Dark Side of the Moon

Type Moon => General Discussion => Topic started by: lantzblades on April 14, 2013, 02:07:20 AM

Title: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on April 14, 2013, 02:07:20 AM
A thread to discuss the characters of type moon, I figure we needed one.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 18, 2013, 09:50:22 PM
Well, OK, let's talk about Sakura.

Personally, she's my favourite character. What I like about her is her mental strength and general kindness and niceness. Despite everything she's been through, she still lives as normal a life as possible given the circumstances, and is a fundamentally kind and caring person. Further, despite all the years of torture, when Zouken wants her to fight in the war she has the strength to say "no", despite the fact that she fully expects to be tortured.  Additionally, in HF, she sent Rider up against Zouken when he was attacking Shirou, despite the fact that Zouken could easily have tortured or killed her for that.

She's smart, kind, caring and actually very strong. True, she ends up turning Dark in HF, but she's under a hell of a lot of pressure from AM, and even then she showed a hell of a lot of mental resolve to hang on for so long despite the pressure from AM.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 18, 2013, 10:07:20 PM
I think her kindness comes from the abuse to be honest. I think given what the nasuverse is she'd be a rather heartless magi if left in normal care. As for AM, I don't think it is pressure, at least not the traditional mental pressure we've seen with mind attacks.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 18, 2013, 10:19:31 PM
I think her kindness comes from the abuse to be honest.

I don't think that makes the slighest bit of sense given human nature.

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I think given what the nasuverse is she'd be a rather heartless magi if left in normal care.

What, like Rin is you mean...?

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As for AM, I don't think it is pressure, at least not the traditional mental pressure we've seen with mind attacks.

Well, what is it, then?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 18, 2013, 11:12:26 PM
It's like being swallowed by the Borg, you are a person and have a voice but the crowd drowns it out. And I would think worse than rin
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 18, 2013, 11:25:47 PM
It's like being swallowed by the Borg, you are a person and have a voice but the crowd drowns it out.

What is that in response to?

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And I would think worse than rin

Why? What makes Sakura a fundamentally less-nice person than Rin?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 01:37:24 AM
To the AM thing. And Sakura isn't it is just that the other magi families are elitist bastards
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 01:57:23 AM
To the AM thing.

Ah, OK, that does kind-of make sense. What I said is still basically right, though. It took a lot of mental strength to keep her own voice from being drowned out for so long.

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And Sakura isn't it is just that the other magi families are elitist bastards

So? Rin was raised to be a bitch, and she still turned out nice. I don't see Sakura being any different. She's just fundamentally a nice person.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 08:29:45 PM
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So? Rin was raised to be a bitch

no, she wasn't, you're forgetting she was left with a bunch of supposed rules but no one to enforce or correct them.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 08:45:35 PM
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So? Rin was raised to be a bitch

no, she wasn't, you're forgetting she was left with a bunch of supposed rules but no one to enforce or correct them.

Well, she had Kotomine, and also her own desire to obey her father. Whilst Rin might have ended up worse if Tokiomi had lived, I don't think that her humanity would have disappeared. Similarly, Sakura raised by a normal magus family would still not be bad.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 08:50:26 PM
I didn't say disappear
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 09:04:57 PM
I didn't say disappear

Well, the problem here is that you've not defined the situation. You said her abuse led to her being a nice person, but that's not what you acutally meant. What you meant was that her not being raised as a magus made her a nice person. It is true that, if she'd been raised as the Matou heir by someone like Zouken, she likely would have been a bit less nice. Even so, though, it's hardly like he encouraged her to be a good person. He wanted her to reach out and take what she wanted and to be generally selfish, because doing so suited his goals (as long as she didn't rebel against him, which selfishness plus his level of control would ensure). So, the fact that she turned out nice regardless of that means she likely would have turned out pretty nice no matter what.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 10:30:57 PM
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What you meant was that her not being raised as a magus made her a nice person.

no I didn't
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 10:47:31 PM
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What you meant was that her not being raised as a magus made her a nice person.

no I didn't

Well, then what did you mean? Because being abused certainly isn't the reason she's nice, she would have been a nice person if she'd grown up normally (if you don't assume magic gets in the way).
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 11:23:15 PM
the abused are more empathic by virtue of their experience
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 11:39:31 PM
the abused are more empathic by virtue of their experience

I don't think that's actually true, and indeed I think it's usually the opposite. But, regardless, I don't see Sakura being any less nice than Rin.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 19, 2013, 11:44:37 PM
it is true mike.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 19, 2013, 11:48:23 PM
it is true mike.

Why are you saying that? Like I said, I see it as generally the opposite.

Regardless, though, I see no reason to believe she'd be any less nice than Rin. You can believe whatever the hell you like....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 20, 2013, 12:08:14 AM
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Why are you saying that?

because I actually know people who prove that it is true.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 20, 2013, 12:21:57 AM
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Why are you saying that?

because I actually know people who prove that it is true.

How do you know that they wouldn't have been nice anyway?

