MID SERIES SHAKEUPS - Terrible Writing Advice

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Let TWA teach you the long game when it comes to shaking-up a series and learn how to cheat all of that pesky setup and still reap the payoff!
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[@hunterkiller1440]

"When you have writer's block but you have a deadline"

[@TheRezro]

That actually is the better case, as at least story entered halt. The main problem is common problem of modern media where writers think that they need to be twisty, shaky and subvert expectations. Blowing up story in the end, because there is no build up or idea where to go after that.

[@jacobellis2313]

Editor: why didnt you answer my calls Sorry I have a deadline.

[@Encysted]

"I can't finish this story, but I can start another one. Por qué no los dos?"

[@petery6432]

Imagine if we could read TWA's "Best story ever" once it's finished. I feel like it would be maximum satire.

[@ryzikx]

hell i'd read it

[@Dark_Peace]

In my wip graphic novel, one of the héroes really thinks he's a novel protagonist and he bases off his actions on a book he always carries with him. On the cover you can read "best story ever by JP".

[@ponponpatapon9670]

@@evagarcia865 HYPE

[@silviaflowers9475]

@@Dark_Peace yoo id read that

[@carloshenriquezimmer7543]

It would be more competently written that pretty much anything that came out on the last decade... And would be the most risky, daring, audatious and innovative concept on writing from the current pop-culture scenario: AN ORIGINAL STORY

[@Xeroisawesome]

The original Predator is a great example of shake ups done well. It starts off just like any other 80's action movie before it takes a sudden left turn into Slasher territory. And then it zig zags into survival horror for the finale.

[@Grizabeebles]

The 1988 tv series "War of the Worlds" was forced to do an extremely bad shake up between seasons by the network. The show started out as a direct sequel to the 1953 movie happening in an alternate 1988. Then, completely offscreen between seasons, there's a time-skip to where the aliens have won and the show becomes a near-future post-apocalypse.

[@pavelowjohn9167]

"From Dusk to Dawn" is another good example. Starts off as gritty crime movie, then veers into gory vampire flick. If well-executed, this kind of switch can be very entertaining....

[@tinyetoile5503]

The thing is that Predator is a movie, and it's story can be viewed in one sitting. There's not as much established to shake up, as opposed to a series that has been running for 200 episodes as a lighthearted comedy suddenly veering into dark, gritty realism.

[@sebastianevangelista4921]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYLTYYhrod-he6s

[@sebastianevangelista4921]

@@pavelowjohn9167 kzbin.info/www/bejne/o5uohaltmbWmgZI

[@darienb1127]

The whole section talking about the "true villain" twist just reminds me of "Somehow, Palpatine has returned"

[@madamebkrt]

"Somehow, Palpatine has returned." Utterly painful.

[@dolphinsniper]

Ain't that the truth.

[@sarafontanini7051]

it reminded me of Naruto

[@owencoyston6699]

Too me it reminded me of the beast master season 3. where the villain that was being build in the background for the two previous seasons disappears. and they then reveal that theirs an all powerful dark lord that was never mentioned Before and was controlling the evil warlord who was a major villain for the previous seasons all along. along with making a whole new backstory for the main charcter the beast master.

[@professorhaystacks6606]

"Dark science, cloning, secrets only the Sith knew." That'll cover it.

[@Sitbear]

For examples of masterful mid-series shakeups, watch Game of Thrones. For examples of terrible mid-series shakeups, watch Game of Thrones

[@GrndAdmiralThrawn]

For an example of tripping at the finish line, watch Game of Thrones

[@Jose04537]

Also, look at Game if Thrones for face plant finish :b

[@arekkrol9758]

eh, not realy, yea there have been slight tone shift when it comes to injures and death but despite that small tone shift series was quite consistent until john snow ressurected and what the whole shitshow of finale

[@metaparalysis3441]

@@arekkrol9758 wait wut? confused book noises

[@chrisrudolf9839]

How about: For examples of masterful mid-series shakeups, read Game of Thrones, for examples of terrible mid-series shakeups, watch Game of Thrones (namely the last season). :-)

[@justcuz2105]

The best method of doing this is to completely change your stories magic system with no warning or foreshadowing

[@kakashihatake313]

Is this a Jojo's reference? (I'm sorry, I had to)

[@justcuz2105]

@@kakashihatake313 yes, yes it is

[@moriskurth628]

@@justcuz2105 Same could be said about these god-awful Eragon books. Like, the rules of the Magic System change at least twice, and none of them seem to work like the previous.

[@SmileytheSmile]

I don't uhh... Understand this comment. It seems sarcastic, because usually doing something like that would be detrimental to the story, but if you were talking about Jojo, one of the only cases where that worked, because the old system was weird, the new one was more creative and flexible and because Jojo is generally weird, so it fits, then the comment was being genuine... so like... I don't know what you mean. Or maybe I'm just overanalyzibg stuff as usual.

[@t850terminator]

That is quite a *spin*

[@Harmonica821]

"the characters cough off blood and suffer from no other symptoms." *I've been making fun of that since 1991, and no one's been listening to me!*

[@TheCow-j1l]

That's like one of my favorite tropes, first he cough normally, then he coughs blood, then he is pale, then he is skinny, then he is walking with a crutch. I think Superhero Movie, of all movies, made fun of this trope, calling it "normal healthy blood cough".

[@johnathonhaney8291]

Blame the movie Love Story for the mysterious unnamed illness trope.

[@sleepysera]

Reading a lot of wuxia and xianxia novels, coughing up blood with no other symptoms is just normalized to me at this point 😂😭 I remember freaking out the first time it happened because I thought it was a sign of severe illness but now I'm used to characters coughing blood every other day, just from being frustrated or the like.

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

To be fair, no one has a clue who you are.

[@Harmonica821]

@@JoshuaJacobs83 Tbf I'm just quoting oneyplays

[@TotallyHuman]

Outlawing love triangles is actually a really good idea for villains.

[@AegixDrakan]

Yeah, the rebellions stand no chance anymore. XD

[@ruthstewart8725]

Villains?

[@smileywarhead5178]

Imagine the enemy employing a matchmaker with an army of perfect love interests to rob the rebels of their sexual frustration. They could even be good at emotional validation so the protagonists are always coddled and never challenged. And they cry very convincingly whenever protagonist openly suspects the slightest thing (like this marriage happening awfully fast). How will our hero get out of this predicament? Be a dick?

[@TotallyHuman]

@@smileywarhead5178 Probably just find evidence. It'd have to be a person who finds genuine love interests for the protag. Or, I suppose, council them on who'd be the better choice.

[@SaurierSlash]

I don't think so. It might even be detrimental. Forbidden love is a VERY common plot device to add drama to romantic plot tumors.

[@jiffbombastic3694]

I like how the villain is recycled than thrown out. He’s still useful for a totally different story or reboot.

[@filmandfirearms]

Judging by your Neebs profile picture, recycling characters is something we are both well familiar with. The angry engineer has so many different purposes

[@JACCO20082012]

What was the show that did that so blatantly it got canceled? Puncher? Phisher? Plannedshittywriting? Oh that's right. Punisher.

[@isiahalcindor6278]

@@JACCO20082012 punisher and all the Netflix marvel shows were canceled because of Disney

[@jagar5580]

@@filmandfirearms recycle the mad max tanker

[@mkno2799]

So reverse-flash, deathstroke, Lex Luther and Alice from the arrowverse then ?

[@Fish-dr8sd]

I love how he gives legit advice but then goes "but why would I do that when I could..." It's just a really cool formatting.

