# PREDICTED RATINGS · BLINK KNIFE (F, 28 Oct, autonomous mode, per USER_TASTE.md §7 + §9)

Rendered every live knife kill on 58k_knife.html (a 10-frame ksheet plus the six finals each).
Strips: /Volumes/Workspace/Scratch/killpages-f/pred/knife/<key>.jpg (script pred/run_knife.sh). Judged on what the page shows NOW,
with the code read where a frame was unclear (BLACKLIGHT in the dark, ORIGAMI's low levels, GILLS' insets).
No knife kill is on the few-maps list (58k_replace58.js). The Deep pair (GILLS, WATERLINE) are the underwater map's own kills (they STAY).
THE X (SMG) owns the knife X-carve, so no knife kill may keep or copy it.

**Counts (30 live): GOOD 4 · OK BUT 16 · REPLACE 10.**
Knife skews to REPLACE like hammer: a gag-heavy lane (pun mids, comic skins), plus two concepts built on anatomy (organs/teeth, skin/muscle/skeleton).
Common gaps in the rest: heads come off WHOLE (the blink decapitates but never bursts), hats on most victims, and every gore level ends on the same pile (§9 wants a proper ending per level).

| key | name | rating | note (exact chip phrases) | why (what I saw) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| knife.which-one | WHICH ONE? | GOOD | (keep; small: XT leaves the legs standing alone, give them a fall + the head pop at XT) | after-image decoys of Faris surround him, he swings at the wrong one, the real cut comes from behind; real action, readable, a clean payoff |
| knife.skin-camo | CHAMELEON | GOOD | (keep; small: costume (the orange helmet) · head explosion at XT, the head now rolls off whole) | a well-executed skin theme in the GHILLIE family: Faris fades into the lawn, cuts land out of nowhere ("WHERE ARE YOU?!"), the whispered "here." and the B/W slice; ends sliced lengthwise |
| knife.skin-ice | RED ICE | GOOD | (keep; small: costume (beanie) · XT should shatter the frozen body + head, today it snaps into a long slab) | three wounds, the blood freezes as it leaves him into red icicles, a porcupine of his own frozen blood, one tap and he topples and snaps: a striking transformation (ICE SCULPTOR / COLD-BLOODED family) |
| knife.waterline | WATERLINE (The Deep) | GOOD | (keep; small: too zoomed (the 0.5 s crash on the seam fills the frame) · costume (cat ears)) | underwater-only (stays); cut exactly at the waterline, his top half bobs on the swell like a buoy while the legs sink into the blue (BELOW inset): a clean, memorable payoff; XT's short intestine is allowed |
| knife.behind-you | BEHIND YOU | OK BUT | head explosion needed · costume (hard hat) · every level ends the same | a clean blink-behind kill, but he ends as a whole slumped body on every level; the hard hat stays on |
| knife.blink | BLINK. | OK BUT | confusing (the blinding needed eyes, the heads are blank now) | the XT explode is good, but the premise (he's blinded, flails) no longer reads with faceless heads |
| knife.air-guitar | AIR GUITAR | OK BUT | head explosion needed · gag-ish | the knife strummed like a guitar across him; he ends whole-headed; the gag carries the film more than the action |
| knife.vanishing-act | THE VANISHING ACT | OK BUT | explode limbs, body and head in the old game style | a magic-act cutaway (stage realm) with a sawn-in-sections payoff; the sections slide apart neatly instead of bursting |
| knife.chandelier | CHANDELIER | OK BUT | head explosion needed | the chandelier is cut loose and drops on him (a cast prop, fine); he ends a whole pile under the hoop |
| knife.splice | SPLICE | OK BUT | confusing (the swap reads only by colours) · head explosion needed | two foes cut and their halves swapped; on a stickman the swap only shows as mismatched colours; both end whole-headed |
| knife.compass | COMPASS | OK BUT | head explosion needed · costume (party hat) · confusing (three small deaths) | three victims cut on the compass points; each death is tiny in a wide frame and nobody bursts |
| knife.the-interval | THE INTERVAL | OK BUT | confusing · head explosion needed · costume (party hat) | a death realm between two frames of a blink (hanging film frames, grey copies of him turning to look); striking look but the cause → effect is abstract, and "only half of him comes back" lands as a pile on the roof at every level |
| knife.broken | BROKEN | OK BUT | head explosion needed · costume (beanie) · every level ends the same | fifteen blinks back and forth, each taking something, the blade snapping in him: real action; the head rolls off whole with its beanie and every level ends on the same pile |
| knife.skin-classic | DOUBLE TAKE | OK BUT | head explosion needed · costume (cat ears) | the double take (!?, tap tap) and the head turning all the way round and off is a good beat, but the head drops whole |
