Richard Roberts's Blog, page 8
October 25, 2015
Undertale Discussion - Asgore Dreemurr
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE UNDERTALE PACIFIST TRUE ENDING, THIS WILL REVEAL ALL ITS SECRETS. DON'T DO IT.
ALSO THE FACT THAT I'M WRITING THIS SHOULD INDEED BE CONSTRUED THAT I LOVED THE GAME.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to talk about Asgore.
I think Asgore Dreemurr gets short shrift from the fandom. I understand why, but I see no recognition of something very central to his character: Asgore is the second nicest NPC in Undertale, second only to Toriel.
Asgore is a nice guy. He is a very nice guy. He is a ridiculously nice guy. He is kind, generous, sweet, and responsible. His subjects spend large portions or their time telling you how kind he is. He sneaks into Snowdin at night and leaves presents. Undyne and Alphys worship the ground he walks on. Half of Alphys's self-hate is because she failed Asgore, who she reveres, and while she can't hide what she did to his son, she can at least hide what she did to his subjects.
Asgore has one flaw, and does one bad thing in the entire game. He tries to kill seven humans. Pretty horrible?
Well, he shares that flaw with every single other character in the game, with only two exceptions. Toriel doesn't. It's hard to tell if she tries to protect you just because you're a child, or if she has completely refused to take any part. I see hints suggesting the latter. Toriel is the #1 nicest person in Undertale, and deserves the love everyone has for her. Alphys does not take part, but it's not a moral objection. She doesn't even slightly blame Asgore. She's just not a fighter herself, and is too wrapped up in her crush on all things human.
Papyrus is signed on for this plan. He's just too goofy to stick to it. Papyrus is a very good guy, but he's not a better person than Asgore. Sans is signed on for this plan. He has a whole conversation with you to let you know that. He would have killed you the second you walked out of the ruins, except that he made a promise to his Secret Crush.
Undyne is the major player in the 'kill seven humans' process, will not accept a peaceful resolution to your battle, does her best to try and stop you from running away (she just isn't able to as thoroughly as Asgore), tries to kill you even after seeing that you're a nice person, and only gives up when you hold her life in your hands, and save it instead of killing her. Asgore does the same thing, with only one difference. Instead of being enthusiastic about this plan, he hates it. He drags his feet, does a half-assed job that's basically letting you kill him, and hangs his head in shame the entire fight.
In fact, that reluctance is a plot point itself. The True Ending happens because Toriel decides, not that Asgore is evil and has to be stopped, but because she can't stand back anymore and accept that it's either you or Asgore, and one of you has to die. When she does, she chews out Asgore and makes it clear she's never coming back to him.
But... what does she chew him out about? It's not 'trying to kill you'! Her complaint is that he does a half-assed job of it. Specifically, he could have gone out and killed six more humans the moment he got the first soul, but he makes everyone suffer because he hates his own plan so much, he's hoping everyone will die before it's finished. In the non-True pacifist ending, when you spare Asgore's life he is incredibly relieved. He will give up his entire plan, even though it means dooming everyone, because what he really wants is just to be Goat Dad. All that sad kindness he shows you when you show up is the real Asgore Dreemurr.
Asgore, as King of the Monsters, has a horrific moral decision in front of him. One option is to kill seven humans, so that he can take their power and free his people from imprisonment. The other option is to let his entire race die, to do nothing and watch the people who it's his responsibility as king to protect die in misery and absolute despair. They drum that point home quite hard in the early game. Those are his only two options.
Like any really good person, he refuses to accept that. He believes there must be a third option. That is Alphys's plot arc. Rather than killing anyone, he gets the smartest monster in the kingdom to research the power of humans, because surely there must be a way to obtain it without murder.
The result? His son dies, and is turned into a sadistically evil abomination. His wife leaves him. That is what his kindness gets him.
This is some serious tragedy. Asgore is stuck in the most no-win of situations. If he made the wrong decision, it's hard to blame him for it. I'm sure glad I didn't have to make it.
Asgore is a nice guy, and I don't think he's given enough credit for it.
