J.B. Norman's Blog, page 362
November 25, 2020
Good News at Last
I finally have a slightly more solid sense of how the final edits of my next story are progressing. And it’s looking like I’ll be able to have it submitted for publication before Christmas. Unfortunately, it may not be live for purchase in time for Christmas.
So why not buy one of the other fine Realmgard stories while you’re waiting? I mean, what reason could you possibly have not to?
[image error]Yeah, man. I don’t know, either.
Photo by Robert Nagy on Pexels.com
November 24, 2020
Recommendation: Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley: ConcernedApe and Chucklefish
More information here and here.
Official website here. Official Wiki here.
Considered with dispassionate detachment, Stardew Valley is, frankly, an entirely adequate video game.
Reading that back, it sounds harsher than I intended. The point I’m trying to make is that Stardew Valley is worthy of acclaim for reasons other than just its gameplay.
The real impressive thing about the game is that it was created by one man basically working out his basement. Yes, Stardew Valley may only be a “good” game, but that one lone man was able to achieve what he did is mind-boggling.
If Stardew Valley was no more than functional, it would still be a praise-worthy achievement.
But what is especially impressive is that one man has created, with minimal outside help, a game that not only functions technically, but manages to be engaging, engrossing, and interesting is a feat that will not often be repeated. Entire teams of professionals employed by billion-dollar companies have failed where Stardew Valley succeeds.
Stardew Valley is worth playing just for the sake of seeing what one driven person is able to achieve in a passion project.
Of course, Stardew Valley is also worth playing because it’s good. The shortest version is that it’s Harvest Moon (the series itself is now called Story of Seasons due to some complicated legal and licensing issues) for the 21st Century. This is entirely deliberate.
Though, worth noting, it actually plays more like the Rune Factory games (which are great; play them), including dungeon-crawling and combat, and having some mild Fantasy elements — one of the villagers is a wizard (named, of all things, “Wizard“) and the game’s main story arc, such as it is, involves helping a race of tiny, circular forest spirits restore the fortunes of the town.
While the game does ostensibly have a goal to work towards (fix the town’s community centre) and a time limit or sorts (you’re evaluated after three in-game years), you can’t lose, you can’t die (if you run out of health in one of the dungeons, you just lose some items and wake up in the town hospital), and that time limit isn’t absolute (after the initial evaluation, you can still play indefinitely and use a few items to get re-evaluated to increase your score).
[image error]Take it to the bridge. Specifically, this one.
Stardew Valley: ConcernedApe and Chucklefish
All in all, it’s a very low-pressure, low-stakes game that is conducive to playing both in small spurts (“I’ll just pop in and water my crops.”) and long hauls (“I will play through the indisputable best character’s entire romance arc.”). It’s also incredibly open-ended. Sure, the game points you towards farming as your main source of income, but you could also focusing on mining, or fishing, or exploration. You can get married. Or not. You can work on completing the main story, or any number of side quests. Or not.
After you play for long enough, the game world starts feeling pretty small. On the other, there’s still a lot of stuff to do. And to be fair, that inevitably happens to any game after you play it enough — after eleven years, even a game like Skyrim starts to feel small. And once, again, it’s hugely impressive that one man wokring by himself still did a better at this than some big budget games from major studios.
Stardew Valley is a relaxing, lighthearted (yet also very emotional and insightful at times) game that offers a lot of freedom with basically no pressure to the players. It’s also a very nice change of pace from the fast-paced, in-your-face violence and unrelenting bleakness that seems so fashionable in video games these days. Despite the lack of obvious stars or dew. Though to the game’s credit, it does indeed take place in a valley.
November 22, 2020
Recommendation: Inuyasha
Inuyasha: Sunrise and Viz Media.
More information here, here and here.
Funny story, when I was a kid watching Inuyasha, I’d be thinking: “Aw, man! They’re ruining a perfectly good adventure story with all this stupid romance! You have a giant sword, why aren’t you chopping demons apart?”
Now that I’m older and wiser, the thought process has become: “Aw, man! All this adventure is getting in the way of a perfectly good romance story! Why are you still chopping demons apart with your giant sword?”
Like the original English version of Sailor Moon, Inuyasha is yet another anime that technically qualifies as CanCon due to being dubbed by a Canadian studio. Like Sailor Moon, Inuyasha is one of the most popular mangas/animes of the Turn of the Millennium. And, if you’re Canadian and more or less my age, you probably owe your knowledge of them to YTV.
