#but it somehow keeps awakening a sci fi nerd in me

[murlopal]

About affni and paternalism

They give implants that grown of themselves that connect to the entire nervous system of a pet and allow remote intuitive mind control

They are very literally making pets into their limbs

In this sense, it deeply resembles how ancient greek slavers considered themselves virtuous for holding a position of "I'd care and treat my slave like my own hand. They are people as they are an extension of me, a person" all the value and agency comes from the owner.

So what I'm leading to is that all affni/sophont sex is quite literally masturbation

Thinking of further affni evolution rn...

I think that they may very well abolish slavery in favour of hive mind. They already have mental links with pets. Simply removing hierarchy wouldn't necessarily break this link. Just give equal ownership of a body affni and pets share disproportionately

[aledethanlast]

7 writing tips to keep in mind for science fiction and fantasy

1. We can get to the plot right after I run some errands

“We must defeat Voldemort, save the wizarding world, and finish our homework.” -The plot of every single Harry Potter book

In general, the main plot of the story will not be the sole focus of your characters’ attention. They have relationships to maintain, personal goals to achieve, and sometimes just plain rest. Most of the tension in the story will likely evolve from moments where the characters must address both plot problems and personal probblems at the same time. This is doubly important if the characters are trying to keep the facade of normalcy.

There needs to be a certain level of balance. Too much plot, and we don’t get a good sense of character. Too much routine and the plot feels forced.

When designing a character, be mindful of what their lives looked like before the story, how that life would be disrupted by the story, and what would the character do with their life after the story (assuming they live).

2. Murphy’s law of obstacles: If it’s not your enemies on purpose, then it’s your friends by accident.

Character: Frodo Baggins. Objective: Get the ring to mordor. Superficial obstacles: Sauron’s dark army, giant spiders, various douchebags he meets along the way. Actual obstacles: The ring is corrupting Frodo’s mind, gollum is trying to screw them all over at every turn, Gandalf is a cryptic piece of shit, Aragorn needs to help them raise an army to distract Sauron, which is hard enough becuase the guy isn’t even sure if he wants to be king, Saruman is acting like your cousin who took a political science course last semester and now thinks he’s fucking Machiavelli, etcetera, etcetera.

Adventures are complicated because there’s always multiple things going on at once. This quest would be simple, except this supporting character has a completely different goal and has no issue with screwing everybody over. This friendship would be awesome, except their mutual crush just died violently and each of them blames the other. This character could leave the town, if only the war he thought of as far away hadn’t come right to his doorstep.

This is how good plot twists happen. Storylines that have up until now run separate meet in the worst/best way possible. This is often combined with the infamous what could possibly go wrong.

3. Inflation of the competence economy.

“Because he’s Batman” -Fake nerds everywhere

You have your characters. They’re badasses, the best in the business, absolutely unstoppable, every single one of them. They’ve so far beaten everyone who’s tried to stand in their way. Yet somehow they’re also the underdog.

Your problem is simple: you have no frame of reference of what is within or outside of your heroes’ capabilities, and since their gains are more frequent than their losses, the reader will just assume that the protagonist is going to pull the victory out of their ass like they always seemingly do.

Coming back to the Batman example: Batman follows this rule very closely, closer than many other comic heroes, but he appears to be invincible because he’s tirelessly worked to build that reputation. Batman get the shit beaten out of him all the time, but he’s known in pop culture to be unstoppable because he does his job so well that it often seems effortless.

The solution, naturally, is to give your characters limitations. Scenes where they’re expected to preform some amazing feat but instead take one look and say “Not happening.” Scenes where they underpreform at what they’re supposedly good at. You can stretch the boundaries of what is possible, but don’t break them.

4.  Limitations > Powers

“We’ll use the force!” “That’s not how the force works!” -The Force Awakens

The title of this one is actually Brandon Sanderson’s second law of magic, and he explains it much better than I can, but I’m summarizing anyway.

This is where a lot of writers trap themselves by creating a scenario that’s meant to be dramatic or a major obstacle, but the tools at the character’s disposal make the obstacle trivial, and so there’s no tension. Some try to solve this by pretending that the tool doesn’t exist, but that only serves to make your character look like an idiot.

