gb: (circle)
I've been watching Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster with my mother while we eat our dinner. After watching so much of it, I've come to believe that this series demonstrated a very obvious, but essential aspect of plotting and characterisation.

(I have read a few of Wodehouse's original stories but so long ago I'm sticking with the television series like a pleb for this post)

Wooster is not an inherently interesting or sympathetic character--he's a very dim bulb, avoids responsibility, is in turns self-centered and overly idealistic, and to him, hard work (aside from climbing buildings and other such larks) is something that happens to other people while he's throwing bread rolls at other idle gentlemen at the Drones Club.

But thanks to his status and easygoing lifestyle, and the fact Jeeves is in his employ, his friends and acquaintances constantly take advantage of his time, money and apparently the fact that he exists. Last episode I watched had his fiancee break a man's leg with a car, then put him up in Wooster's flat and tell his family that Wooster was driving! His aunts, the closest thing Wooster has to parents or authority figures as far as I've seen, berate him for being useless, yet continue to give him nonsensical and dangerous errands benefiting only them.

When Wooster makes an effort to prevent more shenanigans or to defend himself, everybody talks over him or tells him to stop interrupting. The ongoing comedic intent of this (juggling the Idiot Ball, to use TV Tropes parlance) is obvious, but over a period of time it builds empathy, even sympathy towards him, and leads to a certain satisfaction when Jeeves comes through again.

Most of these figures are harmless (I can't bring myself to like Stiffy though--what a nasty pasty!) and the stories are genteel and always (as far as I've seen anyway) end in the status quo, with Wooster not learning too much from his experiences and never losing more than his pride. But who can't relate to overbearing authority figures giving orders and insults in the same breath? Or charming but irritating friends lumping their woes on them and making their lives hell, and not being able to defend themselves? And so, who wouldn't want someone like Jeeves on their side?

It's all part of the comparatively harmless comedy, and at the same time, it's great storytelling.

I'd love to read fic and meta exploring the relationship between Jeeves and Wooster, but I'll have to be careful looking for it--it's not that finding slash in this fandom would infuriate me, so much as I wouldn't be able to look my mother in the eye. 8D;;;;
gb: (mawaru penguinwig)
So Hatoful Boyfriend (that pigeon dating game) is hilarious and beautiful

Spoilers are raining from the sky, so if you want to go in clean do it asap. Download it from here!

One of my many favourite things about the game is the player character. Below are slightly spoilerly reasons why (plus a major spoiler at the very end).

Read more... )

KIRAKIRA~

Nov. 1st, 2011 08:12 am
gb: (crystal blue)
I'm unimpressed by people who, whenever there's a pic or a story or other media of a 'traditional' vampire, feel the need to interject 'these are REAL vampires' and 'real vampires don't sparkle' or some shit

Every time!

Unpopular opinion: Glittering skin is a kind of weird, unusual concept for a supernatural creature, and could have been an interesting shtick if the story it was from hadn't achieved Twilight's particular popular-to-creepy ratio.

I dunno, it's just, it's not like people who draw high-fantasy dwarves feel the need to yell REAL DWARVES DON'T LIVE IN THE FOREST AND PLAY THE ACCORDION all the dang time.

Now I'm wondering if there's a seething mass of haters I can't see due to language barriers that is furious about Romance of The Three Kingdoms heroes being turned into cute girls with humongous breasts all the time and flood discussion forums with 'HELL YEAH AND THE REAL LU BU ISN'T A LOLI' oh I dunno I'm gonna go pack

HALP

Oct. 4th, 2011 12:36 pm
gb: (you've got a friend in me)
So apparently I'm running a video game panel at conSENSUAL (a new yaoi/yuri 18+ con)? 8D?

This is something I really want to do, actually, but I'm concerned about how to approach the subject. Another person is running an Ace Attorney fandom panel and they've hooked us up suggesting we could run a combined panel into one or as some sort of video games block. I'm not sure if our approaches would be compatible for a single panel--I don't have any love for fandoms that are strong and popular enough to be of mainstream interest to the average congoer to discuss alongside the fearsome juggernaut that is AA. Seriously, I just made a tally of my OTPs (as they are) in my head and if I met myself on a forum I would not stop laughing at myself. (Of course, I'd also think I had amazing taste and I'd offer to buy myself a beer, but I would, wouldn't I?)

I'm going off track here.

I need to figure out what kind of panel I want to run, what I want to say, how to say it in a way that engages the audience, and how I'm going to prepare something like this before panel summaries are due.

Being the fan of obscure shit I am, I'd like to cover video games and genres that normally get skipped over, like non-fandomy games, indie games and mods, things like that.

From what I've seen of the convention websites, it looks like there will be a few non-anime convention regulars attending, so something that doesn't require a knowledge of the greasy inner workings of fandom might be a good way to go...

But really, I am stumped!

The point I'm getting to is, would any of you fine folk have any suggestions? For what subjects to cover, or an approach to take? If any of you have experience running panels (I've been to lots but was only on one, and didn't participate much for various reasons) I would be very interested to hear!
gb: (moon)
I'd like to participate in [community profile] fanart_recs but I've got the 'no one shares my fandoms' blues!

Maybe if I watched more Gintama I'd go for that; it seems to have a following on Dreamwidth... but anyway.

Ideas:

NieRRR (natch)
Osu Tatakae Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents
Lupin the Third (actually, that's a good idea...!)
Grasshopper Manufacture
Indie games (though I've moved away from using the term, or rather, seeing indie games as a 'scene'. There's still a lot of rad fanart for them out there!)