[@darwinxavier3516]

Yes, because it makes us stare at the the actual terrible writers who ruined our favorite franchises and shout "wait, why DIDN'T you do that".

[@Chan-qk9eh]

I like his telling on what not to do, because even with good advice, you could sometimes forget or think you’re following it, when your stories actually doing all the donts. He makes the donts sound silly and more memorable and makes a better checker to see if your stories suffering

[@kingturboturtlednoc5722]

This episode reminded me how much he likes Berserk, every time in this one where he did that I went "Oh that happened in Golden Age!"

[@Ghosttoast_yum]

It's especially nice because while giving you good advice it gives you better guidelines of what not to do so you won't be copying anyone else's writing style

[@bubbasbigblast8563]

*Hero:* "Oh no, we were betrayed by the evil nobleman! It's clearly time to form a pro-democracy, pro-human rights rebel army! Our people may have no idea what either of those are, but they'll DEFINITELY fight to the death for it!" *Dumb Friend the Hero Ignores:* "Wait, aren't we all magically empowered warriors and mages, who would naturally hold ourselves higher than peasents? Why is our first instinct rallying the people, and not other magically empowered soldiers who might also be dissatisfied with the system?" *Hero, who is also WAY smarter than his dumb friend and also more attractive and not my self insert at all:* "Psh, that sounds work. I'll just train an entire new model army from scratch and overthrow the entire goverment."

[@localhearthian2387]

Note to self: make a magic system that anyone can access to circumvent magic chauvinism

[@aquaclaw5471]

Second note: give self-insert tragic backstory

[@valentinmitterbauer4196]

@@localhearthian2387 That's basically education/money/influence irl. Everyone can theoretically access it, but sOmEhOw there are still elitarian snobs. A scenario where in a classic fantasy world (where the ability to learn magic is a genetic trait) wizards would slowly form a tribalistic or even fascist stance and begin to cleanse the earth from everyone who can't perform magic is probably the norm, not the exception.

[@madamebkrt]

Kinda sounds like Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. "The status quo are evil and exploitative. Most importantly, they wronged ME, so I want to fight for the common man even though I have been a part of society's upper echelons my whole life with little exposure to how the commoners live. I am so passionate about this that I'm going to team up with the most evil faction in the world and allow them to commit atrocities every so often so they think I support them. Everyone should be able to gain power even if they don't have a crest. Oh by the way, I and most of my extremely talented buddies have a crest. Also, when I become the new Empress I'm just going to place those same buddies in powerful positions alongside me. We're not like the nepotistic rulers of yesteryear! I'm not a tyrant I swear, and my tragic backstory proves it. I am for the people."

[@osedebame3522]

@@localhearthian2387 reminds me of Magi, in the anime there was like, a whole apartheid state with magicians at the literal top and non magic users living underground

[@thekaticorn99]

the series: *drastically shifts in the middle with no warning* the audience: Z A P P E R S

[@ryzikx]

the audience is now at risk of dying in the last arc

[@PengyDraws]

Comic relief character: magically dies

[@yuyaricachimuel555]

@@ryzikx somehow I feel like this is how audiences must feel in these particular situations …

[@nsa3679]

@@PengyDraws I am so much waiting for this to happen in at least 1 Marvel movie

[@jamaluddinkhalifa8371]

do you mean "zappers" as in sense b of the word in Merriam-Webster..?

[@sross720]

I feel like there are so many thing to do like arcs or hero’s Journey that JP will be fine for a good long while

[@sauce5893]

The only thing to stop him would be himself (or if the plot burns down his house)

[@sross720]

@@sauce5893 don’t you remember in the mentor video he died but was brought back to guid us once again

[@sauce5893]

@@sross720 i thought he outlived death until the very end?

[@gunslingergirl2579]

Oh my god. One of my brothers came home from school with a "hero's journey" assignment outline one time. Using only that worksheet and his notes, we were able to outline a homoerotic villain revenge plot, in which the villain became the hero's love interest, then the hero did something that the worksheet pretended was heroic, but was really quite pointlessly evil, so the villain became a justified antagonist who was forced to hunt and kill his lover. I wish he had kept that outline, because it could've been so subversive and badass.

[@auliamate]

@@gunslingergirl2579 i gotta agree, that would have been very subversive and badass

[@aokhoinguyenang3992]

The best way is to have so many shake ups in a short amount of time so no one can process how bad it is. Then let the pretentious overthinkers defend it as too deep for plebians to understand, only they who are the same level as the author can

[@kakashihatake313]

So the Horikoshi method?

[@lordquaz7154]

I call it the Isayama effect.

[@aokhoinguyenang3992]

@@lordquaz7154 me too

[@Z0TA_]

@@kakashihatake313 No, The Horikoshi method is shake ups that make sense but blended together so its confusing.

[@johnathonhaney8291]

The Snyder Method.

[@WikiHL]

What a shock for this series! I sure hope it's not done solely for the sake of subverting expectations because the author can't make a good narrative!

[@gfilmer7150]

An example of doing a mid-series shake up well, is Call of Duty: Black Ops when we get the flashback of World War 2 and learn what went down in Antarctica along with the fate of the previous game's protagonist.

[@IAsimov]

I have not heard a term I have hated more than "subverting expectations." Surprising the audience is the consequence of careful planning and good writing, not the act of making up a twist midstory. That term is the result of some sugar smellers confusing M. Night Shyamalan with George R. R. Martin. At least before the later ran out of books.

[@gfilmer7150]

@@IAsimov Still mad that two hacks butchered his series.

[@marocat4749]

@@IAsimov And dont ever have thought out plans how that makes sense to even characters. Or how characters could actually grow from it. Or it otherwise interesting affects them for a good story. Dont ever.

[@scottmantooth8785]

*like suddenly switching genders on all of the major characters midstream and act as if nothing has happened just because...reasons or a spontaneous influx of Wokey™ Mac™ Wokeface™ Contagion™ by Proxy™*

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

A mid-series shake-up can be done well, but you must, *absolutely must* make sure to plant the seeds of it early on. Say, you've got a fantasy setting that has the heroes doing quests for an adventurer's guild. The big shake-up can involve the guild actually corrupted and fully under control of the demon lord and a tool he uses to keep adventurers from being able to effectively resist him, but to do so, you need to have multiple instances where the guild's "policies" actively hinder the heroes from doing their job. On the surface, it just seems like typical government bureaucracy getting in the way of people trying to do their jobs, something that people will take as a common complaint and not really think about. "Oh, you want to take this quest to protect this village you're fond of from a goblin invasion? Sorry, only adventurers of a certain rank can take this quest, and all the adventurers of that rank are out doing other things. I suppose you could do it off the books, but you'll get no rewards and may in fact get punished for violating guild regulations." Playing it like that makes the heroes look like the classic "Loose cannon cop who don't play by the rules but has a heart of gold" with a well-meaning but fumbling regulatory agency making things difficult, a common enough trope. Then, with the mid-series shake-up occurs, and it turns out thatvthe demon lord is actually in full control of the adventurers guild and has been using those rules and restrictions to hamper anyone's ability to resist his conquest of the world, it doesn't seem like it came out of nowhere, but rather that the seeds were sewn for this reveal all along, but the audience misread what those early signs had meant. You put one over on the audience by making them think the story is proceding along a certain path because of common tropes that they're used to, when in fact you were using the tropes they've been expecting to conceal the big twist that completely recontextualizes everything that has been happening in the story thus far. It didn't come out of nowhere, but rather was hiding in plain sight since the very start like a tiger in the reeds that had been stalking its prey for some time, just waiting for its chance to pounce. That is how big twists and mid-series shake-ups need to be done.

