Fanfiction Lounge

[Act]

Hey, can I poke anyone for a reveiw on the new chapter of a fic o' mine?

 

[Negrek]

Meh, I'll see if I can do it tonight after debate (the eeevilll...)... I have another review to do around here, so I might as well read something I know'll be good into the bargain.

 

[klaus]

Oh, no. *bangs head on keyboard* You're bringing that Maxie fic here? We're all doomed. XD

Hiya, Klaus. XD Beware, people, this guy enjoys screwing with your head. XD

Oh, my friend, I have a new fic *Waves fingers and laughs insainly*
This one make's Maxie look sain. Can you say Professor Elm! hehehehehe!

As always, be kind to the mime

 

[Isaac Gravity]

I know what you mean, though, whenever a government is in a FanFic, it means war somewhere. Or rebellion. XP

@Frostweaver and SilverBlaze09- That's only half the case. Aside from those stories that wish to attack on-going problems like Iraq or the OMG War!! War is cool!! Series that center around/use themes of war like the Gundam franchise and Metal Gear game series only use war to go deeper in the human psyche during time of deep crisis: the facets of pride, principles and what is "just" suddenly play more enthralling roles in ones growth and also create a backbone for whatever themes the creator tries to bring about. They might be a tad preachy about it but by using a subject that is touchy for many (War) the subject of humanity can be seen in a greater light.

To me, it?s all a matter of interpretation. But the idea of ?Justice? no matter what shape or form its written is part of ?politics.? And justice is only an interpretation of what one believes things should be this leads to conflicts with those who see otherwise.

You don?t need a government, weapons of mass destruction or bad*ss mechs to watch a 3-year-old cry to his/her parents or other children how something ?isn?t fair.? Right there we have someone screaming the cry that a great injustice has been done against him/her. Now they can either give in peaceably, let their ego get the better of them and passively get vengeance by making their own something and not let the kid who made them upset join or kick scream and cry.

The last note I wanna emphasize with government and politics in fics is the idea of power and control. The example I actually want to use is the Pokemon Special Manga when Lance ran around wanting to wipe out humanity and what not. Sure, he?s Kanto?s most powerful trainer and (depending on how you look at it) because of that suddenly deemed himself a god that could do whatever the hell he wanted. At that point some wondered: ?Ok, so someone gave this guy and the rest of the Elite Four those ranks and made up these tournaments... Why the hell aren?t they stepping in?!? (And be able do what aside from take ranks and die martyrs not too sure?)
Looking at Lance?s actions/motives as well as the actions of those who went against him into a deeper perspective other than ?good vs. evil? we will see anything that has conflict of some form will lead to the real determining factors of many different views and beliefs.

I?m not saying that everyone who writes fic and added governments/deep politics outside Bush or the Middle East considered the whole Lance thing. They probably just like the hierarchy of power when they create something giving greater rise to questions to the reader: "Is this right?", "What is justice?", "Who should I support?" and "Whose the enemy?"

 

[Frostweaver]

But the type of government Billy was asking about in the first place has to be a reference too, and in most fanfics today, the government reference (or a political allusion, to be precisely correct) is usually over the problems in the Middle East, or the stage of communism crisis. Governments are used all the time as different symbols, but if you want allusions, those two events are by far the most common.

There's some usage of the two World Wars too, but then they are used for setting purposes more than an allusion.

 

[Isaac Gravity]

All I was pointing out was even if your trying to create your allusion of such events there's a greater "feeling" behind it. I was directing it towards the points you and SilverBlaze09 made, not Billy's question. There's other aspects to take note of then these more pressed on matters. (Like the matter of nuclear weapons and the dismantling of old warheads an on-going theme Metal Gear centers itself upon within all its plot twists.) Even with them like I said there's more to consider about the matter itself. (Too much really.)

Politics is Politics... Even if the world obesses over one matter, it doesn't mean there aren't other problems out there that shouldn't be touched on.

 

[Frostweaver]

What you said is true, but sadly enough what we said is also true. This shows us how the media definitely tells us what to think, and what to think about. We are so filled by some certain issues in the world that we often neglect the others. Sometimes, it makes us wonder if documentaries are much more accurate than the daily news.

