Desensitized to Pandering: A Response to the Response of my Response to recent Kill La Kill concepts

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

I disagree. I'm not asking for a paradigm shift - do I need to remind you that I called this...

Spoiler

...brilliant? The writer for Star Driver didn't scribble in the margins of the script "they wear bathing suits and heels because it's...easy to move in or something lol". It's thematically resonant with the characters and the story as a whole, even though some of these people are """confident in their sexuality""" (I'm sorry, that really needed more than one set of air-quotes) and some aren't, because a) They're high school students playing at being a shadowy global conspiracy, b) The world of Star Driver is FABULOUS, c) Everybody in the damn show is gorgeous, no matter their gender, and d) Basically everyone wants to have sex with everyone else.

Let me give you an example where this absolutely did not happen. Have you seen the anime "Btooom!"? It's actually pretty good - it's made by Madhouse, after all, and they make good stuff. In the series, the principal female character is nearly raped twice - once before the series begins, and once in the early episodes - and spends a good portion of the show afraid of men. And justifiably so, apparently, because the show cannot seem to get over the fact that she has breasts. I mean, fuck Sucker Punch, can you imagine what she would feel like if she knew there were a bunch of guys watching her take a bath through an invisible camera? She'd probably kill herself.

I could write for another half hour or so, but I have things to do so, uh, bye for now.

Yeah, Star Driver seems okay. I never did get around to watching it, though (lol, I actually thought it was some sort of boy love giant robots story. ).

But you said you disagree with what I was saying. You didn't explain why or at least, I can't make out the reason why you're saying you disagree. o_o

To reiterate what I said before, If I saw a girl wearing a nice short skirt, I couldn't make the assumption that she does it for any deep reason. It could just be because she likes wearing short skirts and is confident enough to wear them. People are too varied to make assumptions based on what they wear.

Given that real people don't need reasons to do what they do, I don't see why fictional characters need a reason for wearing skimpy outfits. I mean, sure, some do have a reason, but not everyone needs one.

Everything, including what a character wears and how they wear it, is that character. That being the case, I don't see how characters need "saving" from their outfits.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Yeah, Star Driver seems okay. I never did get around to watching it, though (lol, I actually thought it was some sort of boy love giant robots story. ).

But you said you disagree with what I was saying. You didn't explain why or at least, I can't make out the reason why you're saying you disagree. o_o

To reiterate what I said before, If I saw a girl wearing a nice short skirt, I couldn't make the assumption that she does it for any deep reason. It could just be because she likes wearing short skirts and is confident enough to wear them. People are too varied to make assumptions based on what they wear.

Given that real people don't need reasons to do what they do, I don't see why fictional characters need a reason for wearing skimpy outfits. I mean, sure, some do have a reason, but not everyone needs one.

Everything, including what a character wears and how they wear it, is that character. That being the case, I don't see how characters need "saving" from their outfits.

People may not have a "deep reason" for wearing what they do, but they do have a reason, whether it's because it's what they want to wear, it's all they own, or because they're dressing in the way their culture expects them to. Or, to use your words, "Everything, including what a character wears and how they wear it, is that character". If a character's dress contradicts her personality, that's just as problematic as if her behavior changes to suit the needs of the plot.

I didn't get my point across properly because I didn't quite finish my post (and because when I post I can get very sidetracked). I was just sort of hoping my two examples would be enough to illustrate my point. But scrap all that anyway, perhaps I can summarize my view here: it's not just the character and her design that has to match, those both also need to match the tone and concepts of the story as a whole. Why, for example, would there be a sexualized character in a story that doesn't touch on sexuality?

Also, "saving" was not my word, it was his, hence why I put it in quotes. I'm not sure if I would have used the word or not, but it wasn't mine.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

Or, to use your words, "Everything, including what a character wears and how they wear it, is that character". If a character's dress contradicts her personality, that's just as problematic as if her behavior changes to suit the needs of the plot.

See, but my point about this was that people are too varied to fit into archtypes so characters shouldn't have to either.

Just because someone is studious, reserved, and not interested in dating doesn't necessarily mean she won't like skimpy outfits, for example. Just because a person has very liberal sexual views doesn't necessarily mean she'll dress in a skimpy fashion, either.