And now, we come to the other side of this discussion, equally or more fascinating. A friend suggested, and I am now certain of it, that you are supposed to hate Asgore. You are led to hate Asgore. Tobyfox, very specifically, manipulates the player into not liking Asgore.
First, this is not a stretch, because it's completely like Toby. The whole game is full of meta commentary. It's full of secrets, and playing off of the expectations of players used to regular RPGs. How many players killed Toriel, not realizing that she would indeed die, and were horrified at what they'd done afterwards? Not a rare experience.
Well, Asgore is the boss monster, and you're trained by all computer game experience to view the final boss as the truly irredeemable evil that causes all badness in the world. (Fascinatingly, Toby then plays that AGAIN with the Flowey fight. He really works both to put the information in that Flowey=Asriel=a tragic victim and to make you ignore it.) Asgore comes at the end of the game. You never get to meet him beforehand. Unlike all the other characters, you never get to know him. This is a giant difference. You've had time to warm to Undyne already when you fight her, she's presented as silly, and you have lots of time after the fight to learn to like her. You meet Asgore only briefly, under very serious circumstances similar to those normally played in stories as betrayals.
Of the tiny amount of interaction you get with him, Toriel yelling at him is the most memorable. By then you (rightly) adore her, and she's just given a speech about her embrace of pacifism. It's such an emotional moment, it dominates your view of Asgore. Asgore = That guy Toriel is mad at for trying to kill you. Except that's not really true, it's just what Toby is trying to trick you into seeing.
That's a neat theory, but it would just be a theory except for one thing. Toby manipulates you in a way that can't be accidental. It would just be too unlikely to be random chance.
For a large portion of the game, you don't even know 'Asgore Dreemurr' is one person. 'Dreemurr' is a nice name, and when his subjects praise his kindness, that's the one they use. 'Asgore' is a threatening name, and when they talk about how strong he is, or his plan to kill humans, that's the one they use. It's colored red, no less! And 'As-gore'? What a mean sounding name! By the time you're presented with enough information to know they're one person, the pattern of 'Asgore is the bad guy' is thoroughly set, and they stop using his last name 'Dreemurr' at all.
Toby sets you up, and almost everyone falls for it. I figured out that Asgore Dreemurr is a nice guy, and I still have trouble feeling it emotionally.
I think that's neat, and it's worth dragging out for people to think about.
IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE UNDERTALE PACIFIST TRUE ENDING, THIS WILL REVEAL ALL ITS SECRETS. DON'T DO IT.
ALSO THE FACT THAT I'M WRITING THIS SHOULD INDEED BE CONSTRUED THAT I LOVED THE GAME.
Okay, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to talk about Asgore.
I think Asgore Dreemurr gets short shrift from the fandom. I understand why, but I see no recognition of something very central to his character: Asgore is the second nicest NPC in Undertale, second only to Toriel.
Asgore is a nice guy. He is a very nice guy. He is a ridiculously nice guy. He is kind, generous, sweet, and responsible. His subjects spend large portions or their time telling you how kind he is. He sneaks into Snowdin at night and leaves presents. Undyne and Alphys worship the ground he walks on. Half of Alphys's self-hate is because she failed Asgore, who she reveres, and while she can't hide what she did to his son, she can at least hide what she did to his subjects.
Asgore has one flaw, and does one bad thing in the entire game. He tries to kill seven humans. Pretty horrible?
Well, he shares that flaw with every single other character in the game, with only two exceptions. Toriel doesn't. It's hard to tell if she tries to protect you just because you're a child, or if she has completely refused to take any part. I see hints suggesting the latter. Toriel is the #1 nicest person in Undertale, and deserves the love everyone has for her. Alphys does not take part, but it's not a moral objection. She doesn't even slightly blame Asgore. She's just not a fighter herself, and is too wrapped up in her crush on all things human.
Papyrus is signed on for this plan. He's just too goofy to stick to it. Papyrus is a very good guy, but he's not a better person than Asgore. Sans is signed on for this plan. He has a whole conversation with you to let you know that. He would have killed you the second you walked out of the ruins, except that he made a promise to his Secret Crush.
