Friday, September 6, 2013

The Top Eight Writing Cliches That I Will Never Do(Warning: Some Graphic Imagery Inside)

I've been writing fan fiction for quite some time but I would also write some original works of fiction. I have seen some cliches in both fan fiction and original fiction that is just a giant pet peeve of mine and I swore that I would never incorporate it into my stories.

Right now I'd like to discuss the top eight writing cliches that I will never incorporate into my stories. There are alot of cliches that I wouldn't use but I'm narrowing it down to those that are my main pet peeve

8.

Mary Sues/Gary Stus

Having a character that is flawless and perfect can be a bit of a writers handicap. I like my share of an escapist character but one has to be careful in that it doesn't devolve into a boring invincible hero or a boring invincible villain. When I would do a character I would try to make said character not 100% perfect. Also we just love stories where a character would overcome harsh obstacles, not stories where" Oh another obstacle that a character will overcome with less difficulty".


7.

Tsunderes

Not really down with the whole double standard if a female treats a guy like crap it's ok cliche. Especially if said female ends up with the guy and made no attempt to make amends with how bad she treated said male character.  If you're going to make said Tsundere character end up with the guy she bulled then at least make some effort to develop her into a more likable character and have her atone for her actions against said guy she bullied.

6.

Damsels In Distress

In this current age you haven't been seeing that many characters that are created just to get saved EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. like you used to back in the day. While there are characters that would tend to get in a jam from time to time it can get irritating if their whole point of existence is to get into trouble and have someone get them out of it. Why not do something different by having a character, who is known to being a damsel in distress, learn from past experience and become genre savvy about it. Maybe have character set a trap for said villain. You know take a level in badass

5.

Women In Refrigerators

The plot element that involve the girlfriend of said hero getting killed in a pointless and unceremonious manner just for the sake of creating drama. The two worst offenders I'd say is Ultimatum and Identity Crisis.

Ultimatum



















Janet got better













Identity Crisis

















It gets worse






















You know what makes this bad enough? It's a rip off of this..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhvtzgxl0eQ

Two things that makes the original better.

1. Angelus didn't rape Jenny

2. There was a meaningful build to it, there wasn't anything that screamed cheap shock value.

Speaking of...


3.

Cheap shock valued deaths

Death happens. It's inevitable. But mainstream comics seem to turn death into a cheap gimmick to bring in sales. Death shouldn't be used as a cheap gimmick. It should be something that provides an emotional impact and change the characters or the world around it. For instance in the original Star Wars trilogy Luke's adoptive parents were killed by storm troopers and Obi Wan was later killed by Darth Vader. What made both scenarios impactfull is that it helped progressed Luke's heroes journey. If one uses character death, especially of a main character or main supporting character then have it provide some kind of impact.



2.

The Bully

You've seen this kind of character before. The one note antagonist to the main character that said main character must overcome. We are supposed to hate the bully character since the character's whole existence is to make the protagonist's life a living hell. However don't some writers ask themselves" What does a bully do when not tormenting the protagonist or why they are what they are or is there any part of them thats actually a decent human being?"

The one movie that actually deconstructs this cliche is The Breakfast Club since it shows characters who could be known as The Bully but are actually given layers during their time in detention and you actually get to see what made them become what they've become. I think the only character that wouldn't pass as a Bully in that movie is Brian.

1.

Pointless Rape Scene

To use a few quotes


"Take a good look at your story. Why do you think a rape is what you need for it to progress? Is there something else that could fill the same function? Unless you have a damn good reason to include rape in a story, you probably shouldn’t."
Rachael Edidin, InsideOut 
 I know who I am when I'm saying this, but rape is possibly the worst thing one can do to another. Such an act, if included in a narrative, will bring it to a grinding halt. You have to respect your audience and address the issue directly. You do not diminish this violent act by making it the sidestory.
Bennett The Sage on the rape subplot in Doomed Megalopolis

This is perhaps the cliche that connects to the other cliches that I've mentioned. You want to make a villain horrible well there are more creative ways to do it. Also it annoys me when the act happens then the next day it gets completely ignored. The biggest offense is that the victims friends doesn't support the victim when said act happen, what happened with Ms.Marvel for example.
I also don't do the whole Rape As Comedy thing. Yes there are moments I'd laugh at the ridiculousness of the Rape As Comedy cliche but at the end of the day, especially when I'd write the scene I make it a point that. RAPE. ISN'T. FUNNY!!!

In CAU I had a situation where a male character got raped by another male character and that was not played for laughs. I did not show the scene in graphic detail but only it's aftermath and the character dealing with it. I still made a point in that the scene carries as much impact to not just the character but his friends around him. For instance it caused the members of The Order, a military group that the character is apart of, to have a more close bond than before and there is a moment where some even felt guilt over what happened. Outside of that I've never done a rape scenario, given the uncomfortableness of it.
If there is a cliche that you don't normally use when writing fiction or if you have some thoughts concerning what I wrote down then pop in a comment.

