"Really, we're just good friends."

So, Westley has been through a LOT of unpleasant shit to get back and has just found out that his true love has moved on to become engaged to their local prince. He's confused. He's really pissed off. He misses whatever opportunity allowed him to follow Buttercup on her daily ride (didn't see her ride out, didn't hear about it, whatever), because he's following another opportunity into the castle to investigate Humperdinck. Or else he sees Humperdinck and Rugen riding off towards the Pit of Despair together and decides to follow them instead. Either way, Westley overhears the two men very casually discussing Humperdinck's beautiful but forcibly gained fiancée and the kidnapping plot currently underway, and Westley realizes that Buttercup is about to DIE and he's very likely not going to be able to reach his true love in time. He still runs off, desperate and ready to die trying to save her.

And Westley is really much to late to cross the water and climb the Cliffs of Insanity and all that, because Buttercup and her kidnappers are already at the border with Guilder. It's fine though, because when Fezzik and Inigo are confronted with the murder part of the job, they object, and Fezzik ultimately decides that he's really not cool with it. Fezzik thumps Vizzini over the head while Vizzini is berating Inigo. Fezzik apologizes to Buttercup. Inigo looks at the unconscious (possibly dead, heavily concussed at least) Vizzini, shrugs, and then helps Fezzik untie Buttercup and apologizes as well.

It's more than a little awkward, because none of them really know what to do besides wander vaguely back towards Florin. Buttercup admits that she doesn't really want to marry the prince, and he'll find her if she goes back to the farm, which leads into her telling the story of her dead true love, which Inigo and Fezzik find very romantic. Which leads into Fezzik and Inigo both sharing their own tragic backstories in turn. Buttercup is personally very intrigued by Inigo's mention of being in the revenge business.

And then Buttercup goes, "Wait a moment, I know a nobleman like that. Count Rugen is Prince Humperdinck's closest friend and confidant, and he has six fingers on his right hand. I once had to sit next to them at a dinner table while they spent over an hour discussing all the troubles of finding a good glovemaker and skincare for their hands." (Rugen and his wife also once visited Buttercup and Westley's farm when they were younger, but Buttercup would more recently know Rugen from just... around the castle. Rugen is presumably going to be Humperdinck's best man.)

So, Westley is like, "Where the HELL is the love of my life???" presumably harrassing Vizzini about it if Vizzini is still alive. And Humperdinck has his theatric rescue party together to find Buttercup's body on the border, unknowingly following behind a rushing and frantic Westley, trying to keep his lies straight while he's internally like, "What the HELL happened to my kidnapping and murder plot to incite a war??? Rugen, I thought you hired the best??? It's so hard to find good help these days!"

Meanwhile, Buttercup, Fezzik, and Inigo are on a new friendship quest back to Count Rugen's house. Buttercup is the future princess, and so is presumably already acquainted with Rugen's young and beautiful wife, who has to let her in and be a good hostess. The Countess is warily like, "Buttercup... Who are these unkempt and intimidating men...?"

Also consider Mikinakoos' as they're extending support beyond their traditional service areas due to the scale of this emergency!

Donations for Namaygoosisagagun First Nation:

Donations for Whitesand First Nation:

Like. Clearly you have not tried to pay the bills on book sales.

We definitely need to reform the copyright system so they actually protect small creators instead of Disney, but a state of total anarchy has never yet been demonstrated to protect the vulnerable. In the absence of regulation, the strong oppress the weak. Bad regulation only helps them oppress the weak more, but no regulation is not the answer.

I used to use Google docs, but the white mode only was really annoying me (tires my eyes), so I swapped to Ellipsus (which I genuinely love and recommend), but it was bothering me a bit that I need wifi in order to use it, so now I switched to LibreOffice Writer, which I do like.

It very much has a Microsoft Word feel, but is open source and you need no accounts to use it. It's local on your device, so no AI can scan it, and no wifi is needed.

hi i literally woke up thinking about structure and editing and killing your darlings

I think Stratt being a History major is interesting. But I think the same effect as that entire scene, which imo kills the beauty of Grace being sedated on Earth and then just waking up in Tau Ceti, the same effect could have been accomplished by a three line bit elsewhere in the book, earlier, where Grace asks her (probably very belatedly bc it finally occurs to him) if she has a degree and she says. Yes. In History. No namedropping her school, no explaining what level her degree is. Just History.

That's enough to convey so much about her point of view. Frankly, I would add that to the movie. After a meeting with a room full of multiple-PhDed experts, Grace nervously asking if she has one, already apologizing for not thinking to ask earlier, you know what don't answer that, it's none of his busine— "History." "... History." "Yes." and Sandra Huller gives him one of her long soulful looks, and Ryan Gosling does that thing with his face like he's suppressing a 500-pound weight of despair by ducking his head submissively. AND THAT'S IT.

But the reason I would cut the conversation in the cell is that

The Betrayal Scene is so fucking good. I'm a huge believer in writers having a carrot; if you are going to write a long, long story, you should have A Specific Scene deep in the story that is your carrot, your reward you are building up to. Almost everything I write, I have carrots.

I can tell the Betrayal was Weir's carrot. It's not even a very long sequence but I can feel the excitement vibrating off the page. Not Grace's excitement bc fuck knows he's not having a happy carrot time, but Weir absolutely is. It's electric. I find Weir's prose to be Functional, but every once in a while, gddamn. (And its the scene I would have written a 150K words story for.)

By contrast, while the final discussion between Stratt and Grace provides some context (including the History Major thing), it almost feels like a moment of the author not trusting the audience. What is in that scene that you cannot surmise from the rest of the story? It feels like Weir pulling the handbrake because he's actually created a fascinating, interesting, nuanced female character who does unforgivable things because if not her then someone else would have. She is doomed as much as Grace was. And so he has her finally explain herself so... what, we don't hate her?

It kills the momentum, it's less poetic, and any piece of information there could have been slipped in elsewhere.

ALSO since PHM is a first person narration, Grace flat out explains to the reader the Problem With Stratt. PHM The Movie doesn't have narration but still manages to convey the exact same "I understand you, I don't forgive you," sentiment with Grace's final message to Earth.