This update ends here. The next update will be five days later and will include the scrapping and self-criticism phase once in each volume.
Before writing the fourth volume, I said that the story in the previous volume was too "big" and I would go back to Cangdu to write some smaller stories this time. Of course, the battle situation in this volume may not be much easier than before in terms of scenes, but overall this time it is indeed smaller - there is no big crisis of annihilation, no monarch dragon, no big map, the main part is the superpowers in this place A little adventure in the city, and the personal stories of these super-powered teenagers.
I personally feel that I have a good grasp of the overall context this time, and there is no problem like the late third volume where I frantically cut characters and branches, and then rush to the ending with a kick of the accelerator. Basically, it follows the outline, and the length is almost reduced. The first half is about the battles in Cangdu in the past, the second half is about the chaos in Cangdu today, and finally, personal strength and emotional lines are broken through, presenting a staged story. growing up.
However, there are many problems in this volume, and there are still many flaws. The first thing to bear the brunt is the issue of controlling the rhythm of the battle.
If I have to evaluate it myself, I think the pace of the battle in the fourth volume is better than that at the end of the fourth volume. During the battle in the volume, the camera basically focused on A Ce alone. I could smoothly write the entire battle process from his perspective, and it was also convenient to render the emotions. Although there was a scene where Xiaoqian was divided into battlefields, it was a shot directly from Ace's perspective. After the fight, it did not affect the final decisive battle with Orus. The whole scene was smooth and natural.
At the end of the volume, the number of participants in the battle became so large that the overall battle situation was divided into several parts, and the camera had to move around. Both the enemy and ourselves need to have tasks, and other characters also need to be shaped. Therefore, the battle at the end of the volume is very long, but the shots are cut into pieces: John and Orus have finished fighting, and Ace and Master Chi have just begun. Woolen cloth. When the battle against Master Chi reached a later stage, we had to dedicate some space to the battlefield where Cang Shou talked about the creation of the world...
The split battle has made the rhythm worse. If the "nodes" of the previous battles were in the later stages of the battle (for example, Zero Breakthrough and Creation in Volume 3, Orus Consecrated Rain in Volume 4), then this battle The emotional node is actually in the middle period, when A Ce is communicating with the gods. As soon as this psychic power reaches a new level, everyone knows that they will definitely win. It just depends on how to win.
But Master Chi is very powerful, and even the Chuangjie level will give you the qualification to fight with her. As a result, the second half of the decisive battle turned into a "regular battle", with both sides trying their best to fight each other and finally end with a battle of ultimate moves. In order to avoid the recurrence of the "Void Light Dragon's maximum power" that became a joke in the three volumes, I designed a very luxurious skill set for her this time, but this also lengthened the battle length. It can only be said that there are some meanings that both parties cannot take into consideration, because if there is no means, directly channeling the gods and pushing her down in a wave, it will appear that she is "empty", and if both parties are back and forth, the rhythm will not be lively enough. The prolongation of the battle resulted in a poor viewing experience. This is a point that must be reflected on.
After thinking about it for a while, I came up with a core question, which is also a question common to all the wars so far:
There were too many sudden breakthroughs.
In fact, this problem already existed in the later part of Volume 3. Rina relied on seance to defeat Sakura Mai, and the protagonist group was able to overcome the Void Light Dragon and rely on Miss Zero to create a world. But in this volume, the problem intensified. In the middle stage, he relied on figuring out new special moves to defeat Orus. In the final stage, John relied on using his skills to defeat Orus on the spot, and Ace relied on his ability to defeat Chi Mage on the spot. …
This is indeed a bit aesthetically fatigued.
I think that the protagonist team's coming up with new things and new moves is a point that can easily stimulate emotions and expectations, but this point also means that it must play the role of "the final word". If something new comes but the battle is not over yet, the poor look and feel will be exposed.
