, and that the true way to fight is to become just as evil and incarnate that feeling of impossibility to other people, as he says it to Ness : "Believing in the impossible is a curse, the instant people believe in the impossible is when they decide to give up. It's a survival instinct to guard against heartbreak, that's the way of weaklings, they kill themselves through this curse. Weaklings who dilute the purity of their egos to live longer are what I hate most in this world".
Kaiser has rationalized the abuse that he has gone through by assimilating his behavior to weakness, instead of recognizing this was the behavior of a child trying desperately to survive against impossible odds. The fact that he sees his past behavior as such and that he decided that he should become an abuser himself to get power back over his life, is already proof that his father's abuse won over his ego, and he doesn't know it himself. This is why his ego is fragile and diluted, and that's how he lost his way.
https://preview.redd.it/gnr2pmijbs0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e9c07a3f25650ab84e6cd8b3bc90d301a7d313b

Part IV : The reality of impossibility

This is where the NEL comes in. From what we know of Kaiser's objectives with the NEL, he has come to crush the local japanese ace, to give himself a publicity boost that would either prove to the world that he isn't inferior to Noel Noa, or to get himself a contract that would allow him to get out of his current club, both so he could compete with Noa in a less direct way, and therefore not have to face the impossible task that is destroying the system that has been built around him.
Both his intention of trying to destroy Isagi by showing him how impossible it is to beat him, and his intention to avoid beating Noa directly by instead trying to publicize himself as being a striker of equal mettle, show how his ego has been twisted from what it originally was : Kaiser has become addicted to the feeling of incarnating impossibility to other players and crushing them, and he has become very avoidant of any challenges that could seem impossible to him, the same way his father's abuse seemed impossible to overcome. He has created himself a predatory mentality unfit for a competitor, and he did it all as a survival mechanism to fight against impossible odds.
The problem really starts however, when his plan backfires, and it turns out the japanese ace specifically thrives on impossible challenges and does not stop improving. Isagi Yoichi, by the time of the PxG match, has become the incarnation of the impossible odds that Kaiser usually wants to avoid, but this time he is conflicted since Isagi is also the exact type of player that Kaiser wants to crush : he is forced to face his own fear, and the more the odds are against him, the more impossibility will catch up to Kaiser. Which is exactly what might lead to Ness' awakening.
https://preview.redd.it/cl0fcuo5cs0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2eb5a41479308384a1dc7cdb9f4be2a40891ea55
Since Ness attributes his magic to Kaiser's success, seeing Kaiser fail (and maybe even resent him for it), is most likely what will bring Ness to the pit of despair that he got to escape from back in the BM tryouts. Ness will have to face his fear of not being able to bring magic to the world alone. And with what's been foreshadowed, I believe Ness' awakening will come with some sort of cooperation with Isagi, which in turn will make Kaiser realize that he is back to facing the impossible behemoth that he faced not so long ago. This is what will make him revert to his purest ego. But what is his purest ego exactly ?

Final part : Conclusions, and Kaiser's true ego

We finally get to the part where I stop holding everything back and I tell what's on my mind.

1. I'll start with something very important : duos in Blue Lock are always doomed unless they become more than the sum of their parts.

Kaiser and Ness' duo made me realize it, especially with their very obvious parallels to Reo and Nagi, but duos often start out with one of the players (and sometimes both players) attributing a part of their ego to their partner. That right there, is exactly how egos are stifled.
In the case of Kaiser, though his intention was to manipulate Ness, he ended up creating an association in Ness' mind where though Ness sees his purpose in life to bring magic through football, he attributes his ability to bring magic to Kaiser, which means that in Ness' mind, he is incapable of doing it alone. I don't believe that's the case, but for Ness to prove it to himself, he has to try doing it first. The PxG match is the perfect opportunity for this, but that's not all.
https://preview.redd.it/p2zv1za0es0d1.jpg?width=1124&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dad6ddd89aca9f05adb18cc06825f6337f7b3702
Sae and Rin are also a very important example of this, since Sae knew from the start that having Rin associate him to his ego and use him as a reason to play football was a death sentence for both of them. I believe that Sae truly does want to win the Champion's league with his brother, but has let go of that dream and has tried to force Rin to do it as well to make sure both of them would reach their potential before hitting the wall that is the world level.
Reo has always attributed his dream of winning the world cup to the fact that he has Nagi by his side, and cannot really imagine achieving this dream without him. However, if Reo truly wants to evolve, I'm sure a lot of you are already anticipating this, but he has to let go of Nagi and evolve alone, which he most likely will do during the Manshine-Barcha match. Nagi himself doesn't have an objective, and has always improved as a player with the intention of helping Reo achieve his dream, which means that part of his ego is simply helping another player achieve his. Unless the both of them seperate at least temporarily, then Reo will never gain the confidence to achieve his dream alone, Nagi will never gain the ego to have his own dream and play football for the sake of his own passion, and neither of them will be able to cooperate on their common vision of winning together. And the way I know all of this ?
Is because Isagi and Bachira have already showed us the path of how a good duo functions. Bachira almost never awakened his true ego all because his loneliness made him see Isagi as essential to his well being, it forced him to look for players that would be able to keep up with his best football, and when he found them, he already thought he had won. Bachira realized that the only way he could keep playing with the players he admires and wants to rival, is by believing in his way of playing football instead of putting his belief in someone else. This is how duos survive : by having both players becoming better and fulfilled individually, and constantly pushing each other to individually become better before they rely on each other for victory.
https://preview.redd.it/bcjasudces0d1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b6339a69e35ab6868f134742dbd1b56cd1db4d27

1. To get back to Kaiser and Ness, what that means is that Ness' evolution has to come at the cost of his dependence on Kaiser, and Kaiser's evolution has to come at the cost of the introspection he has to do to understand where his true nature comes from : this specific moment.

https://preview.redd.it/19jdamedcs0d1.jpg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=14f345c0c401e1be17aae850a33fc3faf259303b
My belief is that Kaiser's ego to incarnate the impossible isn't actually wrong, it's just taken from the wrong perspective. What Kaiser was since the very start, isn't a mindless perpatrator of violence that does it out of pleasure for crushing others : What Kaiser is, is a survivor.
\"I'll leave here someday.\"
No matter how tough the situation, no matter how much his father beat him, Kaiser never stopped believing or dreaming that he would one day free himself from his situation and rise against adversity. It might've been a small flame at first, but when his ego truly awakened was when he actually fought back for the first time. Kaiser isn't an impossible being because he is an unbeatable, violent monster, he is an impossible being because he rises against impossible odds no matter what.
\"The boy dreamed about going on a journey someday.\"
He is unfathomably resilient, and that is something that was very specifically cultivated from his experience of victimhood : Kaiser couldn't have become this kind of person if he was simply an abuser the same way his father was (which is currently what is stifling his ego), the only way he can be this impossible being is by going through what he did and surviving.
And in fact, that's also something that been shown in the manga already. After all, the only moment so far where Kaiser has showed us what could be his greatest performance, was when he had to rely on a play Isagi made to get a goal opportunity, and managed to beat 4 defenders (one of them being the best U20), culminating in a goal that's impossible to replicate even for the greatest players. Kaiser might be a self type ego that seeks impossible situations to reach flow.
https://preview.redd.it/rcpi8xb3ds0d1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8b64e5c2db2df699852631c44c4f308fb3efc417
A player's personality is often reflected through their playstyle : that's the case with Kaiser, with his KI symbolizing his impossible dominance, and his MV symbolizing his manipulative way of playing with people ; which is why I don't believe it's a coincidence that the one time Kaiser has truly made a play no one else could replicate was when all odds were against him. And yet ironically, this is also the goal that Kaiser hates the most, because he still hates his younger self for not having fought back until the last moment. What he sees as weakness, is what is actually his greatest strength.
Anyways if you've read this far, thank you very much and congratulations, and if you have any, please tell me your thoughts in the comments.

