Episode 529 - Time loops!
May 2, 2021
Time loops in stories are a lot of fun, they can be really complicated and interesting. Groundhog day is the most famous version of this trope. Banes tells me it's a “trope codifier”. In a time loop story characters are caught reliving the same events over and over with the main character being the only one who's really aware of it, Sometimes the loop happens only once or a couple of times, or many, many times as in Groundhog Day and Palm Springs. We chat about some of the different time loop stories, their characteristics and why we like them.
Topics and Show Notes
We also talk about the instance where you actually experience this in reality: re-watching and re-reading books, movies, TV shows etc. It's like WE are the main, aware character and the loop is the movie or the book. We get something different out of them each time, just like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog day. Videogames give us even more of a time loop experience, allowing us to follow different threads and make different choices to achieve different outcomes at the completion of the game. If you “die” you also “re-live” the game over and over till you manage to complete it in the way you want! Tantz brings up the example of the game Undertale that specifically recognises and draws attention to this.
This week Gunwallace has given us a theme to Akacya the Bounty Hunter: Reverential awesomeness. Buzzing distorted beat pacing out the time and encouraging you to move, a slow, heavy, swaying, stomping dance. A wobbling, vibrating guitar weaves through and ties it all up like a bright satin ribbon around a present, topping the track off with a beautiful display of shibari.
Topics and shownotes
Links
Newspost on timeloops - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/28/when-i-come-around/
Featured comic:
Phantasos - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2021/apr/26/featured-comic-phantasos/
Featured music:
Akacya the Bounty Hunter - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Akacya_The_Bounty_Hunter/, by Shinka, rated M.
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 489 - Continuity
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Certain tropes or stylistic ways of telling a story can get really, really popular and trendy very quickly and it seems like they're everywhere! Suddenly many story are all told with the same sort of stylistic flourishes. The first few times it's done that way it's clever and meaningful but after that people just use the same thing without understanding it properly and consequently usually do a really crappy job!