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Looking back from the present point of view, everyone gathered together in advance to fight the Red Mage. The Red Mage used various moves to kill everyone. At this time, if A Ce and Xiao Qian could cooperate with each other to turn defeat into victory, the rhythm might be better. will be better. However, this also makes it difficult for everyone to have their own highlights and participation. Once there are more people, the control of the battle situation becomes very complicated. I think it would be better not to engage in such a big group battle next time, but to focus the camera on Ace.
Another point that needs reflection is that there are some... "excessive" chapters at the beginning and middle of this volume. Although Ace's love scene was inserted in the part after waking up from the dream to make it more interesting, it still included a few extra chapters explaining the causes and consequences. Likewise, there are still several chapters collected at the end. But if there is no foreshadowing, the follow-up development will be abrupt, and I haven’t thought of a good solution for the time being.
The third problem is that the content of daily replies is not enough. The story always needs to be appropriately relaxed, and intensely contradictory events need to have tension, and there also needs to be daily adjustments after an event ends. I have written this story into the fourth volume, but it is always hard to grasp the timing of inserting it into daily life... because the main plot every time is quite serious and the daily life of this group of people is very happy every time, and when they are doing trouble, time I’m also very nervous, so I can’t think of a good time to insert it every day. Maybe it would be better to think of ways to combine daily stories with excessive paragraphs, but that would easily lead to important information being overshadowed by small paragraphs... Should we mention important information in small events like the dust explosion challenge to doctors? In the next volume, we will also think of ways to solve this problem.
So the reflection session ends here, let’s talk about other aspects.
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There are quite a few supporting characters in this volume, and some of them were already there before, such as John and Dustblast. The two villains in Volume 2 didn't have much characterization at the time, but they were made up for in this volume. The other part is new, such as Aurus and Badman. It's a coincidence that at first I was thinking about making Badman particularly annoying so that Orus could earn some favor, but in the end I found that Badman looked more pleasing to the eye than Orus (laughs) Maybe hypocrites are always annoying.
The previous volume said not to write so many new characters! But when I actually started writing, I found that if there were not enough named people, the story would be just a one-man show for the protagonists. Therefore, we still created a lot of characters this time, but this time we didn’t give everyone their own story line. Supporting characters like Cao Hong and Cao Xin who only appear for a short time simply leave the stage after completing their tasks. I feel fine. On the other hand, the most at-risk characters need to be shaped more deeply.
——First of all, of course, Aurus. This guy was originally intended to be a long-term villain, and he came out unyieldingly in subsequent stories. But... to be honest... I was really disgusted when I wrote his scene three years ago (laughs). I thought to myself, if a guy who is disliked by both the author and the readers jumps out to fight again and again, and If he can't be beaten to death, wouldn't this story be very unpleasant?
In the initial outline, Orus will have a second battle with Atze. If he is defeated, he will be rescued by the Lord of the Hidden Law and transported to Hezhong in a miserable state with only his heart and brain remaining. But I think this is very boring, so I first arranged for him to endure some suffering after losing his power as retribution for this guy (laughs)
Compared with three years ago, he is a person who has grown in reverse spiritually. However, the guy also has some qualities that he didn't realize he had three years ago. At least now he will allow his loyal subordinates to take refuge and keep them away from danger. As he became more uglier, he also gained some humanity that he didn't have before.
——Badman is the guy who is standing still. Compared to three years ago, he actually didn't have any big awakening or change. This guy had the same train of thought from beginning to end. Three years ago, when the boss was in danger, he would risk his life to save him, and he does the same now.
In the original version, he will defeat Aurus with John, and lose his life as a result. Before his death, he will tell the truth about that year and then completely exit...
But I think this arrangement is too cruel to John. The enemy was defeated, but the good brother was killed. What was the meaning of such a victory? What did he get in the end? Thinking about the scene where everyone was happy after the final battle and John was alone at Badman's funeral, I felt that there was really no need for such an arrangement. So John exploded, and with his new abilities, he defeated Orus, and successfully entered a new stage of life.
——Yun Yinglang has grown into a strange place. After being corrected, he became a cheerful and funny character, but in the final battle, he also came to his senses and tried his best. Her route... there aren't any big changes. Ever since she changed into a maid outfit, writing Xiaoyun's story has become very natural! so amazing!