I'm also an eensy bit paranoid because the last time I shared fanart en masse someone used it all for icons, crediting the people who made the icon brushes and not the artists. (╬ ಠ益ಠ)

Of course, that was on 4chan when I was far more naive. Ah, regret....

I feel like rambling, but I am working full-time for a while starting next week and I've far too much to do before then.
gb: (Default)
Meme time. (who the heck pronounces it 'me me')

Name me a character! I will tell you:
1. How I FEEEEEL about this character
2. All the people I ship romantically with this character
3. My non-romantic OTP for this character
4. My unpopular opinion about this character
5. One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.
gb: (Default)
Day 07 - A song that reminds you of a certain event

Ugh another one I'm blanking on. This is not really an event, but I'll go with this.



After watching this AMV, I'd sing it to my mum in the car while we were driving places. Little did I know that it got stuck in her head for days every single time. She's threatened to play it at her funeral.

Promise I'll link to something not from my proto-weeaboo days next time.

The Meme )
gb: (Default)
Day 04 - A song that makes you sad

Pink Floyd - Time



It took me a while to choose this.

Also: Komm Susser Todd. It's the song I go to when I want to feel like absolute shit. How the fuck is Evangelion 4.44 going to top that?

The Meme )
gb: (Default)
As you may have heard me dither about already, I'm going to Japan, and I'll be going to Comiket 79! For at least days 1 and 2, and day 3 if I'm not traumatised by that stage.

If you would like something that's only avaialable at Comiket or somewhere else in Japan (otaku-related or otherwise), I'll be happy to try and grab it for you! If you have something in mind, please send a message to me (my Twitter nickname at Gmail) and I'll try to pick it up on your behalf!

A few caveats:
* This only goes for people I at least vaguely know. Don't have the time or the skills to be a proxy buyer, even if I could do with the commissions. :B
* I'm not getting anything ridiculously popular that involves lining up for six hours at Comiket before the buttcrack of dawn (none of the stuff I want is in this category, buggered if I'll do it for anyone else)
* I'm not getting anything that will get me party-v&ed in Australia. I'll be paranoid about losing anything even vaguely spicy in Customs as it is. :[
* As far as I know, the package weight limit between US and Japan is still in effect, so if what you want weighs over a pound, I'll have to send it in separate packages or via a slower method (if there is one?). If this bothers you, apparently the restriction is only for individuals sending mail, so if you have your eye on something, you might be better off ordering it online!
* I've got Paypal so sending me money should not be a problem~
* My Japanese skill = what skills? So if something's particularly obscure I might not be able to help, sorry! But I'll try my best!

Comments closed, email me!
gb: (Default)
(I won't make a habit of cross-posting to LJ, I am simply in a loquacious mood lately)

As I mentioned to a few other people, I've been drawing my own humanised version of the stuffy floating book in Nier. I haven't got any scans online right now, but he's a kind of weird-looking older man with dilated eyes and a sweeping fringe and a imperious look about him. I was considering drawing him for a while before I started, but the trigger was finding a fanwork I put through Google Translate where the book was portrayed as a young androgynous guy, and I had a giant 'NOOO YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG' moment. Not just because I prefer roses to lilies if you know what I mean :awes: I find older characters more interesting, but... I mean... well, just look at at this character! Even in the Japanese version where he doesn't have the Rickman-esque accent, he sounds and acts old! What the heck are you thinking!?

As it turns out: Non-game-breaking spoilers for Nier's backstory follow )

THIS GOES TO SHOW

1) If you're doing anything for a fandom where significant amounts of the background is in another language (or on the scale of Star Trek) you are far more likely to be doing it wrong than the people raised with it, you know, all their lives (this goes for both languages and Star Trek 8D)
2) Making spurious complaints about characters being turned into pretty boys, when said character was likely a pretty boy to start with in a game full of sweeping pale hair and zettai ryouiki, makes you look kinda like a dick.

Other people probably wouldn't worry about point 2 as much as I am now. But, as much as I find non-standard-attractive (and in several cases downright ugly) characters more interesting than the alternative, and as much as I enjoy being flippant over overly pretty things (like I've been doing for the rest of this darn post), the backlash against pretty boys kind of winds me up, every time I see it on deviantART and elsewhere. I've got reasons but as I go over them in my head it's going to take another post (or two). And now I feel like a doofus for going 'what the hell are you doing' at this Japanese fangirl I don't even know the name of because I'm a Google Translating scrub...

Don't be a doofus, I guess the moral is?

(Mind you, I'm still fond of my cranky strange-looking older version. It took fifteen years for me to become enamoured over what is essentially a bloody fan character but it's finally happened! I'm having terrible problems drawing him lately, though, likely because I'm distracted trying to draw the cuter young characters with an art style I'd describe as the Anti-Moe)
gb: (Default)
Wahey, someone gave me a paid account! Thank you!

I'm thinking about starting a new GHM comm over here. It's a bit ridiculous considering I'm wanting to dump the LJ NMH comm I've got onto someone else. XP I think I know what the reason is... What I actually want to do is make a community for somewhat weird games indie and otherwise, but I think a blog would be more appropriate for that.

I dunno lol *throws hands up for Detroit*
gb: (Default)
Something weird happened to my old default icon and I'm still in a bit of a snit at GHM anyway, so changed default icon to a picture going around the internet atm.

... it suits me.

goddammit no one on gaming sites knows the concept of image source/credit >I

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