Snake_King's Story Discussion Thread

[Strange_idea]

I meant a spider harem. 

 

 

Hmmmmm.....  Someone ELSE making the snap......  That gives me an idea...... 

I linked a pic to praetor recently about the women of the film, acting parental to him....  What if they got to arguing about him and doting on him as a young, naive hero like guardians and each made a statement or wish on what they'd do to help him if they could/how things could be better for him. What they don't realise is that they gauntlet is reacting and gathering these wishes in a damaged state (I. E.  Behaving unpredictably), then remakes reality in the harem way and each of the girls thinks they are the only one to remember. So they all do him small favours, andnhook him up with someone they think is good for him (like pepper and her new intern, Gwen,  or okyoe and sharing), not realising how their favours are piling up or that they are beginning to get other ideas. 

[Praetor]

       Oh make no mistake, the industry isn’t dying.  It’s a dead horse and we’re riding in for the funeral.  Obviously there are still going to be comics but they are no longer a past time for normies.  They have been heavily upmarketed (average Marvel comic is over 4 dollars a comic, which is well past inflation compared to the past) and are primarily for whales now and comic book shops have to diversify their assets (i.e. selling Funko Pops and Magic the Gathering decks).  Spider-Man comics are selling under 80,000 comics a month and those are the best.  The worst comic in the crash of the 90s sold over that and that was the ‘dark age’ of comic books when Marvel was panicking and selling the film rights to their top characters (why Sony has Spider-Man and Fox had X-Men).  Trade paperbacks and collectibles are a red herring, those are for collectors and don’t indicate new eyes on the product.

      The popularity of the MCU does not laterally translate into popularity of the comics.  People will watch the movies all day but won’t go to the comic book store and read a book (or download it off amazon either).  What’s worse is that some people may have watched Deadpool 2, really liked Domino, and decided to read the then new Domino book and find a really crummy, very depressing, ultimately boring comic book and the character doesn’t look or act anything like in the film.  That person will never read an actual comic again.  Yeah, Captain Marvel made a billion dollars but that just means millions of people saw a lame Marvel film and then went to check out the garbage tier books that have already been relaunched.  This mentality is backwards.  The comic books should be the staging ground for the movies, not vice versa.  Furthermore, as we break into the next phase of the MCU, they’re going to shift from adapting the classic heroes we all know and love to the new and very bad SJW era of marvel.  Hope you’re ready for Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan and Ironheart Riri Williams.

     Diversifying the rosters isn’t intrinsically a bad thing.  The main issue is just that the comics suck.  I really wanted to like Kamala Khan, she writes fan fiction and ships Spider-Man with Captain Marvel, how cool is that?  The problem is she’s written so blandly her muslim/arabic background never comes into play and she never does anything.  I actually kind of like Silk, I don’t think they’re doing enough with her but I like her.  I’ve been told Moon Girl is actually pretty good if anyone bothered to pick them up.  Also, partially related but the comic art for the past few years has been quite shoddy and the comics are of poor quality themselves despite the price hike.

     That was quite the tangent.  Yellowflash, Ethan van Skiver (Comic Book Artist Pro Secrets), and Diversity and Comics (recently rebranded Comics Matter w/ ya boi Zack), all on YouTube, are my primary sources and they have some strong opinions and regularly comment on the industry.  The first and later primarily do reviews and the middle man was a veteran of the industry.  What’s also really interesting is the only reason they were able to fake market growth was because they factored in crowdfunding and independent campaigns.  EvS crowdfunded a Cyberfrog comic that made over 800,000 dollars (making him the highest grosing artist in the industry) and Zack released his own comic that grossed hundreds of thousands despite not actually being a pro artist before.  So there is interest in this field, it’s just not with Marvel and DC, who are doing very questionable business practices.

      But yeah, a Spider-Man harem fic is on the to do later list.

       

 

[Strange_idea]

Are we including manga in comic sales?  Because one piece is selling really well. And I mean REALLY well. I find that reassuring. 

