Divided II – Observed and Beyond
Nov 27, 2023 11:11:18 GMT -5
Isadora Is a Door and Optimism is my Phil-osophy like this
Post by Resemblance on Nov 27, 2023 11:11:18 GMT -5
Hello, it's Semblance.
-Despite it being all planned out, Mr. Dante only ever wrote a couple of chapters, roughly 13 pages.
-Through investigation, I hypothesize that the group of main characters would have consisted of: Dante, Antenora, Ennui, Amber, PJ, and Char. But this is not confirmed.
-An old enemy was supposed to return, possibly being Evil Eye.
-Ms. Swans could have made an appearance, although I don't know how. Possibly similar to her brief appearance in the original story.
-Divided II was aimed to fix some of the criticisms which were made of the original, and tie up the plot hooks in the Missing Pieces.
That's all the information I was able to gather on Divided II – Observed. It isn't much, but don't fret! What comes after is even less.
Divided III – Alone
-As stated in the review above, it would have focused mostly on Dante.
-It would have had a much larger time gap between it and Divided II, than Divided II had with Divided.
-It was mostly just ideas and loose plotlines, and I don't think anything was ever written on it.
-Divided III was meant to end everything on a bleak and depressing note, but it seems that may or may not have changed.
Divided IV
-Besides what was said in the review above, I couldn't find much. It seems Mr. Dante wasn't even sure if he was going to make it, so it probably only comprised of an idea or two.
If I find anymore information, I'll add it, but for now, this is all. I enjoy doing this sort of thing, and I hope this makes someone else happy.
Rest Pleasantly.
I, like many others before me, enjoyed Mr. Dante 's 667 story, Divided. As such, I have compiled what I hope to be all public information of the unfinished works that would have come after Divided.
Mr. Dante was very secretive of his works, and thus I wasn't able to dig much up. That said, here is one of the best finds I could ask for:
It is around nine months (the length of a human pregnancy – is this a mere coincidence?) since Dante Rubens graced our screens with Divided, praised – forgive me for a little vanity – above all others as a guiding example of the genre dubbed “667 fiction.” Dante alluded at the time to a possible sequel – even going so far as to throw out a hint of the “Evil Eye” – but alas, none materialised, and after so long people could be forgiven for thinking that it might never appear. Well, fear not. Dante has kept his promise, in some form, and has presented the entirety of Divided II – which he ominously subtitles, “Observed” – for review by myself. From this, at last, some glimpse of the plot of that missing chronicle Observed may be observed.
The story picks up immediately after the end of the original, with the 667ers frantically gathering up treasures before they depart via the infilink teleportation device. Alas, Dante wastes no time in cutting from the story all but six of the lead characters, and hurling them once again into a generic and depressing wasteland (in a moment of self-mockery, the map reveals that they are in the “last remaining instance of unspoilt boring space”). Their infilink volatile and untrustworthy, they set off and soon find lodgings with an elderly priest. That he took such a group of ruffians in at all is a signal of the madness that is to come in him – suffice to say, anyone who has read H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Picture in the House will be familiar with the resolution, although in a subplot, Dante weaves in more of his infamous propaganda as he faces off against the vile forces of online retailer Amazon and the once-ubiquitous badger meme.
This is only a short section – do not be mistaken in thinking it comprises the entirety of the story. Observed reads very much like a string of short, self-contained stories, to such an extent that many of them need not even be read in order. The apparently faulty infilink as a plot device allows Dante to spirit his ill-destined characters hither and thither around the Internet, encountering many of the figures and organisations alluded to in the Missing Pieces notes provided at the end of the original story. These chapters – named, for reasons that will become all too clear later, Exhibit A, Exhibit B etc. – invariably end in death and destruction, with the infilink magically moving the lead characters out of harm’s way, avoiding consequences from the horrors they have caused.
