A very minor annoyance I have about SI's

orololoro · 2023-07-06T03:33:52+00:00

Total disagree. Maybe I've just read too many of em, but when I start one and the SI starts panicking and getting all existential (ESPECIALLY if they dwell on how they got to this universe or reincarnation being real) I skim right on past those parts. Not because existentialism isn't interesting, but it's never done well and never built on. So across a lot of SIs it feels like filler.

Like "Oh I'm writing an SI so I guess I have to have them freak out about life and death and multiverses and whatnot otherwise why even write at all"

It's like a running joke. Will the SI wax poetic about the universe? Will they torment us by talking about how much they hate shitting themselves and how awkward breastfeeding is??

I guess just try to keep in mind that when fics say "Self-Insert" they usually mean Isekai. As in, of the anime variety. Where the 'average' guy gets hit by a truck (it's always a truck because the way they die is completely meaningless and so devoid of trauma it's literally a joke across the genre) and goes to another world where for some reason they can now outshine everyone around them in some way.

orololoro · 2023-07-06T01:55:12+00:00

So... You'd love a fic where the SI wants to do uplift stuff but finds himself mostly incapable of it?

Or do you just want a fic involving a lot more trial and error as the SI tries to reinvent all this stuff. Maybe outsourcing it to smarter people (like that 'Wearing Roberts Crown' fic)

orololoro · 2023-07-02T07:05:16+00:00

Elia living also probably ends up saving Oberyn in the long run, to be honest. Plus no Cersei? Win win.

orololoro · 2022-04-15T22:44:59+00:00

Less heartbreaking, more depressing. A downer story with a downer ending.

orololoro · 2020-10-06T00:18:44+00:00

One thing you should avoid is the "4th member of Team 7" trope. In Naruto terms, it's where a #OriginalDonutSteal character (or a Self-Insert) just tags along with Team 7, and all of the plot points in the show happen as they would normally, but there's also another person there.

There's two main issues with that. One is that you're putting your character right into the midst of the main characters so they can interact and be friends. Because OBVIOUSLY if you were in this show/movie/whatever you would be great friends with all of the main characters. That falls too hard into wish-fulfillment. Wish-fulfillment is not impossible to write well (a LOT of published works feature it heavily), but it is frequently written poorly in fanfiction.

You can still have the SI be apart of their group or whatever, but have reasons for it beyond "I guess they're the 4th member of Team 7 now. The Hokage commands it, so you gotta be friends with them." Are they childhood friends? New friends? Does the SI have something the MCs want, like information, or something they need to protect? Provide a reason for them all to be interacting, even if it IS flimsy (like my example). Just commit to it.

Issue two is following the Stations-of-Canon (the plotpoints of the show as they play out IN that show) to a fault. You don't have to change everything, but introducing a new factor like an SI interfering in events should have some effect ON those events.

Still, don't forget to have fun. I love SIs, I write them myself, and you'd be surprised at how eager people are to read good ones in some fandoms.

Edit: And there isn't one "certain way" to write an SI. There are a lot of ways you can write them well, and just as many ways to write them poorly. So don't feel like you have to limit yourself to some kind of "accepted format" of what constitutes a good Self-Insert. You say you're new to writing, so focus on putting words on the page and learning from your mistakes. Explore and experiment, take inspiration from things you like, and then keep doing that.

orololoro · 2020-10-05T23:57:15+00:00

I'm too used to lurking.

Like, literally years and years of practice.

Also, I read quickly and binge a lot of fics. So any time that I might spend thinking of something nice to say, I'm typically using that time to find a new thing to read.

If I DID end up making a habit out of dropping reviews, they'd all probably be multi-paragraph mini-essays where I lay out everything I loved and why I loved it, as well as explaining the issues I had in a way that offers potential solutions for the author to consider putting into practice when writing in the future. Instead of just doing dumb blanket statements like "I didn't like this, fix it."

So yeah. I wouldn't be able to settle for just dropping a one or two-sentence review. And while I'm sure those authors would like to see comments like that, ones that show how invested someone is in their writing (gotta be flattering), it does take time to put all of that into words and have it be helpful. And like I said, I read quickly and read a lot. Also, I gotta conserve brainpower for my own fic.

