When you hear the word ‘lynx’, you probably think of a single type of animal. Those of us in the USA probably pictured a bobcat. Well, there are actually 4 species of lynx and one of them is the bobcat. They all look fairly similar with the smallest being the bobcat and Canadian lynx and the biggest being the Eurasian lynx. What else can we say about these small cats?
While these cats can differ in color and slightly in size, they share many physical similarities. All of them have tufts of hair on their ears and long whiskers. Their paws are large and padded to allow for walking on the snow. As you go further north, the lynx species get thicker fur and wider paws to handle more snow. They have ruffs under their neck and white fur on their bellies, chests, and inner legs. Like all cats, they are carnivores and feed on a variety of animals.
Three of the four species are considered ‘not threatened’, but the Iberian lynx is critically endangered. It has begun to recover in some areas, but still has a long way to go until it is out of danger of extinction. There are several reasons for the Iberian lynx populations shrinking. One is that their main prey are rabbits and various epidemics have reduced their food source. High speed roads were put through the Iberian lynx territory, so they got hit by cars a lot until preventive measures were begun. Then, you have the usual habitat destruction and illegal hunting because OF COURSE those are causes.
All I managed to outline for Darwin & the Joy Path was the first 8 chapters. That’s good, but it’s looking like it’ll be 17-18 chapters. It took me most of Saturday to do this, so I’m a little bummed that I didn’t get further. Haircut, shopping, and biking didn’t cause much of a delay. I just had trouble figuring things out and focusing. Guess this means I won’t be writing the book until after New Years. I’ll use the break to finish the outline, work on ‘Phi Beta Files’, and do February blog posts. This is what happens when most of my friends are far away or have family stuff. I get ‘me time’, but there’s a twinge of loneliness after the first day or two.
Anyway, this week was as busy as I expected. Monday may have been the only ‘normal’ day. Last Sunday was potato latkes with the family, but half of them couldn’t make it due to illness. They showed up Tuesday after work/school, which meant we did the big Hanukkah meal that day. Wednesday was my son’s Winter Concert, which was amazing and he did great in the chorus. Thursday had appointments including one that revolved around the ‘life event’. Friday was a field trip at school, which went fairly well. Then, it was home to do laundry since the weekend is going to be crazy.
I usually go into detail with a lot of what I just blurted out, but I’m so exhausted. It was all I could do to get to bed at a decent hour. Surprised I managed to finish a puzzle and a single February post. It wasn’t the sleep apnea type of fatigue, but one born from not being able to rest. My mind and body could only handle so much. I can feel them wearing away at the edges, which is why I didn’t push myself when I was done with work, parenting, and appointments. Next week should be less insane, which means I can tinker with the outline for Darwin & the Joy Path.
Speaking of Darwin, I wrote up the blurb for his first book. Been sitting on it for a month and looking at it again. Decided to schedule it for a test post in January, which gives me time to tinker some more. I’m trying something different than what I did with my previous series. Part of it is born from me deciding that I have nothing to lose by taking a risk and unleashing my impulses. Basically, Darwin is going to be doing the blurbs instead of this stuffy author. Will it be tight and on point? Not as much as serious one would be, but you’ll get the plot and a sense of what our new hero is like. Worrying that I’m having him shed some of his habits in the later books, but I guess it’s a sign that he’s maturing and getting a handle on things. We’ll see if this plays out in the blurbs.
This weekend is booked solid. My son has an evaluation for his services today and then we’re off to a 3 hour Pokemon Go event. If we complete everything quickly, we’ll be back home for hot cocoa and television. Sunday is ‘Godzilla Minus One’ matinee and then Part II of the Pokemon Go event. It’s raining, so we’re going to be heading to a mall, which will be insane. Not the smartest idea, but we can’t go wandering through the rain. Don’t want to get sick right before break. The rest of the week is going to be low key with only a few appointments. Looking forward to that.
As far as free time, I’m not doing a lot when I try to relax. Watching a show on Amazon called ‘Almost Paradise’, which I’ve had on my list for a while. It’s an action crime show that’s pretty good. Stories feel standard, but I always feel these shows are more about the characters. Main one suffers from high blood pressure, so I can relate on that level. Nice to take a break from animated shows too. I say this knowing I’m going to jump to ‘Vox Machina’ and ‘Invincible’ once I finish this show. At least, I think I will, but it depends on what I feel will be the best to have running while I pondering ‘Phi Beta Files’. Be nice to finish that series foundation before the end of the year.
