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Oct. 23rd, 2015 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedWriting this early so that it's not an issue tomorrow morning when I go to the gym with Mom and Dad. This morning's entry took from 2 to 7 (including a few hours that I had gone back to bed), and it would also help when I show this and last entry to Brian and Marie next month (if not earlier on) if they appeared together and apart from any other entries.
So anyway, Jake did say that I could have kept Tristan's moment to shine for a bit of humor after reading the previous entry. I proceeded to email him an email exchange I had with Chelle more than a year ago, where she had cited some complications that would arise. Technically, what she said towards the end of said exchange, is that I might have to drop that idea if it doesn't serve any purpose for character development or the plot, but I figured it would be best not to grasp at straws at that point, lest I exasperate her like with Jake right beforehand.
Here is what Jake has suggested:
I can see it working, given the situation, actually, but it would have to be an emergency case (as you presented it) and justified by there being no other choice.
Namely, since he's the only one who can do *anything*, [Mikami] act[s] through him while he's unconscious, using the stone as a conduit, and keep him safe at the same time.
They can't do this to the other girls because they are normally able to protect themselves, and they wouldn't really do it at all because of the great expectations.
Originally, Miyuki was going to stay behind with him at the newly-defunct Hooters restaurant while waiting for the others to safely return. I should note that, quite by coincidence, it was after I was talked into dropping the idea of Tristan kicking ass that I upgraded Desiré from a minor character to a protagonist, and with Tristan off the table as the others' savior, this would be a better time for her to receive her Magé Stone and then sense the trouble that the party is in.
Even if both Desiré and Tristan are equally responsible for stepping in (assuming Jake's ideas actually hold water), though, this might beg the question, what was Tristan even doing with the mains at the restaurant, instead of in the care of her family, or even Patricia's (whom Konata and Miyuki would have also gotten to meet around there, having already befriended Patty herself)? If he in fact was at either family's house at the time, the party could still come back for him to bring back to Japan with them to show to their friends (and should anyway, mainly to say goodbye), allowing him to fulfill another role planned for him at the upcoming New Year's festival.
-----
Also glanced through a .pdf I found recently of the Earthbound player's guide. Adding to what I said before about atmosphere, said guide sports a nice variety of photographic imagery alongside all the screenshots and clay figures. The two prologue pages feature a nice view of some medieval-looking structure and the meteorite as they would have looked like in real life, and the first pair of news pages for Onett contain a life-like picture of that rundown seaside house and one more each of a lighthouse and a pier (neither in the actual game) among other stuff.
http://earthbound.nintendo.com/playersguide/#/16
Leaves me to wonder if the guide for Earthbound Zero would have contained similar stuff, had that game's original U.S. release gone through. Or for that matter, if any of the numerous guides for Mother 1 or 2 had anything like it all.
I did used to feel something similar from all the different illustrations in the manual and player's guide for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but it's stuff like this that makes me hope to see both Starbound and Day of the Beehive through one day.
-----
As for what I'm willing or not to accept...
Well, let me first start off by mention that, along with comparing the games themselves to Monty Python (I myself compared them to The Simpsons, Bloom County, Nichijou, and The Triplets of Belleville, in an email to Brian that I shared with him during last night's convo), Jake also said that I might as well have cosplayers be a major threat by taking something too seriously because of the aliens. Not that I hold that against him, but that did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Really, I think this is a matter of control, subjectivity, and finding some kind of balance.
Let's take cartoon engineering in general, for example. Apart from Earthbound, there's stuff like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the cartoon adaptation of Back to the Future, that I find overly comical and slightly irritating in and of themselves (one can easily tell how stupid they're meant to be), and then there are the likes of Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog that, for some reason, don't rub me the wrong way. With Starbound, I might be okay with some stuff (especially if it's geared more towards cuteness than goofiness, like this star-shaped alien spaceship at the beginning of Lucky Star: Ryouou Gakuen Outousai), but on the same token, I'm bound to veto at least some things along the lines. (For the sake of balance, it does help that Earthbound itself has a few robot models that would fit just as easily into Mega Man Zero or Sonic the Hedgehog '06.)
(There's also the issue of trying not to be cheap. For example, while the Magé Stones do promote communication with others, they have limitations that I would rather the characters not overcome simply by having someone invent "The Universal Translator".)
Another example of stuff would like in the exaggeration of actions and facial expressions. This is the reason I can't stand Mon Colle Knights like I used to. I did have more tolerance for it when watching something like Galaxy Angel or Pani Poni Dash! years ago. However, all the different characters I had once conceived for Monster Collection Chronicles were conceived to be either cute or serious, and while I could tolerate the idea of the Supporting Mon Colle Knights looking or acting similar to most of the normal characters from Lucky Star, I wouldn't want them to take it as far as the in-show staff of Anime Tenchou and Comiket. (Not that it's likely to be necessary anyway, given how even any possible FMV sequences will keep the characters in line with Lucky Star itself, but relevant as an example of my aversions in general.)
But anyway, yeah, the way Jake suggested that Itoi used to come up with stuff for the Earthbound trilogy, I've actually heard of that before. Brainstorming the most ridiculous things one can think of, and then seeing if anything genuine comes of it. Chelle did suggest before that I draw ideas from dreams, given the surreal nature of the Earthbound trilogy, and I have to agree that those are a better source than any for stuff. Will still consult Brian and Marie for any other strategies they might suggest.
