# SOUL SCYTHE · PREDICTED RATINGS (X4, 28 Oct ~01:45, autonomous mode, per USER_TASTE.md §7)

## How it was judged
- **Renders:** all 32 live scythe kills on 58k_scythe.html (none retired, none on 58k_replace58.js), from the live files.
  - Each kill: a 10-frame strip at gore 5 (1 frame in the lead, 9 from the trigger to the final), the big XT final and the gore-3 (M) final, 480 px.
  - The doubtful ones also got a 6-9 frame close sheet at 720 px.
- **Strips:** `/Volumes/Workspace/Scratch/x4/pred/scythe/<key>.jpg`; close sheets in `.../pred/scythe/close/`.
- **Maps:** K58.mapCheck on the 17 dry maps for every kill (log: `.../pred/scythe/_log.txt`).
  - 27 kills play 15-17/17, IN PLAIN SIGHT 13/17 (a real wall), PUFFER and THE REEF are The Deep's own kills (they stay).
  - **SWATHE plays 1/17** (FOOTING on 16 maps). The cause is staging, not the idea: the three victims stand at depth offsets off the floor line (`y: FL + ROWY[i]`), so the footing probe fails off the castle. That's a fixable bug; the concept needs only floor.
- Judged on what the page shows NOW (faces off via K.FACES, the zoom floor, the central gore ladder).
- The victims' caps, beanies and party hats are their gameplay cosmetics (they show in the lead too), so they're not flagged.

**Counts (32 live): GOOD 4 · OK BUT 20 · REPLACE 8.**
- The scythe skews away from GOOD: it's a lane of magic transformations (soul images, jade, leaves, coral, a bell, a horse) with very little fight choreography.
- Most OK BUTs share two roots: (1) the head stays whole at EXTREME, because the kill took a limb or transformed the body, so the central ladder stands down; (2) hand-drawn bones in transformation payoffs (skeletons, bone ends, ribs, a skull).
- Three kills have real bugs: PRUNED, SWATHE and TUBE (details in the table).

| key | name | rating | note (exact chip phrases) | why (what I saw) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| scythe.skin-ice | THE WINTER HARVEST | GOOD | (keep; small: check the white crosses in the gore-3 heap, which read as bone ends) | real action: each reap freezes into a hanging ice crescent, Faris vaults over him twice and builds a cage of three; the slam shatters it inward and he comes apart into the old-style pieces; wide, readable final |
| scythe.mid-shade | SHADE | GOOD | (keep) | one clear, clever idea in under 3 s: "MISSED!", then his own head slides off along the line the blade cut through his shadow, and it rests on the shadow's head; the carotid jets and the kneel read |
| scythe.mid-the-touch | THE TOUCH | GOOD | (keep) | quick and clear: the tip touches a fingertip (a magnifier inset), the black climbs the arm, the fingers drop "tik tik tik", the hand goes, then he bursts in the old game style and the soul rises; no face now |
| scythe.shroud | SHROUD | GOOD | (keep; small: the long gut rope from torso to legs is incidental, so trim it to a short intestine at EXTREME only (§8); the blade sinks into the floor bricks while the shroud is dragged) | a striking reveal: the cut night drops over her like a dust sheet, he reaps through at the waist, and the sheet comes off on her legs still standing and her top half crawling at his boots |
| scythe.skin-taped | STUCK | OK BUT | head explosion needed | physical and brutal: THUNK, the blade sticks, he rocks it with a boot on her, it rips free (SHHRRK, the leg goes), then a second THUNK into the head; the head stays whole on the blade at EXTREME, where the last THUNK should burst it |
| scythe.swathe | SWATHE | OK BUT | head explosion needed · bug: plays 1/17 maps (FOOTING) | the best scythe idea (one sweep takes three at the knees, a 3-camera freeze, they kneel on their stumps in a row), but it ends on three intact kneeling bodies; the staging bug above keeps it off 16 maps |
| scythe.mid-pruned | PRUNED | OK BUT | bug: the body is thrown up onto the overhead beam · camera bug (the final loses Faris) · head explosion needed | exactly the user's LIMB OFF + SPRAY three times (wrists, elbows, shoulders), quick and clear; then the trunk flies up onto the castle's overhead beam, and the XT frames him there with Faris's head at the bottom edge; at gore 3 the body hangs in mid-air at the final |
