mdhwrites
MDHWrites
Where you can follow all things having to with Michael Hudson the Writer.
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My Thoughts On the Pilots Being Leaked
For an ongoing work, I am against leaks PERIOD. I have unfollowed artists for Star Rail who shared leaks because not only do I not want to know what's going to happen, I think it's damaging to both fans and creators. It splits people, often causing some fans to feel like they have to hide from the fandom to not be spoiled. It can sometimes ruin a moment, or even make it be misinterpreted without context, which destroys the work the creator put into it. It can damage the success of a work by ruining the cycle of marketing and hype for it. It can also be EXTREMELY rough for creators emotionally because what was meant to be a moment of celebration has suddenly turned into damage control.
Leaks are fucking awful... For ongoing projects.
What has been leaked for Disney cartoons over the past decade and a half, potentially further I don't know, has all been for things that either never got released or are finished works. They are also content that would have, 99% of the time, never seen the light of day without being leaked. There is no hype cycle for them to ruin. There is no damage control that the creator needs to do because of it being put out there and the network wanting them to help repress it. Not knowing about scrapped media for a work is okay fandom wise so fans don't have to hide from it or split amongst themselves for whether they've seen it or not. It can't be misinterpreted against the creator because we know this isn't what they went with, very explicitly since it never aired. All the problems for an ongoing project aren't here.
In return, we get glimpses into how the animation industry works, how these creations go from concept to fruition, things that are kept pretty arcane to the vast majority of people. Disney especially loves to curate their personal image and only let out certain stories about their works, hence why they don't like letting the documentary about The Emperor's New Groove's making, which is BRUTALLY HONEST about the creation of that movie with responses from animators and staff while the film is in progress, be seen by ANYONE if they can help it. It also helps aspiring directors to see what they need to do in order to potentially get their projects out there instead of just having to follow vague advice for what a pitch bible looks like or even thinking that it needs to be the absolute final draft of their project, rather than a living document like it appears to be more commonly.
The only real downsides I can think of are A: they do allow concepts to not be reused as surprisingly by a creator but these are pilots. Their jobs are to setup a story and so if a creator still reuses a concept here for a full work, that just means that now they get to explore it properly. B: It's embarrassing for the creators because it is old, sometimes unfinished work. That... shrug I sympathize with that.
C: It causes fans to question why certain elements weren't used instead. I've already had to do a blog about how the pitch bible for TOH is actually not much better than what we got and the clear reasons why TOH likely made the changes they did as what was portrayed by the pitch bible would have meant an even larger scope than in the show we got. You know, the show that always struggled under the weight of its scope and cast size. But a lot of people have been looking at it and the pilot and thinking that it would have been strictly better than what we got which can cause some parts of the fandom to potentially be cruel to parts of the work they wouldn't have otherwise. It also means creators may be bothered by questions about the pilot when the pilot isn't actually important to the work itself. It was scrapped for a reason and while it's cool to see where it came from and can be educational, it shouldn't be used to condemn the show simply for now not having an element from the scrapped content. That's not fair to the work or the creator.
I am personally on the side that the educational and insight value from these pilots outweighs these problems but I could see myself changing my tune if I start hearing about fans leaning into this last problem. Treating scrapped content as only okay if it is objectively worse than what we got. That's not fair, especially since what a creator decides to include is a very delicate balance of a lot of elements, a lot we can't usually see without the broader context of the next steps beyond the concept as presented. How it actually needs to function in execution.
This is your constant reminder that the only perfect work is the one that is never made. It's a lot easier to pitch the perfect concept than it is to write it, so don't let this stuff be the end all be all for what would have been 'best'. Let them simply be the educational curiosities that they are instead.
See you next tale.
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Don't think all of this just applies to corporate work btw. I have stuff I haven't published myself, including an entire novella, because it didn't work and so had to simply be thrown away. The reasons for each are pretty complex, ranging from just how it all came together, how it would damage the rest of a work or how I decided that my audience clearly weren't interested in the thread I was pulling so ending it one chapter faster was probably for the best. It's complicated and we should remember to be respectful of that.
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Randy Cunningham's Pilot: Worse than the Sum of Its Parts
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So earlier today I said I wasn't interested in watching the cancelled pilots but like... Just look at that thumbnail. If you know ANYTHING about this show, you know that this straight up looks WRONG. It got me to watch a minute and what can I say? Hearing Randy hits me in a way not a lot things does and it sparked my curiosity more and more.
And WOW does this highlight the fact that animation, writing and voice acting need to be working together. There's a LOT I could get into about creative choices that make this much more generic than the final product, like Heiti being a cheerleader with a crush on the ninja but not Randy, but I actually don't want to focus on the specifics. No, I think the more interesting element is the big picture.
These are the VAs. These are, for the most part, the characters. The writing, humor and even lingo is Randy to its core. The animation is fluid and well done. All three of these elements are firing on all cylinders... But also blowing each other out.
The animation is the big failing here. The VAs and writers are going for something over the top and wild. Something that's a lot goofier than this artstyle. When I tried to place it, the ones that came to my mind were Fillmore and the 3D animation for Horton Hears a Who (Randy is like 1 for 1 with Jojo). Someone else said The Goofy Movie which is REAL CLOSE. Two of these though are much more grounded works. Ones that are playing with some silliness but mostly with reality and the like with maybe one odd element, like the trouble Goofy gets into. Fillmore has NOTHING like that besides silly school crimes.
Randy Cunningham is NOT that. It is a much more fantastical world where everyone is a caricature and that's part of why it's got such a warm spot in my heart. You can just use the title of a character, like baton girl, triangle boy or main bully and not only will I immediately know who you're talking about, I'll hear their voice and see their design in a flash. That's because they hit so hard. Even if they're not pretty designs (I think Randy is an inbetween for prettier, cleaner styles and something more ugly like Zim) they are distinct and memorable and snap with so much energy that when they're screaming at the top of their lungs, their actions and body language match.
This style just can't keep up. It is fluid but they've sacrificed snappiness for that fluidity and that brings down the energy of the work. It feels slower so the punchlines don't hit as hard as they should. When Judge, the McFist prototype, screams, he doesn't sell it as hard as when his mouth is as big as any other character's entire head because that man's face is about twice as tall as any other person in the show's.
None of the other pilots I've seen people talking about with this recent leak have that level of contrast to them for me. Even TOH's where it's genuinely a pretty different setup doesn't excite me because that's just talking about differing writing choices, like I could have with this. Writing is going to be the last thing in any work to be finalized though while designs and the like might see tweaks but rarely an entire overhaul like we have here. Let alone such a drastic change as to not just warp but strengthen EVERYTHING else about the show.
