Maaan I feel so lazy rn.............. sh111111111111111111111111111111111111111111t. aaaaaaa
Well 1st what's up with you man? Are you ok? It just feels like you are a bit frustrated or smt.
Maybe I'm wrong but you kinda seem offended by smt I said. I'm just guessing from your writing tone, it kinda seems like passive aggressivness. Well, nvm that...
I respect your opinion man but I dare say that their "writing ceiling" is quite high. I mean they are worldwide famous and they have marked an entire generation. Their world building, the quantity of characters and diversity of them, their emblematic scenes, quotes... All of this make them top tier and it's not my opinion the stats say so. If that doesn't fit your standard then I pity you man.
Honestly, I don't think you should have talked abt "writing ceiling". You should have just said that they weren't to your taste or you don't like the genre... I mean that sentence kinda proves my point "protag punch bad guy until he win and if bad guy too big for punch then big punch!".
Anyway, I won't even talk (uuusso) abt how you limit writers to what you think you know of their capabilites. I can't count how many writers added things to their work bc they grew as they continued working on their project and how great they turned out.
Hear me out, the only limit a writer has, is the one you set to him or the one he sets to himself.
Now, it's ok, like I said maybe you're bored when you know the writing capabilies of an author, but that's just you opinion in the end.
For exemple, I LOVE when I know that the next chapter or episode will be top tier bc I know the max writing capabilites of an author.
I'll add that writing isn't only abt hidden puzzle pieces or sh1t like that (you kinda gave that vibe no offense), it's so much more. It can be abt how you transmit feelings, anger, sadness, love, friendship, how you make the tension reach its peak, how you hype your writers an many more things.
Abt that last paragraph of yours, I don't have much to say, I'm a simple and lazy man.
I like to undestand things but if I don't it's ok. I enjoy the story, enjoy the pacing, enjoy the epicness... I have to admit, it's true. I may just have enjoyed the whole thing without paying attention and ignoring WW writing style (everyone enjoy things their way right?).
So yeah, Maybe you're right, and we won't have a choice or a stat check. Thx for answering I was kinda wondering why everyone was sure they'd either die or live.
Still I abide by the rule, never say never.
aaaaah finally, it's come to an end, I have to ask though, why the illustrious? is it a jk or an rp btw you 2 or smt lol?
Man I'm tired....
THX
Excuse me for intersecting but since you did make 2 references to me so far, I want to explain my stance.
1. The consistency of writing is measurable.
When you have a story with a specific level of nuance, where the cause and effect is a set of well defined interactions and stylistic approaches, then the expectation is that this trend will continue. If it doesn't, then it's either a drop in quality or a new direction.
How anyone will react to those is his prerogative, but it's pointless to argue that's it's just a subjective thing.
Examples in Superhuman:
Fight with Gorgon: MC rushes in and dies like an idiot despite knowing what to expect. If the expectation is to showcase how dangerous a Gorgon can be, it failed. Yet if he fights it with Deryl, he uses his shapeshifting for camouflage as expected.
First half of the fight with the Twins: We've seen MC time and again using his trap tentacles to easily kill squishy characters since the early chapters of the game. For some reason he didn't against Devana. Why didn't MC use a core technique that would instantly give him an advantage? Because of the cliffhanger.
This type of cliffhanger is new to Superhuman. In my opinion they are cheap but that's not important. The objective truth is that since the very early days, the cliffhangers were designed to stop the story right before the climax.
0.93 -> Game stops right before engaging with Cole
0.94 -> Game stops right before invading Hex's Dimension
0.95 -> Game stops when MC gains important new information on SIN, on the eve of the infiltration.
0.96 -> Game stops when MC gains new insights, on the eve of the infiltration.
0.97 -> Game stops after MC got destroyed in a fight.
0.975 -> Game stops after showing us how miserable Amber is.
0.98 -> Game stops after showing us that the twins are dead.
0.94, 0.95 and 0.96 primed the reader and the start of the update delivered on the promise.
0.97 and 0.975 attempted to create some huge emotional response, but when the next update dropped, it was completely forgotten, because now MC can beat the shit out of the Twins while managing Shen, or because Amber isn't in actual danger and the game doesn't even bother showing us her actual condition.
I expect that some people like it, but I have 3 arguments.
1. It's a departure from previous practices.
2. The resolution was ignored or the events leading to the cliffhanger were dumped down so the resolution ended up
looking more impressive only in comparison.
3. The emotional response was wasted because no one expects the sadness to stick around.
Now if we start adding dubious resolutions like "Deryl somehow switched the Twins for dolls" on already weak cliffhangers, despite been shown the history of the matter and Deryl's circumstances, then this isn't something that I want to subscribe to. The dramatic elements have been weakened too much already because of these dumb cliffhangers. Losing cohesion in the cause-effect relationships too? At this point we depart from just a manufactured storytelling device and we are talking about poor writing all around.
I can apply this line of thinking to more popular works which are generally regarded as generation defining. But this is already turning into a rant, so I won't. Suffice to say, the more popular and established the work, the easier it is to lose it's nuance after a few seasons/sequels. Political statements, Milking the Cow, Attempting to expand to completely new audiences. It's even worse when something becomes popular after being supported by a fairly small audience, only to lose it's identity and turn into something that this initial audience would never care about.
2. More content is not enough for everyone.
When a piece of work stops developing the actors and stops adding more nuance to the scenes, then for all intents and purposes, it has reached it's ceiling. It doesn't really matter if the writers have more to give because they.. won't.
The problem is that some stories are "artificially" extended because they have a huge active audience, but the characters are so developed that there isn't really any good challenge to overcome. Usually at this point, either some established character will start acting strangely, compromising the protagonists, or the show will start creating challenges that are some form of exploitation or sensationalism, where the protagonists easily win, showing the superiority of their ethics/beliefs/whatever.
At this point the writing can become volatile/polarising or just plain uninteresting to some.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's not stretched too much. After all it's how most of the procedural tv shows work. There exists a basic premise and the show follows it to completion, adding some relationship drama in the mix. Everything rides on the attractiveness of that basic premise.
3. Fora exist for discussion.
This means feedback, theories, impressions, waifu wars, sharing updates, helping with issues etc.
I mean sure, if I go on a random place on the internet and hijack it to talk about my game theory, then I'm way off the mark. But this particular place exists for that reason and a neverending theory loop is to be expected considering how active it is.
You wouldn't go to the beach and start wondering why everyone is swimming or sunbathing. It's the expected behavior.
