Wait. Who is
writing this?
Such a lust for page views…WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?
Oh, wait.
It’s me. I’m writing this -- post
#666, as it so happens. So let’s make it
special, shall we?
Welcome back to D.O.X. is Dead, a feature which I
assume nobody even remembers! In which
case, consider this informal Season 2 as much a continuation of it as it is a
fresh start. Will people buy in this
time? We’ll see. But for now?
Let’s have a quick explanation.
As I’ve said many times before, my goal is to
become a writing hero -- and as tantalizing it would be to reach those lofty
heights by complaining about Final
Fantasy, my ambitions go just a wee bit farther than that. I need to put out some fiction of my own if I
want to earn the title. To that end, I
wrote my own story, and a lengthy one at that: Dead over Two, a tale of ghosts and guardians locked in a struggle
to lay claim to planet Earth. If only it
were that simple; drastic edits over time made Dead over Two into the weakest form of the story. As a result of countless changes -- to
chapters, events, characters, and more -- the story eventually got rebranded
into D.O.X. It spanned seven books, weighed in at more
than 500,000 words, and…never even got off the ground.
Time well spent, to be sure.
It sounds like I’m being sarcastic, but in all
honesty I’m not. I basically had to burn
D.O.X. to the ground (metaphorically;
I do still have the files saved
somewhere), but it’s not as if the story was entirely unusable. So I did what any normal person would do and
started over. The plot is basically the
same, but the elements that comprise it are dramatically
different.
It’s a denser, heavier story with greater focus
and cohesion; whether it’s the characters, the events, or the world at large,
everything is geared toward a certain conclusion in-universe and out of
it. In-universe, the mission is to have
these characters face their despair in “the city of broken dreams”, and survive
with their lives and hopes intact. In
the real world? The goal of this new
story -- of the newly-christened Dead on
Prime -- is to go from a bunch of files on a computer to the tale that’ll bring the hype to the
masses.
So for those keeping score? Dead over
Two (or V1, if you prefer) is the original entry, and the proverbial rough
draft. D.O.X. (V2) is the edited version that, while still stronger,
wasn’t quite strong enough to make it to the hilltop. Now Dead
on Prime (V3) is here, and barring some minor changes it’s going to be the
one that starts my true journey as a writing hero. At least I hope so; I don’t think I’ve got it
in me to make V4. I mean I could, I guess, but not without offering
up the rest of my sanity as tribute.
Also, I need to play Yakuza 4 and
the rest of the games in my backlog.
In an ideal world, Dead on Prime would be on the road to bookstores as I type
this. But it’s not. The submission process is unbearably slow;
it’s not uncommon for me to wait for weeks, and even months, before I see
anything…well, besides the automated response I get to confirm I sent the email
in the first place. And when I do get a
response? There’s nothing substantive to
them besides a polite rejection. “Sorry,
but this isn’t right for us”, more often than not -- though one agent had the
guts to say “I’m not interested”.
So is it because my story’s not good enough? Am I not skilled enough as a writer? Am I catering to the wrong demographic, or
trying to win over the wrong agents?
Feedback has been less than helpful (read: virtually nonexistent), so as
I’ve said before, it’s a guessing game where I have to figure out if it’s a
problem with them, Dead on Prime, or
me. It’s, uh, not exactly good for the
self-esteem.
I haven’t given up on the story, but it has made
me reconsider the circumstances. I don’t
think it’s another situation where I need to start over, but if there was ever
a time to mull over the details, this is it.
What do I need to do to grab readers by the neck and drag them into my world?
My immediate answer would be characters;
characters create opportunities, after all, so surely they’re going to be the
pull more than anything else. They’re
the reason I’m writing. So by that
logic, the question that needs to be answered is simple: “Why would anyone ever
care about my characters?” That’s what I
intend to find out with Season 2.
Now go. Let
the feature come back to life.
Okay, now it’s back to life. So let’s introduce our hero once again: The New Line Ace, Arc Siegel.
Alright, so
who is this guy?
He’s the main character of Dead on Prime. Under normal
circumstances, he’d be a freshman at Leibniz High in his home of New Line City;
problem is, his school inexplicably turned into a disaster zone overnight. That’s the public perception, at least. To Arc, it looks as if the campus’ expanse
has turned into a haunted graveyard, albeit one swarmed with metaphysical
numbers.
Eager to solve the mystery, Arc begins his search
of New Line City -- not only to figure out what’s going on and why, but to
answer the questions that orbit it. His
theory? The school’s destruction is tied
to his “awesome power” to relive the deaths of people in the city whenever he
goes to sleep -- and more pressingly, the sudden suicide of a happy-go-lucky
peer. In all fairness, he’s not far off
the mark.