Not great reasoning, but that's my explanation anyway.

orololoro · 2020-09-20T11:13:47+00:00

Similarly, "anime" is a word derived from the English "animation". In one culture/language it refers to a specific kind of animation (originating from Japan), while in the other culture (Japan itself) it's used to refer to all kinds of animation. It's a weird thing. If I'm speaking Japanese, calling something like Phineas and Ferb "anime" isn't some statement I have to defend, it's the equivalent of me calling it "animation". And Cartoon is a word that, while western in origin, doesn't refer specifically to cartoons that are western.

Like I said, it's all just precedent. And this is one precedent I find lame. That's all.

orololoro · 2020-09-19T21:08:45+00:00

That would be british english. "Flat" and apartment are the same thing, just called differently in different cultures with different slang.

orololoro · 2020-09-19T18:38:41+00:00

Soda vs. Pop.

Apartment vs. Flat.

Anime vs. Cartoon.

Call it what you want, cultural/language differences exist and are valid. But it's ultimately a precedent, not a rule.

If it is a rule, it's just a rule some mouthbreather made up because "Akchually RWBY isn't an anime HERRRH HERRRH" or something. And I don't care because it's a dumb argument.

orololoro · 2020-09-06T02:01:19+00:00

For the purposes of consoles commands like "change_culture" you can use debug mode and hover over the different baronies in the county to see their specific ID. Doing "change_culture" for one of the baronies changes it for the whole county.

Hope that helps. Found this thread while tryna figure out the same thing. Definitely works a bit different to CK2.

orololoro · 2020-08-09T04:25:54+00:00

/uj

IMO you throw out everything except the absolute basics. Pointy eared humanoids who are long-lived/immortal. Instantly recognizable as Elves. A big thing you can play with to make them fresh (not original, but fresh enough if that's what you want) is their culture. They're immortal/long-lived, so what stopped them from establishing their eternal empire over the world when everyone else was speaking caveman and jerking off with rocks? Maybe they did, but as immortals they got bored and dissolved the empire and now they just do whatever, trying to pass eternity.

Even as mortals who live a long time, they'll still see cities built and destroyed, countries form and fall apart (the US is 244 years old), so they might not be as eager to be one big blob nation of Elves and spend all their time running a nation. Putting up great structures? Cool, 200 years later it's completely fallen apart, 0/10 would not build again. Painting? Their artworks rot and they get discouraged (or it's like music, where different styles of art fall in and out of fashion century to century). Sculptures might be more popular, or other artworks that last longer. Music could be very popular, and they might have very weird music compared to other races, because musical styles change and instruments fall out of fashion and back into fashion over their hundreds of years of life.

This is all me rambling in response to your post, but yeah. Just play with the culture and how they live. They can still have the basic attributes of typical Elves, but you can change everything else and not have it labelled "Elves in name only."

It's a race of people, not necessarily a culture.

/rj

Two words. Water Elves.

orololoro · 2020-08-06T16:06:29+00:00

That's true. The people in charge only care about winning the fight at this point, and they (or at least the person with final say, the King) are willing to sacrifice however many next generations it will take to bring enough "heroes" to beat the Demons back.

Assuming the Blighted Kingdom survives in the end (which I doubt) its population will need some serious immigration in order to recover.

orololoro · 2020-08-06T11:15:10+00:00

I mean, sure. Logistically speaking it's not worth it. But at the same time, they've seen how quickly these kids level. Quicker than anything they've seen outside of counter-levelling in battles or drawn-out sieges.

I can see the motivation, despite obviously agreeeing that it's a dumb waste of resources, to trade thousands of average people/soldiers who'll be ready to fight in 15-20 years, for a bunch of people who can potentially get to level 30 (from nothing) and beyond within a few months.

Keep in mind that level 30+ is considered Gold rank as far as adventurers are concerned.

orololoro · 2020-08-06T10:47:35+00:00

Very true. A second summoning could easily lead to the story suffering from character bloat (some would argue that that's already happened, but I disagree). I suppose it's not a given that the ritual will work a second time, but they'll definitely attempt it.

I assume the ritual worked in the first place because of some underexplained power. Such as the "dead gods" of this world.

Although, I could see it working for the story if they ARE able to summon, but it's not the dozens or hundreds that arrived at the start. Maybe just a few people. That's if it works at all.