Also, I hear the squirrel girl series sells very successfully, so much so it decided to go ahead with the new demographic. Though I know not everyone enjoys it, it IS bringing people into the demographic. 

 

For a long time webcomics were the new industry standard, and they did a good job decentralized quality levels notwithstanding. Sadly many of the older, really good ones are gone these days. I can still reccomend some if anyone's interested, and a lot of them do paperback prints now, which is nice. 

Edited June 10, 2019 by Strange_idea

[Praetor]

     Manga is counted separately because they have their own platforms and tend to fall under the ‘weeb’ or ‘otaku’ category.  Most normies don’t read manga (if you are on this sight, you are not a normie) and not that many manga readers also read western comics.  The comic book culture in Japan is also a lot stronger, to where they even have their own anime of Marvel.  Squirrel Girl sells ‘well’ in comparison but the bottom line is no comic is selling as well as before.  This has been somewhat mitigated by comics being more expensive (thus more revenue per book actually sold), cheaper to produce and distribute, more comic books on the market as a whole, digital sales, and cost cutting measures like hiring cheaper artists and using the same page paper for the cover instead of a more weather resistant cover.  A lot of sales trackers are also misleading because they don’t count digital sales, which are almost impossible to confirm, and they count comics shipped to stores, not comics actually purchased by the store or sold.  The future I think is in crowdfunding and the direct market.  Marvel and DC will of course, always be around but as far as their being an idea farm and market for new and hungry talent, that’s all going to indigogo and patreon.

[Snake_King]

Well, I get some of my comic knowledge from Linkara.  He actually commented something on this recently in one of his reviews, namely at the beginning of his review of the “Batman Forever” comic adaptation from about a month ago:

“No one cares about comic books.  That statement is hyperbolic, but only so much so.  What would be a more accurate statement is that mainstream comic books, the ones focused on superheroes put out by Marvel and DC, are considerably less popular than other mediums, or even other comics in general.  The comics that actually are popular?  Manga, webcomics, stuff directed at kids for schools, that kind of thing.  Those are the markets that continue to have large readerships and money coming in.  And of course, it’s still a fraction of consumers when it comes to other mediums like TV and movies.  As has been pointed out many times before, these days, a mainstream comic, to be super successful, is to have orders in the range of 200,000-300,000 copies.  So that’s the maximum amount of people who will be reading it - not counting digital sales, which there aren’t really any public sales numbers for.  Compare that to, say, Game of Thrones, which has viewership in the millions.  Avengers, Captain Marvel, Black Panther - these movies made billions of dollars.  That’s what I mean when I say no one cares about comic books.  The actual readership numbers of mainstream books are minuscule compared to movies and TV shows. 

“And it’s not the worst thing in the world, nor is it a judgment of one medium versus another – it’s just a fact of numbers.  More people care about one thing versus another.  Mainstream superhero comics are a niche fanbase, and the industry keeps failing to make it less of one.  This wasn’t always the case, of course.  Sales numbers from the 80s and early 90s were very different than they are today, with several popular books selling in the millions.  And there are a number of reasons why sales went down so sharply in the last 2 decades.  One is the Speculator Boom of the early 90s – artificially driving up prices out of sheer greed so that comics were no longer an inexpensive impulse buy for kids looking for some cheap entertainment, and thus hooking them for life.  Another is the changing face of media distribution, where comics suddenly have more competitors to get the most bang for your buck, i.e. why pay $4 for maybe 10 minutes of entertainment when I can get a Netflix subscription for $10 and have access to a vast library of media that’ll keep me occupied for weeks or months?  And still, another is continuity baggage.  That impulse buy I mentioned before is even more of a detriment because suddenly you’re not buying a single contained story, but part 3 of a 6-part storyline and you have no idea what’s going on in it because everything’s written to be sold in trade paperbacks.

“But regardless of these factors, the truth remains; movies and TV shows are still more popular than mainstream superhero comic books.”

That was longer than I had intended, but I think the point gets across well.

