Oh for crying out loud

Well you guys almost two reviews, one right after the other. The next review I did was for an older and nostalgic anime movie. I'll be honest half the reason I choose it was in hopes of catching more people's eyes with my reviews. The other half is because I love the freaking movie, but moving on.

I can not provide a link to my review even though it is done and posted. Why? It is blocked world wide. World wide means NOBODY gets to see it.

Yeah so the awesome review I had done of Kiki's Delivery Service, the same movie I've seen a couple others give a shot at, is unable to be shared. I've been dealing with nearly all my reviews being blocked somewhere already, so with my latest review completely blocked and no one really following my reviews at this point I am at a complete loss what to review next. It seems pointless when there is a chance no one will be allowed to see it. How can I prove I'm actually making movies when no one can see them?

C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility Review

Instead of working on a new pet peeve I give you a video review of an anime I watched recently. Bask in the glory of the awesomeness. Really though it's just a review :) It's hard to get certain points across without visuals so instead of posting a written review I went with a movie.

101 Pet Peeves #4-5

#4Forced Love Interest

We've all seen them, a character walks onto the scene and the main character instantly starts drooling over them. All they seem to do is fight when they are together, and suddenly they are a couple. I'm not going to claim writing convincing attraction and relationships is easy, but it is not a good sign when you can spot a designated love interest the moment they appear in the story. When this happens the characters never need to really work at their relationship. If one of them brings up a good point that they have every right to be upset about something will either distract the couple (like impending death) or the one who "started" the argument will end up apologizing. 

A real relationship, a good one at least, is full of compromise, from BOTH sides. It is so tiring to see characters paired off because the author didn't want them to be single. Sometimes this is evident from the start and others we see the whole cast get matched off screen in the epilogue.

And man do I hate the epilogue shoeing in random couplings. There are couples that those who have been following the story drop their jaws in disbelief, and sometimes the other half of the couples aren't even people from the adventure. They are random people there for the sake of characters getting married and popping out babies. Regardless of previous chemistry between characters or how much a character didn't want kids.

As for the forced love interest in the middle of the story there are several reasons I don't like when this happens. First it is easy and lazy. Seriously have a character accidentally fall on top of someone, have them blush, and bam you have a couple. Man I'd hate to see what would happen to a really clumsy person who got stuck in one of these stories. The other thing though is that is completely lacks any kind of drama or tension. Oh noes the main couple is fighting? Well no matter they will stay together in the end no matter what. Even harems/reverse harems have a designate love interest. It doesn't matter how much you may like a different coupling, it is obvious from the start who the main character will end up with.

Unless we are talking about my pet peeve #5

#5 Teasing the ship

Where forced love interests take things to fast stories these stories take the romance slow. There is a ton of chemistry and a lot of hinting of a character maybe liking another. It would be a great romance. . .except. . . it . . . never. . . follows. . . through!! Seriously, some stories exist in a world where everyone can be paired off neatly, but in this one no one gets together EVER. No one ever falls in love, or no matter how much it is hinted at nothing ever comes of it. This is probably a result of lazy writing just as much as designated love interests.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. People fall in love, they break up, it's just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be the center of a story, but such a thing should be acknowledged. Oh and seriously company's that do it! Stop teasing us!!

101 Pet Peeves #3

#3 Cut away response

This happens the most often in visual mediums, like comics, TV shows and the like. Character A will reveal something to character B and before B can respond the story cuts away to later that day or a different scene entirely. This is not to be confused with pulling back to imply loud screaming or profanity. It is usually a way to cheat with time in the story, instead of wasting an extra minute and a half with the response the show moves on.

The reason this bothers me is when I run into this, and notice it big time. The reveal will be HUGE but the character never acts like they have been told. Imagine the scene in Harry Potter when Harry is told he is a wizard. Then instead of him saying "I'm a what?"the whole scene that follows the story  is cut and we suddenly are watching Harry buy wizarding supplies. Bit of a cop out. For me half a story is how characters react to the things that are presented to them. Without emotion there is no story, so when a story cuts out a scene that would be nothing but emotion I get very peeved. 

