I recently watched the Tsukihime anime. It's in the same universe as the Fate/ franchise. The existing Anime from 2003 is generally not well thought of by Type Moon fans, but I enjoyed it. However I hope Tsukihime gets it's own UFOtable reboot, perhaps once the Heaven's Feel movies are done. I think it'd even also work here to start with the second route. In Fate/Zero season 2 the first episode of Kritisugu's origin story ties into the Tsukihime lore.
I was big into the Vampire craze for awhile, I was someone who did not particularly like Twilight but was far more annoyed by the Twilight hatedom. The Vampire Diaries was my favorite Vampire TV show airing at the time. I had a past complicated history with Buffy but that's a different matter. I also read the books from the 90s that TVD was originally based on.
I was interested in what little was written that attempted to be a gender inversion of the typical Vampire YA romance formula. (This was well before Meyer made her own Gender flipped version of Twilight that was rather lazy.) Christopher Pike's The Last Vampire series also known as Thirst, was the primary example I could find of a Female Vampire falling in love with a boy in high-school.
And what I noticed from that is the female "Good Vampires" are much more morally ambiguous. Sita was very much an Anti-Heroine, and Lesbian Vampires tended to be modeled after Carmilla.
That's not exactly what I would expect based on the prevalence of the Madonna-Whore Complex. I would expect it'd be Female Vampires who had no choice but to be either complete Vamps or totally pure angels. But perhaps it's a product of the belief the ancient Greek philosophers had that women inherently can't control their passions, and therefore only male Vampires could be "Vegetarians".
Eventually I got out of Vampires for the most part. Lately when I do watch something Vampire related it's checking out Anime Vampires.
I was never able to find a story about a Female Vampire refraining from drinking Human Blood who falls in love with a High School Student. Not until I was long done looking and decided to watch Tsukihime because I'm growing increasingly obsessed with Fate/ and didn't even know it was a Vampire story going in.
There were no Werewolves though, the Jacob in this case is a sword wielding Vatican Assassin who's name is pronounced C.L. (in the Dub at least). First time we see her in action she has those same wanna be Wolverine claws Kirei uses.
Meanwhile, we also have a "Little Sister" who in every conceivable way seems like an Older Sister. And Red Headed Twin Maids.
It's fun, I may check out the Manga, and I rarely read Manga that isn't a Yuri Doujin, so that says something.
Showing posts with label The Vampire Diaries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Vampire Diaries. Show all posts
Saturday, August 19, 2017
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Sword Art Online was never a Death Game anime
I want to start by saying there are lot of valid reasons to dislike SAO. I enjoyed the Aincrad arc though it was flawed. I had a lot of problems with Alfheim and Gungale though there were also good moments. The two arcs that made up the second half of season 2 were great, Mother's Rosario especially is my favorite so far. I haven't seen Ordinal Scale yet, I will be waiting for the Dubs to watch either it or season 3.
A common theme I've seen among critics of SAO, especially those who hate even the original arc, including Digibro himself in the PCP Podcast on "Plebs", is a notion that it was somehow supposed to be a Death Game Anime, and that the show then ruined it's own sense of urgencey.
Mirai Nikki was a Death Game anime, Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero are Death Game animes. Magical Girl Raising Project is a Death Game Anime (I just watched it and am still processing my thoughts on it). It's a genre that has an inherently limited appeal to me. I watched RP because I'm into Magical Girls, Mirai Nikki for the Yandere and Fate/ because I'm into Arthurian Legend and other mythologies. But if SAO had been structured like a Death Game then it'd have had almost none of what I like about it.
A Death Game Anime is one where the situation encourages or forces the players of the game to kill each other. The situation Kiba created encouraged working together and for the most part they did. The people who became murderers were ones who had those tendencies already.
I don't care that character use the words "Death Game" in universe to describe their situation, that is irrelevant to what it means as an Anime sub genre.
