BoM/TWS Message Forum

I'd say "thank God for small favors", since between this and the branch where Will's working for Chelsea but plans to work alongside Michelle to deal with her (the one where Will impersonates Alexis), Michelle's getting a lot of fleshing up.

It's evident that Chelsea's a fan-favorite, so she's always gonna be there. I agree that the chapter was far too much set-up, particularly as it's obvious that Michelle was resisting the offer, but it feels like the story can steer away from the cheer group and into the juniors if focusing on the new partner. One thing to consider is that there's also a lot of character dissonance in this version of Chelsea, considering all that's happened so far.

As for the overused/unexpected characters, it's a matter of familiarity. It's much, much harder to write about a character you know very little about than to write about someone who has an established personality to observe. Of course, there's the inverse advantage of a clean slate with underdeveloped characters versus the possibility of deviating too much from an established character's personality if it's too developed, so there's a worth in seeing stories with characters we know little about, but sometimes you just want to see the same group of people in different situations - because you can contrast what you know about them with how they're behaving now, and probably see them getting a much needed comeuppance or resolution. There's as much beauty in seeing established characters in different situations as to explore new territory.