madimpossibledreamer

I was thinking about why I like Devil May Cry (and my own writing on Giles’ Detective Agency) and why I don’t think that the story is “terrible” like a lot of people. Unlike my other lit analysis posts this one is mostly about DMC, mostly because I started writing and apparently had a lot to say and this is long enough as it is. This does tie in slightly to why I’m also more positive on DMC 2 (at least story wise, and you can’t argue that the outfit and music weren’t stylish) and the anime (which got me into the story). Again, I haven’t experienced DMC 5 yet; it’s one of the ones I want to actually experience myself, rather than watching someone else play, and admittedly half of my issue is that I want to wait until I’m living somewhere one of my roommates isn’t going to break a newly bought PS4 in a fit of rage or because they’re mad I haven’t cleaned the microwave or whatever. I look forward to seeing how it fits in with this mini-essay. It’s also why I don’t like the Ninja Theory one and why writing crossovers with lgbtq+ themes feels very natural to me. We will also be getting into story spoilers here, so warning for that.

 

( essay beneath cut )

 

apparently it was I who needed to do the research
but
while yoyos might not have been invented as a weapon, a weighted or metal one could definitely cause damage, it does resemble other historical weapons, and the Legend of the War Yoyo was widespread enough that I'm surprised some of the people scoffing haven't heard of it.
(like, seriously, I'd steer clear of a Joseph Joestar with a metal yoyo)

and my point remains, xander probably would've heard the legend and attempted to learn how to use it, with...unknown amounts of success.

Edit: Oh yeah, also this is a call for advice.  I hadn't bothered naming the Xander/Leon series because I didn't expect it to go this long but I've got posts scheduled for a while, so.  Clearly there's a lot to this one.  I've never had this much trouble naming a series before.  Any readers want to chip in with suggestions?

this is gonna be the yakuza 4 which is all the sadder because this might be the last judgment game we get, huh?

*probably confirmed not, since the old director/owner/whatever of (johnny's?) died and they let it be released on steam, but at the time it was a real fear.

long onmyoji post is long

•  
( random writing tidbits hidden in shikigami profiles )
•  

okay, rich text is back.  this is good.
also i hate night highway driving.  i almost hit james bond.

wait, how old is the SCA?  Because Buffy and the others could definitely have used that as an excuse if it was around (tbf I should know this, I went to a coronation, I just...was spacing)
THIS IS REALLY WEIRD

edit: research says 1966.  and by research, i mean bing. google agrees.  wikipedia says that it was founded in California for double the relevance.  so yeah, they absolutely could have passed off their weapons, historical research, training, everything as being in the SCA.  also they could then have a subplot in which Xander actually finds use crafting medieval-esque shields, etc and Buffy becomes royalty of a branch.  I don't know if they have wiccan type stuff in the sca.  maybe the crafts and scribal arts bit?  and it'd also be a great front for any medieval research.  this would be incredible.  we needed an episode.  or, you know, a season arc.  barring that, a story.  I'd do it but I'd have to do a lot of research.  Mostly about the leadership, because if Buffy was going to take over a branch I'd need to know that stuff.  (According to Wikipedia, royalty are chosen by SCA armed combat.  Buffy would win by a landslide and mostly have to try to figure out a way to make it look natural and not actually hurt anybody.)  Giles would nerd out while trying not to appear like he was nerding out.  Willow and Tara could actually have met there and/or gone to one of the dancing classes, because among other things the percentage of men to women at the dancing classes was low, so no one batted an eye at women dancing together (and also I got the idea they were pretty cool with non-mainstream living) and they had archery classes, so they could practice there, and when we showed up for the coronation there were a decent number of people practicing fighting with swords and shields outside, so again.  Perfect cover.  And also a lot of story hooks and interesting stuff to do.

also honestly if they did it during the initiative arc and included Riley it'd make his character more interesting automagically.

I just.  man.  again i think we were robbed on this one.

(also also when they do eventually get multiple Slayers they could just keep using that as the perfect cover.)

sneaking this into the queue.  reading about joyce for Stardust Legacy, someone said that she's more plot device than character because Whedon didn't want to write the parents but thought it'd be weird if he didn't since we see a lot of Buffy's home life.
Insert obligatory warning that in this house we treat Whedon as thoroughly and utterly jossed (i.e. rendered completely irrelevant because of word of Whedon).
Ignoring the 'you could write an emancipated minor, you could write an adult, you could write a bunch of orphans in an orphanage' decisions that he could have easily made for that effect, but I suspect what he really wanted was a shorthand for 'normal family dynamics that lead to Normal Kid *insert vaguely ableist thoughts here*' and didn't want to deal with Consequences as those are, like, some of the least favorite things, seriously, he hates writing character arc and growth and yes I'm still bitter about him regressing Tony's character arc and having him and Pepper break up offscreen because he didn't like the ship...
So, ignore the fact that all choices have Consequences and you really should be trying to think about those as a writer and pay attention to your own continuity (and others', if you're playing in their playground). Ignore the fact that emancipation is a thing we never see in fiction so it'd be an interesting choice to take, or that orphans is a little cliche but you could've done interesting stuff with that.
There was a perfectly acceptable, perfectly interesting, perfectly easy story decision sitting in front of him and he didn't take it.
Buffy really is Giles' daughter.  The better, less cliche, more interesting route here is biologically, and he's a Watcher, and she knows at least a little about what he does, but then she gets Called and suddenly they're both having to deal with that.  From what we currently see of the Council, they *probably* wouldn't allow him to act as her Watcher, given how upset they are about him being unrelated and treating her like his daughter, but.
Maybe they keep him in line with threats on her life.  Maybe we work up the wetworks team much earlier.  Maybe we get some angst from Buffy about how he's stopped treating her like his daughter and become more distant once she got Called, only she finds out they've been threatening her life this whole time and he's been trying to protect her the best way he can.
The more cliche option involves fridging Joyce at the beginning of the series, so Giles adopts her.  I'm against this because fridging is so overdone (and offensive because it's overdone), but it's an option, too.
Now I'm kind of mad that I have a more creative imagination here, because actual parent Giles would've been awesome and I feel like we were robbed.