Edit: What I mean is, as a reader, I've been led to believe Rey Skywalker is acting under her own goals and direction. To learn she does not exist (eg is someone else) is sheer "Fight Club" levels of twist. Add to that, she's also in love with Palpatine but didn't know it. Oh and Palpatine is the local cashier.
It'll be some work to help the reader past this. I bid you luck on that front 
Since Connor never had a soul of his own, he technically doesn't exist.
Indeed. I see by the long write-up that you understand the implications of the arrangement.
Along the lines of Rey Skywalker turning to the camera and says "Actually, I've been Anakin all along" this is going to be a big leap for your reader to manage. You'll need to do a long of prep-work to help them bridge it.
Connor and Adam, both of whom share a soul and are finally cognisant of each other, take turns being in control
I'm worried you might be (plotting) yourself into a future dead-end.
Can you quantify "share a soul"?
I mean, if someone clocks me over the head and I spend 20 years thinking I'm a new person with my own history etc then an (undefined incident) reminds me of both my original life and the new one, is that a "shared soul"?
If I learned I shared a soul with a cat from biblical times, and my friends built a machine to turn me back into the original soul, can I logically say "No, I don't want to be a cat"
a) If I can deny my previous state, do I now count as a new soul?
b) If my "cat-ness" jumps out and says, "nah man, be a cat again", did anything in my pseudo-life have meaning (aside from a 18-year-long feline dream)?
I happened to notice that this thread has been viewed over 145,000 times. I was a bit freaked by the number until I looked at the whole forum. My old Galaxy Tales thread has been viewed 280K times. Sorcerer's Progress, 360K. And Amy still holds the record at 465K for her Acts+ thread! Yay, Amy.
Yeh, ran some stats on it, and Amy thread, in the past five days, has picked up around a hundred views a day.
E. Free's thread served as my basis, pulling an average of 75 hits per night.
So probably just bot traffic looking for something titillating or AIs learning how to emulate us.
I'm pretty certain an AI considers a forum a treasure trove of non-copyrighted learning.
I couldn't find anything online about what part of the spectrum is fired by star destroyers.
I went on a random google check and came back rather dizzy with how much work Star Wars has done to try to make its magic realish. And failed because every fact they try to apply breaks something else.
Also, anyone care to suggest a part of the EM spectrum
This one is actually easy. They should use the part of the spectrum the human eye can see. Because who wants a movie of star ships just sitting there and not appear to be doing anything, then one randomly blows up.
Kdot, when you posted earlier that all the types are known, were you referring to the first seven, the basic two, or something else?
Four states. I said:
Physics says we've discovered all possible states of matter. When we find some new state, we'll need to reinvent the entire discipline.
I didn't try to quantify energy. Not sure physics has fully defined it either.
For the states of matter we have four basic states (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_matter) and a few non-classical. Should we discover a new basic state, our understanding of the universe will have to change
what would cause the blast from the shield defier (the superweapon) to tunnel en masse through a defensive shield
Hmm By everything we know today quantum tunnelling cannot be achieved en-masse. Here is where the handwavium must appear.
You throw trillions of ducks at a brick wall, eventually one duck will [quantum tunnel] through. (I adapted this quote from my old hs physics textbook)
The question is how do you get "Lots of ducks through" and that gets a bit harder.
Should you freeze the wall's subatomic structure and toss identical ducks at it (with the exact same trajectory), presumably the following ducks will also get through
Also, she still looks exactly as she did back then.
Fun side story... I was at a funeral last year for a parent. The daughter I'd dated a bit 30 years ago but fell out of contact since we didn't exactly have facebook in those golden days.
Okay, so fast-forward. I reach the plot and there's all these people milling around. I quickly locate her in the crowd, except something's off. My mental software says this is her, but my logical brain says she couldn't still look the same.
She's obviously curious why I'm just standing there staring, so I venture "Are you (X)?"
She replies, "No, that's my mom."
Q: Why the mask? To fool Satan? Isn't it thousands of years since they last met? I have trouble remembering people from three hours ago
Naturally, this would cause hard sci-fi fans to vomit, but my target audience is space opera fans.
Don't target hard sci-fi... this is not that story. Space opera is your market.
Hard sci-fi is 100% about the explainable. Everything else is magic. A story gets very little wriggle room outside the unexplainable.
Story: We change matter-energy to a previously unknown state
Hard-sci-fi: What's the name of the state?
Story: A new state. One that fits [X] requirement.
Hard-sci-fi: But [X] is impossible according to our current understanding of the universe
Story: Extrapolate: Some new rule current rules cannot explain
Hard-sci-fi: Well, current rules cannot explain it. It's magic
forcing them into some previously unknown state
Physics says we've discovered all possible states of matter. When we find some new state, we'll need to reinvent the entire discipline.
