Just finished watching The 100 on Netflix. The writing was pretty terrible.
Literally every bad action performed by a character (up to and including genocide) was justified as “I had no choice”. They should have called it, “The no choice show”. I would have loved to have seen a counter in the corner of the screen that ticked up every time that was said, which was at least once per episode.
Seconds before any kind of solution that would have solved major problems was enacted, a character (different each time)- previously rational, but now for some reason completely chaotic- would jump in and destroy the McGuffin and fuck everyone over because it was in their personal interest. Every single fucking time, even in the final episode. It’s no longer a plot twist, it’s just lazy AF writing. It also meant that the characters had no consistency or predictability of motive, which meant their believability went down the toilet.
I’m going to stop there but believe me, that’s the tip of the iceberg.
That show was proof that Netflix will greenlight just about anything.
The way GOT ended with making the storyteller (the writer) become an important part of the story. The writers self insert is a problem in a lot of media but particular in fantasy.
Elves and Dwarves done like every other Elf and Dwarf. Especially when they go out of their way to give the Dwarf that overdone Irish/Scottish accent written out in damn near unreadable text.
Also when the worldbuilding and plot basically is “here’s some not so thinly veiled racism between groups who will set that aside to fight a common enemy.” Series ends on a high note, but you know this world will fall into disarray again cause people suck, so like, what was the point.
Elves and dwarves being monolithic cultures. I’d be fine the the standard stereotype if that was only one kind. There are so many kinds of humans, it’s hard to believe that there is only one kind of dwarf. Make Irish vs Scottish dwarves or something, cmon. Make dwarves Mongolian, idk.
Irish dwarves? Scottish dwarves seems to be the trope Do you have any example of irish dwarves. Except from leprechauns, whuch I don’t consider dwarves.
The Scottish accent is baffling. “Dwarves originate from Scandinavian mythology, so let’s give them a Scottish accent!” Elves (the human-sized kind) originate from Scandinavian mythology as well, why not give them Scottish accents?
All things Deus Ex Machina. I get it, endings are hard. Climaxes are hard to write. But the payoff feels cheap as hell when your protagonist just “digs a little deeper” and suddenly finds just enough power to save the day. When it comes out of nowhere, it feels unearned by the hero and is not only unsatisfying, it’s also a good way to give you hero power creep until there’s nothing on earth that can believably challenge them. See: Superman.
I get what you’re saying, and I agree, but I think Superman is a bad example. Superman is meant to be infinitely powerful (with only a few examples like kryptonite to aid in storytelling). It’s a bit like the premise of One Punch Man. His story is meant to be about what one SHOULD do with infinite power, and the nature of morality, rather than overcoming adversity as with most superheroes.
In the early days of Superman comics, dude couldn’t, e.g. fly. He could just jump really high. He didn’t have laser vision. Over time, the writers kept adding new powers until the only story they could tell was about Supes vs his own conscience. Nothing else (okay, besides Mr Mxyzptlk) can actually stand in his way.
Ya, but my counterpoint is that, for a character named ‘Superman’, that’s kinda the point. Everybody gets power creep eventually. Remember the Thanos-copter, and Lex Luthor stealing 40 cakes?
Which is why I love enders game. Motherfucker was so brutal, the only thing slowing him down was exhaustion from killing EVERYTHING. The climax was about him realizing what he’d done
Yup. And that’s a great example of not relying on Deus Ex Machina - we watch Ender go through all his brutal training, learning to be the best and becomes a truly terrifying weapon of war. By the time Ender is, well, ending things, we’ve seen his growth and understand why he can do the things he does.
Its for the reader/watcher to decide what is canon it maybe good if done subtly but if its some important or core lore, well then i should’ve just imagined the whole thing why are you needed ?
This is specific to the videogame-ish sub-genre, mostly Isakeis…
But you go out of the way to include RPG mechanics into your story… but the only real influence it has on the storytelling is spending an inordinate amount of time grinding… a mechanic explicitly added to RPGs to pad the game.
There are good video game based stories, Survival Story of a Sword King and Dungeon Reset both immediately come to mind… but I feel like this is a widespread problem.
Most of the series past the first book is what I was referring to. It seemed like, for at least several books, there’s some big climax and he suddenly rediscovers some lost aspect of War Magic that saves the day, mostly unrelated to the rest of the book. It’s been over a decade since I read them though, so I might not be remembering it right.
Still enjoyed the series as a whole, despite a few things. Haven’t read sword of justice, but I might give it a try.
I think I generally agree. But it is like most the other things in the thread. The plot mechanic is fine when done well and bad when done poorly or as a cop out.
So I think most of us just hate shitty storytelling.