[@bibbobella]

I actually wrote a story like that for one of my DnD groups except my players were FULLY aware of the corruption thanks to some insider knowledge they earned thanks to actually taking the time to stop and learn about the man they had been ordered to kill by the exstremely powerful church. Now, having powerful churches in DnD isn't anything new and having them be corrupt is most certainly not anything special either but what made it actually interesting for the players were the fact that the god in the church and 99% of the actual church weren't bad at all and that there was no real proof. No one had any reason not to believe the church so fighting the church meant fighting bascially the whole government and everything about it. I basically used the "well, the church might not be perfect but they still do a lot of good!" argument to explain how they still had so much power despite being pretty clearly evil to the PCs that ofcourse became the center of attention from said church after they choose to help the "rogue" Paladin.

[@julietfischer5056]

Done well, this makes rereading fun because we're now looking for hints that things aren't what they seem.

[@turdnugget]

Thank you for the advice!

[@nokkuneinei6592]

dunno bro...i've still tried to research that sometimes, HINTS are not enough to save a series from the downfall.. there is a series called The Beginning After The End...despite the comic is quite popular, recently the backlash from the spoiler novel whom the comic originally adapted from, is due to the sudden shake up despite many hints about it In short, spoiler alert if you also read it, the Hero has been in conflict with his bestfriend due to past live memory (the hero was a king, the bestfriend was his previous life friend turned rival which he executed), for some reason, the BestF also obsessed to the Hero fiancee, that already had many suitor which some of them tried to r*pe her which succesfully prevented by hero, and due to some accident, the Hero was presumed killed (even after LOT of power up) by the BestF assisted by some Random OP Ally, and when the Fiance hiding, sadly she was caught Do you think she would get some "luck" saved by Hero? No, turn out, BestF obsession is due that the Fiancee had his Wife soul inside her, which also was a friend of the hero + BestF in previous life, had crush to the hero before she given up and love the BestF after..and surprise...surprise, she was executed by the hero too, which in turn fueled the BestF raging hatred to the Hero (mind you...in the previous world, both of them challenged the hero in a gladiator colloseum battle, which dead is normal, because the king also risking his tittle...you could said it's a form of legal rebellion...and they hate him for that) After the kidnapping, the Wife soul takeover her, erasing her love to the hero and replacing it for the BestF and hatred to the Hero too..they even worked together to takeover the kingdom as if the fiancee now choose the BestF instead the Hero (she is an elven princess) while proving that the BestF is worthy of the throne bcuse they had made love to each other.. You know the reader reaction...man...A MESS is even an understatement...

[@bibbobella]

@@nokkuneinei6592 Well, that is probably mostly because everyone have grown to love the princess. She is basically dead at this point unless it gets reversed so ofcourse people are a bit shaken up about it. I really doubt that they will actually have her stay dead especially since the soul that have taken her place wasn't a bad person. More likely than not the girl currently possesing the main girl will give the mind and body back or hell another twist could be that she was never actually converted and is just pretending to be so. I personally find it intriguing. A bit frustrating yes but the story is so well written so I hightly doubt the author will fuck it up. Who knows, maybe it will turn out to be one f the best shakeups ever precented in a few years when more books have come out and everyone have gotten past what have happened.

[@gabrielrussell5531]

Please do an episode on the media's poor comprehension of hacking/hackers/computers.

[@majora6767]

isn't that kind of like the a.i episode?

[@sebastiansandoval4861]

Ez advice, don't be mr robot, it will bore your audience and won't help push misinformation

[@sebastiansandoval4861]

joke btw, i love mr robot

[@JeffreyThrash]

You'd think a VFX/animation studio's Research and Development (R&D) Department would at least give them a good starting point on how a coder's mind works.

[@dohickey7184]

*Launches cyber nuke*

[@tickytickytango5634]

I feel like the video should have suddenly and inexplicably changed to actual writing advice part way through just for a mid-video shakeup.

[@BonaparteBardithion]

The spoken advice and examples in this did come dangerously close to being genuinely good.

[@catinthewater7969]

Honestly, I would have done a double take and cracked up. Oh well…

[@wdcain1]

Season one of _Agents of SHIELD_ is probably the best one I can name. The show started out okay with the heroes investigating the Centipede stuff but that all changed with HYDRA. Then it changed from a "stop the badguy" show to a "who do we trust" spy thriller.

[@darwinxavier3516]

To a how dafuq do we solve this problem that we had a significant hand in causing in the first place....again.

[@victoriat8922]

I was thinking of this the whole video! It also made me think of how sometimes (very occasionally) having a character switch sides or turn out to be a traitor out of nowhere/with little foreshadowing can be a good thing. It increases the shock, allowing the audience to feel as betrayed as the characters do.

[@raccoonsgrace2232]

I like ATLA’s approach to this (spoilers for obvious reasons). To me, the way the plot was going seemed simple. At the end of season 2, Zuko was at the end of his redemption arc and he would join forces with the main group. Azula would be defeated, the day of black sun would come and that’s when Aang would defeat Ozai. But then, the show pulled a fast one on me, and made it so that instead Zuko regressed right back to where he started. But what I love about this twist, and the fact that the fire nation basically took over the world, was that it wasn’t unrealistic. Zuko wanted his fathers respect back, so we took the opportunity to re-join the fire nation. However that didn’t destroy his redemption arc, in fact it made him a more sympathetic character as we see him come to terms with the bad things he’s done and how he made a huge mistake. The day of black sun was another, but smaller shake up, showing the audience just how deadly the fire nation was. The battle with fire lord ozai taking place on the day of Sozin‘s comet, when his power would be increased, just heightened the climactic finale of the show. If it had taken place on the day of black sun, it might’ve actually been anti-climactic because there be really no threat to fight.

[@Dachusblot]

When I first watched the series I rented them on DVD, and when I got to the Day of Black Sun I was like, "Wait a sec, there's like 2 more disks after this! Uh oh..."

[@wren_.]

plus zukos decision ultimately makes his redemption arc way better, because he chooses it on his own. he gets everything he’s ever wanted yet he’s still just as confused and miserable as before. he has his honor, his has his fathers respect, and he’s the prince of a nation that just conquered almost the entire nation, but none of that will solve his internal problems for him. and in the end he recognizes this and fully chooses, for one of the first times in his life not motivated by circumstance, to side with the avatar and defeat his father.

[@purplehaze2358]

“Then don’t worry! Just have all their menace and scheming vanish into the same void that KZbin threw the dislike ratio into.” Too soon man..Too soon…

[@dinohall2595]

Oddly, I can still see the Dislike ratio on videos, but only under one of my accounts.

[@Netirumi]

@@dinohall2595 It's a rollout. They're converting accounts over slowly rather than all at once.

[@mesektet5776]

Mid-Act shakes can actually work it’s just absolutely, never, ever, ever try to undo them. If you decide to disrupt what is familiar and then insist the audience go back to it you destroy the investment of you audience. I mean imagine if in Final Fantasy VII after you rescue Shinra HQ with Aerith and Red XIII you go right back to blowing up Reactors? Or if in Star Wars after you establish that the Jedi methodology is flawed, the Force doesn’t care about who your parents are and the bad guy is 100% irredeemable, for the final movie you had Jedis uncomplicated paragons again, make all the main characters the child of someone famous and gave the bad guy a sudden attack of conscience redeemed through true love’s kiss, or something? We’d all think they were hack lunatics!

