Leia, I'm gonna share a pearl with you... One which Omnae shared with me once, long ago, when I was in a similar predicament...
Remember; everything is based on perspective.
It's always possible to approach such an issue from a different perspective, you see? So, it was written one way. Fine, that makes sense because it was written from Leia's perspective at the time.
There is absolutely no reason that now-Leia couldn't be looking back, perhaps reflecting, and seeing the events as they unfolded from a totally different perspective. Additionally, you can add - just because an event did not take place in a thread (which is to say; wasn't written about) does not mean it didn't happen at all.
All of this is fiction, and that's paramount. Fiction is fully malleable. I've done it. Omnae has done it. Everyone here probably has at one point or another... and if that's not enough for you, George Lucas himself has done it countless time, continues to do it, and will probably be reorganizing Star Wars until the day he dies.
It's ok to to declare that things occurred a certain way in a current thread and write everything from then on as if that is what always happened, but it's not ok to just finish the thread in that certain way?
Come on. What damn difference does it make which thread a plot line is finished in if the outcome is going to be the same?
I want to finish my plot line in the same thread it was started. I proposed this whole mess because I thought it might help preserve continuity, because I didn't want to be using literary tricks such as you suggest above to contradict things I originally wrote. Everyone is already confused enough as it is about all this Rebellion founding, good idea let's throw yet another confusing segment into the mix!
Is your problem with my proposal the percieved deletion of others' work? I don't want to delete the whole damn thread, I am sorry that is how I initially made it sound. I want to change segments in my own posts. Very short segments. I have told you exactly what I want to change, the rest can stay exactly as it is and won't be affected at all. Theoretically, the other story lines could continue unhindered by my changes.
Instead of me changing those small segments which affect NONE of the other people in the RP and NONE of the other people on TRF as a whole, it is somehow preferable to a group of fellow writers for me to either invent some lame ass plot twist to get my RP going in the right direction, or to simply make a new RP in which I declare nothing happened the way it happened so everyone can assume the new version is how it really happened?
Sorry, but how does that help continuity again?
This is TRF, let's be realistic the same people have been writing here for years and years. Is someone really going to see me make changes to my own character development in an old RP to create real continuity instead of ridiculous layers of conflicting flashbacks (which to be quite honest sounds worse and a LOT more like cheating than making specific changes approved by the staff) and decide to go back and change the outcome of groups and battles? Will the OOC forum **really** suddenly be filled with requests to change this and that?
The chance is just as great that if I write a "flashback" (which you seem to be implying doesn't even need to be approved) and just write the story the way I want that way, that other people will decide "flashbacks" might be quite useful to them too. And might try to do it... without anyone's permission. In fact it's probably been done before.
Seriously... cut me a millimeter of slack here on this story arc in which only I truly established a stake in. I don't think I've ever made IC trouble with anyone on TRF... ever (OOC administration disagreements being something else entirely). My endeavors have always seemed to turn out so small and internally focused that most of my work is largely ignored. Not a single thing I have ever done has ever been noteworthy enough to anyone else to even earn a place on the TRF time line. And this plot line I want to finish is hardly any different, but you seem to be treating it like I want to un-write the fall of the Republic, or even of TJO. I just want to make changes to my own old personal story arc for my own fulfillment that has nothing to do with any of you. Literally. Only my acquisition of Home One affects anyone else, and Beff you seem to be saying that ultimately it is ok for me to write that as long as I write it the way you think it should be written?
As for Ahnk's concerns... I am perfectly willing to track down as many of the old participants as possible, although I doubt any of them will really give a damn what I do with my own story arc after all this time given that there is no longer even a chance of a Rebellion under my control ever forming from that story arc. And if there was a chance, I'm pretty sure you'd all prefer that we make a new attempt in a new, current thread. Furthermore, what does that even matter if it is perfectly ok to complete the very same story arc establishing the very same changes but simply calling it a "flashback" instead of "changes"
You're not talking about finishing a thread, you're talking about going back and rewriting what was written before to better suit what you want to do with your character now.
Rewriting history is fine. It's been done. Omnae, me, whoever. But we do it in new threads. We don't go back and edit the old ones.
The only reason I can see for not wanting to simply start a new thread is that you want to use the word count you've already established, or, you know that if you have to actually write an entire thread from scratch, you know you're likely to abandon it.
If you're this passionate about your idea, then why are you so insistent on relying on what you've already done? Why so resistent to just opening a new thread?
Because I want there to be absolutely 0 potential for the original versions I wrote causing confusion or problems later. I mean look, not that many posts ago there was belief that this RP and it's story line were possibly part of the Alliance to Restore the Republic.
It just seems most logical to make the changes to the original writing with the changes being discussed prior. I don't understand this preference for covering up old IC events with a new version in a new RP. I have an intense desire to salvage the thread itself as I attempt to salvage my storyline, and finish it. I want a story where you can connect the dots (all of them) from start to finish in the same thread. Since I only want to address specific things in posts over halfway through what is established in the RP, what happens to the rest written by others that a complete re-write would actually affect drastically? (Such as the beginning, where I am writing opposite Omnae, or Lance shadowing me in the early parts of the RP)
If the only way I can effect the changes and have the whole story in one thread is to re-write the entire story from scratch in a new RP, I will sit here and do it. But you said you were concerned about simply deleting or rendering unusable portions of it contributed by others, and I share this concern. I want the whole story from start to finish in the same thread in a "present" context, and if I had to start a new thread I would be rewriting the whole thing over again. What happens to the others' posts? They will continue to co-exist in an RP with all of my old conflicting posts? It seems... flawed. How could it possibly tie together fluidly?
That is just how I write, and as long as those specific later posts continue to exist in their current form, it's just.... hard to explain. OCD.
