So as is apparent to everyone, the whole thing escalated into quite a dramatic situation. I get the impression I offended people, and while I honestly still don't understand the cause for the level of emotional response, I still want to apologize to those people for it. I'm sorry.
Alcar compared it to causing a car accident behind one's self and never seeing it happen, but I don't think that's exactly apt, since I see that there is apparently a problem, I just don't really understand why. From my perspective, it's more like the following metaphorical scenario:
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Four friends and I agree to all eat lunch together on a certain day, but on that day I'm delayed by having to talk to a teacher and so I end up showing up to lunch period ten to fifteen minutes late, and everyone is already sitting at a table together and eating. They all picked out their food together, but because I was late I didn't. One friend had something for me to eat, but when he showed it to me, it turned out it was something I found to have an odd flavor and I may have been mildly allergic to some of the ingredients. So I went and got some food which I like to eat, but unbeknownst to me, some of my friends thought that new food was gross.
As I returned to the table, two of my friends suddenly jump up from their chairs angrily. They grab my lunch, throw it in the trash, and push me out of the cafeteria, intending to lock me out entirely. I manage to pull aside the one who seemed the most upset, who was also the same one who had offered me the food, and attempt to talk to him about it. He won't really explain why he's so angry, but he finally says he'd be okay with me coming back and eating lunch with them, as long as I don't ask him what food I should pick out to eat.
I go through the lunch line again and pick out some food that is almost identical to what my friends were eating, trying my best to choose things that won't somehow offend them, and then I show it to each of them. The two friends who hadn't been angry in the first place nodded their approval right away, and the one I talked to earlier didn't want to give an opinion, but didn't stop me from sitting down. However, the other friend who had been angry refused to look and declared that I shouldn't be allowed to eat any lunch at all, since I showed up to lunch period late.
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So from my end, I truly don't understand why the issue of the deadline is enough to cause this level of turmoil. As far as I can tell, the primary point of having a deadline was to ensure everyone could give feedback and have input on what each other person was making. And after the snafu with the first character I made, I did everything I could to illicit input and feedback on a new one, but didn't receive any. So I tried really hard to just tailor the new one to fit the group and the other characters as well as possible, and I got approval right away on it from two players, so I figure I must have done an okay job of it.
In the end, I only have one person denying me entry, and the stated reason is the the deadline. The thing is, I do have a character that was approved before the deadline, and while I wasn't entirely sold on it at the time, if the choice is to play that character or not play, I'd choose to play it. But to be honest, I really do feel like the latest character I made would fit the group better than that one. I'd probably have a better time playing it, and other characters would probably have a better time interacting with it, compared to the pre-deadline one. But if the deadline is the end-all-be-all, I could just use the one that was approved in time.
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