TADC EPISODE 9 SPOILERS
I've seen a lot of people say (mostly on tiktok) that the SOMA theory being predictable is bad writing, which isn't true, especially in a show that wasn't trying to focus on its lore and world building. There were only so many ways in which this 'put on a headset and enter a digital world' scenario could go without detracting from character development screentime by being overly convoluted.
And I would argue it was executed well (until ep9) by having it slowly and subtly revealed through moments like Caine's dialogue in ep8 and Kinger's in ep7, the fact that not everyone watching the show caught on to that until it's official reveal in ep9 also being a testament to that.
When you have a predictable ending (or alternatively if you got spoiled), you should still have the enjoyment of getting to see how that ending is set up, executed and mostly importantly, how it impacts each character at the end of the story.
But we didn't get to see that last part. We got a reveal that was a 30 second entirely Tell Not Show conversation that still focused mostly on Jax in an episode already massively bloated by focus on him. And it didn't matter anyway because Pomni had already decided, for some unknown reason, that they should give up on the idea of leaving the episode before, robbing your only big plot reveal of the majority of its emotional weight.
iswm: life is full of infinite possibilities! :) every choice spawns a new universe that's full of even more possibilities! :) every single thing you do is important! :) you have agency! :) you have the chance to fix things! :) life is ours to choose! <3
iron lung: you have no choice. you're fucked no matter what. you can either give up and die, or you can try to survive a little longer and contribute to something that's bigger than you and won't help you in any way. but also there's no guarantee that any of your actions will matter. no one cares about you. you're on your own. good luck.
I don't think that's what ISWM was about though. The whole point was that you DON'T have infinite chances and every action you take will have consequences. And that you don't know how those consequences will play out and so you have to do your best to make the choice with the information you have. And that there's a chance that even with good intentions, your actions can backfire (as shown with Engineer Mark rebuilding the warp core).
It was about responsibility and accountability. The story was very literally structured around having the viewer engage with the story and take the characters lives seriously.
One thing I noticed a lot about q!slime was that he would always imply that his character was human and that (as far as he was aware) any connections with slime ended with his name and being a grubby little homeless man. However, other people would imply that he was a slime creature of some kind and I specifically remember a conversation during Día de los Muertos where the others were talking about what species they were and they said he was a slime-guy and he was like 'uh, idk. Maybe?'
Anyway my point is something, something, undiagnosed slime-guy q!slime.