*facepalm*

12/31/2010

6 Comments

 
Things just don't wanna work in my favor, it seems!

I know that sounds emo-ish and it kinda is, but I'll skip it (who really wants to read an emo-y blog? I mean, really? XD)
So basically ch.30 for Song of Memory: Redux is in the works right fuckin' now and I should hopefully get it up within the next day or so. I wanted it up before midnight, cause then I could have said, I got 30 chapters done in 2010! Haha, silly me I know. Didn't work out though.

Right now ch.30 is chock full of hints, clues and foreshadowing and I'm sort of of worried it won't quite work the I want, but nothing is meant to 'explode' until ch.31, after all the technical stuff happens and the characters are set up where I want them when shit hits the fan (again!).

I know my chapters are horrendously short, but that's just how its set up. Hopefully once the action picks up (as from ch.33 on, it's all non-stop! /wink) even if the chapters are short, the content was well worth waiting for and keeps my readers interested on the edge of their seats.

All sorts of surprises are in the incoming final 20 chapters! Yes, SoM:R is going to end at the Chapter 50 mark, plus an Epilogue. And then I can lean back and say, "Wow, I finished a really long ass fanfic." and I hope my readers can say they enjoyed the ride.

I'm planning to buy the X-collection with X7 and X8 here soon, and after ch.30 I might take extra time off the story to re-play the games  I've played (X-X6) and go through the ones I haven't (X7 and X8) so I got a real grasp of what I'm writing. What  I'm proud of in SoM:R is that despite it not following the games exactly, I still got enough 'root' in the canonical happenings that my events are at least logical/belivable (I think so anyway XD), and  I want to make sure I keep that root. Characterization is a different ballgame--I know my personifications of X, Zero, Axl and co. aren't exactly spot-on canon, but hopefully they're close enough to be 'true' yet still 'fresh.'

Not so much of a storyboard or idea reflect than me being rambly, but, for all my readers, thanks again. Have a Happy New Year!

Late Ass Replies:
 @Kallan:     I did that til the last day of my semester. It's such a fucking hard habit to break lmao and it's a terrible one. Yet I always get better grades with last minute shit than stuff I do early. Go figure!

@Elise:    I DID make a Girouette, but my screenshot folder got wiped. Now that I've been reminded, I now want to go try and remake him. lol (IthinkItriedtomakeChernobyltoo/shotdead) Don't ever get into MMOs. Waste of time, money, and... generally too addictive. XD

@Ink:    Zero is older than X? I thought they were about the same age. As for Zero liking kids, I know a lot of fans like to think he does (typically, it's almost stereotypical that the 'cold, silent types' actually like kids/puppies/kittens), but I personally think Zero doesn't really care, especially since Alouette is a Reploid--she's programmed to act young, but if you tinkered, she could be an old wise woman in a kid's body. Zero in the Z-series isn't really the type to 'hang out' so much as he just sort of... is there. People'll talk to him, he might talk back, might not. As for people trying to 'undo' the ending of Z4, that's kinda expected to happen since in the Completed Works, Zero's whereabouts are 'unknown', even if its obvious he died. Plus, everyone seems to think love will make everything okay and its all right to forget family if you love someone, "He has Ciel now, he doesn't need the others!" too bad she's a human and, I dunno, has a much earlier expiration date than Zero. Tsk tsk.

As for the crack theory, a lot of people have pointed that out, and it does make sense even in a non-slash view. I've only read one 'real' gender-bent X (there's quite a few cross-dressing fics, but not real gender-change) fic, and it was all right, but its also old as hell XD I've seen lots of art where X is cast in a very feminine light (ESPECIALLY his Zero-series incarnation) and I myself make a lot of fun over him sometimes, but X is still very male regardless if he wants peace or not. Par X7's shitastic characterization, X may hate fighting, but he still gets off his ass and does it... and does it rather destructively. I don't think many put it in this light, but Zero uses a saber, which is meant to strike at weaknesses and take down an enemy effectively and cleanly. X shoots off a giant blast  of energy, completely olbilerating and destroying his enemy. (This is of course, ignore the whole 'every enemy blows up upon death' thing in the games.) In a sense, X is a very destructive person, and typically, destructive = masucline. You can also look at Copy X, who is also often esmasculated because of his naivete and small stature, but despite that, look at the amount of damage  he can and did do, both in terms of physical and emotional. He put terror into people's hearts--people who once adored and loved X, and he could (realistically thinking anyway) level the city with his Seraphim form without much of a thought. A lot of people make X out to be a sweet little puppy, which he typically is, but X is also the most dangerous person alive I think, a point lots of fans seem to ignore, both in slash and non-slash.

