Give 'em a laugh, give 'em a smile, it only lasts a little while ...

[nekokoban]

You know, the thing is, I really like comedies.

But not so much slapstick comedies -- the sort where it's nonstop wacky hijinks of a (usually) physical nature; I like shows and comics and whatevers that don't take themselves too seriously, and can, in fact, step back from themselves and laugh. Anything that strikes me as taking itself too seriously tends to bore me, or else drive me to imagining more humorous scenarios -- it is, ultimately, why I can't follow a whole lot of "epic" stories. I get ... bored, honestly, with the nobility and the drama and the RAW HUMAN SUFFERING AND AWE; some is good, some is often very good, but after a while, I get tired of it. I think Tolkien may be the only one who's ever pulled it off in a way that I don't eventually feel like mocking it. :\

On the other hand, I like a comedy that has darker elements, too. I don't mean just black humor or its ilk; I mean stories that are lighthearted and funny on surface viewing, but as soon as you scratch a bit deeper, there's a whole seething mass of things that could go wrong, will go wrong, or already have gone wrong. I like characters like this, too -- know me long enough and it's laughably easy to predict who my favorite character in something new will be: I like the "good" characters, the cheerful ones, the happy stupid ones that maybe the other characters are sometimes irritated with -- but who also have a darker core, something rotten inside all of the bright. And honestly, it feels more "real" to me (maybe I just have a skewed sense of reality? Errr) for a character to start light and progress to darker, rather than a character that starts dark and lightens as time goes on. It's possible, it just seems less likely.

I love a story where the characters can be laughing and stupid one moment, and in the next find themselves in a world of hurt and unhappiness -- but that ultimately, in the end, they pull together; I like a good dose of funny in my wooby. (Granted, I am not very good at this myself; my humor, such as I have it, is a physical humor: people laugh at me more because of how I saw things and how I look as I say them, or at the things I do, rather than what I say. Sadly, I am not a clever person, though someday I would LIKE to be.) I ... often cannot read WAFFy fixit stories, because everyone's so interested in the sentimental tugging of the heartstrings, and just as it is with unending angst, I get -- bored, in a way. And it's not that I don't think some characters DON'T deserve hugs and cuddlings, or that I think an awkward joke should be thrown in to jar the mood; it's just ... maybe it's that I prefer teasing and banter instead?

On that note -- Doctor Who is totally my new favorite show (well, one of several). The Doctor is so incredibly cute and enthusiastic you just want to FUZZLE him, but there are times when that blacker uglier part of him comes out, and it's absolutely fascinating to see.

And so here I must make a confession: I have not beaten Final Fantasy XII. I watched a roommate play it all the way through, and felt no desire to play it to the end myself to see it again. I've heard a lot of people enthusing about it, talking about how sweet it was, how wooby, how something, but it felt -- flat, to me. It didn't feel like enough payoff for the big ending that the game seemed to be promising for, and like a lot of it, I just felt it was short of delivering even half of what it promised.

And yes, I know there are going to be people who argue -- it's subtle! you can't expect it to be handed to you on a plate! But please don't tell me that. Maybe this is my own pretension, but I'm pretty certain I understand subtle, I get subtle -- and frankly, FFXII felt less like "subtle" and more like they sacrificed character for plot, and plot for mindless level-grinding -- and this is when I enjoyed the battle system and found the whole fighting monsters bit to be a lot of fun. Maybe it's just a thing with Final Fantasy games, but SO MUCH of the level-grinding felt extraneous, and like chunks of it could've been cut out to focus more on characters. As it was? I came out of the game still not really LIKING anyone enough to carry that beyond the game.

Final Fantasy XII is actually a good example of a story I think took itself too seriously -- yes, there was a huge political plot going on; yes, there was world-changing historical what-have-you. But frankly? I felt like too much of it got lost, yet again, with the level grinding, and ultimately it felt less subtle to me, and more of a "here, we are going to throw nuggets of cool stuff at you, NOW TAKE THE BAIT." It was very much a story of grand heroics and noble ideals unfortunately twisted, and ... in the end, the story didn't feel very human to me at all. And that's where it lost me; it was obsessed with the big picture to a degree where the small things -- the human elements that would make me sympathize and want these characters to win -- was lost. I look at Ivalice and see this richly-textured, fascinating and painstakingly-crafted world with so much potential, and yet ... the characters hardly seemed to take joy in their own world, so focused they were on their military and political goals, and it felt like a waste to me. Everyone still felt like charictures at the end -- ones I grew to not be so annoyed with as when I started, but still ... I don't know. I never felt like they really grew out of their original stilted roles.