Around midway – indeed, up until the final few exhibits – the story reads very much like Dante has written this sequel not to serve as a single story, but more like some episodic television program, with each episode elaborating upon, and then disposing of, loose ends introduced by his own former writings. The infilink is a veritable deus ex machina, which, though ostensibly random in its teleportings, manages always to teleport the party to somewhere interesting (rather than, say, embedding them in a lake or rock face), and removes them at the precise moment their adventure in that area has ended and they face considerable danger in the resulting havoc. It is oversimplified and easy. Dante attempts to address the concerns of his readers by making battles more difficult (possibly the reason he cut out so many characters at the start) – even to the point where Ennui dies, only to be resurrected in a ritual that is allegorical to the pleas for the return of deleted members of his favourite website, in a scene which shows that Dante is unwilling to alter the status quo, to do away with a character he may yet find a use for. Observe how, even though he cast aside a good number of cast members in the beginning, their fate is left ambiguous, so he is free to bring any one of them back as he pleases. So far, Observed – while well-written, and indeed Dante’s elaboration on the setting he has created is masterful, the interpretation of real-life events into his fantasy world more mature – is a disappointment.
All this is not entirely valid, though. Throughout, as Dante promised so long ago, there are hints of a mysterious entity involved with each and every adventure the group are thrust into – the Evil Eye, symbol of the cult of the Observers, but with tentacles that reach much farther. Finally, the infilink fails Dante and his associates, ironically when they reach the original destination to which they had hoped to arrive after their teleportation from the castle of the Queen of Chaos. After eerie confrontations with the leader of the vile Observer cult, Dante and his friends once again participate in one of their morally-ambiguous murder-arsons – but this time, consequences catch up with them. They are arrested, and put on trial. Here the naming scheme of the chapters comes into play. Delivered by the mysterious Evil Eye is evidence from each of the locations the 667ers have visited, video evidence carefully edited, but with enough truth, to portray the group in the darkest light – to portray them as murderers, terrorists, manipulators and catalysts for pointless violence, even racists (the group repeatedly denounces the n00bs during their trial, only to find that they are now accepted members of society with their own independent state). Dante proves us wrong – the consequences of each insane incident of violence they have caused on their journey finally catch up with them in the courtroom.
Prior to the sentencing of the group, Dante interjects with a lengthy document asking the question – Who is the Evil Eye? He puts forward a number of hypotheses for the consideration of the readers, each with some evidence to support them, naming some figure or even object from their adventures as the mysterious enemy. This seemingly-random document gives to the reader a feeling of impending climax, confirmation that the story is reaching its end, the mystery is about to be unravelled, and the debacle the 667ers have landed in will be resolved. It also leaves the reader thoroughly confused, even paranoid, and calls, to some extent, for a brief reread of the previous exhibits to judge for oneself the identity of that conspirator. The story resumes in a new chapter naming scheme, Judgement.
The group is found guilty of all charges, and sentenced to death. However, here Dante employs yet another deus ex machina – but one which he has been preparing for, subtly alluding to, throughout the story. The Evil Eye reveals himself, and after arbitrarily eliminating a number of courtroom figures, steals the infilink and takes off. Fortunately – inevitably, one might say – the heroes (if they can be so called) follow, and find themselves in a last confrontation on Morris Peak, the dread place named in Dante’s preface to the original Divided.
The end of Observed, though – Execution – is something I find less easy to judge on, as Dante has provided me with a number of separate written endings, and numerous notes and details of possible alternatives. One ending necessarily comes complete with an additional exhibit removed from the story midway, concerning the return of Dante’s eternal enemy the Swan (in a much altered form, indicating perhaps that Dante is reluctant to include her as properly representative of her real self – accusations of bias occasionally weigh upon the mind, I know, and the Swan was very carefully presented in the original solely from the view of Dante the character rather than anyone else, or the narrator). These varied and different endings, some leaving space for further sequels, some tying everything up and giving (at last) a happy ending, some giving a proper resolution, some not even completed, some relying on deus ex machinas and some less weak – I do not know which is the real ending, and I doubt Dante does either. Thus it became necessary to ask the author himself.
Upon being pressed, Dante confessed that his ideas for the ending had changed very much over time, and become so mingled and intertwined in his mind that he had no idea which to properly use, or even the full details of many of them. He wrote individually what he could recall, and though it is a shambles, it is the best ending he could provide – all of them.