Shortly after Final Fantasy VII hit the gaming world in 1997, Cloud Strife’s howls of grief at the loss of his beloved companion Aerith Gainsborough were echoed by droves and droves of fans. These echoes gathered in swarms, reaching the developers in the form of petition signatures, each begging the makers of the game to allow Aerith’s resurrection. Though these prayers remained unanswered —until now—, there soon came more protests: this time, fans pleaded with the developers to consider making a remake of the original game. Both of these wishes were met with considerable derision, with large chunks of the fandom calling the requests delusional— which is why the Final Fantasy world had to prepare for another meteoric hit when the Remake project was finally announced in 2015. With Kitase, Nomura, Toriyama, Nojima, Uematsu and more of the original developers at the helm, along with longtime FFVII fan-turned-developer Hamaguchi, the Remake trilogy was met with great expectations. These were nevertheless surpassed, though one aspect of the trilogy’s first entry seemed to thoroughly puzzle some and enrage others. Far and wide, the resounding questions were “What are these Whisper things?”, “Why is Cloud having visions unrelated to Nibelheim and Zack?” and “Why and how in the hell did Zack survive?”
Friends, I believe the answer lies within this post. Welcome to my literary-analysis-based theory on the Remake trilogy’s most important and most secret plot point: Cloud’s hidden mission. I want to make this fun and suspenseful to read, so I will write my analyses in the same order and manner in which I encountered them while putting my theory together. You will be reading what initially sparked my curiosity, the path I took while researching for answers, the conclusions I made every step of the way, and only then will you read my theory, after which we’ll try and apply it to the Remake trilogy so far and see if it fits! I want you to experience the rollercoaster that I did when digging through SE content to bring you this post. Thank you so much for waiting for and anticipating this analysis, and I do hope you read every word to soak in every last bit of Clerith you can get. I also hope it’s really fun and touching for you (I cried at least once making this)! Let’s embark on our adventure through the compilation, other FF games and real-life events to find out what the Remake project is truly all about and anticipate the events of part 3.
N.B.: Please be aware that I have never seen this theory navigate online, so I have no idea if anyone has ever come up with a similar hypothesis. The big reveal I’m building toward might be something you’re already aware of or suspected. In that case, I hope this post doesn’t disappoint you if you’re one of the lovely people who requested it! At the very least, it will provide you with valuable literary and musical analysis, a ton of evidence you haven’t considered yet, and hopefully, entertainment too!
WARNING: Please be careful with the censored spoiler text, because I'll be referencing other FF games in this analysis and I don't want to ruin anything for you! Obviously, this analysis contains spoilers for the entirety of the FFVII compilation. Additionally, if you're not a fan of Clerith and you've stumbled upon this post, please stop here. I would hate it if something I worked on and posted made you angry, so please don't read this analysis. I have only good intentions and I just want everyone to enjoy the FFVII world as much as they can.

I. Groundwork: The Remake Timelines Theory

Before I take you on this ride, we must lay down the framework of the Remake Timelines Theory. In this section, we’ll be reviewing the general consensus of theorizers within the fandom on timeline/multiverse shenanigans, with some added specifications on my part. Please keep in mind that because the timeline mechanics are kept quite vague by the devs, there might be certain inaccuracies in my iteration of the timelines theory. Thankfully, these potential variances won’t have any effect on the legitimacy of the theory I’ll be presenting to you in this analysis.
I. a) Sephiroth’s Plan
The premise of the Remake trilogy is widely thought to be the result of post-OG Sephiroth attempting to succeed where he failed in OG. There are six key points we need to keep in mind to understand how this was possible.
I. a) i. Sephiroth in the Lifestream
Firstly, it’s important to remember that Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream before OG even begins, and remains that way for almost all of OG's duration. He is only able to operate in the world of the living via his/Jenova's control over the living Sephiroth clones. In the OG timeline then, Sephiroth is sent to the Lifestream by Cloud twice: once before the game takes place on the night of the Nibelheim incident (pre-OG), and a second time during the final battle against Sephiroth (disk 3, chapter 3). During the long period between the Nibelheim incident and Sephiroth’s rebirth at the Northern Crater (disk 2, chapter 2), he exists in the Lifestream. After his ultimate defeat (post-OG), he returns there for good.
II. a) ii. Sephiroth Unintegrated
Secondly, because he is full of hatred and unyielding determination, Sephiroth’s spirit cannot become one with the planet. After both occasions where Cloud kills him in OG, Sephiroth retains his individual will and the memories of his lifetime, remaining a separate entity in the Lifestream. He says so himself in Nojima’s Advent Children prequel novel On a Way to a Smile:

“[Sephiroth] could sense the Lifestream trying to erode his spirit— the memories of his former experiences, thoughts and emotions. If he allowed himself to be taken into the current, the being he once was would soon disseminate and disappear amongst the spirit energy cycling around the planet. [He] thought this unacceptable. The planet was to be his to rule, and to become a part of that system would be nothing short of defeat” ("Lifestream Black 1").

Combined with Bugenhagen’s basic lesson on planetology (FFVII OG, disk 1, chapter 19), this excerpt provides interesting information on how the Lifestream normally works. Usually, when a life returns to the planet, its individuality (personality, will, consciousness, memories, etc.) is stripped away. The trappings of a soul’s former lifetime are progressively dissolved so that all that is left is the spirit itself, ready to integrate into the Lifestream. This way, soul energy can be “recycled” by the planet to animate new lifeforms in a sort of reincarnation process. The erasure of one’s memories in the Lifestream is necessary for the creation of a brand new life, poised to make its own memories: the slate must be wiped clean, so to speak. Sephiroth’s sheer hatred for and desire to dominate the planet is enough to keep him from undergoing this process.
It is also thought that Sephiroth cannot be integrated into the Lifestream because he was conceived with the use of Jenova cells in vitro. Given that so much of his consciousness and genetic makeup originate from an alien life force, it is impossible for him to become one with the planet.
Regardless of the reason, it is precisely this persisting individuality in death that allows Sephiroth to meddle in the world of the living during the post-OG events of Advent Children, as explained to us by post-OG Aerith in On a Way to a Smile:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet. It was the vehemence of a strong will, one that would never join with the planet. She knew this consciousness. It was [Sephiroth]. A merciless spirit hidden behind a beauteous wall. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence to the surface of the planet“ ("Lifestream White 1").

I. a) iii. The Lifestream Beyond Time
Our third point is that the Lifestream has existed for as long as the planet, and has therefore touched every part of its history— including, of course, the events of OG. On that account, one could think of the Lifestream as atemporal. Considering this, it is possible for a spirit in the Lifestream to communicate with or even travel to the past, provided the necessary circumstances and/or abilities. For instance, the Aerith that appears in Cloud’s resolution scene in Remake (chapter 14) is commonly considered to be a post-OG Aerith, appearing to him from the future to try and dissuade him from falling for her. This time-defying event is made possible by the fact that post-OG Aerith’s spirit has access to the atemporal Lifestream because she's deceased. In my view, this explains why she dissolves into green light (Lifestream visual cue) at the end of the resolution scene (5:19-5:45). This is not time travel per se, but it is a manner of communication unobstructed by the one-directionality of a linear timeline that only spirits can perform.
I. a) iv. Sephiroth Beyond Time
What we’ve covered so far amounts to our fourth point. Please familiarize yourself with the graph below before you continue reading. Refer back to the graph when you encounter text in bold.
The Remake Timelines Theory: FFVII OG Timeline
As we discussed in section “I. a) i.”, Sephiroth is dead and located in the Lifestream for the duration of the green arrow and beyond point D: in the context of the OG timeline, he can only ever be considered “alive” during the period highlighted in purple. In section “I. a) ii.”, we asserted that Sephiroth retained his individual will in the Lifestream, enabling him to exert his influence on the world of the living by manipulating his clones on the surface. In section “I. a) iii.”, we covered the atemporal nature of the Lifestream, which allows post-OG Aerith’s spirit to communicate with her past, living self thanks to her Cetra abilities. Now, I will explain to you how Sephiroth was able to do virtually the same thing, albeit his lack of Cetra blood.
To the characters of the story and a fully immersed first-time player of OG, the timeline above was not always an established series of events: when they first started playing FFVII OG, the player began at point B, with nothing existing beyond it. It is only as the player moved Cloud forward that the black, arrowed timeline was drawn, accumulating lived events (or points) in Cloud’s wake. The picture you see above is only available to Cloud and to the player with hindsight. All this to state the obvious: at point B, Cloud could not know what would occur, say, at point C.
During the period highlighted in purple, Sephiroth was “alive” again, accumulating new memories on the surface of the planet and adding them to his consciousness. When he entered the Lifestream for the second time at point D, he brought these memories with him. Simply put, after returning to the Lifestream at point D, Sephiroth remembers what happened during the period highlighted in purple. However, given that the Lifestream exists beyond time, upon Sephiroth’s consciousness’ return to the Lifestream at point D, his newly acquired memories were also made available to him at all points on the green, double-arrowed line— including point A, before the OG timeline even begins at point B. So while it is true that Cloud cannot know what will occur at point C if he is only at point B, Sephiroth indeed knows what will occur during the period highlighted in purple when he is only at point A. While a living, pre-OG Aerith would be able to receive post-OG Aerith’s spirit’s knowledge through the Lifestream thanks to her Cetra powers, Sephiroth has no need for this ability. The fact that he resides in the Lifestream for practically the entire FFVII OG timeline renders the limitations of time irrelevant: as far as the FFVII OG timeline is concerned, Sephiroth exists beyond time itself.
In summary, after point D was first encountered in OG, pre-OG Sephiroth (in the Lifestream) is made aware of his eventual defeat, and begins plotting an alternate path to victory. This time, with the benefit of hindsight, he will do things differently: we experience his "second” attempt at FFVII as the Remake trilogy.
I. a) v. Sephiroth Against Fate
Of course, the Whispers stand squarely in Sephiroth’s way. This leads us to our fifth point, which Remake Ultimania describes better than I ever could:

“According to Red XIII, who gained knowledge through his contact with Aerith, ‘The Whispers are drawn to those who attempt to alter destiny’s course and ensure they do not’ […]. It would appear that what the Whispers deem to be ‘fate’ is the original story of Final Fantasy VII” (section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).