[Strange_idea]

He's one of my major sources too.  And there are some REALLY GOOD free webcomics. 

[Rexfan12345]

What's up?

[Snake_King]

3 hours ago, Rexfan12345 said:

What's up?

Not much. Busy with IRL. You?

[Rexfan12345]

Not much either

[Snake_King]

I’ve talked about this a bit with a few people, but I feel like sharing this with everyone.  I saw a video not too long ago talking about plot twists, and the points it gave were quite fascinating.  I’m not about to get into all the details, but there were 5 main takeaways from the video in how plot twists are:

1. There are many, many ways to screw up a plot twist.
2. A plot twist is not the same thing as shock bait (doing a shocking subversion for its own sake).
3. Trying to control your audience’s reaction is an exercise in futility.
4. Just because the audience can see something coming, that doesn’t automatically make it bad, as it can still be compelling, and sometimes going the expected route works better than the unexpected one.
5. While spoilers aren’t encouraged, at the same time, they’re not the worst thing ever, and as a creator, you should really be concerned with how your story works on a second viewing anyway.

In regards to that last bit, I think Alfred Hitchcock said it best when he described suspense:

Say you have a scene of characters talking about something for about 15 or so minutes, and then, without warning, a bomb goes off underneath where the characters are.  That only evokes surprise from the audience watching the scene who might be more than a little confused about what just happened.

Now let’s go with the suspense scenario.  The audience is informed ahead of time that there is a bomb underneath where the characters are, and as the scene goes on, the audience finds themselves saying “What’re you idiots doing talking about that stuff?!  Get out! There’s a bomb!”  It’s a feeling of wanting to warn the characters but being unable to.

As Hitchcock himself said, “In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”

Does all this make sense to you guys?

[Strange_idea]

It does. There's another example where he says to show the same scene twice, a normal dinner party and casual converation and a secind where he informs us there is a body in the next room.

 

A good twist will have the audience thinking back and seeing things a different way. Or at least knock everything down in a constructive way (thr reveal in the jak and daxter series springs to mind)

 

A bad twist, well one of the new robin hood series comes to mind. The authors killed off maid marian to establish high stakes then killed off robin for thr shock value. The series couldn't recover and cancelled itself.

 

Of course, the recovery from a BAD twist can be a very good thing. Parralax was both the dumbest decision and best thig that happened to green lantern in the long term.

[Snake_King]

14 hours ago, Strange_idea said:

The authors killed off maid marian to establish high stakes then killed off robin for thr shock value. The series couldn't recover and cancelled itself.

Not hard to see why.

In that same video I watched, the narrator (calls herself Red) felt that what happened with Quicksilver in “Age of Ultron” was a bad example as well.

“Broadly, a plot twist is bad, or at least ineffectual, if it ticks one of these boxes:

• The twist contradicts canon or makes no sense
• The twist isn't as clever as it thinks it is
• The twist is less interesting than the un-twisty natural progression of the plot
• Or the twist has no meaningful impact…

She then proceeds to point out why Quicksilver’s death ticks all of those boxes.  When she gets to the 3^rd one, she presents this interesting “What if?”

“Category three; the twist is less interesting than not having the twist.  I want you to picture, for a moment, a world where Quicksilver existed for the events of 'Civil War', 'Infinity War', and 'Endgame'.  He’d already started outgrowing his angry, jaded personality and began recognizing the Avengers as heroes, seeing them do their absolute damnedest to save Sokovia from a problem he indirectly helped cause.  He started off hating Tony but changed his mind to help side with him instead, recognizing that all Tony wanted was to fix the problems he caused. 

“So, if Quicksilver survives the ‘Age of Ultron’, he becomes an Avenger, most likely just as fiercely loyal to them as he was to Ultron, just in time for them to tear themselves apart in ‘Civil War’.  Say he sides with Tony, seeing the Accords as just another step in Tony’s journey away from being the weapons dealer he hated.  It puts him in opposition against his sister, the first time they’ve really fought.  And it would be really cool to see them fight, even if it probably wouldn’t last long. 