It's genuinely fascinating which is honestly more than I can say for any of the other discussions I've seen about the leaked pilots. Not that there aren't discussions to be had but it's much more "This could have been neat" instead of "If this had been it, the entire balance would have been WRONG."
And for a show as wild as Randy Cunningham, it makes me appreciate its artistry even more than I did since it's such an easy show to write off. Knowing how generic it could have been though? It makes me appreciate it all the more.
See you next- SMOKEBOMB!
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Did you see the leaked pitch bible and pilot for Amphibia (initially Amphibiland)? Any thoughts on that and if it's any better or worse than the show we got?
So the one I got linked never mentioned Marcy or Sasha besides incidentally essentially and otherwise was just... The show. It felt suspect to put it mildly, like how ALL of its eleven segment pitches were entirely just episodes of the show. Now we've actually gotten enough content out of this leak for me to ruminate that and here is my thought on the pitch bible I saw:
It is the pitch bible for S1 and by then, ONLY the names were really going to change at that point. As such, I don't really have anything to comment on for it. The closest I could is that you can see how a lot of it was essentially 98% there in pretty much all of the elements. It's just a lot less interesting than the radical shifts that TOH made from leaked pitch bible to print.
I also haven't watched any of the leaked pilots and don't really plan to. That stuff can be theoretically neat but I watch such little television already. I don't need to watch stuff that ended up NOT airing. I've also just been VERY volatile emotionally this past... Week? If I'm being honest so that also has been making me less interested in watching them. Sorry.
I will say this, looking at the side characters: It makes some out to sound like they'll be a bigger part of the show but for something like this, I think that's a good thing for the bible. It's included just a little more detail on their relationships than needed because that way the character is more fleshed out. It follows a little of the concept that a good side character is just a main character who's story we're not seeing. Not for all of them but for some of them, like the chief of police who I think we see all of one? time in the show. That's neat and it's not a bad thing to have just a little extra detail to your side characters than what's strictly relevant to the show because it'll shine in the flavor of them. It's part of what helps Wartwood in the actual series feel so vibrant.
But yeah, that's all I've got to say about it. See you next tale.
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Have you seen the leaked TOH pilot and pitch bible yet? IMO it’s crazy how most of it is better than the final product.
I have! And... I don't know if I entirely agree with that.
What I found most fascinating about it is that a lot of the contradictions and issues of scope with TOH that doomed it are still in the pitch bible itself. Just some quick examples of what I'm talking about:
When talking about themes, they talk about Fantasy versus Reality but it's as shallow as it is in the show. After all, one of the episode concepts pitched within it features a plot that has Luz literally going "This is just like in my fanfiction!" and being better able to handle it because of that.
It builds up the emperor of the land and Belos (known as Oberon) when talking about them but NONE of the plotlines include Oberon in the episode pitches or even mention the coven system for that matter. They are still barely a thing to the show with the only episode concept about that part of the show being the one about William.
An utter lack of real stakes like how King has to face the deep crises of a decision of either being a lackey to the people he used to run with while also losing any chance to ever reclaim his lost power... Or he can save Eda and Luz and lose the chance to work with these people again. That's not really a compelling decision, is it?
The pitch also claims that the show will mostly be about Luz and Eda's relationship and how Luz's determination will push Eda to be a better person... And most of the episodes pitched are still not actually about the two spending time together. Just Eda making Luz upset so she goes off to do her own thing, just like the same problem as in the actual series.
You actually have MORE characters in this version which sucks harder for trying to narrow things down, especially since more of them are disconnected from each other than before. At least Boscha, unlike Pascha, has a connection to literally anyone in the main cast.
You also have stupidity with your magic still. "Look! I need to work hard to make small objects float!" And apparently that's enough to make all of Hexside lose their fucking minds. WHY!? In 90% of settings, that is as basic as the light spell Luz learns. It's why it's one of the first spells Harry learns.
Oh and let's not forget "Almost all known portals to the human realm have been severed" but apparently Amity has access to one of those known portals freely enough to attend two schools. It's a small thing but it would cause problems in theory.
BUT.
I will give credit to this: Luz is MUCH more compelling in this version. I think if there is something that is just unequivocally true, it's that. She is way less inoffensively nerdy, instead her interests being more upfront and troublesome, helping explain why that would be why she is rejected and not because, you know, she puts people in danger. Also her rise to power is just better.
Arguably, Luz in canon is a chosen one essentially from episode FOUR onwards. Now, this is up for debate but being given a power almost out of nowhere, with no training, that no one else has, is usually a sign of a chosen in a narrative. Episode 4 is when she gets the light glyph. She doesn't work for it, it's not a big character growth moment, etc. like that. She mostly just oops into it. Making it that Luz ACTUALLY has to work for her magic and the show actually has to explore how the magic works, making it so she has something to learn is just strictly better, especially for the concept of her learning to be a witch. Eda would actually be able to teach her something instead of shrugging and going "Welp, good luck!"
I will say that the bible does also lean more into an adventurous aspect though. This version of episodes would easily be more fantastical and include more magic in them which would help the Isles not feel so much like our realm. I will say the fact that there's also active anti-human prejudice also would be good because then Luz being human would, you know... Matter. Not that the Isles is really given a personality even here besides the oppression they're theoretically under. It's still a very generic fantasy setting.
A lot of the rest though? It's really not that unique or different from the show itself. Lilith is almost exactly the same, Tibbles is just Gus but a demon, there are slightly more restrictions on things like being human or magic but, you know, the show didn't care about its one law, why would it care about three? Even Amity, who does look better on here, is only because it's on paper. This is literally just Amity's pitch in S1 after all. All the reasons people loved Amity are here.
Conceptually it is fine but I am surprised about how not only this got picked up but also how it was greenlit so heavily as to get a pilot animatic, with voice acting, based on these concepts. There's just some very clear cleaning up that needs to be done, basic questions on its own setting and own logic that isn't even playing into the comedy/fantasy angles that could let you let it pass. It's not all of them or even the majority but a skeptical prereader could even raise these basic sorts of inconsistencies like the ones I brought up above. After all, this is half a season's worth of episodes pitched and a fifth of them are still going to Amity and more of them have Luz directly interacting with King than they do Eda.