Undyne is the major player in the 'kill seven humans' process, will not accept a peaceful resolution to your battle, does her best to try and stop you from running away (she just isn't able to as thoroughly as Asgore), tries to kill you even after seeing that you're a nice person, and only gives up when you hold her life in your hands, and save it instead of killing her. Asgore does the same thing, with only one difference. Instead of being enthusiastic about this plan, he hates it. He drags his feet, does a half-assed job that's basically letting you kill him, and hangs his head in shame the entire fight.
In fact, that reluctance is a plot point itself. The True Ending happens because Toriel decides, not that Asgore is evil and has to be stopped, but because she can't stand back anymore and accept that it's either you or Asgore, and one of you has to die. When she does, she chews out Asgore and makes it clear she's never coming back to him.
But... what does she chew him out about? It's not 'trying to kill you'! Her complaint is that he does a half-assed job of it. Specifically, he could have gone out and killed six more humans the moment he got the first soul, but he makes everyone suffer because he hates his own plan so much, he's hoping everyone will die before it's finished. In the non-True pacifist ending, when you spare Asgore's life he is incredibly relieved. He will give up his entire plan, even though it means dooming everyone, because what he really wants is just to be Goat Dad. All that sad kindness he shows you when you show up is the real Asgore Dreemurr.
Asgore, as King of the Monsters, has a horrific moral decision in front of him. One option is to kill seven humans, so that he can take their power and free his people from imprisonment. The other option is to let his entire race die, to do nothing and watch the people who it's his responsibility as king to protect die in misery and absolute despair. They drum that point home quite hard in the early game. Those are his only two options.
Like any really good person, he refuses to accept that. He believes there must be a third option. That is Alphys's plot arc. Rather than killing anyone, he gets the smartest monster in the kingdom to research the power of humans, because surely there must be a way to obtain it without murder.
The result? His son dies, and is turned into a sadistically evil abomination. His wife leaves him. That is what his kindness gets him.
This is some serious tragedy. Asgore is stuck in the most no-win of situations. If he made the wrong decision, it's hard to blame him for it. I'm sure glad I didn't have to make it.
Asgore is a nice guy, and I don't think he's given enough credit for it.
And now, we come to the other side of this discussion, equally or more fascinating. A friend suggested, and I am now certain of it, that you are supposed to hate Asgore. You are led to hate Asgore. Tobyfox, very specifically, manipulates the player into not liking Asgore.
First, this is not a stretch, because it's completely like Toby. The whole game is full of meta commentary. It's full of secrets, and playing off of the expectations of players used to regular RPGs. How many players killed Toriel, not realizing that she would indeed die, and were horrified at what they'd done afterwards? Not a rare experience.
Well, Asgore is the boss monster, and you're trained by all computer game experience to view the final boss as the truly irredeemable evil that causes all badness in the world. (Fascinatingly, Toby then plays that AGAIN with the Flowey fight. He really works both to put the information in that Flowey=Asriel=a tragic victim and to make you ignore it.) Asgore comes at the end of the game. You never get to meet him beforehand. Unlike all the other characters, you never get to know him. This is a giant difference. You've had time to warm to Undyne already when you fight her, she's presented as silly, and you have lots of time after the fight to learn to like her. You meet Asgore only briefly, under very serious circumstances similar to those normally played in stories as betrayals.
Of the tiny amount of interaction you get with him, Toriel yelling at him is the most memorable. By then you (rightly) adore her, and she's just given a speech about her embrace of pacifism. It's such an emotional moment, it dominates your view of Asgore. Asgore = That guy Toriel is mad at for trying to kill you. Except that's not really true, it's just what Toby is trying to trick you into seeing.
That's a neat theory, but it would just be a theory except for one thing. Toby manipulates you in a way that can't be accidental. It would just be too unlikely to be random chance.
For a large portion of the game, you don't even know 'Asgore Dreemurr' is one person. 'Dreemurr' is a nice name, and when his subjects praise his kindness, that's the one they use. 'Asgore' is a threatening name, and when they talk about how strong he is, or his plan to kill humans, that's the one they use. It's colored red, no less! And 'As-gore'? What a mean sounding name! By the time you're presented with enough information to know they're one person, the pattern of 'Asgore is the bad guy' is thoroughly set, and they stop using his last name 'Dreemurr' at all.