Like Sailor Moon, Inuyasha is fundamentally a romance story. Which, if you’re familiar with Rumiko Takahashi’s other work, should come as no surprise. It’s largely also an adventure story that owes more than a few elements to Journey to the West — incidentally, anyone else remember the Journey to the West cartoon from the late ’90s?
[image error]I had a heck of time finding a picture of the main characters all together.
Inuyasha: Sunrise and Viz Media.
The basic premise of Inuyasha is that modern-day teenager Kagome ends up transported back into the Sengoku era via magical well (you know, as one does), where she meets the eponymous Inuyasha, a half-demon (specifically dog demon; that’s more or less what “Inuyasha” means) with a quick temper and generally bad attitude who’s fundamentally a decent guy despite his frequent protestations to the contrary.
Together, they begin hunting for the pieces of a shattered magical jewel (that they shattered in the first place) that promises immense power to whoever can put it back together, contending with various demons, monsters, and miscellaneous ne’er-do-wells. The romantic tension starts pretty much immediately.
Along the way, they encounter the young, mischievous shape-shifter Shippo (he’s supposed to be a kitsune; personally, I think he looks more like a squirrel), the monk Miroku, who is constantly trying to convince female passers-by to bear his children — it makes marginally more sense in context; he’s been afflicted with a curse and needs to father a child to carry on his sworn mission to kill the bad guy (more on him later) before said curse kills him — and the demon hunter (for all intents and purposes, a ninja) Sango, out to avenge the destruction of her clan.
Inuyasha sort of has the same problem as Sailor Moon, in that it takes a while for the main group to characters to all get together, but it’s not quite as bad in that it both happens slightly quicker and that the first season of Inuyasha doesn’t have a major climactic battle in the same way Sailor Moon does for it to feel like they’re going from “just met each other” to “saving the world” nearly as abruptly as the Sailors.
The main, overarching villain of the series is mortal-turned-demon Naraku, who can occasionally be over-the-toply and one-dimensionally evil, even for the villain of a Fantasy anime. He serves the purpose of being the obstacle the heroes must overcome perfectly well, but the most meaningful and interesting conflict in the series is between Inuyasha and his older half-brother Sesshomaru.
The juxtaposition between the Jerk with a Heart of Gold Inuyasha and the Jerk with a Heart of … Less Jerk Sesshomaru allows for a lot of good storylines as they encounter each other throughout the series, And Sesshomaru, who was never really even a villain to begin with, probably has the deepest and most significant character development of any character in the series.
[image error]And he’s absolutely gorgeous.
Doubly impressive, given that his dad was a giant Dog-Monster.
Inuyasha: Sunrise and Viz Media.
There’s also the recent sequel Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, which is about the children of Inuyasha‘s main characters. I can’t really comment on it. I’ve only watched the first episode. Nothing really happened, but it did an acceptable job of setting where the plot will be going.
As with my previous recommendation of Lodoss War, I feel like I should give fair warning that Inuyasha can get pretty violent, and the bad guy monsters can range from unsettling to outright horrifying. The manga is even more graphic, but is somewhat mitigated by the fact that it’s still images in black and white, rather than live in living colour like the anime.
But, for reference, I was watching in junior high and I turned out alright.
November 20, 2020
RealmgART: The Wombax
“My name is the Wombax, a friend of the plants. Be good to nature, or I’ll crush you like ants.”
The legendary guardian of Realmgard’s largest and most ancient forest, the Wombax is an equally-ancient Bear-Deer-Man-Ogre … thing of great power said to speak only in rhymes.
Despite his reputation as the fearsome, heavy-handed guardian of the forest and his general elusiveness, the Wombax is, in fact, quite amenable to visitors and will only ever resort to force after giving fair warning.
In addition to his role as the guardian of the forest, the Wombax is also known to teach the peoples of Realmgard how to co-exist with nature and to help these peoples gain what they need from the forest. However, he will visit a terrible vengeance upon anyone foolish enough to attempt to exploit the forest and its resources. Many stories about the Wombax mention the large club he carries for this very purpose.
November 19, 2020
RealmgART: The Eternal Struggle
As something of a sneak peek at the next Realmgard story, here’s a picture of one of its main characters, the aspiring half-Dwarf, half-Goblin adventurer Pela Strahlend facing off against her natural enemy: a tall shelf at the Porthaven Central Library.
[image error]As the son of a Hobbit, I know the feeling.
Twelve
A big Thank You to the twelve people who are now following me.
And to the rest of you, twelve people couldn’t possible be wrong — so, clearly, you should also be following me.
And also, you should tell two people to each tell two people to also follow me.
Stay Tuned for more good stuff.