I started off really enjoying the series, but eventually had to abandon it as he kept adding increasingly over the strawmen who’s sole purpose was to be blown away by the might of Randian Objectivism.
Yeah, I always felt like the series would have been better as a single book (maybe the first and part of the second?). Playing with ideas of truth and perceived truth was cool, but it wasn’t enough to sustain such a long series.
Well then you haven’t been paying attention. His ideal of a pirate comes from a red haired guy with high values not from those who pillage, kill and steal for fun. And he rarely goes out of his way to help some rando. Every time he has helped someone, it’s because he considered them a friend or they helped luffy first out of their kindness. He’s just paying back their kindness. If it involves saving a burning Kingdom for a friend who happens to be its princess, then so be it.
Nothing heroic about it. Even villains help their friends. I won’t say it’s peak fiction. But it’s pretty close to it.
Leave their ordinary world to pursue a mission in unfamiliar circumstances.
Discover new friends and make new enemies, including one primary foe who seems undefeatable.
Face tremendous trials.
Learn difficult lessons.
Experience an “all is lost” moment or a moral dilemma. Or both.
And
In terms of what the hero is like as a person, traits can vary. However, the most common qualities seen in the hero archetype are:
Physical or magical strength.
Physical, mental, and emotional resilience.
Persistence.
Courage.
A strong sense of right and wrong.
Commitment to a mission, relationship, or value system.
An impulse to protect the defenseless or give a voice to the unheard.
This dude is a 1:1 match for the hero archetype lol. Name one example where Luffy decided not to help or choose a mutually beneficial solution to another character that he liked. Helping only friends and kind doesn’t make you any less of a hero.
There’s nothing wrong with following the archetype, it’s actually a sign of good story writing.
But having him say “I’m not a hero” every five seconds is annoying as hell and feels like shoehorned dialogue that doesn’t go anywhere or build on anything.
Your statement of what a hero does is more like a protagonist’s definition.
Regarding the characteristics of a hero, which you stated, that can also be applied to a villain. A villain can have the same traits except his sense of right and wrong is twisted or flawed. Tragic villains are often born because they were the unheard or defenceless. So now they will become the voice of the unheard.
My definition of a hero is someone who puts their own well-being far below than others’. Someone who will go out of his way to save a stranger whom he has never seen before. Someone who just keeps giving and giving until there’s nothing left. A selfless, kind, naive person. Superman is what I’d call a hero.
Luffy isn’t one. Yes he has a sense of right and wrong and is kind. But he’s selfish. He will beat anyone who stands in his way of achieving his dream. He has multiple times puts his crew in a pinch(because of stupidity) or state of financial ruin(by eating whole rations or spending all their hard earned fortune on parties).
And I’ve only heard him say I’m not a hero once or twice. But what he does say often is he want to be a pirate King.
I remember seeing some sort of graph, where the number of made up words on the first page of a fantasy novel can be charted to a skewed bell curve of that novel’s average rating. One or two made up words tends to boost ratings slightly, but more than that and the ratings quickly decline. Because if an author is immediately dependent on introducing new words as a crutch for worldbuilding, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of the book.
Ah yes, H’taln’k from J’briom-4, flying his Zal’t M’lort class Winger to the Mont Bronl’n port with the day’s haul of Sea Crom’t. Oh won’t his mabs’k be pleased with this delivery.
Elves always being like the bottom rung of society or them being the outcasts. It’s insane to think that elves wouldn’t be the rulers of dam near any government or at the very least not be the power and influence behind a puppet government. Who wouldn’t want the help of a race of people who, depending on the lore, can live for thousands of years.
I mean, there could be an elf that has been a friend of your family for like 5 or more generations. That sounds dope as fuck for us but kinda shitty for them.
I like what Tolkien did with the elves. They went from a warmongering bloodthirsty species to ancient and wise and they decided to gtfo and live on a secluded island out of reach from pretty much everyone.
Well there’s also the whole “The One Ring is the only thing still keeping the elves’ magic alive, so they know that destroying the One Ring will inevitably lead to the end of the elves” side of things. That’s why all the elves in LOTR are so fucking morbid about everything. The elves rely on magic, and while it did a lot of damage and was undoubtedly evil, the One Ring bound that magic to Middle Earth because it was the same magic Sauron used to appear in Middle Earth. So by helping to destroy the One Ring (and breaking Sauron’s tether to Middle Earth) they’re also destroying the only thing keeping their magic from drying up over time. They’re inadvertently starting a ticking time bomb for themselves.
At least, that’s what I remember off the top of my head. It could be completely wrong, but I’m too lazy to google it.
Add comment