So anyway, Jake did say that I could have kept Tristan's moment to shine for a bit of humor after reading the previous entry. I proceeded to email him an email exchange I had with Chelle more than a year ago, where she had cited some complications that would arise. Technically, what she said towards the end of said exchange, is that I might have to drop that idea if it doesn't serve any purpose for character development or the plot, but I figured it would be best not to grasp at straws at that point, lest I exasperate her like with Jake right beforehand.
Here is what Jake has suggested:
I can see it working, given the situation, actually, but it would have to be an emergency case (as you presented it) and justified by there being no other choice.
Namely, since he's the only one who can do *anything*, [Mikami] act[s] through him while he's unconscious, using the stone as a conduit, and keep him safe at the same time.
They can't do this to the other girls because they are normally able to protect themselves, and they wouldn't really do it at all because of the great expectations.
Originally, Miyuki was going to stay behind with him at the newly-defunct Hooters restaurant while waiting for the others to safely return. I should note that, quite by coincidence, it was after I was talked into dropping the idea of Tristan kicking ass that I upgraded Desiré from a minor character to a protagonist, and with Tristan off the table as the others' savior, this would be a better time for her to receive her Magé Stone and then sense the trouble that the party is in.
Even if both Desiré and Tristan are equally responsible for stepping in (assuming Jake's ideas actually hold water), though, this might beg the question, what was Tristan even doing with the mains at the restaurant, instead of in the care of her family, or even Patricia's (whom Konata and Miyuki would have also gotten to meet around there, having already befriended Patty herself)? If he in fact was at either family's house at the time, the party could still come back for him to bring back to Japan with them to show to their friends (and should anyway, mainly to say goodbye), allowing him to fulfill another role planned for him at the upcoming New Year's festival.
-----
Also glanced through a .pdf I found recently of the Earthbound player's guide. Adding to what I said before about atmosphere, said guide sports a nice variety of photographic imagery alongside all the screenshots and clay figures. The two prologue pages feature a nice view of some medieval-looking structure and the meteorite as they would have looked like in real life, and the first pair of news pages for Onett contain a life-like picture of that rundown seaside house and one more each of a lighthouse and a pier (neither in the actual game) among other stuff.
http://earthbound.nintendo.com/playersguide/#/16
Leaves me to wonder if the guide for Earthbound Zero would have contained similar stuff, had that game's original U.S. release gone through. Or for that matter, if any of the numerous guides for Mother 1 or 2 had anything like it all.
I did used to feel something similar from all the different illustrations in the manual and player's guide for The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, but it's stuff like this that makes me hope to see both Starbound and Day of the Beehive through one day.
-----
As for what I'm willing or not to accept...
Well, let me first start off by mention that, along with comparing the games themselves to Monty Python (I myself compared them to The Simpsons, Bloom County, Nichijou, and The Triplets of Belleville, in an email to Brian that I shared with him during last night's convo), Jake also said that I might as well have cosplayers be a major threat by taking something too seriously because of the aliens. Not that I hold that against him, but that did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Really, I think this is a matter of control, subjectivity, and finding some kind of balance.
Let's take cartoon engineering in general, for example. Apart from Earthbound, there's stuff like Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and the cartoon adaptation of Back to the Future, that I find overly comical and slightly irritating in and of themselves (one can easily tell how stupid they're meant to be), and then there are the likes of Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog that, for some reason, don't rub me the wrong way. With Starbound, I might be okay with some stuff (especially if it's geared more towards cuteness than goofiness, like this star-shaped alien spaceship at the beginning of Lucky Star: Ryouou Gakuen Outousai), but on the same token, I'm bound to veto at least some things along the lines. (For the sake of balance, it does help that Earthbound itself has a few robot models that would fit just as easily into Mega Man Zero or Sonic the Hedgehog '06.)
(There's also the issue of trying not to be cheap. For example, while the Magé Stones do promote communication with others, they have limitations that I would rather the characters not overcome simply by having someone invent "The Universal Translator".)
Another example of stuff would like in the exaggeration of actions and facial expressions. This is the reason I can't stand Mon Colle Knights like I used to. I did have more tolerance for it when watching something like Galaxy Angel or Pani Poni Dash! years ago. However, all the different characters I had once conceived for Monster Collection Chronicles were conceived to be either cute or serious, and while I could tolerate the idea of the Supporting Mon Colle Knights looking or acting similar to most of the normal characters from Lucky Star, I wouldn't want them to take it as far as the in-show staff of Anime Tenchou and Comiket. (Not that it's likely to be necessary anyway, given how even any possible FMV sequences will keep the characters in line with Lucky Star itself, but relevant as an example of my aversions in general.)
But anyway, yeah, the way Jake suggested that Itoi used to come up with stuff for the Earthbound trilogy, I've actually heard of that before. Brainstorming the most ridiculous things one can think of, and then seeing if anything genuine comes of it. Chelle did suggest before that I draw ideas from dreams, given the surreal nature of the Earthbound trilogy, and I have to agree that those are a better source than any for stuff. Will still consult Brian and Marie for any other strategies they might suggest.