I question him about the open-ended nature of some of the endings. He replied that, while planning Observed, his mind became consumed by ideas for future plotlines – a third Divided, named Alone and focussing mainly on himself, was mentioned, and later a fourth in which the Internet has been obliterated entirely, leaving only dozens of flying cities and infinite space. These plotlines filled his head, growing so wildly out of proportion and borrowing so freely from other sources – Observed was heavily influenced by the recent Doctor Who revival, with similarities seen in the story’s structure and plot devices, with the recurring Evil Eye resembling a more noticeable Bad Wolf – that it became clear to him and to me the impossibility of achieving the writing of all these. The challenge was too daunting. Even when he later created an alternate ending which tied up the plot completely, neither necessitating nor allowing sequels, he was unsure precisely what this ending should comprise. The project had to be set aside, for the sake of sanity and peace of mind. Besides, it wasn’t very good – highly plagiaristic, an entirely unsuitable structure, more like a series of fanfictions based on the troublesome Missing Pieces strung together. Observed was never written – and, Dante observes, Divided itself is out-of-date, given the more recent changes in members, arrivals, exits, events on 667. It is amusing to consider that, should he write a prequel to Divided, it would be forced to account for more recent events on the forum, by merit of the fact that the Divided plotline had not occurred – thus the prequel would be more accurate and contemporary than the original.
I point out that this need not be – a prequel could be set in real life before the time that Divided was written. Dante points out that this would be boring, and besides, neither of us can remember it. He could invent it, I say. Like I’ve invented you, he asks. I maintain it would be more accurate to say I invented him – you need only read this review to see. This would create an amusing recursive string, with the Dante in the story having been written by the Dante I have interviewed having been written by myself – but then, are not all three of us overlapped by a higher presence, a Dante that invented this convoluted review of a story never written and all the characters inside it? Characters based on real life, it must be said. And the Dante in the story – not the story of the review, the story that is being reviewed – wrote the story, too, for that matter.
I ask which Dante is real. Not one of we four reply. The real author is unique in that my name is not Dante. I’d prefer it if it was, not least because Dante has far more exciting adventures, but I’ve only myself to blame for that.
This is getting silly. I have work to do, as it happens, a real life to attend to. I can’t lounge around all day writing self-indulgent false reviews for the purposes of praising and criticizing myself.
But I can’t think of how to end it.
As ever, Dante has the perfect solution. I don’t know what I’d do without him.
Positive Overview: Marvellous. Observed is essential reading for fans of Dante.
Negative Overview: Could do better, but Observed is better than reading nothing at all.
Rating: Four matches.
Dante said:
A Review of Divided II – Observed, by Dante Rubens
It is around nine months (the length of a human pregnancy – is this a mere coincidence?) since Dante Rubens graced our screens with Divided, praised – forgive me for a little vanity – above all others as a guiding example of the genre dubbed “667 fiction.” Dante alluded at the time to a possible sequel – even going so far as to throw out a hint of the “Evil Eye” – but alas, none materialised, and after so long people could be forgiven for thinking that it might never appear. Well, fear not. Dante has kept his promise, in some form, and has presented the entirety of Divided II – which he ominously subtitles, “Observed” – for review by myself. From this, at last, some glimpse of the plot of that missing chronicle Observed may be observed.
The story picks up immediately after the end of the original, with the 667ers frantically gathering up treasures before they depart via the infilink teleportation device. Alas, Dante wastes no time in cutting from the story all but six of the lead characters, and hurling them once again into a generic and depressing wasteland (in a moment of self-mockery, the map reveals that they are in the “last remaining instance of unspoilt boring space”). Their infilink volatile and untrustworthy, they set off and soon find lodgings with an elderly priest. That he took such a group of ruffians in at all is a signal of the madness that is to come in him – suffice to say, anyone who has read H.P. Lovecraft’s short story The Picture in the House will be familiar with the resolution, although in a subplot, Dante weaves in more of his infamous propaganda as he faces off against the vile forces of online retailer Amazon and the once-ubiquitous badger meme.
This is only a short section – do not be mistaken in thinking it comprises the entirety of the story. Observed reads very much like a string of short, self-contained stories, to such an extent that many of them need not even be read in order. The apparently faulty infilink as a plot device allows Dante to spirit his ill-destined characters hither and thither around the Internet, encountering many of the figures and organisations alluded to in the Missing Pieces notes provided at the end of the original story. These chapters – named, for reasons that will become all too clear later, Exhibit A, Exhibit B etc. – invariably end in death and destruction, with the infilink magically moving the lead characters out of harm’s way, avoiding consequences from the horrors they have caused.
