Journey into Mystery

Let's do this again, videogame edition.

Choose five series (no peeking before you choose them), list them, and then answer the questions behind the cut.

1. Okami
2. Zelda (of N64 continuity)
3. Ace Attorney
4. Tales of Symphonia
5. Odin Sphere

( The questions )

1. Baby tiger.

There's also a baby penguin and a baby gorilla in that slideshow.

2. I'm surprised by this Gyakuten Saiban image in a good way.

I kind of thought official images had completely forgotten about, you know, the existence of the GS4 characters and stuff (I haven't seen new images of them in ages; even Larry Butz has more official art than them). But either way, while the fandom is all OMGSOGAY I still... don't see it |D Nor that the girls are yaoi fangirls for staring at them for the lulz. Haha, I'm just over here amused at the contrast on heights, Apollo and Maya so short. Old generation all staring at a distance and deadpan, while new generation all "graaaaaah in ur face!!" XD I like how Klavier unlike the other lawyers isn't taking the srs bsns, well, seriously, not even with Apollo wanting to punch him. Probably un-hobo!Nick and Edgeworth are just... trying to ignore the kids' noise. Reasons like this is why I grew more attached to GS4 characters than the old school guys.

I'm going to need this image in MQ/HQ like now, for RPing purposes.

3. Oh wow, if Babelfish/katakana is any indication, the spoilers are hinting that this month's FMA chapter will give me something goooood ♥

I *CANNOT* study Cognitive Science without relating crap to fandoms.

Gardner (1985) lists five developments within psychology which contributed to the paradigm shift from Behaviorism to Cognitivism.

...

And suddenly, I reimagined most of the last part of case 4-4, but replacing law with behaviorism and jurists with cognitivism. That's rich.

Kristoph: Tengo varios amigos carceleros. Se portan bien conmigo.

Phoenix: (...¿Sólo "bien"?)

Sin comentarios XDD Otra que fue buena fue cuando una vez Trucy dice "Cuando el Fiscal Gavin se pone duro, se pone bien duro". asdfasghaj qué diiiiiices, Trucyyyyyy.

Y luego otra fue que, como editaron lo de "sus cadenas me molestan a los ojos cuando pega el sol whut" a nada más el pendiente, ya no supieron cómo traducir el comentario de Apollo de las cadenas del techo. Y pasó a ser algo tipo "seguro a la inspectora Skye le gustarían..."

O RLY? Dios, Polly, cómo coño llegaste a la conclusión sin fundamento alguno que a Ema le va secretamente el bondage?!? S-sobre todo con cadenas shiny? (es lo de cargar esposas con ella, y/n?)

Traducciones son fucking funny!



ETA: y claro, elijo un mood que suena adecuado, y adecuadamente tiene un Gavin XD Es queeeeeee...



( ETA 2: espera, de todas las cosas, Chespirito?! )

In an amazing act of masochism, I went and bought the local release of Apollo Justice let's see if selling one more copy can change CAPCOM's mind? I *would* buy Trials and Tribulations, bitches!!. (Besides, this game will probably sell less and I want to balance things out a bit.) Forty euros worth of trainwreck and epic LULZ in Peninsular Spanish (and if there's a god that loves me, random German) <- forget it, God hates me. I knew I'm in for a ride as soon as I checked the back of the box. These are gems, alright.

Phoenix Wright vuelve a la carga. Deberás ayudar al inexperto abogado Apollo Justice a desenmascarar la verdad y defender a los inocentes del astuto fiscal Klavier Gavin.

APOLLO JUSTICE, DEFENDER OF THE INNOCENT! GO GO POWER RANGERS INEXPERT LAWYERBOY!

CUNNING PROSECUTOR KLAVIER GAVIN, PROSECUTING THE INNOCENT ALL THE TIME, NO EXCEPTIONS. HE EATS THEM FOR BREAKFAST. HE RAPES THEM, TOO.

Then a screencap of court, with Klavier speaking... with a singular speech pattern.

¡Tranqui, tronco!
¡Hoy vamos a hacer las cosas a mi manera!

..........XDDDDDDDDDDDDD L-le acaba de llamar al juez "tronco"...? Madre mía.