I seem to have a recurring problem with the Connor series in that there simply aren't enough strong female characters.
Given the massive headaches you already have to deal with, this one may be something you simply lean into / roll with.
Consider also the eyebrows-raises I got for having female angels
Main problem is MPD robs your MCs of agency
Secondary problem (as I'm discovering with my bounty hunter) is readers may side with the wrong entity, creating a false promise that the book has no plan of living up to. I'm kind of okay with it, as the bounty hunter is a relatively minor character, but as a main, it'd be a real problem.
so I might as well use a simple solution that doesn't break the story.
In one of her early battles Lenore used a speed potion (she got from another character) to beat up a bunch of enemy construction workers.
This caused me all sorts of grief because there were other instances where she could have used the potions, but did not. And I further had to use the potions among other characters since it wasn't believable one might sip some holy water and get sixty seconds of x100 speed and strength.
Getting rid of the potion-concept and having her simply shoot her enemies. So simple. Solved so much.
I can say the same for Protestant, too
Herein is the problem because I'm bringing a judeo-christian upbringing into a catholic story. It gets difficult to navigate the intricacies.
Most of that activity is likely webcrawlers. Especially so if Amy's thread consistently grows its view-count
Oh hey... I'm back online. Wow. Laurie's been scrubbed from existence
I'm randomly back to work on the backup site. I deeply regret not getting to that sooner 
I also have to be careful not to give any hints about either Connor or De Rosa.
I've been turning this around in my head for months with no solution yet. Problem is De Rosa stayed on my list because he had a measurable power. IF you remove that, you can end up with a case where the reader complains there weren't enough clues and De Rosa was out of left field.
The unanswerable question is "Do I have enough clues based on him being conveniently out of breath at one episode had he not been on my suspect-list?"
Answer probably not. (Heck, on the other site I read a rape scene and had no idea lol.)
How to remove the powers yet still leave a trail? More clues from the "Dark figure" episodes perhaps? One of the cardinals figures out the dark figure is left-handed. Oddly, so is De Rosa. But the Cardinal doesn't live to report his finding. Someone stabs dark figure. De Rosa later explaining he cut his hand on glass? Too obvious?
From what I've read, I believe Michael is more powerful, although it's always possible that Michael never faced him one-on-one. There's a mosaic at St. Peter's Basilica of a victorious Michael standing with a raised sword and his foot on the head of Satan. But that's imagery and not necessarily based on anything biblical.
Assume the chain is made by God since it has supernatural powers (otherwise, how would you chain a spiritual being?). But then, so what? The wager involves Connor choosing whom to kill using the dagger from book one. Does it matter if Lucifer is stronger than Michael or not? Strength isn't gonna decide that contest
So, not sure where this falls, but I read the scripture as saying "Lucifer went to war against Heaven and only God could stop him. But God loved everyone and couldn't kill Lucifer outright, so he cast him down to Earth"
Now... if there were other beings who could stop Lucifer but were not creator entities and thus not beholden with creation-love, one would think they would just do it.
It follows from scripture that Lucifer's wings stretched over the throne of God. He shielded the rest of creation from God's glory with his own presence. Michael did none of these things... thus, one might one infer that Michael could not stop Lucifer from sinning (had he wanted to, of course). Could Michael have prevented the original war? Implicitly God could not because he valued free will, but Michael is not so beholden.
Herein lies the problem. If Michael is more powerful, and he could have stopped the great war... and he was not beholden by being the creator (eg creator of Lucifer and able to be compassionate to ultimate evil)... then by rights he should have used his power to prevent ultimate evil from taking lives. Even should the Creator have ordered him not to, Michael would be justified to disobey and follow his calling. Same as Lucifer could follow his calling and plunge the world into darkness, so too should Michael be able to plunge the world into light. Free will shouldn't only apply to bad guys, right?
No middle ground available where these two simply call off their bets. If (ultimate evil) can break the rules to chase (x) then (ultimate good) can also break the rules to chase (y)
Ergo, the stronger of these two would have decided the fate of the universe.
Since Lucifer exists, therefore we must assume Michael was not strong enough to stop him. OR Michael could have stopped him i(n disobedience of God (sacrificing himself in order to upheld righteousness)). If Michael was strong enough but opted not to, he has permitted evil to exist to save his own skin (from the punishment of disobedience).
I can buy an alternate timeline path (and bear in mind, my main series is also an alternate timeline that branched in the 1200BCE range but sort of mirrors ours until the discovery of steam)...
As a reader, if I'm in an alternate timeline, I'd like enough hints to get it early so I don't read in the wrong reference frame. I wouldn't want to be reading in my reality that Goldilocks ate the porridge only to discover at the 75% mark that the three bears altered her initial entrance to the cabin.
