And What a Chapter it's Been. · 5:24am Jul 13th, 2013
The Newest chapter is up
No spoilers here, but this was a tough one.
Thank goodness Frazzled Pony was on the case, because there were a 'lot' of tiny disasters spread throughout its many, many lines. I'm trying something new throughout this one, you might notice. Lots of 'he said, she said' can be found throughout. I always found them awkward to read, myself. Whenever I tried to put them in, something just always seemed off about them. Frazzle managed to help frame them for me, and I will endeavor to do more of that in the future. AND in the past Bwahahaha! but first I'll concentrate on the future.
(Which just means that I'm going to finish the story with the best edits of chapters available to me, and then I'm going to go back and edit the hell out of my previous ones.)
I've been reading several fan made guides to help improve my writing. I'm not sure if it's had much effect yet, but tell me how you guys like!
Someone tell me, does anyone else like Snips and Snails, or is it just me? I've read a lot of stories involving them, mostly because they pique my interest, but no one seems to actually like writing 'them'. They always try to make Snails smarter than the show makes him out to be. They also like to character bash snips, even though he hasn't done anything that extraordinarily stupid. In any case, no one does them up for who they are.
Two ponies that admire glory, skill, and talent, and bestow hero worship onto ponies that are looking to do great things. They love ponies like Rainbow Dash, what Trixie advertised herself as, and Sunset Shimmer. Ponies that can make an incredible difference in the lives of others. They are fanboys, and they are fanboys HARDCORE. They will take whatever you say you can do seriously, and they will believe you to the point of risking their lives to prove that you are just as awesome as you say you are. Now that's some pretty heavy faith right there. If these guys were your friends, I have no doubt they'd stand by you through thick and thin. Their one flaw?
They're pretty dumb.
Intelligence is not the be all and end all of things in the world, though. They have the potential to do great things themselves, I think, if only because they don't have enough sense to know what they can't do. That gives them the chance to perform the impossible, because unlike everypony else, they're stupid enough to try. I'd love to see them make something of themselves some time, and still be perfectly in character.
In other news, are you a fan of Deadpool? Do you own money? If you have answered yes to both of these things, the new Deadpool video game should be yours. I shouldn't need to tell you that. But I will. I'd also suggest it as a buy for people that don't know Deadpool, cause you will know him by the end, and you will never stop the laughing.
Despicable Me 2? Yeah, seriously. you have a trio of adorable orphan girls that were the entire focus of the last movie, with impressing your mom as a B plot. So what do you do? instead of focusing on the girls, you make them the B plot, (if not the C plot) and focus on playing matchmaker. Writers, I want to punch you. You kept trying to make her funny, and failed. Meanwhile the orphan girls are just being awesome being them in the background and you're ignoring them completely. It wasn't a bad movie, just disappointing. It had so much potential to be great, and then you goofed it all up.
On the same note I am frightfully scared.
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't go and suck. Don't pervert my current favoured film of all time in a second theatrical release that focuses on all the wrong things about a movie about growing up, father and son conflicts, and the be all and all, vikings riding dragons! I'm not even sure what they need to establish with a second film. How to train your dragon 2? You've already trained the dragon! You've trained ALL the dragon! There is no more dragon to be trained! It was a fairy tale, an excellently done story, please, why not let it rest in it's nest of awesome?!
You know How to Train Your Dragon is actually a series of books, right? The first movie was the first book. The movies follow the books. And considering how much they upped the animation, and you being an animator know that's amazing animation, I'd say they have a lot of faith. Dreamworks, they don't disappoint
Hey, smart people lack common sense too!
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You know those books were for small children style where it was mostly page after page of colourful dragons, right?There was a very basic plot, and the father issues were there, but Toothless was actually supposed to be one of the tiny green dragons around your ankles? My favourite director Chris Sanders gave that story meaning and real depth, like he did for Lilo and Stitch, and The Croods.
He is not the director in the new film.
As an animator, I know great animation (and the teaser was very well animated) can save a film, but it cannot BE the film, otherwise you just get Avatar.I do not know Dean DeBois, the new director. Apparently he co-directed on Lilo and Stitch, and How to Train Your Dragon 1, and was a head story director in Mulan (not the same thing as directing the whole movie like he will be this time) but from what I read he has NEVER had a full job directing before. I have very good reason to be frightened of what he does to this project.
And smart people can lack wisdom. I'm not sure common sense is even a thing, because of how rare it often seems to be. but I want you to direct your thoughts to the word 'too' at the end of your sentence. Snails and Snips are dumb. I don't think there's anything wrong with writing them like that. I think there's just as much potential in dumb people as there is in the intelligent ones. That was my main point.
1208273 Yeah, but they have stories and plots all the same
That's the beauty of basing things, you can make changes that create something new and fantastic. Or you can get Gary Sue Alicorns *shrug*
I was referring more to
Hanging with genii my whole life has sorted them into two categories, the hyper rational and honestly less fun goal oriented ones... and the rest of us who use our intelligence to do truly stupid and dangerous things. Awesomely amazing stupid and dangerous things, usually.
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Yeah, I worry they're going to make Hiccup out to be the gary sue he's turned into in the animated series. That is my fear.
and yes, that is what I was trying to say. it takes some amount of stupidity to accomplish awesome things. I think Snails and Snips could be that superfluous amount if only people would stop changing them around. I like those fics that have them in it, I really do. But not even once have I seen them written like they are in the show. Not even once.
1208329 See I don't think he's gary sue in the animated series. He gets beat in strength by everyone, the dragons and other dragon trainers save him fairly commonly, Alvin has outwitted him, and things rarely go according to his plan. Hiccup is pretty much given four strengths: intelligence, ingenuity, the ability to lead, and Toothless.
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Yeah, I suppose, but there's the big trouble. Nobody else does anything. The series would have been a great way to flush out the other characters, but instead, it's nothing but hiccup the entire time. I guess Gary Sue is the wrong term, but how about far too focused on one character?
1209987 Seems fairer. Although, there are episodes that do some nice characterization for Fishlegs (The episode with the changeling eggs), Rough and Tough (The episode with the berserker clan), and Snotlout (The viking competition and the one where him and Hiccup get trapped on Outcast Island). Astrid has a lot of nice moments, but most are based strongly around Hiccup; the big exception being the episode where she disguises herself and infiltrates Outcast Island. So, while the show is about Hiccup, I think the rest do okay from time to time. I would still like to see a little more on their parts though.
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Sounds like they got better. I only watched up to the outcast island. Astrid finally started showing some grit, but I was not impressed with it. I'm very much about team play, and one of my favourite things about the movie is how they 'did' come together as a team for the big finale.Strategy, tactics, all that fun stuff came into play. The show didn't ave any of that. Nor did it much have the heart touching scenes.
It's a cartoon, and they focused on comedy and morals witha little adventure on the side. Aka, par for course for almost 'every' cartoon out there. I will say I enjoyed the Christmas special a LOT.
1210099 Some of the episodes are vastly more enthralling than others, but as is true with anything.