| scythe.carousel | THE CAROUSEL | OK BUT | head explosion needed · camera (the final leaves the body half out at the frame edge) | hooked by the wrist and swung round on the reap (a real, weighted spin), the arm stretches, SNAP, and he sails off; the arm-off payoff fits the pick, but the body lands at the left edge, intact |
| scythe.skin-classic | BY A THREAD | OK BUT | bones (bone ends at every joint) · head explosion needed | clever (the Fates' thread snipped, CRACK, every joint lets go); but he drops into a heap with cream bone ends poking out of every joint, and the head stays whole; no action |
| scythe.mid-the-catch | THE CATCH | OK BUT | too much internal organ detail, use the simple explosion instead · head explosion needed · too zoomed at the end, zoom out | launch, then the catch on the upturned blade reads; the payoff is gut coils looped over the steel, on a tight, tilted final |
| scythe.furrow | THE FURROW | OK BUT | bones (the planed chest shows ribs) · head explosion needed | the plough drag through the floor is physical and readable; flipped over, his front is a ribbed strip, and he ends whole |
| scythe.mid-the-draw | THE DRAW | OK BUT | head explosion needed · bug (the crescent shows through the floor bricks) | drained into the floor through the point, jammed at the ribs, torn at the waist: clear; it ends on an intact upper half beside the hole |
| scythe.poppies | POPPIES | OK BUT | body marks (the poppy growing out of the wound) · not realistic (he bursts sitting down, with nothing hitting him) · camera (the rolled shot) | a drama, not a fight (the nick, the tourniquet, he sits and greys in his poppies); then the central ladder blows him apart for no visible cause; the camera rolls in the middle |
| scythe.knell | THE KNELL | OK BUT | head explosion needed · body marks (the green patina spots) | a strong image (the bell drops over him, CLANG, the toll rings out), but when it lifts he stands spotted with painted patina, then folds, whole; at gore 3 he's still kneeling at the final (no ending) |
| scythe.pale-rider | PALE RIDER | OK BUT | bones (the skeleton payoff, the horse's ribs) · no facial expression needed (the ageing face close-up) · head explosion needed | the ghost horse and the gallop through him are good action; the middle is a close on an ageing drawn face, and he ends as a red skeleton with a skull; the ride-through should burst him instead |
| scythe.autumn | AUTUMN | OK BUT | bones (the skull and ribs in the leaf pile) · no facial expression needed (the skull's face) | a nice transformation (he turns gold to red and blows away as leaves), but the XT reveals a grinning skull and ribs in the pile; no action |
| scythe.reaped | REAPED | OK BUT | no facial expression needed (the screaming green face in the blade, the husk's mouth hole) · explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) | the soul yank reads, but the husk has a gaping drawn mouth and a screaming face sits in the blade; the husk should burst at EXTREME |
| scythe.uprooted | UPROOTED | OK BUT | head explosion needed · no facial expression needed (the soul's screaming face) | launched; the soul stays hanging in the air and is drawn into the blade; the soul carries a skull-like face, and the body ends whole on the floor |
| scythe.look-back | LOOK BACK | OK BUT | explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) | the jade suit tiles over him mid-stride (a transformation, like a stone/gold body), but nothing happens after: he stands as a statue for 4 s; should shatter at EXTREME |
| scythe.reef | THE REEF | OK BUT | explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) | underwater (stays): coral grows over him and he calcifies with a brain coral for a head; static, with a red blur over the head; the reef man should shatter at EXTREME |
| scythe.trade | THE TRADE | OK BUT | hits drawn as circles (the green and red rings) · body marks (the painted wounds) · confusing (two circle insets at once) | the heal trade is told through two circle insets, ring marks on both bodies and painted wounds while both stand still; the burst at the end lands well |