And like I said the fact they have been told something isn't really addressed. We as the audience knows they have been told, but the character never acts like they were. Imagine in fact that after Harry is told he was a wizard we cut straight to him living his day to day life again. Eventually he goes to Hogwarts, but he never acts like he has been told and goes about life as normal.

Compared to other things this is just a smaller pet peeve that won't ruin a whole story, but simply take me out of the story for a minute with how clunky the transition is. If a character receives news, and instead of showing us that characters reaction we cut to the same character running to tell a different character then that works. At least then we get to see a reaction to the news.

Solution:
If you reveal something to a character then have a reason to do so. Either show us what happens next, or don't have the reveal in the first place. At the very least if you have a character find something out off screen have the character act like they know. Knowing secrets can be a great source of conflict for a character, and can potentially up the stakes. 

101 Pet Peeves #2

#2 Pretty Scars

Not a pet peeve that will cause me to chuck a book at the wall, but it is one I roll my eyes at. This pet peeve is directed at physical flaws, that aren't flaws at all.

We all have things that we don't like about our apperence. It seems to be part of our nature, but these "flaws" are like the skinny girl at the party complaining about how fat she is. It is also a way for a writer to cop out when it comes to giving a character some flaw. This flaw seems to crop up the most in fantasy and urban fantasy.

The attributes that can hint at having Pretty Scar syndrome are as follows:

* The character goes on and on about how much they hate this physical flaw. Not once, or twice but constantly. They think about it a lot and go on about how awful it is and how it sets them apart from others. Angst probably is up ahead as well.

* It is often tied to some tragic back story. It from when their parents died, someone tired to kill them, they messed with magic (or similar depending on the genre) beyond their control that backfired, or it shows that they are the last of a clan/race/family or similar.

*If possible they try to hid this flaw due to fear of being ridiculed about it. They are then often tormented for trying to hide the flaw if it is obvious. People may try to get a peek at this and will go to ridiculous lengths to do so for no other reason then to be mean to the character.

* The flaw actually has perks. They get special powers, super strength, or such because of such a thing. It has no real drawbacks either. Scars don't hurt ever, no real side effects will occur, and besides bully's no one has a problem with the flaw.

* The love interest likes the flaw. Not simply okay with it, but actually likes it. Which leads to the last and biggest one.

* The flaw when described sounds pretty and doesn't sound like a flaw at all.

These kinds of Pretty Scars are often odd hair or eye colors, markings/tattoos, scars that make men look rugged or are under clothing for women (bonus points if scars have unique shapes). They are missing limbs that are replaced with silver bound limbs that have super strength, blindness that is compensated with hearing so perfect that they basically 'see' better then normal people, and I'm sure there are others. Despite constant angsting from the character the flaw never has any real drawbacks and when it comes with a power, is needed at some point in the story. This character will reach a point that they will need their flaw to help them out and they will dwell on it for a moment going "never thought I'd be thankful that I had this scar/limb/etc." but they will continue to angst later about it still. Their love interest not only won't mind, but often will tell the character that the flaw is beautiful or some other such compliment depending on the gender and flaw.

Make me gag.

Solution:
If you are going to give a character a physical flaw don't cop out on it. Don't make it a blessing in disguise, or describe it as beautiful while having the character angst about it. A huge improvement would simply have the character be okay with the "flaw" and spare us the whining. If they must complain about it, then don't make the so called "flaw" super special and awesome. I think this is half the problem I have with characters with awesome super powers that only whine about them. Give your character a reason to hate this flaw besides the fact it's supposed to be a flaw. Make the flaw a hindrance, or have it simply be a part of who they are. It's like trying to claim a character is so beautiful it's a problem for them. I have no sympathy for such a character. In fact I might side with the bad guys on that one.       

