Lilacs and Inadequate Heroes
May. 2nd, 2010 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodel So, the out-of-town speaking gig was a raving success to a packed house. I had to retool one section of my lecture on the fly when a contingent of middle-schoolers from a private Christian school turned up in the front row, but the kids wanted to pose for a picture with me afterward so I think the retcon worked.
[I'm actually agoraphobic, to the point where I was afraid to collect my mail from the PO Box during my third year at university, so being a successful public speaker at any level represents a triumph over a huge personal stumbling block. I do not go to parties and can't even have a meal in a crowded, noisy restaurant without going into fight-or-flight mode, but I can get up and assume a persona that allows me to talk for an hour at strangers. And I do mean "persona"-- my accent changes. The mind is a funny thing.]
Also, my hosts gave me lilacs. Lilacs are not my absolute favorite flower, but they are high, high on the list. I didn't grow up with lilacs (too hot), so I didn't take to them as a child... the affection for them grew slowly over the years and was possibly fueled by the Anne of Green Gables series and other books set in lilac-friendly climes. So moving to Michigan, where escaped lilacs grow along the roadside, gave me the chance to immerse myself in lilacky goodness every spring. I have three lilac bushes of my very own in the yard, but they are small yet and bear few flowers. The flowers they do have are large-petalled and a darker red-tinged purple. I took a walk around the block tonight marveling at all the different lilacs on display-- classic single-blossomed, pearly white double-blossomed, deep velvety purple.
Flowers are very important to my life and the enjoyment thereof, and to finally have my own yard to garden is a source of great satisfaction ATM.
'Fic-wise, I dug up this essay from a fanfic writer whose works I once enjoyed (I have not read said 'fics in years and cannot say whether I would still like them as much). On one level, it's a condemnation of Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return of the King, but on another it has some good points for anyone attempting High Quest fantasy stories, or ensemble tales of heroism and teamwork in general.
#1: If you have to diminish the other characters to make your Designated Hero look good, your hero is ill-conceived.
In terms of RotK, this applies to the shit done to Denethor in the film, which did irk me a great deal. But in a broader sense it applies very much to the FE fandom, which is the only fandom I care about these days. The, uh, problematic nature of some FE heroes coupled with a level of canonical ambiguity when it comes to many antagonists leads to some crappy stories wherein complex characters are given the Central Casting villain treatment to make inadequate heroes more appealing. Now, flawed protagonists are generally a good thing (they don't work in certain genres), but an inadequate protagonist is beyond flawed-- the inadequacies make him or her impossible.
All this weighs into my current Nyna/Camus bent. It must be possible to give the various parties in the Nyna Love Polygon their individual due so that none of them comes off as a cardboard bad guy, a tool, or a homewrecker. Are they all flawed? Well, maybe Teeta doesn't have any flaws, but the rest of the crew are riddled with flaws-- cardinal sins of envy and lust and most especially pride. But the reader will still need to feel a certain amount of sympathy or, or empathy with, the characters, or nobody will want to read the stuff.
#2 Characters need a reason.
I admit I don't know why Camus does all the stuff he does in FE1/11. I'm not even 100% sure why "Sirius" decides to show up in Archanea in FE3. He doesn't make a beeline for Nyna, that's for sure-- he gets tangled up in the Twin Hunt escapade down in Macedon. His motivations are most explicable in FE2, and he's missing a massive chunk of himself in FE2. Hardin's motivations in FE1/11 are clouded by the stuff he says when he's crazy-possessed later on. We can only guess at why he even loves Nyna so bloody much. The script tells us that these characters do such-and-such but never spells out why.
#3: If your story hinges on a love relationship, please convince the audience this love is worth it.
The essay writer does not care for the way the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn was handled in the films (I agree with this one, too). As for me and my current project, the whole Nyna Love Polygon destroys the power balance of a continent. A small continent, perhaps, but that's a lot of lives disrupted and ended by some knights and royals who weren't conducting themselves well. At that point, the question is not even "was this chick worth it?" but more along the lines of "are any of these people worth it?"
#4: Why doesn't the all-powerful old guy with the long beard and the robes do anything useful?
OK, that one's not germane to the Nyna story so much, but it's still really annoying.
[I'm actually agoraphobic, to the point where I was afraid to collect my mail from the PO Box during my third year at university, so being a successful public speaker at any level represents a triumph over a huge personal stumbling block. I do not go to parties and can't even have a meal in a crowded, noisy restaurant without going into fight-or-flight mode, but I can get up and assume a persona that allows me to talk for an hour at strangers. And I do mean "persona"-- my accent changes. The mind is a funny thing.]
