brightknightie: Midna, in imp form, and Link grin at each other (Zelda)
I'm still enjoying my way through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! I know that some folks don't relish that its combat is mostly ranged, with mage Zelda instead of fighter Link, but I'm finding it entirely natural. They fixed the menu inconvenience with the Switch 2 upgrade; you can favorite/star echoes now, and there are more sorting pre-sets. And I've found several side scenarios that I was not at all spoiled on.

Mild spoilers for a 17-30-hour game that's been out for 9 months...

Having started with Gerudo Desert and explored it thoroughly while saving its people from the rifts and monsters, I then went to Jabul Waters and did the same. I'm afraid that I found the Zora region a little less interesting, challenging, and satisfying than the Gerudo region, which left me wondering whether I should have done them in the opposite order. The story, side quests, and follow-ups with the Zora just weren't as engaging for me, personally, as those with the Gerudo, which had more personality and pathos. For example, at this point in my gameplay, everyone in the Zora region, including in the Hylian village, is completely content as well as wrapped up, with the possible exception of the one Sea Zora who is secretly either crushing on or fangirling her chief, Kushara. Over in the Gerudo region, though, there's still one woman actively suffering from having been in a rift, and many characters expressing new hopes, dreams, fears, and projects after I fulfilled their side quests... and of course I'm still working on the Mango Rush mini-game (I know it rewards a new outfit with a stats effect). Do I smell different writers for each region? That's pretty customary, right?

After both of those, and as much side-exploration as I could manage to sweep up all the NPC situations and open up the map , of course I cleared Hyrule Castle and moved the story forward. I then did as much more free-exploring and side-questing as I could without triggering the next main story phases, and finally climbed Eldin Volcano, where I am now.

Some loose fanfic inspirations from the game )

brightknightie: Midna, in imp form, and Link grin at each other (Zelda)
Probably this has been done, of course, but I just now thought of this The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess post-canon story possibility, and maybe it would be worth writing someday:

Up to a certain point near the story's climax, the audience and the characters all believe that the bulbins are monsters/demons, and nothing else. But in that particular scene, we see the Bulbin King speak -- literally speak, and in Hyrulean! -- for himself and make a different choice, and reveal his motivations, showing that at least he, and probably all his people, are, well, people. Not monsters, like all the monsters that cannot speak and cannot choose. At the very end of the game, we see the Bulbin King and a couple of other bulbins riding around, possibly hunting, possibly raiding, iirc, but definitely targeting animals, no longer people.

What is the journey from being perceived as monsters/demons to being perceived as just another of the diverse peoples of Hyrule? Is this a joint project of the TP characters and the Bulbin King? Zelda cannot successfully just order her people to stop hating and fearing bulbins; the Bulbin King may have the same problem with his people. Do the bulbins in the end settle in greater Hyrule and join society and maybe even produce sages someday, or do they turn out in the end to be from somewhere beyond Ordon, and return there? (Were they one of the surface peoples in the time of SkSw and became more monster-like over time? Were they monsters/demons who became people, a la what's-his-name in SkSw?)

Just thinking.

brightknightie: Janette and Schanke in the Raven (LaCroissant)
What are a couple of your personally least-favorite episodes or scenes of Forever Knight? Why those?

Define "least favorite" however you like! Worst executed. Worst concept. Best try that fell flattest. The one you watched when you had food poisoning and can't think of without feeling ill again. ;-) But if a particular episode element -- a scene, a trope, an omission, a logic failure, a contradiction, a missed opportunity -- especially bugs you, that's really what I have in mind today.

I'm brainstorming for FKFicFest. I've found over the years that arguing a point is often my personal readiest spark. For example, the story I wrote last year came completely from cringing my way through a re-watch of "Trophy Girl," which I see as not just an illogical mess, but a wasted opportunity that could have been great if only it had taken its own investigation seriously and not wallowed with the irrelevant imprisoned character (Nick doesn't need anyone to tell him how serial killers think) (also, "Crazy Love" did it better) (and so did "Love You to Death"). For another example -- not mine this time -- "Be My Valentine" launched a thousand fics arguing passionately against its apparent supposition that Natalie could be hypnotized despite the evidence of "Only the Lonely" and "A More Permanent Hell" (and thus it's become deep, wide fanon that Natalie was drugged and/or faking).

I'm curious what comes to mind for you! Thank you!

brightknightie: Nick plays piano but looks distracted (Nick Solemn)
This week, I'll start posting to the various communities about this year's [community profile] fkficfest game. (I didn't happen to see anyone post about it on personal journals during its first week. Did I miss any...?)

The prompts the community chose are, as you know, two phrases and a paraphrase. Interested in chatting through them for general brainstorming, maybe...? I wonder which were picked as most desired to write, and which as most desired to read!

