I hate cliffhangers. In all forms of media.
I deal with sort term cliffhangers. In books it doesn't really matter. I read really fast, so I can get to the next chapter easily. It was pretty annoying when I was listening to an audiobook of one the Dresden Files that my father had bought. I kept wanting it to go faster and I wasn't about to do other things while I listened. I would have missed something.
Cliffhangers in books are one thing. Most of the time they aren't that important. Television they start to piss me off. They usually come out during a bout of character derailment or just when they have made everything about the show suck as it is. Now the characters are all imprisoned, or about to be killed, or are killed. And we end the season.
It would be one thing if they ever dared to do any of those things but they won't. Within three minutes of the season opener they escape or dodge the bullet or discover that was only their body double. If someone does die, we know that before next season because we hear about whether they have a new contract.
All it turns into is writers or producers torturing characters we like. There was a book I read that pissed me off because every character you started to like got killed very quickly. Another book I read started out good, but devolved into how can we torture the main character. A lot of foreshadowing and a cliffhanger in that book.
When it comes to television I like how Bones handles cliffhangers. They do them with an extra episode in the season so we don't have a month to stew over nothing. If they kill off a character (or make them insane) they do it right in front of you. It also lets them discuss the emotions the characters are going through immediately instead of ignoring them as most shows do.
It might be something to do with new media and the internet but most people would now skip the last episode until they are closer to the new season so the torture isn't so strong. Of course, I have been known to stop watching a show if they start setting up for a large scale cliffhanger, often the cliffhanger is what makes me leave.
Cliffhangers in movies. Should not exist. It assumes that there will be multiple movies, which is not something anyone can assume and it's just bad formatting. The movie ends when the story is over, not after we add something extra so that you watch the next movie. I'm not talking about the Marvel movies with the teaser after the credits, I mean Matrix II and III. Pirates had the same problem too, but I can at least state that the story for that movie ended. A TV show gives us a cliffhanger and they are only being so optimistic that they will last until next season, if a movie does it either they know that they have another movie or they are just being a dick to you.
You may have noticed that several shows have decided to have cliffhanger endings this season. Now you know why I might not be watching them next season.
-X
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Wherein I rant about things that don't seem related
I'm bored so I'm going to go on a rant.
For starters: I watched half of the first season of New Amsterdam on Hulu last night. Actually a little more than half of it. It's actually a decent show and I never realized it. The preview that Hulu gave me while I was watching last week's episode of Bones was much better than the ones that I remember when the show was on the air. In other words they created a show and then didn't advertise it properly.
Of course this shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that Fox failed in the background work of a television show (also see Firefly)
The other thing I have been doing a lot of is rereading things. I have been working on Codex Alera
, which is an awesome series and you should read it. It could also be an awesome movie, but they would screw it up. If you have read it you know that they have a huge secret show up in book three and be completely revealed in book four. It's actually really obvious, to the point that the main character does a facepalm when he learns about it, because the entire point is that he's really smart and that he somehow didn't catch this is just amazing. A dozen other people figure it out before he does (including the you, because it gets to be really obvious).
Anyway, the point of rereading it is to try to catch the foreshadowing. There is a lot there, but it's very subtle. Most of it is in off-hand comments that people make, such as how his caretaker refers to her role in his life. A lot of people can read emotions in the book so if she was to outright lie, or even bend the truth, people would know that something was up, but in the context of the story it makes perfect sense.
What am I getting to? Well, I want to see this type of preparation to take place in television and movies. I like to write by the seat of my pants. I like to create as I write, not transcribe what I created earlier, but what we end up having is stories that loop around and bite itself. Stories without an end. Literally, that is how Seinfeld
ends. They return to the first conversation from the first episode. We only have foreshadowing for a couple episodes at a time, maybe to the end of the current story arc. Later seasons of Buffy did have some foreshadowing in them. Dawn is foreshadowed an entire season before she shows up.