November 18, 2020
Continuing to Continue, Part 2
Still working on the last round of edits for my next story.
In the meantime, I’ve been working on a lot of artworks that will hopefully be posted here, on Facebook, on Instagram. And also Twitter, but I hate Twitter and don’t use it very conscientiously.
November 17, 2020
Recommendation: Pro Wrestling
probably the most famous match in Pro Wrestling history.
WrestleMania III: WWE.
An overview of the sport here. And a detailed look at its history here. Helpful glossary of terms here and here. A list of promotions, major and minor, here.
Pardon me if this feels like me going a little off the rails for my next recommendation, but I figure a little lateral thinking every now and then is probably a good thing.
Also … I, uh, I’m running out of ideas.
[image error]Yeah, man. I don’t know either.
Photo by Robert Nagy on Pexels.com
Fundamentally, Pro Wrestling is the only sport I care about. Though I will freely admit to watching the odd football game — football is the one with the horses, right?
[image error]This is, I believe, a picture of legendary football guy John Elway.
Photo by Milena de Narvaez Ayllon on Pexels.com
It should make my allegiances perfectly clear to say that I can schedule my wardrobe so that I can wear nothing but Wrestling shirts indefinitely: six shirts for the first six days, another for laundry day, wash the first six, repeat.
“But Greatest Living Author J.B. Norman,” you say, “don’t you know Wrestling is fake? How can you like it? Aren’t you worried people will think you’re some kind of simpleton?”
To which I say: why, I had no idea!
[image error]Photo by Robert Nagy on Pexels.com
Clearly the Undertaker is a genuine, bona fide, 12000% authentic Magic Zombie Cowboy. What’s next, some kind of ridiculous claim that Chief Jay Strongbow was actually Italian? Or that Kama Mustafa was not, in fact, the Supreme Fighting Machine?
But, seriously, yes, I’m aware Wrestling is fake.
No, I don’t care.
Yes, I still enjoy it.
No, it’s not any more fake than anything else on TV.
Also, don’t you have something better to do with your time than mock something as utterly harmless and inconsequential as other peoples’ pastimes?
The essence of drama is conflict. Wrestling is basically nothing but conflict. Ergo, Wrestling is the purest and truest form of drama. Q.E.D and so forth.
It gives us the opportunity to watch superhuman athletes with the physiques of Ancient Greek statuary —
[image error]This is either Heracles, or Randy Savage.
Photo by Griffin Wooldridge on Pexels.com
— solve their problems by beating each other up in ludicrous fashion. It’s exactly the same reason people watch martial arts movies.
Look, I’m not going to tell go that you have to absotively, posilutely start watching Wrestling or you’ll be wasting you’re life. I just think you should watch a little Wrestling and you’ll probably be able to find at least some enjoyment in it. There are enough major Wrestling promotions for the sport to offer something for everyone.
[image error]This is what happens when you look for stock photos about Wrestling.
I have no idea where or when this picture is from, or what promotion is depicted.
Photo by Patrick Case on Pexels.com
Many fans on the Internet would hold WWE as the least-interesting promotion out there. Of course, to most people (especially those who don’t follow the sport), WWE is Wrestling, a fact owed to Vincent Kennedy McMahon, who is more or less single-handedly responsible for the current state of Wrestling, for better or worse.
This makes WWE the most easily accessible promotion, especially for casual fans and it is nevertheless currently the home promotion of some of the best Wrestlers of either gender on the planet. And WrestleMania remains indisputably the biggest event in Pro Wrestling. And there’s an insane amount of content on the WWE Network, basically their Netflix.
All Elite is the daring upstart promotion, with a pretty good network TV deal and the backing of a major corporation (being owned by Shahid Khan, also the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham F.C.; detractors will no doubt point to the recent records of those teams…).
Thanks to its high-level in-ring action and for being the first real competition WWE has had since the death of WCW, All Elite is the current darling of Internet fans. It has, however, attracted some level of criticism for over-indulging in goofy comedy, its relatively under-represented women’s division, and for the most off-puttingly zealous members of its fanbase (which, to be fair, is a segment that exists of every fanbase).
Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA) has nearly gone out of business several times in its history, but has repeatedly come back from the brink and seems pretty secure for the near future, being owned by the same corporation that owns the network it airs on.
Impact may not have the audience it once did, but has managed to settle into a comfortable niche by combining solid in-ring work with over-the-top character work that makes it feel distinct from any of the other major promotions. Plus, given that it’s produced by a Canadian company and prominently features numerous Canadian Wrestlers, I think it qualifies as CanCon, which is always a bonus.
