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Feb. 14th, 2007 05:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedJake said yesterday that he never received the songs from my email. He did tell, me though, that he rarely receives any emails from other people even when he's expecting them. I told him I'll resend him the email.
After Visual Basic ended yesterday, I went back to the computer lab, and some girl named Keishay (something like that) asked me if I would be her valentine. I agreed to it, and traded phone numbers with her.
After Mom picked me up from school, we had to stop at Dr. Perret's office before heading over to Target. I brought up the topics of cults and brainwashing, and then of the myth of one individual or one small group saving humanity, and then the theme of overused happy endings. This is what I showed him on a document I typed up prior to this meeting:
1) The draft: Bad for morale. Only made people angry about being yanked out of their normal lives.
2) Branch Davidians: People enter by choice, and end up brainwashed. They are then taught to refer to themselves as “Students of the Seven Seals.”
3) Quote from Genesis of an Adventure (Digimon fanfic):
Taku: We aren’t pawns in your game, Metatromon.
Kisho: Taku’s right, we’re people, and we’re the digi-destined. We follow our own destiny, not yours. We aren’t going to play your game.
It should be noted, though, that one, “playing someone’s game” was exactly what the Branch Davidians were doing, and two, these “digi-destined” were yanked out of their lives to save some other world. According to Gennai, “The ‘real you’ is brought out in times of crisis. The digivices, the crests, none of it would’ve worked if you’d had been allowed to live a life of comfort.”
A common myth in anime and video games: One with a pure heart will defeat some evil superbeing and all his cronies, and will save all of humanity. We all know that reality does not work that way. There’s no such thing as a messiah; that’s why we have the army. There’s no such thing as a superhero; that’s why we have the police. Whoever the messiah and his allies are, don’t even need to be trained nearly as much as a normal person would in order to survive a real war.
4) The only time the “chosen one” theory ever really worked was when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt. (One might think of it also having happened with Jesus, but in that case, he was letting someone else kill him to absorb the sins of all of mankind, not fighting to save everyone from physical death.)
5) I once read the back of someone’s shirt, which says “For many are called but few are chosen.”
In video games:
1. In sidescrollers, many enemies simply run back and forth instead of actually fighting you.
2. Most enemies only take several hits to defeat.
3. Enemies don’t retreat when they need to, and fight as individuals instead of as a team.
4. Playable characters carry an unrealistic number of items without being weighed down or risking having them crush one another. Often, Character A will be able to use a certain item that Character B originally picked up. Enemies, on the other hand, rarely carry items.
5. Characters on either side never tire, and can fight optimally no matter how much damage they’ve taken, until their HP reaches 0.
In movies, anime, etc.
1. Most enemies have terrible aim, despite the amount of training that they received.
2. If the protagonist is in trouble, something or someone will be set up by the author to save them from their doom. (This is called Deux Ex Machina.)
Dr. Perret did tell me that it was a good outline for an essay, but this really applies to fanfiction that I intend to write...namely, the first fic of my Mon Colle Knights fanfic series. (I might write details as to how it works later on. If not, please ask me. I don't have time to write it down right now.)
After Visual Basic ended yesterday, I went back to the computer lab, and some girl named Keishay (something like that) asked me if I would be her valentine. I agreed to it, and traded phone numbers with her.
After Mom picked me up from school, we had to stop at Dr. Perret's office before heading over to Target. I brought up the topics of cults and brainwashing, and then of the myth of one individual or one small group saving humanity, and then the theme of overused happy endings. This is what I showed him on a document I typed up prior to this meeting:
1) The draft: Bad for morale. Only made people angry about being yanked out of their normal lives.
2) Branch Davidians: People enter by choice, and end up brainwashed. They are then taught to refer to themselves as “Students of the Seven Seals.”
3) Quote from Genesis of an Adventure (Digimon fanfic):
Taku: We aren’t pawns in your game, Metatromon.
Kisho: Taku’s right, we’re people, and we’re the digi-destined. We follow our own destiny, not yours. We aren’t going to play your game.
It should be noted, though, that one, “playing someone’s game” was exactly what the Branch Davidians were doing, and two, these “digi-destined” were yanked out of their lives to save some other world. According to Gennai, “The ‘real you’ is brought out in times of crisis. The digivices, the crests, none of it would’ve worked if you’d had been allowed to live a life of comfort.”
A common myth in anime and video games: One with a pure heart will defeat some evil superbeing and all his cronies, and will save all of humanity. We all know that reality does not work that way. There’s no such thing as a messiah; that’s why we have the army. There’s no such thing as a superhero; that’s why we have the police. Whoever the messiah and his allies are, don’t even need to be trained nearly as much as a normal person would in order to survive a real war.
4) The only time the “chosen one” theory ever really worked was when Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt. (One might think of it also having happened with Jesus, but in that case, he was letting someone else kill him to absorb the sins of all of mankind, not fighting to save everyone from physical death.)
5) I once read the back of someone’s shirt, which says “For many are called but few are chosen.”
In video games:
1. In sidescrollers, many enemies simply run back and forth instead of actually fighting you.
2. Most enemies only take several hits to defeat.
3. Enemies don’t retreat when they need to, and fight as individuals instead of as a team.
4. Playable characters carry an unrealistic number of items without being weighed down or risking having them crush one another. Often, Character A will be able to use a certain item that Character B originally picked up. Enemies, on the other hand, rarely carry items.
5. Characters on either side never tire, and can fight optimally no matter how much damage they’ve taken, until their HP reaches 0.
In movies, anime, etc.
1. Most enemies have terrible aim, despite the amount of training that they received.
2. If the protagonist is in trouble, something or someone will be set up by the author to save them from their doom. (This is called Deux Ex Machina.)
Dr. Perret did tell me that it was a good outline for an essay, but this really applies to fanfiction that I intend to write...namely, the first fic of my Mon Colle Knights fanfic series. (I might write details as to how it works later on. If not, please ask me. I don't have time to write it down right now.)