There's a final thing I have to bring up due to it being why I think the show changed so drastically from this pitch bible to its final form: This is way more complicated. TOH already has extremely decompressed storytelling and too many elements working in tandem. Meanwhile, every character is MORE complicated in this one and less connected to each other, necessitating that each, except maybe Eda, will take more time to get through their stuff. The writing team either had to sharpen how much they could do in an episode or simplify and congregate elements. We see this a LOOOOT in S2A, especially Escaping Expulsion, where it seems the writers went "Even with three whole seasons planned, we don't have enough time to do everything we want to, the way we like to, so we need to start cutting and simplifying even more than before."
One example of this that's really easy: In the pitch bible, Willow is a random witch who lives near Eda. Well that means she'll likely either take time out of a couple episodes as she's introduced or take up an entire episode just for herself. Tibbles is also just on their own, like in the show. Introducing both of these characters is not really an option. However, put them both into Hexside and suddenly you can introduce three characters at the same time organically, like we saw with I Was a Teenage Abomination.
Luz just being gifted magic is another element to this. Her having to actually experiment for every spell and having to have a real system to her spells limits what she can do but also means spending a LOT more time on her magic. You can't just have a flower open up and give her the glyph of the day as easily, nor have her be able to throw her spells around as she wants. Making it so she just needs reams of paper and/or a marker makes it a lot easier and simpler to have her start casting magic.
This version of TOH would have SHATTERED under its own scope while the current version mostly bends and cracks from it. However, if people do use this to go "FUCK DISNEY EVEN HARDER!" I won't be surprised. Grand scope ALWAYS looks better on paper than it does in action. It sounds epic and multi-faceted and complex. The problem is that it still has to fit its format and it is MUCH harder to execute on than a more simple concept.
There's a reason the only perfect project is the one you never do because you can promise the world without ever having to deliver. So, while it's nice to see an earlier version, I am by no means going to say this would have been a better version of TOH.
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Sorry for anyone hoping for a link to the pitch bible btw. I just don't have one as I got given it as a document.
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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A Gentle Reminder
If you pick up any of my books, even one for free, and end up enjoying it, please remember to leave a review. They not only help the book reach more people but help let me know I'm actually doing well at my job of trying to entertain people with my stories. Thank you and see you next tale.
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This is a weirdly...personal thing to ask so feel free to ignore it. But when it comes to scenes involving reconciliation between characters, do you think the word 'sorry' is always neccessary?
I've seen such scenes play out with viewers saying 'X didn't even say sorry!' even if 'X' was demonstrably remorseful for what they did. Personally, if someone who wronged me was trying to make amends, and they couldn't muster a simple, singular word, 'sorry,' I'd come to the conclusion that they're not sorry at all, and that they don't really give a shit. But...do you think I'm being too harsh, thinking that way?
Sometimes, remorse for one's actions can come about in ways besides simply saying sorry. I mean, characters' expressions alone can convey apologies in ways words can't. So again, is the word 'sorry' always necessary for a reconciliation scene in stories to actually work?
Absolutely not. I have criticized characters before for barely remembering to apologize but that's because apologies are complicated. One of the first lessons a child learns after learning the word "Sorry" is not to say it if they don't mean it. This is why going "Sorry, but-" will immediately kill your apology. If you lead off with a huge excuse for why you were a colossal asshole, GUESS WHAT! You're still a colossal asshole because you only care about not feeling guilty, not being at fault, and NOT the other person's feelings. Just because you EVENTUALLY remember to say sorry doesn't fix that first you wanted to make it clear you hadn't done anything wrong.
An exceptional classic example of an apology that doesn't even need an "I'm sorry" is when someone breaks something they don't know the meaning of. The wronged person gets upset, the wrongdoer gets defensive, they both storm out, furious and hurt. Then the wrongdoer is told why the thing was important, understands the deeper meaning of what was done and goes out to replace it. Then when the victim sees it, they don't have to say sorry. In fact, "Sorry, I didn't know what it meant to you," is actually the weaker option here because it still includes an explanation. Now admittedly, that option allows the victim to also apologize for not explaining why they were so upset.
The better option is that when the object is seen, the wrongdoer asks about what made it important. "Someone told me your grandma was a hell of a woman. They made her sound preeeetty boring though."
"Oh yeah, then they didn't know her, just like you don't."
"Well, I'm all ears then. What was she like?"
That shows such a deeper understanding of the wrong done, and is genuinely better for showing that the character has understood why the other was hurt, than a simple, "I'm sorry." Using the default can work but if it just sounds like someone reciting what you're supposed to say when you're in trouble... It doesn't sound genuine, does it? Even if it's technically the right thing to say.
Hell, you want a GREAT breakdown on shitty apologies and how saying sorry can just make you sound like more of a douchebag? Pop music is FILLED with this problem and Todd in the Shadows has a great example of it. Check out the video if you have the time.
youtube
(Oh god, this is from EIGHT YEARS AGO)
To the general complaint though, it's a lot like how people view redemption arcs. "Did the person get forgiven?" "Are their crimes able to be redeemed from?" etc. like that. Claiming that reconciliation and apologies can only work if a character says sorry is trying to quantify these elements. To be able to check a list that then says whether or not an element empirically fails or not. To make it so someone cannot refute your argument.
That's not how writing works though. What works for one book won't work for all of them. It depends on context and skill. You could copy the greatest apology scene in media and if it doesn't work in your setting or with your characters, it will feel as hollow as a character being forced to say sorry because their parents told them to. Writing rules are fluid like this and we shouldn't try to say something has to, or can't, be included in a scene for it to work.
Sorry if you don't agree. evil grin
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I got WAY too much enjoyment out of that last line. XD
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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I wanted if you think that the harem and reverse harem gender have untouched potential to make a good story for the sake of a cheap power fantasy
This is like asking if Isekai have untouched potential to make a good story. Both genres are so large, so overstuffed and so desperate for novelty that it's hard to actually talk about anything the genres HAVEN'T touched on. I mean, right now there is a show about 100 girlfriends and is actually about romancing girl after girl after girl and even to some extent showing the girls getting along. Showing the actual reality of polyamory would have been my first statement but some actually do.
You would need an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre to really be able to answer this question meaningfully, at least that's how I feel. As an example: My brain thinks no one has done a harem centered around mental illness and disorders, a concept I want to do, but there may easily be some indie person like me who has done just that. Or an anime producer desperate for an edge over others who has done that and done it well.
Even if we just go off of "Have harem stories EVER told good stories," then that is easily rebuked. Stuff like Tenchi Muyo told such good stories as to popularize the genre after all. The problem is that nowadays you have to cut through a lot of chaff for something actually good because of a crowded market. It's complicated like that.
