• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Mystery Pokémon Theater 3000

Astinus

Astinus

10,175
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen yesterday
Book Antiqua needs more love.

Just as long as the font is readable in both basic readability and size, I'm fine with it. The colors would be iffy, but since there's not going to be a different color scheme going on, it's fine. (If there was, Andy wants blue. T'is his favorite color.)

Why does that Times New Roman look tiny? o_o

Oooo...after playing around with it, TNR with [size="3"][/size] is awesome. Not huge, not small, easily readable. Fwee.
 

Scarlet Weather

The Game is Afoot!
1,823
Posts
17
Years
Xanthine said:
Well, the first episode was over thirty pages in length (so bulkiness isn't really too much of an issue), but I'm thinking of ditching the idea simply because I don't like the way the quote boxes look around most of the story. It makes me feel like I'm doing a review.

The alternative is something Thesis actually came up with: changing the font faces for the story parts. This means that rather than doing everything in the usual font you're used to seeing on this board, the story parts would be delivered, for example, in Times New Roman or Courier New. The downside, however, is that this is generally seen as a taboo. On the other hand, I'm not screwing with font colors, and I suppose if I keep it to a font that's easily readable, it should be fine.
Click to expand...


To be fair, I didn't entirely come up with that idea. It was just that the early birthday present I sent to you was originally in Courier New, and I don't particularly like that font, so I just switched it to something more readable. xD
 
Astinus

Astinus

10,175
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 37
  • Seen yesterday
Ninja Caterpie said:
Fantastic. But that does the same thing as italics. :\ Although... We'll see how it works before anyone complains. xD
Click to expand...
The problem that I could see with the italics when I read it was that the story itself used italics for thoughts, and Xanthine used italics to set the story off from the MST commentary. So no one could be sure what was going on.

Um, we'll poke around with things like coding, because I know that's one reason why we have to figure things out. Coding the whole thing (since the cut-off is twenty-five pages for the fic alone and when you add in the commentary... EESH!) is a pain in the bloody arse so yeah...

Of course, the different font things would need a lot of coding because it would go:

storystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystory
storystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystorystory
storystory

Andy: *says something retarded like he normally does*

It's not too much of a pain to do that then, but that's just a small sample compared to a full thing. But it's still the size and font coding for the commentary.

Yeah, we'll poke around with things and bounce around ideas. Keep the ideas coming if you people can come up with something better. Which you probably can. XD And we'll try things out.
 
Ninja Caterpie

Ninja Caterpie

AAAAAAAAAAAAA
5,979
Posts
16
Years
Didn't I suggest something for italics from the actual story?

The Tyranitar stepped towards the kid. Oh shnitzels, I'm going to ddiiiiee! he thought, hoping it wasn't hungry.
 

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord
3,277
Posts
19
Years
Ninja Caterpie said:
Didn't I suggest something for italics from the actual story?

The Tyranitar stepped towards the kid. Oh shnitzels, I'm going to ddiiiiee! he thought, hoping it wasn't hungry.
Click to expand...

What you were trying to suggest was essentially a problem because there was no way to differentiate between the story and the stage directions after awhile. For example, allow me to extract a sample from an MST I'm working on at the moment and do it the way you suggested.


"Oh, boy", said Pichu.

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


Note that in the above example, the italics are essentially reversed. What's italicized in the original work is stripped of italics, and what isn't is italicized. Also, note that even with the bold, what was originally italicized now blends in with the rest of the text. It would be the same effect if you did something like this:

"Oh, boy",

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

said Pichu.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity, Eevee thought

Syntax: So am I.

for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!

Or this:

"Oh, boy",

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

said Pichu.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


However, if we change the font face the way Thesis did (regardless of where he got his idea), what you get is this:

"Oh, boy", said Pichu.

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


Note that by differentiating the font faces, you now have the option of changing the basic styles -- italics, bold, underline, whatever you want. The reason why is because now, the basic difference between the actual story and the witty comments are already made as clear as day with different fonts. Therefore, it's not possible to confuse the story's italics with the witty comments' italics, and you can easily code whatever the author originally intended, rather than strip away all formatting for the sake of making it clear you're still on the story.

Long story short, the only reason why I'm not going with your suggestion about reverse italics and nothing else is because it blends in with the witty commentary. And then, if I changed the font face and then did reverse italics, the font change itself would defeat the purpose of doing reverse italics in the first place. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

EmeraldSky said:
Just out of curiousity, does the fic have to be Pokemon related, or can we submit non-Pokemon ones too?
Click to expand...

For now, we're only accepting Pokémon fic. It's actually because the crew and I are too lazy to compile a list of fandoms we do collectively know. If we don't, people could easily submit fic for something we know nothing about, which would result in us going "lol what's that? :D" and you responding with "that's canon, moron."

It's also to prevent the people in Other Writing from going, "What the eff are you doing?" Because I can't submit non-Pokémon fic to this forum, and the people in this forum are somehow less inclined to mark everything as serious business. Don't think I don't look in that poetry forum.

But when we're somewhat less lazy and terrified of the people in Other Writing, we might compile a list of all the fandoms we know to spread the lols.
 
Last edited:
Ninja Caterpie

Ninja Caterpie

AAAAAAAAAAAAA
5,979
Posts
16
Years
Xanthine said:
What you were trying to suggest was essentially a problem because there was no way to differentiate between the story and the stage directions after awhile. For example, allow me to extract a sample from an MST I'm working on at the moment and do it the way you suggested.