OG’s plot line is the fated timeline, and the Whispers are tasked with its preservation. They prevent alternative paths from even beginning to branch out from the OG timeline, which poses a problem for Sephiroth: he cannot win FFVII if his destiny is to lose it.
I. a) vi. Sephiroth and the Multiverse
Consequently, our sixth point is that Sephiroth must dismantle the mechanisms of fate before he can even try to accomplish his dreams of godhood.
As Sephiroth explains in chapter 14 of Rebirth, “the planet encompasses [an ever unfolding] multitude of worlds”, and these “[new worlds are born] when the boundaries of fate are breached.” Since the Whispers uphold the “boundaries of fate”, a world in which Sephiroth’s evil plans succeed can only emerge after the Whispers have been defeated. Otherwise, destiny will continue to protect the OG plot line by preventing any significant deviations. Consequently, before the party vanquishes fate, the Remake timeline and the OG timeline are one and the same: before chapter 18, Remake Barret is OG Barret, Remake Tifa is OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is OG Hojo, etc. After the defeat of Destiny, the OG timeline is no longer protected by fate: there are now an infinite number of timelines or worlds, including those we see glimpses of in Rebirth: Remake Barret is no longer necessarily OG Barret, Remake Tifa is no longer necessarily OG Tifa, Remake Hojo is no longer necessarily OG Hojo, etc. Perhaps this is why Aerith gives the party the following warning at destiny’s crossroads in Remake:

“[This] is the wall of destiny. If we go through it… if we go beyond it… then all of us will change, too” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Destiny’s Crossroads”).

I. a) vii. Sephiroth’s Plan
Now that these six points have been elucidated, we can compose a solid hypothesis on how Sephiroth plots to win FFVII.
After gaining knowledge of his eventual demise (disk 3, chapter 3), pre-OG Sephiroth began thinking of what he must do in Remake from the Lifestream. First, Sephiroth must antagonize the Whispers in the initial stages of the OG timeline. He accomplishes this by commanding his clones to commit acts that drastically violate the fated timeline, engendering plot-line deviations that the Whispers must course-correct. The most extreme example transpires in Remake’s chapter 17 when the Sephiroth clone in President Shinra’s office kills Barret, forcing the Whispers to restore the fated plot line by coming forth and reviving him. The Whispers react to Sephiroth’s prodding by rushing in to protect fate, their efforts culminating in the protective wall of destiny that surrounds Midgar in chapter 18.
Secondly, after he’s created an opportunity for a battle against the Whispers, Sephiroth must convince the party to seize it and beat fate for him. After all, a mere Sephiroth clone is probably no match for Destiny. This second step is accomplished in Remake’s chapter 18 when Sephiroth successfully tempts Cloud to breach the boundaries of fate. Now that destiny is no longer a limitation, worlds deviating from the OG timeline can finally emerge; Sephiroth has a chance at victory.
The steps Sephiroth plans to take going forward are unknowable at this stage, but we do get more hints in Rebirth’s chapter 13. At the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth reveals a part of his plot:

“Sephiroth: My fragmented mother, these errant worlds... All shall be one again.
Aerith: The ‘Reunion’…!”

It seems Sephiroth eventually plans to merge the worlds created by destiny’s defeat in Remake’s chapter 18. My guess is he hopes to achieve godhood in part 3 and consolidate all diverting worlds into a single timeline protected by destiny once more— only this time, his victory will replace the ending of OG as the destined outcome. If he succeeds, Sephiroth’s Black Whispers will likely replace the planet’s Whispers as the arbiters of his desired fate.
I. b) Aerith’s Intervention
But Aerith can’t let this slide unchallenged!
We know that before chapter 18 of Remake, while the OG plot-line is still protected by fate, Aerith has knowledge of its future. This is insinuated by certain slips of the tongue: for instance, when Aerith reveals she knows Cloud is a mercenary upon meeting him for the second time in chapter 8, just like she knows Tifa will ask her to retrieve Marlene at Seventh Heaven in chapter 12. In the run-up to Remake, post-OG Aerith's spirit likely sensed Sephiroth planning his second try at FFVII in the Lifestream. She’s been able to anticipate Sephiroth’s plotting in the Lifestream before, namely in the context of Advent Children:

“[Aerith] had sensed a different presence within the Lifestream cycling around the planet […]. It was [Sephiroth] […]. That spirit was now operating from within the Lifestream. [She] sensed that he was planning to exert his influence [on] the surface of the planet” (On a Way to a Smile, "Lifestream White 1").

If you’re wondering how Aerith was able to maintain her individuality in the Lifestream like Sephiroth, On a Way to a Smile provides the following explanation:

“[Aerith] was an Ancient, which explained how she was able to maintain her individuality even within the Lifestream. If she so wished she could become part of the planet at any time, but [she] thought it too early for that just yet” ("Lifestream White 1").

It is thought that, as a countermeasure to Sephiroth's scheming, post-OG Aerith’s spirit used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inform her past, living self (pre-OG Aerith) of this new threat to the planet. Because the Cetra can commune with spirits, pre-OG Aerith would have been able to receive post-OG Aerith’s message from the Lifestream without a problem. Essentially, pre-OG Aerith received post-OG Aerith’s memories of the fated OG timeline. As a consequence, pre-OG Aerith embarks on the OG timeline with knowledge of the fated future that demands she give her life: the player experiences this version of her in Remake.
Be that as it may, it’s unclear how much Remake Aerith is aware of. You would think she’d be completely opposed to defeating, destiny since it protects the planet, but Aerith shows ambivalence toward the idea instead. Had she gotten a clear message from her future self that she must keep fate intact, she would not have allowed the party to enter the battle against fate in chapter 18. She doesn’t seem to know what the Whispers are the first time she encounters them either. Regardless, what’s important is that the Aerith seen in Remake is the result of pre-OG Aerith receiving knowledge from post-OG Aerith via the Lifestream.
I. c) Ambiguity: Memory Transfer or Time-Travel?
There remains an ambiguity pertaining to the Aerith we see in Remake and the question of time travel. What I’ve described to you in section “I. b)” is post-OG Aerith's spirit transferring her memories to her past self through the Lifestream. However, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith’s consciousness used the atemporal nature of the Lifestream to inhabit her living OG body instead, effectively time-traveling. There is no evidence to outright refute either explanation, since the gaps in Aerith’s memories of the OG plot-line in Remake can be explained in both cases. For instance, in a memory transfer scenario, it’s possible that post-OG Aerith only communicated the most essential information to pre-OG Aerith. On the other hand, in a time-travel scenario, one could interpret the following quotes as proof that the Whispers are progressively erasing Aerith’s memories of OG as Remake advances:

“Aerith: Every time the Whispers touch me, a piece of me falls away” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”)

&

“At any rate, Aerith is perplexed at how, like a flower being scattered, something inside is being taken away by the Whispers and lost to her” (Toriyama in FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”, “Scenario Staff Q&A - Answered by Motomu Toriyama”).

This ambiguity is completely irrelevant to Sephiroth’s situation in Remake, as we established in section “I. a) iv.”.
The specifics don’t matter nearly as much as I’m impressing upon you by explaining all these little alternatives. Simply keep in mind that: regardless of why, the Sephiroth and Aerith we see in Remake know the events of the OG game because they have acquired this knowledge from the future, and the events of Remake occur squarely within the OG timeline until the Whispers are defeated in chapter 18.
So there! That’s my iteration of the Remake Timelines Theory! I hope I’ve made it clear in your mind, or at least clearer. Now that we’ve established the widely theorized premise of the Remake trilogy, we can get into our theory on its hidden premise.
II. My Initial Curiosity
My theory first burgeoned upon going through Remake for the second time. I noticed something strange going on with Cloud, something that could not be explained by the Remake Timelines Theory. Key moments in Remake Cloud’s experience of the OG timeline (aka, everything before chapter 18) stuck out to me as strange and mysterious, and certain inexplicable audiovisual cues struck me as hugely significant. It was upon watching the tear fall from Cloud’s eye during my second go at chapter 8 that I knew I had to look into this.
At the very end of Remake’s chapter 8, Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him, humming happily into the night air as she sets off to lead the way to Sector 7. According to the VA script notes, “his heart skips a beat” and watching her walk away provokes a sudden “anxiety” within him. Triggered by the familiarity of the sight, a strange sensation overcomes Cloud:

“[There’s a] close-up shot of Cloud’s fingertips (they’re tingling). He presses them to his temples (his eyes are burning). A trickle of tears quickly rolls down from the eye hidden behind his hand” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

If you’re clever, you’ll recognize these lines as a reference to the speech Cloud makes in OG following Aerith’s death at the City of the Ancients (“My fingers are tingling. My mouth is dry. My eyes are burning!”) (disk 1, chapter 28). In this small moment in chapter 8 of Remake, Cloud experiences a flash of the profound grief he is destined to feel upon Aerith’s fated death.
Many players immediately recognized the composition of this scene: the blue-greenish air, the straight path Aerith heads down, the sight of her walking away itself… this moment closely resembles Cloud’s Sleeping Forest dream of Aerith in OG, wherein Cloud and Aerith’s very last words are exchanged (disk 1, chapter 25). Toriyama, codirector of the Remake project, comments on this scene thusly:

“It’s possible these similarities […] cause a memory of the future to be called forth in Cloud” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “A Midnight Ambush”).