BUT I will say that I agree with the initial instinct. That a lot of works end up sacrificing their story for cheap power fantasy because they know that's what sells and because it's easy. That is why there is so much chaff. This goes for almost all genres though where people will just churn out something that they think will make people buy their work, regardless of how much effort or inspiration is behind it. Derivatives exist in all markets after all.
So while it's easy to shit on the harem genre, its prominence is much of why it has its reputation, not because it's wholly unique.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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The Uselessness of Filler
Filler is not useless. Filler is flavor. This is about how useless the term 'Filler' is to modern discussions, especially with non-adaptive works.
First I want to get into what I mean by 'Filler is flavor' though because it gets into what the modern, rhetorical definition of Filler is. See, plot, action and drama are great and when those elements are high, very few people will even consider calling such a piece Filler. After all, it clearly serves a purpose and often has the big payoffs we want out of the thing we're watching... But it's not actually always what is most memorable about the story in general. After all, these moments are big, flashy and they mean a lot but they're the ones that usually paint in the broadest strokes for most pieces because they actually have to have a goal they're accomplishing.
Meanwhile, an episode that lets the characters breathe, flex smaller elements of themselves, etc. like that get listed as filler. After all, no plot or character development happened so it can just be thrown away, like one would useless, bland filler. Except how often are those episodes bland? A LOT of filler does something a lot of more plot driven episodes can't do: Character and world EXPANSION. It can get into their hobbies, the small ways in which a world works, it/the characters' quirkier elements that make them feel more distinct from their archtypes, etc. like that. It's important for making them feel fully fleshed out instead of feeling like they're just the archtype. A story without filler after all has no room to make it so a redeemed character is anything but their redemption, not if every scene and episode is only focused on moving the plot forward.
But this raises an even bigger question: What the fuck does this term mean when there isn't a plot? Or when the main focus of the plot is just interactions? We have after all made a rhetorical term, that a LOT of people seem to think is deeply important, that straight up doesn't apply to certain genres. If a comedy doesn't push the plot of the show forward but is hilarious during that episode, is that Filler? If a slice of life show showcases the characters cooking for an episode and just seeing how those personalities bounce off of each other in that situation, is that Filler? In a romance, if the two leads have a fun day out but don't deepen their relationship by the end of the chapter, is that Filler despite getting to see the two interact?
And a lot of people would go "I mean, those are fun and good so they're not filler" which is actually even true for the traditional definition and use of Filler. It originates originally after all from anime adaptations that will fill time because the manga they're adapting is out of material but they want to keep putting out animated material for it. So they have to come up with a plot that doesn't actually change the status quote to fill time. When done poorly, it's lambasted for being filler. When done well, it's PRAISED for how good its filler is.
That doesn't feel fair. It's almost like it being filler ISN'T the problem. The problem is whether or not it was any good. A LOOOOOT of what is branded as 'Filler' with Western, Non-Adapted media is just what the fandom or person doesn't like. 'I got nothing out of this so it must be filler'. That's just bluntly not true. If that is what the definition is, then the term is just "This is my opinion" while trying to sound like it's an actual, structural critique, especially for someone who cannot actually verbalize why they disliked it besides just not gelling with it. Which it's okay not to like something but you shouldn't try to deepen the reason why if all you have to say is that on a rewatch, you'd skip it because you found it personally boring. Because it didn't cater to your tastes.
And for anyone going "Well, this is just your opinion. Can you back it up with an example?" I can actually.
Hazbin Hotel exists after all.
That is a show that has such a breakneck pace that it'd be almost impossible to call any of it filler... But also it struggles to remember that it needs to actually sell us on the characters, world, etc. before getting into status quote shake ups and major plot beats. That's how you get a show that is spending its first episode simultaneously going "Look at our hotel for redeeming sinners" and "Alright, we are ramping up the conflict with Heaven to set up an eventual war."
I don't know about you but I don't feel like those should be happening at the same time. But... If Filler HAS to move plot and character arcs along, the base premise of Hazbin is literally flawed. Having a random sinner of the week would be Filler. Tackling a failed method of trying to redeem someone would be Filler because technically would be accomplished or moved along. Instead, it HAS to immediately go its big plot because that's how you justify it as a real story in a modern, critical context.
That's just a flawed way of seeing media to me. How many classic works have been rendered almost entirely without merit by this way of thinking? Monster of the Week Sentai like Power Rangers? Come on, can't you cut that down to the couple plot relevant monsters and episodes in each season? Who wants to see them fighting weird, fun concepts after all, there's a big bad to kill! Classic modern shenanigans like Ed, Edd and Eddy? There's no plot so it's an entirely ephemeral product. Literally ANY sitcom from Friends to Frasier to Seinfeld, etc. can be just said as being filler and so not be meaningful and where is the usefulness of that.
And if the term is ONLY for genres with plot like adventure series... What the fuck do you have to say about Journey to the West, one of the most influential books of literally all time... Most of which is spent on obstacles that accomplish literally nothing, except maybe reinforcement on a theme, besides enabling them to take ten steps before the next obstacle slams in front of them? Are you telling me that Journey to the West is fundamentally flawed when so much of its episodic pacing is part of why it has been able to be influential and inspirational?
The more we lean on hard criteria like Filler over whether or not a piece was effective or entertaining or anything like that, the more we narrow what media is allowed to be. What a story can be. Rhetorical tools like these aren't meant to do that. They're meant to help express our discomforts and annoyances with a work. That is why we have terms like 'Repetitive,' 'Pointless' or 'Bland'. These all specifically address a problem within the work, rather than dismissing it outright simply because of its position in a narrative. They all touch on reasons why people call something Filler without being able to be misinterpreted or misused. They require the person to actually state what they don't like about it than using some arbitrary criteria in order to dismiss something.
Filler as a term doesn't even have that flavor, making it more pointless and rote than the media with that label.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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SpyxFamily Code White Spoiler Free Review: A Perfectly Balanced Cake
Spoiler free: This film is damn near perfect. If you wanted a showcase for pitching someone on the show, I don't know how much better you could really do. Every character gets tons of chances to shine for their usefulness in comedy, personality and action and in a way that I'd argue beats either of the action arcs of the show so far in giving everyone something to actually do. This even extends to the side characters though. No one gets a lot of time but everyone is utilized super well, leaning on their best elements and never their worst. Like I almost could not have asked for a better use of Yuri for this movie than what we got, that is how well the side characters are used.