TRANQUI, TRONCO, DEFIENDE A LOS INOCENTES DE MÍ A TU MANERA.

( Case 4-1, in Spanish )

Will report the LULZ on case 4-2 later in the day.

( PW 1-4: the replay )

And something I was thinking about before going to bed last night in general. What does it make a character "boring"? I've found myself liking several characters other people find boring or underdeveloped (and no, I'm not necessarily talking about the one that popped up on fandom!secrets yesterday, although that secret kind of made me realize he's not the first one). I really think that the term is something subjective and personal.

+ Relevant to the main plot vs. filler character

I'm using Cardcaptor Sakura as my example. I remember that one day someone boggled at the fact people wrote about Naoko, or even shipped her with another character. But she's just there! She's a random classmate! I remember my reaction was "...so?" Okay, sure, she does nothing extremely important to the plot, but I do like Naoko in the anime as the local geek and bookworm girl. She might not have a plot or an important purpose, but I still liked her a lot.

Then you find people ignoring characters who DO have a purpose, such as Clow Reed or Kaho Mizuki. Or, if we go to different fandoms, people who bash one of the main cast members. So really, there's no way to win.

Also, you can have a character who only pops in for one arc or once every three years as your favorite. This is particularly plausible in shounen series with one trillion cast members.

+ Developed vs. underdeveloped

I'll grant that it's easier to be attached to a character with a solid story and a nice growth as a person. I love it when characters I like get their backstory, no matter how insignificant it is (might be just one tidbit). Perhaps you don't want to grow fond of a really random character you know nothing about or had a forced history.

Or do you? Can you be obsessed over someone who is not half as deep as the rest of the cast, or just appears a couple of times as a plot device? If you ask me, you perfectly can. You can still like the tiny bits you've seen of them, you can still like the two or three personality traits they've shown. You can relate to them, or find them cuter or more interesting than the protagonists or the extremely developed people, even if they "suck" in the actual story.

There's the Matt from Death Note phenomenon. Now, I didn't get to read half of the series, but why does it matter if someone liked the four pages or whatever this guy was in? Just let them be. (I mean, I can see it can be frustrating with all the pages and pages of Gary Stu fanon going around about Matt, but... on the other hand, I've been in similar spots myself, liking characters with no plot.)

And there's the other way around. That a character has the greatest development in the history of ever is no guarantee everyone should like them, or at least recognize them as one of the best characters in the cast. I do believe, and people might disagree with me, there is such a thing as overdevelopment. I mean, first, you can get so much information and hype and spotlight from a character you end up smothered by them and end up turned off. Second, in some cases less is more.

+ In conclusion, since this gets teal deer

The point, in five words: IT DOESN'T MATTER, IT'S SUBJECTIVE. It's not a question of it's well developed or even has a plot. Finding something boring or interesting can be irrational. Or maybe you just don't care if the character isn't one of the strong kids with the complicated past. There's nothing wrong with only liking developed characters, either. Or you can like both developed and underdeveloped characters, and those in between. It's not something you can explain with logic, you just like/dislike!

And also, justifying your dislikes by comparing the character you're not into with the So Awesome And Developed Character you love (and going about how retarded their fans are for not caring or noticing it, in wanky cases)? I find it unfair and silly. Even when it's a substitution in the plot. Especially if it's a substitution, I'd say.

*** ETA: and relevant to "OMG TEH BORING CHARAS gimme back Maya and Edgey u CAPCOM h0rs"

W-w-why wasn't I told there was a VOICED VERSION OF THIS GS4 TRAILER? I hate you right now, Japan. You and your sexy voices. I hate you so much! ;______; *has turned into goo, and is maybe a bit horny now*

Taken together the primacy effect and the recency effect predict that, in a list of items, the ones most likely to be remembered are the items near the beginning and the end of the list (serial position effect). Lawyers scheduling the appearance of witnesses for court testimony, and managers scheduling a list of speakers at a conference, take advantage of these effects when they put speakers they wish to emphasize at the very beginning or the very end of a long list.

[...]