Digibro said in the last episode of the DigiBros Super Mario 64 let's play, when they were speculating on Zelda BotW (it was recorded before the game came out) that he doesn't like when Video Games have a sense of urgency. I agree with him on that, and that is why I like the very parts of SAO he considered the most useless. Every Video Game he could praise for not having a sense of urgency still has a theoretical sense of urgency, if Link doesn't get to the end and defeat Ganon eventually then Hyrule is doomed. And that is all the opening episodes of SAO were meant to do, establish a problem that they need to solve, eventually.
But the appeal to me was always about these character living in a digital fantasy world, not about them getting out of it, it appeals to me in a way that connects to how I feel Caprica was such a missed opportunity. So my favorite episodes were largely the "Filler" which apparently came from the second Light Novel.
Digibro most hated the Murder Mystery two parter. I loved those, for the most part. As a fan of Holmesian stories I enjoyed seeing this speculation on how you'd apply Holmsian deductive reasoning in an MMO world. And when they figured out the deaths had been faked I was quite satisfied. Then the story dragged on adding some more twists and I soured on it a little.
I also agree that like in the original web novels Asuna should have killed that one guy.
Mother's Basement did a video on SAO where he said it was ruined by the Yui character turning out to be an AI, which he said destroyed the sense that anyone can die. I have come to be quite personally annoyed by shows wanting to create that illusion, and viewers who ever buy into it. If you're paying attention you can easily tell who isn't eligible to die on Game of Thrones, or the books it was based on. Ned Stark was a character created specifically to die early on creating that illusion, and Mami Tomoe was Ned Stark as a Magical Girl, in more ways then one.
And I'm annoyed by the people who want a show where anyone can die. Whenever I'm watching something and a character death happens that did not feel sufficiently built up to, it simply comes off as bad writing to me, even when it's a character I didn't much care for. This is part of what slowly soured me to The Vampire Diaries, a show I loved at first. And when it's done to a character I love, like my Waifu Anna (played by Malese Jow), it just enrages me. I hate when shows do things just for shock value, and plenty of my favorite moments have been completely predictable ones. And that is Why I Like Prequels.
As a Christian I like Adoption themes in my fiction, something I talked about in a Force Awakens post last year "Rey is a Skywalker but not by Blood". So in this setting I quite like the idea of our protagonists adopting an AI character. So Mother's Basement desire to say Yui ruined SAO by being an AI offends me, just as it offends me when people say Dawn (also my Waifu) ruined Buffy.
That is all for this post. Expect maybe something in the future about SAO as a Gnostic Allegory, the first two arcs anyway.
A common theme I've seen among critics of SAO, especially those who hate even the original arc, including Digibro himself in the PCP Podcast on "Plebs", is a notion that it was somehow supposed to be a Death Game Anime, and that the show then ruined it's own sense of urgencey.
Mirai Nikki was a Death Game anime, Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero are Death Game animes. Magical Girl Raising Project is a Death Game Anime (I just watched it and am still processing my thoughts on it). It's a genre that has an inherently limited appeal to me. I watched RP because I'm into Magical Girls, Mirai Nikki for the Yandere and Fate/ because I'm into Arthurian Legend and other mythologies. But if SAO had been structured like a Death Game then it'd have had almost none of what I like about it.
A Death Game Anime is one where the situation encourages or forces the players of the game to kill each other. The situation Kiba created encouraged working together and for the most part they did. The people who became murderers were ones who had those tendencies already.
I don't care that character use the words "Death Game" in universe to describe their situation, that is irrelevant to what it means as an Anime sub genre.
Digibro said in the last episode of the DigiBros Super Mario 64 let's play, when they were speculating on Zelda BotW (it was recorded before the game came out) that he doesn't like when Video Games have a sense of urgency. I agree with him on that, and that is why I like the very parts of SAO he considered the most useless. Every Video Game he could praise for not having a sense of urgency still has a theoretical sense of urgency, if Link doesn't get to the end and defeat Ganon eventually then Hyrule is doomed. And that is all the opening episodes of SAO were meant to do, establish a problem that they need to solve, eventually.