Or what did you mean by "contradicts their personality?"

it's not just the character and her design that has to match, those both also need to match the tone and concepts of the story as a whole. Why, for example, would there be a sexualized character in a story that doesn't touch on sexuality?

Are you saying that it isn't needed in certain stories, then? Then what is needed?

Should we stick to what is needed in certain kinds of stories when we create them? This line of thinking only limits what sort of art can be created and enjoyed, I think.

For me, the better question is why shouldn't there be?

Should there not be a guy who likes to wear football jerseys in a show that doesn't touch on football?

Also, "saving" was not my word, it was his, hence why I put it in quotes. I'm not sure if I would have used the word or not, but it wasn't mine.

gotcha.

 

[Quadocky]

"By drawing women do I get to appreciate female characters more because I'm desensitized to the sexuality to some degree?And can good writing and clever contextualising validate a sexually inclined design?"

1. Nope. Sex is just one aspect of humanity. When you are drawing women in sexy outfits and the last thing you are thinking about is anything sexual related well... that is problematic because it seems like you are assuming that the default state of 'woman' is sexual.

2. Nope. Unless the story actually includes sexual relationships and exploration of sexuality. Otherwise its just problematic (I.E Fucked up)

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Or, to use your words, "Everything, including what a character wears and how they wear it, is that character". If a character's dress contradicts her personality, that's just as problematic as if her behavior changes to suit the needs of the plot.

See, but my point about this was that people are too varied to fit into archtypes so characters shouldn't have to either.

Just because someone is studious, reserved, and not interested in dating doesn't necessarily mean she won't like skimpy outfits, for example. Just because a person has very liberal sexual views doesn't necessarily mean she'll dress in a skimpy fashion, either.

Or what did you mean by "contradicts their personality?"

An archetype - a real, literary archetype, not a one-note "tsundere" check-box - makes a character deeper, not shallower. If I take in all the information I have about a character and can't conclude anything, then clearly there's nothing to conclude. The character...isn't. I mean, suppose I were to construct a character by randomly combining characteristics. I wouldn't end up with something brilliant, or even passable. I'd end up with a meaningless mess.

it's not just the character and her design that has to match, those both also need to match the tone and concepts of the story as a whole. Why, for example, would there be a sexualized character in a story that doesn't touch on sexuality?

Are you saying that it isn't needed in certain stories, then? Then what is needed?

Should we stick to what is needed in certain kinds of stories when we create them? This line of thinking only limits what sort of art can be created and enjoyed, I think.

Yes, you should stick to what is "needed", in a very loose sense. Gurren Lagann keeps entirely to what is needed for the kind of story it tells.

Spoiler: A reminder of TTGL

Evangelion (original, not rebuild) is a great example of this. The way the characters dress reflects who they are. Shinji, Rei, and Asuka all wear their school uniforms, of course. Misato dresses casually - even her work attire is less formal than everyone else's. Ritsoko dresses professionally. But because Eva works with real people (put 'real' in as many air-quotes as you feel necessary), Misato doesn't direct NERV operations in a bikini. Gurren Lagann, meanwhile, is all but the polar opposite of Eva, so it flows for Yoko to shoot monsters with her phallus-gun and wearing a bikini, while Kamina is the shirtless, caped badass he is.

Do you want another example? Because I have more. I happen to have The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya right here, which has the three female leads on the cover. They're all dressed in their uniforms, but despite that fact you can tell a bit about them based on the single part of their dress they don't have in common: the length of their stockings. Really.

Haruhi has a couple inches between her stockings and skirt, which in anime terms marks her both as unremarkable and as a tsundere. Nagato has very short stockings, which make her look younger and more girlish, in keeping with her moe nature. And Asahina has longer stockings, which make her look more womanly, which fits, considering Kyon considers her to be beautiful (it also fits because we've seen her as an adult).

And if we want to talk about the dudes, Koizumi is wearing his coat buttoned up while Kyon does not, and Kyon wears a scarf, making him look less formal when compared to the cool, slick, and totally not gay Koizumi.

It's a thousand years too early for you to defeat me debate me on this subject.

For me, the better question is why shouldn't there be?

Should there not be a guy who likes to wear football jerseys in a show that doesn't touch on football?

You want me to answer this question? Because I will. And yes, that's a threat.

