RWBY

In my personal opinion, the worst thing a piece of fiction can do is provide to the audience all the tools to make something exceptional, and then make something mundane.

With Disney's "the Black Cauldron", there's a wannabe warrior who is stuck protecting a magic pig and later finds a magic sword, there is a "Princess" with a magic orb who is later described as a "Scullery Maid", and a bard who provides cheap slapstick comedy with incompetence yet has the most real world experience and negotiation skills. They meet the Horned King, who wishes to resurrect an army that never dies, and a trio of witches, who operate around tricky deals and their supreme magical abilities.

This could be awesome and deeply involving, but they focus on a character nobody likes (in-universe and irl) and defeat the main villain with a gentle shove in the general direction of the titular cauldron.

Thus lies the problem with RWBY. The trailers showed absolutely amazing action sequences, with tranquil music and stoic badasses. Some showed more talkative characters with story lines you'd expect to be actual episodes or explained by the actual show. And, whilst many people disagree, the further the trailers went, the less interested in the actual show I became.

Especially as the silent and stoic badass from the first trailer was given a rather whiny voice.

When the show actually began, we were given a lengthy explanation of the things we had seen and not given a moment's thought towards the mechanics of. They have a cool action sequence to start off, dwarfed by the quality of the original trailer, and lead into a nice dialogue scene where Ruby eat cookies and raves over the hunters.

This is where the animation flaws come in. Objects are treated as whole or entirely absent, lip-sync is poor at best and the character was revealed to be one entirely removed from the one developed by hype.

The other characters are fairly cliche as well, and I shall describe them by the trope names and nothing else: The Spoiled Brat, the Badass Bookworm, the Cool Big Sis, the Plucky Comic Relief, the Ace, the CloudCuckooLander, the Deadpan Snarker, the Big Good, the Stern Teacher, the Bully, the Mafia Boss...

But what's interesting is there are some VERY good concepts in there. However, none of them are considered to be the main cast. Team RWBY is cliche and boring, while team JNPR is flawed and fun, what with the leader being the most incompetent member of the school and the national hero giving him enough sympathy to help him out when he's clearly hopeless.

During one arc, there's a race to gather gold chess pieces which decide which team you will be in. The teams that form are, however, the exact teams that naturally happened anyway whilst fighting for the chess pieces. This could have lead to a great moment where two of the team JNPR and two of the team RWBY got on the other team, but Ozpin decided "hang it all, you don't need chess pieces to tell you where your allegiance is. You just need two giant monsters to fight."

And that's just one of the many brilliant moments perfectly set up and then never utilised. One of them could potentially happen, but I do not have enough faith in the story that they'll include that. Hilariouly, the character who's trailer was most focused on story is the only character to receive no development or defining character moments what so ever.

One of the main downfalls is that they're trying to be an anime, including where it comes to episode length, but due to the limitations of webvideo, they show it as one episode in 4 parts. Additionally, the style doesn't adapt well to the silly anime moments of minimalist animation and can seem inconsistent.

Do not get me started on Ruby's "crazy idea". Getting at speed and cutting off a bird's head with a giant scythe is a very rational idea, while Nora's idea of rocket-jumping to stab a scorpion with it's own tail is actually crazy.

And that is what annoys me about RWBY. There are the tools to make something amazing beyond compare, but they made something which is not bad.

When Characters Escape You

There's a phenomenon that tends to happen as a writer working in any form of media. If you create a character with enough of a personality and a clear enough drive, or simply a character who you have spent a lot of time in control of, you will find their actions coming to you in a different way than normal. Where as before, the character probably existed to fill a role or move the story forward or provide exposition, the character is an entity in it's own right. You stop writing what you want the character to do, and start writing what the character would do.

This phenomenon has been explored in the Nostalgia Critic, but I want to share something I noticed with characters of my own.

I was adapting the ugly duckling to my fictional world, except it followed a RomCom style where the "duckling" fancies a boy, a girl comes along who convinces her she won't get the guy by being so meek, the guy is overheard complimenting the original appearance of the duckling, the evil girl gets her comeuppance.

Except I needed an exposition sponge for the boy to interact with, or his side of the story would remain entirely in his head and the story wouldn't even exist without a heap of useless padding.