101 Pet Peeves #1

#1 The Great Idea Wasted

I'm a sucker for new and interesting ideas. Give me a great "what if" and I'm hooked. What if Vampires turned out to be real and came out to the world? What if a part of our soul manifested itself as a physical animal? What if people could invade our dreams and steal our secrets? All of these what if's are from specific stories and personally I think are fascinating ideas. 

The problem arises when a story has this great idea, but at best it's a sub-plot or worse it's a side note alongside the story. 

I'll use Inception as the first example. (First it should be noted I liked the movie) Yes the movie was good, but it set up this idea that this technology was for "extraction," corporate espionage and such. Then went with "something no one else has been able to do before," namely "inception." If we never see what is normal, then how can we appreciate how difficult the extraordinary is? Not to mention the personal journey of the main character seems to be the most important point of the movie. The how was secondary. What I want to see is what extraction was like, and what lead to it being illegal exactly. Did someone uncover something they shouldn't? How common place was extraction before it was illegal? The world where someone can enter someone else's dreams is fascinating to me. It would be fascinating to find out exactly how they discovered what kind of people they needed to complete jobs, and how did they figure out that a kick can work. This stuff didn't pop up overnight. Did they have to start off without architects and realized someone had to build the world? There was so many places that the idea could have gone, that I was left disappointed that most of the story was finding out what had happened to the main character's wife.

Then there is a movie coming out soon (as I write this of course) that poses the question, what if time was literally money. How simple of a premise is that? But it's not one I've seen before. You work to earn time, and then you pay time for food, coffee and anything else you need. When you run out of time you die. Now the how this came about isn't what interests me, but the how somebody simply lives like that I want to know. Things like coffee would literally shorten your life, and the choice for frivolous things would be so much harder. Shorter but better quality life, or longer but potentially miserable life? From the trailer though the time could be switched for money really. The main character ends up being given a ridiculous amount of money, I mean time and is now on the run for guys who think he stole the money, I mean time. He meets a rich girl and falls for her. That sounds pretty much like any Hollywood movie about guy who gets item X and has to keep it away from the bad guys and falls for a girl along the way. Heck are there muggins in this world? How common is murdering someone for their life? Or is it easy to catch by following the time?

The problem I have with how these unique ideas are handled is they are often gimmicks to get people to put out the money for the stories/movies. The stories still fall into "formula #324" but this time in the future/underwater/etc.    

I want to see more using these unique ideas as the main point, not as settings. 

Solutions:

Try spring boarding off the unique idea. Ask questions, and try to make the idea more central to the story. What inspired the idea in the first place might be a great place to go back to. Ask if the base story would be the same if stuck in a different setting. Romeo and Juliet in space is still Romeo and Juliet. Star Trek though is an exploration of what might happen in space travel. Take the space travel aspect out of Star Trek and there is no story. Lastly don't shoe horn an awesomely unique idea into a story because you like the idea. Let the idea evolve and give it its own story. If it is that good of an idea don't ruin it.     

101 Pet Peeves

Everyone has pet peeves, but these aren't things that bother me like people with 16 items in the 15 or less lane. These are story pet peeves from movies or books that have specific things that bug the hell out of me, even if they aren't outright cliches'. Every day, best I can manage I will detail a single pet peeve. Not only why it bothers me but if possible solutions to fix the problem. Many will probably apply to fantasy or urban fantasy, my favorite genres though those won't be all I cover.

I will try my best to not cover things strictly from genres I don't follow. I don't read romance novels so if I have any romance pet peeves it will be from a different genre point of view. 

Anime I'm in the middle of

There are quite a few animes that I am actually in the middle of watching. This list will also be updated as I add more and finish shows. Partly for me to keep track of what I'm watching, and some are just taking awhile to finish. All of these so far are keeping my attention, though some more then others.

Anime I'm currently watching:
*Yakitate! Japan
*Mirai Nikki
*Vampire Knight
*Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro
*Kimi ni Todoke
*Solty Rei