BAE Story Update Feb. 2024

In no particular order, things that matter about where we are and where we're going:

I knew nothing about Batman _beyond _what I'd seen in the movies when this was commissioned, and it was requested to be mostly based on the Animated Series. When the commissioner moved on, I'd gotten curious and started looking at Batman collections in my local library and that, combined with some fandom wiki rabbit holes caused me to change things a bit. This story exists within the BTAS aesthetic but with characters and continuity from the comics, but not all of it clearly, as Barbara was never shot by the Joker. So it's messy, as usual with my irresponsible stories--although since DC and Batman continuity is also hilariously messy, I'm claiming comic book executive messiness privilege. I've made two executive decisions along the way, one in response to the voter trend to choose the most conservative options always and one because I made a (potentially faulty) assumption that people would want more batgirls, which resulted in adding the option for Stephanie to join and pushing harder for the Ivy subplot. If these were mistakes, I apologize.

These things along with the weekly format and some poor planning on my part caused a certain level of not exactly aimlessness, but the story didn't have the cohesion that I felt like it needed. To restore order and sanity, I outlined the story and given it a season finale. Now, at the rate we're going, that could be a year away--but the point is that the structure is in place. This isn't going to be a great work of classic literature or a tightly plotted Christopher Nolan film, but the story exists and is not being made up as we go*. Voter decisions will still influence how we reach those plot points, how much of a mess is made along the way, and what state the characters and their relationships are in when they get there.

I'd like to remind everyone again that it's very rarely a choice between right and wrong, and while the stakes will be high here, it's still not Dark Souls. there is no sudden stop or game over, and there honestly hasn't been in any VFU story since the first SSS. There are some stakes, but I'm the built-in aim-assist that will ultimately get the story to some kind of lewdness no matter what. You might end up with an ending that doesn't feel like a huge victory due to your votes, but you will not get catastrophic failure. Catastrophic failure is not an option in VFU funnylewds. Barbara Gordon can be an angry vigilante or a calculating, cerebral team leader, but either way, people will get laid and Babs et al will somehow come out on top. Even when you choose the most boring options, they will still get laid, it just takes longer to get there and might not be as spicy.

Finally, when that season end comes for BAE, it will wrap up this plot thread and answer all the questions, then end on a question that will allow you to vote to continue as-is, or to reduce the scope of the story back to just Barbara, and this will be facilitated by appropriate, inoffensive story content.

I don't think that BAE benefits from the weekly format, but that's a discussion for after the season ends and we'll take it up then. Anyway, thanks for your continued reading and support. It felt like there was a lot of speculation in the comments about what was going on under the hood, and that's the answer. Messiness/questionable writing on my part AND recent changes that I've arbitrarily made to the trajectory of the story are your answer.

And the end result of the Analyst/Avenger scores, which I stopped tracking around Chapter 60, is that we have a relatively thoughtful Barbara who will occasionally lose her temper or do something proud or arrogant in the heat of battle. This is just what the scores gave us, but it's not radically out of step with how she's generally presented in the comics and stuff, so it seems reasonable.

*I did this a couple of months ago and we've been on the slightly more structured model for several weeks now.