In comes Tristan, a goofball who goes to extreme lengths to entertain his friend or generally prove a point. He took a challenge that the boy would be famous by simply knowing his name, and even appeared on the news to achieve this. Through the story, he's even learning how to play guitar singing an awful song about the boy's name.

Then I fleshed him out at the climax, where I needed a suitable comeuppance and he seemed the character to deliver. I made his learning the guitar a very complex way of telling off a girl who turned horrid at his old school, and he just became one of my favorite characters introduced during a joke.

Flash forward to when I thought about what a fanfiction in this fictional setting would be like. I realized he would not accept the reality of a mary sue plot, and would actively revolt against it. This is when I learned he was writing himself.

Flash forward further to another fictional tale I wrote just recently. I wanted a fixer who would set up a perfect moment through thoroughly planned out manipulation and MANY prior arrangements. It just seemed wrong to have a new character when the clear character to use was Tristan. And through this story, he struggled against the plot designs, but it all worked to something he and only he would do.

But then I noticed something else. In one of my first stories, I put the main couple of Alan and Jasmine as the primary pair. They were a shakey couple at best, but had enough tender moments to put them together. I knew very early on that they broke up shortly after the story.

Their friends, Alice and Boon, were only really there to fuel conversation and commentate on the events going on around them. There was no hint in my mind of them being a couple, but looking back, I can't deny it for a moment. They chose to spend time together, decided to commentate a race together while Alan and Jasmine were being snuggly, and had a friendship that lasted beyond the relationship of their best friends.

Not only do my characters decide what they do in story, but they make relationships entirely of their own accord. Maybe it's because I'm a shipper, but if this means my characters have more complexity than the author can comprehend, then more shippers should be original storytellers.

Extended KH3 World Speculation

Thanks to Kiero, the main guy I wanted to read the last blog, I came up with a brilliant idea based off the forgotten city world.

He said it should probably be the Planet's Core world, so let's pretend I called it that.

So, Cloud is a part of the HBRC and working hard. Shinra comes along all up in their business, but generally just being the Russia to Leon's America and not doing anything too drastic. Bla bla, storyline, bla, big mid game Radient Garden climax.

During this section, Sora and Leon meet three individuals on the town defences, all with Silvery hair. Each one of them just pointedly asks them where their brother is, refusing to believe Sora's ever astounding ignorance. Leon, however, is having none of these punks coming into his town and telling him that they're all gonna just lounge around and hunt down one of its citizens!

Cue epic fight scene! Leon manages to do a lot better than you'd typically assume a side character to do, proving that they need the 3 on 1 advantage to take him down. They do, however, state that they're for brother to defeat, not Leonheart. With this, they take off and the plot continues.

While Cloud is helping fight, guess who show up? The remnants! They have a confrontation, Cloud shouting about why their not sending the big guy any more and generally taunting the trio. The trio then tell him to follow them to the place where mother lies, Cloud yelling he's never going there. Sora catches up to Cloud, but Cloud just says he needs to be alone and jumps world.

Once you're done on Radient Garden, you're headed off to Disney Worlds like normal. Difference is there's one of the Remnants standing in a battlefield-ready area in a section of the map not used by the story. They each have a set place, so only three worlds need to be visited. Once you confront the character, they talk about the area, and ask you where "Brother" is. They then take the "beat it out of them" approach and you get to fight them.

Once all three are defeated, there's a small cutscene in the Olympus Colosseum with Cloud talking about an old friend he knew, and deciding he will confront his darkness. He then gives Sora a nav gummi, in case he wants to blunder in.

This gummi leads to an optional world, called "Planet Core". It's entirely what you'd expect. There's a triple fight against the remnants, there's a duel with Sephiroth, there's even a truck load of cameos.

Kingdom Hearts 3 Worlds Speculation

It was bound to happen. When Kingdom Hearts 3 was announced with a small tech demo, every Kingdom Hearts fan immediately jumped to a thought of "I wonder what they're gonna do this time!" Well, it was less what they think will happen and what they want to happen, regardless of whether or not it's a viable idea.

