Shabolt

▵ Interesting on Occasion ▵ Writer ▵

[shabolt]

There’s so many cases of powerful villains in fiction being like “if you surrender/serve me I’ll bring XYZ fundamentally vital character back” but it’s a gripe of mine that even characters who have the power to do it, only let this be a hypothetical.

Like Batman has had a laundry list of villains be like “if you stop trying to catch me I’ll bring back your parents”, Spiderman’s had a dozen “I’ll bring back Uncle Ben”s, and like a solid fraction of all fantasy fiction hinging on Necromancer antagonists pull this trump card.

But what if they actually did it…..

The hero shows up to stop the big bad, and is greeted by their lost loved one. John Paladin kicks down the palace doors only to be greeted by their actual dearly departed wife and kids or something to that affect, and the villain give the simple offer akin to Orpheus

If you leave here, you can take them with you.

But in this case, there’s no catch, no Eurydice trust. Just a premise, they’re already here, already back in the flesh, and if you try to stop me, I’ll kill them all over again.

Bargaining with hope is one thing for a villain, redoubling loss though, that’s a sledgehammer.

So far, in all the media I have observed, the only thing I’ve found do it in a satisfying way, was the Punisher of all people.

He becomes the face of the evil ninja cult, The Hand, because they have his resurrected wife as collateral. He goes on a warpath because he already has her back, and now every act he takes is motivated by his trauma to never lose her again. It pushed him to limits and depths that left him a shell of himself.

I want more of that!!!

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Getting targeted ads about slow internet speeds during a power outage is funny. Like I wanna give my databroker a pat on the shoulder and say “good try buddy”

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Happy New Year to the small cluster of homunculi that keep liking and Reblogging me. I wanna make more fun posts this year and push through the brain fog, but let’s see if that actually happens lol.

Worst case I can just keep looking back at that one post I made on Tellervo, damn does that one just keep doing well and it makes me heart warm because that short is amazing

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Wow Knights of Guinivere’s Pilot seems to be a real scathing inditement of Disney’s practices and consumerism, it feels like almost everything has some kind of allegorical connection to Disney. I wonder what the Blue Lung thing was a reference to?

*one searchbar later

Huh…

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Opening up my drafts and hearing a loud creaking noise like an old timey coffer in a mystery movie…

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Turns out this year had hands…

At least I didn’t stop writing, kept doing that just for me, but I do want to live up to what I posted back in April and finally get back into using any platform to blab about my goofy interests to like the 2 people who follow me XD

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Holy Helsinki I have really procrastinated adding stuff to this page… I’ve still been writing

Just not here lol. Time to fix that!!!!

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The Art of Murder: Sketchbook 1 - Writing Referentially, Without Going Out of Style

So whilst my longwinded writeup regarding the animated series Thyste keeps taking a while as I have a lot to say. This pilot arrived on my radar and I am frankly astonished by it.

Choc Chip Animation Studios have developed what feels like an exceptionally whimsical and absurdly high quality Animated Pilot that feels like a triple A quality project built from indie roots.

From its gorgeous mixing of styles and genres between its unique cast, to its charming music and seasoned voice cast (I mean getting two of Starkid Productions’ Vocal Powerhouses and Freakin’ Lizzie Freeman is an amazing part of the overall great cast lineup), and even its frankly impressive ability to combine very different genres of characters in a way that compliments them all rather than causes an audience to cringe, it’s exceptionally done.

The songs are gorgeous and the vocals are unsurprisingly amazing, as well as being paired with overall tight writing that lets each character flaunt their differences in ways that make them so much more interesting.

But the best part in my opinion was that it has been one of the few pieces of media I have seen be so genre savvy and pop-culturally aware in a way that was genuinely hilarious, (especially a shout out to a certain pixar reference that the music team handled exceptionally)

Most of the time these sorts of pop-culture splices come across as “Spacejam 2” scenarios where characters say their lines and that’s it.

But in The Art of Murder, everything is treated wholly genuinely, from their on the nose Phoenix Wright parody to their Disney Princess homage. They take a fully meta awareness of the state of current pop culture, but do so in a way that I feel will age very well due to what seems like a very deliberate effort to base the comedy around enduring pop-cultural ideas.

Moreover its meta sensibilities feel like a loveletter from artists to other artists. It covers ideas that feel so universal to anyone who has been in that position of being a growing artist.

I am so happy I stumbled onto this series, and if it can keep its quality anywhere near this pilot (I mean the visuals alone holy crap, I nearly called this post’s subtitle “Indie Studio, Triple A Quality” because it is exceptional), it’ll develop one hell of a following really fast. And I hope it does because I want to see so much more of it!

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Zooble and Allegory:

In the latest episode of *The Amazing Digital Circus*, Zooble discusses hating their body, hating that despite having a litany of replaceable parts to constantly alter themself with. None of it feels “good”. There’s obviously the surface level aspect of how Zooble has a more patchwork avatar in the circus and the irony of the character with the most choice over their body having the least satisfaction.

But there’s also something much more sincere and deeper to it. Zooble has been in and out of the show categorised as non-binary. Be it by Gooseworx’s own statements or by the fact they have not been referred to in any way besides they/them pronouns within the show itself.