Whew. I think I rambled too much LOL
6 Comments
Ink
1/1/2011 05:22:21 am

I think its because Zero was originally activated before X was. Zero with Ciel even if he did survive, (which was jossed by ZX which almost outright said that Zero died in Zero 4 as well as the 3 guardians. That's kinda why people ignore ZX when creating trying to rewrite the ending of Zero, because Ciel started creating the biometals because Zero, X, and the 4 guardians were dead) would not have worked out because one thing forget is that even if you love someone you can still grieve and allow grief to take over (and Zero has a lot of grieving to do).

Yeah it doesn't help matters that the only love interest they gave Zero was a canonically failed copy of X, that still bears the same facial features as X and a part of his personality (kinda suspect there Inafune). The whole thing about destructive personalities is that they are not really gender based, despite what is depicted by most western media. A female can be just as if not more destructive than a man if she wants to be (especially if her children are threatened). In fact there are tropes for that- females that are destructive. People probably don't attribute his destructive ability with masculinity, because its actually gender neutral. What matter isn't so much how destructive they are but why they are destructive. Take for instance Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, who like X is a martial pacifistic, or even (manga version) Sailor Moon (if you haven't already read the manga, its much better believe me). Though neither girls believe in fighting and are actually against both being pacifists, if they have to, they will fight, and they will destroy everything around them that approaches them as an enemy. Nanoha especially has a very similar personality to X in Strikers where she is a commander of her own unit and a mother. I'm not disagreeing with you I'm just pointing that out that X's personality is very gender neutral. He can be seen as a female or a male which actually happened to him in canon when they tried to clone him and instead could only create Iris (a female who was made to look just like him) and Colonel(a male) probably helps that we don't know what the complete clone would have looked like. Or for a more canon example the four guardians personalities were all based off of X's personality (not sure if they meant the creators based them off of X's personality or what) take a long hard look at Fairy Leviathan, a blood knight that likes to flirt with Zero, and of the 4 she is one that looks the most like X (what are you trying to say Inafune??!! first the callback to the Isis and Osiris myth and now this!) It also doesn't help that Sage Harupia in addition to having a very feminine name (Harupia= Harpy) has a look that makes it hard for some fans to be able to tell which gender he is. In the Zero series both X and Copy X had a very gender neutral appearance, though Copy X's behind is very defined (I can't be the only one noticed this).

By the way ever notice that Zero only seems to be able to come back to life if X is there, even in Zero series it was X who ultimately behind Zero's revival, and the one time that they say that Zero is truly dead is when X is also dead?

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Irihi
1/1/2011 06:29:59 am

Hey Ink!

Well what I meant to go with the destructive attitude is while yes, destruction isn't restricted to gender, its still a powerful trait, and a lot of people try to portray X as weaker than Zero, more feminine, etc. My example with his destructive abilities is just to point out he's not the helpless puppy many try to canonically make him out to be. (Some fanfics make him weak for a reason, which is fine, but I've seen fans try to say he is CANONICALLY weak... which is a big no.) As for the gender, in a sense X is sort of the 'pinnacle' of male and female attributes, but he isn't so feminine he deserves less respect... I guess is what I'm trying to say lol.

Although if they made a trope especially for females being destructive, that makes me think it's a 'specialty' sort of thing. 'Old tradtional' wise, a destructive personality was a male thing, as it meant one had power, and of course, men are portrayed to have more power than women. Not to say I'm sexist, that's just usually how it goes.

As for the Guardians, I always wondered where Levi came from, but then again if I go back to what I said of X being the pinnacle and perfect combo of male/female, than it makes sense. As for Harpuia, it's a Latin name, and I guess they couldn't think of any other mythical bird that's powerful but not all-consumingly so. Also a lot of people thought he was female due to the Japanese voice, but in Japanese voiceing, higher pitched males are used to portray youngness, so sometimes a female VA is used.

