Oct. 8th, 2013

guardians_song: A crop from FE7's Arcadia CG showing Nergal and two villagers chatting over scrolls. (analytical)

Observation about Generic Fantasy Worlds:


General thought. )

As seen in ''Twilight''. )


Aug. 27th, 2013

guardians_song: GIF flashing up Japanese characters Shi, Kata, Ga, Na, I, then "It cannot be helped" in English (Shikata ga nai)

A complaint about a frequent urban fantasy meta-complaint:


The common assumption is that super-senses would actually drive people crazy due to super-stimulus, and that the authors are stupid for not taking this into consideration.

However, this neglects entirely the possibility that the condition granting the powers also grants the mental capacity to deal with the powers. Which seems a strange possibility to neglect when these conditions often include needing to drink blood daily or changing into a savage, feral animal monthly, methinks. A little change in brain wiring is THAT much stranger than furspolsion?

In real life, there are people who get overloaded by a NORMAL level of stimulus. (To be frank, my frustration level starts shooting up at an abnormal rate when somebody keeps nagging at me when I've repeatedly indicated that I'm busy and my attention span is VERY MUCH somewhere else. In all fairness, I seem to be homozygous for this.) That doesn't mean that everyone with normal-to-above-average ends up banging their head against the table in a crowded cafeteria. It depends upon whether their brain can handle that level of stimulus, whether its level of filtering out excess stimulus is sufficient, and how high their level of frustration tolerance is.

So I take it as a hand-waved superpower that werewolf/vampire/whatnot status automatically adjusts the brain to handle hyper-stimulating environments. Either that, or it massively readjusts WHAT the brain considers a hyper-stimulating environment. Some interpretations of vampire myth have vampires being repelled by garlic - perhaps it's less physical inability to go near and more "MY VISION IS RUNNING IN STREAMERS MY BRAIN HAS SHUT DOWN MY GOD WHAT IS THAT THING ...Garlic? *sighs* That fucker behind the church told me vampirism would CURE my sensory sensitivity..."
(Personally, nails on a chalkboard only mildly irk me. Crying babies? Shrug it off. Cardboard scraping against cardboard (or styrofoam) makes me physically tense up just at the memory. D| I'm not hypersensitive to anything, but my point is that the bands of ordinary sensitivity are not uniform.)

Now, if one wants to toy with hypersensitive vampires/werewolves/whatnot, go right ahead! That will be interesting! But it's obnoxious to swear that ANY CREATURE WITH SUPER-SENSES EVER will have to suffer from hypersensitivity.
-- Prophecy Categories

Jul. 16th, 2013

guardians_song: A Fire Dragon from Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken. (Fury)

One behavior that would be REALLY great never to see in SJW circles again:


Privileged Person: Look at me! Look at me! Look at meeeeee, merrily wallowing in utter lack of forethought, consideration for others, and -
Non-Privileged Person: hello, there is an important issue affecting me, and I would thank you to pull your head out of your posterior for a second and consider your own behavior.
Privileged Person: ...YOU'RE RIGHT! Look at me, look at me, look at meeee, I'm so privileged, so very, very privileged, and I am so sorely sorry for my sins, and I am privileged, and I am privileged, and have I mentioned that I'm privileged? Because I think the REALLY important thing is to talk about how privileged I am. And we privileged people must think about our privileged selves and talk about how privileged we are and privilege, privilege, privilege. Oh, may I think about doing this, as a privileged person? And -
Non-Privileged Person: Um. That's all very nice, but can we talk about me and my issues for a -
Privileged Person: Why, YES! Let's talk about how us PRIVILEGED people are keeping you all down, and how PRIVILEGED people silence talk about you and your issues, and how we enlightened privileged people are complicit in the misdeeds of the bullying, ignorant privileged people -
Non-Privileged Person: Do you have a genuine neurological defect? I'm not being ableist - I'm deadly serious.
Privileged Person: - and how, as such, I must REPENT for my PRIVILEGE and think over how SINFUL I am as a privileged person and what AWFUL things we privileged people did and -
Non-Privileged Person: Tell me, does your LITERAL inability to think about anyone other than yourself ever present impairments in social functioning?
Privileged Person: And oh, we PRIVILEGED people must think of the little people, and deconstruct our PRIVILEGE, and I am at all times conscious of my PRIVILEGE -
Non-Privileged Person: *quietly walks away*
-----Later-----
Non-Privileged Person: *clears throat* So, concerning recent events, I would like to say -
Privileged Person: *BARGES IN* OH, YES, WE EEEEVIL PRIVILEGED PEOPLE NEED TO REPENT, REPENT I SAY, FOR OUR EVIL, FOR WE HAVE RECENTLY -
Non-Privileged Person: For fuck's sake. I'm getting a restraining order.


