Worst case of good writing going south within moments
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The sixth book of the Wheel of Time series completely killed off my interest in the storyline. It opens with a brief recap of the story so far which goes on for what feels like 200 pages. And then when the book finally starts moving forwards, nothing happens for the next 500 pages or so.
Also the earlier books also tended to get bad real quick whenever the female characters showed up.
Also the earlier books also tended to get bad real quick whenever the female characters showed up.
Was that before or after the point where he suddenly started flying around like he was in the Matrix?lacktheknack said:
I remember somewhere around the last 1/3 of the game the whole thing just went all wierd and stopped making any sense(and an entire month of in-game time just gets skipped).
Personally I dislike the movie because of the director's vendetta against the Japan's youth in the 1980s, to the point where he co-opted a real man's personal tragedy and turned it into an accusation against the Japanese equivalent of the baby boomers. "See this asshole Seita, kids? Look at this shit, he got his sister killed because he didn't listen to his elders."Worgen said:
Xenogears.
I don't mean the plot or the storyline suddenly becoming terrible. The storyline was pretty much great throughout the whole game. I mean the actual quality of the writing.
Things go perfectly up to about halfway through the first disk, at which point the language abruptly shifts to Engrish of varying degrees of brokenness.
Usually it was just awkward, with sentence structures and word choices that seemed unusual. Other times, entire dialogue exchanges would be rendered almost completely devoid of coherent meaning. And sometimes it was just plain cringe-y, like when one character's (supposedly) dying words to his son are "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Now, I know that the game is heavy on philosophy and that a central theme is the relationship between people, technology, and power, and that the point it was trying to make was that weapons (which combine technology and power) can be used for either good or for evil and that sometimes you have no choice but to use weapons and violence to protect a greater good by stopping someone who is truly evil or to avoid becoming a victim of a force of nature which does not have the ability to care one way or the other about its own actions, but there must have been a better way to phrase that than the NRA's party line.
There was also a moment of incest-related creepiness when a nun tells one of the main characters that she hopes he marries a female character who was introduced to the story as his cousin.
I don't mean the plot or the storyline suddenly becoming terrible. The storyline was pretty much great throughout the whole game. I mean the actual quality of the writing.
Things go perfectly up to about halfway through the first disk, at which point the language abruptly shifts to Engrish of varying degrees of brokenness.
Usually it was just awkward, with sentence structures and word choices that seemed unusual. Other times, entire dialogue exchanges would be rendered almost completely devoid of coherent meaning. And sometimes it was just plain cringe-y, like when one character's (supposedly) dying words to his son are "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Now, I know that the game is heavy on philosophy and that a central theme is the relationship between people, technology, and power, and that the point it was trying to make was that weapons (which combine technology and power) can be used for either good or for evil and that sometimes you have no choice but to use weapons and violence to protect a greater good by stopping someone who is truly evil or to avoid becoming a victim of a force of nature which does not have the ability to care one way or the other about its own actions, but there must have been a better way to phrase that than the NRA's party line.
There was also a moment of incest-related creepiness when a nun tells one of the main characters that she hopes he marries a female character who was introduced to the story as his cousin.
They had, for most if not all of the game, been basically cribbing plot elements from other time travel fiction. Hell, they even enumerate *which* time travel fiction, just look at Max's room when she starts looking into the time travel stuff.Alleged_Alec said:
As I've said before, if you're a fan of time travel fiction, Life is Cliche.
I outright predicted the ending when I first picked it up, shortly after ep3 release.
You can basically sum up a majority of the plot by just saying "The Butterfly Effect with photos + Donnie Darko, blend until smooth." The "save the bay" ending is taken more or less directly from the Butterfly Effect, as are the nosebleeds (in the Butterfly Effect, the implication is that the nosebleeds are a result of the brain damage accumulated by jamming entire lifetimes of new memories in place all of a sudden). I was disappointed in the "save the bae" ending because I feel like they'd been pushing the inevitability of fate and ever increasing cost of trying to deny it awful hard up to that point, then summarily tossing it aside.