If I had any actual complaints with the film, it's that once the action starts, it does struggle to get past a big issue I feel action movies have: Keeping up the emotional stakes and development during the action. This isn't to say there isn't characterization, there is SO MUCH CHARACTERIZATION during the second half still but that it ends up feeling more emotionally simple than the first half of the movie. That also however means that it's never getting in the way or forcing someone to be our true main character which is part of what allows all three members of the family to rock it as hard as they do in the second half.
And as for the new, original villains, I could see someone complaining that they feel one note or too pure evil but it's actually keeping in line with the show as a whole. The show knows that anyone who is actively trying to start a war threw away their humanity in order to get there. As such, the movie takes that mentality and goes "Yep, and so let's lean into just how fun we can make these villains," and I think they hit that mark dead on. Also, giving them more characterization and nuance would have again potentially disrupted the balance of time for the family. I remember plenty of Naruto movies and specials that spent so long on the new characters that there wasn't actually a point to all of Team 7 being there. It could have just been Naruto for how much the others do. That isn't the case here.
All of this makes for an incredibly sweet experience that is exactly what you'd want out of a SpyxFamily while having enough surprise fillings to make it so it's more than you might hope for. Truly, a slice of cake that will leave you Meremere
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Birfday + A Free Book!
I'm 28 now and I want to stop worrying so much about the past and look at the future. That's why the book I've chosen to make free to keep forever, available from now to the end of the 23rd, is by far the oddest, boldest work I've ever made. I need to learn to be able to breathe in, breathe out and let my creativity take the wheel again, rather than worry about what others may think. So, without further ado, my pulp scifi book written entirely on stream: A Galaxy of Choices Book One: The Living Planet.
Dave is an old man. At almost sixty, he's been a mercenary, a smuggler, a pirate, and so many more that he's lost count of. His body is scarred, his ship creaks, and with each day he adds another night alone in space. It's a lonely, quiet life, and the old man...
...loves it. He's an old man in professions where people die young and he doesn't intend to stop anytime soon. Today he heads for Texton, a planet known for draining the very life from your bones before dragging you into its mud to extract whatever else it can get. Entire ships have sunk below the surface, never to be seen again as the reactors are drained of every speck of fuel. It is a place where those who live there either stay hundreds of feet above the ground in fear, or have allowed the ground to seep into their very genes in order to become something more. Something new. And Dave is going to have to deal with it all just so he can get paid.
Contains: Large Breasts, Plant girl, Rough sex, Aphrodisiacs, Stomach Bulge, Large Cock, Impregnation, Lactation, Hot Spring Sex
I do love the 'Contains' on my books for some of my works because for those who are going "Is this really non-stop sex?" Nope. It is all in one chapter but if you're gonna do aliens, why the hell not have some FUN with it?
And for those of you who are confused as to why this is my boldest work when it probably does sound like some good old fashioned pulp scifi isn't because of the content. Honestly, I personally believe my worst works are the ones that are explicitly trying to subvert something. No, this instead is celebratory and also very ME in format.
It was written without planning. Not really at least. The gimmick was that on stream, I would take pauses to write a section of the story and then present a few options to my viewers to choose from. Then I would play some of the game I was playing until I hit another pause point. Then I read what had been chosen and immediately got to work. No long planning sessions just GO. The example I like to highlight is that when given a few flavor choices for getting to the planet, people voted "Loud." When I had presented it, I had planned a dogfight above the planet. When I saw it chosen though, my brain went "What if the planet was screaming?"
And so that was what happened.
It is a method of writing that is very me. My brain works a mile a minute. I have had people present me a concept and returned to them with an entire novel's concept within five minutes. I come up with ideas endlessly. My stories literally swerve in the middle of writing them because my brain will go "Nope. This is how the character would react so we are running this way now."
It's the sort of confidence in my writing I want to get back so it feels like a good statement of intent to make free today. I hope you all like it and see you next tale.
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Why Are Original Books Feeling More Like Fanfiction?
This isn't because only now authors who do fanfic are also original writers. Even Niel Gaiman has admitted to having done fanfiction. LOTS of works have easy ties to other stories that came before to a point where they can be seen as fanfiction inspired. Why is it though that so many people agree that the vibe and excesses of fanfiction, along with its deficiencies, are now coming through in original works that people are asking money for?
Well, a lot of it is going to come down to the fact that with the rise of e-book publishing, it allowed a LOT more independent creators to find success. This is a good thing. It allowed a lot of new voices to be allowed into a very insular medium that always required agents and publishers to get anywhere. Even for traditional publishers, you now have works that don't cost NEARLY as much to publish if they stick to just ebooks instead of having to do huge releases everywhere, especially as in recent years, Amazon has enabled bookstores to order in bulk from Amazon. You don't have to deal with the upfront costs of a print run if it can just break through.
How do you know which horse to bet on though, as a reader or a publisher?
If you are a writer, and don't have an industry job somewhere as a writer, places for you to build a following are not easy to come by. Even as the internet allows for more small time publications to look for short stories, that circling back to you can be hard and that actually requires, you know, being the one to submit the best story. It also means making a story based on their guidelines and prompts which might not even match your strengths or your interests. What is something that gets past all of that as a writer though that allows you to build a following?
Fanfiction.
Worse yet is that anyone will tell you that the best works are not the popular works. That the most popular authors in fandoms are rarely the ones who are actually the most competent but the ones that best sell to their audience what they want. The ones that feed into fandom indulgences the most while being good enough to not make your eyes bleed when you read their work. The most popular works will also often be attached to the boldest, more provocative names in a community because those writers become genuine personalities to their readers, rather than just the works that they create. There are absolutely exceptions to this but these are going to be the sorts of works/authors who are the easiest to find and the most likely to actually chase after the dream of a publishing deal. After all, these people are still going to usually have to be willing to shop around a bit for an agent and what not and an incredibly talented but meek or non-ambitious author isn't going to do that.
We saw all of this very explicitly with 50 Shades of Gray, one of the true break out successes of early ebook publishing that essentially followed the exact sort of thing I'm describing. A work that is trashy fun with an author who is inflammatory enough to cause people to talk about her and a story that updated voraciously not just because it needed so many chapters but because it allowed a constant amount of attention, all helping the fanfic itself to become huge. Then a publisher explicitly geared towards converting fanfic (that I actually don't know if it still exists or not, or is at least still doing what it used to like this) scooped her and the story up and allowed it to stay mostly unchanged because of their popularity. The quality of the work mattered less to the fact that it had an engaged audience and the author could promote the book by themselves. It saves you a TON on marketing and makes you a more 'sure bet' than some rando who submits an amazing manuscript but is otherwise entirely unknown.
