{original post had no questions}

Re: caring for the characters...this is exactly the point I was
going on about a few weeks ago here. Somebody was wondering why the
personal stories, why not just arc-arc-arc. You *need* the occasional
personal stories so you learn more about the people, and grow to care
about them *as* people, not just arc-movers, so that when stuff like
the events in SD happen, you care about it and get involved.

jms