# D-14 critic: the structure
2026-10-20. Read-only.

## Verdicts
| Option | Verdict | Score |
|---|---|---|
| S-A Lock-in | REVISE | 6 |
| S-B Crane up | KEEP | 7 |
| S-C Split street | REJECT | 4 |

- S-A: the only real causal chain (each hit locks the next), but one row per bar for four bars is a metronome, and a frontal flat grid held 12 s risks the slide test and the 3 depth layers floor.
- S-B: the top-down reveal (lanes are the steps, traffic the playhead) makes "the street plays along" literal; one camera meets the transition policy; perspective gives depth. Weak: the camera, not the music, causes the locking; an even 12 s rise is the screensaver it names.
- S-C: eight identical passes over 16 s fail the reorder test; a half-grey frame for 36 percent of the runtime fights richness and color; hero to question has no transforming transition.

## Gates
- Importance budget (max 25 percent): S-A 38, S-B 38, S-C 43: all fail.
- Peak (target 60 to 75 percent): S-A 55, S-B 58, S-C 70.
- Causal test, beat 2, all three: a question, a tap, nothing chosen. "You choose what you play" never renders, and play under an empty search field is not how the product works.
- Beat length variation: 6x, 6x, 8x: pass.
- Distinctness: only the middle differs (ends fixed by the concept).

## Choice
Mix: S-B as spine, with S-A's chain reaction as the locking mechanism.

## Fixes, by impact
1. Ambition: show the choice. In beat 2 one answer enters the pill as a whole phrase in the film's voice (a moment like "microbus, window seat", never a title, N3, no gendered first person); the play control presses in (no code-drawn thumb). That answer becomes the hero's melody lane, the street drumming under it: choice and street in one frame. The closing pill is empty: the viewer answers next.
2. Cause and rise. Replace "each source the camera passes locks" with S-A's chain spreading from the pill; the camera rises because it follows the chain. Accelerate: bar, bar, half bar, then three or more locks inside 1.5 s.
3. Budget and peak. Beat 2 to importance 2 (0.9 s read plus 0.5 s); 3 only for the hero and the closing question (2 of 8). Full top-down frame at about 30 s of 45 (67 percent).
4. Ending. 15 s after the hero (descent 6, question 4, lockup 5) is a long rewind. Descent about 3 s, one drop on a fill; the street keeps playing quietly under the closing pill (first question in silence, last inside the music), keeping longest_still under 1.5 s.
5. Build. Full 3D with Arabic in perspective is costliest, and Three.js does not shape Arabic. Use one 2.5D plane tilting from grazing to top-down; read words as frontal billboards (DOM or shaped SVG) holding 0.6 and 0.9 s, unread words flat. Ground, billboards and foreground words give 3 depth layers.

Highest-scored KEEP: S-B (7), chosen with S-A's chain.