No,
really. Who is this guy?
That’s the start of Arc’s mission (before it all
goes straight to hell, in more ways than one), but as a character? Don’t let the “emo fringe” fool you; he’s not
the type to wallow in self-pity. He puts
on airs of being cold and aloof to most, but it doesn’t take much to reveal
that he’s a sarcasm-spouting joker with a tongue as sharp as a carving knife. He’s always ready to fire off a biting quip,
but there’s more to him than just acting like he’s too cool for (his destroyed)
school. His guile and wit have been
well-documented, even if it’s led him into some nasty situations -- and encounters with nastier foes.
But what makes Arc who he is -- as a character and
as a person -- is that underneath that cool and sardonic exterior beats a
passionate heart. He knows what he
wants, and what he wants to do; despite the dangers, he presses onward so that
he can figure out what’s going on. Why? Plenty of reasons. Some are better than others, but he’s got a
certain mantra in mind that he tries to follow every day: “Know everything,
regret nothing. That’s my way of life.”
Arc takes his shit seriously. He’s still a troublemaker and a smart-aleck,
but it’s his drive that defines him more than anything else. The world isn’t the way he wants it to be, so
he tries to fix it. Or, on a smaller
scale, there are things that he can’t figure out; naturally, he tries to figure
them out. No one’s forced him to start
his journey, and no one gave him any special support at the start. Barring some skill as a street fighter
(albeit with an extreme lean toward
being a fragile
speedster), he doesn’t have any special powers to see him through to the
end. That’s kind of a problem, because
he takes on guys with special powers
before the end of chapter 3. And he
meets a dimension-hopping serial killer before the end of chapter 1.
He’ll be put through his paces, is what I’m trying
to say here.
Bold words,
but is he any good?
It’s hard to know for sure. I’ve gotten some really good responses from
people before about Arc, but in the long run I have no idea how he’ll turn
out. Having seen rejections before, I
can’t help but wonder if he’s a hero anyone would want to get behind -- for a
number of reasons. Put in the simplest
terms, I think I might have shot myself in the foot by creating Arc.
He’s a character that predates Cross-Up by a good
margin, but he has yet to appear in the header despite being my proverbial
front-liner. Why is that? Well, I’ve been thinking, and I’ve realized
something: Arc wasn’t the sort of character I ever really wanted to
create. Of the ten characters I do want to put out there someday, Arc
isn’t one of them; he came later, and was intended to be the one to get my foot
in the door to the writing world. I
wasn’t ready to put my dream guys out there, so he was going to act as a
buffer. Or, alternatively, he was going
to be someone more…acceptable.
I guess you could call him “a hero to surpass Metal
Gear Batman.”
My main guy -- the first of the ten -- is the key
piece of my dream project. In his
current form, he’s basically Captain America fused with Shingo Yabuki
(personality-wise). Given that we’re
more or less in an age where people could care less about straight-shooting
heroes, it seemed fitting to create a character that was cool, calm, and collected. Not bright, but dark. Not goofy, but serious. Not earnest, but cynical. Basically, Arc started out as the antithesis
to everything I stand for and believe in -- and even if he’s been through
changes over the years, he still has the basic DNA inside him.
By the same token, I wonder if there’s something
Gary Stu-ish about Arc. I’ve run him
through a couple of tests (like this one) and he
checks out okay; still, I’m concerned.
He’s really smart! He’s a good
fighter! He’s brave! He’s the hero! It’s not immediate in the first chapter that
he’s got a LOT of weaknesses as a person, so in terms of first
impressions? It looks like he’s just
plain better than everyone else -- stronger and wiser, and nobler to boot. I’ll probably need to take a look at the
first chapter (at the very least) again and adjust; if the starting few pages
can’t hook someone, the thousands of pages that follow might as well be
worthless.
Okay, so
why should anyone care?
So you remember what I said about Arc being
someone more acceptable? You know,
someone more suited for the era and cultural zeitgeist? That’s half-true.
Admittedly, I don’t know how well someone like him
fits into the standard mold people expect -- if not demand -- of their leads
nowadays. He’s not so far gone that he’s
swimming in the dense, stinking morass of grim and gritty “heroes”, but for
those that want cooler, serious characters?
They’ll probably be sated. On the
other hand, the thing about Arc is that he’s something of an anti-character for
all the vices of modern-day storytelling.
He isn’t a chosen one; he chooses to get involved in New Line’s problems, and becomes a
proactive, would-be problem solver despite A) no one asking it of him and B)
being WAY out of his element. Like I
said, before the end of the third chapter he goes up against guys with powers. Before the halfway point, he’s fighting off Chozo Ghosts. Before the end of act one, he comes
face-to-face with that serial killer -- and to say it’s a losing battle would
be an understatement the size of a galaxy.
