Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Extras - Scripts (Patreon)

Hey everybody~ It's finally time to share with you some of the behind the scenes info on my latest video, the Diamond and Pearl review! Obviously, a video this long took a very very long time to write, and the writing process itself was one of the most interesting parts this time around, because it was a collaborative effort! So today I'm going to share with you the various different versions of scripts that ended up getting written before the version you know came to be. These scripts are long but I have made an effort to highlight the most interesting information, changes, etc along the way to make it easier for you to parse them. So anyway, onto the extras!

The Diamond and Pearl review project actually began following the Top 10 Player Characters video I uploaded in late April. My good friend Vidit has been a moderator for me in both my Twitch chat and YouTube comment section, so he has to read a lot of the feedback I get on my videos. Viewers noticed I shafted Dawn and Lucas for a spot on the list, and Viddy got silly roasting the pair of them on Twitter.

Feeling inspired, and after corroborating with me via instant message over our mutual dislike of Diamond and Pearl, he then sat down and wrote an entire review of Diamond and Pearl of his own accord. 

Click here to read Vidit's original script. 

He sent it to me, letting me know he didn't mind if I used it one way or the other. After reviewing it, I thought it would make a fine video, but it didn't really hit on any of the points I knew if I was going to cover Diamond and Pearl I absolutely wanted to talk about. So I sat down, worked on an outline, and sent him back a version of his script with some of my bullet point ideas worked in. I decided to split it up into three sections, an intro, a set of three major critiques, and then as many praises as I could think of.

Click here to read this version of his script with my ideas. His text is in block quotes to make it easier to read.

As I recovered from my surgery in early May, I replayed the games and set to work figuring out how best to illustrate the game's pacing. Meanwhile he and I continued to pass drafts back and forth, bouncing ideas off of each other and pinning down more succinctly what the real issues were. Three major critiques were narrowed down into just two, ideas were polished and charts were assembled. Ultimately by August a final draft was pieced together. Not much of Vidit's original writing remained but you can see how many of our first ideas survived to the very end.

Click here to read the final draft of the script. Sections that were cut at the last minute are in bold, and Vidit's original ideas are still in block quotes.

Ultimately there were 7 different versions of the script at various stages before we settled on that final draft. Along the way some of the sections were changed or cut, so I've collected some of the other cut content from those versions here.

Click here to read the cut content. 

Most of what ended up getting cut were things like nitpicks or points that I discovered didn't end up holding water under scrutiny. I knew I would be under a lot of it since I had many people who were already unhappy with what I had to say based on my history of bashing these games, so I really spent a lot of time here trying to get everything right. Some things were also cut because believe it or not, I actually attempted to make a Diamond and Pearl review once five years ago so I already had an entire play through recorded. I tried to only write about what I already had footage of to save time, so I couldn't include a section on the Pal Park like I originally wanted. It also is why the team I use in the video isn't the one I talk about in the PokeDex section. I did my best to make the footage represent the pacing that lined up with the chart I made but some people did still notice discrepancies (like 600+ Rare Candies in my bag, whoops!)

Lastly I'll share with you what my outline looked like to give you an idea of how I plan my scripts in the first place. Nearly everything I do starts with an outline, yep, just like the kind your teachers made you write in school. It really does help organize your thoughts and give the video structure!

Click here to read my outline. It includes my list of backtracking locations as well as some ideas about how I wanted to phrase things. And a random thought I had about Gen 1 while I was writing, lol

It was really fun getting to spend so much time on my script this time around, and I loved getting to work with Vidit. So I hope you enjoy these script materials and a little peek at how much work sometimes goes into these things!