Episode 551 - Tropes we LOVE to hate...
Oct 4, 2021
Tantz explains why she really hates a bunch of tropes that are super commonly used in things, stuff like very obvious plot armour for the protagonist so that you KNOW nothing can seriously hurt them so you stop caring what happens to them and in the story in general, child-led stories where the adults are all useless and ineffectual because it takes away your suspension of disbelief, and amnesia where a huge bunch of the story is erased so the writers can just repeat stuff over and over. Banes and I join it to talk about stuff we hate too!
Topics and Show Notes
One of the tropes I hate is how assassins and great fighters are currently depectied as fighting with a mathematical prescision, ala John Wick, Daniel Craig's James Bond, Jason Bourne, the Black Widow, Captai America etc. It's not that it's not realistic because of course it isn't and it's not meant to BE realistic, the problem is that the precise, coreographed, balletic, perfect kung-fu style of gunfighting is a trope that's used as a shortcut to indicate that the person is a great fighter highly trained: It's a trope, and it's hugely overused and boring. No one ever fights like that, especially not with guns and it's not cool anymore because we've seen it a million times, Give it a rest and show us more natural fighting for a while. The same with wire effects, parkour: They've turned action heros into anime characters. That's great the first few times but it's at saturation point now and useless
What are your most hated tropes?
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to The War Below Us - A rhythm heavy relaxing piece. A tribal dance sound that sends you floating away on soft clouds lit by golden lights and joy with the faint smell of incense. Too much energy to meditate, but great for concentration!
Topics and shownotes
Links
Tantz' newspost on hatable tropes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/oct/01/tropes-i-hate/
Featured comic:
Secrets of Uncrom The Balance of Life and Death - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/sep/28/featured-comic-secrets-of-uncrom-the-balance-of-life-and-death/
Featured music:
The War Below Us - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/The_War_Below_Us/ - by PuddingLem0n98, 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/
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Episode 407 - Regrets & Resolutions!
Dec 30, 2018
Happy new year!!! All of us on the Duck Webcomics, AKA Drunk Duck, thank you for all your support over the year! DD has grown and flourished because of all of you! It was coming to the end of the year when we recorded this, the time we traditionally mull over regrets of the year gone past and come up with resolutions for the new year to come! Tantz, Banes, and I chat about what WE think about resolutions and regrets.
Episode 293 - THE BURBS DVD commentary
Oct 5, 2016
In this happy season of October we come to that time of year again when Banes starts to get excited by Halloween! This year his idea was for us all to do a real time DVD commentary for The Burbs, that great comedy horror film staring the famous Tom Hanks, from back in 1989 when he was still a hilarious leading man and not a super serious drama guy. We all LOVE this movie, it's very funny, with a lot of cool twists and great scenes. Along with Tom Hanks it stars Princess Leia AKA Carrie Fischer, dudeman Corey Feldman, and Bruce Dern being Dale Gribble before Dale Gribble was even a thing! Pitface, Tantz, Banes and I all talk along to and over the movie as it's playing. To enjoy the FULL effect I strongly suggest you find a copy of The Burbs on a legal streaming site, or less than legal one depending on your ethics, or maybe even a DVD or old video! Pop it on and spoil the movie by listening to us all blather away together, it'll be just like watching the movie WITH us! And wouldn't you like that? I'm sure you would, we're all very friendly people. ;) Our feature AND the music by Gunwallace this week is for the same comic, “Useless”. The theme is atmospheric and haunting, lightened with the strains of a singing, melodic electric guitar.
Episode 256 - Using and creating weapons in fiction
Feb 1, 2016
Tantz Aerine, Banes and Ozoneocean discuss the topic of using and creating weapons in fiction and some of the pitfalls involved- all the things you can easily do wrong and do better! Stuff like using overly specialised weapons in too general a role, like giant swords where they'd be next to useless, or tricked out assault rifles with way too many things hooked onto them so they're oversized and weight a ton- also copying ideas and tropes about weapons usage without understanding why the exist and in the process making many of the same mistakes as others have in the past.