Let’s jump to the goals of the week:
Survive to the break.
Help son with projects and studying.
Work on Darwin & the Joy Path outline.
Get 7+ hours of sleep a night.
Bike when possible.
Work on ‘Phi Beta Files’.
Should I start editing Darwin & the Fate Bracelet at work?
Enjoy time with son since he’ll be away for first half of upcoming break.
Above is a fairly epic speech from the manga/anime ‘One Piece’. I say fairly because you wouldn’t know it unless you watched or read the series. It is said by one of the more popular villains, Donquixote Doflamingo, during a story arch that involved a big war between the pirates and the marines. He is a pirate, but fights for the marines as one of their Seven Warlords. This gives him an interesting perspective . . . Also, can you say he’s really wrong?
To touch on what Doflamingo is saying, he makes a lot of sense. History shows us that the victors tell the story. They decide on what was right and wrong as well as what people will learn about. Saying that justice will prevail is ridiculous because whoever wins will say that their said was justified. Personally, the part about how a child growing up in peace will have different values and perspectives than one growing up in war hits home. I see so many people talk about what life should be like for those who have lived in different conditions. Empathy and change of perspective aren’t easy to find or come by, which makes Doflamingo’s speech hit a little harder.
All of this brings up the question of having a villain who makes sense. I know people enjoy villains when they are doing evil, but for good reasons. That can be understood since they mean well. Doflamingo doesn’t fall into this category though. Been a while, but I believe he wanted to destroy the world or at least bring down society to prove that he’s right or get revenge. Either way, he works for selfish reasons, but his perspective on how history and justice are decided on by victors garners a lot of agreement. This kind of makes him a ‘beloved’ character regardless of his evil intentions. Makes one wonder if it’s okay to agree with an evil person in some fashion.
I’ve met a few authors who get disturbed by readers relating to or cheering for their villains. Their attempts at making the villains relatable or understandable succeed to the point where a reader might side with them. It makes things difficult when pushing the hero who is supposed to be the favored character. Instead, you have a contingent of fans that are against the good guys and want them to fail. An author might be tempted to give in to this group and switch the story to the bad guys winning, especially if you get a ‘vocal minority’ situation. It’s might easier to handle people liking the villains, but not agreeing with them. You become less likely to redirect your story in their favor or try to hard to ‘evil-ize’ the villain.
With all of that confusion and unexpected cheer, I can see a big reason to have villains who make sense. This would be them talking about society and civilization. A villain who talks about a social injustice that we normally ignore can bring about a conversation among the fans. It can open up minds to what is going on in reality and get one thinking about how we can prevent such a bad guy from appearing. Doflamingo makes sense with his opinion on how justice is determined by the winners and those in power. This means it can be skewed and biased. We see examples of this in our own world, which means we could feasibly have a Doflamingo type show up. For all we know, one already has. Anyway, his speech and opinion gets the conversation going, which is a bonus for many authors.
So, what do you think about villains with understandable messages and worldviews?
(I remember this one. I had to get a suit for a wedding after a few years of avoiding such events. While getting fitted, I was described as short and compact. All this made me think about were fantasy dwarves. So, I wrote a poem about it. Probably to ward off the slight depression I felt upon realizing how much weight I gained.)
I went to buy a suit
Not knowing how I size
Ignorant of my dimensions
About to learn too much
Broad of shoulders
Short of height
With a bulging gut
Earned by a love of food
I was given the executive cut
Called stocky and compact
My mind defined me otherwise
I was a challenge to find fit
The fitting carried on
As my mind stepped far away
Taking in my stated form
Adding what was missing
I grew a lengthy beard
While donning plated mail
My balding head was covered
By a horn-covered helm
I am no longer thin
Like the elf I used to be
My days of being spry
Have left me long ago
I am now a bulky dwarf
The surly battle drone
A warrior of stone
Carved from the very earth
Long ago, I got into a manga called ‘Love Hina’. This is what one would call a ‘harem story’ where the male protagonist is eventually desired by all of the female ones. That has nothing to do with this post. Sort of. So, why did I bring it up?