Japanese Wrestling usually feels significantly different from North American Wrestling. Japanese promotions, especially the largest, New Japan, present Wrestling as a real sport and do more to maintain the illusion. This extends to the actual Wrestling being less “fake”. It’s called Strong Style and basically means that that they’re actually hitting each other. It’s still scripted stage-fighting, just with more full contact. This is occasionally criticised by the fanbase, as it has an unfortunate tendency to lead to the Wrestlers getting pretty reckless with themselves and each other.
Japanese Wrestlers aren’t necessarily more flamboyant characters than North American Wrestlers, so much as they have more flamboyant gear, aesthetics, and entrance sequences — Shinsuke Nakamura was a bright red ninja covered in sequins on at least one occasion, Kazuchika Okada had a giant sword and a dinosaur once, Hiroshi Tanahashi air guitars his way to the ring, Taichi is pretty much the Phantom of the Opera in tear-away pants, Jushin Liger‘s entrance video was literally the opening of his anime — yeah, he has an anime (technically, the anime has him; the Wrestler took the gimmick from the anime character).
Because of things like this, the average Japanese Wrestler has a lot more personality than the average North American Wrestler.
[image error]Pictured: the personality of the average North American Wrestler.
Photo by Valeriia Miller on Pexels.com
Despite presenting it as a real sport, Japanese Wrestling isn’t completely devoid of levity, and there are several promotions focused primarily on comedic Wrestling.
For example, DDT Pro-Wrestling has a title called the Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, which can be challenged for at any time, in any place. It has changed hands nearly 1500 times and has been won by a ladder, a painting, several different dolls, food and beverages, a cat, a Bolivian boy, no less than two invisible wrestlers, through games of rock-paper-scissors, in a dream, and has even been won by the title itself (the defending champion was knocked out, the belt fell on him, and the referee counted a pinfall).
I would also be remiss to mention that Pro Wrestling is a big deal in Mexico, home to CMLL, the oldest Wrestling promotion still in operation. Legendary luchador El Santo, the single most famous Wrestler in a country filled with famous Wrestlers, not only became an icon and a folk hero, but also starred in over 50 movies — not as an actor, as El Santo. Who could forget such timeless classics as Santo vs. the Evil Brain, Santo vs. the Diabolical Brain, Santo vs. Frankenstein’s Daughter and Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man?
[image error]They don’t make statues of just anyone.
Image via Wikipedia.
Used under Creative Commons license.
So, yes, I like Wrestling. The real question is, why don’t you?
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/UnpleasantAnotherBluebottlejellyfish-mobile.mp4
#HeyYo.
Footage via WWE.
Image via gfycat.
November 15, 2020
Detail of a Map: The Tarandarii
Admittedly, it’s been a while since I left off on this series of details of the map of northern Realmgard. Full disclosure, part of that was the fact that I forgot there were still details of said map to, well, detail.
So here’s the next part.
The semi-nomadic peoples of the northernmost regions of Realmgard (once again: Realmgard is the continent, Terrace is the planet) are generally referred to collectively as the “Tarandarii” (singular “Tarandarius”), a name which means “Reindeer People”.
While this wrongly suggests that all of the peoples of northern Realmgard are a singular, unified group, it does accurately reflect the importance of reindeer herding which many of these people have in common. The Tarandarii use these herds for food, clothing, and transportation and as draft animals.
Given the remoteness of many of these northern peoples, few people in southern Realmgard, except for a particularly industrious travellers, have ever seen the Tarandarii or their reindeer herds, leading to many of the nuances of their culture being either lost and misunderstood or else exaggerated and romaniticised in the popular accounts written in southern Realmgard.
November 13, 2020
Further Thoughts on Funny Puppets
Photo by Min Thein on Pexels.com
I mentioned this in passing in my last post, but the first appearance of puppets that can rightly be considered Muppets came in the 50s, with a serious of commercials promoting Wilkins Coffee on local TV. Interestingly, Jim Henson actually filed patents for the two proto-Muppet characters.
The commercials revolved around the pro-coffee Muppet resorting to increasingly hilariously-sadistic methods of punishing the anti-coffee Muppet for his unforgivable offence of … not liking Wilkins Coffee?
Yeah. He’s a real piece of work.
It’s the same basic premise as a Looney Tunes cartoon, really. And this sort of slapstick is a big part of the Muppets’ brand of humour. It’s interesting to see that it was there from the beginning, even before they could really be considered “Muppets”.
Anyway, you can see some of these commercials for yourself below.