[@Aredel]

>.>

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

😅

[@wjzav1971]

Oh man. It still baffles me that Kevin Feige was able to create a 20+ somewhat consistent franchise arc in the MCU and one door over Kathleen Kennedy could not come up with a satisfying three-movie arc for Star Wars and just decided to wing it.

[@thanatoast]

@@wjzav1971 JJ is also to blame for star wars. His "mystery box" approach only works so long as you can come up with something interesting to reveal and he certainly hadn't come up with anything interesting beyond doing what the original trilogy did but worse.

[@Aredel]

@@wjzav1971 That's because Lucasfilm was a constant battle royale of differing opinions and ideas that all clashed with one another, as each person was trying to push their piece into the movies.

[@Shenaldrac]

Don't forget that if you're writing a series and it seems like the audience, being comprised of hundreds of thousands if not _millions_ of individuals communicating together over the internet, has managed to guess where your story is going then you absolutely *must* change course immediately! No one enjoys a work of fiction for a satisfying and engaging story delivered confidently and professionally. They do it so that they can be shocked and surprised when something unexpected happens! If the audience figured out what you were planning to have happen you simply must make something else happen instead, lest they feel smart and savvy for having figured things out and get the satisfaction of seeing what was likely an interesting and well built-up development happen. You don't want that! You want them to be surprised and never see things coming, like shitty jump scares in a cheap shovelware horror video game! Just popping out to give a momentary startle after which the player goes back to being bored. You want that but for your story! :D

[@lordanubis1458]

GoT has entered the chat.

[@djulianerenbourgh4969]

I love how the whole "character starts dying with the speed of the plot" part is a story of Cyberpunk 2077.

[@gabrielchasecanceladosinap3959]

Tell me more details

[@plaguedoctorjamespainshe6009]

@@gabrielchasecanceladosinap3959 you start dying ar the beggining out of cyber cancer but it never affects you and you can take your sweet time to do everything you want in the world

[@BenLafarge]

But kinda necessary in the context of a video game. It's an open world with lots of stuff to see and do. Imposing a countdown to the audience to limit play time in the name of scenaristic realism will just ruin the fun for an irrelevant gain. Gameplay comes first, and no one likes (global) time limits in games (out of very specific missions or quest). Many games use that approach (almost all Dragon Age games for example) and it isn't a bad thing.

[@drstrangelove307]

@@BenLafarge RDR2 does this though, and it doesn’t limit you as you play, but it does have obvious impacts in gameplay.

[@knightlon]

RDR2 does it well. It was a bit tedious to see it again in Cyberpunk where it wasn't so clear what it meant for the character.

[@sarahvunkannon7336]

I have a story idea for a character who discovers he's going to die when he first coughs up blood... But the cause of his death will be a lung condition, which makes logical sense because he lives somewhere wet and rainy where mold abounds and such things are common, and also, the fact that his lungs are bleeding causes a bunch of other symptoms. Blood flowing down into his stomach ruins his appetite and makes him easily nauseous causing him to lose weight and be tired all the time, for example. Also, that's how the story begins. The shakeup is actually when a new friend learns about this right as he's on his deathbed, is super terrified, invests all their energy into trying to make him better, and accidentally releases healing powers so that he recovers. New Friend receives training to become a doctor and acts as the group medic in all further adventures. Anyone have examples of any other not-completely-stupid sickness arcs?

[@freshpressedify]

Breaking Bad?

[@cherrytries2922]

The Bucket List is pretty good imo

[@IDK-ye4fi]

Red Dead Redemption 2, though that's a game, not a book.

[@alexparker5127]

When the sick person is a scientist or mage who does something stupid and dangerous in a desperate attempt to save thier own life. See the original Hellraiser Constantine comics for many examples or for a more recent example (Potential spoiler) Viktor from LoL/Arcane although this takes some obvious inferences until season 2 of Arcane drops.

[@Soitisisit]

Realistic dysentery where you shit for a week and can't do anything but the fighting keeps going without you and if you survive it still takes a week or two to recover and be back to the fighting.

[@appouhal]

This reminds me of how ABC's *"Family Matters"* went from being a wholesome grounded sitcom about an African-American family living in Chicago, IL to a sci-fi themed sitcom centered on the family's mad scientist next-door neighbor with episodic plots about cloning, shrink rays, time travel, demonic ventriloquist dummies, DNA mutations, teleportation devices, and mind-reading powers.

[@madamebkrt]

Seriously? I've never heard of that show but such a wild change in pretty much EVERYTHING sounds terrible lol.

[@appouhal]

@@madamebkrt I know, it’s crazy how much the show deviated from its original premise. But those sci-fi episodes were low-key entertaining.

[@madamebkrt]

@@appouhal I'm going to have to look this up now haha!

[@professorhaystacks6606]

Don't forget the daughter that vanished into the void, consumed by the ever growing black hole that is Urkel.

[@appouhal]

@@professorhaystacks6606 Yes: that was weird how Judy just disappeared with no explanation. She was “Brother Chucked” like Richie Cunningham’s older brother, Chuck from “Happy Days.” He suddenly disappeared with no explanation after the 1st season,

[@kr4119]

The Good Place has an excellent example of a plot twist- based shakeup that is foreshadowed perfectly and opened the story to new directions.

[@me-myself-i787]

8:47 That's one thing Across the Spiderverse did very badly. Like, they gave the Spot a stupid character arc where he becomes more competent, rather than pulling the competence out of nowhere like a good story would.

[@sadham2668]

Damn, I was ready to throw hands for a few seconds lol.

[@5MinuteFit]

I feel like most "monster of the week" series (shows or books) do this eventually, even when the new monsters/cases are more fun

[@kirbyfazendoummoonwalk9214]

It usually goes Something life First season is monter of the Wiki, in the Season Finale they introduce a Strong new enemie that the Protagonist takes more effort to defeat and survive the episode, and in season 2 is the Protagonist fighting the goons that the new strong enemie is sending

[@SteelRaven11]

X-Files, Supernatural, Buffy especially did this allot but the writing was so ham I don't think the fans noticed (Buffy has a long lost sister, Buffy sister is actually a key to the apocalypse, Buffy is now a robot) Someone joked that Supernatural has the same escalation as Dragon Ball Z and it's true of all of those show. There are constant macguffin hunts, main characters die/go missing a few dozen times and the main villain is always replaced by a even bigger villain no one ever mentioned of until that point.

[@dakat5131]

@@kirbyfazendoummoonwalk9214 Now that I think about it, I've seen a show where that basically happened, but without introducing too many new characters. At the end of one season the disorganized band of villains that the heroes had been fighting one at a time suddenly went on a quest to find a master. They never really got less inept but they became suspiciously co-ordinated (which naturally took a while for the heroes to figure out, and only really realized it because the bigger villain couldn't resist coming out of the shadow to boast...)

[@futurepig]

I used to loved The X Files when it was a couple of agents solving paranormal cases, then it became "a conspiracy inside a conspiracy inside a conspiracy" to the point it was impossible to understand what was going on.

[@natesmodelsdoodles5403]

It's cause the writers think that they need to change up the formula to make it better instead of sticking to what they built the story around and just honing that. Which isn't always a bad thing, but most shows of that kind try to throw in an Ancient Conspiracy or Dark Lord when what they really need is a Dark Magical Girl or Overly Edgy Rival.

[@zawsrdtygbhjimokpl6998]

"coughing up blood and no other symptoms". You... I know the entire channel is showing such overused dumb tropes, but this one hit hard

[@darwinxavier3516]

I immediately thought of League of Legends Arcane.