The formula above can be applied in multiple ways. Lets say character A is in scenario Z, and has the use of ability X. Character A may not want to use ability X becuase:

Using ability X would be a temporary measure, and scenario Z could become something even worse.

Using ability X would go against character A’s code of ethics.

Ability X has limited uses, and scenario Z is just not imporant enough to bother.

Ability X is volatile and unpredictable, and the risk of doing more harm than good is too high to be ignored.

Ability X is useless in scenario Z and using it would at best do nothing and at worst expend precious resources.

These kind of situations force your characters to come up with more creative (and more interesting) solutions to their problem.

5. The internal consistency test

Hogwarts has moving staircases, living pieces of art, and a telepathic hat that makes judgemental comments about little kids? Fine.

The Ministry has access to time machines and has no problem giving one to a 13 year old girl, but don’t use it to punch out Voldemort? The fuck.

Readers won’t care if your explanation boils down to a handwave and “It’s magic” or some sciency jargon, but they will absolutely care if you contradict yourself, or if your rules leave giant holes in them.

A good way to check yourself with this is to ask “would a knowledgeable and competent character find this decision/explanation/occurance to be reasonable or absolute bullshit.”

That said, if you leave out the context that would explain this seeming plot hole because you want it to be a big reveal later, then you need to lampshade the plot hole. You have to promise your reader that yes, I am aware this doesn’t make sense, but bear with me here.

6. Genre is a suggestion.

Lasers + spaceships + aliens + exotic planets = classic Sci Fi

Magic powers + wise old mentor + princess rescue + ancient order of mythical knights = classic fantasy

Lasers + spaceships + aliens + exotic planets + Magic powers + wise old mentor + princess rescue + ancient order of mythical knights = Star Wars

This one is the core principle of AU fanfiction and retellings. Taking a bunch of different elements from unrelated sources and letting them interact to create something new.

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer is sci-fi fairy tales. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a fantasy heist novel. This Savage Song by VE Schwab is an urban fantasy/crime noir story. The possibilities are endless.

But in terms of actively writing, remember this one when you feel pressured to add or remove a certain element from the story because of the genre. Not every space story needs laser guns. Not every high fanstasy needs a monarchy. Elements can be played with as you wish.

7. Originality = fun > logic

"Why?” “Becuase that would be fucking awesome.”

This is primarily a world building tip, but it can easily work for plot too. As a writer, you’re looking for something that is unique and entertaining. Creating something unique is pretty challenging, but something entertaining? So much easier.

Forest scene feels bland? The trees can now scream in pain. Which they do. Constantly. Let’s see your characters have a boring old conversation when their chairs are begging for death.

Another example: Stabby the space roomba. It’s literally just a vacuum cleaner with a knife duct taped onto it that goes around stabbing people. Why is so popular? Becuase it’s ridiculous.

Logic is still important, naturally. These awesome things need to make sense. But that’s dependant on context. That screaming forest? Just establish beforehand that it’s a thing that exists. Stabby the roomba? I mean people are posting pictures of their actual real-life roombas to which they taped knives, so yeah, context allows for Stabby. 

From a plot standpoint, the trick lies in creating context for a moment of pure awesome which would make zero sense otherwise. Example: this page of Ms Marvel. How in hell does any character land themselves in a situation like that? Well if you read the comic you’d know.

It’s good to keep in mind that while this is a good way to generate ideas, the “awesome” things that you start out with won’t necessarily stick around as the world and story evolves. You may realize that your “awesome” doesn’t gel in with the rest of the story, or it can be improved upon, or that you only needed it as inspiration for a different awesome moent that you do use. But don’t ride or die for all of these ideas, it will only hold you back.