But the appeal to me was always about these character living in a digital fantasy world, not about them getting out of it, it appeals to me in a way that connects to how I feel Caprica was such a missed opportunity. So my favorite episodes were largely the "Filler" which apparently came from the second Light Novel.
Digibro most hated the Murder Mystery two parter. I loved those, for the most part. As a fan of Holmesian stories I enjoyed seeing this speculation on how you'd apply Holmsian deductive reasoning in an MMO world. And when they figured out the deaths had been faked I was quite satisfied. Then the story dragged on adding some more twists and I soured on it a little.
I also agree that like in the original web novels Asuna should have killed that one guy.
Mother's Basement did a video on SAO where he said it was ruined by the Yui character turning out to be an AI, which he said destroyed the sense that anyone can die. I have come to be quite personally annoyed by shows wanting to create that illusion, and viewers who ever buy into it. If you're paying attention you can easily tell who isn't eligible to die on Game of Thrones, or the books it was based on. Ned Stark was a character created specifically to die early on creating that illusion, and Mami Tomoe was Ned Stark as a Magical Girl, in more ways then one.
And I'm annoyed by the people who want a show where anyone can die. Whenever I'm watching something and a character death happens that did not feel sufficiently built up to, it simply comes off as bad writing to me, even when it's a character I didn't much care for. This is part of what slowly soured me to The Vampire Diaries, a show I loved at first. And when it's done to a character I love, like my Waifu Anna (played by Malese Jow), it just enrages me. I hate when shows do things just for shock value, and plenty of my favorite moments have been completely predictable ones. And that is Why I Like Prequels.
As a Christian I like Adoption themes in my fiction, something I talked about in a Force Awakens post last year "Rey is a Skywalker but not by Blood". So in this setting I quite like the idea of our protagonists adopting an AI character. So Mother's Basement desire to say Yui ruined SAO by being an AI offends me, just as it offends me when people say Dawn (also my Waifu) ruined Buffy.
That is all for this post. Expect maybe something in the future about SAO as a Gnostic Allegory, the first two arcs anyway.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Why I like Prequels
A lot of people hate on Prequels in concept because "We know what's gonna happen", ya know what, that's what I like. they are denied the option of doing the most shocking thing possible just because it's shocking.
A lot of films have great surprises/twists to them, and they're very good, but that's not the be-all/end-all of film making. There are a lot of people out there who feel being "predictable" is the worst criticism a story can have leveled against it, and to me that is a stupid way of thinking. Too many mysteries are ruined because they cared more about the reveal being unpredictable then about it making sense.
Knowing what's going to happen doesn't hurt historical films, or faithful novel adaptations, there is no reason why a fictional prequel which often has more innate wiggle room then those should be a problem.
Being predictable does not have to hurt your story. Let's take unmAsked, the second season finale of Pretty Little Liars for an example. Lots of people complained at the time, because there are always some complainers, that Mona being -A was to predictable, even those who hadn't read the books had heard Mona was the first -A in them.
I predicted it would be Mona, and all through that sequence of Spencer and her in the lair I knew what was coming. But the actual reveal still had a huge impact on me, My heart was racing, it was tense as hell. Because being predictable doesn't mean a damn thing if it's well dome.
I have grown to love PLL even more since then, I consider it the Greatest show in the history of Television. I loved the latest 5th Season finale, but I still feel cheated that they changed the nature of the Twin issue just because everyone was expecting it. It'd have been much better if they'd simply followed unmAsked's lead. I'll keep watching PLL till the end, but the more I've digested Dollhouse the more I've come to consider it the most disappointing season finale.
So I think there is a great virtue in knowing where the story is going, with the question merely being how. So let's return to the subject of actual Prequels. I liked watching the Star Wars Prequels knowing they didn't have the option of randomly killing Obi-Won or Anakin, or Yoda or the Droids or Chewie or even Organa just so it'll be unexpected. Really my only criticism of ROTS is that Padme dying does create continuity issues with what Leia told Luke. But it wasn't to be shocking Lucas did it, he wrote himself into a corner with the theme of Anakin's weakness being not handling loss, for that reason I can forgive it.