I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do my best to list the worlds that are likely to appear, and will justify myself at every turn. If I suggest a new world, I will admit that I am being a slight fanboy for it, but I genuinely believe it would fit into the KH universe.

As an assumption, I believe the game to take place 1 year after KH2.

Returning Worlds

Radiant Garden

This is one that's become a staple of the series, and it's unlikely to stop now. There will be Merlin's ever moving house, a market square, some section of castle that holds the computer, and there is even a chance of Maleficent's castle turning up.

Something amazing would be if the Restoration Committee was being usurped by a small gang called "The Turks", lead by Shinra. Unlikely that Reno would be there, given Lea's pivotal role in the story, but it would still kick arse! You introduce a new threat to RG's stability, and bring in more FF characters. Chances are they'll just bring in Snow, which is better than some alternative FF13 characters.

Castle Oblivion

Sora picked up Master Keeper, the only thing capable of navigating Castle Oblivion. Combining this with the hints that Ven's gonna wake up again, you can only assume they will go and pick him up.

Twilight Town

They included it in the tech demo. You do the math.

Plus, they have a fairly good environment for Shaz to turn up and finally have a black guy in the series that doesn't represent the darkness. Suddenly, we have Chocobos in the series.

The Mysterious Tower

Yen Sid is still the master, so they'll check in when he gives them the obvious exposition at the start of the game. I would love if he magic'd another structure that is normally next to him but wasn't because magic.

Agrabah

It's a staple of the series, and they've just done the sequel so it's unlikely they'd stop now. The story is right there, and you know they'll work the cave of wonders in there for SOME reason.

Olympus Collesium

There is no reason for this to be here, other than that it's a staple of the series and the tournaments are extremely popular. I have no idea of the story, but presumably Hades uses a dead FF character to finally topple Hercules while Sora's trio try to prove themselves heroes.

Halloween/Christmas Town

I don't think there's a lot of potential for this one, since they've already killed Oogie twice. (Admittedly, with a lot more explanation of how it happened than Ursula being killed three times!)


I kind of hope that this doesn't return, but I must sadly admit it very well could.

New Worlds

Wild Jungle

A Jungle Book world, something they intended for BBS but couldn't quite make in time.Some Aztec Temples, a wasteland, a riverside, a wolfden, and the riverside by the man village. And the return of the Deep Jungle heartless.

I struggled with the name, I have to say. It has to involve the world Jungle, but Deep Jungle was taken. And given they can't use Tarzan, they're unable to use the name without controversy about his absence.

Game Terminal

Having sorted out the computer, Tron sets the teleporter nearby to lead to Ansem's recreation software, filled with old arcade games. Tron is setting up his Space Paranoids game, and invites Sora in to see how things are going. Given he's gonna see Tron again, he jumps right in.

Sora gets his Space Paranoids get up, and decides to explore the other areas Tron brought back online. The three he got working again are Fit It Felix Jr., Hero's Duty and Sugar Rush. There's only two rooms in the former two, but Sugar Rush takes up most of the level.

Heartless based on Haribo. Heartless Gummy Bear. It's just so easy to include in the story, you'd be mad not to.

Nomanisan Island

I'm cribbing this idea from somewhere else, but it's all public domain speculation. Meet the Incredibles who wonder why you're so strong, despite not being supers. Chased down by Syndrome... There's a lot of potential here, more than most Pixar films I can think up. People love toy story, but it's always a challenge saying why the character has to shrink.

Blue Island

Stitch lands, meets Lilo, fends off Gantu with Sora's help. There might even be a little cutscene before Sora heads there where stitch sneaks on board while Sora is leaving Radiant Garden. He pops out and has to learn how to cope without a large city like Radiant Garden to cause havoc in.

Corona

This one's a little bit more unlikely, but the world of Rapunzel. You have the city square and prison, the forest, the tower, the dam, the snugly duckling... You fight alongside Flynn, which is the character you'd follow closest.

The Forgotten City

I have no idea how likely this is, but they need SOMEWHERE to have the next Cloud/Sephiroth fight. Why not have a world Cloud went to in order to fight the darkness inside him, represented in this case by the Remnants of Mother. Kadaaj, Loz and Yazoo, plus a small army of enemies, against Cloud and Sora's gang.

