Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
Post By
HH

In Reply To
Anime Jason 
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Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
Subj: It's not the size of your villain enclave, it's what you do with it.
Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2016 at 03:41:42 am EST (Viewed 4 times)
Reply Subj: And this is the biggest one yet!
Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2016 at 10:08:31 pm EST (Viewed 1294 times)



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    I never agree with harming other people's characters. Put them in temporary jeopardy, maybe, but I do sympathize with each character I use. I also believe strongly in consequences. So if Dancer would take a beating, whoever did it would have to deal with the consequences; in my small writing world, it probably would mean having to deal with a certain infuriated female Samurai who reserves less talk and more violence for people who do just that kind of thing.


There's an unsubtle gap between using a character in a dramatic story and using it in a personal attack.

I have done quite horrible things to characters over the years, many of them in the Parodyverse. Where possible I've also given those characters moments of redemption, revenge, or justice. With other people's characers I've usually had permission to do permanently-altering things.

The excpetion has been with some long-absent posters wose characters I have sidelined off to various happy endings - or at least endings. This felt neccessary to me because otherwise why wouldn't those now-abandoned poster characters be right there helping out their established friends in their darkest hour? I feel it actually damages the characters when they don't chip in when they logically would. So sometimes I find excuses for them to vanish like their posters. Troia returned to Amazon Isle and the whole island was severed from the Parodyverse. Ziles became Queen of distant planet Xnylonia. Starseed became one with the Gah! force. And so on.


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    By the way, there's a part of the story I never finished which relates to Chiaki's fury toward violent types of people, I probably should at least clip and post that somewhere.


Okay.


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      Even cause and effect are altered, making it possible for a well-trained human to avoid a spray of bullets more often than not.



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    Funny you should mention that, because Chiaki's training is based entirely on videos I've seen of real people, with the exception of her psychic visions.



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    In reality, a well-trained person...can't dodge bullets at all. But if they can clearly see the person shooting at them, they can take advantage of the lag time needed to actually aim, squeeze the trigger, and fire a bullet. It was actually demonstrated on Mythbusters.


Most PV unarmed fighters are generally portrayed to be able to do much more than that (as in all comic universes). Fictional goons seem compeltely unable to aim machine guns, laser rifles etc. There's clearly a narrative law - unless it is repealed.


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      What our present storyline explores is what happens of those exceptions are stripped away, leaving science and physics no different to our world.



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    Ok but here's the trick: I believe that the barrier would only be able to suspend *current* differentials in the rules, not go back in the past and change previous ones. Which is why I believe Hallie might be safe. While she was once a strange A.I., her software has changed enough that it resembles something new that would no longer run afoul of the current rules.


That wouldn't be the worst possible scenario, though, would it?


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    And ultimately, THAT'S what Dr. Lia is supposed to have finally cracked. So now we're back to that no one in their right mind in the real world would give Dr. Lia the money to do that. What's fortunate for Anna and Nena is that the barrier can't go back and retroactively take away Dr. Lia's funding.


They might prudently prefer to be in Lemuria aiding with rebooting other robots than testing the theory with a risk of destruction in the mundane world.

From a writer's economy viewpoint I don't want to spend a limited word count (dioctated by limited project time) detailing exceptions to the overall problem. The PV is full of characters who might claim exception to this and any situation. Creators and readers are free to imagine them. I'm just going to diplomatically not cover them.



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    The barrier itself that's taking away powers isn't something that the characters have quantified, so Hallie *is* justified in worrying. They don't know what the rules are yet.


There's an alternate take on consequences in Chapter 12.


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      We'll be picking up on Chiaki in about three chapter's time.



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    Chiaki has had her psychic gift for so long, she'll probably feels like she's suddenly blind as it fades away. She'll have a hard time convincing herself to go out and face the world like that.


Chiaki is certainly having problems, but then so will the serial killer she'll be heading out to track down.