Another example of the recency effect is applied by lawyers. The key witnesses will go at the end of list (or the beginning to take advantage of the primacy effect), so the jury will keep them in mind while they deliberate.

*f-facepalm*

The more time I spend in this course, the more sense Ace Attorney games unintentionally make. WTF, man.

Damn, myself, less spam and more working on the report.

1. During Cognitive Science class, the professor was talking about how we tend to associate and relate information with other things or words, to the point what we remember is altered by these relations and it's not trustworthy anymore.

So he gives as an example how eyewitnesses in legal trials sometimes give unintentional wrong testimonies in court, because they "remember" things that never really happened just by associations. They could see broken crystals in a car crash if they think the smash was strong enough, even though no windshields or mirrors were even broken in fact.

And I'm mentally all "DUUUUR! Suddenly Phoenix Wright games make more sense!"

Did you know that in the early 40's the judges and prosecutors took the eyewitnesses' testimonies as reliable facts, and thought that human memory worked like a recording tape? It wasn't until psychological experiments kicked in and proved otherwise that the legal system in the US and other countries didn't change to reflect this.

GOOD THING. DEFENSE ATTORNEYS WOULD BE SO SCREWED.

2. The bus' radio rickrolled me today O_o I'm not sure, however, if it was

a) The 70's-80's-90's station, and if it's that then it was just regular schedule
b) A really mean DJ who has been in the English-speaking side of the Internet and did it for the lulz
c) A really mean listener who has been in the English-speaking side of the Internet and requested Rick Astley for the lulz (not that people here know what that is)

It was probably option a, but still.

3. I'M EVEN MORE IN AWE FOR CHAPTER 82. Man, Arakawa, you reminded me why I loved that kid so much ♥ ♥ Now that I know what he told him, it makes so much sense and it's so much more awesome. asdgasghagsfhg

Q: Phoenix Wright and/or Apollo Justice were obligated to defend a randomly chosen character from another CAPCOM franchise. Who would you choose to be that victimized character and why?

A: If I could choose any character, it would have to be Amaterasu from the Okami game. Why, you ask? Because as Amaterasu can help Phoenix Wright win his cases because she's a god, and she would have to be found "not guilty".

Fuck yeah Matsukawa! *thumbs up* But seriously, guys, I never thought a game producer would actually give me crossover plotbunnies from all things. Then again, I'm just easy to please: just a random mention to my favorite videogame by some other fandom personality is enough.

Speaking of random crossovers, I admit the Apollo Justice/Death Note crossover fanarts (as seen here, spoilers for the AJ main baddie) are fucking funny.

Moar icon explanations from that meme.

( Let's rock, baby )

1. After finishing the second case of Apollo Justice, I can say with no fear of being mistake that the one(s) who localized this game MUST be the one(s) who did Okami. I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR. And no, it's not my obsession or anything: it is THAT obvious. Every time Klavier opens his mouth. But the icing of the cake was...

Auf Wiedersehen, baby.

That... oh GOD XD It's like, do you HAVE to use this amount of random fangirl [insert European language here] to translate the Engrish-loving blond guys in your games, CAPCOM America? Don't make me like Klavier just because he has dialect patterns in common with Waka, okay?

2. Just a random question. As fanfic writers/fandom roleplayers, what do you find more stimulating?
a) Exploiting relationships you find interesting, even though you can't get into half of the pair (or both of them) for your life
b) Exploiting characters you find interesting, regardless of relationships (unless it's essential for the fic/RP/characterization in general)
c) Both of them
d) It depends of the case

For me, unless I have a really good plotbunny for a) or I'm forced to write it in an exchange, it's b) I'm a sucker for introspection or showing character reactions, even when writing pairings. I usually feel only comfortable writing pairing fic for ships in which I like or find interesting both halves (AND like their dynamics), because otherwise I don't have fun if I have to think too hard on how the one I like least would act. I normally have no idea, and I'm into IC writing, so for me it's a bit of a problem. It's not easy to get the voice of someone you're not entirely fond of right, unless the character is too similar to you.

3. More crossover ficlets. etrangere asked for Fakir and Shigure Sohma. ( I apologize for my sucky Gure characterization beforehand )