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Re: What Are You Reading?
TVtropes.org? Ew.
Your comparison to Zeratul's words is meaningless. Zeratul's words were effective because they were hypnotic and to the point. Even more importantly, they were dialogue. Characters in a story say things according to their personalities -- they aren't trying to write a story. When no characters are talking, the writing needs to be sharper so that (1) the reader knows what's going on, and (2) the reader can see the difference between a character's perceptions and what is actually happening. Zeratul's words can be as purple as they want, so long as they are things he'd actually say.
So in other words, I'm not critiquing Golden's use of dialogue here, but rather her non-dialogue. Therefore you can't compare it to Zeratul's words.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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But you can't tell me that the prologue was anything other than purple prose, useless to the overall story.
Are you talking about the Zamara parts or the archaelogical parts. But, if it's the latter, then, then it comes more into play in the second and third book. If its the former, it REALLY comes into play in the second and third books, and I would be supremely surprised if it wasn't at least somewhat relevant to LotV.
I will concede, however, that the humans experiencing the Khala was kind of stupid. Even back then I thought it was a bit much. One of those things I mentioned that should've been a warning sign. But, again, you have to consider the medium and, well, no need to rehash that.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Are you talking about the Zamara parts or the archaelogical parts. But, if it's the latter, then, then it comes more into play in the second and third book. If its the former, it REALLY comes into play in the second and third books, and I would be supremely surprised if it wasn't at least somewhat relevant to LotV.
She's talking about the prologue where Zamara is dieing and talks about time weaving in on itself, with patterns that emerge, and how she has to complete her mission, etc. You know, the entire point of her character, which apparently isn't relevant to the story. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I will concede, however, that the humans experiencing the Khala was kind of stupid. Even back then I thought it was a bit much.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
TheEconomist
Are you talking about the Zamara parts or the archaelogical parts. But, if it's the latter, then, then it comes more into play in the second and third book. If its the former, it REALLY comes into play in the second and third books, and I would be supremely surprised if it wasn't at least somewhat relevant to LotV.
I will concede, however, that the humans experiencing the Khala was kind of stupid. Even back then I thought it was a bit much. One of those things I mentioned that should've been a warning sign. But, again, you have to consider the medium and, well, no need to rehash that.
No, I meant the part at the beginning where someone, presumably Zamara, is rambling on about time or history, or blah blah blah. It literally communicated nothing. Unless you're trying to say that that there's weird time loop nonsense in the future books, at which I lift an eyebrow. *sigh* I can't quite get to the second book yet, as I'm going to write up an analysis of the first beforehand, and that won't be done for a bit.
Well, the idea of humans joining the Khala was stupid. However, the words she chose to use for that part were fitting. It worked on an emotional level, if not a logical one. This is possibly the only book I could recommend to a non-Starcraft fan, as they wouldn't know or care that the Khala was used wrong. Still, it seems really weird that Zamara didn't react to it more than, "eh, maybe you're right." She should have freaked out, or scolded Jake, or said how wonderful it was that humans got to experience it, or just done anything more interesting than the equivalent of a shrug.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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No, I meant the part at the beginning where someone, presumably Zamara, is rambling on about time or history, or blah blah blah.
All I remember was her talking about the history of the Protoss and how it was all contained within her and needed to be preserved. All of these things are critical to the story. It's been about seven years since I read the book though, so ...
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Re: What Are You Reading?
Oh no, she -- if it was her and not some sort of narrator -- was just rambling nonsense about time and moments and other sort of stuff you see when a teenager is trying to write Dr. Who fanfiction. Didn't mention the Protoss, her role in the story, or anything relevant.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
Welp, I guess it's time for another dump of what I've been reading. I haven't been reading that much. I did read a little bit though. Finished 'The Verdant Passage', which is the first book in the Dark Sun series which is an apocalyptic, Conan-esque spin off of Dungeons & Dragons. It was fun and a great introduction to the series. One of the better simple novels I've read recently. Nothing to analyze or think about afterwards, but a lot of fun and adventure.
Read 'Nocturnal" by Scott Sigler, not much to say about that though, it's a mediocre supernatural police procedural. Good book, but nothing special.
I also read 'Dragons of Autumn Twilight' which is the first book in the Dragonlance series. Can't remember if I mentioned this earlier so I'll put it here. Fun book with a nice little topping of nostalgia since it was one of my first books I ever read by my own volition. Cliched (by now, 80's book) and incredibly simple and weak on consistent logic (like most older fantasies) but I enjoyed it nevertheless.
I started and stopped a reading of the first Ravenloft book by Christie Golden (Nissa's new favorite author) and a reading of the first book in the Black Company series by Glen Cook. The latter (Black Company) being a pretty damn good book that I only stopped because I lost interest in reading in general for a bit and then came back but was only interested in my usual massive tomes of complex plottage. I'll read it on my next burnout. The former, Christie Golden's book, showing promise but just wasn't in the mood to read at the moment, too early to comment on writing or storytelling.