Most shows though, don't foreshadow because they don't know if they will have another season. They don't attempt to build up to something. Another problem is that they keep doing a minute by minute accounting of what the characters are doing. House, M.D. would do a time skip whenever there was a break in production, the exception was when he was in rehab (which occurred in 'real time'). Going back to books, The Dresden Files usually have a year in between. Dresden even tells us that the interior of his car is eaten out but a mold demon, because he does stuff outside of the three days of the year that he saves the world.
What we need to see in television is for the writers to stop worrying about whether they will have another season and worry about what they will be writing the next season. Showrunners need to end shows when they have run there course. They should be making milestones for what they want to accomplish.
Most of these people played Dungeons and Dragons at one point in their life, don't they know how they build up the action? Start small and then at some point the characters find themselves fighting the big bad. Don't have them fighting the big bad once a year with us knowing that they never get to live happily ever after. Even Codex Alera ends with the the characters pretty sure they have a couple decades of peace before they need to go back to war.
I'm also totally for time jumps. Add an extra five years in between seasons. Have the characters change a bit, particularly the supporting characters. They should be changing as much as the main characters, but the main characters might go meet them and discover that they aren't nearly as big of dicks as they remember and maybe they don't mind working with them that much anymore.
And once you have that done you can save money by a dozen episodes. Use that money to make the episodes you have that much better. We don't need filler episodes, even need good television.
-X
For starters: I watched half of the first season of New Amsterdam on Hulu last night. Actually a little more than half of it. It's actually a decent show and I never realized it. The preview that Hulu gave me while I was watching last week's episode of Bones was much better than the ones that I remember when the show was on the air. In other words they created a show and then didn't advertise it properly.
Of course this shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that Fox failed in the background work of a television show (also see Firefly)
 |
| I wonder what the secret is... |
, which is an awesome series and you should read it. It could also be an awesome movie, but they would screw it up. If you have read it you know that they have a huge secret show up in book three and be completely revealed in book four. It's actually really obvious, to the point that the main character does a facepalm when he learns about it, because the entire point is that he's really smart and that he somehow didn't catch this is just amazing. A dozen other people figure it out before he does (including the you, because it gets to be really obvious).Anyway, the point of rereading it is to try to catch the foreshadowing. There is a lot there, but it's very subtle. Most of it is in off-hand comments that people make, such as how his caretaker refers to her role in his life. A lot of people can read emotions in the book so if she was to outright lie, or even bend the truth, people would know that something was up, but in the context of the story it makes perfect sense.
What am I getting to? Well, I want to see this type of preparation to take place in television and movies. I like to write by the seat of my pants. I like to create as I write, not transcribe what I created earlier, but what we end up having is stories that loop around and bite itself. Stories without an end. Literally, that is how Seinfeld
ends. They return to the first conversation from the first episode. We only have foreshadowing for a couple episodes at a time, maybe to the end of the current story arc. Later seasons of Buffy did have some foreshadowing in them. Dawn is foreshadowed an entire season before she shows up.Most shows though, don't foreshadow because they don't know if they will have another season. They don't attempt to build up to something. Another problem is that they keep doing a minute by minute accounting of what the characters are doing. House, M.D. would do a time skip whenever there was a break in production, the exception was when he was in rehab (which occurred in 'real time'). Going back to books, The Dresden Files
usually have a year in between. Dresden even tells us that the interior of his car is eaten out but a mold demon, because he does stuff outside of the three days of the year that he saves the world.What we need to see in television is for the writers to stop worrying about whether they will have another season and worry about what they will be writing the next season. Showrunners need to end shows when they have run there course. They should be making milestones for what they want to accomplish.
 |
| We can totally take it on. |
I'm also totally for time jumps. Add an extra five years in between seasons. Have the characters change a bit, particularly the supporting characters. They should be changing as much as the main characters, but the main characters might go meet them and discover that they aren't nearly as big of dicks as they remember and maybe they don't mind working with them that much anymore.