Toby sets you up, and almost everyone falls for it. I figured out that Asgore Dreemurr is a nice guy, and I still have trouble feeling it emotionally.
I think that's neat, and it's worth dragging out for people to think about.
October 19, 2015
Quick Question For My Blog Readers
Do you guys want me to post brief passages now and then from book three, if I think they contain no important spoilers? There aren't a lot of bits like that, but I stumbled across one and thought I'd ask.
October 5, 2015
Have Some Progress
I have carefully analyzed the last two days' progress. I see no spoilers I consider meaningful, nothing that would give away the rest of the book's secrets. Mostly it concerns world building, one of the few expository sections I ever write. My blog goers seem to like that stuff, so here it is.
The First Scene Of What Is Currently Chapter Eight
Also, here is a photo of a bush shaped like a ham.
The First Scene Of What Is Currently Chapter Eight
Also, here is a photo of a bush shaped like a ham.
September 14, 2015
STOP BEING SO AWESOME
No, don't stop. But that comments section was getting kinda full.
You guys have had some really good guesses on some things, but not so much with Penny's powers.
Here. Have some fan art. This is a character from the third book, drawn by one of my alpha readers who totally adores her.
The third book is finally coming along okay. I wrote the big Bull Reunion scene that I've been looking forward to for a long time!
You guys have had some really good guesses on some things, but not so much with Penny's powers.
Here. Have some fan art. This is a character from the third book, drawn by one of my alpha readers who totally adores her.
The third book is finally coming along okay. I wrote the big Bull Reunion scene that I've been looking forward to for a long time!
August 1, 2015
The Teasing Teaser
Chapter three of the third Inscrutable Machine book. This is all you're getting until it's finished and published, so make this last! I'm hoping that rather than satisfying you, it will make you crave the rest of the story. I chose these three chapters because they're sort of the book's 'part one', setting up what the book will be about - as much as that ever works with my books.
The Very Long Third Chapter
Enjoy. You do enjoy reading these, right? I'm enjoying writing them. I'll admit it - this whole chapter was a hoot to write.
The Very Long Third Chapter
Enjoy. You do enjoy reading these, right? I'm enjoying writing them. I'll admit it - this whole chapter was a hoot to write.
The Pictures I've Been Too Lazy To Post
Uh... moving is hard?
I've been collecting photos for awhile, mostly from my wildly failed trip to UtopYA, and never got around to posting them. So here they are, and any other photos I had in that collection!
Here's the Curiosity Quills table in the dealer's room at UtopYA. I spent most of Thursday and Friday there. What do you not see in this picture? CUSTOMERS. The con was practically deserted.
This was directly across from me. Every time I looked up, it was SIX PACK ABS. That was entertainingly ironic, because these photos don't convey just how incredibly few men there were at the convention. It took divine grace to position the one straight male author right across from the one steamy women's romance novelist.
The convention was a total loss from a business perspective, but I met a lot of other CQ authors, and they were the most wonderful women. They had a room party Thursday night, and while I did not get a photo of them shouting profanities at the top of their lungs while laughing, I do have these: The SO of one of the authors attempting a thing he heard about where you can open a wine bottle by putting it in a shoe and thumping it against the wall. It did not work, so he went and got the downstairs bar to open the bottle, which none of us had thought of. I think that means he wins!
So, there was no business Thursday, and a few people Friday who told us what everyone says at cons - that they would be back to buy on Saturday. That's how it always works at conventions. Well... UtopYA, in its infinite wisdom, closed the dealer's room on Saturday. That left us CQ authors up a creek, and I went sightseeing with Vicki Leigh and Gail Strickland (the two most awesome women in the universe, by the way*) in Nashville. This is them, posing beneath a gigantic gold-leaf statue of Athena.
Not kidding about the statue. Nashville has a life size replica of the Parthenon, including a reproduction of the lost statue of Athena. The gold leaf is real. The ivory is not.
Photo with humans in it, so you can see that it really is quite a large statue.
