| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #1 |
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1. I dunno, Farla. Pawns are set to do and think a lot of strange things.
2. Sure, it could be the next day. Just as it could be an hour later, or a whole year in the future! He just thinks ‘yesterday’ as a frame of convenient reference. For all he knows, the days are only fifteen minutes long. It’s his first one, after all.
3. Time consuming? The kingdom of Derse cares little for the time spent by its cannon fodder. (pun intended?) Especially if it’s spent retrieving more cannon fodder from their aqueous suspension chambers. Besides, there’re a lot of them, and it takes em like thirty seconds for each one.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green |
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Nope. See the comment I made regarding this.
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Regarding the carapacians’ ability to speak:
It’s sort of been my headcanon that the only carapacians that can actually speak out loud are the agents. They use radios and such. The others lack the required facial muscles. It’s sort of plausible because other differences can be seen between agents and pawns, such as sharpness of tooth.
I made this inference because it’s never actually mentioned that the pawns CAN speak. WV, for example, has never spoken a word in his life as far as AH has illustrated. But since all pawns are clearly capable of language, I devised the writing tablet system for effective communication. The writing tablets ARE supposed to look like captchalogue cards; they’re hard to describe visually.
Until next time,
WV.
So yeah, that’s the explanation. Clearly, it makes most sense to decide something and declare everything to the contrary an exception.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #3 |
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It was a direct quote from that part, actually. I figured they might put their own spin on things, but in the end I thought it more prudent to make that quote established in lore. In retrospect, I wish I’d made that scene have more propaganda-type stuff, with the quote being slipped in nearer the end, coming from a poet or some such. Ah, well.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #4 |
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1. See again my comments regarding this.
2. Yeah, it’s a terrible idea. But how much do the rank-and-file pawns actually NEED to communicate with each other? Or with their captains, for that matter? All they need to know is the plan, how they’re going to carry it out, and what patterns of horn sounds mean to advance/retreat/fall back.
On a less superficial level, my decision to limit the pawns’ ability to communicate was made with much deliberation. I felt it added to the character of the race. For example, WV was completely silent in his interactions with dream/god tier john. It also added a level of restriction to their everyday lives. Pawns aren’t free to do much, and I guess I’m really chalking it up to something of a pun on “free speech.” They can’t say what they want to, because they can’t “say” much of anything at all.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green |
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That was a little jab at americanized humor. “Maggots,” “ladies,” “milk drinkers,” and the like. I was trying to portray the captain as a rough-and-tumble drill sergeant. I didn’t think people would read into it so much. Later in the fic, I address that 22 doesn’t really think of gender as much of an issue at all, and more of an arbitrary assignment. Throughout the fic, I chose to make all of the named pawn characters male because, well, that’s just what fit. Besides, since there are no physical differences between male and female pawns, it wouldn’t make sense to describe a female character as being female from 23 or 22’s perspective.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #6? (lost count) |
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1. The training serves only to provide pages of filler. And because the scenes were really fun to write. And, in my opinion, it does make sense for them to be trained. What else are they going to do in their off time? Unless you would have me send all of the major characters into bloody battles with no hope of return right off the bat. In which case, why would a fic such as this even be plausible to begin with?
2. It may seem like an easy way out, but it’s what I believe was the case. Why WOULDN’T the Battlefield look wonderful to pawns? As sentient humanoids, they must surely recognize beauty when they see it. And let’s face it, Skaia is freakin’ beautiful. Besides, all of the lines you quoted are merely the opinions of one lowly farmer. They may not represent the true state of affairs at all, as far as he knows.
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #XX |
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1. Wow. That one was a little hostile. See my previous comments on this.
2. Not that it matters, but are you a feminist? See previous replies to your reviews.
3. Hm. You have a point there. But he DOES lament the fact that pawns are killing each other by the thousands. Why would you mention Prospit here, though? His problem is that Derse is there to oppose Prospit.
4. I’m sorry to say that you’re completely missing the point about this say/listen/write/read issue. How many times have I used them all interchangeably before this point? Why are you only bringing this up now? As for Rise Up, I pictured it happening exactly as it does in 3701. Through extreme non-verbal communication and mob psychology. Sure, you could posit that WV shouts beautiful inspirational speeches over long distances to the masses when the 3701 camera isn’t on him. But how would they ever hear him in a warzone? And why would you even want to describe that narratively?
It’s funny how no matter how predictable this is, at the same time there’s always that surprise that people would just come out and say it, you know?
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green #XX +1 |
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Pretty much. Were you expecting a different outcome? See previous reply
| WordlyVaudevillian | re: Your review to Black, White and Green (Last to date) |
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1. I’m sorry you think that. Perhaps pawns are naturally less sensitive to death and killing than we would expect. It’s what they were made for, after all.
2. Yeah, that’s exactly how that one transpired. I’d sorta planned that one from the initial conceptualization. I had to show how the rebel himself felt about it all. As for 23’s thoughts, the spotlight goes back to him next chapter. Don’t worry.
3. Did I NEED to make this fic fifty thousand words long? Not at all. In fact, chapter 8 (Waste several days on this tomfoolery) was originally planned to be entitled “Indulge in shameless filler sequence.” I add filler because it helps to draw a story out, and because it leaves room for comic relief. And because I believe most of my readers enjoy all the pawn shenanigans. And it’s really fun to write, too!
In any case, I’m really glad that you kept reading, even after all of your misgivings. I appreciate all of your feedback, even if I don’t agree with some of it in the slightest. I enjoyed replying to all of your questions and reviews. I don’t get all that many, you see.
Thank you for representing the more critical side of my micro-readership. It’s good to know some people still give a shit about this old story of mine. Stay tuned for the final chapters of Black, White and Green, if it pleases you!
Good day, Sir or Madam!
-WordlyVaudevillian
Question:
If you’re not feminist, then does that mean you’re sexist? Or can you just support the concept of feminism and still not be called a feminist?
Feminism kind of confuses me <.<
People can identify as they like, but in practice, if you’re for what feminism says and yet you say you’re not a feminist, well, why? Most of the time when I hear the answer it’s because they’re allowing conservative assholes to define what the movement is and saying they don’t want to be thought of as one of those.
There are some valid reasons why men might want to identify as feminist allies rather than feminists themselves, especially since feminist women might have told them to do just that. And some women of color are pissed off at feminism as a movement for various reasons, or feel like openly identifying as a feminist would alienate from their racial communities. But yeah, most of the time it seems to be the bullshit you’re describing.
Yeah, internally feminism’s a clusterfuck. Anyone using that reasoning is already pretty deep into the movement and picking their preferred label, so they’re the polar opposite of the ones who barely know what the term means.
I remember being depressed when my History teacher of all people questioned my identifying John Stuart Mill as a feminist. She apparently thought men couldn’t be femminist.