(Well now to overuse my writing degree)

With this perspective of the character held in mind, one can interpret Zooble’s bodily dissatisfaction as more than just the same avatar quirks and frustrations the other circus-goers have (as we see from the breath-holding opener how each character has their little quirks functions seperate from the main concept of each of their designs).

Zooble’s body and parts bucket address the idea of their problem without solving it. No matter what parts they use, they’ll always still be trapped in the core conceit of having a model stuck within that theme, there is no way for Zooble to escape the core theme of their design. You could argue then with this concept in mind, that zooble’s body and parts are an allegory for gender and the many presentations one gender can take,if not the concept of binary gender.

Overall I really liked this representation, and the allegory found within their moments in the episode. Especially because it kind of subverts that whole “non-binary shapeshifter” trope found in a lot of media, where in this case the character with the most control over their own appearance is still the least satisfied with it, and despite all their changes still hasn’t found what form of their self makes them feel right, we can only hope the character eventually does find it!

[shabolt]

Batman Villains need to get pettier and the best way to do that is by messing with their own gimmicks

Bruce Wayne is more than likely way too desensitised to things like Joker blowing a schoolbus full of children for the umpteenth time, for it to get that far under his skin anymore.

But if Calendar Man started committing his crimes in other Timezones when he felt like it (IE borderline arbitrarily), that would do some psychic damage.

Batman tails this long and winding mystery where someone was killed by a Boomerang, so he immediately thinks Cpt Boomerang (Digger Harkness), but that guy is still in Blackgate. Only for Bruce to realise that although it is currently just 7pm on January 25 , it is currently 9am on Australia Day in Sydney, Australia. And Calendar man is just being an asshole.

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Or what if Mr Freeze started accepting endorsements from synthetic diamond companies to use their gems to power his freeze tech rather than jewle heists?

As if it’s good enough to power a winter’s day for Gotham in March, it’s good enough for your jewellery. And if organic diamond lobbyists then start trying to go after freeze, does batman need to defend him then if it’s not lawbreaking?

[shabolt]

Batman Villains need to get pettier and the best way to do that is by messing with their own gimmicks

Bruce Wayne is more than likely way too desensitised to things like Joker blowing a schoolbus full of children for the umpteenth time, for it to get that far under his skin anymore.

But if Calendar Man started committing his crimes in other Timezones when he felt like it (IE borderline arbitrarily), that would do some psychic damage.

Batman tails this long and winding mystery where someone was killed by a Boomerang, so he immediately thinks Cpt Boomerang (Digger Harkness), but that guy is still in Blackgate. Only for Bruce to realise that although it is currently just 7pm on January 25 , it is currently 9am on Australia Day in Sydney, Australia. And Calendar man is just being an asshole.

[shabolt]

Multiverse stories are just Time Travel stories keeping up with modern day suspension of disbelief, and that’s fun:

As an example of the trope progression I am going to start with the baseline of other dimensions, alternate places that can be like ours with noted differences, the most open form of otherworldliness in Sci Fi

When Time Travel plots came into more prominent fashion, we got alternate timelines, timelines that can be like ours with noted differences, usually bound by a large change or event

Then as Butterfly effect Time Travel plots came into more prominent fashion, we got more alternate timelines, timelines that can be like ours with noted differences, but now they could be as wildly different as needed because butterfly logic let them make wildly different changes with reckless abandon (not you back to the future you at least kept logic in play)

But butterfly time travel becomes too hard to manage for longrunning time travel stories, so the idea of fixed/absolute points came into play. Points that cannot be changed in a narrative canon without dire consequences.

However eventually time travel plots fell short in favour and now we are at the current stage of Multiverses. Multiverses were original conceptualised as alternate realities that deviated by the outcome of every choice, essentially philosophically stating that there is potential for any choice made to be a real choice. Alternate universes are universes that can be like ours with noted differences, usually bound by a large change or event

However again as creatives started taking the idea of one small change as a butterfly effect ruling, because frankly in an infinite number of changing worlds the existence of an infinite number of outcomes makes sense, some other creatives still wanted rules in place. As we now see with ‘Canon Events’ Points that cannot be changed in a narrative canon without dire consequences.

Seeing the pattern? It’s really blatant and fun how these plots cycle themselves to modern standards, and we are certainly going to see it again as the “Omniverse” concept has started to gain ground in a few places

[shabolt]

I sit here wondering how many time travel tropes you could add to one story?

My best synopsis attempt was:

A protagonist with the ability to travel through time, gets a premonition that in 24 hours from the present day, they will get trapped in a time loop that unless via use of their abilities means their present timeline can’t progress. Hoping to skip the loop, they contact their future self to try and get the cheat sheet.

Their future self lets them know the steps they need to take. So confidently the protagonist proceeds into the day of the loop, but notice things are not as described, they attempt to crack it. But begin to realise that in the time they took to go to themselves in the future, they missed an extremely minor interaction that set off a chain reaction of events to drastically alter the groundhog day.