Around midway – indeed, up until the final few exhibits – the story reads very much like Dante has written this sequel not to serve as a single story, but more like some episodic television program, with each episode elaborating upon, and then disposing of, loose ends introduced by his own former writings. The infilink is a veritable deus ex machina, which, though ostensibly random in its teleportings, manages always to teleport the party to somewhere interesting (rather than, say, embedding them in a lake or rock face), and removes them at the precise moment their adventure in that area has ended and they face considerable danger in the resulting havoc. It is oversimplified and easy. Dante attempts to address the concerns of his readers by making battles more difficult (possibly the reason he cut out so many characters at the start) – even to the point where Ennui dies, only to be resurrected in a ritual that is allegorical to the pleas for the return of deleted members of his favourite website, in a scene which shows that Dante is unwilling to alter the status quo, to do away with a character he may yet find a use for. Observe how, even though he cast aside a good number of cast members in the beginning, their fate is left ambiguous, so he is free to bring any one of them back as he pleases. So far, Observed – while well-written, and indeed Dante’s elaboration on the setting he has created is masterful, the interpretation of real-life events into his fantasy world more mature – is a disappointment.
All this is not entirely valid, though. Throughout, as Dante promised so long ago, there are hints of a mysterious entity involved with each and every adventure the group are thrust into – the Evil Eye, symbol of the cult of the Observers, but with tentacles that reach much farther. Finally, the infilink fails Dante and his associates, ironically when they reach the original destination to which they had hoped to arrive after their teleportation from the castle of the Queen of Chaos. After eerie confrontations with the leader of the vile Observer cult, Dante and his friends once again participate in one of their morally-ambiguous murder-arsons – but this time, consequences catch up with them. They are arrested, and put on trial. Here the naming scheme of the chapters comes into play. Delivered by the mysterious Evil Eye is evidence from each of the locations the 667ers have visited, video evidence carefully edited, but with enough truth, to portray the group in the darkest light – to portray them as murderers, terrorists, manipulators and catalysts for pointless violence, even racists (the group repeatedly denounces the n00bs during their trial, only to find that they are now accepted members of society with their own independent state). Dante proves us wrong – the consequences of each insane incident of violence they have caused on their journey finally catch up with them in the courtroom.
Prior to the sentencing of the group, Dante interjects with a lengthy document asking the question – Who is the Evil Eye? He puts forward a number of hypotheses for the consideration of the readers, each with some evidence to support them, naming some figure or even object from their adventures as the mysterious enemy. This seemingly-random document gives to the reader a feeling of impending climax, confirmation that the story is reaching its end, the mystery is about to be unravelled, and the debacle the 667ers have landed in will be resolved. It also leaves the reader thoroughly confused, even paranoid, and calls, to some extent, for a brief reread of the previous exhibits to judge for oneself the identity of that conspirator. The story resumes in a new chapter naming scheme, Judgement.
The group is found guilty of all charges, and sentenced to death. However, here Dante employs yet another deus ex machina – but one which he has been preparing for, subtly alluding to, throughout the story. The Evil Eye reveals himself, and after arbitrarily eliminating a number of courtroom figures, steals the infilink and takes off. Fortunately – inevitably, one might say – the heroes (if they can be so called) follow, and find themselves in a last confrontation on Morris Peak, the dread place named in Dante’s preface to the original Divided.
The end of Observed, though – Execution – is something I find less easy to judge on, as Dante has provided me with a number of separate written endings, and numerous notes and details of possible alternatives. One ending necessarily comes complete with an additional exhibit removed from the story midway, concerning the return of Dante’s eternal enemy the Swan (in a much altered form, indicating perhaps that Dante is reluctant to include her as properly representative of her real self – accusations of bias occasionally weigh upon the mind, I know, and the Swan was very carefully presented in the original solely from the view of Dante the character rather than anyone else, or the narrator). These varied and different endings, some leaving space for further sequels, some tying everything up and giving (at last) a happy ending, some giving a proper resolution, some not even completed, some relying on deus ex machinas and some less weak – I do not know which is the real ending, and I doubt Dante does either. Thus it became necessary to ask the author himself.