The fact that he wears football jerseys either tells us that he likes football (duh) or he got the jersey as a hand-me-down of some kind. Alternatively, wearing a football jersey would be an easy way to mark a character as specifically American.

Now, there shouldn't be limits on what can be made, but if the design and the story don't mesh, that's a waste of a perfectly good (or perfectly bad) design. An exposed body can represent anything from confidence to aggression to sensuality to a need for attention to vulnerability to outright horror, if the depiction is right. So tell me that. You, the artist, are telling me this story just as much as the writer is, and just as much as the composer is.


A picture is a picture, and people will judge that according to whatever they find aesthetically pleasing. But a story is a story, and although most people don't know it, they'll judge it according to how everything harmonizes.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Nah, not Skeletor. He was a good guy in the Christmas episode. You're more like Hannibal Lechter.

That reminds me, I need to check on the meat.

Don't worry. I'm sooooo hyped for Kill la Kill. Of course if it turns out it sucks I'm gonna be pissed.

Judging from their previous work I would say it's in alright hands, but I'm ready this time for dramatic tonal shifts to occur every 8 episodes.

I'm with you in your general sentiments, I just diverge from you in your personal tastes. I prefer characters that are a touch overdesigned (but not in that Tetsuya Nomura, Final Fantasy way...), I love crazy costumes from magical girl outfits to school uniforms to technicolor power armor to slick tuxedos to fetish gear. But I like very low-key sexualization.

Oh, style and execution. Yeah, I can buy that. There are good designs and bad designs, and...those were all bad designs (Kill la Kill is I hope intentional). At least as far as I - not being an artist but having watched too anime and thought too much about character design - can tell.

I'm not really one to judge whether or not a design is bad. There's either; design I find appealing, or design which doesn't stimulate me (poor choice of wording?).
For the Kill La Kill design, I think it mostly comes down to is that I'm sucker for black on red and that the design isn't overly complex (ergo not Final Fantasy) and seems like a more "extreme" version of the ones she's supposed to be wearing throughout the show. If this was worn throughout the entirety of the show, without the other one it wouldn't be as effective to me.

The character of Mathilda from Anarchy reigns fits the style of Mad World, in that she's a cyborg and some form of dominatrix, implying towards the worlds grittiness. My only real gripe with Anarchy Reigns is that all the female characters have similar silhouettes, whereas the guys have some more variation.

Triage X, a bunch as assassins who work as hospital staff by day and who kill crooked people (drug lords, serial killers, etc) by night who are referred to in medical jargon. I really can't defend blatant sexualisation when I know it's there, like the pictures cropped but it's basically scream "phwoar crotch", but I'm just thinking 'those gauntlets look sick'. The guys great at props and clothing (when he draws it), so in this instance being able to draw I can appreciate the nuance in his style, as stupid as that sounds.

I can't really give an opinion without having seen a lick of what you've drawn. I can assume it's terrible, if you want.

Assume the worst and be pleasantly surprised, or a long exacerbated groan/sigh. Sure my friends, family, co-workers, boss, and random individuals say I'm really good, but then I just have to look around deviantART for two minutes to realise I'm not very good at all. I just know that whilst I do have an inherent knack for it (no official training in design or drawing, the only thing I've been schooled on was 3D game development art) is that I have a lot to improve upon.

Oh yeah, that was a thing, wasn't it? What was the complaint, anyway? That aside, I think you're wrong abut this particular thing. Rockstar was pressured by their publisher to take Ellie off the cover, but I don't think it was because they were worried about being called sexist. Just a hunch.

I was being very broad in that a lot of the gaming community (devs, journalist and consumers) have a very knee jerk reaction to female protagonists in games. It was also Naughty Dog (Rockstars the one that's snatched Game of the Year away from them, narrative quality be damned, we made a billion dollars in three days) and that whilst a marketing group they had hired told them to put her on the back of the box, it was separate claims after the game had been released that it was sexist because an adult was looking after a teenager. If it was an older woman and a young boy there probably wouldn't have been any issue, but then such a game will never happen because it sounds far too interesting.