The language used by Toriyama here is strange in both the English translation and the Japanese original: the term “memory of the future” makes no sense. One cannot remember things they haven’t already experienced, so why did Toriyama use the word “memory” to describe a "future" event? Couldn’t he have simply said that Remake Cloud experiences “visions of the future” rather than “[memories]”?
Cloud experiences a few moments like these throughout the game. These pseudo-premonitions are just as markedly exclusive to Remake as the Whispers are. I did not want to dismiss them as a foreshadowing device the devs included just to elicit emotional reactions from OG players; I felt they were more important. And thus began my digging! My mission was initially to figure out what these “[memories of the future]” (MOTFs) could signify… I had no clue it would turn into what I’m writing right now.
II. a) Each MOTF and Its Context
I began by finding every one of Cloud’s MOTFs so I could better understand them.
MOTF 1 occurs in chapter 2 on Sector 8’s Loveless Street, when Cloud sees Aerith struggling against the Whispers. The VA script notes reveal that even though this is only his first time seeing her, Cloud recognizes Aerith’s face:

“Recognizing Aerith’s face causes Cloud to experience [a hallucination]. Sephiroth is suddenly standing between him and Aerith” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Encountering Aerith”).

Sephiroth then taunts Cloud with words that, according to the script notes, “[live] inside of Cloud's heart”: “You can’t protect anyone. Not even yourself”. Cloud should not recognize Aerith’s face at this point in the OG timeline, nor should he associate it with not being able to protect people.
MOTF 2 occurs in chapter 3, at the plaza in front of the Sector 7 slums support pillar. Cloud experiences a MOTF of the plate falling, which is fated to occur at a much later point in chapter 12. The Whispers float near him, “watching Cloud alertly as he sees a vision of the future” (FFVII Remake Ultimania, section 08 “Secrets”, “Newly Arisen Mysteries”, “What Is the Goal of the Elusive Whispers?”, page 733).
MOTF 3 occurs in Aerith’s church at the start of chapter 8, when Aerith mentions that her mother’s materia is “not good for anything at all”. Triggered by the mention and sight of the White Materia, Cloud’s fourth MOTF takes the form of a vision: he sees quick flashes of the materia falling into the lake of the Forgotten Capital and Aerith holding her hands together in prayer. These are evidently visions of her death in OG (disk 1, chapter 28).
MOTF 4 is the one we first discussed, occurring at the very end of chapter 8 as Cloud watches Aerith walk away from him to lead the way toward Sector 7.
MOTF 5 occurs in chapter 13 shortly after the Sector 7 plate has fallen on the slums. Cloud tells Barret that Marlene is safe at Aerith’s house, and they begin heading there. As Cloud thinks about Aerith, the VA script notes describe the very next moment as follows:

“Cloud: Tifa, you know anything about the Ancients?
Tifa: I’ve heard of them before, but…
Barret walks on ahead, showing little interest in the topic.
Barret: Read a book on planetology and they’re sure to come up. They’re a tribe that cultivated the planet a real long time ago. Used to talk to it. That sort of stuff.
Cloud: That must be why the Turks were after her.
[Psychic] interference starts up.
[Cloud has a] flashback of Sephiroth from five years ago, after learning of his ancestry at Shinra Manor […].
Sephiroth [(in flashback, voice tinged with madness)]: Within my veins flows the blood of the Ancients. I am the rightful heir to this planet!
The flashback ends and Cloud looks lost in thought. The interference starts up once more. Cloud makes agonized sounds. When he opens his eyes, Sephiroth is actually standing before him.
Sephiroth: You failed again— failed to protect [her]*.
Cloud is startled. He shrinks back. Tifa watches what’s happening. The other two can’t see Sephiroth. All they see is Cloud acting frightened.
Sephiroth: But loss will make you strong. […] Isn’t that what you want?
With that, Sephiroth departs.”

*Sephiroth does not use a gendered pronoun here, because the grammatical structure of the original Japanese sentence doesn’t necessitate it. I've seen some debate as to whether the proper translation is “her” (Aerith, who’s just been kidnapped), or “them” (Jessie, Biggs or Wedge, who have seemingly just died). I believe Sephiroth was referring to Aerith for a few reasons. First, Cloud’s hallucinations of Sephiroth always appear as a response to whatever he is perceiving or thinking about at the moment. At this point in the scene, Cloud has been thinking and talking about Aerith for some time, and not about Jessie, Biggs or Wedge. The Sephiroth hallucination must therefore be referring to “her” rather than to “them”. Secondly, Cloud was never tasked with “[protecting]” Avalanche, but he was in fact tasked with “[protecting]” Aerith as her bodyguard back in chapter 8: it makes far more sense for Sephiroth to be referring to Aerith when he speaks about someone Cloud “failed to protect”. Finally, FFVII Remake Ultimania describes this piece of dialogue as “[Sephiroth aiming] these profound words at Cloud, who not only failed to prevent the tragedy in the Sector 7 slums but allowed Aerith to be abducted” (Sephiroth’s profile in section 01 “Character & World”, “Impressive Words”, page 29): the specific mention of Aerith here seals my decision to translate the line with the pronoun “her”.
Contrary to Sephiroth’s words, this is the first time in Remake that Cloud “[fails] to protect [Aerith]”, and he hasn’t “[lost]” her either— not yet, at least. So why use the words "again" and "loss"? This fifth MOTF must be similar to MOTF 1, in that Sephiroth is referring to Cloud’s guilt surrounding Aerith’s death in OG.
MOTF 6 occurs in chapter 17, in Aerith and Ifalna’s old room at Shinra HQ. The Whispers swarm Aerith as she tells the party earnestly that she wants to do everything in her power to help her friends and the planet: according to the script notes, it is at this very moment that, “for some reason, Cloud feels his chest constrict tightly” (FFVII Remake Material Ultimania Plus, VA script notes, “Aerith Speaks”). In the corresponding cutscene, this unpleasant physiological reaction to Aerith’s words makes Cloud glance down at his chest with a confounded frown. This physical response to her speech about wanting to fulfill her duty to the planet implies that Cloud somehow knows deep down that saving the world will cost Aerith her life.
At this point, I noticed that five out of the six MOTFs Cloud experiences in Remake are triggered by and/or revolve around Aerith specifically, the one exception being a MOTF of the Sector 7 plate fall. One could actually argue that this MOTF revolves around Aerith too, considering the plate fall marks the first time Aerith is taken away from Cloud since reuniting with her in the Sector 5 slums church. This is more than plausible, as MOTF 5 proves that in the wake of the Sector 7 plate fall, Cloud’s main concern is Aerith (see section “II. a)”). How fitting is it, then, that the merc of few words’ longest uninterrupted piece of dialogue in all of Remake is:

“We found an underground Shinra lab where they've done human testing. This wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I know these people, and I know they're never gonna let Aerith go. She's the last living Ancient on the planet. Think about what that means to Shinra's scientists. Especially to that son of a bitch Hojo. We're all just numbers and meat to him—“ (Remake, chapter 13).

Cloud would’ve gone on too, had Elmyra and Tifa not stopped him.
At this juncture in my research, my questions were only stacking up. What are these MOTFs? Why is Cloud the only one experiencing them? Why do all of them implicate Aerith? What did the devs hope to accomplish with their inclusion in the game? What do they mean for Remake’s story? But most importantly:
II. b) What Does Cloud Know?
The first assertion we have to make is simple, yet essential: the only reason Cloud would experience MOTFs is that whatever’s triggered them is significant to him in one way or another. Some part of him must recognize his triggers for them to be triggers at all. It’s clear he doesn’t consciously understand the meaning of his MOTF triggers, just like his Jenova triggers: for example, Cloud doesn’t know why Zack’s name causes him to experience psychic interference, but it sure does. We as players know Cloud’s MOTFs are hinting at Aerith’s fated death because of our awareness of OG, but as a character navigating the OG timeline, Remake Cloud shouldn't even be unconsciously aware of Aerith’s eventual death in the slightest! Whatever the nature of the MOTFs, it’s essential to understand that if Cloud “[recognizes]” Aerith’s face the first time he sees her, it must mean some part of him knows Aerith’s face in the first place. If this recognition triggers a hallucination of Sephiroth telling Cloud he “can’t protect anyone”, it must mean some part of him knows he was once unable to protect Aerith. The same goes for every other MOTF: subconsciously, Remake Cloud somehow has memories of the OG timeline. Most interestingly, it looks like he either only has OG memories related to Aerith, or like his OG memories of Aerith are simply the only ones prominent enough to trigger his MOTFs. Why and how does Remake Cloud have memories of OG, and why are they so focused on Aerith in particular? What does he know?
When examining a situation with no explanation, it’s wise to examine similar situations that have already been explained. Maybe the mystery of Remake Cloud’s MOTFs will become more approachable if we consider the cases of the only other Remake characters who seem to know the future: Aerith and Sephiroth. Remake Sephiroth knows the future of the OG timeline because his consciousness exists beyond time in the Lifestream, while Remake Aerith likely obtained her knowledge of the future from post-OG Aerith’s spirit via the Lifestream. But what about Cloud? Where does his weaker, fragmented knowledge come from?
(continued in part 2)

Step Four- Scene Drafts

1. Scene Purpose:

• What is the primary purpose of the scene in terms of advancing the plot, developing characters, or conveying key information?
  