| knife.skin-neon | BLACKLIGHT | OK BUT | confusing (too dark: the four cuts happen unseen) · explode limbs, body and head in the old game style · no facial expression needed (Faris's glowing teeth) | same gap as hammer NIGHT LIGHT: the kill happens in black, then the blacklight reveal shows fluorescent spatter; the body is hard to find in the final and Faris gets a drawn teeth bar |
| knife.mid-shucked | SHUCKED | OK BUT | head explosion needed · costume (orange helmet) · no facial expression needed (the pearl out of his open mouth) | curled up like an oyster, cut across the hinge, limbs fling wide and come off; the pearl gag needs a mouth |
| knife.mid-origami | ORIGAMI | OK BUT | costume (party hat) · L/VL have no ending (she is left standing) | four creases fold her into a paper crane: a clear transformation mid; at gore 1-2 only one crease lands and she stays upright (§9) |
| knife.mid-whetstone | WHETSTONE | OK BUT | explode limbs, body and head in the old game style (shatter the statue at XT) | three SHING strokes turn him into a grey whetstone statue with bright grooves; a clean idea, but the payoff is a statue that just stands |
| knife.mid-butterflies | BUTTERFLIES | OK BUT | explode limbs, body and head in the old game style · camera (the tilt up loses the floor) | the belly cut releases a red butterfly swarm: a striking burst, but it's a pun and she folds up whole; the frame follows the swarm up and loses both bodies for a beat |
| knife.gills | GILLS (The Deep) | OK BUT | no facial expression needed (the puffed / screaming / gaping face, the crash insets on it) · body marks (the three slits) · head explosion needed | underwater-only (stays); the slits-become-gills idea is built on a drawn face (AK.face puff/scream/gape) and painted slits; ends as floating limbs |
| knife.bear-hug | BEAR HUG | REPLACE | no facial expression needed · bones (jaw, skull) | built on the face and jaw; a red disc shows on the head; removing them leaves nothing |
| knife.crossed-out | CROSSED OUT | REPLACE | THE X owns the X carve · costume (party hat) | the whole kill is the X carve (agreed REPLACE) |
| knife.telefrag | TELEFRAG | REPLACE | map-tied (needs a wall) | the kill needs a wall to blink into; plays only where one exists |
| knife.pickpocket | PICKPOCKET | REPLACE | organs · bones (teeth) | built on stealing organs and teeth ("MY TEEF", the heart, the guts rope) |
| knife.flayed | FLAYED | REPLACE | bones (skull, skeleton) · organs (the muscle layer) | an anatomy lesson: FIG. 2 THE MUSCLES, FIG. 4 THE SKULL, FIG. 5 THE SKELETON (PROPERTY OF THE SCHOOL); the concept IS the layers |
| knife.skin-taped | BUTTERFINGERS | REPLACE | gag | the slick grip slips, the knife drops through his foot, Faris walks back, rips a strip off the foe's sleeve to tape the grip (RRIP, knot): a fumble comedy; the head then rolls off whole (hammer's taped HEAVY DUTY was retired for the same reason) |
| knife.skin-cartoon | FLIP BOOK | REPLACE | gag · confusing | a pencil notebook flip book: on the page it reads as a grey wash, the paper-doll tear is hidden under a blood blob, then THE END; the final is a scribbled doodle, not the game's body |
| knife.skin-gold | THE AUCTION | REPLACE | gag · bones (the skull-faced auctioneer) · no facial expression needed (the coin-eyed bidders) | an auction realm: LOT cards, LOT 1 THE LEFT ARM, a giant SOLD stamp; the auction joke carries it, with a skull face and a crowd of eyes; not a gold transformation |
| knife.mid-right-through | RIGHT THROUGH | REPLACE | gag · confusing · costume (puffer jacket) | the blink leaves a Faris-shaped hole through his chest (a cartoon gag); at play size the hole reads as a red blot on the jacket and he folds whole |
| knife.mid-pockets | POCKETS | REPLACE | gag · confusing | hands cut off while still in his pockets: a joke that doesn't read in 3 s (he just hunches into a bundle) |

## What I'll do (after COORD merges)
1. **REPLACE (10):** new cinematic scripts, beat summaries to COORD first (doc: _tools/conv/cine_knife_replace_summaries.md), unique cores grep-checked
   against 58k_LEDGER.md, no X carve, THE X movement, blink knife drawn like THE X's, map-independent (room58 width + 48 <= 300.9 for rooftops).
   - Films: bear-hug, crossed-out, telefrag, pickpocket, flayed, skin-taped, skin-cartoon, skin-gold (keep each skin's theme as the look, not a gag).
   - Mids (<= 3 s): right-through, pockets.
2. **OK BUT fixes:** the §9 ladder on every one (XT head explosion always, VH/H usually, M sometimes, L/VL a milder fitting ending on the same beat);
   hats/helmets/cat ears off; GILLS' drawn face and slits out; BLACKLIGHT lit enough to read + teeth bar off; ORIGAMI low levels get an ending;
   SPLICE / COMPASS / THE INTERVAL made readable.
3. **GOOD (4):** concept and choreography untouched; only the small notes above (costumes off, the XT head pop, WATERLINE's crash widened).