I think that is indeed a broad generalization. You may be looking in the wrong places (well, "wrong places" isn't the right phrase, but whatever). I mean, have you seen Attack on Titan? It's got the sex appeal of a rusty spoon (although I would 3D manuever Mikasa's gear any time). Then of course you have the whole 'moe'...thingy, which is essentially innocence as sexuality. And then there are schoolgirls. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of schoolgirls, which I suppose in a Venn diagram would fit in the intersection between "realistic" and "moe". There's the gorgeous, flowing, and visually busy noodles that are the characters drawn by CLAMP, the chibi stylings of Ume Aoki, the inhuman dreamy figures of take...wow, I know more about this stuff than I thought.

Well I was strictly referring to games; in anime I know there is something for everybody. And 'rusty' spoon is how I would describe the shows colour palette, it's been getting a lot of praise, so I figure that I'll check it out eventually. I've never understood why a girl?s school uniform looks like a sailor outfit; did they used to prep women for maritime jobs or something?
I've never had a love for 'cute' looking things, like the typical wide eyed anime character; probably why I actively detest the My Little Pony Friendship is bowel caner. That thing's like the Mariana Trench of cuteness, bone crushing cuteness.

I'd trust your knowledge of anime is a lot more extensive than mine. Whether I like an anime or not, depends on; do I like the style Y/N, oh it's got a compelling narrative that's a plus.

As for your second point, I'm pretty confident that's exactly what Activision's marketing director sounds like.

I'm sure every marketing director sounds like Justin Beiber. He's white and Canadian, that's like the least ghetto thing possible.

Good writing cannot "save" a character in that way. The writing and the design have to go hand-in-hand, Bayonetta being an obvious example (although I do think the "it's that way because it's all over-the-top and stuff" concept has been stretched about as far as it can go, since just off the top of my head there's Gurren Lagann, Bayonetta, Dragon's Crown, and Kill la Kill). Many writers try to pull a "no u c shes just confident in her sexuality its vrey progressive kthxbai". That doesn't cut it. Star Driver - whic has a number of characters dressed in what are fairly literally stripper outfits - pulls this off quite well, in part because of its equal-opportunity fanservice, but more importantly because it's a show about sexuality. And giant robots. But mostly sexuality.

That's what I was trying to say, once again poor choice of words have stunted a thread. Naturally it's all supposed to fit, like Major Kusangi's one piece thing in Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex; I can see that your making a deep and inspired insight towards the killers motives but are you going to a pool?
But the character just mostly has a '0 fucks given' sort of air to the character, so it doesn't feel completely out of place. What's she's wearing in ARISE feels a lot more appropriate for the tone of the show.

I'm not going to analyze the conceptual underpinnings of a show that hasn't even aired yet, so I won't say you're wrong. As I said, I am most certainly not going to just write off Kill la Kill. It promises to be an exploration of the concept of "schoolgirl", which is a superb subject for a modern anime to tackle, probably even more ripe than Gurren Lagann's "what is 'mecha'?"

Or it could be nothing. It could be the designer wanted to have a laugh. It's tough to tell how much you should read into something like TTGL.

Mostly I was just summarising what I had been told from the explanation to a recently linked trailer. She's wearing a cloak until it's destroyed in her defence of somebody (I assume) and the rest of the scenes show she's blushing through this scene (picked apart for the trailer). Apparently it's a post apocalyptic society where everybody is ranked with some kind of status based on their "uniform", so I figure it's like Mad Max in Japan

They really do play their parodies with a straight face. I think the last couple of episodes for TTGL made physicists cry.

I know I covered the second question already, but I wanted to make something clear, in case it already wasn't. It's not a matter of "clever contextualizing" "validating" a design. The story is not there to bend over backwards for the inclinations of the character designer. The two have to click on a basic, conceptual level. It goes both ways - you can't have a sensuality-laden story and have Christopher Nolan direct (although that would be funny) - but I am going to take a story as seriously as the character designer wants me to, whatever that may mean.

Well of course, I was writing from the standpoint of wanting to produce my own graphic novel/manga/comic/web comic series, to which I'm the illustrator and author. But it's still very much in the planning phases, but threads like this and the prior do help me plan it a bit better. Like it's confirmed a lot of the idea's I had already and made me rethink others.