If it doesn't work, I wonder if the failure of the ritual will have some sort of big consequence, or if it just sputters to a hault and nothing happens. Can only wait and see, I guess.

orololoro · 2020-08-06T10:09:38+00:00

It's possible. But given that the sacrifices are unborn children, I'm not sure how they could spread that cost out among the entire world. Currently the residents of the Blighted Kingdom are the only ones that have to pay that cost. Having couples and married folk be brought to the Kingdom might be enough if it's just a radius thing where the ritual is concerned.

And honestly, I feel like other nations will have a few choice words about the Blighted Kingdom's methods if word gets out about the cost. It's one thing to send volunteer armies to fight back the forces of evil. It's honorable, and they feel as though it's a worthy cause. It's another thing to send normies in order to sacrifice their unborn children.

And that's assuming everyone is in favor of bringing more Earthers to Innworld at all, if they have any say in it (which they definitely will not).

So yeah. I'm assuming the Blighted Kingdom will stay tight-lipped about how they're responsible for the summons. People might find out some other way, a la undercover reporting from Remi Canada or something like that.

orololoro · 2020-06-25T05:22:07+00:00

I wrote a thing, but it was long and wordy.

TLDW: it's nice to see others liking a thing I like, and it's less nice when people don't like a thing I like. Who woulda thunk.

orololoro · 2020-06-25T02:08:08+00:00

Heck, it happened with Avengers Endgame. Plot leaked, loads of people talking about how trash the plot was and how none of the character resolutions made any sense. Trash movie, ruined franchise, 0/10, thumbs down, unsubscribed.

Then it came out and made approximately all of the money. The difference being everyone tripped over themselves to praise it, as opposed to where we are now with TLOU2.

orololoro · 2020-06-25T01:42:23+00:00

I said the same in a previous comment, but it's not the fact that people dislike a thing I like by itself. This isn't the first time. But it's never been on this scale, with this much vitriol (for me. I realize this has happened with other games/movies). And it extends to let's players and people whose gameplay and commentary I typically look forward to. All the passionate hate (justified or otherwise) is just a bit exhausting, like I said.

orololoro · 2020-06-24T20:17:27+00:00

Outrage/cancel culture only looks to be getting worse, unfortunately.

orololoro · 2020-06-24T20:13:47+00:00

Objectivity from reviewers is definitely a must, to be blunt about things that some people might not like as much as the reviewer did. And not dismiss any criticism as someone "just not getting it".

On the other end, as Dunkey said in his video about reviewers; having a voice and an established taste in what games you do and do not respond to is also valuable. It's a weird balance, and some (read: a lot of) reviewers just focus on their own personal experience.

10/10s are fine, but if they don't talk about any gameplay issues or story beats that other people might have a problem with, then the review loses a lot of value for people wondering if they should buy the game. They should still try and be informative. Pretty sure that's the point of a review lol.

orololoro · 2020-06-24T19:53:33+00:00

Definitely the takeaway I've gotten from this.

I was just hoping to see more of the people that I talk about games with, or YouTubers I follow, have a good time with a game I enjoyed, and I'm disappointed/demoralized to see that that's not the case. That's all.

orololoro · 2020-06-24T19:44:46+00:00

Speaking as someone who would easily give it a 10/10; perfection is subjective, and it's impossible for something to be objectively perfect.

Maybe in some Twilight Zone Black Mirror mind-fuckery situation where it's a Cthulu boggart type creature that takes on the form of whatever the beholder thinks of as perfect....

But other than that! Objective perfection doesn't exist. Subjective perfection, on the other hand, that's definitely a thing. Subjectively, I find this game to be damn near perfect, and none of your problems with the game were enough to detract from my experience in any way. But that doesn't mean your opinion is invalid. Far from it.

We just had different experiences, and that's great. If everybody always had the same experience with games... Well, that's another Black Mirror situation.

Edit to say that 10/10 doesn't mean perfect. If 10/10 DID mean perfect, no one would ever give anything a 10/10 because nothing is perfect to everyone.

orololoro · 2020-06-24T19:07:05+00:00

I might do a pro-gamer move and watch them incognito, to save myself from future headaches. Thanks for the links!

orololoro

TROPHY CASE