And now that you pointed that out, I totally see it. And the only time Zero comes back, is when X does! (A la ZX, where you are given 'X' first, THEN 'Zero'... and then they COMBINE *snickersnicker* into ZX.) Zero and X are completely tied to each other, regardless if you're slash or nonslash. It's awesome XD

Figured I'd use the comment box, don't have much news to make a blog post as well as a reply XD

Reply
Ink
1/1/2011 11:14:59 am

I understand as I too despise when people attribute X's gender neutrality as a weakness of some sort, considering that X7 aside X is pretty damn strong emotionally during the X series. Stronger than even Zero both physically and emotionally Zero even admits as much, multiple times no less. People forget that Zero relies on and needs X, and the one time where Zero seemingly doesn't need him is when Zero has no time to be selfish, or even if they did have that time we as the gamer don't get to witness it. As neither can allow others to see just how symbiotic their relationship really is (this might be because neither really consider the resistance to be that close to them).

Well its several types of tropes that have to do with emotions and age though and destruction even though you'll see put examples using male characters (because there is no other way to describe it), even then there are spear counterparts to the female destruction tropes. Such as Mama Bear and Papa Wolf, Lady of War and Officer And A Gentleman; Gentleman And A Scholar; and Proud Warrior Race Guy, Cute bruiser(although its also gender neutral itself and just applies to abnormally strong children) and the Big Guy; they all mean the same thing but people choose to separate them gender wise when they are used. Though there are destruction tropes that are gender neutral like Ax Crazy, and Glass Cannon. That's not to say that people don't associate destruction with males because they do although its only recently through western influence that people took on the belief that only men could be destructive. Its kinda funny actually.

That doesn't help but there are female characters that do have the same type of voice that they Harupia, case in point Chrona from Soul Eater whose gender was never revealed and yet is voiced by Maaya Sakamoto, who uses a similar voice that she does with Ciel(Kuroshitsuji). There are also some Japanese people who do still have a hard time telling the gender of a male character when they give him a female voice and he has a feminine appearance case in point Kenshin Himura and the creator of Guilty Gear who thought that Kenshin was a female until he was corrected, from what I heard it also wasn't uncommon.

The more you look at the X,Zero, and ZX series the more you wonder on whether or not Inafune not so secretly ships Zero with X. Their relationship is just so suspect even if you try to look at them as just friends. They just seem to rely on each others existence to keep going. That's also why I hate it when people brush off their relationship, because even if you try to do so, in canon X is the most meaningful relationship that Zero has. It just feels as though Zero sets up a wall between himself and others, with Iris she got close enough that she affected Zero with his death but then again Zero ultimately chose X's ideals over hers and her resemblance to X; with Layer he at least was comfortable enough to consider her his friend and talk about his past, didn't get any farther than that; and Ciel is at the very bottom of as he doesn't confide in her and doesn't let her in on what he's thinking, its a strictly professional relationship, case in point Zero chooses to die not for Ciel but for her ideals which are the same as X's in fact X was the one who put everything into his hands before he faded in Zero 3. You could go so far as to say that Zero died to fulfill his promise to X not for Ciel, its the one relationship that you can poke holes in without even trying. Does Zero protect Ciel for being Ciel or does he do it because X asked it of him?

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Ink
1/1/2011 11:36:00 am

Oh yeah almost forgot the only reason why I can stomach the idea of a female X is because its a genderbent where X's personality wouldn't be different. But what would be different would be the reaction of those around him/her, and their interaction with him/her.

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Rya-tan
3/30/2011 04:54:51 pm

...Whenever someone there's a close relationship between a man and a woman(i.ex: Zero and Iris) people immediately presumes they are "made for each other" and "soul-mates" since they are so close and all. But when there's the same close relationship between two men(i.ex: X and Zero) or two women for that matter, everyone just say "nah, they're just friends" or "just like brothers/sister by not blood"...
 
You get the picture? I really don't give a damn about what paring people support, but if I have to "explain" myself to some homophobic fans one more god damn time why I support a guy/guy or a girl/girl couple, I will snap! >:(

Reply
Irihi
4/4/2011 09:45:21 am

@Rya-tan People will always get a bit self-righteous when it comes to pairings they dislike, worse yet if it also clashes with their personal beliefs (ie homosexuality). It's just another thing that people do lol don't let it get to ya.

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