• How does this scene contribute to the overall narrative structure?
  

1. Character Goals:

• What are the specific goals or objectives for each character in the scene?
  
• How do these goals align with the characters' broader motivations and the overall story arc?
  

1. Conflict and Tension:

• What conflicts or tensions arise within the scene, and how do they propel the narrative forward?
  
• Are there interpersonal conflicts, external challenges, or unexpected obstacles?
  

1. Setting Description:

• How is the setting described to create a vivid and immersive atmosphere?
  
• Are there specific details that enhance the mood or provide symbolic elements?
  

1. Dialogue Purpose:

• What is the primary purpose of the dialogue in the scene?
  
• How does the dialogue contribute to character development, plot progression, or theme exploration?
  

1. Character Reactions:

• How do characters react emotionally and physically to events in the scene?
  
• Are there subtle cues or gestures that reveal characters' internal states?
  

1. Foreshadowing Elements:

• Are there elements of foreshadowing embedded in the scene?
  
• How do these subtle hints contribute to building anticipation for future events?
  

1. Sensory Details:

• How are the senses engaged in the scene? What do characters see, hear, smell, taste, and touch?
  
• How do sensory details enhance the reader's immersion in the narrative?
  

1. Pacing and Tempo:

• How is the pacing managed within the scene to maintain reader engagement?
  
• Are there moments of heightened tension contrasted with slower, reflective passages?
  

1. Symbolism or Metaphor:

- Is there symbolism or metaphorical language used in the scene? - How do these symbolic elements add depth or layers of meaning to the narrative? 

1. Character Development:

- How does the scene contribute to the ongoing development of each character? - Are there revelations, decisions, or actions that shape the characters' arcs? 

1. Plot Advancement:

- How does the scene advance the overall plot or subplot? - Are there key events or revelations that propel the story forward? 

1. Point of View Considerations:

- From whose point of view is the scene told, and how does that choice impact the reader's experience? - Are there opportunities to switch perspectives for a more comprehensive view of events? 

1. Tension Release:

- Does the scene provide moments of tension release or resolution? - How are conflicts or challenges addressed within the scene? 

1. Transitions:

- How does the scene transition into or out of the broader narrative? - Are there hooks or connections to previous or upcoming scenes? 

1. Visual Imagery:

- How can visual imagery be effectively utilized in describing characters, actions, or settings? - Are there opportunities for readers to form mental images that enhance their engagement? 

1. Character Relationships:

- How are character relationships explored or developed in the scene? - Are there moments of connection, conflict, or revelation that shape these dynamics? 

1. Flashbacks or Memories:

- Are there opportunities for incorporating flashbacks or characters' memories? - How do these glimpses into the past contribute to the scene's depth? 

1. Subtext and Unspoken Communication:

- What subtext or unspoken communication exists between characters? - How can non-verbal cues or underlying tensions be effectively conveyed? 

1. Reader Emotional Impact:

- How do you intend the scene to impact readers emotionally? - Are there specific emotions you want readers to experience during or after the scene? 

These questions are designed to guide writers in crafting scene drafts that are purposeful, engaging, and integral to the overall structure and development of their narrative.

Warning: This post contains chapter 261, so only read it after you've read that chapter! Also this post is 10% cringy, 50% analytical, 40% theory crafting. Hope you enjoy!
Now that Kaiser's flashback is over, it's time to analyze where Kaiser's character arc seems to be heading this match.
Kaiser's proof of originality I think what's most interesting about Kaiser is that while the backstory explained Kaiser's mentality, we've been seeing signs of who Kaiser is as a person even before the backstory. His way of speaking theatrically, his constant obsession with sinking other players into despair, his self-harming attitude, and even the way he treats Ness as a person. All of what we've been seeing as been building up to the current backstory that we're witnessing unfold in our eyes.
Now, let's talk about the originality of Kaiser.
https://preview.redd.it/gt93j21qfh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=c74caf91fb7bdccb3636ab3cf66af7d62aefb1e9
Kaiser is a complex character, but if I were to sum it all up. His environment brought out the monster known as malice. He's someone whose perception of love has been warped due to him being constantly tortured by his father. To him there is no such thing as kindness. In the world he lives in, you can only show kindness through the act of malice.
The act of hurting others and destroying their dreams brings him one step closer to being human. It explains the actions of Kaiser throughout the NEL, he isn't the type to play nice with others. While others would introduce themselves with a simple hello, he would rather introduce himself by challenging others to a fight as seen at the start of the NEL).
https://preview.redd.it/7uwrquwgjh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=69609b27a2f203221f32ea7c263c29835267917d
We've seen before that certain players in Blue Lock come from unfortunate homes and soccer is a means of escape to them. For Kaiser, it's no different and it's warped the way he views football. It is impossible to play football as a single person, soccer as a sport is one that requires you to communicate with your teammates and to craft plays to crush the opposition.
In order to counteract this level of teamwork, he created a single weapon to prove his individuality and sink his opponents into despair. That weapon being known as the Kaiser Impact. A weapon not born out of love, but pure malice. Even with such an invincible weapon, it's still a sport played by 11 people. Most people in his situation would have realized that they need to make a friend or at least a teammate they're on friendly terms with.
https://preview.redd.it/xdtvobcxkh0d1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=d242eba1fc3f30b0fc299e2b77da7537f661ee39
But instead, he decided to find someone that would be loyal to him to a fault. Somebody that couldn't challenge his ideas and wouldn't question him. Someone he could bring hope to and easily corrupt their heart. And that person being Ness, now before I dissect more into Ness and Kaiser's relationship. Let's take a quick moment to answer a question that a few people are wondering in this match. Even though Kaiser is such a talented player, why is his current level of play not as satisfactory?
Ultimate performance
https://preview.redd.it/e4qt3lpglh0d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=2fde1a2243319caab7603b596af2460e953eaa2c
So far in the current match, we've had 2 goals scored and each of them were done by a clash of peak performances. The first goal being a clash with Shidou and Charles pulling a similar move as the final goal scored in Ubers. And the next goal being scored by a clash of three players colliding their ultimate performances in order to score in this match.
Each of these goals were scored by following the proposed formula that Hiori explains in the panel above. Hunger -> Suitable Goal -> Flow -> Ultimate Challenge -> Peak Performance. Let's use Kunigami as an example! His hunger was destroying Shidou which transformed into his suitable goal of man-marking him. Leading him to reach the state of flow and having successfully completing his ultimate challenge of stopping Shidou, he reached his peak performance allowing Isagi and Hiori to make use of this.
If you've been reading so far and paying attention. In order to succeed in this match, you need to fulfill two simple conditions.