However, Doctor Who has already caused me to stay up far past my bedtime, debating with a roommate where certain Major Events fit into the space-time continuum, whether something that happens "outside of time" will fit itself back into the linear flow, and if it does, how does it and where does it and what family structures might have existed with the Time Lords and how the hell do the Daleks keep surviving, please let me know. XD

Also have decided that David Tennant's sheer enthusiastic joy about getting to play his childhood idol/hero? Cutest thing ever, among other cutest things ever.

I need icons for Shounen Onmyouji and Doctor Who now. D: ... I suppose it's a good thing the weekend is coming up, though holy crap I need to clean and pack for MOVIN'S.

Comments

[lazulisong.livejournal.com]

you can steal the Nine/Screwdriver one if you'd like, I haven't made any Ten icons yet because I'm just going through the first season and sulking at the thought of Nine leaving me. Sob.

*clutches head* I don't know, I think I'm going to have a fic where the Doctor says something to the effect that when the universe is so much smoking radioactive rubble the only thing left will be Daleks. And Cardiff.

[dyxlisa.livejournal.com]

...don't tell my FF12-obsessed friends but I totally agree with you. Characters are always most important to me in a story/game, and though I was fond of a few of the 12 characters, there wasn't nearly the depth of obsessional love I've developed for other game characters, mostly because I felt that the game was so spare on character interactions and moments that WOULD make me love them. The moments that did make me pay attention were very nice, but there wasn't nearly enough of them; maybe it makes me less sophisticated or something, but I'll stick with Tales games or something that throw character interaction and plot at me constantly without making me fight through a crapload of monsters to get it.

But at the same time, I was definitely interested in exploring the world, and I loved the gameplay--I don't think I'm going to be able to go back and play turn-based RPG's ever again. But the fun I had playing it was what kept me playing the game as long as it did, not the story or characters. And once you've killed so many of the same monster trying to level up, well... At least there's marks to hunt I guess. I pick up the game and start playing again just for that, but I haven't played lately since I'm stuck in a city amidst Plot lately and can't get out and fight things. I guess that says a lot.

I ALSO AGREE WITH YOU ON FUNNY. Pure funny or WAFF just makes my brain rot, but stories that are just drama and angst with no element of humor or wit won't keep my attention either. Part of it's that I personally like finding some sort of humor in everything, but it's also the contrast... Make the angst angstier I guess because you were just smiling and laughing?

OK though, I confess I love watching stuff like Dude Where's My Car even though it rots my brain. I think I just have a really poor sense of humor. XD;

[karcy.livejournal.com]

ARGH! I'm one of those who dislike FFXII. Grind, visit dungeon, take random stone; grind, visit dungeon, take random stone. I don't know about sacrificing characterization for plot. It felt like an excuse to go sightseeing in their virtual world. So much of it can be just cut out if it weren't for the need to send the player ooh-ing and aah-ing at computer graphics.

I'm at the bit where they have to go through the Mosphoran Highwaste. I wanted to fast forward the game when I killed Tiamat. The only reason I'm playing is well, since I've gotten this far, I might as well finish the whole thing. And get all the marks. It's not a *difficult* game, and it's not really boring, it just never really gets me excited.

[takadainmate.livejournal.com]

Aha! Welcome to the wonderful world of Doctor Who! As a life-long fan I am absolutely overjoyed you like it. I can point you to a few of my favourite icon makers if you like, just tell me if you want Nine or Ten or whatever. I tend towards Ten/Tardis love but there's tonnes about. XD Also, I agree that David Tennant is the cutest Doctor ever. He makes me squee and I don'd care what some old schoolers say.

[calintz.livejournal.com]

Nine or Ten? I only watched Nine cos, uhm, I was introduced a bit too late to Doctor Who and then I got traumatized.

