Wait, that's a song? I honestly wasn't aware of that.
Laconic:
The ironic part is that this song isn't.---
Avatar/Brittanian Virtues, Gargish Virtues, or Ophidian Virtues? THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
Laconic: Gargish.
Regular: Looking them up on the Ultima wiki, I think I might get along with Gargish virtues the best.
How do you keep yourself focused on a piece of writing?
Laconic: Music, and having no place to flee to.
Regular: I used to get a lot of my writing done in class when I couldn't get access to many distractions. Having resources nearby is a good idea, if I'm explaining something historical or scientific in the work.
How much second guessing occurs in the process?
Laconic: Not much.
Regular: Second guessing isn't something I do immediately; it takes the distance of a given amount of time for me to look back on it and think "oh, maybe I should have done that differently".
What is hardest for you to write?
Laconic: Tragic scenes.
Regular: Despite my fondness for making my readers feel what the characters do, I hate putting them through the rack like this, and it's nothing but emotionally draining on my part as well. Writing out the horrors of my worst nightmares isn't very fun, either.
What is easiest?
Laconic: Historical allusions.
Regular: Because they happened in real life and have accounts and paintings and photographs to supplement them, historical allusions are quite easy for me, because they are easy to visualize, so detail for those scenes flows a lot more easily.
How do you differentiate your characters? How do you keep a large cast from sounding too identical?
Laconic: Basing them on other people and characters.
Regular: Writing who you know is a really good way to avoid too similar a cast. I have a document of notes for White Rose, for example, that lays out the various historical influences of the character (I think you would enjoy hearing that White Rose's Shikieiki is partially based on Gen. Wesley Clark, for starters), while others are based on ancient archetypes (Koishi is pretty firmly based in the tragic hero and epic hero molds, fitting a lot of theories about the subconscious) or monarchs (Sumire is Jaladuddin Akbar). That tends to be pretty conducive to variety in character types.
Additionally, throwing in inconsistencies from canon is a good way to play around with characters who sound too similar. One of the major what-if questions I enjoy playing with is "what if something happened in (character x)'s past to completely disillusion them about something? What would it take to renew their faith so that they become the person we see in canon?" and things like that.
Giving characters internally conflicting motivations and divided loyalties and dangerous ideas make them interesting, and quite different from one another.
---
Are you sure you aren't tsundere for me?
Laconic: S-stupid Mus.
Regular: Okay, maybe a little.
I'll probably regret this question, but what part does religion play in your life?
Laconic: A pretty big one.
Regular: Whenever people hear me tell them that I am religious, they assume because of my skin colour that I am Catholic (or they mistake me from an Arab and think I'm Muslim). Not so; my parents are part of the Protestant Mexican minority, and I've been going to church ever since I was three years old. I was kind of awful at actually
memorizing the Bible, but only as far as specific references go, because I read the Bible aloud in Spanish once chapter a day over something like three years' time during all of middle school, and reading things aloud means I still remember a lot of the stories and passages. Church history is one of my favourite weird things to study. At age 14 I locked myself into the church library and pored over volumes of systematic theology (instead of hearing the pastor's sermons, lol). I am a pastor's daughter and I went to Christian private school when I was younger and ended up scared as hell of charismatic worship because they jump around and speak in tongues and preach fiery sermons about the holy spirit coming down in flames upon people (terrifying for a young kid).
I have grown to loathe devotion to orthodoxy over things like common sense, reason, and progress. My period of being scared in church went away very quickly, and I was soon identified in Sunday School classes as someone who asked way too many questions, and this made the teachers look bad. I once came up to a pastor at a church my family was visiting and told him that his constant use of leprosy in his sermon was biologically incorrect-- the specific type of leprosy he was mentioning attacked the nerves, not the blood, and it ruined his metaphors. He accused me of valuing science over the word of God, and it actually made me cry and sink into depression for quite a while after that, because it was a grave insult to me. My love of science and my love of God do not in any way conflict with one another, as I see it.
Properly, "religion" is just the vehicle through which we interact with God. Some people in the Southern Baptist denomination I am in have rejected it in favour of the vaguely new age-y idea that "they're not religious, they're
spiritual." I think it's semantic dodging that is just intended to make you sound holy and pious when you're really not. In the present day, I am absolutely livid at the resounding silence of the northern American Protestant community on the subject of illegal immigration, and not at all happy that I have only met a handful of prominent pastors who have come out completely to say "screw the rules, we're doing what's right for our brothers and sisters". Becoming so good at remembering Bible verses in my youth has paid off, because now as an adult, it's really easy to lay the smackdown on ignorant people of all faiths or non-faiths who make crap up about the good book. I take the golden rule as seriously as possible, and as it turns out, it's quite a powerful thing when you endeavour to seriously pursue it in all aspects of life.