Also, my hosts gave me lilacs. Lilacs are not my absolute favorite flower, but they are high, high on the list. I didn't grow up with lilacs (too hot), so I didn't take to them as a child... the affection for them grew slowly over the years and was possibly fueled by the Anne of Green Gables series and other books set in lilac-friendly climes. So moving to Michigan, where escaped lilacs grow along the roadside, gave me the chance to immerse myself in lilacky goodness every spring. I have three lilac bushes of my very own in the yard, but they are small yet and bear few flowers. The flowers they do have are large-petalled and a darker red-tinged purple. I took a walk around the block tonight marveling at all the different lilacs on display-- classic single-blossomed, pearly white double-blossomed, deep velvety purple.
Flowers are very important to my life and the enjoyment thereof, and to finally have my own yard to garden is a source of great satisfaction ATM.
'Fic-wise, I dug up this essay from a fanfic writer whose works I once enjoyed (I have not read said 'fics in years and cannot say whether I would still like them as much). On one level, it's a condemnation of Peter Jackson's adaptation of Return of the King, but on another it has some good points for anyone attempting High Quest fantasy stories, or ensemble tales of heroism and teamwork in general.
#1: If you have to diminish the other characters to make your Designated Hero look good, your hero is ill-conceived.
In terms of RotK, this applies to the shit done to Denethor in the film, which did irk me a great deal. But in a broader sense it applies very much to the FE fandom, which is the only fandom I care about these days. The, uh, problematic nature of some FE heroes coupled with a level of canonical ambiguity when it comes to many antagonists leads to some crappy stories wherein complex characters are given the Central Casting villain treatment to make inadequate heroes more appealing. Now, flawed protagonists are generally a good thing (they don't work in certain genres), but an inadequate protagonist is beyond flawed-- the inadequacies make him or her impossible.
All this weighs into my current Nyna/Camus bent. It must be possible to give the various parties in the Nyna Love Polygon their individual due so that none of them comes off as a cardboard bad guy, a tool, or a homewrecker. Are they all flawed? Well, maybe Teeta doesn't have any flaws, but the rest of the crew are riddled with flaws-- cardinal sins of envy and lust and most especially pride. But the reader will still need to feel a certain amount of sympathy or, or empathy with, the characters, or nobody will want to read the stuff.
#2 Characters need a reason.
I admit I don't know why Camus does all the stuff he does in FE1/11. I'm not even 100% sure why "Sirius" decides to show up in Archanea in FE3. He doesn't make a beeline for Nyna, that's for sure-- he gets tangled up in the Twin Hunt escapade down in Macedon. His motivations are most explicable in FE2, and he's missing a massive chunk of himself in FE2. Hardin's motivations in FE1/11 are clouded by the stuff he says when he's crazy-possessed later on. We can only guess at why he even loves Nyna so bloody much. The script tells us that these characters do such-and-such but never spells out why.
#3: If your story hinges on a love relationship, please convince the audience this love is worth it.
The essay writer does not care for the way the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn was handled in the films (I agree with this one, too). As for me and my current project, the whole Nyna Love Polygon destroys the power balance of a continent. A small continent, perhaps, but that's a lot of lives disrupted and ended by some knights and royals who weren't conducting themselves well. At that point, the question is not even "was this chick worth it?" but more along the lines of "are any of these people worth it?"
#4: Why doesn't the all-powerful old guy with the long beard and the robes do anything useful?
OK, that one's not germane to the Nyna story so much, but it's still really annoying.
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Now I feel bad for not sharing these photos. xD;
Date: 2010-05-03 02:59 am (UTC)Re: Now I feel bad for not sharing these photos. xD;
Date: 2010-05-03 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 10:40 am (UTC)I enjoy flowers, but, alas, I have a black thumb where plants are concerned. So I stop and sniff the ones that grow in the wild as compensation.
Now, about the points you introduce:
– This is one reason why, IMO, there does not need to be a 'designated' hero. Everybody has a role to play, and anybody can step up to be a hero at any time. It may be because I have absorbed anime / manga to excess, but I believe that the group, not the individual, is the source of success. If one person has to go it alone, and then succeed, it is because their friends and companions got them where they needed to be.
– No argument here. They do need a reason.
– This, on the other hand, may depend entirely on the reader. Love happens, frequently at inconvenient times (or with inconvenient people). The Nyna dynamic seems to exemplify that aspect of it, LOL.
– To be fair, when I played FE7, Athos was the one who destroyed both Nergal and the Fire Dragon.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 03:31 pm (UTC)To be fair, when I played FE7, Athos was the one who destroyed both Nergal and the Fire Dragon.
