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Imperial Nuisance

@wordrage / wordrage.tumblr.com

beware of spoilers.
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Did you know the fantasy MMORPG Final Fantasy Fourteen only uses the word "okay" 9 times in dialogue throughout the entire hundreds of hours long story? And each use of "okay" that got through seems like an actual mistake that simply didn't get edited out?

There is no use of "okay" in A Song of Ice and Fire. There is no use of "okay" in the entire The Witcher series. It's something that's like... just really largely accepted for fantasy. I would argue that vocabulary choice and word choice does a huge amount of heavy lifting to make something "feel" like a fantasy!!!!! It's a part of the genre expectation that I think is largely agreed on.

If you're writing a medievalish fantasy in a fantasy land, and you chose to establish a unique vocabulary and to minimize modern anachronisms to facilitate the feeling of being in a different fantasy world than our own modern mundane world, in a way that is commonly accepted for fantasy, and you've done it in all 3 previous of your games except for deliberate exceptions for artistic reasons, then you expect that to continue into the next part of the story so you feel like there's continuity.

the FFXIV English localization team made a point never to use "okay" commonly because it DOES make it feel too modern. It's actually a really easy thing to keep an eye on, editing wise.

and FFXIV is a game that has ACTUAL MODERN CARS and PARKING LOTS!!! and the English writing team STILL cared about eliminating "okay". Because they cared in a basic way about how word choice affects fantasy experience. Anyway, so that's how it feels when fantasy writing cares about the little details :)

Anyway, I'll continue to look at it as the most easy softball lob toward the writers' and editors' bats that they just fucking whiffed for no reason. Or whiffed on purpose, which is even fucking worse.

And after this week's revelations that BioWare always HATED and devalued the medieval fantasy Dragon Age and LOVED and valued the futuristic sci-fi Mass Effect, this style change is even more important to me. When a company looks down on fantasy PERIOD and suddenly in the latest game even the very language is changed to not feel as much as a fantasy game.... HMMM Hmmmm hmmmm I'm sure it's nothing!!!!!! but yeah it's childish to have basic expectations for a fantasy setting

#writing
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I like having opinions. Here's one: Harry absolutely would become an auror. He does need a proactive job. It was his dream job. Of course he would.

The catch is that he would also then immediately wipe the fuck out and quit/get fired within 5 years because the only reason he still wanted the job was because he wanted to prevent something like Voldemort's takeover from happening again and that kind of direction will galvanize him to notice the work culture is systematic. Harry is very observant but not particularly socially conscious but he also tends to build up his empathy very easily. He's handcrafted to be taken in by right-wing conservative systems and detonate from the inside. He will quit his job, and he will do so in a blowout

#you speak the truth#harry potter#hp
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Been replaying a lot Morrowind these last few days, this one made me giggle.

Imagine having a God interfere in your argument to call you both ugly.

I love Vivec.

#vivec#morrowind#tes
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Reblogged indigo-scarf
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i know it's necessary for the plot but it says a LOT about mad eye moody's personal relationships (and lack thereof) that no one realizes he was locked up in a trunk and impersonated for a whole school year. like Dumbledore is supposed to be his friend and misses it! and then he just goes back to working for dumbledore's paramilitary group like nothing happened happy to let himself be used as a tool. now with Dumbledore I think that's both sides being bad at emotional closeness but like. it's not just with noted intimacy avoider Albus d it's with everyone he knows. his paranoia means he can never be close to anyone. he's too afraid of intimacy because it means people can hurt him. but it turns out you can also be hurt by never letting anyone truly know you. mad eye makes himself a caricature of himself and Barty is able to play that outward shell so well no one realizes the inside is missing.

#alastor moody#hp meta#hp
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Reblogged cluelessascanbe
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Anonymous asked:

Actually good point about the violence in the Wizarding World. I'm listening to GoF rn and I was shocked by some things like Fred and George letting Dudley choke on his tongue or Wizards messing with Muggles memories like toys at the World Cup, Harry name in the Goblet being an obvious serious and worrying sign and every adult just kinda accepting it and going "okay go celebrate Harry w/ the Grryfingdors lol" etc

trothplighted-archived answered:

I wish there was more conversation on the psychological impact of being able to horribly injure or maim someone or have someone horribly injure or maim you but it gets fixed IMMEDIATELY with a spell and there’s rarely a scar or a lasting sign, and maybe your memory gets modified so you don’t even remember it. Plus, there’s a culture of violence being okay that doesn’t really exist for Muggles - you can challenge somebody to a duel in the books if they insult you! In the 90s! You can prank people at school by turning them into things without their knowledge and it’s funny (the Canary Creams), you play card games where the deck might blow up and your version of chess involves actually destroying the pieces that are lost! Kids can get Acid Pops off the shelf in a store that literally melt through their tongues! Fred and George trick Ron into making an Unbreakable Vow that would have killed him when they’re small children!