And once you have that done you can save money by a dozen episodes. Use that money to make the episodes you have that much better. We don't need filler episodes, even need good television.
-X
Thursday, April 21, 2011
How to make Pokemon better
So I was just thinking about how the Pokemon games could be better. They won't ever change because as is they make a shit ton of money, but we've all thought about how they could be better.
The first thing they need to drop is encouraging to catch them all. Only a few crazies do that and it just creates a lot of aggravation for the rest of us. It doesn't help that there are now ten billion different pokemon, or that about three dozen a game are duplicates of pokemon from previous games. Every game has a new rodent pokemon and a new bird pokemon and a new pair of completely useless bug pokemon. We don't need new pokemon like that. Make new cool pokemon, but once again, not epic pokemon. We don't need the new Zapdos.
While we are on this topic lets add that you can't capture unique or mythological pokemon. No capturing Mew, MewTwo, Zapdos, Moltres, etc. How do you prevent this? Don't have them show up. People talk about them but you never see them. For one I expect that people would murder you if you tried to used ones of those pokemon in battle since they are considered to be gods in the pokemon world. Secondly, they wouldn't be trainable. Normal pokemon are the same intelligence as humans, Myth pokemon are smarter and nothing you say to them is going to get them to battle for you.
Next I want to change moves. I want more then four of them. I think we can all agree on this. Also in wild pokemon battles I want to be able to use as many pokemon at a time as I want. I also want to be attacked by herds/flocks of pokemon at once. I can't imagine that pikachus are going to just attack you one at a time, if they do they deserve to be used as biological batteries. And aren't there also Plusun and Minum (Yes I know I misspelled it) who are pokemon that have moves that only work with the other one nearby? Why would they ever attack without their friend?
Now to some story stuff. Age up the characters to fifteen. I keep thinking that their supposed to get their pokemon license at age ten and not leave their homes on their own until they are older. This is a Japanese thing that you see a lot of in their literature, little kids doing things that adults would fail at. Don't make the Gyms the main point of the story. Give the option of joining team rocket. Create training methods that are effected by type and personaty. Give us the option of beating our pokemon when they misbehave. I'd also like to order my pokemon to attack trainers. Officer Jenny finds out you get in trouble and you can't in Gym battles but so what?
Okay, maybe we are asking for more then a gameboy can handle. We have no choice but to move to a full console device. The Wii, I guess, since Nintendo makes Pokemon games. Of course it would make an interesting MMORPG, with all my adjustments which would require a real computer and might make Nintendo cry.
Of course this is only a handful of things they could do to make it better. I could go into detail but I'm bored with this now, so I won't.
games could be better. They won't ever change because as is they make a shit ton of money, but we've all thought about how they could be better.The first thing they need to drop is encouraging to catch them all. Only a few crazies do that and it just creates a lot of aggravation for the rest of us. It doesn't help that there are now ten billion different pokemon, or that about three dozen a game are duplicates of pokemon from previous games. Every game has a new rodent pokemon and a new bird pokemon and a new pair of completely useless bug pokemon. We don't need new pokemon like that. Make new cool pokemon, but once again, not epic pokemon. We don't need the new Zapdos.
While we are on this topic lets add that you can't capture unique or mythological pokemon. No capturing Mew, MewTwo, Zapdos, Moltres, etc. How do you prevent this? Don't have them show up. People talk about them but you never see them. For one I expect that people would murder you if you tried to used ones of those pokemon in battle since they are considered to be gods in the pokemon world. Secondly, they wouldn't be trainable. Normal pokemon are the same intelligence as humans, Myth pokemon are smarter and nothing you say to them is going to get them to battle for you.
Next I want to change moves. I want more then four of them. I think we can all agree on this. Also in wild pokemon battles I want to be able to use as many pokemon at a time as I want. I also want to be attacked by herds/flocks of pokemon at once. I can't imagine that pikachus are going to just attack you one at a time, if they do they deserve to be used as biological batteries. And aren't there also Plusun and Minum (Yes I know I misspelled it) who are pokemon that have moves that only work with the other one nearby? Why would they ever attack without their friend?