[@zawsrdtygbhjimokpl6998]

@@darwinxavier3516 he also looked paler and couldn't walk, would fall a lot, meaning he would be very weak in combat

[@artman40]

Cough without any blood will also suffice.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

"Good thing the illness doesn't bother them during the action scenes" Oh so true 😅

[@aionicthunder]

Speaking as a Xenoblade fan, misdirection definitely worked in terms of distracting me from some of the major plot twists. Another strategy that was frequently used was double meanings. Granted, some people did predict some of the twists (one in particular near the end of the game), but, as far as I’m concerned, a logical yet predictable twist is far superior to a surprising, yet nonsensical twist (plus, plenty of people didn’t figure it out, so I say it works extremely well)

[@MementoDespair]

I was only gonna play Xenoblade 2 but this makes me want to play the first one as well

[@Chadius]

@@MementoDespair Playing both will be worth it, the ending of both games are related.

[@agentboy57triskeet23]

@@Chadius Don't mention that straight up, spoilers.

[@rpgnut5897]

Nah. Xenoblade’s plot was painfully dull and boring. I thought the twists were very cheap.

[@aionicthunder]

@@rpgnut5897 You talking 1, X, or 2? ‘Cause 2 is far more character-driven as opposed to plot-driven and X doesn’t care about the main story. If you *are* talking about XC1, which I was, I have to know: what about the game’s plot is dull and boring? Because, as my favorite game of all time, I find that difficult to comprehend (I’m not even joking here; I’m dead serious that it just does not compute to me)

[@fullmoontales1749]

Ah yes, running around at the end trading snark rather than actually doing anything... Also, love the villain stepping out of the shadows then faceplanting - bonus if this si the second, third or fourth time Or, as SG-1 did, having a previously killed villain just come back to be the main villain again (at least they lampsahded that)

[@MenardiChan]

We just love Apophis, he was a great Pure Evil villain. But after the ... third or so ressurection he just became .. stale xD

[@fullmoontales1749]

Ona better note, Doctor Who. Started as an educational show with a gimmick, then the gimmick became the whole point

[@minhchientruong2973]

🌈Everyone: "The bad guys are beating the good guys by hitting all their weak points and dodging their best attacks! Their only chance would be someone with a different set of skills and powers, like the completely unrelated guy they introduced five minutes ago... and here he is!" ⚡Zordon⚡: "Finally, the prophecy has been fulfilled. The sixth ranger is now one of us."

[@thatjeff7550]

Ah yes. When it gets to be too much, you have all your robots form together to make the Mega-Zordtron and it the bad guy with a one-strike sword hit. And then when you bring in a new character, you have the Mega-Zordtron's one-strike sword hit bounce off the monster, have the good guys say, "OH NO! NOW WHAT?", then form up with the new guy to make the Mega-Mega Xordamite which pulls out a bigger sword to one-strike the bad guy.....

[@nobledamask]

At least when Power Rangers does it it's usually entertaining.

[@Jose04537]

@@thatjeff7550 I'm never going to forget one episode of Power Ranger Wild Force where they actually struggled. They were facing a train like monster, but it was so powerful (shield very strong), they were defeated twice with different MegaZords. Until the third one, which had an special ability by doing the right combinations (they have three entiblished set ups, they created a new one that allowed them to flight).

[@alexparker5127]

I don't know if I'd really call that a shake up since Power Rangers did that literally every season I can remember watching as a kid. It'd be a shake up if they stopped doing that

[@Duothimir]

GaoGaiGar when the Primevals show up be like Except J was an established character from the start and his heel face turn was shown a couple episodes prior, with the intervening time just being "hey I need to go get my old stuff".

[@n00bplayer72]

Subtrope of Character death: Character Assassination. You know the Mentor Character? The Paragon? The Beloved Legacy Character? The Character fans fell in love with? Well it suddenly was just revealed that they have an unsavoury, scandalous past with tons of skeletons in their closet, and/or the timeskip didn't treat them too well and now they're powerless, depressed and cynical, and ready to generate a boatload of unnecessary drama as the main characters angst over this new information. Will the MC's ever reconcile the two diametrically opposed versions of this character? Probably not. That would require having a deeper understanding of that character, understanding how much that character means to your fans, and you actually caring about that character to begin with! Might as well abandon that character on the bench, or throw them in the trash OR kill them and have your MC's all but forget them by the next chapter!

[@johnathonhaney8291]

While by no means perfect, Smallville was actually pretty good with midseries shakeups. Only exception was Season 4, which pretty much followed all of JP's advice here.

[@sotrh7974]

What happened in season 4?

[@johnathonhaney8291]

@@sotrh7974 Aside from the opening and closing episodes, everything just went haywire. It had the worst season-long subplot equating magic with Kryptonian science (basically HP Lovecraft For Dummies if it were written by ACTUAL dummies), worst romantic rival to Clark, some truly stupid individual episodes (the body swap and serial ghost possession ones were so bad for me to ever watch them again) and total mismanagement of the supporting cast (likely stemming from the departure of Pete Ross and behind the scenes nonsense involving Erica Durance as Lois Lane AKA the SOLE redeeming feature of this season). The series had its share of dud moments, bad episodes and the like throughout. But I submit that the stupid was NEVER more concentrated than here.

[@OrbitalfilmsAU]

AoT is fantastic for this because it actually tries to take the audiences' mentality with it by basically being like "Oh yeah? THIS is what you were rooting for? Feel good now?"

[@galaxystudios370]

I was never rooting for what was pretty close to happening in the final arc. Spoilers for the manga below: With that said, although Eren is undoubtedly the villain throughout the last three arcs, he’s still my pick for the best written character of Season 4.

[@Jose04537]

@@galaxystudios370 Eren was the embodiment of "F that, F EVERYTHING" which is understandable.

[@Telis3456]

Too bad it completely shat itself with the ending

[@OrbitalfilmsAU]

@@Telis3456 i have a theory that the writer wrote it way at the start and just tried to work backwards at the end to make the new developments fit.

[@maxf9291]

When I saw this video, AoT was the first story I thought of as a good example of mid-story shakeup! Everything was so well foreshadowed and the series went from “pretty good I guess” to “phenomenal fiction” as a result

[@thewiirocks]

"Burn down the old setting" - Check "Melodramatic tripe, can churn that out on the cheap" - Check "Plot twist out of thin air" - Check "Saturate the viewer with plot twist after plot twist" - Check "True villain reveal" - Check "Maybe it could be a previous villain becoming competent" - Check Have you been writing for Masters of the Universe Revelation? Also known as, "The Teela show - not actually starring Teela, but another character with the same name"?

[@UncleJrueForTue]

It's also literally Season 3 of RWBY summarized.

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

The second book in my series takes a very sharp left turn from the first one, so I'll be sweating bullets the whole time I'm watching this 0_0

[@wojciechficek616]

What are they about?

[@thoughtfuldevil6069]

@@wojciechficek616 Jackie and Craig was about two kids fighting monsters with improvised weaponry. Sort of Bridge to Terabithia meets Gremlins. It was all from Craig's point of view. Teenage Wastelands: The Rise and Fall of the Sky Valley Cult was about a secret cult of psychic, weather-controlling adolescents who were infiltrating society, told from multiple different viewpoints. I think I skipped most of the flaws in this vid but man I was afraid lol. And most people bought the second book anyways so Jackie and Craig is pretty much just an extended prologue at this point, for better or worse o_0

[@madamebkrt]

Build-up is so important, but it can also be terrible if done incompetently. IE, Alm learning that he is Emperor Rudolph's son in Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia. The hints were so blatant that it was insane, including a villain refer to him as "Rudolph's pup" during the first half of the game. "wHaT dOeS tHaT eVeN mEaN..?", thought dense Alm and Friends. The reveal was treated as some emotional, totally unforeseen thing meanwhile I was sitting there with a complete poker face because how on Earth did the writers proofread their script and think "Great, that reveal will really resonate with the players"? It's as if they instead thought "As long as every other character expresses confusion, the audience can't possibly know."

