The Town of Odyssey

ToOers, it is time once again to celebrate the day of friendly fighting!

Over the span of a few hours on the seventh of March 2012, bookworm and The Kings Daughter happened to appear on opposing sides of various discussions across a few different threads. Impressed by this concentration of debate, AE declared it the institution of a ToO holiday and it has been celebrated ever since with great ceremony.

This year's celebration is a few weeks late; I didn't forget about it I was just super busy this month and unable to organize anything sooner, but better late than never!

Thursday, April 5th, will be the sixth observance of Bookworm And Kings Daughter Beat Down Fight Day or BAKDBDFD (pronounced ‘backed-buh-duh-fuh-duh’)!

Mark your calendars and be sure to attend! Details of this year's event will follow soon!


Previous BAKDBDFDs: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017

Hoooray! I eagerly anticipate.

Its about time!!! How fun.

Wow, it's been a year already?? I can't wait for it to start!

Welcome everyone, to the sixth celebration of Bookworm And Kings Daughter Beat-Down Fight Day!


This year's event will be a free flowing open debate on audience provided subjects as has been done in previous years, but this time without prescreened topics or target timeframes before changing focus. Everything will be completely off the cuff and develop in real time, we're going to just roll with whatever happens and see how it goes.

Whoever wants to present a subject for debate will post an opening argument and I will immediately take up the opposite position. The two of us will then debate back and forth until someone else, or that same person, raises a new subject by putting forth a new opening argument. If someone wishes to jump into the ongoing debate themselves instead of changing the subject that is welcome also, simply input your own argument for whichever side you want to help represent.

The fun, but at the same time potential frustration, of this format is because anyone can change the topic at any time a really good debate may suddenly get cut off and forced to focus on something else, or you may be in the process of forming a counterargument to a certain point and come back to find that's no longer where the discussion is anymore, but that's the point of doing it this way, so no one knows how things are going to play out.


As always the wonderful venue of Unnamed Arena will house our festivities. Please get your tickets punched and find a seat! The layout for this year is shown below:



I am positioned at mike A facing the bleachers. Whoever steps up to initiate a debate subject will take mike B facing me and state their opening argument. I will then engage and the debate will unfold. Additional debaters who wish to enter on either side of the current subject will assemble so that the primary proponent of each side of the debate has their supporters on their respective right hand side, participants joining my side of the issue will assemble on the left set of microphone stands and participants joining the other side will assemble on the right set. If someone wishes to change the debate subject they will tap out the current opposition lead and take over mike B, stating the new opening argument.

If need for a moderator arises for some reason I will assume that role, but for the most part I intend to just let this unfold however it will and see what happens. We may wrap things up tonight, or possibly continue for another day or two depending on how much activity we're able to facilitate.


The floor is open to whoever wants to put forth the first topic - let the festivities begin!

I take it Kings Daughter won't be able to make it?

Is that an opening argument?

Um... uh, yes! Yes, it is.

Kings Daughter should totally attend this debate!

No she shouldn't. She's busy with things, it's more important to do those than be here. Of course it would be nice to have her participation, since that's what all this spawned from, but it isn't necessary. The celebration of this holiday is intended to extend the original debating that just involved her and I to the entire community allowing for all to engage.

But how can we extend this debate to the entire community, without including Kings Daughter? And, besides, what could possibly be more important than participating in this debate? Preposterous.

NatetheGreat wrote:But how can we extend this debate to the entire community, without including Kings Daughter?

Because participation is optional. And she's not being excluded, she simply isn't being explicitly included. She is obviously welcome to join if she is able, but her presence is not required. Nor is anyone else's in particular.

NatetheGreat wrote:And, besides, what could possibly be more important than participating in this debate?

Presumably a real life event that needs attended to right now as this event recurs in theory every year.

Ok, so she's not excluded. But why in the world would you not explicitly include the person for whom the event is literally named? Shame.

I think you're confusing include with invite. As I said she is welcome to join in if possible, but to explicitly include her would be to hold off on the celebration entirely until she can attend. That isn't feasible in a reasonable time frame at the moment, it is more important to go ahead and celebrate without her in what way we are able so as not to hold up the festivities for all for the sake of one.

Move over, Nate. My turn.
Bookworm, let's take a moment and turn our attention to the name of this website: The Town of Odyssey. Notice it says Odyssey. Therefore my debate topic will be Odyssey. Let's not debate that just yet.
I think that Mr. Whittaker is the best AIO character.

Mr. Whittaker is arguably the most important AiO character, but I wouldn't say he's the best. He's entirely one note, he's the problem solver with all the answers. That's not interesting, from a character perspective.

But he doesn't have all the answers. In episodes like "A Member of the Family," "Recollections," "Clara," "The Boat People," and "No Friend Like an Old Friend" we see his character develop in important ways. And when a near-perfect character like him has flaws, that can make for a very powerful story.

He may not actually have the answer every single time (though the vast majority he does), I meant that's what his role is. If there's a question or problem he's the one that's supposed to answer it or solve it. It's an important role to play, but it's the same thing every time.

You could say there have been a few bits of development at certain times, but nothing close to the levels needed to be a good character. What actual flaws does he have that add any really compelling layers to his role in the stories?

I wouldn't say that he necessarily needs flaws in order to be a compelling character. His role I see as more of a guide for the other characters, leading them in the right direction but not always telling them the answer. This is where I see him as the best character: his character is strong and unwavering in his integrity.

I completely agree with you, he's a guide for the other characters. Which means, to me, he isn't a good character himself. He's always the same, in order to be that guide. This is why I differentiated from being an important character. It's necessary to have, but it is outside my criteria for what makes a character, as a character, good.

I give.

-- Sun Apr 08, 2018 1:24 pm --

...So no one else wants to take up the fight? Let's see how ridiculous this can get.

Bookworm is not a cactus.