The idea of a life without religion seems utterly surreal, if not impossible. I could never do it; religion plays an incredibly large role in my life. That should answer your question.
---
...what does Marcellus Wallace look like?
Laconic: I had to look this up. I am not good at memes. Or popular culture in general, really :blush:
---
Of all of the photos you've ever taken, which is your favorite?
Laconic: One of my friends.
Regular: There is a photo in my junior year's yearbook, before I became the Editor-in-Chief next year, of a photo I took at the Homecoming dance that I attended with all my friends and a very shiny and good camera. It is a photo of two of my friends, Ian and Rebecca, looking at each other and holding hands but still managing to have both of their faces pointing towards the camera somehow. Everything behind them is in shadow, so they stand out very well. There is no blur, and the love in their eyes is evident. Rebecca wanted to hurt me after I took the photo, but I kept it anyway, and it's remained a favourite picture. :3
What's the most important thing to you in life?
Laconic: Serving other people.
Regular: I say this without a hint of irony or sarcasm-- I am a worthless human being if I do not help other people with my life. Everything else is secondary.
Which do you enjoy reading more-- fiction or nonfiction?
Laconic: These days, nonfiction.
Regular: Fiction is still great, don't get me wrong, but it's so much harder to get into romantic comedies or tournament arcs when it all seems so much more trivial than reading of entire nations being brought to ruin.
Which of the three appeals of rhetoric do you think are the most effective when it comes to persuasion-- logos, ethos, or pathos?
Laconic: Ethos.
Regular: This should be evident from who I am. Logos means nothing if they've already used logic to justify the worst positions imagineable (which given the area I study, tends to be pretty much all the time). Ethos ignores their "airtight logic" and goes straight to the heart of the matter. And pathos, well,
that's easy to take waaaaaaaaay too far.How are your strawberries growing?
Laconic:
Regular: They were delicious. :3 (Unfortunately, the squirrels seem to think so too.)
---
Marshmallow Cheese?
Laconic: Um, sure?
---
What's your stance on hentai/pornography; do you find it exploitative or immoral?
Laconic: I detest it.
Regular: Really, did you expect anything else? However, like most of my other stances, I will readily accept differing practices on it. It's something I believe for myself, and no one else has to agree. In particular, because
it's been around for so long (link is nsfw... for 35,000 years ago) it's kind of pointless to crusade against it, and is therefore a waste of time.
I do, however, think it's very distortive of self-image-- see
here (link is technically nsfw but a very good read, and see also the links at the bottom).
What kind of things do you think fanfiction writers should aim to do in order to create good stories?
Laconic: Create the stories they'd like to read themselves.
Regular: They should learn the canon of the fandom they're working in, and then feel free to disregard a lot of it if that's what's needed to write the kind of story they'd like to read themselves.
I will go into something, though, that I was hoping to save for an editorial on White Rose. It is my opinion towards yuri in this fandom. Well, not yuri inherently, but romantic pairings.
I know full well that it is standard practice for fans to promote romantic pairings. From my experiences in other fandoms, I've learned to have a chuckle at how these pairings are so frequently framed in terms of “evidence” when actual evidence is often sketchy at best. However, the tendency to write romance and sex in Touhou in particular strikes me as an example of people getting into a rut.
Generally speaking, I’m quite okay when everyone decides to experiment to their hearts’ content with what might happen if (character X) pairs up with (character Y) or if both of them enter into a threesome with (character Z) in the bargain. As I said, people should write the stories they'd like to read themselves. But let's take this back to platonic relationships between characters.
There are plenty of strong relationships to work with in Touhou. The pairings I have the least trouble understanding are the mistress/final boss with the servant/stage 5 boss (except for SA), and the extra stage boss/final boss, since they tend to be linked. These duos tend to get the bulk of the characterization in canon, both in-game and in the supplementary material. On the boss/servant side: Sakuya/Remilia and Youmu/Yuyuko are often highlighted in this regard-- in IN, they serve as teams unto themselves, and thanks to the deathbomb mechanic there, they also step in to support one another when the other is in danger. The dialogue is also quite interesting-- while Youmu is much more deferent to Yuyuko (and Yuyuko likes to tease her in turn), Sakuya and Remilia's dialogue points to a lot of hidden depths in their relationship, particularly the discussion about Sakuya taking the Hourai Elixir. Speaking of, Kaguya/Eirin is an interesting dynamic as well, and though it is resoundingly ignored in most of the rest of the canon save PMiSS and BAiJR, what we see of it in IN tells me that whatever their relationship has gone through, it has remained rock solid for a very long time.