My own stories follow this even as someone who is entirely independent. My most successful stories by a LONG shot were when I was at my most popular on Fimfiction and while the site also had its most engaged user base. There were simply more people who might actually check out the works, causing initial interest and buzz to help push the books in their early days, give them a couple reviews and then have them circulate outside of just the fanfiction circles afterwards. It probably also helped that these works had evocative covers, were erotica and usually helped by a push from an erotica fanfic I released at roughly the same time to garner buzz. I don't think those works are bad mind you, just that I do think my writing has gotten better while my audience has diminished GREATLY since I left my old platform and as Fimfiction itself withered. As such, even as the quality has gone up, my numbers have gone down.
And that brings us back to the original question: As a reader and as a publisher, how do you decide who to take a chance with? Who is going to get you to pick up their book? Especially if any of the books aren't priced at the lowest possible on Amazon of 2.99 or even .99 cents (or 0 if you read through Kindle Unlimited, which is 11.99 a month)? After all, no one has money right now, let alone for books.
You go with who has already proven themselves in the market and can be sampled for free: fanfiction. You're gonna end up going by popularity then though, not just quality. Otherwise, it'd be just like taking a blind bet anyways and that's not why these people are seeking these communities for their next book to read/publish.
See you next tale.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Hey bud, I have a question. When would you say it is acceptable to include "good luck" in a story as a narrative solution.
This is a fascinating one to me because of one big element: EVERY protagonist has good luck powers. Honestly, most fictional characters in one way or another do. If they didn't, we'd often not have a story to tell. Narrative contrivance is a term after all.
But what about when you just straight up admit it?
Well... It's tricky. I've gone on record that I despise characters with 'bad luck' because the luck still serves a narrative purpose and even can often turn into good luck. After all, even if luck in our reality is a cosmic force we cannot control, that's not the case in a story. Every choice is decided by the author unless they literally roll the dice every time they're deciding something and even then, they are the ones who decide what the outcomes can be.
This still applies to good luck too. Just because on a meta level, we understand that characters in stories are often luckier than most, that doesn't suddenly make it narratively satisfying to just go "Guess my luck is holding out!" for every little thing that happens. This is because blaming luck for why a character gets out of a situation can often be an anti-climax where instead of a character having to work to get out of a situation, they just... Do.
This problem also presents the solution though: Make them earn it. Their good luck should balance the scales of karma essentially. A character puts life and limb at risk for a plan that suddenly has a complication and they take a gamble on some improv that works out? Go ahead and blame it working on luck because they have already worked to make this plan function, they are still having to do something to make it work, etc. like that so the audience is still getting payoff after payoff and this bit of tension still feels deserving because the stakes are real. If someone has lost everything and has their life suddenly threatened only to then be let go from dumb luck, that can genuinely feel like the universe giving them a break for once.
Essentially, the question you need to ask yourself for if a scene deserves it is to put yourself as a writer in your audiences shoes. When the moment of luck comes up, is the audience asking "I wonder how they'll get out of this one," or "Please, can't you give him a break already!?" If it's the latter, that is a GREAT moment for luck because it will feel like that break that the audience wants.
For an example of doing this right: Master Chief, weirdly enough. In the books, he is canonically lucky. In fact, compared to every other Spartan he grows up with and who survives the process of becoming a Spartan, it is the ONLY way in which he is exceptional compared to them. Cortana literally chooses him for his luck. And how does the book Fall of Reach portray this? That he's in the right place at the right time to try to do something. Not that he just succeeds but that he is given the opportunities to use his skills to their best effect. If he didn't act though, he wouldn't win. If he didn't put 100% into it, he would still lose. It's only that he is the one that fate has chosen to help tilt the scales that makes him lucky, which also makes his luck not get brought up much and doesn't devalue the fact that he still has to plan, work and adapt in order to win it all.
That is a damn near perfect way to do it. Not that luck supersedes skill, just that it allows them to be, well... The main character. Because all main characters are lucky so what's the harm with leaning into it just a little?
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If 2.1 wasn't still the newest patch, or I thought I could explain how it works for him faster, I absolutely would have used Aventurine as the example instead of Master Chief. His brand of working around his luck is just a little bit more complicated for why it pays off so well and I admittedly still want to do a blog talking about how Aventurine is in 2.1. For those worried: It's a 180 from how I saw him in 2.0. There's a reason I'm pulling for him in two days.
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Erotic Conundrums: Tribal
Is it still even okay to do this fetish? Aren't we trying to get away from fetishizing natives? Well the thing is that porn with a plot is still PORN and that does complicate such matters. Complications that are integral to the conundrum for this fetish:
In a story fetishizing tribal stereotypes of one sort or another, how much does that limit your storytelling?
For now, let's put a pin in the controversial elements of this trope and focus a bit more on what exactly it is and what it's about. First off: You don't have to do darker skin, jungle motifs, etc. like that for it. The appeal is just that it is a more primitive culture. Dark skin as a fetish is something different and we'll go over different archtypes for Tribal cultures soon but just because it can be called Tribal doesn't mean you need a tribe of people. It's just that it gets you in the right mindset for the time period, level of technology, etc. like that for what this kink is trying to invoke.
Even that is not so simple though. Tribal stories can span from the prehistoric age to something colder and brutal by taking after fantasy barbarian stylings/what we think of stereotypical vikings. Anything that invokes pre-civilization to most. A simpler, more basic, less advanced culture. The point is just that inherently, their values, culture, etc. like that is almost entirely foreign to what modern day values are and they don't really have any forms of technology besides maybe basic tools.
All of these settings have similar draws to them, just of differing flavors and differing extremes. Some give an emphasis on power, skill, the ability to hunt and dominate, some have more archaic power and belief structures that can be explored and/or abused and all of them have very unique aesthetics that change the look and feel of a story away from either fantasy, sci-fi or modern, though many may take cues from fantasy since fantasy borrows from the past aesthetically already.
That contrast of culture and style is often what is most fetishized though in porn. The ways in which it is different from our modern world, either to glorify those elements or to glorify more modern ways of thinking. If it even bothers to take inspiration from real world history, it will often conflate many elements in order to add to the exoticism or allow some way for the main character to be special amongst the people they are interacting with. That includes even if within the narrative they are a part of those people. This doesn't have to be an isekai or a modern man going to a more primitive place in the world. It could be that ALL members of the cast are a part of this culture and you're still able to cause the same sorts of contrasts. Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon is actually a good example of building a character within a culture who still stands out as unique within it and finds success due to those unique elements, allowing for a contrast and highlighting of different elements of both his own people and himself. Or, you don't need to have the contrast at all and instead indulge in just the fantasy of escaping into another time.