For starters, at the surface level, "cold case" could be a straightforward order for an unresolved police case that has been shelved for lack of developments, or for a police case in cold temperatures (winter, freezer, etc.). Slightly spicier picks might include a cold as in the common illness, or emotional coldness, or a case that is a briefcase, suitcase, gun-case, display case, or musical instrument case ... or a medical case. There have been several high-profile TV series in the US, Canada, and the UK that have focused on law enforcement working on cold cases; someone might want a crossover. FK's police procedural premise is very friendly to the customary "cold case" meaning. Its vampires and flashbacks have a certain angle on "cold," and its Toronto setting, perhaps, another.

"Do over" could bring to mind, say, the movie Groundhog Day, which makes the protagonist do over a single day until he gets it right, or It's a Wonderful Life, where events are seen done over in a distressing way. There could be time travel to change events already unfolded, or perhaps efforts to change a prediction of something yet to happen but thought set in stone. Taken very literally, it might not allow room for themes of regret, repentance, reparations, because doing something over could wipe away the first instance, but taken more loosely, the fact of a do-over is the recognition of something done poorly or gone wrong. An attempt to start over could be a kind of do over. The dictionary reminded me that there's also the decorating sense of the phrase, as in to do over an apartment, and a British slang usage meaning to beat up and/or rob someone. And then there's perhaps simply practice: to do something again and again, as in a musical instrument or athletics. Or something that never stops needing to be done again, as in a self-help practice or pulling weeds or making a bed. A do-over appeals perhaps to the sense of many FK fans that something went terribly wrong at the storytelling level at some point, whether at the LK finale, or when third season diverged from second, or second from first. A do-over could easily appeal to Nick, if offered on the wings of magic, and how far and how wide could determine whether it's a miracle or a monkey's-paw wish: one night only, his years in Toronto, his years as a vampire...

The paraphrase of a famous line from Bujold's novel Memory has a "the girl or the cup" ring to it. What is each character's heart versus heart's desire? Is Nick's heart's desire to achieve mortality but his heart to achieve salvation? Is either of Natalie's to cure Nick, to love Nick, to have not lost her brother or her parents, to make a scientific discovery no other could, to live a happy life and a good death...? Lacroix wants companionship, and he wants loyalty verging on fealty, and he wants to live; which is which? Janette wants revenge when due, perhaps a kind of balance as she sees it. Urs comes to want to change, but has long wanted approval; which could be which? Vachon wants freedom; the Inca wants justice. In Bujold's novel, the original line recaps a powerful scene; in retrospect, the character describes his choice to do the right thing, at immediate and immense personal cost, as an inability, finally, to do the wrong thing: "the one thing you can't trade for your heart's desire is your heart."

What do you think...?

brightknightie: Stonetree and Norma looking at a CRT monitor (Computer)
Movie titles
  • 10 Years (2011 movie about a high-school reunion) (Wikipedia)
  • Ten Years (2015 movie of 5 short stories set in 2025 Hong Kong) (Wikipedia)
Book titles
  • Ten Years Later (1847 novel by Alexandre Dumas, a sequel to The Three Musketeers) (Wikipedia)
  • 10th Anniversary (novel in the "Women's Murder Club" series by James Patterson) (Wikipedia)
Song titles
  • "The Last Ten Years (Superman)" (2006 song by Kenny Rogers) (lyrics)
  • "Ten Years" (1997 song by Paul Simon) (lyrics)
  • "Ten Years Gone" (1975 song by Led Zepplin) (lyrics)
  • "Ten Years" (1960 song by Buddy Williams) (lyrics)
  • "Ten Years" (1958 song by Jack Clement) (lyrics)
"Decennial"
  • "Decennial Mineral Exploration Conferences" = Canadian geoscience association (Wikipedia)
  • "Decennial Liability" = structure-collapse coverage required of contractors in some countries (Wikipedia)
  • "Decennial pattern" = 10-year stock market cycle theory first published in 1939 (CMT)
  • "Decennial Peak" = mountain in Antarctica (Wikipedia)
  • "Decennial Air Cruise" = 1933 mass transatlantic flight / publicity stunt (Wikipedia)
Things that lasted 10 years (or so):
  • Alexander the Great's empire (Listverse)
  • Queen Anne's War (1702-1713) (Wikipedia) [Hey, Vaqueras!]
  • Yugoslav Wars (1991-2001) (Wikipedia)
  • Julia Child's work on her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Adobe)
  • original run of Maus by Art Spiegelman (Adobe)
  • original run of Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (Wikipedia)
  • construction of the Brooklyn Bridge (Adobe)
  • "it takes ten years to sharpen a sword" (reportedly, Chinese proverb)
Things that happen once every 10 years (or so):
  • US Census (Wikipedia)
  • from 1871-1956, Census in Canada (now every 5th year) (Wikipedia)
  • Death Valley, California "super bloom" (Rove)
  • Temperature inversion fog filling the Grand Canyon (TwistedSifter)
  • Oberammergau Passion Play (Wikipedia)
  • "The Grand Tour" European art exhibitions (Twyla)
  • 10-year... flood? storm? drought? heatwave? locust or cicada swarm? crime? scandal?
Miscellaneous

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brightknightie: At dawn, a white knight raises her lance (Default)
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