Upon being pressed, Dante confessed that his ideas for the ending had changed very much over time, and become so mingled and intertwined in his mind that he had no idea which to properly use, or even the full details of many of them. He wrote individually what he could recall, and though it is a shambles, it is the best ending he could provide – all of them.
I question him about the open-ended nature of some of the endings. He replied that, while planning Observed, his mind became consumed by ideas for future plotlines – a third Divided, named Alone and focussing mainly on himself, was mentioned, and later a fourth in which the Internet has been obliterated entirely, leaving only dozens of flying cities and infinite space. These plotlines filled his head, growing so wildly out of proportion and borrowing so freely from other sources – Observed was heavily influenced by the recent Doctor Who revival, with similarities seen in the story’s structure and plot devices, with the recurring Evil Eye resembling a more noticeable Bad Wolf – that it became clear to him and to me the impossibility of achieving the writing of all these. The challenge was too daunting. Even when he later created an alternate ending which tied up the plot completely, neither necessitating nor allowing sequels, he was unsure precisely what this ending should comprise. The project had to be set aside, for the sake of sanity and peace of mind. Besides, it wasn’t very good – highly plagiaristic, an entirely unsuitable structure, more like a series of fanfictions based on the troublesome Missing Pieces strung together. Observed was never written – and, Dante observes, Divided itself is out-of-date, given the more recent changes in members, arrivals, exits, events on 667. It is amusing to consider that, should he write a prequel to Divided, it would be forced to account for more recent events on the forum, by merit of the fact that the Divided plotline had not occurred – thus the prequel would be more accurate and contemporary than the original.
I point out that this need not be – a prequel could be set in real life before the time that Divided was written. Dante points out that this would be boring, and besides, neither of us can remember it. He could invent it, I say. Like I’ve invented you, he asks. I maintain it would be more accurate to say I invented him – you need only read this review to see. This would create an amusing recursive string, with the Dante in the story having been written by the Dante I have interviewed having been written by myself – but then, are not all three of us overlapped by a higher presence, a Dante that invented this convoluted review of a story never written and all the characters inside it? Characters based on real life, it must be said. And the Dante in the story – not the story of the review, the story that is being reviewed – wrote the story, too, for that matter.
I ask which Dante is real. Not one of we four reply. The real author is unique in that my name is not Dante. I’d prefer it if it was, not least because Dante has far more exciting adventures, but I’ve only myself to blame for that.
This is getting silly. I have work to do, as it happens, a real life to attend to. I can’t lounge around all day writing self-indulgent false reviews for the purposes of praising and criticizing myself.
But I can’t think of how to end it.
As ever, Dante has the perfect solution. I don’t know what I’d do without him.
Positive Overview: Marvellous. Observed is essential reading for fans of Dante.
Negative Overview: Could do better, but Observed is better than reading nothing at all.
Rating: Four matches.
-Despite it being all planned out, Mr. Dante only ever wrote a couple of chapters, roughly 13 pages.
-Through investigation, I hypothesize that the group of main characters would have consisted of: Dante, Antenora, Ennui, Amber, PJ, and Char. But this is not confirmed.
-An old enemy was supposed to return, possibly being Evil Eye.
-Ms. Swans could have made an appearance, although I don't know how. Possibly similar to her brief appearance in the original story.
-Divided II was aimed to fix some of the criticisms which were made of the original, and tie up the plot hooks in the Missing Pieces.
That's all the information I was able to gather on Divided II – Observed. It isn't much, but don't fret! What comes after is even less.
Divided III – Alone
-As stated in the review above, it would have focused mostly on Dante.
-It would have had a much larger time gap between it and Divided II, than Divided II had with Divided.
-It was mostly just ideas and loose plotlines, and I don't think anything was ever written on it.
-Divided III was meant to end everything on a bleak and depressing note, but it seems that may or may not have changed.
Divided IV
-Besides what was said in the review above, I couldn't find much. It seems Mr. Dante wasn't even sure if he was going to make it, so it probably only comprised of an idea or two.
If I find anymore information, I'll add it, but for now, this is all. I enjoy doing this sort of thing, and I hope this makes someone else happy.
Rest Pleasantly.