Now to some story stuff. Age up the characters to fifteen. I keep thinking that their supposed to get their pokemon license at age ten and not leave their homes on their own until they are older. This is a Japanese thing that you see a lot of in their literature, little kids doing things that adults would fail at. Don't make the Gyms the main point of the story. Give the option of joining team rocket. Create training methods that are effected by type and personaty. Give us the option of beating our pokemon when they misbehave. I'd also like to order my pokemon to attack trainers. Officer Jenny finds out you get in trouble and you can't in Gym battles but so what?
Okay, maybe we are asking for more then a gameboy can handle. We have no choice but to move to a full console device. The Wii, I guess, since Nintendo makes Pokemon games. Of course it would make an interesting MMORPG, with all my adjustments which would require a real computer and might make Nintendo cry.
Of course this is only a handful of things they could do to make it better. I could go into detail but I'm bored with this now, so I won't.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Thinking bigger
I'm reading an article about someone starting a comic book shop after they created a convention in Florida. Yeah, it makes total sense and is not at all confusing.
The article is saying how the number of comic book shops has dropped in recent years comparing it to Borders closing. I have several problems with this.
Start with Borders. I never cared for their selection. Most people that like bookstores don't like major chains and if they go to a chain they want it to have the book they are looking for. I prefer Barnes & Noble, they just feel nicer. It might help that most BNs have a coffee shop built in and some of the ones near me have a permanent speaker/book signing area. They come off as more of a community gathering area then Borders did. Borders is just a large store that sold books.
Another thing with Borders. I went to our local Borders yesterday to get some clearance books. Everything was 30% off, except for Romance, which was 40% off. They were so overstocked with Romance it wasn't even funny. They had extra sections of Romance set up and had it spilling into other sections. That is why they are going out of business, they don't have books people want to read. I also looked over at the Young Adult section to see what they had left. It was three ten foot long shelves. Harry Potter books go in that section and I think they didn't have room for them. Young Adult is not a small area of book sales, it's very popular. For one I see a lot of people writing it for Nanowrimo.
Don't worry about faux Twilight novels though, they were safely in the Romance section.
Now the comic books shops. I didn't grow up with them. Any of them. The closest was forty-five minutes away in a direction I rarely went (or an hour and a half the other direction). Yes, traditional book stores are now carrying some comic books, but they didn't when I was little, and the chance that they had something that would interest me was incredibly rare. No one I knew in high school was particularly interested in comic books because of this, which is a shame.
What do comic book shops need to do? They need to be more then just a specialized book store. They need to be a community center. When I finally did get out to the one forty-five minutes away I was astounded by the place. For one it was huge, the size of a big box bookstore, but half of it was tables. To place games on. Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Apples to Apples, Solitaire, Chess, GURPS. This are things that require people to come to you, it makes it a community meeting place. Added benefit that they will probably purchase extra cards or dice or expansion packs while they are in the store, which means more money. And when I say they had table I mean twenty tables that could sit eight. They knew they were the only thing for miles and they were prepared for it.
And it works in a bad economy too! They might not buy as much but they will still be there to see the merchandise. They might buy less expensive things but at least you have them in the store.
And I'm not the only one with the community center idea. Libraries are trying to switch from a loan books business plan to a help people with simple tasks.
I suck at closing arguments.
The article is saying how the number of comic book shops has dropped in recent years comparing it to Borders closing. I have several problems with this.
Start with Borders. I never cared for their selection. Most people that like bookstores don't like major chains and if they go to a chain they want it to have the book they are looking for. I prefer Barnes & Noble, they just feel nicer. It might help that most BNs have a coffee shop built in and some of the ones near me have a permanent speaker/book signing area. They come off as more of a community gathering area then Borders did. Borders is just a large store that sold books.