I'd want to see your work rather than arbitrarily passing judgment, but I'll make these broad suggestions.
1) Important: Do what you want to do.
2) More Important: Accept criticism.
3) Most Important: Determine if that criticism applies to your work.
4) See if you can figure out what the core or theme or whatever you're trying to formulate in your art is. I mean, sexuality, probably, but sexuality is a broad topic with astoundingly little overlap in what people find "sexy". Explore yourself and see what you find. To give a literary example, Nisio Isin wrote both Katanagatari and Bakemonogatari. Katanagatari's about a guy fighting people with magic swords using his super-awesome kung fu, and Bakemonogatari's about a guy fucking his sister with a toothbrush (no, wait, that's Nisemonogatari, my bad), but thematically they are identical.

1) Well that's what I assume most people would say, but then at the same time I do get some form of gratification when somebody really likes something that may be out of my 'area'. Like my old art teacher really likes the vehicles I've been producing for our game, it's something that he didn't expect from me.
2) That I do know, which is why I made these threads, to get some critique on my tastes (and they're bad).
3) There has been more than one occasion on deviantART when somebody has written out five paragraphs that could be easily shortened to; 'You draw boobs. I do not like boobs. So you are bad. Eat a bag of dicks.' So when somebody actually say's something constructive, I take it to heart more.
4) As mentioned previously, I get that themeing and tone is very important, so at least that has been affirmed.

And I do like the Monogatari series, it's got a beautiful art style, great "kinetic" animation considering 90% of the show is talking. But yeah, Nisemonogatari is all kinds of awkward, but the punch line at the end was funny enough; "What are you doing?"

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

After going through your last couple posts and how they're different from each other, I'm having trouble telling exactly what you're arguing.

Is it against skimpy outfits or... what? I'm confused. It honestly seems like you're just arguing to argue, in which case, we should stop.

An archetype - a real, literary archetype, not a one-note "tsundere" check-box - makes a character deeper, not shallower. If I take in all the information I have about a character and can't conclude anything, then clearly there's nothing to conclude. The character...isn't. I mean, suppose I were to construct a character by randomly combining characteristics. I wouldn't end up with something brilliant, or even passable. I'd end up with a meaningless mess

Arguing whether or not archetypes make a character deeper is meaningless here. My point was never that they make a character shallow or deep. Although, they DO make a character predictable, which is why a lot of works are praised for breaking them.

I'll say it again, if people in real life don't necessarily adhere to archetypes, then fictional characters shouldn't necessarily have to either in order to be good characters.

Also, you didn't answer my question. What is "contradicting their personality?"

it's not just the character and her design that has to match, those both also need to match the tone and concepts of the story as a whole. Why, for example, would there be a sexualized character in a story that doesn't touch on sexuality?

Are you saying that it isn't needed in certain stories, then? Then what is needed?

Should we stick to what is needed in certain kinds of stories when we create them? This line of thinking only limits what sort of art can be created and enjoyed, I think.

Yes, you should stick to what is "needed", in a very loose sense. Gurren Lagann keeps entirely to what is needed for the kind of story it tells.

Spoiler: A reminder of TTGL

Evangelion (original, not rebuild) is a great example of this. The way the characters dress reflects who they are. Shinji, Rei, and Asuka all wear their school uniforms, of course. Misato dresses casually - even her work attire is less formal than everyone else's. Ritsoko dresses professionally. But because Eva works with real people (put 'real' in as many air-quotes as you feel necessary), Misato doesn't direct NERV operations in a bikini. Gurren Lagann, meanwhile, is all but the polar opposite of Eva, so it flows for Yoko to shoot monsters with her phallus-gun and wearing a bikini, while Kamina is the shirtless, caped badass he is.
Do you want another example? Because I have more. I happen to have The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya right here, which has the three female leads on the cover. They're all dressed in their uniforms, but despite that fact you can tell a bit about them based on the single part of their dress they don't have in common: the length of their stockings. Really.

Haruhi has a couple inches between her stockings and skirt, which in anime terms marks her both as unremarkable and as a tsundere. Nagato has very short stockings, which make her look younger and more girlish, in keeping with her moe nature. And Asahina has longer stockings, which make her look more womanly, which fits, considering Kyon considers her to be beautiful (it also fits because we've seen her as an adult).

And if we want to talk about the dudes, Koizumi is wearing his coat buttoned up while Kyon does not, and Kyon wears a scarf, making him look less formal when compared to the cool, slick, and totally not gay Koizumi.