If The Force Awakens kills off OT survivors (besides the Droids) that wouldn't be shocking, that would fit the pattern of how the SW legend has worked so far, Luke is now in the role of Qui-Gon in Episode I and Obi-Won in Episode IV. But if one of the 3 new leads is killed off, that would be a cheap ploy, (Also the Droids shouldn't be killed off because they should be the ones who see the whole story, I went off on that already).
I am not familiar enough with Abrams to guess how likely he is to pull a ploy like that. But with the Prequels I didn't have to worry.
That of course does lead us to the issue of Quasi-Prequels, like Gotham on Fox. It's a Prequel in format, major Batman characters before they become who they'll become, though a few pretty much are there already. But it's not in continuity with any specific future Batman adventures we've seen, the Batman mythos are subject to change, and that's good I want different takes to be different, but certain things should be unshakable.
A recent statement from the producers of the show said that "Not everyone from Batman canon will survive the series". They want the option to kill off characters that viewers are assuming are safe because they appear in Batman comics and movies.
I fear what this means for the end of Season 1, their generic serial killer who kills women because of his mommy issues story-line is probably a sign that they're gonna Fridge either Barbara or Leslie Tompkins. Either of those options will tick me off for no other reason then my annoyance with Fridgeing in general.
In terms of how that breaks with Canon, Tompkins is like the character she's named for in name only, and is a character I never liked really anyway (even before War Games and War Crimes). But if they kill off the mother of one of the DCU's most important and iconic characters before she has that child, I will be pissed and will likely quit the show simply for that. And that is independent of my personal fan theory of wanting Barbara to become Batwoman.
Smallville was in a similar place to Gotham, during their good years they never did anything like that.
But in Season 8 when they killed Jimmy Olsen only to then reveal that was never really Jimmy Olsen. I was pissed, and was unable to keep consistently following the show, I checked every now and then, and saw how it ended, which I had very mixed feelings about.
This comes back to my issues with how TV shows are made now days in general. Anything with a Genre element to it they feel they need to kill off at least one Main or significant Recurring character every season to keep a sense of danger. The Vampire Diaries which I loved watching for awhile, was from very early on one of the worst offenders of this, they killed someone off every few weeks.
Gotham is about the Batman universe, one defined by it's darkness and Pulp/Film Noir roots. So you may feel "certainly a Batman show ought to be killing people". But Gotham has so far done a great job of showing this is a violent and dangerous world without needing to kill any major characters. We see Penguin and other villains killing people constantly. We don't need to butcher canon in order to keep a sense of danger, and dying isn't the only bad thing that can happen to a character.
Deaths should happen, but they have no impact if they happen all the time, like on Game of Thrones or True Blood.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer never killed off an important character until 3 quarters of the way through Season 2. That did have an impact. And then they didn't kill off anyone in Season 3, or 4, there wasn't another death till 5. During the last season and a half the deaths increased to help show how things had escalated.
That's how Gotham should be, we're not in the world of Batman yet, there is nothing to escalate to if already the lead's love interests are being killed off for season ending shockers.
A lot of films have great surprises/twists to them, and they're very good, but that's not the be-all/end-all of film making. There are a lot of people out there who feel being "predictable" is the worst criticism a story can have leveled against it, and to me that is a stupid way of thinking. Too many mysteries are ruined because they cared more about the reveal being unpredictable then about it making sense.
Knowing what's going to happen doesn't hurt historical films, or faithful novel adaptations, there is no reason why a fictional prequel which often has more innate wiggle room then those should be a problem.
Being predictable does not have to hurt your story. Let's take unmAsked, the second season finale of Pretty Little Liars for an example. Lots of people complained at the time, because there are always some complainers, that Mona being -A was to predictable, even those who hadn't read the books had heard Mona was the first -A in them.
I predicted it would be Mona, and all through that sequence of Spencer and her in the lair I knew what was coming. But the actual reveal still had a huge impact on me, My heart was racing, it was tense as hell. Because being predictable doesn't mean a damn thing if it's well dome.