The male lead is driven to get into a prestigious university because he made a childhood promise with a girl that they would reunite there. He’s not very bright, so he keeps failing the entrance exam. Yet, he refuses to give up. The issue is that he does not remember what the girl looks like. Oops.
I began thinking about ‘Love Hina’ when I watched ‘Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple’ and a childhood promise turned up again. Kenichi had forgotten about the girl and the promise entirely. He still had a keepsake from it. This plot point didn’t show up until way into the second season when the main villain appeared. Childhood friend turned enemy because of the mysterious promise. For some reason, I think there were two promises or the bad guy misremembered stuff. Either way, I was again facing a story where the main character forgets a childhood promise.
What is with this plot hook?
I can’t really figure out why this happens so much, especially in anime and manga. I took a look and this tends to fall under ‘forgotten first meeting’ tropes. This is a revelation later in a series where you find that characters have already met. It’s usually rather strange because you’re led to believe they have never interacted prior to the story. Explanations for this range from mindwiping, memories fading over time, a long separation, not recognizing each other, or simply ignoring the timeline issue. This is why many readers can perceive this as a plot hole and why authors might add a childhood promise to the scenario. At least the promise connects it to the plot.
There was always an issue that I had with this forgotten promise trope. Using ‘Love Hina’ as an example, I think it was that you could only have the issue go on for so long. The male lead had this promise quest from the beginning, which got old at one point. Once you realized the truth, it got fairly frustrating that he wasn’t figuring it out. He did figure it out before the end of the 14 volumes, but then you had the extra issue of the main mystery being solved. So, things dragged a bit regardless of the comedy, character development, and action. As soon as the promise was revealed and kept, a story kind of putters along in search of a conclusion.
Maybe I’m too harsh and critical of this plot twist. I did used to enjoy it, but I guess it doesn’t work now that I’m older. Still, it definitely has some interest for short-term plot points. That’s only if the audience already knows the answer. It can certainly work better for a long series if there aren’t any blatant clues as to who the childhood friend was or the promise isn’t known. You have a mystery on your hand, which older readers might be able to connect with. We all have memories that are faded and some of them have ghostly images of forgotten friends. So, that’s something you can go along with if you want to write this story and get a lot of mileage out of it.
What do you think of stories with forgotten childhood promises?
(Realized I never did an early origin post for the Baron. It was just this one right before I released the final volume. Looking it over, I don’t think I would have changed anything. There was the temptation to have him be more active, but I think the Baron being trapped until the final volume worked out best. If he escaped and the series dragged on for a few books, the story might have come off as being padded and bloated.)
The titular Warlord of the Forgotten Age is none other than Baron Arthuru Kernaghan who hasn’t made too many appearances on this blog. Not as many as you would think in the series too. Being sealed and trapped, he can’t get involved in the action unless there’s a special situation. The Baron appears in prologues to show how he’s responding to previous actions and pushing some influence on what is about to happen. He can appear through communications with his agents or a scene might show what he is doing during the adventure. The truth is that he’s had to be a powerful, menacing villain who doesn’t get into the action until the final battle. Needles to say, it wasn’t easy putting him together and I am happy that people have acknowledged his presence.
The origins of the Baron is rather slim since he never made an appearance in the D&D game that Legends of Windemere is based on. We heard of him and ran into his son, Stephen Kernaghan, as well as the Lich. Yet, the Baron was a mystery because he was locked away. Don’t even think we uncovered the reason why, which meant I was working with a clean slate. He didn’t even have the same name. Originally, he was Baron Loquacious VonGalderon, but that didn’t work well when I was testing it with beta readers long ago. That and the first name means ‘talkative’, which didn’t fit him. He was also a vampire, which had been overdone by the time I got to him. The other problem was that I didn’t want him to designate how I would do vampires since I was considering moving the Dawn Fangs into Windemere.