As you can see, not a lot of reading done by my standards (1-3 a month) and what I did read were pretty simple books. I think I've gotten those out of my system though. Eyeing a lot of the more complex books to start reading now. Definitely going to get back in the second book of the Malazan series (mind rape) and probably continue on with the science fiction series I've started (The Expanse Book 4, Revelation Space Book 5, Pandora's Star Book 2, or something of that nature)
Mostly played games this time around. Played a lot of Dark Souls II, some classic 16-bit RPGs (Final Fantasy V, Phantasy Star III, Dragon Quest VII), and even a little bit of Mass Effect 3. And, of course, those series that I've basically been playing for my entire life, StarCraft and Unreal Tournament. Used to play Diablo, but, you know. All and all, a return to the mean, more game playing than reading, I haven't done much gaming in a long time.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
Lol, I don't hate Christie Golden. She's nowhere near as bad as Gabriel Mesta, that's for sure. Besides, her writing style is really much more suited for fantasy than for Starcraft. Well, except apparently incest is involved in her other books, so I'll just let you handle those.
I'm reading "Type Talk at Work" right now. While not the best resource for Myers-Briggs information, it feels like it better demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of each type than Please Understand Me II.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
TheEconomist
StarCraft is fantasy :D
Well, it is now. It was science fiction at one point.
*mumbles* Stupid Amon/prophecy...stupid Narud....
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Nissa
Well, it is now. It was science fiction at one point.
*mumbles* Stupid Amon/prophecy...stupid Narud....
Unless they make some MAJOR adjustments in LotV, or just say HotS was never canon.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
Nah, they were heading a fantasy direction in WoL. Primarily where it concerned Zeratul.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Nissa
Nah, they were heading a fantasy direction in WoL. Primarily where it concerned Zeratul.
I'll let them take one more shot once the FULL picture of the prophecy is revealed in LotV. It probably won't even work, but it'd be interesting to see what they can come up with.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
So young and naive. No worries, little one, the world will crush that out of you.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
I hate prophecies, to be frank. Especially where the future is seen through magic or some other bullshit mysticism. Like, fuck Bran Stark and the 3-eyed raven. SC's "The Xel'Naga will return" is so vague right now I don't even really care about it, and I can't blame Raynor for dismissing it too.
Seriously, the best "prophecy" based media I've ever seen are The Lego Movie, which *plot twist!* turned out to be a lie, and Gurren Lagaan's completely over-the-top spiral extinction.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
I hate prophecies, to be frank. Especially where the future is seen through magic or some other bullshit mysticism. Like, fuck Bran Stark and the 3-eyed raven. SC's "The Xel'Naga will return" is so vague right now I don't even really care about it, and I can't blame Raynor for dismissing it too.
Seriously, the best "prophecy" based media I've ever seen are The Lego Movie, which *plot twist!* turned out to be a lie, and Gurren Lagaan's completely over-the-top spiral extinction.
Most prophecies end up falling flat on their face, I expect the same thing to happen in LotV anyway. Nevertheless, it'd be interest to see Blizzard squirm to try to salvage the situation when that's clearly not possible.
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Most prophecies end up falling flat on their face, I expect the same thing to happen in LotV anyway. Nevertheless, it'd be interest to see Blizzard squirm to try to salvage the situation when that's clearly not possible.
At this point I expect Zeratul to locate and use a Xel'Naga artifact akin to the Horn of Cenarius from WarCraft; Amon will be defeated by the spiritual power -- I'm sorry, combined essence, as channeled by the Kerrigan-Artanis Hybrid/Xel'Naga Reborn -- of all Protoss past and present; Raynor, resurrected by Kerrigan's Zerg virus, takes over as the King of Blades, and takes the Zerg Swarm far from Koprulu; and we all live happily ever after.
... Until an entire race of Amon-spawn come creeping out the shadows. :|
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Visions of Khas
At this point I expect Zeratul to locate and use a Xel'Naga artifact akin to the Horn of Cenarius from WarCraft; Amon will be defeated by the spiritual power -- I'm sorry, combined essence, as channeled by the Kerrigan-Artanis Hybrid/Xel'Naga Reborn -- of all Protoss past and present; Raynor, resurrected by Kerrigan's Zerg virus, takes over as the King of Blades, and takes the Zerg Swarm far from Koprulu; and we all live happily ever after.
... Until an entire race of Amon-spawn come creeping out the shadows. :|
That's not going to happen, VoK. We all know the LotV ending will be some crack addict waking up off the street, saying "I just had the weirdest dream", meaning that the whole SC series was just a hallucination.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
ragnarok
That's not going to happen, VoK. We all know the LotV ending will be some crack addict waking up off the street, saying "I just had the weirdest dream", meaning that the whole SC series was just a hallucination.
Holy fuck, did you just make a joke?
Does not compute.