I am so... fucking... sick of seeing white SJWers making incessant reference to how white they are or women who fetishize romantic tension between conventionally-attractive middle-class-or-higher white male characters acting excruciatingly self-righteous about being so enlightened as to NOTICE they fetishize romantic tension between conventionally-attractive middle-class-or-higher white male characters. For fuck's sake, stop turning every inequality issue asking people to concentrate on someone other than privileged people into an excuse for privileged people to dirty-talk to each other about how they're so awful and nasty and wrong and need to be ~punished~ - um, called out, that's the phrase..
Apologies [Grudging admission of wrongdoing] if this offended anyone. I've been guzzling caffeine today, and I get much more outspoken when I have that in my system.


, , -- Prophecy Categories

Jul. 6th, 2013

guardians_song: A crop from FE7's Arcadia CG showing Nergal and two villagers chatting over scrolls. (analytical)

Mild gripe: Not every villain is the hero of their own story.


I know people love to say this. But it's not true. It fundamentally projects a worldview of believing that one's actions are justified and that the morality of one's actions and intentions is the most important thing, which... um... Hello? This is an age in which we know about sociopaths, right?

Sociopaths know their actions are wrong. That's why they go to such extents to cover them up. They just don't give a damn. They lack that sense of moral concern that so troubles most people. Yes, they think that most people are suckers. That doesn't mean they don't understand what a 'good' person is, they just choose not to be one. Yes, they're the "heroes" of their own stories, in that they have pathetically exaggerated delusions of their own exalted status, but not in the sense that most of us think of as 'heroes'. Designated Protagonists might be a better phrase.

Likewise, yes, some people do know - or think - they're doing wrong and choose to continue on anyway. The drug addict who wants to stop, yet can't resist taking another hit - that's one. The person on a diet who can't resist 'indulging' a few dozen times too often - that's another. The person who wants access to restricted material, and isn't adverse to fudging details of their age to get it - that's yet another. On the side of thinking there's wrongdoing, there's also the closeted fundamentalist who struggles with his or her "deviant urges", the severely depressed person eaten alive by guilt for 'wasting others' time and resources' (*sigh* Can't say I'm over that so much as I'm managing to be less of a waste...), the rebel convinced that he or she must be a horrible person for going against what is supposed to be The Moral Way To Think, yet persisting anyway...

It's ridiculously oversimplifying to say everyone is the hero of their own story. And it has no place in 'enlightened' discussions of literature and characterization. *climbs off of soapbox*

, -- Prophecy Categories

Jun. 16th, 2013

guardians_song: A Fire Dragon from Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken. (Fury)

Strongly peeved at a current ~HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP~ cliche.

Trigger warnings for mentions of emotional abuse. )

My apologies for the rant. But the snark communities are getting dogmas as rigid as those of the badfics they mock, and I cannot stand that. (And yes, that would be why this isn't crossposted to LJ...)

