White: Hard-Mode Episode 12

It’s finally here, Episode 12 of White: Hard-Mode, or if I had to give it a title: “N’s Dragon.”

How long has it been since Episode 11? Long enough that I think I would feel physical pain from shame if I looked it up.

It’s no excuse, but it’s almost fitting that this long-delayed comic also features the return of Bruce, who’s been gone from the story for so long. I’ll touch more on that and other spoiler-y content later in this post, but first I’ll use this as a chance to fill you guys in on what’s been going on with me.

What I’ve been up to:

A little over a year later, and I’m still living in Los Angeles. I spent most of that first year writing scripts and trying to secure low level positions at studios, living off the savings I’d accrued from my old job. I had very little luck in the job category, turns out it’s hard to get those low level spots when they can just give them to student interns for free.

I was a little luckier with my writing, though. I was a finalist in a few contests, with my best placements probably being in the top 8 in the comedy category for the Los Angeles Screenplay Contest and the top 10 overall in Roadmap Writers Jumpstart Competition. At the start of 2019, a few studios even requested my script! Six months later, though, and I haven’t heard anything new. I’m not sure if that means no one was interested in my script, or if it’s sitting at the bottom of some intern’s “to-read” pile somewhere.

Eventually that savings burned out, and I needed to find real work again. So I’m back to land surveying for now. I’m lucky enough to have experience in an in-demand field, but goddamn am I starved to do something creative professionally. Oh well, I’ve just got to keep writing and getting stuff out there.

About the comic:

First of all, apologies for lying again about trying to keep this site updated with content. I’m just going to stop making promises all together, because I’m tired of jinxing it. I’ve talked before about how when I stress about disappointing people, I just try to ignore the problem, which creates a kind of guilt feedback loop that only makes things worse. Clearly I’m not over that.

Anyway, back to the good news, we’re back! With this update we’re officially in the endgame of the White storyline, by my measure there’s only two episodes left. Coincidentally, that would put us at a 14 episode season, just like the original Ruby: Hard-Mode. Total accident if I’m honest, but then again I feel like I remember someone saying everything happens for a reason…

BEWARE, SPOILERS BELOW:

If you’ve read the new episode (and if you haven’t, seriously, do it before reading further,) you know that not only is this episode the return of Bruce…it’s also the goodbye. While I take some liberties with the stories in these comics, for the most part I try to stay true to the run. I’m sure some of you are going to be upset about this turn of events, but the reality was Bruce could never reunite with Ruby. If you’ve followed these blogposts closely, you know that I played the FireRed run on an emulator on a laptop that was later stolen out of my college dorm. Bruce’s fate is kind of tied to my feelings about that time, in a way.

All in all this is kind of a dark episode, definitely being the low point in the season. I know it might be kind of a bummer to read after such a long hiatus. I came up with this plot years ago when I was in kind of a dark place, and it’s hard to say if I’d write the same story today. But it’s the story I set up, and I don’t believe in shifting course just before the end. I will admit I do love me some tragedy, though.

This is also the last episode with heavy focus on flashbacks and NPC characters. After this we’re back to Ruby for the rest of the story. We’ve set the stage and the mysteries have been revealed, and now we can push towards the conclusion.

It’s strange to think that some of you have been following these comics since Bruce was first introduced, almost 10 years ago, and some of you have probably been reading for even longer. I’m eternally grateful to have a patient audience for my dumb baby-game drama comics, and I hope you guys stick around for the ending, however long it takes.

Thank you as always for reading,

Nick/Nuzlocke