Interior detail on the shield.
Ducks. Always hiding. Watching me.
But vastly better than all of that, I offer you this: A birthday present drawn for me by one of my friends. I'm trying to figure out if I can size it to be a banner here, or something. Hopefully, at least some of you have read enough of my books to know what you're seeing!
*Okay, maybe not, but only because I know some truly spectacularly awesome women. Vicki and Gail were pretty badass, trust me.
I've been collecting photos for awhile, mostly from my wildly failed trip to UtopYA, and never got around to posting them. So here they are, and any other photos I had in that collection!
Here's the Curiosity Quills table in the dealer's room at UtopYA. I spent most of Thursday and Friday there. What do you not see in this picture? CUSTOMERS. The con was practically deserted.
This was directly across from me. Every time I looked up, it was SIX PACK ABS. That was entertainingly ironic, because these photos don't convey just how incredibly few men there were at the convention. It took divine grace to position the one straight male author right across from the one steamy women's romance novelist.
The convention was a total loss from a business perspective, but I met a lot of other CQ authors, and they were the most wonderful women. They had a room party Thursday night, and while I did not get a photo of them shouting profanities at the top of their lungs while laughing, I do have these: The SO of one of the authors attempting a thing he heard about where you can open a wine bottle by putting it in a shoe and thumping it against the wall. It did not work, so he went and got the downstairs bar to open the bottle, which none of us had thought of. I think that means he wins!
So, there was no business Thursday, and a few people Friday who told us what everyone says at cons - that they would be back to buy on Saturday. That's how it always works at conventions. Well... UtopYA, in its infinite wisdom, closed the dealer's room on Saturday. That left us CQ authors up a creek, and I went sightseeing with Vicki Leigh and Gail Strickland (the two most awesome women in the universe, by the way*) in Nashville. This is them, posing beneath a gigantic gold-leaf statue of Athena.
Not kidding about the statue. Nashville has a life size replica of the Parthenon, including a reproduction of the lost statue of Athena. The gold leaf is real. The ivory is not.
Photo with humans in it, so you can see that it really is quite a large statue.
Interior detail on the shield.
Ducks. Always hiding. Watching me.
But vastly better than all of that, I offer you this: A birthday present drawn for me by one of my friends. I'm trying to figure out if I can size it to be a banner here, or something. Hopefully, at least some of you have read enough of my books to know what you're seeing!
*Okay, maybe not, but only because I know some truly spectacularly awesome women. Vicki and Gail were pretty badass, trust me.
July 2, 2015
Please Don't Tell My Publisher
Spaghettis with it. I'mma post the first three chapters of the new book as teasers. From my experience, it can only hook people to want more. Here is...
Chapter One
Chapter Two
And I'll put up Chapter Three when it's ready. Plus, you get to see the awkward, pre-editing first drafts!
Chapter One
Chapter Two
And I'll put up Chapter Three when it's ready. Plus, you get to see the awkward, pre-editing first drafts!
June 24, 2015
Inside Out: Not Really A Review
I went and saw Inside Out for the second time today. The second time in three days, and after the first time I came home and wrote an entire chapter. So, yeah, I loved it.
BUT.
For anybody going to see it, just keep in mind that it's way less silly and way more serious than advertised. There are heavy duty Feels, and lots of them. You know the first ten minutes of Up!? About a third of Inside Out is like that. Very heartwarming at the ending, but MANY FEELS.
Oh, and I just mentioned writing a chapter.
So, yeah, I'm officially working on the third book. I'm wondering if I should sneak chapter two, and maybe three, up here. My publisher won't like it exactly, but if it's no more than that they won't especially fuss. Personally, I think it's a good advertising hook.
BUT.
For anybody going to see it, just keep in mind that it's way less silly and way more serious than advertised. There are heavy duty Feels, and lots of them. You know the first ten minutes of Up!? About a third of Inside Out is like that. Very heartwarming at the ending, but MANY FEELS.
Oh, and I just mentioned writing a chapter.
So, yeah, I'm officially working on the third book. I'm wondering if I should sneak chapter two, and maybe three, up here. My publisher won't like it exactly, but if it's no more than that they won't especially fuss. Personally, I think it's a good advertising hook.