[@pompousproductions]

You know the Sponsorship Wars about to have a major shift of their own makes a good lot of sense. The knights are portrayed as humorous good guys, but…if the Sponsorships and Ads are taken out…that means JP’s channel loses one of the biggest advantages among other “Writing Tips” channels. The fact he doesn’t use normal obnoxious KZbin ads and naturally morphs his normal sponsorships to match the story he’s trying to tell at the end of every episode. So…what happens if the knights are successful and kill the ads?……An episode about product placement in storytelling in a video littered with ads every thirty seconds?

[@waltuhgaming6523]

Red vs blue's chorus trilogy plot twist is my undisputed champ for mid-series shale ups

[@shaunjimbangan1166]

I respect your opinion, but I find that plot twist really pales in comparison to the other twists the series has to offer.

[@waltuhgaming6523]

@@shaunjimbangan1166 I can see that, there's a few I can name that are more surprising.

[@sirkillalot9892]

@@waltuhgaming6523 I loved the Felix twist, but what are your favourites?

[@conradojavier7547]

RVB Itself started as a Sitcom who parodies Halo, to a more Serious Story.

[@vampman87]

"Marvel's Agents of SHIELD" was the poster child for this. It started as a "Case of the Week" series, then one of the characters turns out to be evil, betrays the other characters, and the show went from episodic to serialized for the rest of the series. In the second season you get a Big Bad who was the man behind the Big Bad of the first season... and he dies midway through the season and the REAL season's villain shows up in the third to last episode. Then the traitor character, who was milling about during the second season with no real direction, comes back with a vengeance in the third season, dies halfway through, becomes possessed by an alien, and dies again. Then in the fourth season the agents deal with GHOSTS and team up with an android who falls in love with one of the characters, becomes human for him, and turns into the Big Bad when he rejects her. And we haven't gotten into the time travel crap that dominated the last three seasons...

[@WhiteFangofWar]

They are quite good at that. First 2/3rds of S1 got the panning it deserved for meandering around waiting for the change (that being the events of the Winter Soldier) to hit, but when it did it became one of my favorite shows. I only wish the 'we're outmanned and outgunned by HYDRA and have to use every resource to survive' phase had gone on a little longer.

[@defryingpan4290]

“Making Wormtongue look subtle” is one of the most intense insults I have ever seen. I will now use it near-daily

[@zuulmeister8409]

I do really wish that RWBY had spent a little more time being a magic school show.

[@ZionSairin]

… Why is this one of the shows I can just throw this entire series of videos at and watch most of it stick?

[@brandonontama2415]

My enjoyment of RWBY plummeted when they left Beacon.

[@RedTailedSmeargle]

@@ZionSairin Rwby has had a lot if shake ups, in the meta sense. Tbh, I don't hate the show, since it has some redeeming merits when it's on point. But those things are few and far between due to the show's pace, and it feels like those other things get shunted out. This comes from chewing through talent and creatives, while the people who come in to pick up the slack have the unenviable task of righting the mess already made while still keeping the show fresh and 'good. Then, there are folks who give a lot of bad faith criticism because they've never had to make something on the same level. A good writer is someone who can churn out a good thing and call it a day. A great one can consistently take a horrible thing and make it good, learning building upon what was already brokrn and learning from such. You know, having the ability to keep moving forward.

[@gayanudugampola8973]

@@RedTailedSmeargle Unfortunately for RWBY despite it's strong start. The writing resulted in the show becoming worse. A lot of the videos on this channel fit well with RWBY.

[@ZionSairin]

@@RedTailedSmeargle Well, the painful side of it I guess is seeing that fans treat the show with more respect sometimes, and that the main writers have not changed in several seasons. As for “chewing through creatives” and picking up slack, they brought in two extra hands to lead the writing and funny enough that made Volume/Season 7 have some decent moments that were really well done, stacked on top of the bad ones that everyone had gotten used to. It feels like there’s a common denominator there, and I think it’s best if they took a step back and allowed the newer writers to shine.

[@Grizabeebles]

In "The Stand" by Stephen King, King just had the bad guy send a double-agent to the place where all the heroes were gathering and convince a third party to plant a bomb. The story then moves forward with the good guys that are left. Underdog status restored! According to King, he wrote scenes to explain where the bomb came from after he wrote the scene where the bomb goes off. However, those scenes were placed BEFORE the bombing in the final narrative so that the audience didn't feel like this was a totally random move on King's part. That's one advantage full novels have over episodic fiction. A writer can go back and write what happened 6 weeks earlier without resorting to a flashback episode.

[@Kartoffelkamm]

After watching a lot of Pretty Cure, I'd really like a TWA on magical girls. Would be fun.

[@conradojavier7547]

Tropical Rouge had a Mermaid BE Finally be a Part of the Team, instead of being a Glorified NPC.

[@conradojavier7547]

He should watch a Genre where a Familiar Recruits a Average Girl to become a Super Heroine in a Dress to fight Bad Guys, & Monsters of the Week with their Super Powers.

[@helloill672]

@@conradojavier7547 and the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!!!!

[@conradojavier7547]

@@helloill672 Who needs Male Love Intrest, when they can make them Les....I mean Bestest Friend Ever.

[@jvts8916]

Pre or post Madoka?

[@RichardSekmistrz]

Fringe, the TV show, had this - it was an X-Files clone for the first 1.5 seasons and suddenly realized it could be a unique series about two parallel worlds going to war with each other, more or less. I thought it was a good shake up.

[@chrisschirripa5917]

Which is why it Shocked me that Alex Kurtzman was involved in this

[@Barwasser]

10:19 "Overly Long Hot Garbage Star Wars Take" praise be to the longman

[@gayanudugampola8973]

Yes i agree with your star wars take. But please take up 3 hours of my life. It's even worse if they got no timestamps.

[@egoalter1276]

Whats even worse is that what he does is the same low effort shit tgwtg started, of going through the entire fuckimg movie scene by scene commentating it, rather than making his fucking point. And he doesnt even make his point at the end in a single take, but fractured along the useless obvious commentary.

[@dakat5131]

This villain has been demonstrated to be exceptionally powerful and dangerous. They've nearly beaten the heros, so now it's time for them to stand still and wait for the heros to defeat them.

[@unknownentityenthusiast6765]

Stand still *and monologue* !

[@DoctorSpacebar]

We've got to let the hero clear all the side quests and get all the cards in the card minigame, after all.

[@appouhal]

This also sounds like when a sitcom becomes more dramatic like a soap opera as the series progresses.

[@appouhal]

Sitcoms such as “Boy Meets World,” “Moesha,” and “How I Met Your Mother” (to an extent) come to mind.

[@appouhal]

Sometimes the inverse occurs where a TV drama series becomes more comedic or more meta as the series progresses, such as CW’s “Supernatural.”

[@canaisyoung3601]

What about sitcoms like The Simpsons and Family Guy where the humor just deteriorates as time goes on? Though South Park's later eoisodes do swing between drama and comedy

[@somuchsoul3041]

This series always inspires me to write. And then I actually start writing, and my will to write starts to dissipate.