Ugh, thanks for reminding me of this...I could have lived happy having forgotten....Dalisclock said:
I think I need to rewatch the movie to confirm it all, but this also really bothered me, even more so was them running away from their aunt who was taking care of them. The movie (from what I can remember) depicts the brother generally sitting around doing nothing and the aunt obviously giving him crap about it because she's working her fingers to the bone trying to keep them and herself alive, so what does he do? He decides to run away with his sister to some bomb shelter which ultimately results in all the bad things happening, culminating into the sister dying. And I just can't help but think that it would've been completely different had he just carried his own weight a bit at his aunt's.Fox12 said:
So its truly sad what happens to them but geez, it was hard for me to have those tears well up because I couldn't stop thinking about how stupid it was of him to run away, while it can be argued its all because of the tragic backdrop and him not knowing how to handle it or himself in it, it just really killed a lot of sympathy I feel I should've had and ultimately ended with me walking away from the film feeling irritated than sad because of some really, really stupid actions that boy did.
But like I said, I need to rewatch it again to confirm everything.
EDIT:
Oh geez, that explains things a fair bit for me and leaves me rather more irked hahaha, its kind of a waste of what could've been a fantastic heart wrenching movie about a sister and brother trying their best to survive in the worst of times for some silly agenda like that.Soviet Heavy said:
Yeah, that bothered me too. There were just so many ways he could have fixed things. He could go back to his aunt and get work. At the very least, he could beg her to take his sister, and then look after himself. He could have taken his money out of the bank earlier. It doesn't really feel like a tragedy when he actually had some things going for him. Heck, going back to his aunt could have shown him growing as a character and taking responsibility for himself.Blitsie said:
The thing is, Miyazaki could be a little preachy too, but he usually showed his characters growing as people. Castle in the Sky has the protagonists working on a ship in return for passage, and Spirited Away is basically about a good natured but spoiled child earning her place in the world. Grave of the Fireflies should have either done that, or shown the characters dying due to circumstances beyond their control or understanding. Which is what really happened to the man the story is based on. It's certainly not a bad film, but the ending left me more angry then sad : /
Yes! Like you say, even if he made some dumb mistakes in the beginning, learning from it and making things right would've taken the movie so much further, heck having a tragedy strike then actually would've given it some impact because I wouldn't be too busy facepalming at Seita metaphorically shooting himself in the foot again for the umpteenth time and his sister suffering because of it. Like I'm not saying one can't feel sorrow for tragic characters who cause their own undoing, its just that they usually have at least something you can relate to. Seita is just frustratingly stupid.Fox12 said:
Its such a pity they didn't follow what really happened with the man the story is based on, the movie is such a waste of potential the more I think of it but eh, like you say, its not a bad film, just one that was more angering than saddening in the end.
Echoing this right here. I used to be a huge SoT fan, to the point where I was one of the top posters on the official fansite. And hell, I'll still defend the first few books as good. But towards the end it got so bad that it actually soured me on Epic Fantasy entirely for years until Jim Butcher and George Martin drew me back.Alleged_Alec said:
In fact, I think my very first post on the Escapist was about how badly those books jumped the shark.
What was your favourite moment in that series? Was it when Richard created a statue so beautiful that he turned staunch communists capitalist? Or was it that time when he murdered pacifists for their "hatred of moral clarity"? Or how about that time that he joined a rugby team? My favourite was when he removed a guy's spine with his fist.TakerFoxx said:
I can tell you: it doesn't. The only okayish thing is that it pulled a Longest Journey twist in the end, which was kind of entertaining.Baffle said:
I would like to go back in time, just so I can smack Robert Jordan for each time he wrote about braids or smoothing skirts, or one of the guys going "I wish I was better with girls, like friend Y," then looking at the audience, winking and saying "Am I right, guys?"Breakdown said:
Shaman King (the manga version) - A lengthy rant is about to happen. Spoilers.
End Rant.
This one needs a little bit of detail. Shaman King was a manga that started in the late 90s, and had a TV adaption that aired in 2001 for Japan, and 2003 for US/UK/EUR. It was about a boy named Yoh Asakura who was shaman (a human who can see, take control and fight with spirits or ghosts to becom Shaman King) The TV show ended differently, because the manga was not finished yet, but at least had a satisfying conclusion and a happier ending for the cast. The manga had a hiatus in 2005 that lasted until 2010.