Heh. Well, as FE goes, it bugs me more in terms of the plot-- take Gotoh. Incredibly powerful, borderline immortal, and yet he lets all hell break loose in FE3 because he a) doesn't have his eye on the ball and b) doesn't share information with puny mortals. Telling more than one person the truth about the sacred spheres would have been a great place to start. Marth is using the Geosphere as a freaking weapon, and Gotoh doesn't bother to inform his child-hero that hey, it's a really bad idea to let these spheres break?
It's like Dumbledore and Harry Potter, I swear.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 08:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 08:58 pm (UTC)http://www.serenesforest.net/general/designer4_2.html
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:05 am (UTC)So... is that birthmark on Alm's arm a symbol of holy blood, as in real Holy Blood?
Also, if Falchion and Aura are dragonstone-powered, can they mess with the user's mind? I've suspected that there was something deeply screwy about Aura, and now I'm really intrigued.
Gotoh is better than Dumbledore in a way in that he really strikes me as a representation of a cold, distant "god" rather than someone who, y'know, actually has personal emotional investment in his charge
I like that interpretation, 'cept the old guy kind of spoils the distance with that whole "hope for humanity" thing. If he'd just kept it as something like, "Good job, kid, but don't let it go to your head. Now hand Tiki over and leave me alone," then his reticence and lack of trust would make a lot more sense. Otherwise, I do prefer the idea of Gotoh as a distant sort of deity-figure, albeit one who perhaps finds it interesting to experiment with these inferior beings... a little social engineering here and there.
I also wonder how precisely Marth managed to impress Gotoh so much, given that Gotoh's value system isn't... human. Gotoh's not human. Gotoh disdains humans and thinks they're stupid animals. So, what wins him over-- what gives the old guy the hope that this little revolution is going to be any different than the last time the humans failed him?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-03 08:52 pm (UTC)re: the Nyna/Camus, you're running into a lot of the same things I had to/have been grappling with. Probably the only thing I was really disappointed about in FE2 was the lack of development for Teeta; I feel like they just dumped her in there for ANGST purposes, and looking at Japanese fandom at least my impression is pretty much that they just ignore her or write her off. Which *bugs* me. (Of course, the fact that FE2 is so unpopular even there probably is a factor too, but still.)
I'm pretty sure Nyna wasn't one of "Sirius"'s loose ends that needed tying up (at the time) and that his main reason for returning was the twins. (although the game WANTS you to think otherwise. :P) Nyna only became a factor after it became clear the marriage with Hardin wasn't working out, I suspect. And yeah, sheesh, something about the game explanation re: Hardin just doesn't add up, because I doubt he was stupid or blind or deaf enough not to have realized there was something going on with Nyna/Camus beforehand. I don't think it was a sudden "OMG she doesn't love me" thing, which is what the game seems to imply... and then his jealousy of Marth throws everything for another loop entirely. In fact, I'm still pretty convinced that given enough time and no outside interference, Nyna/Hardin would have eventually worked out on their own, but well, stuff happened, haha.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 04:21 am (UTC)That's really sad, IMO.
Of course, the fact that FE2 is so unpopular even there probably is a factor too, but still
How unpopular was it at the time-- a real bomb, or just not crazy-popular, or what?
and that his main reason for returning was the twins
Boy, I wish I knew the real timeline for the kids' captivity. Running back across the seas, in disguise, to check up on a pair of kids who might not have even been alive shows phenomenal loyalty to crappy Ludwik and his dynasty.
I doubt he was stupid or blind or deaf enough not to have realized there was something going on with Nyna/Camus beforehand. I don't think it was a sudden "OMG she doesn't love me" thing, which is what the game seems to imply... and then his jealousy of Marth throws everything for another loop entirely
The single-minded fixation on Marth, combined with the lack of any direct confrontation between Hardin and Sirius, or any comments from Hardin directly mentioning Camus, is what convinces me that Hardin connected the dots all wrong. And, to be fair, even if Hardin was given a verbatim account of Nyna's battlefield speech, the "I can't bear to see the two of you fighting" part might well have convinced him (post-Darksphere) that, whatever Nyna felt for Camus, she felt it equally for Marth. Also, he kicks off his WoH attacks on Marth with such deeply personal below-the-belt stuff ("Hi, I will make you cancel your wedding and then kidnap your fiancee, lol!")-- that's not a political rivalry. That's not military one-upsmanship. That's... really disturbing, actually, and it took months for me to even notice that Hardin's very first act in Book Two is to sabotage Marth's personal life.
but well, stuff happened
Hah. Gharnef happened. And given that Gharnef doesn't care about Camus, but certainly does have a grudge against Marth (I think "I'll see you in hell" was meant literally), I would be tempted to pin all the weirdness on him. But that doesn't feel satisfying either. Argh!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 07:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-04 11:53 am (UTC)Fandom is so ephemeral that it's a pleasant surprise when anything from aeons ago (like, 2003) is still around.