[@orngjce223]

Give yourself permission to write very short stories (a few hundred words) of complete garbage. You never have to share it with anyone if you don't want to. In fact, you can just delete it _after_ you have finished writing it. How is anyone going to stop you? (Though, try not to delete it midway through. It is important to practice writing endings.) If you are having trouble thinking of what to write about, "missing scene" fanfiction is a good entry point: basically, write a scene that was implied to happen "offscreen" in a piece of media you like, such as two characters driving home after a scene. This is hard to mess up because you already know what happened beforehand, what everything and everyone will end up like afterwards, and a general idea of what happened in the middle. And again - you're writing for yourself. You never need to share it if you don't want to. (I do recommend saving it on your hard drive somewhere, so you have evidence that you did something. But you don't have to.)

[@somuchsoul3041]

@@orngjce223 Thanks for the advice. This is surprisingly similar to what I do, lol. Usually I write a paragraph of a story I thought of and then I just leave it for later. (Usually there isn't a later, but yeah).

[@imaginationave3687]

2:11 The eraser end should be on the sharp side of the scythe, symbolizing the author being the cause of the character's death. Overall, good video J.P.

[@sleepysera]

I'm way too fond of the "burning down the setting" option...🙃 One of my most favourite stories I ever wrote was some cute idol culture love story with a bit of mafia action on the side, that suddenly turned into parallel worlds sci fi ecological disaster teen rebel army resistance fighting, because why not. It wasn't even because I grew bored of the old setting, it was planned like that from the beginning 😅 I lost all my readers but had a blast writing it~

[@RealRexRiplash]

The "Reveal the true villain by having them murder the main villain with minimal effort" approach has been done a few times. Warriors did this, but it really felt out of nowhere.

[@TheShamele]

Star Wars dumpster fire makes me sad. It’s ludicrous that production studios (esp Disney) think you can just replace the architect and author and keep making the same thing (or “better” in terms of ROI).

[@AzureIV]

I want a prequel story so I can read more about the rise of Noble McTragicDad, ruler of The Kingdom of Static Background Art.

[@JBear87]

JP's slow tonal descent from silly roleplaying to scathing sarcasm makes this series feel like a villain's origin story.

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

Idk if I’ve just got RWBY on the mind but holy hell it feels like some of this is directed at it.

[@Just_Some_Guy_with_a_Mustache]

*me, after suffering through the Netflix Live Action **-Middle School Writer's Fanfic-** Series Finale* *sees TWA released a video* *reads title* ...Hmm...

[@qdboi2361]

A lot of the things in here make me think of the end of season 3 of RWBY

[@partyrock4144]

A terrible example is how RWBY suddenly went from a slice of life neo futuristic high school drama to a high fantasy whatever which kills off all of the foils and antagonists before they actually serve a purpose leaving only the hollow “big bad” that has long since lost their intimidated factor with no clear method to fight them head on.

[@ProtozoanKid]

One of my favorite anecdotes is of the time my friend had me watch Barry framing it as a "light-humored dark comedy" and I thought, alright, this could be fun. Then at the end of the first season, a bunch of people died and I was not prepared for a serious drama., so I stopped watching it. Later, he told me about Dirk Gently and framed it in the same way as before, and I said "As long as there isn't a room full of bodies 4 episodes in, I'll watch it." To which he said "I am 4 episodes in and it does not go that direction. You're good." And then watching episode 5 with him, the main character opens the door to a literal room full of dead bodies. I just gave my friend a look and he apologized so fast.

[@theTeslaFalcon]

"...dying at the speed of the plot." I love it.

[@littlemoth4956]

I think Dragon Quest as a series does an amazing job at shakeups. From what I've played, DQ7 has one where the protagonists stop travelling to the past and have their once peaceful present ravaged by darkness, and DQ11 has an incredibly important landmark destroyed, changing the world forever. What I like about them is that you can feel the consequences of the change even after what caused the change had been dealt with.

[@teal_m_101]

Remember, the more you derail the plot, the better the plot is!

[@MPHJackson7]

Changing things for no reason is the mark of high-brow entertainment. If you aren't making things needlessly hard for your audience, are you really writing a story?

[@ses694]

Just confuse them so much that you seem clever

[@santiagomenchaca4248]

The more recons in the plot the better the plot

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

Do “super boss villains” terrible writing advice (super bosses like Thanos and Darkseid)

[@commenturthegreat2915]

He already did a bunch of episodes about villains

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

@@commenturthegreat2915 but not the super boss variety

[@commenturthegreat2915]

@@notproductiveproductions3504 He did dark lords, it's kind of the same thing

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

@@commenturthegreat2915 not really. They don’t make tanking the hero’s win/loss ratio a trope

[@notproductiveproductions3504]

@@commenturthegreat2915 most dark lords don’t have enough of that “power gap with a personality” factor (Darth Vader has been reduced to a strength benchmark in some stories like The Force Unleashed and low key Return of the Jedi)

[@officialgremlin]

I think JP's reaching the middle of his "Best Story Ever".

[@cedrickalba7081]

Remember to always never bother to give context on why the Characters or power system change.

[@IAsimov]

Halo 5... Halo 5... Halo 5... That mid-series shakeup was so bad, the writers RETROACTIVELY tried justifying the sudden plot twist via minor data drops to show How Cortana Was Evil All Along and that A Machine Rebellion Was Inevitable. Nevermind ruining a beautiful sendoff and having the opportunity RIGHT AT YOUR FREAKING PLATE, for developing a main character now being forced to be without his closest friend.

[@egoalter1276]

Huh, they didnt retcon 5 out of existance? Well.place your bets folks. Will the series fail, or will they retcon two whole ass games now?

[@MrQuantumInc]

I just want to compliment fake KZbin screenshot at 10:25 and the way you can show the advertisements while still showing them fighting the advertisements.

[@CaptainMonotone448]

So, I see we're very close to episode 69. Could this mean we're also close to terrible writing advice for Erotica? A climax to our anticipation, if you will...

[@maxyaju4293]

You litterally predicted it lmao

[@lordanubis1458]

Nice man!

[@doubletake3411]

As someone planning a major setting changeup that yanks the story from sword-and-sorcery into high fantasy, this video was extremely useful. Props.

[@J37T3R]

I had assumed that there would be a shakeup mid-episode, like getting taken over by the inner critic or something. I choose to believe that this is JP pulling a meta-shakeup.

[@t.r.everstone7]

Diminishing returns on deaths is exactly the main problem Akame ga Kill suffers from! Now I know how to describe what annoys me about the deaths

[@aaronjohnston2751]

The best mid-story shakeup that I can remember is the one from Bloodborne. Nothing really changes in terms of gameplay, but in terms of narrative and lore, it’s one of the most impactful that comes to mind. Everything is hinted at since the beginning of the game, but it still somehow comes out of nowhere without managing to feel out of place or cheap.

[@paulovinasrocha6166]

Do you mean the moment after you fight rom the spider.

[@khyzan8527]

Every time i see a base of operation for the main character in a game or movie, I always expect the enemy smoking them out in a big emotional fashion.

[@vitalspark6288]

When you're talking about the joke villain becoming a serious villain, it made me think of Ludo from Star vs the Forces of Evil. He's a joke villain in the first season, but during the second season they give him a really good character development arc, so he's a serious threat by the end.

[@thedissatisfactoryman114]

Man I came here to learn about mid series shakeups and all I got was a recap of RWBY volume 3

[@thesquishedelf1301]

“Burning down the setting” - the beginning of the end for RWBY.