1. Reaching your peak performance
   
2. Collaborating with someone else's peak performance to score.
   

And so far, Michael Kaiser has failed at reaching both of these conditions. So, let's start with condition one and how his character arc is leading to that.
The path to being human
This section of the post was inspired by this comment from u/Zukiinis: Inspiration!
https://preview.redd.it/kdz4qdpxoh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=449f55e823606d2442e6a55d8bdbac538b04f834
There are a lot of things eating at Kaiser right now, but if I were to name the biggest one. It's the fact that his current ego is not the one that will lead to his best performance. This ego of hurting others through malice is something that is eerily similar to that of his father when he was heartbroken. It's an ego that was born as a result of that day.
But this current ego leads him to seeing himself as not human and to plunge all of his foes into despair and to reign over his teammates as a tyrant. It's one that dissociates himself from reality and leads him to believing he's someone not worthy of love. Which has given him a warp sense of view on his relationship with Ness and one that was possibly blooming into a friendship. It's true that Kaiser approached Ness with the intent of using him as nothing but a tool. But is that how their relationship has stayed throughout everything?
https://preview.redd.it/4vrtxt7dqh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ca8a1b5b71f7b7f694481de80f2c79ba698759d
If Kaiser considers Ness as a tool, then why is he openly laughing with him? Why would he allow someone else to touch his hair and get close to him? Better yet, why would he open his heart to someone else and reveal that part of his past? In Kaiser's mind he may consider Ness as nothing but a tool (currently), but his heart and actions are speaking differently. He's treating Ness as more of a friend, something that Kaiser has never had before in his life and has no way of knowing how to act with a friend. I'm pretty sure the concept of friendship is foreign in Kaiser's mind. So, where am I going with all of this?
https://preview.redd.it/ym8az2xyqh0d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e593a01e66020d8eb3043eb192a3618157b10f6a
I (and many others) believe that Kaiser is on the verge of an awakening. When Kaiser first awakened his ego, it wasn't out of despair as Kaiser seems to believe. But it was out of the fact that he wanted to protect the one thing in his life that he learned to love, the one thing that his father was attempted to take away from him. A soccer ball, Kaiser didn't awaken his sense of identity due to malice as he seems to believe, but due to the fact that in the first time in his life he learned to love something.
I believe that Kaiser at the end of this match will learn to view himself as human and will start to learn of the concept of love. And for that to happen he needs to receive a similar trigger and that trigger will be when he's on the verge of losing Ness. Which I'm not sure how that would happen, but what better way to awaken Kaiser fully by having his rival Isagi stealing Ness temporarily by forcing a pass out of him. Which will potentially spiral Kaiser to despair and lead to the birth of his evolution.
https://preview.redd.it/0yk5udvqth0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=c5bc553ccc75879d92c01066dddca83dd4e424e4
So, why do I think Ness being almost taken away from Kaiser is the key to his evolution? I think the ball in the flashback is literally just Ness and is foreshadowing the future for this two. The current Kaiser is very abusive to Ness and simply treats him as the ball in his flashback. Someone who is there to just be obedient to Kaiser and not make up a fuss. But I think what's really interesting is that the ball (Ness) is Kaiser's only companion and the moment he was about to lose that companion. It sparked the birth of his ego and prompted him into action.
Interlude: Ness's evolution So, if Kaiser's evolution is linked to Ness being taken away, then what is the key to Ness's evolution? I believe Ness's evolution will come before Kaiser's evolution and the key to that will be seeing Kaiser in despair and being on the verge of almost giving up. This will spark Ness to unleash his creativity and try to make a play that will allow for both him and Kaiser to succeed. But Isagi will be the first one to notice this change and will run to the perfect pass course forcing the pass out of Ness as he hoped Kaiser could have read him. Once Kaiser sees this interaction of Isagi stealing Ness's pass, that will be when Kaiser will awaken.
Honestly, I imagine it'll be a mix of Bachira's evolution for Ness and a Barou like conqueror moment for Isagi.
Now, let's move on to the final act of this post
A weapon not born out of malice, but pure friendship
https://preview.redd.it/ooh9acuyvh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=82c7aedf44f2577e18efc51ba199513bcc2d00ea
Kaiser's whole character arc seems to be heading in a direction where he's being forced to discover who he really is as a player and to understand what he wants. And in order to do that, he's being constantly met with the same level of despair that he forced onto others. In order for Kaiser to reach his peak performance, he has to fight with the same intensity of ego as he felt first when he discovered himself for the first time.
And I think one of the main things that needs to happen is Kaiser is taking a moment of introspection (possibly on the bench after Noa swaps with him). Understanding that behaving like his father isn't the best way to move forward in life. Him being constantly obsessed with putting others in despair is clouding his judgement and leading to him making reckless mistakes that he would normally avoid. And most importantly to realize that he no longer sees Ness as a tool, but as a friend for the first time in his life. Leading to him accepting Ness's creativity and to stop berating him.
And if Kaiser does possibly get benched, I think it'll be the moment he goes back to analyzing the field and planning his moves accordingly. Which will lead to Kaiser utilizing Ness's imagination on the field and leading to both of them succeeding in their ultimate challenge. Which is...
Making the Kaiser Impact: Magnus succeed.
https://preview.redd.it/t7zig57qsh0d1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=82c34d109d5ef278b2edd7dfe60056c33cb4e0e7
If Kaiser Impact was a weapon born out of an individual talent to drive those into despair. The Kaiser Impact: Magnus will be a weapon born out of a collaboration of peak performance to turn a 0 into 1. In order for this weapon to succeed, there are two main conditions that need to be fulfilled.

1. The ball must not be in motion
   
2. Kaiser has to perform the Magnus
   

Each of these conditions are absurdly difficult to perform in a moving game and it's almost impossible. But with someone who loves unexplainable things and another that loves trying the impossible. It's quite the perfect challenge for them, isn't it? Anyway, I'm sure many of you see where I'm going with this. But for this shot to work, Ness will have to perform a godly maneuvepass utilizing those ankles of his to lead the ball into having zero motion. While Kaiser will have to arrive at the perfect spot in time to use the Kaiser Impact: Magnus and unleash it.
This weapon will be born out of Ness and Kaiser's peak performance. I imagine that once Kaiser and Ness scores the final goal, this two will be on better terms and Kaiser will actually put effort into treating Ness as a friend. The path to being human isn't easy, but all it takes is one single friend to make you human. Ask Ray Dark, he knows what I'm talking about.
My face after completing this post
And that's the end of my theory/analysis. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know your thoughts!

I started this series about a week ago. My friend and I both watch an animated show called Invincible which we both love. He told me if I’m really into animated shows to check out Attack on Titan. I’ve really only watched 2 other anime before; Naruto & Death Note. Ig you can say I haven’t really dug deep into anime. But after watching this so far, it’s clear this is a must watch show even to non-anime viewers. It’s really not hard to get into. For me, it’s always really hard for me to get into any new show, thinking nothing can really meet my expectations. But whenever I do get into something that does it for me, I instantly become obsessed with it and feel the need to binge it all. Been binging aot every night and currently near the end of season 3. (Just watched the episode where they enter the cellar)
There’s so much to say why I think its a masterpiece, but il keep this piece as brief as I can. And I’m aware what I have to say here has probably been said numerous times before. So il try to avoid that.
———————————————————————————
I can imagine a lot of non-anime watchers might mistake anime as a genre of its own, not realizing they are categorized in themes of drama, comedy, sports…. Just like any other show. Here are the several themes I classify with AoT: Action, drama, dystopian, political/war, mystery.
The emphasis on War & Politics is a big one for me. They do it so well characterizing war. What a soldier does. What it does to a soldier. The large scale impacts. Also the importance of following orders, trusting your teammates and them putting their trust in you. Also a lot of sacrifice. So many people die for their collective goal of humanities freedom. It’s inspiring. Naruto does this a bit too with the whole thing about working well with your team, following command, ect. But AoT just goes way further with it and really makes it a larger part of the shows identity.
In season 1 when joining the scouts; Erwin asks those joining: “If you were ordered to die, would you do it?”. - That sentence plays huge importance for the story moving froward, and one could argue the situations some soldiers are faced with IRL when in a squad in real major war.
The world of AoT is so dark & gloomy you can get away with adding horror to one of its themes. This dark, gloomy vibe is a large part of the shows’ popular identity. It’s not only dystopian, but it’s also very anti-fascist. The characters are constantly striving for their collective goal of driving humanity towards freedom.
Another thing that makes the show pop out is obviously the Titans themselves. The idea of the titans is so cool because their scale is so wide compared to that of a regular human. Killing them is no easy feat and a titan battle has the main characters odds stacked 10:1. Their power scale makes most people scared shitless, give up and lose hope. And when the main characters do get to win, it just makes it that much more satisfying. (This is much more outlined in the beginning of the show obviously) This is where a lot of the dark gloominess in the show comes from.
Even after season 1 when its more common to see the characters effortlessly kill titans, the odds continue to get stacked against them but it doesn’t get boring at all. The show just evolves and the characters are provoked in more interesting ways.
In terms of the characters; they’re all masterful. My favourite characters right now are Levi, Mikasa, and Armin (ESPECIALLY Armin after S3 EP17-18). The characters are all good and you really feel for not just the “good” characters.
The show’s obviously not afraid to kill off characters. In every battle, people die. You can say there are both more important, and lesser important characters dying in these scenes, but none of them ever feel like filler characters. They all feel like they mattered in death. Even the lesser important guys have meaning and you really feel it when these people have to sacrifice themselves for everyone else.
Even the antagonist characters eventually don’t seem like real bad guys. I’m obviously still routing for Eren and the other good guys but you begin to see the show is showing you why the bad guys aren’t bad in their own situations. Having not finished the show yet, there’s still a lot uncovered on why certain antagonists are doing what they’re doing, but it’s clear they have a strong reason for their actions and they really believe their actions are what’s perhaps best for everyone.
The runtime is more or less perfect. 4 seasons, 80-something episodes, 20 minutes each. It’s a perfect amount of time for anyone to get into. And more importantly, there’s NO filler content taking away value from the runtime. Literally 0 filler episodes. The pacing’s pretty good and they try to keep it on the faster side in order to drive the events forward, which I like.
The Plot Twists: Seems to be the biggest reason as to why people say the show’s so good. AoT does plot twists like no other. There’s quite a few “betrayals”, and moments of surprise and they come so unexpected. After seeing how they handle plot twists in this show, I’m seeing a problem in how other shows direct theirs. It’s too common for other shows to foreshadow their plot twists slightly too much, or use blatant flashbacks to allude to what’s coming. If you’re someone who already watches a lot of good shows you can already kind of predict what major things are about to unfold slightly before it happens.
Don’t get me wrong, AoT has many flashbacks too obviously (like in many anime), but they’re used pretty well for the most part. They also have minor foreshadowings too you can say but they’re very very faint and used correctly.
For where I’m at in the series, I’m obviously referring to in Season 2, where Reiner & Berthold reveal themselves as titans. The way it was done really gives me chills. When they start talking to Eren and reveal themselves, it’s done so faintly and non-dramatic that you kinda miss it. It’s like I clearly heard what they’re saying but it just didn’t register in my mind because of the nature of the directing. They make it so their conversation is “Background Talk” rather than a dramatic reveal. No fancy music or anything like that. Really just gave an eerie vibe to it. I had to replay that scene like 3 times to understand what was going on. Then of course after their undramatic reveal; they use a flashback to explain their characters a bit further (notice how the flashback is used AFTER the reveal, not before); and THEN they go to their transformation. It is only in this transformation scene that they saved for the dramatic suspense to be unleashed. Maybe I’m looking to much into the writing but I just think the nature of that plot twist was handled very well. (And of course there’s the minor foreshadowing of Berthold chomping on his hand while the castle is falling. It’s an obvious titan-shifter move, but I think it was handled right).
The action scenes are very well blended in with the dramatic parts to its credit. A common occurrence I see with good action shows is they’re good BECAUSE it’s more than just action. And other action shows might get undermined for not having enough of it, maybe being covered, or perhaps outshined by the more emotional scenes. I have no problem with this myself in AoT. Even in parts of the story where action is scarce for a bit I have no complaints. Perhaps my perception of this is different than others because I’m able to binge it all at once while many others had to wait up to 10 full years between seasons and parts of seasons to see all the action.
Like I said, the power scale of the titans are really the meat & potatoes of the battles being what they are. The battle strategy is really cool to get into, and how they’re going to outdo their titan opponents (Armin as a character really adds to this for me).
The battles are one thing but the fighting itself is a whole other. The actual combat and the animation of it gets the adrenaline pumping. The whole concept of the ODM gear is genius. Using gas powered grappling hooks to leap throughout their environment like a speeding bullet, and zing around everywhere to take down the titans looks like such an adrenaline rush. It gives me adrenaline just watching them, and hearing the sounds of the gear. Its iconic really. Just the idea of it. Also really fits well with the 19th century setting, the technology being where it is.
Ig I have nothing more to say about the animation. Everyone knows its top tier, along with the gore. Nothing really extra I have to add about it, it’s self explanatory. Ofc can’t forget about the OST as well, just like the ODM gear; it’s iconic, adrenaline-pumping. ‘Nuff said.
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Unfortunately I already spoiled myself with a big plot twist for season 4. Whenever I get into a show like this it’s always so tempting for me to look at reviews of the show to reinforce why it’s so good, or do the character quizzes, or look at memes related to the show. That being said its too easy to spoil yourself with this.
I saw what the “final boss” looks like. (His head basically, and who it is). Really wish I didn’t see that yet, but it’s literally so hard to not get spoiled I tried my best. My friend warned me how easy the spoilers go. Told me I can’t google the show, search it on YouTube, ect. Anytime I type the shows name I’m risking anything coming up. I also know that 80% of humanity is wiped out from this “event/person”. Found that out the hard way. Other than that I’m spoiler free. I really wish I didn’t see any of that but it’s my fault ultimately and here I am. I probably shouldn’t be going on this subreddit to begin with. I’m lowering my eyes just going on this sub to post this. Not looking at anything else on this sub, not even daring to scroll to other posts. But with how far I’ve gotten in the series I really can’t hold it in and just really want to let out my thoughts so far on the show on here. Please keep the comments spoiler free for me. Just had to unload and discuss a little with you guys.
Edit: Hollllly shit! Just finished season 3. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING

who that one heart belongs to. Sunday. Crack theory alert, this could totally just be my delulu but I genuinely think this song was meant for Sunday. Hoyo's already done the whole "foreshadowing a character's arc through song" thing before with White Night. White Night is about Aventurine and the lyrics fit SO WELL after 2.1 and really spell his character out perfectly. Everyone and their mother thought White Night and IICSOHFB are about Firefly and while it does fit, I think both songs fit Aventurine and Sunday respectively, more.
Birds are born with no shackles
Then what fetters my fate?
Blown away, the white petals
Leave me trapped in the cage
The endless isolation
Can wear down my illusion
Someday, I'll make a dream unchained
https://preview.redd.it/6xg5ivlw4e0d1.png?width=1490&format=png&auto=webp&s=a54cd1bf747e2bc54b1bf8df467f3112ffb7b909
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"Birds are born with no shackles, then what fetters my fate?" The questioning tone is very reminiscent of Sunday's view on birds and their freedom in general as we come to learn from the Charmony dove flashback. It this referred to Robin or Firefly, they wouldn't question the fate of birds despite their freedom. It would more so be a question about when they would get to become the bird eventually.
A lot of people think that Robin's the caged bird in the analogy (with a robin being inside a cage in HMC's splash) but IMO it's actually Sunday. His overwhelming empathy is a cage in and of itself trapping him in his desire to make everybody around him happy.
"endless isolation" Sunday had no one to talk to the entire time after Robin left. And even in his ideal world, he was ready to be the only one left in perpetual solitude like Robin herself says.
"Can wear down my illusion". Wear down the illusion that is the sweet dream that Penacony and the Family pride themselves on. But Sunday's been witness to the ugly truth behind the sweet dream.
"some day I'll make a dream unchained" Sunday's dream of Order controlling the world instead of the Harmony. The unchained part here kinda contradicts it though so -
Let my heart bravely spread the wings
Soaring past the night, to trace the bright moon light
Let the clouds heal me of the stains
Gently wipe the sorrow of my life
I dream
What is meant by miraclе?
A word outside my days
Once again, repеatable
But how, could I escape
No further hesitation
On those unanswered questions
So now, I’ll make a dream unchained
https://preview.redd.it/6zw8wglg6e0d1.png?width=2420&format=png&auto=webp&s=9e8c4555409455359ae7869f431cd3f4271ac90e
https://preview.redd.it/xykx5blg6e0d1.png?width=2864&format=png&auto=webp&s=34f41e8c9b3dadbbc53d731c213e18ef444c12b6
Now this part is my true delulu. "Let my heart bravely spread the wings, Soaring past the night, to trace the bright moon light". His decision to bring to life Ena's dream would not be without consequence if he failed, so it does require a hell of a lot courage from Sunday. "Moon light" although a lot of people, including me, thought it was primal light which would make more sense here BUT it probably refer's to Ena's hand reaching out to him. Xipe and Ena are Aeons who preside over very similar paths but Xipe noticeably has a very "sun-like" aesthetic whereas Ena has a moon-like aesthetic.
This is a HC: "Let the clouds heal me of the stains. Gently wipe the sorrow of my life. I dream". I think this might've been train of though when Robin and him fell. They're pretty high above the ground so suffice to say, a lot of clouds touched on the way down. It could also refer to Robin herself wiping this sorrow off of Sunday.
"What is meant by miraclе? A word outside my days. Once again, repеatable. But how, could I escape" Miracles are often referenced in biblical texts and are focal points (Not a Christian but been exposed to the teachings, might be a bit rusty on this). Sunday probably think Ena's dream IS the miracle that people need. "A word outside my DAYS" Remember his every day is a Sunday proposal ;) ? The last quest is also called "On the Eight Day". A day outside of our usual days literally one that doesn't exist.
"No further hesitation, on those unanswered questions". Sunday knows he won't get any answers from The Family or Xipe themselves but he still searches. But all that time spent searching is more time spent my people suffering. So he resorts to his plan but when does he give up? When his question was answered. "So, why does life slumber?" "Because someday we'll wake up from our dreams"
Total delulu? Probably but I love Sunday and I couldn't shake the feeling this song was for him.
PS: Plenty of grammar errors probably so PLEASE EXCUSE IT T-T

I usually have pretty vivid dreams and a lot of times they foreshadow things in my life. One time I had a dream that my mother had a baby, in a blue baby carriage… I told her about my dream then about a month later she was pregnant. Found out it was a boy. So the dream predicted it. I’ve had other similar dreams that came to life… but recently I’ve had dreams that come true but odd ones that don’t really seem to have a meaning. A few weeks ago I had one where I was in my grandparents kitchen, talking to them and my grandma made some comment about her eyebrows. Today I was in their kitchen and all of a sudden I felt an energy and boom my grandma was talking about her eyebrows and said word for word what she said in the dream. for a second I couldn’t tell if it was Deja vu or a dream flashback. Does anyone else get vivid dreams that come true? I love trying to interpret dreams.