BAD WOLF

[inarticulate.livejournal.com]

That's… the reason why I still haven't bought FFXII and probably never will. I prefer games like… like Tales of games, where they have like this really light-hearted banter and the characters tease each other and have this real affection for each other that makes the heart-wrenching moments r-really unexpected and yeah it's the series that has probably made me cry the most.

Note to game makers: if you have hijinks and really FUN characters, it's a lot more dramatic when one of them makes a serious decision.

Same with SO, I think! I wouldn't like Guren half as much as I do when he won me over to the show in TWO MINUTES OF THE SHOW by mocking Masahiro and acting like a complete moron. It makes it a lot more dramatic when [spoiler spoilers up the spoilering wazoo]. :/

[white_aster]

I have to agree with you. FF12, by the time I got the ability to get to Bahamut, was an exercise in "...wait, that's it?" and then, after that, another moment of, "...oh wait, there ISN'T going to be another plot arc? ....oh." I have to admitt hat I spent a lot of my life playing that game, and the mark systemw as cool and all, but...weell, see, FFX I spent way over 100 hours on, too, and it didn't have NEARLY so much random killing things quests (the collecting for the arena aside, and that was NOT even close to the amount of time it took to do the marks). Sidequests that gave little bits of plot or background, yes, but not just random "go here, kill this" types of things. Things that actually made me feel more immersed in the world and the characters' stories.

I had to really grow to like some of the FFXII characters. I have to admit that Laylah helped some, with her fiction. But I had the same feeling that there could have been a lot more characterization of folks put in there. Penelo and Vaan in particular, but all of them just didn't QUITE have enough development for me to really feel like I was seeing what they truly felt. I often didn't know what the characters were thinking, which can work, but didn't for me. It just made the characters seem flatter than they should have. And yes, yes, I think that everyone being Very Serious was partly to blame. It's hard to get to know someone when they're always focussed on something else and frowny faced with concentration and determination. Much easier to get to know them when they've had a few drinks and are smiling and chatting you up. The characters in XII seem to hardly have any time for that kind of thing.

I blame this on the story director guy leaving the project partway through. I think that there was originally supposed to be more plot. Something after the Lighthouse besides just the ridiculous "where the hell did THAT come from?" airship. They were TOTALLY setting up for the Occuria to come down on Ashe like the hand of god for not doing what they told her to, and instead the Occuria did NOTHING. Not even any MENTION of any response from them about Ashe thumbing her nose at them. That was a glaring plot thread just dropped unceremoniously. My guess is that after the lighthouse, perhaps after Bahamut, you were supposed to go to a new area or something and fight the Occuria, because they were going to destroy the world or something. :shrug: It's what _I_ would have written, if I were the story designer.

all that said, I did LIKE FFXII, but I felt like it could have been much better.

[lewdness.livejournal.com]

Going to agree with you on the FFXII thing. I loved the game as far as I loved playing it and it was just generally fun, but it wasn't Kingdom Hearts like some of the other ones. I found that the storyline of 7, 8 and 10 to be more interesting than 12, honestly. For as long as the game took for me to finish (90ish hours of my liiiiife), I just couldn't get into it as much as some of the others. I loved Basch and his commitment to Ashe, but I really couldn't get too into Vaan and Penelo too much. I'd have to say that my two favorites were Fran and Balthier, simply because they didn't seem as 2D as all the other characters. (...Plus, pirates.) I found myself more interested in them than any of the other characters, simply because they weren't so set on saving the wooooorld; they were more fleshed out.

Mmm, anyway. Haven't seen Doctor Who, though I really want to as most of my flist fangirls it. I'm more of a House/CSI/Stargate-type person. :)

[darkazriel.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, Doctor Who. How I love thee. <3

I find the Doctor such an interesting character for much the same reason. He's cheerful and all "let's go travel through time and explore the universe! :D", but needs the companionship of people, even though he knows he's going to outlive them every time- and when pressed hard enough, there's that bitterness and anger he keeps hidden, and he can be extraordinarily cruel. He is after all the lonely god and the oncoming storm, and chaos follows in his wake. But he's almost always smiling anyway.