ward clearly wasn't as planned out as worm was, but i doubt it was completely off the cuff either. there were definitely probably a handful of scenes and vague character arcs figured out beforehand. but my stance is, and has been since i gave up on reading this book, that the book wildbow envisioned himself writing and the book he actually ended up with are entirely different. and one is clearly better than the other (and it's not the one we got)
and im not talking out of my ass. there's a lot of evidence pointing to this in the early chapters. especially wrt amelia dallon. there's like parallels to her's and victoria's relationship all over the god damn place. these are all from 1.1 (emphasis mine, obviously)
âYouâll leave her alone?â I asked.
The old man heaved out a sigh.
âSheâs a kid who made a stupid mistake,â I said, in case he was trying to come to a decision. âYou donât have to forgive her, but you canât go and hurt her or anything.â
this is like. the thesis statement (did i use that right? i'm not an english lit type) of the version of ward that's better (i think the divergence happens in arc 13 or 14 when amy is retconned into being a literal rapist). you (victoria) don't have to forgive her (amelia) in the same way that no one is ever under any obligation to forgive their abusers. but you (victoria) have to acknowledge that she (amelia) was a kid who made a mistake.
I checked the papers. Â Forum transcripts, some intercepted emails, some notes on Fume Hood.
I had a folder on my shelf. Â Notes from home. Â She was from Boston, among other places. Â Itinerant.
There were a lot of newspaper articles.  Sheâd drawn a lot of attention once. Everyone was supposed to be getting a second chance, and it seemed that peopleâs memories were long enough that she wasnât necessarily getting hers.
âShe did her time,â I said. âShe made a mistake, she paid for it as much as she was able. We donât have enough good jails and so sheâs free, and it looks like sheâs trying to do good. Thatâs pretty decent, really. Sheâs not the enemy here.â
i empathize with victoria's reactions to amelia, later on in this book. like i'd have acted the same way tbh. worse even. but she still a fucking hypocrite. fume hood is a proxy for amelia here, right? she's supposed to be getting her second chance. but memories are long. how can one deserve a second chance while their victims are still hurting? victoria points to prison and "doing your time" which is fucking stupid but she's a cop and punishment=justice is an essential cornerstone to her worldview i guess lol. but also literally all of this is true for amelia dallon
paid for it as much as she was able to âď¸
there's no jails so she's free âď¸
these are the introductory ideas of ward. this is the first thing ward asks you to think about. why is this true for fume hood but not true for amelia? it'll ask it again with the therapy group, and riley, and valkyrie, and rain's cluster, and the undersiders, and the heartbroken.
what's the point, why draw this parallel? i think there's 3 possible answers.
the thing i said at the top. wildbow intended to follow up on this, and make it a story about victoria healing from her trauma (kinda like how people like to pretend it is)
it's actually just a funny coincidence
the ward we got is the ward wildbow intended to write from the start and the point of the parallel is to illustrate how amy is simply built different (wrong, with sin in her heart)
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