Talk:Chapter 0

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[edit section] Timeline Talk

One thing that makes Chapter 0 so difficult to summarize, compared to the others, is that time isn't as neat.

• Day 1 is clear enough, Strips 1 through 6.
• Day 2. The flight to Japan is long enough, that when Largo awakens on the plane, it is probably Day 2, Strips 7 to 12.
• Day 3. They wait the night before going to Gateway Country and meeting Tsubasa, moving into his place, Strips 14 to 36. It is on Day 3 that they go to Tokyo Game Show, Largo gets his arm broken by a Boothbabe, and Piro intercepts a coffee pot with his head.
• Six weeks fly by and they're still at Tsubasa's. 37 to 41.
• Day R, Piro's Very Bad Day. Piro meets Yuki and loses his bag, Largo gets locked out of the apartment, the Railcard Incident and Largo upgrades Tsubasa's equipment. Strips 42 to 74.
• Day R+X, Yuki goes to school and later emails Piro. Because the girls are in uniform, they were in school. This could be Saturday, but nothing requires this to be Day 49. 75
• Day 50 (Sunday), From this point on, the timeline is clear. Piro deletes his email and Boo arrives. Yuki runs into Piro at MegaGamers, but runs away. Piro is hired. Largo meets Miho, Tsubasa introduces Ping, Kimiko fails one audition, but gets an invition from CubeSoft, Largo follows Miho to the Cave of Evil and later must make a jailbreak, Tsubasa leaves Ping and the boys are evicted. Strips 77 to 133.

Let me know if there's a problem with my understand of time before I give the Chapter 0 summary an attempt.

[edit section] Chapter 0 Arcs

Proposed arcs for Chapter 0:

E3 Arc (1–6, 8)

Piro and Largo try to enter E3, but have no luck doing so. Largo finally embarasses them enough that Piro decides to take them out of the country.

Exodus Arc (7–42)

Piro and Largo fly to Japan and max out their credit cards. They room with Tsubasa, Piro's friend in Tokyo.

Bag Arc (Chapter 0) (43–124)

Piro loses his bag and its contents, which are picked up by a schoolgirl named Yuki. Yuki encounters him again at Megagamers but is too surprised to return the bag.

L33t Master Arc (53–74)

Largo runs into Junpei, the ninja who cleared him through customs. Junpei wants Largo to teach him the ways of the l33t, which Largo agrees to.

Railcard Arc (Chapter 0) (62–125)

Piro, having spent all night looking for his bag, buys a railcard with the last of his money, but he gives it to a distraught Kimiko and walks home. They later meet at Megagamers, but don't seem to recognize each other until just as Kimiko's leaving.

Darkly Cute Arc (79–126)

Largo and his new conscience, Boo, stumble upon a "book of evil", the Necrowombicon. Miho takes the book, and Largo comes to believe she is some kind of evil. Arming himself at Junpei's apartment, he attacks the Cave of Evil.

Megagamers Arc (87–114)

While avoiding Yuki, Piro accidentally lands a job working at Megagamers alongside Erika.

Ping Arc (104–129)

Tsubasa acquires Ping, who convinces him to sell his possessions pursue his childhood love in America, leaving Piro and Largo homeless.

The parenthesized strip lists need to be refined to a list of strips rather than just ranges.

Comments very welcome on just about every aspect of this. —Brent Dax 00:00, 2 May 2005 (PDT)

I really wouldn't call all of these arcs. If you feel you really must break the chapters up into pieces, then fine, go ahead. I can readily see no other clear divisions. But the thing is that we've never discussed the chapters in terms of so many arcs. The only divisions are chapter breaks.

Now, we do have a few obvious arcs that are referred to by the fans. The Beergarden Arc, Super Moe Moe Ball, and the Fanboy Riot, to name a few. What you're doing here, though, is labeling divisions that never existed. By doing this, you're creating a system that was never in place rather than archiving and recording a system that already exists. I think the wiki serves to fulfill the latter purpose, don't you? We shouldn't be creating new organizational systems with it, we should just be recording those systems already in place. —Phydeaux 00:14, May 2, 2005 (PDT)

I like the texts you've written. They make a good summary of Chapter 0… but I agree with Phydeaux that these arcs are not really useful. I would make smaller "events" like the beergarden, Super Moe Moe ball, which are not necessarily consecutive; and arcs that actually span several chapters, like "Piro and Yuki" which would cover everything from the bag and later the never-to-happen drawing lessons. Both events and longer arcs can be filled with useful content (like summaries of the plot, theories about relationships, etc.)

Also general arcs make it possible to avoid duplicating contents—the relationship between Piro and Yuki, for example, could be outlined in the individual articles, and detailed in the article for the arc. — Dapete 00:42, 2 May 2005 (PDT)

I'm all for the "arc" plan, but the problem is ones like the Railcard or Darkly Cute arc. These extend thru two or more chapters, and mutate along the way. How would these work? Junair Wiare 15:32, Jul 8, 2005 (PDT)

Far as I see it, it's easily (haha) accomplished rather like the well-done examples at the top of this page. If an arc spans more than one chapter, it's not a problem, as we're referencing arcs via strip location, not chapter location. If we want to archive what arcs intersect which chapters, that's "simple" as well. Just make a cross-referenced list of all the arcs that end in, are contained by, start in, or make an appearance in each chapter. A reverse reference is also simple at that point, whereby one could list all the chapters involved in each arc. The only thing I'm not entirely clear on is how to prevent too much duplication of content. Dapete mentioned something back two posts, but I'm not sure what was meant by "individual articles" ... are we talking individual articles for each arc, chapter, or what? Everything here has an individual article. I'll mull it over and post a recommendation if I think of one. ProgrammerDan 12:50pm, Jul 15, 2005 (EST)

I meant that articles about characters etc. would link to story arc articles that give details—rather than repeating things. reading this again now, I used a wide definition of story arc here. Obviously "Piro & Kimiko" would contain the Railcard Incident, plus other stuff that is not an arc in itself…

As much as I still like the examples above, I think we have lived without a set structure so far, and had no problems. Consecutive things can mostly be covered as a single summary in the Chapter article. When arcs are important to the chapter (i.e. they start, end, or anything happens, as you said), they can be linked, certainly in the summary (which can then be shortened), and if they are important, in the introduction for the Chapter. — dapete 08:28, 17 Jul 2005 (PDT)