“Say he survives 'the snap' in ‘Infinity War,’ the first time he’s separated from his sister.  The way they played out ‘Endgame’, during those 5 years, there were almost no active supers on the planet; Thor was getting drunk, Hulk was getting therapy, but I don’t see Quicksilver taking Armaggedon lying down.  He could be doing his damnedest to keep the peace Flash-style, maybe even clashing with Hawkeye’s ‘one-man vigilante' crusade; a narrative foil situation, each of them responding to the loss of their family in very different ways.  Maybe he’s doing for Earth what Captain Marvel is doing for the rest of the galaxy, desperately running around keeping things working while the rest of the team searches for a real solution because he’s the only one with the powers to do it.  Then Wanda comes back after ‘the snap’ and suddenly there’s a five year age difference between these twins.  Wanda’s still mourning Vision, Pietro’s just happy she’s alive, and-my god!  The emotional baggage they could unpack there.  There is so much potential here, but ‘Age of Ultron’ wanted a death and Pietro was available, so...sucks to be him."

15 hours ago, Strange_idea said:

Of course, the recovery from a BAD twist can be a very good thing. Parralax was both the dumbest decision and best thig that happened to green lantern in the long term.

That it can, and the change to Parallax was a smart move on their part.

[Snake_King]

Everyone, I have a little announcement to make.  I’ve discussed this a bit with a few others, but I’m letting everyone know now.

As you might recall, I posted a challenge forum some time ago about Spider-Man rewriting reality into on that goes right for him and he gets a harem composed of the lovely ladies he’s dated or had an interest in.  However, since no one seems to want to do it, or at least do it in a way that I like, I’ve decided to take it upon myself to write it.  Currently, in addition to the other things I’ve got going on, I’m in the process of writing the first chapter.

The story will be called “Spider’s Snap” for reasons that’ll be obvious when you see it.

If you have any thoughts, questions, or suggestions, please let me know either through here or in a Direct/Private Message with me.

[Snake_King]

Been re-watching the hentai Angel Blade lately, and I’ve been getting some story ideas, but I’m having trouble putting them together.  Namely, the title character saves another girl from the monsters, and they’re hints that the two may have some feelings for each other.  My idea involves the girl being a little too grateful towards Angel Blade and is all over her due to her experiences.

However, because of that “too grateful” bit, I’m wondering if there’s some psychological disorder or whatnot I should be aware of.  You know, kind of like Stockholm Syndrome, except here it’s aimed at your savior, not your captor.  Does anyone know of such a thing?

[Red_Light_Zone]

5 minutes ago, Snake_King said:

Been re-watching the hentai Angel Blade lately, and I’ve been getting some story ideas, but I’m having trouble putting them together.  Namely, the title character saves another girl from the monsters, and they’re hints that the two may have some feelings for each other.  My idea involves the girl being a little too grateful towards Angel Blade and is all over her due to her experiences.

However, because of that “too grateful” bit, I’m wondering if there’s some psychological disorder or whatnot I should be aware of.  You know, kind of like Stockholm Syndrome, except here it’s aimed at your savior, not your captor.  Does anyone know of such a thing?

I think that's just Obcessive Love Syndrome. (Aka yandere syndrome).

It can also be Erotomania (Falling in love with someone of higher status, or someone you think is higher status) This can be applied to heroes or saviors as they're often seen as above others in the eyes of the mentally ill person.

 

[Snake_King]

5 minutes ago, Red_Light_Zone said:

I think that's just Obcessive Love Syndrome. (Aka yandere syndrome).

It can also be Erotomania (Falling in love with someone of higher status, or someone you think is higher status) This can be applied to heroes or saviors as they're often seen as above others in the eyes of the mentally ill person.

 

I don’t know about yandere syndrome, as the most common examples I’ve seen of that tend to be of the “stabby-stabby” variety, and that’s not what I’m going for.

Maybe that last one.