May 22, 2015
Book vs. Movie, it's Howl's Moving Castle!
Some poor fool left a copy of Howl's Moving Castle lying on the table, so I stole it and read it. It's very rare that a movie is better than the book, but I seriously loved the movie and I wanted to check it out!
I can't tell you which is better, because they're so different, but I can talk bout how they're different, which to me is a neat topic.
Like I said, the movie and book are very different. The stories only vaguely resemble each other, with most of the major characters being at least recognizable, and Sophie's curse and Howl's deal with Calcifer being almost identical. Since those two drive the plot, you can at least tell the book is the source of the movie. This isn't like, say, Who Censored Roger Rabbit, where the movie (thank goodness) throws out everything but a few character names and starts over. It isn't like Jackson's Hobbit movies or the Rescuers (or Peter Pan, or Mary Poppins, or... well, anyway, thanks, Disney) where the movie is the opposite of the author's intent.
Instead, they're... different. What's the same and what's different? Well, that's what interests me. The book and movie have very similar beginnings, but as they go along the story diverges more and more. Most of the movie's conflicts and events, like Howl's opposition to the war or Suliman trying to trap howl, aren't in the book. The book focuses closely on Howl's conflict with the Witch of the Waste, and with Sophie's personality and her status as oldest of three sisters in a fairy-tale world. These issues barely get walk-on parts in the movie.
Miyazaki blatantly uses the movie to push his own moral messages that aren't in the book. There is only one brief mention of an upcoming war in the book, and Howl makes a lot of money providing services to the military. The anti-war message in the movie is entirely Miyazaki's. So is Sophie's hard-working patience and Howl's gentle, kind spirit. The characters in the book are much more grey morally, with Sophie being angry and bitter, and Howl being a selfish womanizer. You know the 'little mouse' sexual harassment scene in the movie? In the book, it's Howl that harasses her, but he backs off when she doesn't like it.
What does Miyazaki take from the book? This is the most fascinating part of all, to me. It says a lot about Miyazaki, who was a manga artist originally. He took images. Suliman sitting in her chair bolt-upright in an opulent room surrounded by serving boys? That's a vivid visual scene in the book, but the woman isn't Suliman and her relationship with Howl is totally different. The appearance is copied almost identically. In the book there's a wizard fight with a big swirling black cloud that is cut in half by lightning, with something leaping out. That's Howl fighting the Witch of the Waste. No airships or military wizards are involved. Calcifer blazing up into a huge multicolored mass? That's in the book. The melting blob servants? Those show up in the book very briefly in one scene. The book is full of gorgeous imagery, and the movie only resembles the book at all because Miyazaki took those images, which usually meant keeping some shred of the book's story.
Oh, and there are no airships, no steam powered cars, no steampunk anything in the book. Those are all Miyazaki's loves that he added for his own amusement. He made them fit beautifully, but they're very much not part of the source material. Everything military in the movie is a creation of Miyazaki, with no presence in the book.
So, yeah, I enjoyed studying how the book was adapted, since it came out so different. What about the book itself?
I liked it. The tone reminded me of that S. Morgenstern classic, the Princess Bride. People live in a fairy tale world and know the rules of a fairy tale world. It's not funny, but it is light. Sophie and Howl are interesting people with an interesting relationship. It contained only one terrible flaw to me. In the book, Howl is from our world. It's a horrible, immersion-breaking trope, and it seems completely pointless here. Still, the book is a pleasant enough read that it wasn't hard to get past.
Howl's Moving Castle: Book or movie? Both, because they're different stories, each one worth your time.
I can't tell you which is better, because they're so different, but I can talk bout how they're different, which to me is a neat topic.
Like I said, the movie and book are very different. The stories only vaguely resemble each other, with most of the major characters being at least recognizable, and Sophie's curse and Howl's deal with Calcifer being almost identical. Since those two drive the plot, you can at least tell the book is the source of the movie. This isn't like, say, Who Censored Roger Rabbit, where the movie (thank goodness) throws out everything but a few character names and starts over. It isn't like Jackson's Hobbit movies or the Rescuers (or Peter Pan, or Mary Poppins, or... well, anyway, thanks, Disney) where the movie is the opposite of the author's intent.