Honorable Mention

Character Bashing

There are characters I've hate but turning them into something worse than what they originally are is just lazy IMO. Why not take a character that you hate and make some efforts in improving the character for the better? For instance in a Buffy story I've managed to turn both Dawn and Kennedy into well adjusted characters. Also I've managed to make Loki a more trickster type of character, with some layers, when compared to his 616 version before character development kicked in.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Trailer Review: Robocop The Remake

















Sometimes it's not good to be right.

It's ironic when looking at this as it was not too long ago that I've openly defended Ben Affleck as Batman, despite that I'm not completely for him as Batman. Usually I'd be all" Lets give the film a chance guys". But this.... I knew it was going to be fail the minute I've started hearing about some not too flattering changes. Making it PG-13 being one of them.

Do yourself a favor, just watch the original. It still holds up. I'd even go as far as to recommend Robocop 3 since that one at least has Cyborg Ninjas and I'd recommend it if you ever have some friends over and just need a movie to enjoy by poking fun at it.

You know what? Despite the crap I've given Kick Ass 2 the trailer makes Kick Ass 2 look like Avengers.

Monday, September 2, 2013

The Joker: How to make him interesting

Possibly one of the most critically divided characters in comics, some people love him and some people just want him to die. Me personally I don't really have a love or hate view of him as personally there isn't much about the character that could get me emotionally invested enough for me to either love or hate. Before I get things going I just wanted to get something off my chest....

This is by no means a rant blog. Just my personal thoughts concerning the character. If you like The Joker then thats cool but just remember that this is my opinion of him. And that opinion is, I don't find him all that.

To be fair there was a moment when I took interest in him, that was during the Tim Burton version of The Joker. Primarily because when compared to the other versions of The Joker that version at least had a motivation. Revenge. Revenge against his former mob boss that tried to double cross him and revenge against Batman in dropping him into a vat of chemicals. Which makes him somewhat of a tragic character as Batman tried to save him but couldn't. You also had his further backstory in murdering Bruce's parents.




Personally, I liked that bakstory, it was a nice little spin on the character and it made the situation between Batman and Joker even more personal.

The primary reason why I don't care for the character because of one simple answer. He does what he does for the lulz. Thats it. Granted there are some good characters that do what they do for the lulz but usually they ended up being one note characters. For a character thats as long running as The Joker you have to change the guy up or otherwise the character ends up becoming stale. You have to give the guy something to keep on going instead of staying with the same old routine.

Take Loki for example. After so many years Marvel finally gave him something to do other than antagonizing Thor and from what I've heard it's getting a positive response. His character arc as Kid Loki even made me care for the 616 version.

No matter how DC spins the story it's still the same old Joker terrorizes Gotham, Batman tries to stop him, Joker dares Batman to kill him, Batman gives some speech why he cant, he beats him up, Joker gets locked up, Joker escapes, rinse and repeat. You know what would make an engaging story?

Have Joker actually reform. I'm serious.

Now before you guys go on about say this would hurt the character and ruin what made him popular in the first place I say hey it's not the first time DC or even Marvel has done it with their villains so why shouldn't Joker get one?

Heres how I see it. Have him struggle with his reform. Also don't have people be so quick to forgive him. I can see him having trouble with people holding a grudge against his actions during his psycho clown days. Maybe resulting in him taking a few beatings from said people giving him a hard time, with the police refusing to help him. Maybe some scenes of him trying to hold down a job, with some awkward glances from customers and fellow co-workers. You can even build up to him trying to be a hero himself. Maybe more of a Jack Sparrow esque anti-hero but still a hero

The only downside is given the crap the character has done the only way this could work is if it were an elseworlds story.

Another possibility would be to give him some semblance of a backstory. Alan Moore provided a few hints in his Graphic Novel The Killing Joke. I think what would make a interesting story is what if Joker happened to be the son of the guy that killed Batman's parents? Think about it.

I also would like to see the environment change due to Joker's actions. For instance the law enforcement is forced to become more competent and the judicial system is making things a little more difficult for the Bat Rogues and the criminal underworld to bend the law in their favor due to Gotham cracking down on crime so it would be nice to see how he operates with so many disadvantages. Especially with the possibility that he now has the rogues and the criminals after him.

Ditch Harley: I'm not talking about scrapping the character but I am talking about scrapping the twisted romance they have. For one if you're seriously considering reforming Harley then don't have her keep going back to a guy thats treating her like crap. And another thing if you had to keep them together then this goes back to my Joker reforming thing. Have the two go through a bit of a reconciliation. Otherwise I really don't see the point in pairing the two.

Know his limits: With all the villains in DC I don't buy that he's the tip top villain in that universe since there are other villains that can easily kick his ass and kill him. There is a reason why he doesn't mess around in Superman's hometown or even Flash's hometown because they don't put up with him like Batman can. There is nothing wrong with making him competent but dont Gary Stu him.

Thats just my two cents on the subject.