There are actually some branches that have been cut off in the plot, such as Orus's family environment (I didn't find a chance to talk about it), such as the singing duel between 05 and Qiluo (there is really no space for it), and for example, Xiao 17 and Milais were originally I planned to participate in the final battle together, but after deducing the plot, I realized that there was really no room for the two little guys. So they made soy sauce three times in this volume and looked at the world from the perspective of ordinary people.
Do you want to give Qiluo some killing power in the future? I think her current positioning is quite good. After all, there are many strong female characters in this book, but there are very few soft girls in the true sense. But if she doesn't fight, it seems that something is missing... Let's see what happens.
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That’s enough of reflection and waste. Let’s summarize the plot of this volume.
This volume is an excessive volume. There is no big map and there are not many core settings. The stage is limited to Cangdu. The theme of this volume is "growth".
This growth is growth in strength, growth in emotions, and growth in personal arc. When it comes to growth, it means change, and to have change, there needs to be contrast. So there are comparisons between three years ago and three years later, as well as comparisons between people. At the beginning, I planned to make everyone change in a good sense, but then I found that changes always need to be controlled. There are people who stand still, people who grow in the opposite direction, and people who move forward. Only through comparison can the meaning of "forward" be revealed.
Speaking of the big boss of this volume, Master Chi, she is actually an existence that has not grown up. He has gained great power since his birth, but as a "human" he has not been able to move forward with his strength. She is willful and knows no limits. She is a terrible human disaster and an ungrown child. After gaining enlightenment before she died, she finally changed, and that change brought her a rare sense of satisfaction. Did he leave with satisfaction or with regret? Is it better to keep going like this and keep getting stronger, or is it better to end it after growing up? It’s up to you to judge. The real Ayane Akaguchi, who gave birth to this evil spirit, has been frozen until now before returning to the world. Her life has just begun, so it can still change slowly. This is the privilege of a child.
All the female characters in this volume have roles. Xiaoqian is the active one in the main line, the doctor is in the Chimage line, and Qiluo is ordinary in attacking and falling in love. (The main heroine in all three volumes of Miss Zero went on a trip in this volume.) Of course, the one with the biggest role is Xiao Qian. She finally made up for her side as a warrior, her love line made great progress, and she finally made a breakthrough. Laughing out of past obstacles.
After regaining her expression, she will gradually turn back into a girl who can cry and laugh. The thought of this makes her feel very happy.
Having said that, the other female characters are not ready to give up, so Ace's youth romantic comedy is not over yet - but everyone knows that it will definitely end well in the end.
Ace's heartache has been partially solved. After growing up, he can face his own future and life, and he is also a truly strong man.
I hope that when he faces the emotional line, ah, he can be as invincible as when he fights.
In this 4.5 volume of daily light comedy, I will write more before moving on to the next volume. Because the first volume is really unbearable, I plan to rewrite the first half of it in the near future. If I can't take care of both ends by then, I may take a break for a few days after 4.5 is completed, and then come back to the main article when it's completely done.
As always, regarding the plot of Volume 4.5, if you have anything you want to see, you can leave a message here, and I will pick up interesting ideas and write them down.
In addition, the next volume after 4.5 is not volume five but volume zero. Because Ace’s story in the kingdom must be written, but writing it half in memories and half in the present like this volume is too uncomfortable. So I thought I would simply write a short side story in a single volume to finish the entire kingdom story. This way, if you don’t want to read the flashbacks for too long, you can wait until the beginning of volume 5 and read the main story directly along the current timeline. It will also be convenient for me to organize the whole story. The plot kills two birds with one stone.
Finally, I am still very grateful to everyone who is willing to subscribe to this book, and I am very grateful to book friends for their rewards, votes and comments.
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and I really don’t have much time to type when I return to my hometown. Therefore, the publication will be suspended for five days this time. The setting of this volume will be updated in the near future, and the text will be updated again on the evening of the second day of the Lunar New Year (January 23).
