tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post6727490027115370346..comments2023-10-29T07:44:48.235-07:00Comments on Jestablog: My Teeth TwinkleKamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-57466054824082420432009-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:002009-02-19T11:31:00.000-08:00I don't have a name for that character trope. I c...I don't have a name for that character trope. I could probably come up with something on the fly ...<BR/><BR/>My counter question is where's the resolution? Or is that the resolution? The enemy wins? That can be set up to work. I think I've talked about how having a down note on an otherwise positive ending (the good guys win but it costs the hero his arm, the girl, whatever.) You can also have a down ending but with a spark of hope--the resistance fights on, the bad guys are revealed as a hollow shell, what have you. <BR/><BR/>One of the reasons I enjoyed V for Vendetta is that the ending was pretty close to a perfect balance of up and down. It's still a dark world, and there's profound loss, but there's hope and a sense of freedom and no one knows how long it will last. Coolness.<BR/><BR/>A super-powerful character who can effectively be ignored and marginalized by his/her enemies can work, but it would require some serious plot gymnastics to keep the situation from being perpetually static and wallow-y. The hero can develop a grass roots movement, or the hero can just go blow away the bad guys. And there's the rub--the reader will constantly be asking why doesn't this hero just go blow away the bad guys and take the consequences for the good of all? Why is s/he beating around the bush when the bad guys are so bad? Or, conversely, if the bad guys aren't bad enough to act against, then where's the story? Where's the real conflict? <BR/><BR/>Ideally a protagonist/antagonist relationship is a dance; constant adaptation and a push for creative solutions just to stay in the game. Winning should take everything one or the other side has to bring to bear, and the opposing team should rush to meet that all out effort with its own. It sounds like both the antagonists and the protagonist in your situation are locked, and/or complacent and/or not trying very hard. This can work effectively as setting within which the 'player' characters move, but as a story itself, it'll need a lot more. To return to the V for Vendetta example, both sides struggled to gain the upper hand, using every resource they could muster, plus they planned ahead and spun spun spun their platforms constantly trying to shape public opinion. The big difference between V and the situation you're describing is that V counter-moved against the terrorist label--he refused to let himself be dismissed in any way. <BR/><BR/>Real politics aren't static. Sometimes they move slowly, but in story terms rather than make our readers wait, we accelerate or exaggerate, kind of like stop motion photography of a flower blooming, to reveal the overall motion and story.<BR/><BR/>Politics in storytelling can be powerful and interesting, but only if there's action. Otherwise, I believe it serves best as a backdrop, as in Orwell's 1984.Kamihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-41316246844658201302009-02-18T04:26:00.000-08:002009-02-18T04:26:00.000-08:00What do you call a hero who (in theory at least) h...What do you call a hero who (in theory at least) has more than enough power to overwhelm his enemies, but who is unable to defeat them in the end simply because they render him irrelevant and ignore him?The Moody Minstrelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16342935635794595909noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-42973579404447340592009-02-17T22:35:00.000-08:002009-02-17T22:35:00.000-08:00Great to be on your side too! Heh. Very good pan...Great to be on your side too! Heh. Very good panel. I learned lots.Kamihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-20806301590736707672009-02-17T21:47:00.000-08:002009-02-17T21:47:00.000-08:00What gets my panties in a twist are supposedly per...<I>What gets my panties in a twist are supposedly perfect or near-perfect characters who have something bad happen and then they whine or curl up and want to die. They don't actually pick themselves up and go onward. Then their friends come to comfort them and the whining continues about how no one understands them or truly loves/cares about them (hello, friends here trying to help, what are they, mashed potatoes?) and how they're all alone.</I><BR/><BR/>Yes. That. Word.<BR/><BR/>I enjoyed that panel. And it was good to be on your side [grin]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-39834683312922196342009-02-17T07:01:00.000-08:002009-02-17T07:01:00.000-08:00What gets my panties in a twist are supposedly per...What gets my panties in a twist are supposedly perfect or near-perfect characters who have something bad happen and then they whine or curl up and want to die. They don't actually pick themselves up and go onward. Then their friends come to comfort them and the whining continues about how no one understands them or truly loves/cares about them (hello, friends here trying to help, what are they, mashed potatoes?) and how they're all alone. These things might work for angsty teenagers who will read the books while they listen to sad songs and feel like they themselves are the character. Then they can wallow in how mean and cruel the world is while being in their minds a perfect character who has the adoration of some supernatural being (in paranormal romance, for example) or whatever and get something out of it. But for those of us who aren't angsty teenagers, we'd like a little actual courage and protagging, please! Thank you! And maybe not so much of the alcoholic/bastard to women/bitch to men/asshole/selfish/warty thing going on. I'd like to read about someone I'd really admire in real life, or even be in real life, and my standards are pretty high thanks very much! I don't require perfection by any means, but I expect an honest effort, you know? <BR/><BR/>So yeah. It takes all kinds of fiction to make the world go round, and I do enjoy anti-heroes (which are their own separate thing and don't fall under the darling with a black hat on) but it seems that real heroes are few and far between lately. I'd like to see some of them come back.Kamihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00531243633193697440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15257204.post-60880643691647458232009-02-17T02:11:00.000-08:002009-02-17T02:11:00.000-08:00I like this.But it also tells me why I like readin...I like this.<BR/><BR/>But it also tells me why I like reading biographies. Nonfiction.<BR/><BR/>I read mostly YA and just recently I've been a little irritated by faulty (less than perfect morals or very depressed) main characters. There is a point where authors go too close to realism, I think - if you're reading for pure escapism (from boredom or depression) it doesn't help if the character is being beaten down beyond probability of a happy ending, or is very vulnerable.<BR/>If that's what I want, I'll read non-fiction.<BR/><BR/>It's just an impression from recent reading, but ultra-realism with all the pimples seems to be what's getting published in the noughties.sophiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11329568168996549967noreply@blogger.com