I have grown to love PLL even more since then, I consider it the Greatest show in the history of Television. I loved the latest 5th Season finale, but I still feel cheated that they changed the nature of the Twin issue just because everyone was expecting it. It'd have been much better if they'd simply followed unmAsked's lead. I'll keep watching PLL till the end, but the more I've digested Dollhouse the more I've come to consider it the most disappointing season finale.
So I think there is a great virtue in knowing where the story is going, with the question merely being how. So let's return to the subject of actual Prequels. I liked watching the Star Wars Prequels knowing they didn't have the option of randomly killing Obi-Won or Anakin, or Yoda or the Droids or Chewie or even Organa just so it'll be unexpected. Really my only criticism of ROTS is that Padme dying does create continuity issues with what Leia told Luke. But it wasn't to be shocking Lucas did it, he wrote himself into a corner with the theme of Anakin's weakness being not handling loss, for that reason I can forgive it.
If The Force Awakens kills off OT survivors (besides the Droids) that wouldn't be shocking, that would fit the pattern of how the SW legend has worked so far, Luke is now in the role of Qui-Gon in Episode I and Obi-Won in Episode IV. But if one of the 3 new leads is killed off, that would be a cheap ploy, (Also the Droids shouldn't be killed off because they should be the ones who see the whole story, I went off on that already).
I am not familiar enough with Abrams to guess how likely he is to pull a ploy like that. But with the Prequels I didn't have to worry.
That of course does lead us to the issue of Quasi-Prequels, like Gotham on Fox. It's a Prequel in format, major Batman characters before they become who they'll become, though a few pretty much are there already. But it's not in continuity with any specific future Batman adventures we've seen, the Batman mythos are subject to change, and that's good I want different takes to be different, but certain things should be unshakable.
A recent statement from the producers of the show said that "Not everyone from Batman canon will survive the series". They want the option to kill off characters that viewers are assuming are safe because they appear in Batman comics and movies.
I fear what this means for the end of Season 1, their generic serial killer who kills women because of his mommy issues story-line is probably a sign that they're gonna Fridge either Barbara or Leslie Tompkins. Either of those options will tick me off for no other reason then my annoyance with Fridgeing in general.
In terms of how that breaks with Canon, Tompkins is like the character she's named for in name only, and is a character I never liked really anyway (even before War Games and War Crimes). But if they kill off the mother of one of the DCU's most important and iconic characters before she has that child, I will be pissed and will likely quit the show simply for that. And that is independent of my personal fan theory of wanting Barbara to become Batwoman.
Smallville was in a similar place to Gotham, during their good years they never did anything like that.
But in Season 8 when they killed Jimmy Olsen only to then reveal that was never really Jimmy Olsen. I was pissed, and was unable to keep consistently following the show, I checked every now and then, and saw how it ended, which I had very mixed feelings about.
This comes back to my issues with how TV shows are made now days in general. Anything with a Genre element to it they feel they need to kill off at least one Main or significant Recurring character every season to keep a sense of danger. The Vampire Diaries which I loved watching for awhile, was from very early on one of the worst offenders of this, they killed someone off every few weeks.
Gotham is about the Batman universe, one defined by it's darkness and Pulp/Film Noir roots. So you may feel "certainly a Batman show ought to be killing people". But Gotham has so far done a great job of showing this is a violent and dangerous world without needing to kill any major characters. We see Penguin and other villains killing people constantly. We don't need to butcher canon in order to keep a sense of danger, and dying isn't the only bad thing that can happen to a character.
Deaths should happen, but they have no impact if they happen all the time, like on Game of Thrones or True Blood.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer never killed off an important character until 3 quarters of the way through Season 2. That did have an impact. And then they didn't kill off anyone in Season 3, or 4, there wasn't another death till 5. During the last season and a half the deaths increased to help show how things had escalated.
That's how Gotham should be, we're not in the world of Batman yet, there is nothing to escalate to if already the lead's love interests are being killed off for season ending shockers.
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