"Oh, boy", said Pichu.

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


Note that in the above example, the italics are essentially reversed. What's italicized in the original work is stripped of italics, and what isn't is italicized. Also, note that even with the bold, what was originally italicized now blends in with the rest of the text. It would be the same effect if you did something like this:

"Oh, boy",

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

said Pichu.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity, Eevee thought

Syntax: So am I.

for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!

Or this:

"Oh, boy",

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

said Pichu.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


However, if we change the font face the way Thesis did (regardless of where he got his idea), what you get is this:

"Oh, boy", said Pichu.

Xanthine: I'm going to say something witty here.

Oh, but I have a weakness for electricity,

Syntax: So am I.

Eevee thought for a second, before she took her fighting pose.

Andy: Me too!


Note that by differentiating the font faces, you now have the option of changing the basic styles -- italics, bold, underline, whatever you want. The reason why is because now, the basic difference between the actual story and the witty comments are already made as clear as day with different fonts. Therefore, it's not possible to confuse the story's italics with the witty comments' italics, and you can easily code whatever the author originally intended, rather than strip away all formatting for the sake of making it clear you're still on the story.

Long story short, the only reason why I'm not going with your suggestion about reverse italics and nothing else is because it blends in with the witty commentary. And then, if I changed the font face and then did reverse italics, the font change itself would defeat the purpose of doing reverse italics in the first place. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
Click to expand...

That makes an awful lot of sense. :D The different font looks sweet, too. :D
 

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord
3,277
Posts
19
Years
Ladies and gents, after a long wait, I present to you episode two.

Also, while you can see the shiny, new font, there's a few things I'm still experimenting with. Think of these as the KTMA days of the show. Or something.

And yeah, alas, Astinus has decided not to be a riffer. So, instead, I've decided to make her a Mad. With her own Piplup army. Hurray?

In any case, a little commentary this time around because I figure it'd be cool to start that sort of thing:

On the positive side, this fic has an example of foreshadowing and, possibly, fridge brilliance (as in, that trope where you read through something and don't really pick up on a concept until it randomly hits you after the fact). Namely, An-chan dropped hints that...
Spoiler:
...but the reader doesn't get that these clues are exactly that until a second read-through or a third. (I personally didn't really catch it until I went back over the jokes I had Syntax and Andy make during the proofreading stages.)

However, as the Pokémon joked, there's also a lot of exposition, and certain things that would normally be important are glossed over. If more time was spent on those kinds of things, this would actually be an example of foreshadowing done right.
 
Last edited:

Scarlet Weather

The Game is Afoot!
1,823
Posts
17
Years
As usual, HILARIOUS.

And you're right, the different-font thing works pretty well. I'm personally using it for any future MSTs I do. And KTMA or not, this is still funny as heck.
 

JX Valentine

Your aquatic overlord
3,277
Posts
19
Years
Sorry for the late response, but thanks. Glad to see it's working. =D

Also, I present episode three. I'm not sure why it took this long, but... uh... *flees*

A few changes to this one that you might notice:

1. Xanthine is now known as Jax. Specifically, the full name is Jax Valentine. Which is an assumed name apparently to make her sound badass. Whatever.

2. I'm now going by my personal capitalization rules: all pokémon names aren't capitalized unless they're the starts of sentences or actually the names of specific pokémon. Moves will still be capitalized, however.

3. Astinus is now serving as Jax's version of the Mads, so she's not presented through the Hexfield. Also, her Deep 13 is called Astinus Castle, an igloo somewhere in the Antarctic. The Higher Ups still exist but transmit through her.

Other than that, I don't think there's many cosmetic changes. Hopefully, this is the form we'll be using in the future.

Also, Scarlet Weather will be teaming up with me in the future, and supposedly, he's working on an episode. Welcome to the team, m'dear!
 

Scarlet Weather

The Game is Afoot!
1,823
Posts
17
Years
Nice to be welcomed. xD

Anyway, went ahead and posted the episode I've been working on- "Mission Pokemon", by Gummy. This is probably the hardest fic I've ever MST'ed, in part because its biggest flaw is that it's pretty generic and doesn't do a huge amount to differentiate itself from other fanfics. Plus, doing the host segments at the beginning and end was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Anyway, a few things...

1. I used two riffers of my own creation over Syntax and Andy in this fanfic- though I don't plan to use them in the future- because I'm still getting a feel for the personality of both of those characters. Any future MSTs I do, however, will star Andy and Syntax.

2. Scarlet is a highly intelligent talking dog, created by the God of Shenanigans as his messenger to Earth. He is capable of eating anything.

3. The God of Shenanigans is a running joke that I 'borrowed' from a parody of Brisingr and have expanded into its own mythos. I'm not insane. Really. Anyway, this MST contains a mention of him, and you can probably expect to see more on my end.

4. And yes, I did make one or two obscure references in my riffing. They are (in no particular order...)

-Any number of Final Fantasy references
-A few references to Dungeons and Dragons (well, more like references to DnD terms).
-Two references to the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (by name both times)
-And one reaaaaaalllly obscure reference to Yu-Gi-Oh. The trading card game, not the anime.
-And one one-off reference to the Touhou series of scrolling shooter games.

You don't particularly need to know anything about any of those subjects to read and enjoy the MST though, so don't worry. xD

Anyway, glad to be a part of the team. Now if you excuse me, I need to see about finding a jumpsuit made for quadrapeds. -pads off-
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top