Literature can direct and modify a man's mindset, if it is a powerful and well written literature. It is often said as a reflection of ourselves. What an author writes show how he or she views the world, and what he or she knows about the world. If you look closely enough, you can learn quite a bit about each writer here in PC without really spending that much time talking with these people.

 

[SilverBlaze09]

I?m not saying that everyone who writes fic and added governments/deep politics outside Bush or the Middle East considered the whole Lance thing. They probably just like the hierarchy of power when they create something giving greater rise to questions to the reader: "Is this right?", "What is justice?", "Who should I support?" and "Whose the enemy?"

Or they just like the powerful enemy.

What I was saying is that every fic I've read that had a legitimate government always involved a war or a rebellion. Have you ever seen a FanFic with a government that didn't involve the main character/s fighting a war or rebellion? THAT is what I was saying.

I'm not disagreeing with any of your points, especially:

Series that center around/use themes of war like the Gundam franchise and Metal Gear game series only use war to go deeper in the human psyche during time of deep crisis: the facets of pride, principles and what is "just" suddenly play more enthralling roles in ones growth and also create a backbone for whatever themes the creator tries to bring about. They might be a tad preachy about it but by using a subject that is touchy for many (War) the subject of humanity can be seen in a greater light.

From where I sit, I see that war and government seem to be inseperable in FanFiction nowadays. I'm not saying that the fics are neccessarily bad because they involve war, but that they're becoming a stereotype. I ask you honestly: Have you ever seen a FanFic that incorporated government that did not contain a war? And if so, how many like it? They are the exception, not the rule.

I agree totally that war can be used to delve into the human mind. Man's courage, pride, strength, they are all shown brightly during war. But how many FF authors actually use war in that way? It's usually just 'the enemy versus us, let's beat the snot out of them before they beat the snot out of us'.

War could be discussed for ages and still contain more topics and themes than we can imagine. Which is why it automatically shoots a fic into fame if used in a correct way.

Oh, my friend, I have a new fic *Waves fingers and laughs insainly*
This one make's Maxie look sain. Can you say Professor Elm! hehehehehe!

As always, be kind to the mime

Wonderful. Professor Elm vs. Maxie+Ethan=Me collapsing in total agony. XD

Question: How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

?SilverBlaze09?

 

[Yamato-san]

what about a Godzilla-type situation? There's a government, and it's not exactly going to war, but still using its defense to fight off against a giant monster. Haven't any of those been used in a fic and/or would you still associated that with war?

Question: How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

My antagonists vary. They can be a powerful, one-man army capable of global genocide if none got in their way, or they can be weak or around the same level of power as the protagonists, but have lots of skill and intelligence or a large army backing them up. In some cases, I'll even have a few of those bumbling comic relief villians, though very rarely, and not because they're complete morons. More like, they're just normal people who aren't capable of extraordinary strategies and only share the same ideal view as their leader, and no, I'd never have comic relief characters appear serious at first only to be reduced to buffoons in a short matter of time :cough:Team Rocket:cough:. Their goals..... well, they would be a bit spoilerish, but they also vary. But overall, I try to make my antagonists seem as 3D as possible. I never want to have your typical maniac that tries to take over the world just because he could (although, politics would be an exception, since there's also some ruler that's a bit power hungry and wants to expand their throne). I want a broken maniac who tries changing the current way of life that ruined him. Yeah, I'm liable to use the "change current lifestyle" bit a lot more than the "world domination" bit, though sometimes it can be a mixture of both (try conquering the world so the lifestyle can be changed to fit their desire).

 

[Negrek]

Have you ever seen a FanFic that incorporated government that did not contain a war? And if so, how many like it?

I've seen two... Xanthic Growlithe Contract and Xanthic Growlithe Contract 2: Johto. Both deal with government (or what government seems to exist in Kanto in Johto), but war is never even remotely discussed.

Overall, I actually see relativley few war 'fics between governments; I see a fair amount of pok?mon versus trainer rebellions, which are slightly different.