Buuut I do keep using the term culture so I think it's time to bring back the question of if this sort of story is okay at all. After all, we as a society are trying to depict such cultures more accurately and to move away from the negative stereotypes involved with them, including the sexy, native woman that many stories like this can fall into. The thing is that, well... It's porn.
I know that might sound weird to say since the point of these blogs is to talk about adding depth to porn, making erotica, not smut, but it's still porn. If you are using porn as your lens into the world, treating it as a reflection of it... The problem is on you. Not that a good writer can't include honest, human truths in porn but deciding "This is how an entire culture is" from porn is not really something you should do because the number of works trying to do that are fractional amongst even erotica. Unless the work is genuinely trying to be offensive, or being authoritative while being objectively wrong, I don't think it's something you should really attack the work for due to anyone deciding to take their worldview from it instead of trying to treat it as the good fun that most porn is.
HOWEVER
You probably should, unless you are of a certain tribe or culture, try to avoid using living tribes and culutres and the like to base your porn on. I would just make it an amalgamation/aesthetic than anything specific. Treat it more like a fantasy culture than trying to claim it's realistic. You'll honestly be able to have more fun with your made up culture this way, adding to the general enjoyment of indulging in the kink, rather than acting like you're trying to be representative. Unless you plan to be respectful, there's no reason to claim you are using a specific culture, especially since you're probably going to warp their beliefs for your uses anyways. This also adds a layer of abstraction so it's even more on the reader if they go "This book said tribal people were like this!"
Now, this doesn't mean that it should be entirely unrealistic because the best way to make a tribal story go from being smut to erotica is a very simple trick: Treat them as characters. Even if the culture is fake, you can still give the people thoughts, personalities, interests, etc. like that. You can make the culture more than just the one rule you're warping to allow the main character to do whatever they want. Just something to make them a little deeper, even if it's not making them real.
This also will help you just make a story in general. If these are actually people, even seeming like you're divinely blessed isn't going to make everyone jump your bones. So they have to actually talk, or the MC has to start realizing that using these primitive ways of thinking doesn't immediately want his partner to be there and reacting to that. That or if you want to go a more dominant angle, how the MC potentially twists the culture of the people they are with further and further before no one can question their right of conquest and self gratification, even potentially to the point of being a bit stomach churning for how far they go. How completely they corrupt this society for their own gain.
You can also just do what would be a period piece plot in these more primitive times but it includes more sex than normal. You can make it about the people of the MC being attacked and defending themselves and play it for the terror it is, for the cultural triumphs every victory is, the competing ideologies, etc. like that that you'd get from any normal novel trying to use primitive cultures as a frame while just making it that those elements also happen to lead to sex half the time as well.
That's one of the nice things about a kink like this, even if again it can be seen as part of the problem, is that it's more a setting than what has to be the whole of the story. This isn't like someone gaining mind control powers or something explicitly about power dynamics where the kink determines a lot of what your focus storytelling wise might be. So long as you're interacting with, and fucking, a more primitive culture, your options are actually still pretty open. You just have to recognize that them being of this time period, of their culture, cannot be all that you are working with because otherwise you're not telling a story. You just have a bunch of cosplayers who are able to do as they're told, even if they're bad at getting in character.
See you next tale.
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Funny enough, this wasn't chosen because I have another book that has used this, kind of. It was actually because a lot of these conundrums come up in pretty extreme kinks that cause them to be very shallow due to ease of use. This was one that's more tame but had some complicated elements that I thought were important to go over nonetheless. "Treat your characters like characters" might sound like writing 101 but with how often Hollywood can get it wrong, especially when bringing in various cultures, it seemed prudent to talk about it with porn in mind because let's face it: A lot of people think all that matters is the body in porn, not the mind or personality attached.
Like I said though, I have done a book that used this to some extent. I went with the angle of a modern person running into a secret, more primitive society. In this case: Elves because fantasy can very easily slip into this trope with its use of past iconography. It is 99 cents on Amazon so if you're interested, maybe you'd like to check out The Secret Village of the Elves?
We all know how it goes. A guy who spends too much time in the woods stumbles upon an elf, gets brought back to her village, is told they need him to repopulate, and bam! Instant sex! Well, what if one had to work a little harder? What if they had to prove they could actually help these people? What if a chance encounter wasn't all it took? Well, Jacob is about to find out exactly what that in fact entails.
Contains: Voyeurism, Small Breasts, Large Breasts, Titfuck, MFF Threesome, Muscular Elf
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*vibrates*
It will also always be a tragedy to me that the themed ask blogs aren't much of a thing anymore either. Like I've tried multiple times to do them and struggle to get any asks. The last one I did essentially entirely survived off of Ao3, not here.
bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements
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You said the arcs of certain characters in TOH have an 'Us vs. Them mentality.' I take it that's because, as you say, the narrative pins the bad qualities of certain characters on separate parties (e.g. "Amity's flaws are only because of her mom"), but would you care to elaborate further on said mentality and how it sticks out to you in TOH?
So shockingly, not really. It plays into it but I am actually inherently talking about the same sort of mentality that Belos perpetuates but back onto Luz. After all, if you look at the main cast by even mid season 2 we have a problem forming.
Eda: Has lost her criminal edge, has no personal interests, is defined by being nice in a way befitting Luz's worldview. Momma Eda.
Amity: No longer is studious and hard working but instead focuses more on her girlfriend and her nerdy interests. Is also now just nice. Was only shown genuine care by Luz, instead of just trying to fulfill her nerdy desires, once she finds out Amity is into Azura.
Lilith: Has turned into a nerd and given up on any ambitions that had led to her previous actions, becoming a nice cool aunt. Only now has Luz tried to form any relationship with her (admittedly, she didn't get many chances before now).
Hunter: Has only been being given kindness because he has shown a capacity for kindness that Luz only really started showing him, beyond not wanting him to die, once he showed he had a nerdy interest in wild magic.
Gus: Was a nerd from go and always nice, even if he could be slightly selfish.
Willow: By mid S2, is essentially out of the show for the past half season, has never had a strong personality and is just nice. Yes, she'll start her jock stuff soon... And never have a real conversation with Luz again, at least not until S3 maybe? So a full season where Luz and Willow, after Willow might have stopped being nerdy/an outcast, where Luz doesn't have an interest in her anymore.