After the hiatus, things were ok at first, but further I got in the story, the more things started to become wrong. The characters, heroes and villains, became more preachy and condescending about how humans are "ruining nature" and becoming to too involved with technology, the action scenes became really weak and anti-climatic, and the story sides with a main villain,Hao Asakura, (the protagonist twin brother who is over 1000 years old, can re-incarnate every 500 years getting stronger if he gets killed) who plans to destroy all of humanity for a shaman only world. He never succeeds in killing humanity (not so much as stopping, but delaying his plans), yet he never receives punishment for all the people he's killed human or shaman alike. His body count is in the 1000s and he still get to be Shaman King. To make this quick, the overall message is that humans are to petty, weak, "impotent", or "misguided" to change the world for the better.
The message itself hypocritical and pious in talking down to the audience in that early 90s environmentalism way.
1.) Shamans use most of our technology in-story and majority of the shaman characters should be more in tune with the natural and spiritual world.
2.) Hao would be destroying a part of nature by ridding it of all humans.
3.) We are supposed to feel sorry for him because he lost his mommy in his original life (killed for being a shaman) as a child and grew up with very few friends. Whatever he did have, Hao lost due to vengeance and going off the deep end.
4.) There were characters in the actual story itself that had it way worse than him; fuck, there are characters from other media that had it worse than the main villain, and most never turned out like him. Especially the heroes.
I don't know who wrote for the manga, but he, she, or, they are the complete antithesis of the anime adaptions writers for the worse. Keep in mind, the age group for this series was boys at ages 9-14 (obviously we got older), so what the actual fuck are they trying to teach these kids?! To the writer(s): Fuck your ending, fuck your shitty writing, and fuck your sequel I have no interest in ever reading at all! I never seen ending with so much tacked on misanthropic bullshit since Elfen Lied and A Wind Named Amnesia. If you want a Green Aesop done right watch Princess Monoke, or play Sonic CD or Liberation Maiden! When a movie like Ferngully or a show like Captain Planet did it better than you over 10 years ago, then you know something is wrong.
After the hiatus, things were ok at first, but further I got in the story, the more things started to become wrong. The characters, heroes and villains, became more preachy and condescending about how humans are "ruining nature" and becoming to too involved with technology, the action scenes became really weak and anti-climatic, and the story sides with a main villain,Hao Asakura, (the protagonist twin brother who is over 1000 years old, can re-incarnate every 500 years getting stronger if he gets killed) who plans to destroy all of humanity for a shaman only world. He never succeeds in killing humanity (not so much as stopping, but delaying his plans), yet he never receives punishment for all the people he's killed human or shaman alike. His body count is in the 1000s and he still get to be Shaman King. To make this quick, the overall message is that humans are to petty, weak, "impotent", or "misguided" to change the world for the better.
The message itself hypocritical and pious in talking down to the audience in that early 90s environmentalism way.
1.) Shamans use most of our technology in-story and majority of the shaman characters should be more in tune with the natural and spiritual world.
2.) Hao would be destroying a part of nature by ridding it of all humans.
3.) We are supposed to feel sorry for him because he lost his mommy in his original life (killed for being a shaman) as a child and grew up with very few friends. Whatever he did have, Hao lost due to vengeance and going off the deep end.
4.) There were characters in the actual story itself that had it way worse than him; fuck, there are characters from other media that had it worse than the main villain, and most never turned out like him. Especially the heroes.
I don't know who wrote for the manga, but he, she, or, they are the complete antithesis of the anime adaptions writers for the worse. Keep in mind, the age group for this series was boys at ages 9-14 (obviously we got older), so what the actual fuck are they trying to teach these kids?! To the writer(s): Fuck your ending, fuck your shitty writing, and fuck your sequel I have no interest in ever reading at all! I never seen ending with so much tacked on misanthropic bullshit since Elfen Lied and A Wind Named Amnesia. If you want a Green Aesop done right watch Princess Monoke, or play Sonic CD or Liberation Maiden! When a movie like Ferngully or a show like Captain Planet did it better than you over 10 years ago, then you know something is wrong.
End Rant.