Episode 466 - And then What?
Feb 16, 2020
What happens to characters after the big action scene or climactic moment? This could be anywhere in the story but it's usually close to the end. Do they process any of the things that have happened to them to lead them up to that point or do they just forget about everything and simply act as if nothing except the last 4 seconds matter? The later seems to be the trend in a lot of badly written fiction, and it's a notable trope in 80s style action films. Death of family members or lovers are irrelevant when you have a hot action star standing next to you!
Topics and Show Notes
“So, what are you going to do now?” Someone always asks…
“Well I thought I'd settle down somewhere and open a bar.” replies the characterless hero, displaying complete disregard for the entire list of things that happened to them throughout the course of the story and instead recites a meaningless and tired line that was written before their writer was even born.
And THAT my friends is what we call bad writing ;)
Unless you're deliberately writing something spoofy, it's usually worthwhile to reward the audience: They've just sat through your story, hopefully they'll be invested in your characters. The audience really, really appreciates when those character acknowledge the effects and existence of events that you saw happen to them earlier on in the story. It makes the characters more believable and rounded, and it really helps with the suspension of disbelief.
Like anything though you can overdo it. You don't want the characters traumatised over every on-screen death (unless specifically called for), and you don't want them going on and on about something that happened to them in the story, just acknowledging it and showing some effect on the character is enough usually.
It's a good idea to remember what it was too! Don't forget about it and mix things up like in The Witcher wherethe writers forget Yennifer gave up her uterus for magical plastic surgery to look beautiful so she could grab the prized easy posting of court magician in her home country and lord it over the people there, and instead the story centers around how they “forced” her to give up her baby-making parts in order to be allowed to practice magic… Your job as a writer is to keep your story straight or your character growth will be a nonsense and you will look like a fool.
This week Gunwallace has given us the Music to GeMiTo 2073 - A slow, quiet intro, thoughtful pacing, introspective wailing electric guitar riff. This one creeps in gently and takes care of you. This rock ballad wants to make sure you’re ok,
Topics and shownotes
Links
Tantz's The Day After newspost - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/feb/14/the-day-after/
Tantz's anime - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9288892/
Featured comic:
Coquin - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2020/feb/11/featured-comic-coquin/
Featured music:
GeMiTo 2073 - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/GeMiTo_2073/, by Marcorossi, rated T.
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Episode 465 - Planning Vs pantsing!
Feb 10, 2020
There are a couple of approaches when it comes to making a big creative project: planing it all out or working things out as you go i.e. flying by the seat of your pants. Well in reality it's a spectrum and those are the two extremes. Most of us work somewhere between those two, sometimes with more or less planning etc… I've tried a lot of different mixtures myself!
Episode 464 - The current digital art landscape
Feb 2, 2020
I recently had to upgrade my main computer because Windows isn't supporting Windows 7 any longer and I don't want to install Windows 10 on the perfectly functioning old one in case it ruins it and my main programs can't run any longer… SO I had to get a new PC. This got me thinking though: The barrier to getting into digital art is lower now than ever!
Episode 455 - Religion in fiction
Dec 2, 2019
We're talking about how religion is portrayed in fiction and a bit about WHY. This was a surprisingly fascinating topic. I came up with the idea while watching the old 2000s SciFi series Andromeda: one of the alien characters there is sort of a space Buddhist, and I felt like that was a pretty common thing in American TV Scifi, so I wondered about what other kinds of religious tropes exist in contemporary fiction, fantasy and other SciFi worlds.
Episode 454 - Are Marvel movies "Despicable"?
Nov 24, 2019
This week we look at the famous quote by respected film director Martin Scorsese that “Marvel movies aren't Cinema” and also the quote by fellow director Francis Ford Coppola that Marvel films are “despicable”. We try and look at the proper context of these remarks outside of the twitter garbage and social media outrage to see if either had any point or whether they're way off the mark and deserving of criticism.
Episode 452 - Storytelling styles change!
Nov 11, 2019
Storytelling styles change over time for various reasons: fashion, audience expectations, competition for audience attention due to increased choice and availability of media, technological limitations and abilities, and culture. We chat about the reasons for the changes and how styles have changed.
Episode 451 - Fans who criticise are are good fans
Nov 4, 2019
“Toxic fans” is a bit of a catch cry now and that has seemed to turn into the idea that any fan who is critical of something or doesn't like it isn't a “true fan”, fans must should love everything. I find this a dangerously silly notion and one clearly driven by business interests with only a limited relationship to reality. It's quite similar to the idea that you're “either for us or against us”, the twisted idea of “patriotism” that says you must agree with and love everything your country and your leader does no matter what or you're a traitor.
Episode 450 - happy Halloween horror franchises
Oct 28, 2019
Tantz is dressed fabulously as a queen and I'm a skull faced monstrosity… I'm also wearing a costume, hahaha! Which you can see in our Patreon video ;) Queen Tantz Bathory and prince of horror Banes join me to talk about Horror movie franchises, what makes them work and what doesn't- as franchises rather than just a stand alone movie. The problems facing a movie series about horror are different from other genres and focus more on formula than just characters the way they do in most other types of film so it's an interesting discussion.