That is to say, I love remakes of the classic storylines... as long as I'm in on the game. How well the hints play out (that it's a remake) take a major role in whether I've followed well or been cheated
Michael the Archangel slipped it around De Rosa's neck while he was distracted. It's essentially a chain around De Rosa that limits his powers
Fine... but does that mean Michael is stronger than Lucifer? Or does that mean the chain was made by God (essentially a cheat in the wager)?
Something about Connor prevented him from committing the assassination, although he doesn't know what.
Something == the third party. No problem. Only inconvenience: it takes away Connor's agency. In the end of section three, when he has to decide who to kill and he asks himself how he arrived to this point, he'll need to avow that some third party set him up to be here.
ofc, that's not a bad thing. I flirted with the concept for J3nna, often having her actions directed by the collar.
Whatever it is that prevented Connor from killing the pope will continue to influence him until he learns the truth in book 3
Here's where the interesting pain-points will begin, as we'll have learned that the previous two books actually were irrelevant. Connor was created to solve a bet between two infinitely powerful entities. He solves the bet by going his own way only to learn his own way was someone else's intent. Everything he has done until this point has been moot. Ah, but how can he solve this? Does hw truly have free will or is he but a puppet?
Wouldn't it be premeditated murder? I have a feeling that that is hellish behavior.
I can buy that. If the target market can pick it out. all's good
In Matthew 4, Satan is able to whisk himself and clearly passengers wherever he needs to be. You'll need to do some legwork to understand why this Satan cannot
before Connor throws the dagger, he already knows, if he kills his father, then Connor is himself still destined for an eternity of suffering
Is this a catholic teaching?
I don't know if Campagna has a turning point in book one
She doesn't need one. I mention it as I try to resolve how to chain the stakes together.
K and George, I'm wondering what you think of the hunt for the Antichrist. I personally think it reads like just a bunch of "episodes" that don't build on each other sufficiently. I think it's missing ever-increasing tension and "thrill" as the detectives get ever closer to identifying the AC. There is continuity between those chapters, but nothing particularly important ties them together.
That's going to be a bitch to fix.
I've considered it from several angles and not sure it is fixable.
Fear not, I'm facing the same issue with [K @ j o]'s tale. Ok, so he's fighting the ninja twins. He can blow them into smithereens because he doesn't want to destroy large swaths of his city. But little in them is inherently dangerous. Then later he's fighting together with his mom and blowing up enemies left and right. And the only thing connecting the twins to this is the presence of the main character. There's been no chain of events, no upping up the stakes.
Ah but how to up the stakes. Obviously have his loved ones targetted. Problem is he doesn't really love anyone. I mean there's his school friend... but there's no villain with enough personal investment to want to do so, and even if one did (perform the killing), my MC would be sad but not struck to his soul.
Compare this to J who starts off her story with fixed assets (remember her burying her gold in the desert to protect it?) and slowly dwindles through her resources. As she chases bottom zero, she's forced to depend on others for help and this increasing dependence forces a mental shift of paradigms... an awakening as it were. But it's only a seed, and the pressure is mounting and she has little time because the two groups of enemies are tightening the noose. This very chase forces mistakes out of her plus her drastic attempts to cover.
Ah, but no one forces [K @ j o]'s hands. He sets his own timelines and he has infinite resources. He claims he needs to finish his studies, but no, he doesn't need to. His world won't come to an end if he waits until next year. The only threat to his timeline are the randos... and even his timeline is flexible.
Back to the detectives in Connor...
We don't know the enemy's timeline. I imagine they're guessing "soon" but the villain can't exactly say how much time they have (if there is even a clock).
What are Campanella's stakes?
a) Getting demoted was something she didn't like, but it also didn't hurt.
b) Her search for her son ties into the last 5% of the story but it's just a would-like for the previous 95%
My challenge for her is what decision does she make around the mid-point that sets her on an irreversible course that she either struggles against and runs with until it's too late for her? What does her transformative journey look like? If you can find her turning point, you will understand how to shape the key that will turn her trip into a rollercoaster.
Romano's much easier because he hits his point of no-return in chapter 7.
My question to Romano is what are the ultimate payments his conscience will demand on him and what does he have to do to avoid it? I don't mean karma / eternal damnation. Saving his lover's soul is sufficient to earn Romano a place in heaven, and provides a nice time-limit, but it's not a character study. Romano's made a mistake. He's taking the steps toward penance, but it's hard to chain increasing stakes, since he's more-or-less waiting for Benvolio to get a lucky break. The process is taking place around him, and so he needn't face any soul-searching to navigate it. Or think of it this way: If Batman saves Catwoman from a fall, that fact alone does not make Batman more interesting. What will fascinate readers is if Catwoman was mean to him before she fell and he still saved her (inner journey of forgiveness). Or if saving her meant not being there for someone else (start of journey of guilt). Or a million other angles.