, -- Prophecy Categories

Jun. 2nd, 2013

guardians_song: Icon depiction of the sporker Richard. (Default)

~*~*~*~How to Write a Sympathetic Psychopath~*~*~*~


For all your glamorization-of-mass-murder needs! :D



Heeeeeere's Johnny! (Trigger warning for thinly-veiled commentary about emotional abuse and abusive behavior.) )


Yeah, I... well... No, I don't think it's that time of the month. This was probably set off by my thinking about emotional manipulation earlier. ...I don't like being manipulated. And I don't like people excusing unforgivable behavior with emotional justifications. And...

Well, finally, a confession of the ***other*** half of what gets me about woobiefication. That was cathartic. )

...Sorry. Sorry. Maybe it is that time of the month. One final statement.

It's not funny. It's not harmless fantasy. It's the philosophy that rules some people's lives.
, -- Prophecy Categories

May. 23rd, 2013

guardians_song: A sprite edit of Nils from Fire Emblem, looking shocked: CHRISTMAS EDITION (Nils)

As promised, a description of the Woobiefied Villain Personality.


Disclaimer: No, you are not a bad person if you've ever written this. You are not a bad person if you are still writing this. You are not a bad person if you are completely unrepentant. You are not a bad person if you start using this as a serious guide to producing such fics bi-weekly. (In the last case, I can only be in awe of your work ethic.) The snark is not about bashing you or your writing, it's about mocking the formula. And to spare everyone paragraphs of redundant disclaimer, I'll just emphasize that Your Manacles May Vex, Your Manuals May Vaporize, and Your Mambas May Vituperate. All right?

We now commence the description...


[...] This looks really bizarre when characters veer between weeping soulfully over their tragic backstories and manically laughing while reducing their enemies to bloody heaps of organ-donor material [...] )
, , , , -- Prophecy Categories

Mar. 21st, 2013

guardians_song: Icon depiction of the sporker Richard. (Default)

*irritation* Why do people assume resolution of a character's emotional problems = END OF STORY?


Good gad. You know, things happen to people who have had happy endings. Sometimes even dramatic things. You don't have to be betrayed by everyone around you and live out of a cardboard box and be going to therapy forty times a week to be a main character in an interesting plotline. And then these beacons of literary brilliance wonder why fiction is saturated with wangst, unresolved issues that could be ended in an hour if the characters just got hit with a bucket of icewater, and pointless character drama. That's what you're preaching as the formula to literary success, dunces.

*grumble* You know, Cori Falls's fics collapsed when she went off into WRH happyland, but that's because she had no plot other than character drama. Laurell K. Hamilton derailed her books into nothing but character drama, which is why everything has been stun-locked in sexwangstsex for the last dozen books or so. And Draco Veritas was the absolute worst Draco Trilogy fic because Voldemort's grand plan was LITERALLY TO CAUSE HARRY/HERMIONE RELATIONSHIP DRAMA. NO, I WILL NEVER GET OVER THAT.

Look, there's nothing wrong with character drama. It works! It can be good! But talking as though it's the only plot driver possible is utterly ridiculous. Even freaking creature!Harry fics off of fanfiction.net know better than that. "Hi. You have now been turned into a vaguely French lump of hair and effeminate sex appeal. Go forth and wallow in the heaps of gold in Black Vault #255 for a while, then get down to business."

Sure, characters can struggle because they're overcoming their own weaknesses. They can also struggle because they're getting the kitchen sink thrown at them, and even the most untouchable, centered person would get overwhelmed because just surviving that mess in one piece would tax human cognitive processes to their limit. Or they can struggle because they're aiming to do something that should be impossible, and the sheer strain of dashing through loophole after loophole, knowing that everything will go straight to blazes the moment they can't find a way around the next obstacle, is enough to drive not just the character, but the writer, nuts.

"Character drama" does not have to mean Lord of the Therapy Logs!
, -- Prophecy Categories

Mar. 17th, 2013

guardians_song: (celebration)

It's now up and running.