So before breaking everyone out of the dream we are told that ending the dream will kill Firefly for her third death in Penacony, due to the fact that she is a stowaway and not using a proper sleeping room. However, this directly contradicts the flashbacks where she and Blade discuss that Firefly will receive an invitation to Penacony, rendering the reasoning behind being a stowaway completely null.
Most evidence points towards Firefly using the stowaway method (Bloodhound family looking for her in the beginning, the fact that she is discussed as a stowaway in most circumstances, the third death, etc.), however, the fact that she received an invitation to Penacony is making me question what the details truly are, especially given how the game has foreshadowed other details of Penacony being fake such as Misha.
Thoughts?

I've decided to focus on a lingering question that not enough people have talked about! Here's my crack at it, and I've placed a TLDR section at the end if you're strapped on time.
In order for this theory to work, I have to go under the assumption that Xebec was a dark agent of chaos and not exactly the most upstanding person to be around. I'm totally okay if this turns out wrong since we know how much the World Government likes their cover-ups, and Marines can only tell their side of the story. A proper flashback will resolve this.
The Timeline
The best way to explore this is through Brook. He was 38 years old at the time of the Rumbar Pirates flashback, which would make it 52 years ago (in post-time skip) from the present time. Brook had commented that Roger was a rookie at the time, which meant that he met Rayleigh during his early 20s. Now for some quick math.

• Roger's age at the time of his death, 24 years ago: 53
• 52 (rookie era) - 24 (time of death) = 28 years of alleged piracy
• 53 (Roger's age) - 28 = 25 years old. That was only when he was known as a rookie, not necessarily when the journey began. Nevertheless, this reinforces the point that Roger would have started his pirate career sometime in his early 20's, a bit later than Ace or Luffy would.

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At some point between 52 and 44 years ago, Roger must have had his first encounter with Xebec since he would already have earned his first bounty and made a name for himself. We currently know nothing about Xebec's past or why he decided to become a pirate. Some theories point to an Ohara archaeologist's past, but we'll get an answer through Blackbeard, I'm sure (in SBS, his hobby was gambling and historical research). We're at a golden opportunity to do a Rocks flashback with Garp captured and Pudding on the way with her memory manipulation abilities.
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I don't believe that Xebec immediately declared his desire to become the ruler of the world, but that he always had the dream in his pocket. It was his ultimate goal, and he would ramp up his activities over the years. Like all pirate crews in the beginning, he needed money and manpower. This is not like the Doflamingo flashback, where certain people saw his CoC haki and desired to make him their king by enabling his behavior. Not everyone would be as convinced to follow some "crazy guy" into taking down the WG right from the beginning.
Also, who's to say that Xebec wasn't already a pirate captain of his own (unnamed) crew and decided to merge them together when forming the Rocks Pirates?
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This is where we come to this infamous, in my opinion, widely misunderstood panel. I don't believe Xebec was Roger's "greatest" enemy simply due to power or influence. Given the friendship that Roger forged with WB, it's more about the ambitions. I am sure, even if Oda doesn't show this, that Roger had a moment similar to Luffy's during Blackbeard's speech about dreams in Mock Town. He was serious, listening, and analyzing—almost as if he knew how dangerous this guy was or would become. Characters with high emotional intelligence are good at this; we've seen it time and time again. Maybe Roger and Xebec were also two sides of the same coin?
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At least 44 years ago, the Rocks Pirates formed up on Hachinosu Island for their moneymaking schemes and other unmentioned plans. From what I've gathered in Kaido's flashback and with Blackbeard's activities during the Egghead arc, it's clear that Beehive Island acted as one of the only safe havens for pirates and wanted criminals in the New World. This was in addition to recruiting through Davy Back Fights or other means. At the same time, Beehive Island was a great staging point to launch various heists and then return to it at the end of the operation. It's almost a little too familiar...
Could the New Onigashima Project and Crocodile's Operation Utopia both be meant to emulate and foreshadow examples of pirates trying to go beyond just occupying their territories? It would be a nice touch if true, especially now with Blackbeard using Koby or Garp as a stepping stone to infiltrate the WG.
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Pirate Island Fullalead/Hachinosu/Beehive has several inspirations:

• Tortuga Island, Haiti
• Port Royal, Jamaica
• Nassau, New Providence Island. Real-life Blackbeard enjoyed the place, which was one of his bases of operations.

Hachinosu is formidable for the Marines, but the same can be said for anyone who is an enemy of this place. Roger would have definitely not taken it lightly and steered clear of this area unless he also visited it from time to time. I also noticed a parallel: Garp had no intentions of messing around there all those decades ago. Yet he showed no hesitation to do a Koby rescue mission in the present.
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39 years ago, Roger and his crew managed to reach the penultimate island through conventional means. It is there that he learned about the existence of the Road Poneglyphs, their purpose, and the existence of an ancient kingdom. With the God Valley Incident happening a year later, there is more than enough time for them to visit various locations and eventually head to the West Blue, where it was located.
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Which leads me to the next point...
Chapter 1096
We got another tease of the God Valley Incident and the parties involved here. Let's pay special attention to both Roger and Rocks here. What do you think this implies?
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A whole year? What went down between Lodestar Island and God Valley? I have a few suggestions:

• Xebec tracked Roger down again, and they had a clash. The outcome was either a stalemate, a defeat, or important enough that Roger was itching for round 2.
• The Rocks pirates went to Lodestar Island after Roger and learned about the poneglypths and their importance. I'm doubtful about this one, though. Perhaps it was just Xebec himself who traveled there in the past and already knew what to do.
• Roger realized the implications after being at Lodestar; that's why he had to shift gears and begin figuring out a route to the final island. He understood some of the concepts through the voice of all things but couldn't piece them together yet. Xebec could also have made a remark about the "D" lineage during one of their encounters...

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I found this part super interesting. If what Kong said here was true, then Roger was not really after the special treasure in God Valley the way Rocks Pirates did. This would strengthen the idea that Roger usually kept to his own business with his crew and valued freedom of travel, happiness, and adventure more than spreading chaos, fear, conquest, etc. A bit more of that classic pirate trope, but still romanticized. On the other hand, the Rocks Pirates had no issues picking fights with anyone they encountered, regardless of their affiliation.
Overall, Rocks had to be stopped at this point. Xebec had become too infamous and destructive through his actions without much repercussion. What Roger previously considered his rival became too much on his plate to handle or tolerate any longer. I wholeheartedly believe that he is the dark side of the D clan, probably similar to the moon concept or "dusk vs. dawn," and would tie in Blackbeard nicely, especially with Chapter 1107.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this and are able to take something away from it! Feel free to comment below if there is anything more to add or if you disagree.
TL;DR
Roger was constantly harassed by Xebec from the time they first met, either because he refused to ally or join up or because their goals and world views clashed too much. The reason Roger went to God Valley wasn't because he just wanted the smoke and/or the treasures. Instead, Xebec had become an existential threat by this point, threatening Roger's goals and his freedom. This would help explain why he decided to team up with Garp and his friendly relationship with WB. It would also give us insight on how piracy changed as a whole before the great age started. We'll continue to explore some of this through Blackbeard in the near future.

While Season 3 is currently airing, I've been rewatching the entire Anime including most OADs and Slime Diaries and was unable to find a great watch order list that actually matched chronologically. For instance, it was hard to watch Slime Diaries after Season 2 since some characters introduced are suddenly gone so on rewatch, I wanted to not deal with that.
Below is my initial attempt at this but would be curious to know if other people have a different recommendation!
Disclaimer: Since there are flashbacks/timeskips even within some episodes, I'm ignoring those. I'm also skipping any of the recap type episodes:
Order:

1. Season 1 ep 24
   1. Technically is first chronologically but would not recommend starting here on first watch
2. Season 1 ep 1-15
3. Slime Diaries ep 1-6
   1. All main characters of Slime Diaries should be introduced at this point in regular season
4. Season 1 ep 16
   1. Milim shows up
5. Slime Diaries ep 7-8
   1. Milim introduced
6. Season 1 ep 17
   1. Youm/Eren - Knight Spider feast gag
7. Slime diaries ep 9-12
   1. Knight Spider hotpot eaten here, Youm/Eren introduced
   2. Last Episode of Slime Diaries foreshadows Charybdis
8. Season 1 ep 18-19
9. OAD ep 1-2
   1. Being honest, I skipped this since I hate the fanservice and refuse to rewatch these. Could argue they go elsewhere?
10. Season 1 ep 20-23
    1. Goodbye scene at end of 23 could arguably be skipped since its shown again in Season 2 which backtracks a little
11. OAD ep 3-5
    1. I like keeping student arc together for coherence but could also watch ep 24 in between since Black/Diablo shows up and references it
12. Season 2 ep 25-28
13. Visions of Coleus ep 1-3
14. Season 2 ep 29-48
15. Movie - Scarlet Bond
    1. Remembered that Diablo is in this so definitely after Season 2. Foreshadow in ending scene of Coleus made me think it was right after
16. Season 3 ep 49-55
    1. Assuming this will continue chronologically but at time of posting, this is all that has aired

This is my first post to this subreddit so please let me know if something is off with tags!
Edits for formatting, for some reason cannot get the indented comments to save correctly
Edit 2: Correcting timeline for Movie after season 2 instead of right after Visions of Coleus