| scythe.skin-camo | IN PLAIN SIGHT | OK BUT | body marks (the camo seams drawn on her) · explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) | a clever skin (the camo blade on the wall, the haul), but she comes apart into a messy pile of patterned jigsaw pieces that doesn't read as the game's gore (13/17 maps, a real wall: fine) |
| scythe.skin-neon | TUBE | OK BUT | camera bug (the final cuts Faris at the left edge) · explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) | a well-themed skin (the gas lights his veins, they blow, he bursts), but the pieces are dead grey tubes rather than the game's wet caps, and the final frames Faris half out at the edge |
| scythe.skin-gold | SHORN | OK BUT | no facial expression needed (the eyes on the flayed head) · explode limbs, body and head in the old game style, scaled to the gore level (full at extreme) · camera (the final cuts Faris at the edge) | the golden fleece is a gold payoff, but the shorn body is a raw striped flayed figure with two white eyes, ending in a red heap |
| scythe.threshing-floor | THE THRESHING FLOOR | REPLACE | confusing (weak beyond a fix: a dark barn realm with ~10 ideas) · bones (the teeth payoff) | the barn is near black: bound "sheaf" people, flails out of the dark, winnowing, a red wind; the action barely reads, and the payoff is his teeth clattering back like grain |
| scythe.ossuary | THE OSSUARY | REPLACE | concept built on bones | a bone archive realm (skulls in pigeonholes, femurs racked, ribs bundled) where her bones are filed one by one; removing the bones leaves nothing; it ends on a boneless body with two eyes |
| scythe.bag-of-bones | BAG OF BONES | REPLACE | concept built on bones · gag | "HA HA!", then the bones move under his skin and he folds into a rattling skin heap; a gag built on bones, no action |
| scythe.rock-a-bye | ROCK-A-BYE | REPLACE | gag · non-existing element (the cast dead tree is the kill) | the nursery rhyme: hung in the crescent from a dead tree cast for the film, the bough breaks, he lies whole under it |
| scythe.bale | THE BALE | REPLACE | gag · death hidden off-screen | wound up like spaghetti into a hay bale with his face pressed out, then rolled out of frame: the final shows only Faris and the blood |
| scythe.skin-cartoon | HARP | REPLACE | gag · bones (the cartoon bones) | a cartoon angel squeezed until POP, the body pops at the seams into cartoon dog-bones; comedy, and the XT cuts Faris's head off at the top |
| scythe.mid-nevermore | NEVERMORE | REPLACE | confusing (weak beyond a fix) · hits drawn as circles | "HA!" SLAP inside rings, then the raven moult is a mess of red and black sticks on his torso plus two insets; nothing reads as a raven until he bursts |
| scythe.puffer | PUFFER | REPLACE | gag · no facial expression needed (the googly eyes are the payoff) · too zoomed | underwater: he balloons into a spiky pufferfish ball with big cartoon eyes and a hanging tongue; a pure gag on a tight close (a Deep slot: its replacement stays a Deep kill) |

## Fix order (after the coordinator's merge)
1. **Bugs:**
   - PRUNED: the trunk thrown onto the overhead beam, the float at gore 3.
   - SWATHE: the 1/17 staging; row on the real floor line.
   - TUBE and SHORN: the finals that cut Faris at the edge.
   - THE DRAW and SHROUD: the crescent drawn through the floor.
2. **Head explosions where the central ladder stands down,** with an explicit STYLE.ending at the payoff, per §9 (XT always, H/VH usually, MED sometimes, LOW never; every level gets its own ending on time):
   - STUCK (the second THUNK), SWATHE (the boy), PRUNED, CAROUSEL, BY A THREAD, THE CATCH, THE FURROW, THE DRAW, KNELL (inside the lifted bell), PALE RIDER (the ride-through), UPROOTED.
   - Shatters for the statue/transformation payoffs: LOOK BACK, THE REEF, IN PLAIN SIGHT, TUBE, SHORN, REAPED's husk.
3. **Hand-drawn bones out:** BY A THREAD's joint ends, FURROW's ribs, AUTUMN's skull, PALE RIDER's skeleton (and the horse's ribs), THE CATCH's coils → the old style.
4. **Faces out:** REAPED's blade face and husk mouth, UPROOTED's soul face, PALE RIDER's ageing close, SHORN's eyes.
5. **Body marks out:** KNELL's patina spots, IN PLAIN SIGHT's seams, TRADE's rings and painted wounds, POPPIES' wound poppy.
6. **The 8 REPLACE builds:** beat summaries first → OK → blocking → polish → FINAL.