Episode 580 - Fantasy worlds crossing over
Apr 25, 2022
The full team is assembled yet again! Tantz came up with the idea of having a look at hidden fantasy worlds in fiction that have strong ties with the “real world” and how they function together. Her main example was the world of Harry Potter which has many strong connections to the real world and yet manages to stay very well hidden, which stretches plausibility a bit. The World of Casandra Clare's Mortal Instruments is similar in that regard, it's deeply tied to the mundane world and yet it stays hidden from it to a degree that isn't really possible.
Topics and Show Notes
There are many other fantasy worlds where the connections with the real world are much more limited and that makes their hidden nature more plausible, i.e. Oz, Neverland, Narnia, Xanth, Wonderland… This was a fun topic to chat about! We covered a lot of ground. We even touched on the world of Hellraiser as a hidden fantasyland. To make your hidden world more believable, don't make it so that there are heaps of people who experience it all the time or have it constantly influence the real world because asking people to accept that no one knows about it is a bit silly.
This week Gunwallace gave us a musical theme to COLD-BLOODED - Coils and coils of slithering intrigue, smooth scales kletter over dry sands, a powerful, muscular form wriggles through the shimmering desert heat towards the nuclear furnace of the hot, yellow sun. Heavy, synth, rhythmic sounds.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Tantz's newspost about Fantasy worlds - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/22/the-problem-with-magic-worlds/
Featured comic:
Up the Pyramid - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2022/apr/19/featured-comic-up-the-pyramid/
Featured music:
COLD-BLOODED - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/COLD-BLOODED/ - by Perrys_Hotter, 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
PitFace - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Banes/
Kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
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Episode 575 - Fave fantasy creatures?
Mar 20, 2022
Fantasy creatures are cool and we're here to talk about our faves. One of mine is elves. I love them… Being quite elfy myself. Fantasy is pretty fun to play around with, you have the freedom to create anything but even so there are a few recognised and agreed on fantasy creatures that people stick with.
Episode 568 - Growing up!
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This Quackcast is about one of the cool things about being an adult: growing out of childhood prejudices and expanding your tastes to try new things. There's this rosy, idealistic idea that kids are culture sponges, open to everything, all experiences and tastes, but that's a fantasy unfortunately. Kids are only open to experiences for a relatively short time before their preferences solidify, but even THEN they have a very strict hierarchy of sources they'll accept those influences from- parents, friends, family etc. A lot of what they like is driven by peer pressure and the opinions of others.
Episode 565 - Lady Barbarian
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Episode 555 - Group shots!
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Episode 552 - Tropes we like
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Episode 550 - Gaming
Sep 27, 2021
We decided to chat about games. Video game and computer games. They're now a huge part of pop-culture entertainment and they've influenced us in many ways creatively throughout our lives. There are many different kinds of games out there, but one of the really cool things about them is that they're able to deliver a kind of interactive narrative experience that takes things further than Film or comics can easily do. Games were also instrumental in the early days of the first big popular wave of webcomics with gamer comics (PVP, Ctrl Alt Dlt, and Penny Arcade) and sprite comics (8 bit fantasy), being some of the most popular.
Episode 547 - Franchise fail
Sep 2, 2021
There seemed to be a lull for a while after the 1990s and the massive sequel craze of the 80s, but nowadays we're back in full swing again with sequels, reboots and reinvisioning of film and TV franchises. Banes noticed a distinct pattern of behaviour that occurred around bad or failed franchises: The makers would chose to go against what existing fans liked about the property in the fist place, usually in order to appeal to new fans. When both new fans and old ones dislike what they do, they attack the fans and blame the fans for failure of their version. Then they'll search and find a new franchise to mess up. It's rare that people own up to or admit to failures anymore, it's usually always the fault of the fans for being too “toxic”.