And the adults around seem to exist basically to stop the kids from killing anyone, but not to teach conflict resolution skills that don’t involve hexes or pranks or tampering with food or outright violence (Millicent Bulstrode doesn’t get detention for putting Hermione in a headlock in CoS). You’re allowed and encouraged to retaliate against bullying with more aggression, getting into fights is ordinary and expected. The only time that Harry gets into trouble for that kind of thing is when Umbridge already has it out for him.

It begs the question of culture shock and how the characters themselves see the behaviors they exhibit, because a lot of behaviors that we readers see as horrific and traumatizing are basically fine in the wizarding world, but people who are Good People commit really nasty assaults against one another for a laugh or out of annoyance or because the other guy had it coming, and it’s never called out or seen as bad or questionable.

That’s the biggest problem I have with the way Rowling tries to handle bullying, and in particular how she tries to handle Snape being bullied - she acts like the things James does are unusual or particularly sadistic, and they’re just not when you look at how the wizarding world as a whole behaves. It doesn’t make it okay, but trying to act as if two books ago Ron wasn’t talking about how his tongue got melted through when he was four because his brothers fed him a sweet that hurt him and then they got “walloped” by Arthur (spanking and corporal punishment of one’s children is also normalized in their world), or as if Ron wasn’t almost killed in wizard chess in book 1, is just weird. Everybody solves all their problems with violence in this world, and everybody expects teenagers to know that’s how problems are solved.

One thing I’m trying to express in this Grindeldore AU where Gellert is a professor is that the students at Hogwarts think it’s very ordinary to answer an insult or an inconvenience with the magical equivalent of a slap or a smack. They think in those terms, they see themselves as mature and capable of delivering on threats, and they see experiencing violence as something you just learn to deal with. That’s because they don’t have therapists, they don’t have any context for bullying being bad, and since everyone learns the same magic, everyone is expected to be ready to throw down, or to find protectors.

idk I find this a really fascinating concept, because it ties into the weird libertarian thing the wizarding world has going on, the transition into modernity that hit Britain in the Victorian era when it came to private property and authority over one’s private life never really happened for them

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Given the culture of casual violence in Harry Potter - this isn't even an exhaustive list of examples, Neville being dropped out of a three storey window by his uncle aged 10?! - it makes it even more narratively questionable and unsatisfactory that when it comes to open warfare against racist torturers and murderers the Order of the Phoenix are committed to as nonviolent as possible opposition using the likes of Stunning and 'tying up' spells! Another example of Jo forgetting her established context and the genre she was writing within?

#hp meta#hp
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Anonymous asked:

hi i remember you once said that harry and draco are compatible in their talents and personalities. Can you elaborate it?if it takes time to answer i'm fine

iamnmbr3 answered:

I've talked about their abilities being complimentary because they are both talented in different areas. For example Draco is one of the strongest Occlumenses in the book while Occlumency is one of Harry's greatest weaknesses. Draco is also good at Charms and Transfiguration and the technical aspects of magic - as we see with fixing the cabinet. Whereas Harry is very good at having an instinctive feel for magic and excels at raw power, gut feel, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. They both are extremely powerful and have very fast reflexes (though Harry's a bit faster). They also are both good at plotting and coming up with cover stories on the fly (Draco gets good at this later - when he faces real challenges for the first time in book 6 and then later in book 7, whereas Harry's ability is more developed from the start) and both can think on their feet in a crisis when they have to (an ability Harry always naturally has and is always probably a bit better at, and something Draco develops by book 7 - with his "I can't be sure" lie which was the best possible thing to say in that scenario because it created the uncertainty needed to buy the Trio time to escape). So they compliment and complete each other really well.

Then in terms of their personalities they both tend to have a snarky sense of humor (something Harry appreciates about Draco a lot more once the snark doesn't involve being cruel or bigoted towards people he cares about), can be brave when called on, are quick thinkers and creative problem solves (though in very different ways), tend to be guarded around most people and often conceal their true thoughts and emotions, are fiercely loyal to the people they care about, will go all out for the people and causes they believe in, and have a dramatic penchant for chaos (a fact they both deny).

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#draco malfoy#harry potter#drarry#hp meta#hp
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