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 448 - King of franchises: Star Wars!
Oct 14, 2019
Continuing on our focus on movie franchises for the month of October, THIS time we focus on the king of them all: STAR WARS! This was a genre defining series, not only for movies but for space opera, “SciFi”, and science fantasy on all media! The original trilogy was quite a milestone. Predictably further instalments weren't quite as well received but it still remains popular even so! Currently it's having a resurgence in popularity once more.
Episode 431 - Political messages in your work
Jun 17, 2019
This Quackcast is about having political agendas in your work and expressing them well! We're talking about deliberately putting in ideas that you want to get across to people, NOT the idea that all work has agendas and ideas no matter what. That's not relevant to this discussion. When you want to want to get your ideas across there are good ways to do it and poor ways. When you do it poorly your work either has the opposite effect (people will laugh at your agenda or despise it), or it becomes propaganda. Propaganda is for preaching to the converted, it's terrible for changing minds. The only thing it's good for is motivating people who are already on-board with you.
Episode 429 - Bad ends, not bad fans
Jun 2, 2019
This Quackcast was inspired by the fan reaction to Game of Thrones, a series that I haven't watched but Tantz and Banes have! Specifically it's about poorly written endings and gas-lighting fans rather than admitting to faults.
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 384 - Brandcast, PR
Jul 23, 2018
You may have read about how a conspiracy theorist dug up some 10 year old tweeted jokes by director James Gunn and got him fired from Disney… Well that incident inspired this Quackcast, which is a re-take on the whole personal brand idea that we discussed in Quackcast 289.
Episode 376 - Comic Tutorials
May 28, 2018
kawaiidaigakusei makes a return to the Quackcast! Together with the crew we chat about some of our favourite comic making tutorials on DD. Yes, there IS a tutorials section on the site and people have created some amazing and clever tutes on how to both write and draw better when making your comics. There are some cool instructions on how to make better pages, write scripts, do rain effects, all sorts of shortcuts and clever tit-bits of info to have you creating like a pro. This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Potato and Kraut. Feel the gigantic weight this music layers onto your shoulders. A synthesised torrent of gravity, followed by the heavy, deep notes of a piano dropping on top of you like frozen slabs. The torrent slowly eases, brings light and relief, then fades away.
Episode 355 - New Years cliffhanger!
Jan 1, 2018
Happy 2018 everybody! Another year passes and a new one has just begun. We recorded this Quackcast on the 30th of December so it was the very last Quackcast of 2017. Pitface was drunk and very entertaining, drinking beer from her new drinking horn, you can hear her entertaining ramblings at the start of the Quackcast. Tantz, Pit, Banes and I all chatted about cliffhangers since the new year is the ultimate cliffhanger! It was based on Tantz's newspost of the other day. Cliffhangers are a great way to make a story compelling. But try not to abuse them… Lets see, the only other thing is our Indiegogo drive to raise many for the latest improvement to DD: Comment notifications! We know that everyone wants those. This week Gunwallce has given us the theme to Slither and Friends. It's down home, dirty, scratchy groove. Feel the outdoors and the sound of the country in this one. Cool, full bodied, and natural.