[yelloskello]

WARNING: 4:30 AM Star Wars: TLJ thoughts below the cut. Since cuts don’t really work on mobile, i’m gonna try to keep it fairly spoiler free, but for the most part if you don’t want spoilers just scroll on past

so i’ve seen a lot of people say that they think the people who don’t like TLJ, don’t like it for this or that reason. because it’s too long, or because it’s too different, or because the fans who don’t like it are into the edgier grittier shit like rogue one and TLJ was too lighthearted. When I went into the theater, i’d read a review from someone that I generally trust very strongly in terms of their personal opinions on things. They didn’t like it. But, I chalked it up to, well, they’re a hardcore sci fi nerd, and i’m not, star wars doesn’t really make a huge difference to me, maybe i’ll like it just as a movie. I really, really wanted to like it. I liked The Force Awakens. I like the characters. I was really honestly looking forward to this movie.

but it was not a good movie and not for any of the reasons listed above. the writing was just. bad.

you always hear people say to ‘show, don’t tell’, and it feels like this movie did a really ridiculous amount of telling which felt really hamfisted and almost insulting. none of the character dialogue felt like it really packed much of an emotional punch - it just felt too direct and fairly flat, didn’t give me a lot to relate to, didn’t let me see the nuances of the characters’ behavior. Kylo’s Inner Conflict felt entirely informed instead of actually seen--and when it was seen, it was really corny. Rose’s contempt towards the people at the casino felt cartoonish. Snoke’s ‘HA HA, T’WAS I WHO DID ALL THIS, LET ME MONOLOGUE ABOUT IT’ was super artificial. A few lines, like the talk between Rey and Leia at the end, felt entirely like they just went ‘I don’t think the audience is smart enough to Get the Visuals, we better explain it to them’, and some stuff (’*ptoo* salt’) just seemed straight-up unnecessary and forced.

the humor I didn’t mind - even though sometimes it felt like it was veering head-first into ‘we’re trying to market this to small children’ territory - but it was used poorly in some places, such as virtually any time it’s being used in the context of the villains. the clever little thing Poe did at the beginning of the movie? Cute! I really really liked that. Luke being a smarmy bastard, his entire existence, really? Love it. Puppet yoda? Solid. Love it. It felt like the lighter moments of the original trilogy, and I LIKE fun-but-dramatic movies, that’s like, my go-to aesthetic. But any humor between Hux and Kylo felt weird, like an attempt to humanize villains not even in sympathy, but because they’re fuhnny. They’re Draco in Leather Pants-ing them.

the pacing was. I have several different feelings about it. like, there was a lot going on, sure, but skipping between all the scenes didn’t really bother me too much. The thing that did bother me is that the movie hit like, three different climaxes and resolutions. It’s a long movie, sure, but watching that rollercoaster go up and down within a single storyline just made it feel even longer, and it took away the emotional impact of virtually any of these high points.

every single scene between Rey and Kylo also just felt Gross, but that’s less the fault of the movie, and more the fault of the people who I know are just gonna devour that shit and be sustained off it for the next hundred years. They were really throwing shippers a bone, and, I just. mmhn. nnhhhmm

PROBABLY THE BIGGEST SPOILERS OF THIS AHEAD

the thing that bothers me the most, though, is how they handled extra plot points. I’ve spent months hearing about how Phasma was going to have a bigger role, seen clips of her training, blah blah, and then she gets a tiny wimpy nothing role that gives her the same amount of screentime as the last movie - and then throws her to a fiery death. Who’s Snoke? Who Cares, I Guess, he’s gone now! What about Rey’s parents? Yeah y’all can just go fuck yourself, audience, enjoy this deeply anticlimactic reveal!*

(*yes, i’m aware it’s probably just a misdirect.)

They just decided to never explain what the fucking weird dark side mirror was - it was just there for a scene and then gonezo. I spent a huge chunk of the end of the movie going ‘WHAT’S GOING ON WITH HOBO CODEBREAKER DUDE THOUGH?’ and after walking offstage he never entered again. what was even the point of him? why not have the plot go through with the codebreaker they were supposed to pursue instead of adding in this extra convoluted character? it was just a totally unnecessary “””red herring”””. If there’s one thing i’ve learned from taking in a lot of really good media, it’s that if you’re gonna introduce something plot-relevant, it needs to come back. it needs to be relevant for more than one scene, somehow.

but abby, they’ll just explain it in the next movie! maybe phasma’s not dead! maybe they’ll touch on snoke again!

yeah i’m not holding my breath.

so, that’s some stuff. what I can remember at what is now 5 AM. I didn’t like the movie because it “was too different” or whatever, I didn’t like it ‘cause it was just. bad.