Edit: Oops, missed the question. Most of my antagonists are smart rather than stupid. In general, they have an urge to dominate, but the causes that they fight for are very different... in the end, they all believe that they are in the right, and are doing the best for the world (though the conflicts don't reach such a large scale) through their actions. In the fanfics I've published so far, anyways.

 

[Act]

How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

Well, in 'Miscon...' there's no large-scale conflict (only minor rises and falls of action, such as pokemon battles and such). Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm going to do there.

But I think my favorite kind of conflict is internal, man vs. self, so that makes it sort of difficult to pin down my antagonist.

In Reflect/OtOS, many of the antagonists aren't really 'evil' any more than that friend who told lies behind your back is or that cheating boss who wants money more than you.

I think they key in creating an antagonist is not to just have someone OMGevil >>>>:(, you know?

 

[Strawberry Delcatty]

Question: How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

Well, the current villian of HMW (there are more, but they won't appear until the sequel and Hoenn A La Mode) is just a typical vengence hunting villian. I don't want to give out any major spoilers, but this entry in my LJ should give you a good idea of what I'm going for (you may have seen this before, though).

 

[Casual Billy]

Question: How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

That's actually something I've been thinking about a lot lately. In my first fic, the main villain wasn't really a villain but more a manifestation of evil, which in my fic was destructive by nature. In Worlds Away, the main villain was straight from the anime: Just wanted a lot of power and authority, is all. In the F.O.D., the main villain, again, was simply concentrated and unbridled evil force incarnate. Kinda makes it easy to explain motives with the theory that evil's nature is to corrupt and destroy. That's all i really said.

With my new fic, though, the villain is going to be more complex than previous villains of mine have been.

 

[Dragonfree]

I like to make my villains not evil. They usually always believe they are doing the right thing, don't realize the consequences of their actions, or are simply more selfish than average without being particularly 'evil'.

 

[klaus]

Question: How do you associate your villians/enemies in your writing? Do you prefer making them powerful or weak? Intelligent or stupid? Sly or dull? What goals do you like giving them? World domination or the tearing down of a current way of life? Are they leaders of millions or one-man armies?

Hmmmm.........well if ever I have villain to be feared, I wouln't really make them stupid, a manlady or too matcho. They would actually be evil and not so darn funny.

I'm not saying Giovanni,Archie and Maxie aren't evil, cause they are villians. I'm just saying that they aren't your typical villans.LOL.

As always, be kind to the mime.

 

[Frostweaver]

If we are talking about man vs. man, then the less evil the villain is, the more evil the villain really is. In my opinion, the masterpieces of all villains must be "good and righteous."

Remember that there are 4 other kinds of conflicts out there.

 

[Act]

If we are talking about man vs. man, then the less evil the villain is, the more evil the villain really is. In my opinion, the masterpieces of all villains must be "good and righteous."

:nod: That's the challenge in creating a villian.

Remember that there are 4 other kinds of conflicts out there.

'xactly. I don't think I ever see man vs nature/machine. Ever.

 

[Frostweaver]

Since everything is relative to something else when we are treating characters that we read, a villain will appear righteous if the "good guys" are evil ;p that's another way to make villains good, and that is by making the good guys evil.

man vs. nature is insanely hard for Pokemon, simply because it's hard to classify what is natural when you got Pokemon inserted into the world. Or maybe man vs. nature is so easily blended into the other conflicts that we just don't notice its existance unless we are really trying hard about it.

 

[Act]

Since everything is relative to something else when we are treating characters that we read, a villain will appear righteous if the "good guys" are evil ;p that's another way to make villains good, and that is by making the good guys evil.

That's always fun to do. Because, you know, most of the time the 'villians' do see the 'heroes' as evil. It's like saying, "Which is better, chocolate or vanilla?" To the chocolate people, vanilla-lovers should die, but to the vanilla-people, chocolate lovers should die.

/badmetaphor

 

[pokejungle]

I want to write again ,______________,

Does anyone know a good site for fiction writing techniques? <<;