McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Unrealism In Books
Dread Pirate Sayessa:
--- Quote from: terioncalling on January 31, 2007, 02:23:07 PM ---
--- Quote from: Velkyn_Faer on January 30, 2007, 11:55:30 PM ---As to the butter knife, Jim Butcher should totally have Harry in a fight with that. He's laying in a ruined diner, smoke drifting in the air, with tables and chairs overturned everywhere. His opponent stands over him and kicks his blasting rod away with a laugh. Harry snarls a curse and rolls, searching for anything to use to fight back. His hand closes on something, and he hauls himself to his feet, lifting his weapon. His eyes widen with surprise as he realizes that he held a butter knife. It would have to do.
--- End quote ---
Omigod, YES. I am drawing Chibi!Harry now with a butter knife and a WTF look. ;D It must be done.
--- End quote ---
...so where's the linky? We must see Chibi!Harry with butterknife... NOW! LOL
SoulCatcher78:
--- Quote from: terioncalling on January 30, 2007, 02:17:15 AM ---
My life blows.
No, really, it does.
Here I am, bleeding and covered in grime that’s made of stuff I don’t even want to think about, and standing in front of one of the scariest things mankind has ever seen – a god walking on earth. Don’t ask what god; nobody knows or really cares to find out anymore.
But, yeah, here I stand with a crazy, gun-toting Amazon woman to my right and a half-reformed Black Mage to my left while everyone else runs in terror. And what do I have? A frickin’ butter knife.
See? My life really does blow.
--- End quote ---
I almost snarfled all over the keyboard from that, lol. Great quickie job.
recentcoin:
--- Quote ---1. Cat/fox/monkey/cow/anything else -demons. Uh-uh. I don't see why so many people were/are fascinated with a dude that has a tail growing out of his rear. While some people will certainly think differently, I don't see the huge deal about it. Why cross a human with a fox, what's the point?
--- End quote ---
It depends on what you're doing and how. Free reign to anything that's well written. Where would manga and anime be without those kooky hybrids?
--- Quote ---2. Insanely big weapons. Why do people think swords that are taller than them are cool? And, how come almost all the people I talk to about this are willing to defend it vehemently, saying it's just really big, and we could use them in real life if we had them?
--- End quote ---
Having fought with these kinds of weapons myself a few times, I can tell you that the idea of pixies wielding flaming greatswords wouldn't fly in world that has physical laws that even vaguely resemble our own. Most of what gets passed of a greatswords in video games and such also wouldn't work in the real world. Myself, I prefer a mace or war hammer, shield, and heavy armor. I'm strong enough to bull rush you and have taken several people off their feet, winning my bout in the first few second of contact.
Even if I don't, I have a shield to block your blows, particularly from the fancy-schmancy 2 handed weapons while I continue to pound on you with considerable force using my blunt solid object. It doesn't take me long to begin to put dents in things. Now, since we fight for fun and bragging rights, we tend to avoid blows to the head and such. The moral of the story here is that while you can't really hit me, thanks to my shield. I can shove you all over the tournament field and wail on you basically at will. There's a good reason that in the old tapestries you don't see gigantic fancy swords. When you live and die by your weaponry and your ability to use it, you don't have time to dink around with showboat pieces. You use what works and what keeps you alive until the next battle.
Secondly, steel weighs .283 pounds per cubic inch and steel plate weighs in 1/4" thick = 10.2 pounds per square foot. Steel is *heavy*. To give you a real world example, we'll look at the Scottish claymore, one of the larger swords that was ever in common usage. The "William Wallace" claymore is a whopping 54" long from sword tip to pommel. 14" of that is the hilt and the other 40" (for you math impaired) are blade and it weighs in at a whopping 6 pounds. Now, six pounds doesn't sound like a lot until you try to start swinging it around for hours on end. That's the real world example.
The "fantasy" example I'll use is a rather misguided in-duh-vidual I know who owns an "Excalibur Replica". This thing is a full 6 feet (72") long and weighs in about 20 pounds. I'm strong and know what I'm doing and I can't barely get the tip of that monster off the table top. Making the dangerous assumption that you could wield it, it's far too long for me to manage effectively and I'm not exactly a runt. It's far to long to manage effectively in anything approaching a confined space - like a room where it would get stuck in the ceiling while you're trying to slash and jab. It's completely retarded and created for people who know nothing about weapons and think that, like the male member, swords that are bigger are some how better.
--- Quote ---My question to you is, do you use these items/characters in your stories? And, please try to persuade me with better reasons than 'it is cool'. I'd love to be persuaded, really. I just don't see the point behind it all.
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I have one character that carries a gigantic sword around, but she almost never uses it for anything at all. It's ceremonial and something of a penance for her to have to carry it with her everywhere she goes.
2 cents,
RecentCoin
Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon):
Human/animal hybrids I have no problem with: there's a long-standing tradition in a lot of mythologies with animals morphing into people (ie. kitsune in Japan) or gods/demigods being partly humanoid and partly animal (ie, fauns/satyrs and centaurs in Graeco-Roman myth). There's even a small, almost forgotten touch of this in Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Byzantine Rite Catholicism: there's a little known but very ancient icon of St. Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, that depicts the saint as a kind of dog-human chimaera with the head, tail and legs of a dog and the arms and torso of a human. The legends about him describe him as "a giant", but this didn't always mean a big-huge humanoid creature that would make Michael Clarke Duncan look like a midget; the original Greek word which our "giant" is derived from meant anything very strange-looking and rather vaguely humanoid.
Human-demon hybrids, I don't touch that since I'm really not too comfortable around demon-characters. Just my devout Catholic upbringing, nothing more. I've got the same position about demons as Michael does. :: laughs a little::
Big-ol' weapons. In a fantasy situation, I can suspend my disbelief, but I'll still be scratching my head for a moment or two. Case in point, Seras and the big-ass anti-tank gun in "Hellsing". I remember laughing at the image of this wee girl with a gun longer than her entire body, and then thinking, "How the hell is she going to use that big wonking thing?!" And then having to remind myself she's a vampire now, she's not limited by the limits of mere human strength.
Cyclone Jack:
The answer to both questions is that people are lazy and tend to rip things off that they think are cool.
Avoid cliche. The first rule. Both hybrids and giant weaponry are now ridiculously over-used cliches.
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