Now why would you do that? The posts were good. In fact, after reading over what you want to delete, I don't believe you should change one thing.
This whole move, now, to say there should be 'no hostility, no resistance, no Coalition or Empire hating..' is to totally do injustice to the issues of that time period.
After such a victory, the bitterness of being ordered to evacuate would and should illicit major hostility and resistance, not just 'a little doubt'. Dolash even showed his own leadership disputing the order because it was a very bitter pill to swallow, in war time no less. Regrad's decision was not popular and even if there is a comment about Leia's desparaging of the Coalition in a sentence or two, remember, she is pregnant and hormonal. Which you also showed. :D
I think your Ross Maklo character, actually the tone in general, is the right tone for the time period. Most of the references about rebellion and resistance are 1st, referring to those that are wanting to refuse the order to leave. And, to be honest, not everyone will leave. The 2nd part of those references are these people wanting to take action on a larger order (thoughts on forming a Galactic Alliance or whatnot) but that action is not really defined. Just thoughts of potential, dreams of a title but not the meat behind them.
The impression I got was that Leia was going along with it all just to get them to agree to leave the planet so they don't die against the Dragon Army that they were sure was coming for them. I think she wanted to get them to do something useful like help the evacuees rather than sitting in their dark corners plotting.
You even got the post in there about Home One and where to get it fixed.
All you really need to finish that thread and bring about the types of changes you want is a final post that may have Leia reflecting on that anger she found so readily on the planet. Passionate people, fighters who defended their world but who now need to learn to defend their people (which are the heart of any world). To focus their anger and need to 'do something' as well as their gift of organization from a fighting, rebellious course to one that serves those in need.
As the ship is getting fixed up, perhaps comment how those motley group of 'resistance fighters', made up of soldiers, police, mermen, civilians, squid farmers, mayors need an education by seeing the pain in their fellow people's eyes as they help in the evacuation, help people find their lost family members, or simply help others grieve over those they lost. In turn, it would help that motley group to focus on the pain of other's rather than their own.
All fighting does not have to be done with blades and blasters. That before any weapon is picked up and fired, before there any movement to resist something, anything, there needs to be a reason. And that fighting for revenge is not a good enough reason.
You might comment about a convo with Han.
I do not believe that you should ignore the rough, militant resistance cell tone... I think you should comment about your character helping to bring those people out of that "place" and into a better place, mentally. Focus on the healing rather than ignoring..
You do not have to actually, rp the healing process, just where your character means to take these people. Anyone can pull a blaster and shoot. But finding those people who will fight for the right reasons, is harder. And that not all fighting is done by blasters. You fight despair by bringing people hope, you fight pain by being a healer..
That would be something right up your alley. I think.
In that way, after this post, you can start a new thread, bring it forward in the time, your people are on Home One, they are well adjusted as best they can be... and they are doing whatever you expect this group of yours to be doing now.
You and Ahnk definitely have a point, and it is true that it is possible for me to work the changes into the plot in it's current form, much smoother than I realized yesterday to be honest.
You are also right, in that my original intent was to fully realize the emotions running through the people on the planet and attempt to give them direction. That intention hasn't really changed. I wanted to use my proposed changes to have Leia encounter a more rational group of Calamarians first, who could help her sway such resistance cells later (how else could I realistically find 1,230 people to crew a ship) instead of having her standing all alone in the middle of a resistance cell attempting to do it without any support as she is currently portrayed as trying to do. I wanted the 'rational non-rebels' to be the primary group because it would be easier.
But I could still go back and generate additional support to help me towards that end without having to effect changes that show me dealing directly with a more rational movement before I start attempting to influence angry moody Resistance cells. I wasn't really seeing this before, I was convinced that I needed to completely alter the circumstances in which Leia first encountered the little pockets of people running around trying to accomplish things in order to make anything work in a fashion that I could live with.
But again, these 'reflection' posts summarizing things instead of just writing the whole thing out as it happened... I don't want to RP the entire 'healing process' but I do want to write out the acquisition of Home One in that thread and establish a direction to go in. Above all else, I want to finish the story in that thread.
I guess I am ok with not making changes and attempting to work around what I have already written. I will simply request that as long as nobody who is around has any major problems with it, that I be allowed to let my story run it's full course in the thread it was started in.
My heart is set on finishing that thread, and I don't want to use reflection or flashbacks to do it.
In my opinion, if you are on the planet, the first people you would be "meeting" with are those wacky people who are not really helping with the evacuation since most (if not all) of the rational people would be too busy working at breaking down their offices, military organization, techs, etc..etc..etc.. and loading people on evac ships since this is the Coalition Official Capital that is in retreat.
I would think that perhaps these rational people would have time to meet with her enroute to their new destination between back and forth trips of loading and unloading people. I doubt the ships are making one way trips but going back and forth as fast as possible, but there would still be a lull.
Perhaps one ship, a hull that is being towed by another as added place to stick people that Leia is on is found out by her to be a museum piece, Home One. Perhaps after it is finished being used as a Mon Cal trailer, the Captain and leaders reluctantly must set it adrift since they do not have the means (as a displaced people) to keep up whatever is still functioning. You offer to buy it (charge it to Tyscio's credit chit and watch him have a heart attack or some secret Alderaanian Princess Diamond you have hidden away, the Alderaanian fortune amassed offworld and known only to you) or go the cheap-skate route and put a tracker as the ship is sent adrift in space to return to it later.
In any event, I do not think you would be needing a crew of the ship right away since it would probably need a shipyard to be repaired, (or you could get Smarts to fix it up since you are helping keep the Calamarians calm in the face of this diaspora) so your connections and bond you make with the Mon Cal survivors, evacuees and perhaps old Mon Cal loyalists who wanted to resist the Dragons..
