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Oct 26, 2023Liked by C.J. Stone

Phew! All right, we’re good! I was worried when Sapphire got thrown over the edge of the bridge, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from her and her agility. That comeback was truly something else, and I was on the edge of my seat all throughout her fight with Smash and his men. If she’s going to go down.....at least she’s going to go down when she decides to, not when some other people best her. .....I’m just kidding, she’s not going to go down.

See.....that’s the thing, with that ending for the chapter. I really can tell that you’re trying to create suspense and make a really good cliffhanger, I really can.....but I’m just really not feeling it. I’m not feeling it because, well, she’s Sapphire Angel, the main character. I mean, at most, she’s probably just going to be knocked unconscious and probably brutalized, but I know for sure she’s not dying. Then again, you could throw me a curveball next chapter and it turns out she does die, at which point I’d legitimately be shocked. And then I’d be wondering who’d replace her, if anyone. Or it could severely injure her and leave her out of the action for the rest of this book AND most of the next book, with someone like Conner, Ethan, or Stanley being the main character for most of Book #5 instead. Speaking of Stanley, hope he’s still okay. Hopefully Lynch didn’t find out about the van and secretly send another hidden squad of Savage Gang goons to find and disable it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, because Sapphire Angel has plot armor due to being the main protagonist (which is actually common in lots of media), any kind of suspense you try to pull with her doesn’t really have much weight. Put someone else in that situation, though, like Conner, Ethan, Stanley, Mrs. Devor, Olivia Lockheed, etc., and I’d REALLY be freaking out. Or, heck, have her in a bad situation as Beth, when she’s NOT immune to most weapons.

No offense, really; I have a character in the PCU who’s practically invincible besides a very specific substance molded into a very specific form (hint; you’ve already read about them.....or HER, I guess), so it’s hard for me to write about tense fights with her. Combat situations when her life is actually at stake, you know?

I’m still wondering how Sapphire is going to get out of this, don’t get me wrong; it’s just that I know for sure she’s not kicking the bucket. Guess I’ll see for sure!

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You make a very good point about plot armor. I usually have the hero be the one at the center of the drama or peril, because that's the character I presume a reader is most attached to (and therefore the peril will be more compelling), but especially in a story like this, where I've already said there's a next book in the Savage Gang story, we can be pretty certain she won't die. Of course, death is but one bad thing that could happen to alter a character's trajectory. You did get me thinking, though, and even in movies and books where I presumed the main character wasn't going to die, seeing the hero in peril was often gripping (I think of some spy thriller novels, or seeing Reign demolish Supergirl in the TV show). Perhaps in the future I should work harder at making the reader get attached to a secondary character, and have that character in peril. Now that I think of it… well, stay tuned for the next story. :) That one might just have enough peril to go around for a few people.

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