Now stranded in a completely alternate time loop from the one described, they go back in time to tell their past self not to go forwards in time and to just try and figure the loop out manually like their future self did, setting the loop back to the first time loop, and making themself solve it the old fashioned way as the protagonist fades from existence and time continues as intended

[shabolt]

I have been a writer for a long long time now, I even finally got published as of last year, but now after years of sitting on the metaphorical sidelines and appreciating from afar, I wanted to start actually making animation to compliment my writing.

I have been working on a project for a few weeks now, and it’s obviously not very good and not very easy. But there’s something so fulfilling about that, you can never do worse than your least practiced and least informed attempt, and knowing that’s where something starts is so exciting!

I am getting to make something cool that I can actually see happen rather than just imagine. Sure it’s inconsistent and choppy but that’s the beauty of a new thing.

I have been writing for so long and doing so at a commercial level that the passion for it has its real lows at rare moments. I kind of forgot how fun it is to try something new just for the love of it is.

Being able to materialise my stories is really gratifying. And I’m hoping the thing I’m making will be only the first of things. And that I’ll keep improving and making more things. Because making stuff is fun.

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‘The Spider Within: A Spiderverse Story’ was fantastic!

From an artistic standpoint it was stunning, as an appreciation of horror media it succeeds at leaning into the genre whilst remaining grounded in the storyworld of the Spider-verse films. Not even to mention what a great cause if awareness the short contributes towards.

I loved seeing Miles’ struggle and how he is just a regular kid struggling with both mundane and extraordinary problems. And through those issues seeing how both feed into the exasperation of one another.

The broken spidey mask, the ghostly, gold-eyed silhouette of miles -which [and I bet I am overthinking] had the same frame as when he is in his spidey suit but unmasked, possibly representing the worst of both of his worlds- , the GIANT SPIDER all feed into the strong terror the character is facing in such an engaging way.

And the paralysis scene was so cool! So interesting as a depiction of sleep paralysis!

I also loved that Miles wasn’t just a horror movie chump, he actively scrapped with his bio-electricity, he tried to flee, fight, etc, he actually tried and didn’t accept defeat even in this reflection of his stressors and trauma until every attempt had been exhausted.

Additionally the reveal scene of the spider was great, setting it on a train, reflecting the kingpin collider fight, where Miles received one of his worst on-screen beatings so far, was yet another great way to discreetly portray all that trauma.

And then after all that, there’s Jefferson. He’s just great, he was respectful of Miles’ boundaries when he came home despite clearly having gone to no small amount of effort to create a bonding moment with his kid. And even better he immediately swivels to look after his kid the moment it’s needed, fantastic parental character. I mean the Morales parents in general have got to be some of my favourite fictional parents, they’re not perfect humans, but they’re certainly perfect fictional characters

Just love this franchise, it’s so well done lol

[shabolt]

I don’t know which aspiring writer needs to hear this but I keep seeing it in stories I read and I keep thinking it needs to be explained:

Hopelessness is only an engaging feeling in a story when it is contrasted by a credible amount of hope.

You need to balance the bad in a story with any amount of good and vice versa, or else you are just designing suffer-porn, not tragedy.

There is this amazing stop motion film called ‘Mad God’, which frankly I don’t think I was smart enough to fully understand 😂

But throughout it, you just witness an utterly dismal and dying existence of endless suffering, it sucks, and it’s meant to. But that fact is contrasted by the fact the character we follow gets the occasional win, even if it’s a tiny one.

This drip feed of hope or positivity keeps an audience from fully checking out, as if you see nothing but failure, then there’s no reason to assume otherwise for the character you want the audience to get invested in.

The game Outriders is a version of this concept pushed to its limits, only to fall flat from them. Your protagonist sees literally nothing but your friends continue to die and people just being at their worst, with not a moment of positive reprieve until far too late in the story. It eventually does reward you for sticking with its hopeless demeanour, but it’s too little too late, the characters you were invested in were gone and not replaced by anyone else in the setting, leaving you with a “happy” ending that you don’t even feel bittersweet about.

Moderation is important in a sad story, restraint is important in story about hopelessness, you need things to be just bad enough to prove your point without your audience beginning to grow apathetic.

A last good example came from a weird spot: Dead Island 2. It does things a little differently, which both greatly improved and worsened aspects of this kind of theming. You have a lot more wins than losses like a hopeful story. But almost all of them are dragged into being pyrrhic victories. You meet characters, you get to have their wins in the short term, but any character that wants their definitive conclusion, either needs to die for it or give up on it. That kind of drama brings the same tension as a hopeless story, but in a way that stays engaging to one’s audience.

In short. If you’re writing a depressing story, make it depressing for the characters more than the audience, because if the audience checks out then you will struggle to reinvest them by the time your story rewards their sticking with you.

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You never really notice how insanely hard it is to get proper silence until you need to record something. I’m currently recording placeholder lines for a pilot, and OH MY GOODNESS everything makes so much noise than we notice. It’s like not realising how many stars are in the sky until you go deep into the countryside away from the city.

I currently have had to drive away from home and am sitting in an empty parking lot because the fridge’s humming and my rooster’s cawing just keep picking up even when I haven’t heard them, and this is through lots and lots of walls!

Damn sounds can be sucky.