The girl in question was a high-achieving valedictorian whom everyone, even the hero, Angel Blade, looked up to, and for the most part, appeared to be sane.  She’s attacked by a gang of monsters who nearly assault her before Angel Blade saved her, and then she does end up assaulted by a monster (who turns out to be the deen of her school).  When Angel Blade comes to save her, the girl (in something of a dazed trance) lezzes out with AB, and when AB nearly gets assaulted by the same monster, the two end up working together to take it down.  The girl expresses her thanks before fainting, and that’s the last we see of her.

Needless to say, I imagine someone wouldn’t be all right in the head after experiences like those.  So, I considered a type of follow-up where the girl expresses her gratitude, and it’s clear that her experiences have changed her a good bit.  What do you think?

[Red_Light_Zone]

Just now, Snake_King said:

I don’t know about yandere syndrome, as the most common examples I’ve seen of that tend to be of the “stabby-stabby” variety, and that’s not what I’m going for.

Maybe that last one.

The girl in question was a high-achieving valedictorian whom everyone, even the hero, Angel Blade, looked up to, and for the most part, appeared to be sane.  She’s attacked by a gang of monsters who nearly assault her before Angel Blade saved her, and then she does end up assaulted by a monster (who turns out to be the deen of her school).  When Angel Blade comes to save her, the girl (in something of a dazed trance) lezzes out with AB, and when AB nearly gets assaulted by the same monster, the two end up working together to take it down.  The girl expresses her thanks before fainting, and that’s the last we see of her.

Needless to say, I imagine someone wouldn’t be all right in the head after experiences like those.  So, I considered a type of follow-up where the girl expresses her gratitude, and it’s clear that her experiences have changed her a good bit.  What do you think?

You know OLD isnt explicitly staby-staby yandere. It's just that the person is doing everything they can to be with the one person they love above all others. It's not always violent, but it can be more subtle like manipulating them and their friends, finding any excuse to he around them, subconsciously forcing and training them to be obedient, etc.

[Snake_King]

1 minute ago, Red_Light_Zone said:

You know OLD isnt explicitly staby-staby yandere. It's just that the person is doing everything they can to be with the one person they love above all others. It's not always violent, but it can be more subtle like manipulating them and their friends, finding any excuse to he around them, subconsciously forcing and training them to be obedient, etc.

I guess it’s bad no matter how you slice it.

[Red_Light_Zone]

4 minutes ago, Snake_King said:

I guess it’s bad no matter how you slice it.

Of course it is, it called a disorder for a reason.

[Snake_King]

Just now, Red_Light_Zone said:

Of course it is, it called a disorder for a reason.

Yep.  Maybe I should just drop the idea.

[Snake_King]

Well, I’ve been working on this for a while, but here’s a Jungle Book one-shot, Appeasing the Jungle Spirit.  Let me know what you all think in a review or here, and constructive criticisms are the only kind of criticisms allowed.

[Strange_idea]

This is going to sound silly, but I only just realised why you call yourself snake king

[Snake_King]

Just now, Strange_idea said:

This is going to sound silly, but I only just realised why you call yourself snake king

And why do you think that is?

[Strange_idea]

I know you like reptiles and snake symbolism, but it didn't click till just now. 

Also, read through the story, and I...  Don't really see the hypnosis. It's a good premise, carried out well,  though i think the end carried on a bit too long. And I question where shanti learned that language. But otherwise it's quite well done! 

[Snake_King]

Just now, Strange_idea said:

Don't really see the hypnosis.

It’s there.  If she were fully free of Kaa’s hypnosis, she would’ve immediately realized that Mowgli wasn’t the Jungle Spirit and run off elsewhere.

2 minutes ago, Strange_idea said:

And I question where shanti learned that language.

You’re saying that a small village doesn’t have at least one person who curses or has foul language?

3 minutes ago, Strange_idea said:

though i think the end carried on a bit too long.

Well, I tried to play that out logically, and given that this is a one-shot, I had to tie up some loose ends.

4 minutes ago, Strange_idea said:

But otherwise it's quite well done! 

Thank you!