And uh, just as a reminder to S3, Hunter gains a scifi interest post redemption and Luz explicitly listens to NOTHING her mother says to her during her big speech in For the Future until she reveals herself to be a secret nerd. At that point, suddenly Luz dials in.
For TOH, a show supposedly about the individual and self expression, characters either lose their personality and/or gain the personality that matches LUZ. There is less character variety in interests and personalities than even 90s cartoons much of the time by the end of TOH because these characters all lose so much of themselves fitting in with the good guys, especially the redeemed ones.
This is where your argument for this does come into play. I'll frame it as the fandom likes to with Amity: "She didn't have Luz in her life yet."
Amity is only a bitch while she is hanging out with the wrong crowd. Socialites, those with ambition and jocks. The Luz enters her life and despite the fact that the ONE time Luz ever calls Amity out for being a bitch being when Amity is being a bully to King and clearly trying to get a rise out of Luz, making that moment meaningless, that simple fact starts warping Amity. Starts making her turn back to her good, nerdy side. And because this is such an inherently good thing, there is no difficulty in doing this. She needs no motivation, no calling out, nothing. She just needs to desire to be like Luz/liked by Luz. She can discard her entire friend group and do things that should get her disowned with how evil Odalia is and face zero consequences because... I guess that's the power of becoming a nerd.
You are beyond reproach. You can only do good. Same goes for Hunter. Despite YEARS of potential propaganda and the like, Luz just getting into his life and admittedly jabbing at Belos/him a little, is all it takes for him to embrace the inherent goodness, displayed by his nerdiness about wild magic, and start becoming a better person. For this, he loses his home but that is only seen as a positive because indeed, he got away from those hostile that made him a bad person. He could now be a good person because he no longer had those influences and could embrace Luz's way of life.
With the show's themes, why is this the case? Shouldn't their base personalities be allowed to exist? Shouldn't a wide range of ideologies and the like be allowed since that is a part of self expression? Instead, when people don't like Luz approves, they are disapproved by Luz and either need to get the fuck out or conform.
And this is all without getting into how she becomes Jesus in the last episode...
None of this is intentional but if someone told me that the show felt hostile to them because they didn't consider themselves a nerd or because they tried to get somewhere in life, I wouldn't blame them. The show has a weirdly narrow belief in who is a good person. Who is allowed to exist in the main cast, a problem that cascades issues into a lot of its themes. I mean, this is the first show I've ever had to ask if character arcs are actually hurt the themes of the show because of this, a blog I sadly couldn't refind.
There is admittedly an element of this where I might not have thought about it without the fandom. Most people I know who are multi-fandom still agree that TOH is aggressive against others, even for a fandom. That it lashes out and blames others for its problems. Almost like a *gestures at the thesis*
And that doesn't help make any of this be less uncomfortable unfortunately. See you next tale.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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Zenless Zone Zero's Billy: The Deadpool Worry
This isn't about comedy tastes. That might sound weird since I'm going to talk a lot about comedy but it's important to understand that even the best jokes delivered poorly can end up falling flat on their face. A stand up comedian is not just good because they have good material, it's also because they know how to deliver that material.
So what's the Deadpool problem then? Deadpool, at least when he's recognizably Deadpool, usually does this well, right? Well... Yes. But many have tried to copy him, haven't they? The one I'm most familiar with was the tv show Ultimate Spiderman, where they had Spiderman essentially just be Deadpool and the comedy there worked well enough.
But both Deadpool in the comics, with exaggerated posing, perspective, etc. like that and a cartoon show with its potential for manic energy, quick cuts, stuff like that, helps add to the fun there. The live action Deadpool even relies on good direction and an EXTREMELY good voice actor paired with great material that works for the lack of exaggeration to make the transition work. It's also paired with still a lot of big, silly movements to help sell all of that.
But I have seen a lot of pieces of media have those over the top, zany, fourth wall breaking characters and without the animation, fervor, etc. to back it up they have been VERY sour for me.
And Billy is in a Hoyo game. You know, where most conversations have a half a dozen poses at most, extremely static cameras (if any camera work or poses) and well... Watch these trailers.
youtube
youtube
Even just here, with the ability to do more, we see some of the limitations. The first trailer works better because they let him be a lot more wild while the second one is relying ENTIRELY on the voice and dialog and is suffering from that. It's not helped that the dialog and joke they're going for isn't great. Admittedly the jokes for Zenless Zero so far in the trailers have been... Safe. Not bad but safe, to a point where they cause a slight problem on their own, and I could get into it if people are curious. Voice is good though.
But the thing that kills it the most is that there isn't the energy needed for these jokes. That for as hard as the voice actor is trying to go, if the other elements aren't backing them up, it's going to feel flatter than it should. Almost all comedy will suffer from these sorts of things but this eccentric sort of comedy more than most. There's a reason you don't see it a lot in live action. The more subdued medium relies a lot more on snark and interplay because that just fits its energy better much of the time comedy-wise.
Star Rail even suffers from this. Lines that should be funnier just get a slight eye roll or smile from me because when they're flatly delivered on a text box, it has to be GOOD to really get the joke to hit hard or it needs to come out of nowhere where the blunt presentation can help sell it. "Just let me heal you so I never have to see your face again!" isn't technically a joke but it is still such a stand out moment for me of comedy in Star Rail because it comes out of nowhere, the performance is shrill, and while it might cause a chuckle, it also serves a good character purpose.
It's also interplay, not fourth wall breaking. These misgivings could end up being nothing. I'm trying to be kind to the trailers because I recognize a lot of what they're going for and their job is not easy here with these trailers, especially since there's a mandate to sell that this is the comedy Hoyo game, at least comparatively. I'm just worried that Hoyo might be biting off more than they can chew. The need to expand into different genres and styles outpacing what their engines can actually support, at least as strongly as they may need to to not make this feel like any other gacha game.
Penacony has surprised me with its cleverness in how to use its elements for storytelling though and while that's for drama, Zenless may manage the same. That's why it's a worry, not a condemnation. What are your thoughts though? And see you next tale.
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I'm keeping an eye on Zenless (funny story: I got into Star Rail because I thought it was Zenless and I'd thought I'd signed up for news on it) because I'm curious about just Hoyo's style of things but I'd be lying to say I worry about the action gameplay. Genshin's slog of a combat system is a BIG reason why I dropped it as quickly as I did. I'm trying to keep an open mind though.
I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past.
I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead.
If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
A Twitter you can follow too
And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.
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