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I can believe it. It was told so robotic and ineffectually that I don't need to accuse of Rag of having someone else type it for him.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
Holy fuck, did you just make a joke?
Does not compute.
That was NOT a joke, Demo.....
After all, Blizzard said the following: "I have seen the story, and I’m telling you — there are some surprises, some twists, some turns, it’s going to be really exciting."
Thus such an ending would be logical, as Blizzard could then say, "Bet you didn't see THAT coming, now did you?"
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Re: What Are You Reading?
*shakes head*
This kid ....
Anyways, Robert Clotworthy said that, not Blizzard. He also hyped up the Tychus Findlay story arch which went no fucking where. And they said the same shit about WoL. Apparently, their idea of a twist was deinfesting Kerrigan which was basically the first idea that popped into every poster's first joke topic on SC forums. Yeah, real unexpected and original.
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If they're gonna Shyamalan this thing, I quit. All my nopes.
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You know it's coming.
Seriously, why does anyone still care. I doubt anyone here was more excited or a bigger fan of Pre-WOL StarCraft than I was, yet I moved on quickly and finally.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
DemolitionSquid
If they're gonna Shyamalan this thing, I quit. All my nopes.
You know they're going to do such a thing. They never cared about the storyline.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
TheEconomist
Seriously, why does anyone still care. I doubt anyone here was more excited or a bigger fan of Pre-WOL StarCraft than I was, yet I moved on quickly and finally.
A sense of twisted self-amusement for mocking the butchered remnants of my childhood.
Or boredom. Probably boredom. :P
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
ragnarok
That's not going to happen, VoK. We all know the LotV ending will be some crack addict waking up off the street, saying "I just had the weirdest dream", meaning that the whole SC series was just a hallucination.
Sounds more plausible than anything Blizz could write.
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A sense of twisted self-amusement for mocking the butchered remnants of my childhood.
That's why we stay here. I'm in the same boat with you. I'm here to bitch and moan as some kind of release therapy.
What I mean is, why does anyone care about the story anymore?
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Re: What Are You Reading?
I still believe in Metzen!
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
TheEconomist
What I mean is, why does anyone care about the story anymore?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
NikoMyCousin
I still believe in Metzen!
I hope you know that beliefs still have their limitations.
There's the concept that it's better to have faith in something and be wrong than to have faith in nothing at all.
That's true, but once your faith has been misplaced WAY too many times....
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Re: What Are You Reading?
This Bitterness Train is sloshing vinegar from the Sullen caboose. o_O
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This Bitterness Train is sloshing vinegar from the Sullen caboose. o_O
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
TheEconomist
What I mean is, why does anyone care about the story anymore?
I care because I care about story in general, as in where modern culture is going with storytelling techniques. As far as specifically Starcraft goes....well, I want to see how bad the story gets, and then laugh at it. It's pretty doubtful at this point they can salvage the story, but it's still worth seeing to know how to not write.
By seeing, I of course mean watching a playthrough on the internet, not paying actual money.
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Nissa
I care because I care about story in general, as in where modern culture is going with storytelling techniques. As far as specifically Starcraft goes....well, I want to see how bad the story gets, and then laugh at it. It's pretty doubtful at this point they can salvage the story, but it's still worth seeing to know how to not write.
By seeing, I of course mean watching a playthrough on the internet, not paying actual money.
See the IDEAL ending I want is for the UED to return so the Raiders and the swarm can ally back up to fight them again, in a more LEGIT alliance for once.
But that's not likely going to happen.
Furthermore, now that Blizzard has just about painted themselves into a corner, they better not pull some sort of "Deus Ex Machina" ending where Amon just uses his "time reversal" power and just rewinds the clock back to SC1 and use THAT to set the stage for SC3.
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Might as well just bring back Tassadar and have him sacrisplode Amon, all in the same cinematic. Equally retarded except with some lulz value.
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I'm still expecting a better explanation for bringing the guy back since WoL, and a more SPECIFIC explanation as well, not just some vague BS like they usually pull.
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Might as well just bring back Tassadar and have him sacrisplode Amon, all in the same cinematic. Equally retarded except with some lulz value.
Maybe Tassadar's will be the chief spirit of those fallen protoss spirits that come to our aid in the deus ex machina ending I proposed earlier?
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Before or after the win button is pressed that turns impossible odds to easy peasy sunday morning drive through a park?
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Visions of Khas
Maybe Tassadar's will be the chief spirit of those fallen protoss spirits that come to our aid in the deus ex machina ending I proposed earlier?
Yeah that WOULD serve just fine for the Deus Ex Machina ending. But then, Blizzard has already just about painted them into a corner by this point anyway...
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Re: What Are You Reading?
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Originally Posted by
Visions of Khas
Maybe Tassadar's will be the chief spirit of those fallen protoss spirits that come to our aid in the deus ex machina ending I proposed earlier?
What will take the tree's place?