Essentially, it’s like expecting a toddler to beat a tiger. And that’s not even the worst Dead on Prime has to offer.
If Arc is a cut above normal humans (or
characters), then it’s because he has to be; normal people wouldn’t stand a
chance against what he faces by story’s end.
It’s not just because of the creepy-crawlies or space-time shenanigans
that take root in New Line City. They’re
a part of it, sure, but what’s important is that these obstacles, physical or
otherwise, force upon the cast (and humanity at large) a struggle against the
impossible. It becomes blatantly obvious
before the halfway point that Arc and the others are playing catch-up against a
foe that’s technically already won; notably, there’s a countdown that starts at
the end of chapter 1, and announces that there are “3 days left”. What that entails, I won’t say exactly. But things go from bad to worse, at the very
least.
In a lot of ways, you could say that the true
enemy isn’t [VILLAIN REDACTED], but an idea.
An emotion. In this case, it’s despair -- as one would expect from “the
city of broken dreams”. The events,
setting, and characters themselves all contribute to that sense of emotional
malaise and hopelessness. As the story’s
hero, it’s Arc’s duty to fight against that; he wouldn’t be able to if he was
just some dumb kid plucked from suburbia to embark on a quest that he doesn’t
have ownership of. He’s the architect of
his own fortune, and believes that with skill, wit, and passion, he can solve
any problem.
But that’s a problem in itself, because…holy shit,
Arc is not cut out for being the savior.
Let’s ignore the fact that Arc is short, weak,
effectively powerless, and is about as tough as the average paper towel. Hell, let’s pretend that the events of the
story never happen, and New Line’s “ace” went about his normal life. If that happened, then Arc would still be a
seriously messed-up individual, only without the extreme circumstances to
expose those faults or the
opportunity to start correcting them.
One of his core issues is that his passion and desires aren’t congruous
with what he can actually do to fulfill them -- meaning that he’s boxed in just
as badly as the people he derides on a regular basis. Speaking of people, there’s a reason why
he’ll treat all but a scant few like nuisances.
It’s not the best reason, but it’s one that makes sense to him.
That’s the crux of Arc’s failings, I suppose. He has a reason for everything he does, but
they’re all built on shambles and shaky ground.
I don’t want to go into grave detail, because it would mean exposing all
of the spoilers; with that said, it becomes plainly obvious that Arc is more
flawed than everyone around him.
Underneath the confidence (or bluster, if you prefer), he’s an incredibly sad and maybe even pitiable
person. His line of reasoning is built
on concepts and absolutes that he can’t begin to fulfill, and couldn’t even if
he had ultra-super powers. In terms of
the plot, Arc may not be the most powerful of the cast, but he ends up becoming
a core pillar of support and strength -- the heart of the team that pushes them
forward. That’s a problem when said
heart is no stronger than the others…and in a lot of ways is weaker by default.
Again, I’m trying not to spoil anything here, but
I’ll say this. First off? Arc’s involvement (in the long run) either
doesn’t change anything, or it actively makes things worse. Second?
Arc is hollow. In what capacity,
I won’t say -- but for a guy who wants the truth, he sure is a great big mass
of lies. Already a demon, even.
What a demon.
I had my concerns about Arc -- and in all honesty,
I still do. But he’s the main character
of Dead on Prime for a reason: he
defines, and is defined by, the story in a way no one else ever could. He has just enough positive traits to make
him interesting from the outset; plus, he only gets better as the story
progresses and he’s forced to become more than an ace or a joker. He’ll go to some dark places over the course
of the story (literally, in more than one instance), but the tradeoff is that
he’ll come out stronger for it.
Arc may not be one of my original heroes, but he’s
become one over the course of his story’s development. He fights for what he believes in, and with
every last ounce of his strength. He’ll
draw a line to the answers he seeks, and use it to take back his stolen future. In the face of overwhelming, endless despair,
he’ll stand strong and become the final hope.
Why?
Simple. Because that’s his way of
life.
And that’s about all I’ve got for now. The fight’s not won yet, but I think a
character like Arc at least gives me a shot.
Still, he’s just one piece of the puzzle -- one member of the core cast
of eight. How do the others fare? Are they any good, or do they need to go back
to the rough draft? I guess we’ll find
out, because we’re going straight down the list with these guys.
Tune in next time when I go over the number-two
character…but first, one more dank Metal
Gear reference for the road. As of
writing, I SERIOUSLY haven’t played enough of it. That needs to change, but the pain of an
infinite backlog is unmistakable.
Soon.
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