Byakuren is an interesting take on this, because
everyone in her crew has their own passionate reasons for wanting to see her freed (not just Shou) and when we meet her in canon, she's only just been released and so we see her gratitude towards those who've saved her, but it's still largely one-sided; there's no evidence to indicate that she's even seen the Palanquin Ship crew (quite the opposite; she mistakes her opponent for her saviour with her very first two lines). But from what we see of the crew in passing through the endings (regular and extra stage) and Hisoutensoku dialogue, as well as what we have of 10D's scenario, her relationships with her crew seem every bit as solid as their feelings for her in turn.
On the extra stage/final boss side, those are a lot more dynamic. They run the gamut from Mokou and Kaguya (dislike, constant poking at each other's touchy points) to "who the hell are you?" (Byakuren and Nue) to family (Remi/Flan, Satori/Koishi). But they are no less solid when they are friendships or more. Yuyuko and Yukari are probably the most secretive pair, since both of them are so powerful and so fond of manipulating others for the purposes of amusement. Suwako and Kanako are probably the most interesting to me, since they are former foes turned friends and partners, both goddesses and both parent figures to Sanae. Both of these relationships have existed for a very long time before we see them on-screen, and there is no reason to think that they are in danger of being ruined.
In short, none of the master-servant relationships, despite their quirks, seem particularly hard to turn into romantic ones (except Komachi and Shikieiki by necessity). Byakuren's a little more iffy, since she's a monk and not supposed to be into that whole 'worldly desires' thing, but I imagine that fanworks can find their own ways about this. Same with the friendly extra stage/final boss pairs.
That said, however, I have to point out that all these relationships are presented in the context of a shooting game that cares more about good music and pretty bullet patterns than dialogue. There are no gestures among these that are at all sexualized, unless you count Sakuya's and Youmu's determination to serve their masters no matter what. Rather iffy.
But I say they're not sexual. And the reason I don’t want to count that as sexual is that I think we, as a community, are starting to miss something.
They respect one another. They care for one another. In some cases, they're family. But one thing is sure: most of them are best friends. While I’m all about the idea that best friends can sleep together, I would like us as fans to keep it firmly in mind that they can also
not sleep together. I am of the opinion that one of the most amazing things any friend can offer is non-sexual physical contact. I admit that this is a product of my own past, but I consider it no less valid for most of the WTC at large, given the general obsession with all things sexual.
Here is a series that offers us wonderful examples of groups who are very close, who rely on each other in deadly serious situations, who protect one another with their lives (which is the sort of thing that is supposed to ring classic Japanese romance bells), and yet are not involved sexually. In fact, I think ZUN did this on purpose.
(In the internal logic of the story, that is. Externally, it's because it's a bullet hell shooting game that cares more about pretty patterns and good music.)You will note that most the entire youkai cast is quite old enough to understand romance and relationships, but Yuyuko and Yukari, while clearly still very good friends, don’t display much of any physical intimacy except fighting or plotting together to steal sake. It’s rather a shame, actually, because they could without it being sexual.
When Marisa and Reimu are working to solve the incident in LLS (and get into a fight in stage 4, repeated later in IN), when Sakuya fights you and chases after you in EoSD to keep you from reaching Remi, when Yukari helps Reimu hunt down the true moon, when Youmu becomes Yuyuko's sword against the cast of IN, when Sakuya pledges to protect her mistress for the rest of her natural life, when Kaguya swoops in to give Eirin one last shot at beating you, when Keine steps in between you and Mokou despite Mokou not needing her help at all, when Sanae defends her family against a faith that could mean their deaths, when Kanako gets in your way before you can encounter Suwako, when Rin releases evil spirits up to the surface to call down people to defeat her power-mad best friend, when the crew of the Palanquin Ship gathers of their own volition to save their long-gone hero and protector from a thousand-year imprisonment, none of this is because they’re
in love with each other. I’ll readily concede that they may love each other, but not that it’s romantic. It isn’t that simple.
This is not to say that I object to the notion that it
could be romantic, at some point in the future or out of the sight of the players, but it just isn’t in the immediate framework. What people tend to call romantic love and associate with sex, in my opinion, is superficial, temporary, and evanescent at best. Friendship, trust, respect, understanding, devotion-- those are a lot harder to come by and more enduring than mere lust, and while physical attraction can come out of those things, that’s not the premise I see people in the WTC writing from.
So, let’s try a different take, shall we? Actually valuing platonic relationships in Touhou in our fanfiction. Just for kicks. Go on, I dare you.
---
And now you know why White Rose remains stubbornly committed to focusing on friendship relationships.
