Writers Ask How'D You Plot Twists That Surprise Readers?

I’ve been obsessed with anime since I was a kid, and nothing hits quite like 'Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood'. The way it balances action, emotion, and philosophy is unreal. Edward and Alphonse’s journey to reclaim their bodies is heartbreaking yet inspiring, and the world-building is top-tier. Another favorite is 'Attack on Titan'—Eren’s rage and the twists in the story kept me glued to the screen. For something lighter, 'My Hero Academia' delivers superhero hype with Deku’s underdog story. If you want deep character drama, 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' is a classic, though it’ll mess with your head. Anime has so much variety, and these are just the tip of the iceberg!

As we know from the Namestro notes, there is still much about memes that we do not understand. In the greatest variety. As we know from the Namestro notes, there is still much left to be discovered about memes. It is from things such as the transfer of Buddhism and study by foreigners into Chinese during Yan kings that very often things have a profound effect on future ages. Cenotes, like this one in Mexico near Tulum, are simply natural wells formed by water eating into the limestone. The editors of the Esquire magazine for writers were meticulous; they usually corrected any errors in the manuscript thanks to their careful reading and editing. The complings howled and snapping flares hissed ladens beneath. But the foemen's ideal for toco knights had already been recaptured by these counters.

The way I talk about monsters is probably a little sentimental — I grew up poring over maps and the scribbled margins of 'Monster Manual' — and the beholder is one of those creations that always felt like D&D's richest piece of weirdness. In real-world terms, the floating eye tyrant is usually credited as an original creation from the very early days of the game, from the circle around Gary Gygax and other early designers. Its iconic look — a central, malevolent main eye, a fanged maw, and a corona of independently deadly eyestalks — was nailed down in the classic era and then cemented as a staple by the 1977 'Monster Manual'. That book helped turn the beholder from a cool sketch into a codified, widely recognised monster with stat blocks and lore that DMs could drop into any campaign. In the fiction of the multiverse there isn’t one single origin story that everyone agrees on, which is part of why beholders feel so delightfully uncanny. Different settings and editions lean into different explanations: some treat them as native aberrations of the multiverse — creatures that evolved (or were birthed) from the raw, mind-bending energies of alien planes. Others hook them more directly to the cosmic horror trope by linking them to the Far Realm or to other realms of madness; under that view, beholders are either products of exposure to otherworldly influence or outright immigrants from a plane where reality has different rules. I personally love mixing those ideas: maybe the first beholders were aberrations spawned by a planar rift, and subsequent generations mutated into the many subtypes we see in supplements. Beyond origin theories, behaviors and society also feed interpretations. Beholders are fiercely individualistic and paranoid, so any origin story has to explain how something so solitary could produce whole lineages and variants (we've got 'gauth' and 'death kiss', among others). Campaign books like 'Volo's Guide to Monsters' and various edition-specific sourcebooks lean into the theme that their biology and magic make them prone to creating strange offshoots and cults. For me, that means when I'm running a beholder, I treat it as both literal monster and living symbol: an entity born of cosmic weirdness and hubris, obsessed with perfection, and terrified of anything that might undermine its absolute view of the world. It's a great playground for horror, politics, and the kind of tense dungeon encounters that make players shuffle their minis and whisper plans.

No one can overlook the protagonist of "One Piece", "Monkey D. Luffy".Since the "D" in his name looks so unexciting, fans have debated it endlessly.There are innumerable theories regarding what it means, each one more obscure than the last.Some people think it means "Dawn" or "Daring", tying it in with the story's new era which is soon to arrive.Since the series began, it has been impressed upon readers that those with the initial "D" are fated to bring change to the world, leading some to conclude it could stand for "Destiny".But despite all this, the truth remains unknown. The author, Eiichiro Oda, has kept his secret well, promising that at the end of the story fans will have it revealed as an added torture for them!

I've been playing D&D for years, and fire giants are one of my favorite monsters to throw at players. In 5e, they're absolute tanks with a Challenge Rating of 9. They have 162 hit points, an Armor Class of 18 thanks to their plate armor, and hit like a freight train with a +11 to attack rolls. Their greatsword deals 6d6+7 slashing damage, and they can toss rocks for 7d6+7 bludgeoning damage. What really makes them scary is their Strength of 25 and Constitution of 21. They're not just dumb brutes either - with an Intelligence of 10, they can be cunning foes. I once ran a fire giant warlord who used terrain and minions strategically, nearly wiping the party.

As someone who's spent countless hours poring over D&D rulebooks and supplements, I can confidently say that the 'Draconomicon' PDF isn't natively compatible with D&D 5e. Originally published for earlier editions like 3.5 and 4e, its stats, mechanics, and scaling don't align with 5e's streamlined system. However, that doesn't mean it's useless for 5e players. The lore, dragon behaviors, and world-building insights are timeless. I often mine it for inspiration when designing 5e campaigns—just be prepared to manually convert stats or use online tools like the 5e Monster Manual as a reference point. The 'Draconomicon' remains a treasure trove for dragon enthusiasts, even if it requires some creative adaptation.

I remember the first time I encountered a fire giant in 'Dungeons & Dragons' 5th edition. These towering behemoths are not just big, they're terrifyingly powerful. According to the Monster Manual, fire giants have a Challenge Rating (CR) of 9, which means they're a serious threat even for seasoned adventurers. Their strength, durability, and ability to wield massive weapons make them formidable foes. I once ran a campaign where my party had to face one, and it nearly wiped them out. Their fire immunity and high hit points mean you need a solid strategy to take them down. If you're not prepared, a fire giant can turn your adventure into a disaster real quick.

I've run campaigns where I turned the room cold just by putting a beholder on the table — literally and figuratively. To me, the question isn't a binary 'can' or 'can't'; it's a story problem and a mechanical one. Beholders are built in lore as xenophobic, paranoid, and biologically predisposed to seeing everything as a threat. That makes full-bodied, cheerful redemption implausible without careful groundwork. But plausible redemption? Absolutely — if you're willing to reshape expectations and accept consequences. Mechanically, a few levers make this work. Start small: a young, gnome- or tiefling-sized beholder-kin is easier to sympathize with than a Great One entrenched in a lair with antimagic cone and thirty eyestalks. Use variants from 'Volo's Guide to Monsters' as inspiration, or homebrew a hobgoblin-sized aberration that grew up exposed to different ideas. Let its paranoia be a trait, not a prison: give it moments of curiosity, an object or memory that humanizes it, or a debt to the party. Replace instant alignment flipping with slow, player-driven scenes — therapy-style conversations by campfires, a captured book that changes its worldview, or a godlike vision from a deity in 'Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes' style cosmology. Let its decisions be visible: it saves someone from its species, refuses an eyestalk ray during a fight, or protects a town it once hunted. Narratively, consequences make the redemption interesting. NPCs may never fully trust it; other beholders or beholder-kin might target it as traitor; and players will need safety valves and vetoes so everyone feels agency. I find it rewarding to shift the arc to “earned trust” instead of “mystical cleanse.” Even if the beholder never becomes a warm, hugging companion, it can become a complex ally — a guardian with a psychological scar, an obsessive librarian, or an exile who protects the party's secrets while still flinching at loud noises. If you want a softer experiment, try a one-shot where the party negotiates with a young beholder for its freedom in exchange for a promise; it's a neat way to test tone before committing. I love seeing groups wrestle with the moral gray of these monsters — it makes sessions feel alive and a little dangerous in the best way.