Instead, they're... different. What's the same and what's different? Well, that's what interests me. The book and movie have very similar beginnings, but as they go along the story diverges more and more. Most of the movie's conflicts and events, like Howl's opposition to the war or Suliman trying to trap howl, aren't in the book. The book focuses closely on Howl's conflict with the Witch of the Waste, and with Sophie's personality and her status as oldest of three sisters in a fairy-tale world. These issues barely get walk-on parts in the movie.
Miyazaki blatantly uses the movie to push his own moral messages that aren't in the book. There is only one brief mention of an upcoming war in the book, and Howl makes a lot of money providing services to the military. The anti-war message in the movie is entirely Miyazaki's. So is Sophie's hard-working patience and Howl's gentle, kind spirit. The characters in the book are much more grey morally, with Sophie being angry and bitter, and Howl being a selfish womanizer. You know the 'little mouse' sexual harassment scene in the movie? In the book, it's Howl that harasses her, but he backs off when she doesn't like it.
What does Miyazaki take from the book? This is the most fascinating part of all, to me. It says a lot about Miyazaki, who was a manga artist originally. He took images. Suliman sitting in her chair bolt-upright in an opulent room surrounded by serving boys? That's a vivid visual scene in the book, but the woman isn't Suliman and her relationship with Howl is totally different. The appearance is copied almost identically. In the book there's a wizard fight with a big swirling black cloud that is cut in half by lightning, with something leaping out. That's Howl fighting the Witch of the Waste. No airships or military wizards are involved. Calcifer blazing up into a huge multicolored mass? That's in the book. The melting blob servants? Those show up in the book very briefly in one scene. The book is full of gorgeous imagery, and the movie only resembles the book at all because Miyazaki took those images, which usually meant keeping some shred of the book's story.
Oh, and there are no airships, no steam powered cars, no steampunk anything in the book. Those are all Miyazaki's loves that he added for his own amusement. He made them fit beautifully, but they're very much not part of the source material. Everything military in the movie is a creation of Miyazaki, with no presence in the book.
So, yeah, I enjoyed studying how the book was adapted, since it came out so different. What about the book itself?
I liked it. The tone reminded me of that S. Morgenstern classic, the Princess Bride. People live in a fairy tale world and know the rules of a fairy tale world. It's not funny, but it is light. Sophie and Howl are interesting people with an interesting relationship. It contained only one terrible flaw to me. In the book, Howl is from our world. It's a horrible, immersion-breaking trope, and it seems completely pointless here. Still, the book is a pleasant enough read that it wasn't hard to get past.
Howl's Moving Castle: Book or movie? Both, because they're different stories, each one worth your time.
May 15, 2015
Unanswered Messages
Okay, so! I thought you folks deserved an explanation for why I have been so inconsistent answering messages left here.
I'm a flake.
That's it, really. I could put qualifications in, but why obscure the basic point?
It may be useful to those who really want to get my attention to know HOW I'm a flake. I get super-focused when I'm writing, or when some major life event is going on. If a miracle happens, I'm able to drag myself away once or twice to post something, but mostly I just disappear. Then when I get back, I post something during the scramble to catch up.
It's pretty common, by the time I have attention to spare to start answering messages, for me to have missed a whole slew of them. It's not because I'm not interested in the messages. On the contrary, the comments I get here TICKLE me. I'm just a flake.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!
I'm a flake.
That's it, really. I could put qualifications in, but why obscure the basic point?
It may be useful to those who really want to get my attention to know HOW I'm a flake. I get super-focused when I'm writing, or when some major life event is going on. If a miracle happens, I'm able to drag myself away once or twice to post something, but mostly I just disappear. Then when I get back, I post something during the scramble to catch up.
It's pretty common, by the time I have attention to spare to start answering messages, for me to have missed a whole slew of them. It's not because I'm not interested in the messages. On the contrary, the comments I get here TICKLE me. I'm just a flake.
Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!