Ooh! Vincent shows up, showing what happens if you live with the darkness but don't let it consume you! Heck, let's just bring in Barrett too.

How to Make Maleficent Sympathetic(-ish)

I cracked it. I know how to give Maleficent a realistic, relatable motivation without destroying her villainy.

I know Maleficent is a character that should not have a pure and honest motivation for sentencing a child to death, but it all depends on what sort of character you are trying to portray. She does NOT work as a hero, but that's not the only change.

You could make her insane, as I previously have, and set her on her path of violent destruction because she was obsessive over a certain man while in Aurora's area.

Another one that resonates with me strongly is that Maleficent is perfectly aware of the story she is in, and simply is doing what so many modern story tellers are doing poorly: making a perfect fairy tale grim. She tries to set up a version where Aurora dies, with the fairies then choosing to twist it to a love awakening story.

She tries to suggest a more reasonable compromise, but Aurora goes missing for years. Therefore, she tries to set up a bittersweet ending where Aurora does awaken, but her love is an elderly man who was kept in a dungeon for 100 years. The fairies then get active in subverting this story and even turn her bird to stone after he makes the guards subdue Phillip.

Only after her pet is, for all intents and purposes, killed off does she start getting violent lightning and dragon smacking our hero. She got pretty peeved with how things turned out, understandably, and figures she can still have a tragic ending if the prince dies and Aurora and the kingdom are trapped in an eternal slumber.

This gives her the reason of being a story teller who is simply trying to influence the story she is in to end in a more interesting way than "they lived happily ever after". She is by no means unreasonable, but definitely not a truly sympathetic character.

She is a horrid, horrid woman. But now, you understand why she does what she does.

New blog

Okay, I don't have much business having one blog, let alone two, but I figured I might as well sort out my blog posts more. So, all my blogs about something that should be done will now be posted on susagaideas.blogspot.com, which I am going to call "Why doesn't this exist yet?"

Omegle

Sometimes, I get bored. Sometimes, this boredom will lead me to Omegle. This is a nice place for me to chat with people about pretty much anything. They often want to talk about sex, but you learn how to dodge this.

I use their question feature, as it helps skip to the interesting part of the conversation: having something to talk about that isn't "asl". Someone suggests something for the other two to talk about, and they watch the scene unfold.

Now, I'm getting royally annoyed at something FAR too many users are doing. They have mistaken omegle, a website for people to chat at random, for somewhere for people to post their username for another chat site Kik. I have never used kik. I don't intend to. I did not come to omegle to chat on kik. If I wanted to chat on Kik, can you guess where I'd be? What's that? Kik? Why, I think that sounds about right!

It has gotten to the point where any users who actually want to talk about something interesting have to wade through a sea of kik users trawling along for someone to talk to. I don't know where they could find someone to talk to on a random chatsite!

It may be good for some people who actually want to chat on kik instead of the place they came to. Probably helps them shift through convos so they find someone as braindead as they are. But for the people who want to talk about the given topic, it's less than useless. It's a large obstacle that zerg rushes users relentlessly.

It gives nothing to talk about! What can we say other than "god damn it, get off our site!" or "sure, I'll have a clean chat with you on this other site, totally random but clearly legit stranger!"

Someone probably set up a kik exchange website somewhere. Search kik exchange. It's just an idea. If not, give it time. But one thing for sure is omegle wasn't made to be a username exchange for another website! It was made for random conversations and bolstering some random american politician who claimed he would legalise everything whenever you mentioned Obama or Romney. That annoyed me too.

I can't say omegle should be perfect. I can't say omegle ever will be perfect. Too many penises in the video chat. And no, moderation won't work. It just means there's one group of people who want to see naked men and one group who hope they won't see a naked man but probably will eventually.

But we should at least make an effort with the question section. The questions will still be dumb, but we'll have something more interesting to talk about than posting a seventeen-thousandth kik request. Or the fact that you're sexually aroused of whatever gender and looking for a chat of some form.

I hope you learned something. And if you're someone who posts your kik username on omegle GET THE HECK OFF OMEGLE AND FIND YOUR OWN WEBSITE TO RUIN!!!

P.s., it makes no sense to say your sexual orientation and ask for a clean chat.