YA Paranormal Romance Blurb Generator

Come on, come all! Don't you want to see your brilliant Mad Libs abomination totally original plot? :)

Here's an example of a possible blurb:Come on, take a look! :D )
 


Mar. 2nd, 2013

guardians_song: A snark on if Cori Falls had been in the Fire Emblem fandom. (Cori Falls)

Complaint about a snark on the Anita Blake Amazon forums:


""Anyway, his ardeur power causes people to love him."
Can someone PLEASE notify vampire authors that "being lovable" is possibly the WORST vampire power EVER?
"

...Well, no, actually, "being lovable" is one of the most POWERFUL vampire powers EVER. Particularly if the vampire has absolutely no scruples or conscience about using it.

If it makes people genuinely fall head over heels for the vampire, said vampire can start its very own cult - amongst other things. EVERYTHING in a personality cult is geared towards making the people feel love (and fear) for the Dear Leader. If the vampire just has to wave its power around? Ba-bing, no propaganda needed - just 'force of personality'.

If the vampire uses it on unstable and/or weak-willed people? Then the vampire has a force of genuine yanderes at its disposal. Even better. Now it can run terrorism against anyone who opposes it through the "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?!" method, and just claim that its more 'fanatical' followers did it without its approval. It's always worked for monarchs who had only mundane bonds of fealty on their side. It would sure as blazes work for a vampire with supernatural love-compulsions working on its victims' minds.

For ****'s sake, please explain to me why being a walking love-potion-dispenser wouldn't be one of the most terrifying powers a psychopathic manipulator could have. Because, as it is, I'm just thinking rather snide things about Darker And Edgier fetishization of vampires causing people to miss the ragingly obvious.

, -- Prophecy Categories

Feb. 10th, 2013

guardians_song: Icon depiction of the sporker Richard. (Richard)

Incidentally, I'd like an urban fantasy series in which:


 -At least one prominent shapeshifter pack is NOT ruled by an alpha, but rather somebody who snapped after far too much abuse waved off as LOL PACK DOMINANCE DYNAMICKZ!!! and staged an extremely hostile, possibly gory, takeover. Villain or hero, I don't care - just SOMEBODY who called the supernatural world on its bullshit.
-People faking their supernatural-ranks either up or down. People trying to pass as alphas, alphas trying to pass as ordinary folk... 
-Less simultaneously treating the supernaturals as both Better Than Those Measly Mortals and Quaint Savage Folk. I know this is so the protagonist can play White Savior. That trope, incidentally, isn't just racist - it inevitably makes the protagonist a deranged narcissist BOTH ~superior~ to You Mundane Normal Folk and You Cute Little Savages. Ah- yes, can you tell that I hate it? :D

More later, perhaps ... have to get on a plane. :P See you in a bit!

, -- Prophecy Categories

Jan. 7th, 2013

guardians_song: A crop from FE7's Arcadia CG showing Nergal and two villagers chatting over scrolls. (analytical)

*irritably* Two complaints about "independent!intelligent!"Harry cliches.


Read more... )
---

...Why do I care, you ask? Because I'm sick to death of Ron-bashing over points that aren't even legitimate criticisms, but instead are made up out of whole cloth. I'm sick of authors acting as though acting holier-than-thou all the time will only leave the reprimanded peons cringing in fear, shame, and awe, rather than generating overwhelming fantasies to punch Saint [Character Of Author's Choice] in the teeth. I'm sick of arrogant, pompous, look-at-how-smart-I-am, hypocritical authors making out with their own reflections through the medium of fanfiction...


...And, sorry, I'm PMSy today. *shakes head* ...I don't ask much from - let's be frank - Gary-Stu!unrealistically-intelligent-and-cunning-to-the-max!Harry, manipulative!careless-enough-to-enable-a-child-to-cotton-on-to-his-schemes!Dumbledore fanfics. Just internal consistency, a complete absence of reams of bullshit made up from whole septic tanks, lack of overwhelming arrogance, and a Harry that doesn't trade one controlling megalomaniac of a Lord for another. That shouldn't be hard to fi-

Anyway, don't mind me, just ranting. :D;;
, , , -- Prophecy Categories
guardians_song: Icon depiction of the sporker Richard. (Default)
Guardian's Song

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