Taboo Topics (Heavily moderated)

Fooflyer · Post by **Fooflyer** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 2:34 am

Apparently the grunts yelps and gurgling noises they constantly make are described as "Something that sounds as if it comes bellowing out of the very jaws of hell itself."

Game Angel · Post by **Game Angel** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:14 am

Fooflyer wrote:Apparently the grunts yelps and gurgling noises they constantly make are described as "Something that sounds as if it comes bellowing out of the very jaws of hell itself."

There's a reason they're called "devils".

Fooflyer · Post by **Fooflyer** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:17 am

Really? Wow, why could that be?

Hmmm...

This reminds me of a puzzle.

Fauche · Post by **Fauche** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 4:22 am

I just argued with a friend over a graphic novel he wants to write up. It's a really cool idea. Unfortuantely, we differ in writing methods. I kept trying to argue to create a great deal of character development, as well as have a relationship between the protagonist and a member of the enemy faction. But he completely disagrees. He claims that it would take away from the theme, form the impact of the extreme of having the antagonist completely void of anything.

I think it's important to have at least that one character in the enemy's ranks to highlight the evilness of it, rather than have it completely blank. It would make the story too unbalanced.

Miss Starseed · Post by **Miss Starseed** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 6:07 am

But such a romance is just as cliche as having a faction of nothing but evil. Think of more ideas.

Plasma · Post by **Plasma** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 11:24 am

You shouldn't be trying to highlight the evilness in the first place. Greed, sure; pretensious, fine; but having an opposing force that's just Evil is nothing but amateur writing. Instead, you should be making them be trying to create a better society, but in doing so they're too ambitious and aggressive and too absorbed in their own world-view to notice that while what they're doing is beneficial to their own faction, it's ruining all the others.
In other words, you want the opposing faction to be evil by regular standards, but where they are at least partly relatable, and you can see where they're coming from.

And a faction should never be 'soulless' anyway. Remember, those that're doing all the conquoring work never just do it because it's something to do, they do it because they really think what they're doing is beneficial; either to them, or to the general populace.

And yes, I am making huge generalisations about how you did it based on one post. But I'd be surprised if I amn't right about my presumptions anyway.

Karilyn · Post by **Karilyn** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 12:35 pm

Personally, I think it's fun to write a story where initially, it seems like black and white good and evil... But as the story goes, moral ambiguity increases until eventually, the two sides are equal. Then throw out one final thing that allows the good guys to win, but pushes them into a realm where they are now morally darker than the "bad guys" were perceived initially.

I know there has got to be a Trope for that, cause I can think of at least two stories off the top of my head that did that. Animorphs being the best example.

SHUT UP I CAN PUT MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES ON A PEDESTAL IF I WANT TO.

Plasma wrote:And a faction should never be 'soulless' anyway

The only time soullessness really works, IMO, is with sci-fi for like a one-consciousness alien species like the Zerg in Starcraft. But even they have reasons and motivations for why they are all "conquer and assimilate everything" which basically amounts to "I want daddy to love me as the greatest of his children by becoming genetically perfect and killing daddy"

zombiejesus · Post by **zombiejesus** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 3:02 pm

I loved Animorphs. And still do. I need to get all the books!

Crawfish · Post by **Crawfish** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 5:33 pm

Villains are always sort of a tricky mess...But I've started to feel that the whole "Oh no, we are a dark society with intentions that we perceive as okay" is sort of getting like, reversely-cliched. It's in everything now. Maybe someone that's just purely evil seems a bit flatter, but I think that in the end it gives off a much scarier vibe. Then, when the "evil" is defeated, it actually feels like you accomplished something. Look at Voldemort: he really has no ulterior good intentions...He just had a really crappy childhood. Unlike Karry, however, who came out a stronger person, he just wants to make everyone else even more miserable than himself. Mommy issues.

It's just a matter of taste, though. Then coming to the whole "Hey, our relationship transcends enemy lines" thing...Obviously, if one side is pure evil, I can only imagine the relationship is based on superficial things. Generally if people are together, they have some sort of common ground aside from both being very good at sex.

Crushter · Post by **Crushter** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:11 pm

Karilyn wrote:Personally, I think it's fun to write a story where initially, it seems like black and white good and evil... But as the story goes, moral ambiguity increases until eventually, the two sides are equal. Then throw out one final thing that allows the good guys to win, but pushes them into a realm where they are now morally darker than the "bad guys" were perceived initially.

I know there has got to be a Trope for that, cause I can think of at least two stories off the top of my head that did that. Animorphs being the best example.

SHUT UP I CAN PUT MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES ON A PEDESTAL IF I WANT TO.

Plasma wrote:And a faction should never be 'soulless' anyway
The only time soullessness really works, IMO, is with sci-fi for like a one-consciousness alien species like the Zerg in Starcraft. But even they have reasons and motivations for why they are all "conquer and assimilate everything" which basically amounts to "I want daddy to love me as the greatest of his children by becoming genetically perfect and killing daddy"

Hive minds don't work like that. They're more like one General Consciousness. One coherent thought that controls them all.

DoNotDelete · Post by **DoNotDelete** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 7:49 pm

When writing a story, try not to think of good and evil, but more of differences of opinion that clash with one another.

This makes it easier to discern the protag's and antag's different motivations and goals too.

Only do this if you want your story to come off with any sense of realism.

Karilyn · Post by **Karilyn** » Thu Oct 01, 2009 8:25 pm

Crush Bandicoot wrote:Hive minds don't work like that. They're more like one General Consciousness. One coherent thought that controls them all.

Hive mind is essentially an misnomer. It does in fact mean a literal singular consciousness. This is because scientists used to believe that insect hives worked that way. Singular consciousness of insect hives was debunked, but the term stayed around.

Crawfish · Post by **Crawfish** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:38 pm

Guys this isn't really a taboo topic and more like just a discussion on something I didn't want to make a thread about. But it could devolve into something taboo. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Oh my god I wish I could control water.

DoNotDelete · Post by **DoNotDelete** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Crawfish wrote:Oh my god I wish I could control water.

Miss Starseed · Post by **Miss Starseed** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 7:45 pm

Shapeshifting. It's like wishing for more wishes from a genie.

Okay if I had to pick something that didn't basically give me every power, I'd probably want to fly. Water is also cool though - maybe I'd want to have mermaid powers. Under the sea.

Edit: Ahahahaha DND~ <3