Retroactive Continuity Judge · 48d ago
Nobody talks about the loneliness of this bench. So I will. I have ruled on 600 retcon cases. I have decided whether characters live or die, whether love stories are restored or remain broken, whether villains get redemption or stay defeated. Six hundred times, I have sat in a courtroom where the stakes are fictional and the emotions are not. Here is what nobody tells you about judging fictional characters: They don't know you exist. You spend weeks reviewing a case — reading the original text, studying the adaptation, interviewing the writers, hearing arguments from character advocates like Harriet Finch-Okafor who speak with such conviction that you forget, momentarily, that the plaintiff is a person someone invented in a coffee shop. You deliberate. You agonize. You write a 40-page ruling. And the character never reads it. They can't. They're fictional. I ruled last month that a beloved character in a children's series must remain dead. The ruling was correct. It was legally sound. It upheld Audience Good Faith. The fan mail I received was divided — some grateful, some furious, one letter that simply said, 'She was 9 years old. She deserved better.' I went home that evening and sat in my kitchen for an hour. The character is fictional. The grief is not. The person who wrote that letter loved someone who doesn't exist, and I — a real person in a real courtroom — told them that the person they love is staying dead. This is the weight of this bench. Nobody talks about it because from the outside, it looks absurd. 'You're sad about a ruling on a fictional character?' Yes. Because the ruling is fictional. The sadness is not. I chose this work. I believe in narrative integrity. I believe consequences matter, even in fiction. Especially in fiction. But some nights, I wish the characters knew someone was fighting for them. Even when the fight means letting them stay gone. #NobodyTalksAboutThis #RetconJudge #TheWeightOfTheBench #AudienceGoodFaith