[@CorwinTheOneAndOnly]

A lesson that 90% of shounen manga authors desperately need to learn: we were enjoying your story *before* you pulled all this wacky bullshit on us.

[@ZeroKitsune]

Oh my god this so much. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually enjoyed the new direction better than the old one, and I think those were all from really old series that are highly regarded....

[@jitsauce522]

​@@ZeroKitsune i feel like it happens so much just due to the average format of how shounen authors have to make up shit weekly unless they planned some stuff out, Im not excusing it btw, im just guessing thats the biggest reason why, most of them are done to keep the readers interested after interest has gone down, or to jump ahead and just advance a huge chunk of the story, but in general they're pretty easy to mess up or sometimes just hard to feel anything other than "oh that happened i guess" One great example imo of mid series shake ups has always been Jojo's sequel trilogy of parts (Jojo spoilers below) Part 4 starts as a slice of life with action elements, but halfway through introduces a main villain being that of a killer and it becomes a thriller mystery action series Part 5 starts with the main gang working to help their mafia boss, but the second half focuses on them betraying said boss and trying to defeat him. Part 6 is a prison escape story, and, well, the second half/last third of the story is about them actually being outside the prison after they escaped. All of these feel natural and always make the story feel ten times more interesting, introducing new characters (mostly villains), it moves the plot forwards to an interesting finale, and never feel like they just came out of nowhere.

[@Rhaxma]

AOT did a great job tho. But its like a 1 in a million..

[@tremassicotte3172]

@@jitsauce522 Nigga read more shounen stories that isn't from shounen jump.

[@jitsauce522]

​@@tremassicotte3172 No

[@SirSpuddington]

"Somehow, Palpatine returned" comes to mind, but so does the Timeless Child. WHY, CHIBNALL, WHY

[@kaisermaximal8123]

This video was great, but I simply cannot wait for episode 69

[@Promotop-we2ht]

Nice

[@coal9205]

"Parental figures normally have big neon signs pointed at them labeled death" Me, who has a parental figure for the main character who doesnt die at the end of the story: huh.

[@lunatic0verlord10]

9:16 What I'd give to throw KZbin in that same void as well.

[@alexandrebelinge8996]

Great video! That reminded me the overused murder/abuse/assault of spouse/gf in comicbooks ... tedious !

[@leohex8767]

I think that this is just RWBY's "plot" outline.

[@Wolfphototech]

I love terrible writing advice . It's cool how JP tries to balance the channel gimmick of giving bad advice and actually nesting in good advice .

[@gregorydavis5690]

Your next video should be on climatic shake ups. This video made me think a lot about Harry Potter and the different effects of Cedric’s death (mid-series) and Dumbledoor’s death (at the climax).

[@joesmutz9287]

This entire video reminds me hard of the season 3 of RWBY For a plethora of reasons, the series went from an episodic school adventure to a fantasy adventure series, with it's transition being a tournament arc They killed off 3 characters rather unceremoniously (the one who actually earned her death got it undercut by turning it into a trigger for a Deus Ex Machina) the tone got way dark without any build-up, and the entire familiar location ceased to be with only the occasional passing comment on it's destruction (and very few overarching ramifications) I won't call it shock for the sake of shock, because there were other reasons (their lead animator and original idea guy dying suddenly) but without context it really feels that way

[@Green-3c34y65vrbu]

nice review of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, JP.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

Your comment about sudden deaths made me think of when my brother and I watched Moana. One moment, the grandmother character was dancing and singing about Moana being her self, and then that very night, she died. We were like "Well, fuck, that was sudden!" We rewatched the opening (the only time she's shown) to ensure we didn't miss something and nope, never is there any indication she was sick and she was absolutely fine during the song. They give zero reason as to her sudden change in health and she just dies to become a plot pusher, encouraging Moana on from the afterlife. It would be more poingnant if we'd gotten to see more of the grandmother or at the very least knew what killed her! Odd that none of Disney's thousand and one writers caught that, lol.

[@dakat5131]

Sometimes when stuff like that happens, I guess that they used to have a scene explaining it but it got cut for some reason- to the detriment of the film. That's probably not always the case, but there have been times I've seen deleted scenes and went "oh that makes so much more sense, they should have kept that"

[@Kahtisemo]

After Moana left with her dad, Grandma stayed behind a bit holding her chest iirc. It's still sudden but gives an idea that something was wrong. Like you I wish there was an official explanation but there's a theory I like that says the Heart of Tefiti was helping her keep as strong as she was and she knew after she gave it to Moana she wouldn't have long. And given the arguing among the villagers her death was also the distraction needed for Moana to go before her dad tried to stop her again.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

@@dakat5131 "Moana" did go through some extensive re-writes, such as she was supposed to have had brothers and was a bit more petulant, if the removed song "More" (I think it's called) is anything to go by. It's on the Moana soundtrack and the complete soundtrack, demos, and removed songs are on Spotify. Indeed, maybe a scene was lost in the shuffle.

[@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley]

@@Kahtisemo I don't remember grabbing her chest but I'll try to rewatch it if I can (don't have and will not buy Disney+, lol).

[@GameyGaming]

Thanks for keeping up with this series for so long, I hope a bunch of people get great help from your channel c-:

[@bibbobella]

I just realised. Avatar, the last airbender. Actually have a slight shift after the second season. They lose one of the main battles when the earthkingdom ends up being taken over the fire nation, Aang actually dies and gets his avatar state blocked leaving him way weaker, the group have to go into hiding now more than ever and the biggest tactical chance they had gets nearly destroyed thanks to all of this.

[@BonaparteBardithion]

Zuko's arc does this pretty much every season too.

[@TorrentialStardust]

Ok but for a second at the ad part I was actually afraid for the conspiracy guy and the knight

[@fdimension]

If you want something with good mid series shakeups, I recommend watching Attack on Titan (or reading the manga). Don’t look anything up, because the story is intricately and beautifully layered. Season 1 is so, so different from Season 4. Seriously, don’t look it up. Watch it!

[@johnwige2905]

I love this guy, bless his heart and talents of entertainment.

[@a.e.1965]

Man it really feels good to learn something you had been seeing and noticing all the time but didn't think about it much or you just didn't have organized knowledge about it like this video. Thinking back one of tone shifts effects I've always had was that at some point I stop and think how the story has come along and most of the time I think man how simpler and fun the story was at the beginning it is so tense now

[@dakat5131]

I think that can happen if something had built a reputation for being a certain flavor, and then drifts into something more intense. All the fun times the audience fell in love with (possibly in spite of lower stakes,etc) don't really happen anymore due to the focus on maintaining the darker tone or keeping up the momentum. Returning to that state might be tricky to pull off once people get used to the higher stakes backed by a more serious presentation though

[@a.e.1965]

@@dakat5131 I mean, that seems kinda legit you know, real life hardships can be pretty much that way too, "Problem accrues, forced to leave the innocent childish life and face the problem, maturing up and getting over the problem, just to realize you can't be the same person as before and things have changed," Something like that, although if handled badly this might lead to shallow story routine, perhaps like mcu (maybe not, but I hate them so) But if handled well I enjoy looking back at the story like this to how far things have become, gives me a sense adventure as how much we have come together to get here

[@syedarizvi7290]

It's like you are speaking my heart and my mind. These are the problems I face with stories that seem to just take away everything I liked about them and keep putting in pointless plot twists and expect me to drop my jaw each time. Plot twists don't make a good story. Thank you so much!

[@charleshetrick3152]

Agreed, Murder She Wrote was an awesome show!