Another thing with Borders. I went to our local Borders yesterday to get some clearance books. Everything was 30% off, except for Romance, which was 40% off. They were so overstocked with Romance it wasn't even funny. They had extra sections of Romance set up and had it spilling into other sections. That is why they are going out of business, they don't have books people want to read. I also looked over at the Young Adult section to see what they had left. It was three ten foot long shelves. Harry Potter books go in that section and I think they didn't have room for them. Young Adult is not a small area of book sales, it's very popular. For one I see a lot of people writing it for Nanowrimo.
Don't worry about faux Twilight novels though, they were safely in the Romance section.
Now the comic books shops. I didn't grow up with them. Any of them. The closest was forty-five minutes away in a direction I rarely went (or an hour and a half the other direction). Yes, traditional book stores are now carrying some comic books, but they didn't when I was little, and the chance that they had something that would interest me was incredibly rare. No one I knew in high school was particularly interested in comic books because of this, which is a shame.
What do comic book shops need to do? They need to be more then just a specialized book store. They need to be a community center. When I finally did get out to the one forty-five minutes away I was astounded by the place. For one it was huge, the size of a big box bookstore, but half of it was tables. To place games on. Dungeons and Dragons, Magic the Gathering, Apples to Apples, Solitaire, Chess, GURPS. This are things that require people to come to you, it makes it a community meeting place. Added benefit that they will probably purchase extra cards or dice or expansion packs while they are in the store, which means more money. And when I say they had table I mean twenty tables that could sit eight. They knew they were the only thing for miles and they were prepared for it.
And it works in a bad economy too! They might not buy as much but they will still be there to see the merchandise. They might buy less expensive things but at least you have them in the store.
And I'm not the only one with the community center idea. Libraries are trying to switch from a loan books business plan to a help people with simple tasks.
I suck at closing arguments.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Stuff, stuff, and more stuff
Huh, what happened to the last month? That was officially the first month I did not post a single blog for. Scary, though I'm not sure it's scary because I didn't post or because it's been nearly two, no three years? Of course I haven't written very much this year so far. I just checked and realized that I'll be posting a 200% increase today versus the rest of the year also known as January.
So what am I doing?
I am still unemployed. I am staying with a friend for a while. I'm planning on writing two scripts this month before I write my Screnzy script in April. Oh, by the way I'm a Municipal Liaison for Screnzy now. Basically I'm a local volunteer that tries to make the madness of Screnzy a little less so for the rest of the participants.
I've been doing 750words.com which is probably the time I would be writing for this blog. I am sick of it because the timing that is kind of interesting for the purpose of discovering how fast you write begins to get annoying as you get into the seventy day streak. Yesterday I used Ispum Lorem so that I could use the time to work on my scripts. A big difficulty with the site that some of us have noticed is that there is another step to writing call revision and editing. I might not be writing something new but I don't need to be if I am still working on a writing project. Because of that I'm probably going to quit the site before the end of the month, once I have reached one hundred days and have the phoenix badge. Cause phoenixes are cool.
Well that is about all that has been happening to me recently. Hopefully I will post again soon.
So what am I doing?
I am still unemployed. I am staying with a friend for a while. I'm planning on writing two scripts this month before I write my Screnzy script in April. Oh, by the way I'm a Municipal Liaison for Screnzy now. Basically I'm a local volunteer that tries to make the madness of Screnzy a little less so for the rest of the participants.
I've been doing 750words.com which is probably the time I would be writing for this blog. I am sick of it because the timing that is kind of interesting for the purpose of discovering how fast you write begins to get annoying as you get into the seventy day streak. Yesterday I used Ispum Lorem so that I could use the time to work on my scripts. A big difficulty with the site that some of us have noticed is that there is another step to writing call revision and editing. I might not be writing something new but I don't need to be if I am still working on a writing project. Because of that I'm probably going to quit the site before the end of the month, once I have reached one hundred days and have the phoenix badge. Cause phoenixes are cool.
Well that is about all that has been happening to me recently. Hopefully I will post again soon.
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