Your point before was that a show has to "touch on sexuality" in order for there to be a sexualized character(s), but your response to my response has nothing to do with that. It has switched to basically saying that how skimpy a character can dress depends on if it is based in this world, because it has better "flow". You seemed to have abandoned the idea that a show needs to "touch on sexuality" in order to have sexualized characters.

Why did you switch?

As for your point that outfits can tell you about a character, skimpy outfits aren't exempt from this concept, just like conservative outfits don't necessarily tell you anything about the character.

For me, the better question is why shouldn't there be?

Should there not be a guy who likes to wear football jerseys in a show that doesn't touch on football?

The fact that he wears football jerseys either tells us that he likes football (duh) or he got the jersey as a hand-me-down of some kind. Alternatively, wearing a football jersey would be an easy way to mark a character as specifically American.

Very true. And a character wearing skimpy outfits means, well... You already told me why you think a character would wear a skimpy outfit.

but they do have a reason, whether it's because it's what they want to wear, it's all they own, or because they're dressing in the way their culture expects them to.

So already the skimpy outfits can tell something about a character and that's without the clues on the outfit that you mentioned before.

But you still haven't answered by question about why a character in a sexy outfit has to be in a show that "touches on sexuality", which is where the man who wears football jersey's example came from.

It's a thousand years too early for you to defeat me debate me on this subject.

haha

And yes, that's a threat.

to..... what? o_o

 

[Callate]

I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with "cheesecake" designs (or "beefcake", if you trend that way), but it's nice if they're "owned up to" in some way. If the piece is a one-shot, or erotic value is a large part of the purpose, certainly the artist should feel he or she has a great deal of leeway. But if we're going to be spending a significant amount of time with the character, it's nice to have some nods to things like:

Practicality: you wear that outfit into combat? Sure you do.

Self-awareness: Yes, this is a world where everyone dresses like that; indeed, they're trying to one-up each other. Go with it.

Character image self-ownership: I choose to dress this way because I'm actively trying to make other characters' jaws hit the floor. It makes me feel good about myself, or makes them underestimate me, or prevents them from cottoning on to what I'm really about.

Comedy: Where were you hiding that enormous weapon?

...In short, just about anything to show there's more to this character/design than drawing gazes to the cover where some barely-clad nymphette holds a pose that requires an extra vertebra and dislocates the pelvis.

 

[Dr. Cakey]

Don't worry. I'm sooooo hyped for Kill la Kill. Of course if it turns out it sucks I'm gonna be pissed.

Judging from their previous work I would say it's in alright hands, but I'm ready this time for dramatic tonal shifts to occur every 8 episodes.

I've learned not to trust anyone to put out material of consistent quality. Akiyuki Shinbo directed Madoka Magica and Bakemonogatari, which were amazing. He also directed a dozen other things, ranging in quality from mediocre to eye-bleedingly awful. Gen Urobuchi wrote Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero, which he then followed up with Psycho-Pass and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, which were good, but nowhere near amazing (personally, I blame Production I.G).

Or, in more easily understandable terms, Christopher Nolan made The Dark Knight. He also made The Dark Knight Rises.

Well I was strictly referring to games; in anime I know there is something for everybody. And 'rusty' spoon is how I would describe the shows colour palette, it's been getting a lot of praise, so I figure that I'll check it out eventually.

I feel like as an elitist I have an obligation to hate Attack on Titan, but...that show is damned great for a dozen different reasons. And Mikasa is mai waifu.

I've never understood why a girl?s school uniform looks like a sailor outfit; did they used to prep women for maritime jobs or something?

*ahem* According to Wikipedia: "An official from Tombow Co., a manufacturer of the sailor fuku, said that the Japanese took the idea from scaled down sailor suits worn by children of royal European families. The official said 'In Japan, they were probably seen as adorable Western-style children?s outfits, rather than navy gear.'" In other words, they're based on European school uniforms, based on military uniforms.

Well of course, I was writing from the standpoint of wanting to produce my own graphic novel/manga/comic/web comic series, to which I'm the illustrator and author. But it's still very much in the planning phases, but threads like this and the prior do help me plan it a bit better. Like it's confirmed a lot of the idea's I had already and made me rethink others.

Well, if you ever do it, let me know. Hell, if you want to talk about it, give me a poke. I like talking about ideas. It lets me forget about the void where my heart is.