So, I had to build the Baron up to make him menacing while absent. He had to compete with the Lich, Trinity, Stephen, and other villains who were all a motley crew of evil. He needed to be at the top, which wasn’t easy. I played around with his name first and then decided he would have magic, swordfighting, and immortality. Why would he have that last one? Because he was a mortal warlord who rose to become the God of Destiny, but was swiftly overthrown by Gabriel. He still had the power to rival a god and now was protected by the Law of Influence, so they sealed him in Vir’s Castle, which is found in the Chaos Void. Out of pettiness, Gabriel even erased the Baron from history and mortal memory, so his existence has been festering in the subconscious of nearly every living creature. A reason for this is because he committed some of the most evil acts in Windemere history when he was a warlord. The only way to eliminate him entirely is to use mortal agents who will adventure to develop enough powers to have a chance at winning, which is where the champions come in.
That’s the overall origin of the Baron that I developed as I was nearing the introduction of his legend in Allure of the Gypsies. As the series progressed, I designed more and more of him. One of the biggest pieces for the Baron’s origin was the fact that Dariana was his daughter. At first, I was going to have it that he had his way with Zaria when he was a god, but then I had Stephen being the monstrous rapist that got what he deserved in the end. The Baron was coming out more rational than his son, which meant it didn’t make any sense that it would have happened that way. His relationship with Zaria evolved to a new wrinkle in his legend. This is a slight spoiler, so I’ll put a break:
This is probably more about mixing genres, but I’m not sure exactly how to explain this story strategy. Seems to be primarily comedy because it comes with a sense of oddness that you can’t really ignore. So, I’m going to explain the character who got me thinking about this topic.
Haruo Niijima is from the manga/anime called ‘Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple’. The story is about Kenichi being trained by 6 powerful martial artists to become stronger after a lifetime of being seen as week. So, it’s a mystical martial arts story. Niijima is his best friend and tormentor who is always up to mischief. He wants to use Kenichi’s actions to push his own agenda of global domination. Just like any best friend should do when you’re being threatened by bullies and gangs every day. Niijima is really smart and cunning as well as being able to blend into the scenery, sense stuff, and . . . He looks really odd for a martial arts story, right?
Niijima is apparently an alien/demon hybrid set on conquering Earth.
Now, there is a lot of mystical abilities done in a martial arts style and people have superhuman physical abilities. Yet, this one guy being an alien/demon and showing some actual powers is shocking. He should be in a science fiction or magical ‘slice of life’ story instead of a martial arts action one. Sure, he pushes the plot along and his origins don’t take the spotlight at all. I didn’t even know him being an alien wasn’t a joke until I read about the manga stuff that occurred after the anime ended. This makes Niijima stand out even more. Reminds me of a video game called ‘Chrono Trigger’ where you have a robot join your party of medieval and prehistoric characters. That still makes more sense since time travel is a key component of that plot.
The weirdest thing is that the ridiculous of Niijima doesn’t hurt the story. It doesn’t amplify it either. Yes, thinking too hard about his presence makes you realize he’s kind of in the wrong genre. But you need to ignore everything he is saying and doing in order to reach that conclusion. Take away his alien/demon stuff and he still plays the same role even though the few powers he demonstrates can’t be used when needed. Niijima is still the annoying, arrogant, boundary-breaking, underhanded, charismatic sneak of a best friend. This ends up being why so many fans seem to like him too. The origins are just window-dressing quirks.
I think that’s the why a genre jumper ends up in comedies and the only time when it works well. They stand out because they’re in the wrong world, but nobody really seems to care about that. Other characters note it, but they’re still an accepted entity that belongs to that setting. More importantly, this uniqueness isn’t played to the point where it overshadows the plot and protagonist. I’ve seen that a common thing is to have the audience wonder why nobody else acknowledges or notices the different character. It’s even done where the art style changes when it’s a visual medium. That’s because the difference isn’t added to distract, but to pull you into the setting. Come for the strange alien/demon with a serpent tongue and stay for the martial arts action.
This is a gamble too. You will always have purists that don’t want to see any other genre even near their preferred ones. This happens with comedies too even though the mix up is part of the joke. An author simply has to hope that they do things well enough that they entertain everyone who isn’t stuck in their ways. I would think making things mild and not having it take all of the attention away from the main story can help you get there. At the very least, it gives people a defense in that the majority of what you have written fits within the primary genre.
So, what do you think of out of place characters like this? Have you ever attempted it?