Also, there are plenty of examples of the opposite, where someone who has been abused has ended up abusing others as a result. Indeed, many murderers were abused as children, and many child abusers were themselves abused.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 20, 2013, 08:53:06 PM
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there are plenty of examples of the opposite

the fact that you are arguing this reflects badly, but fine whatever
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 20, 2013, 11:13:29 PM
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there are plenty of examples of the opposite

the fact that you are arguing this reflects badly, but fine whatever

What?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 21, 2013, 02:53:38 AM
You are arguing for the negative, it reflects badly, let's just move on.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 21, 2013, 03:08:04 AM
Well, move on to what?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 21, 2013, 03:33:08 AM
To another character
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 21, 2013, 03:35:56 AM
Well, do you have any to discuss, since I already did one...?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 21, 2013, 03:41:52 AM
Let's go with shirou
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 01:03:09 AM
Well, OK, what do you think about him?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 22, 2013, 08:51:23 PM
Personally I find him brick wall stupid but that's what makes him work as a character which is also the reason why I dislike hf, he shifts too much to the right to make the events in the route believable in the way nasu claims  he intended.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 08:53:19 PM
Personally I find him brick wall stupid but that's what makes him work as a character

He's not stupid, just naive and generally trusting. The two aren't the same.

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which is also the reason why I dislike hf, he shifts too much to the right to make the events in the route believable in the way nasu claims  he intended.

What do you mean "shifts too much to the right"?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 22, 2013, 09:06:09 PM
No he's stupid, it's hero stupid which is markedly better than regular stupid  but it is still stupid. By too far I mean that his character shift is unbelievable to me in hf
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 09:11:38 PM
No he's stupid, it's hero stupid which is markedly better than regular stupid  but it is still stupid.

You only have to look at Archer to see that Shirou isn't actually an idiot. He is just naive, trusting and very selfless.

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By too far I mean that his character shift is unbelievable to me in hf

I got the "too far" bit, what I didn't get was the "to the right" bit....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 22, 2013, 09:37:57 PM
Archer is proof he is an idiot, seriously think about his plan and then how he walks off stage, as for the to the right bit it's a way of describe his position as he's conservative in hf which is associated with the right wing
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 09:42:51 PM
Archer is proof he is an idiot, seriously think about his plan and then how he walks off stage

Well, no, Archer is clearly very smart, he's just desperate.

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as for the to the right bit it's a way of describe his position as he's conservative in hf which is associated with the right wing

No, he's not. Being unwilling to murder innocent people in cold-blood is not a right-wing position. Also, Shirou is always somewhat conservative. In HF he becomes more Chaotic Good rather than Neutral or Lawful Good, which I would say is a shift to the left if anything.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 22, 2013, 09:50:41 PM
Intelligence has nothing to do with being stupid.  Don't being up alignments,they are poor points at best and stupid the rest of the time.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 10:05:15 PM
Intelligence has nothing to do with being stupid.

Erm, what?

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Don't being up alignments,they are poor points at best and stupid the rest of the time.

No more so than defining someone's political position on the basis of whether or not they like to protect their loved ones....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: GabrieliosP on May 22, 2013, 10:59:24 PM
Personally, I like Shirou very much and, IMO, he's one of the best VN protagonists because he actually has a personality unlike most of them (looking at you, Tohno Shiki, even though you're still better than most protags). Well, I just hate self-insert protagonists, but I've come across people who hate him for the opposite. Well, lolopinions.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 22, 2013, 11:08:20 PM
Personally, I like Shirou very much and, IMO, he's one of the best VN protagonists because he actually has a personality unlike most of them (looking at you, Tohno Shiki, even though you're still better than most protags).

Yeah, exactly.

Shirou has a genuine personality, which develops over the course of the story, and the story revolves around that. Unlike many VN protags, Shirou is someone you can have opinions on.

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Well, I just hate self-insert protagonists, but I've come across people who hate him for the opposite. Well, lolopinions.

Well, it depends on the story. For something like FSN you definitely don't want that, but in other stories (especially more porn-centred ones) you might.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 23, 2013, 01:02:12 AM
I could be able to calculate pie to the 1000000 place but still be stupid, I mean I know shit all about acupuncture so in a room full I'll be the stupidest guy around if I try to talk about it.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 23, 2013, 01:28:52 AM
Yeah, I guess.

It depends what exactly you mean by "stupid"....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 23, 2013, 08:42:53 PM
hence why I call him hero stupid
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 23, 2013, 08:56:11 PM
Yeah, OK, fair enough.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 23, 2013, 11:56:55 PM
Now I have opinions regarding each individual shirou
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 24, 2013, 12:09:04 AM
Well, go on then....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 24, 2013, 12:25:38 AM
Well would you prefer the long answer or the short one?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 24, 2013, 12:27:57 AM
Well, the long answer allows for more discussion, so I'd say that....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 24, 2013, 12:35:18 AM
Using the fate route as a base for shirou I'd say ubw is a logical conclusion of his character arc while hf is a dystopian view of the same arc. Now largely due to nasu basically forced a conclusion on a fairly complex subject unfairly, not to mention dumping rin's character growth  onto hf which is crap imo
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 24, 2013, 12:42:27 AM
Using the fate route as a base for shirou I'd say ubw is a logical conclusion of his character arc while hf is a dystopian view of the same arc. Now largely due to nasu basically forced a conclusion on a fairly complex subject unfairly

I don't think that's really true, particularly since HF isn't really "dystopian". It's just more that HF shows what happens when he does hit a fundamental problem with his ideal, and he's not ready for it. I suspect UBW Shirou would take a similar approach, actually, but HF Shirou was dumped into a difficult situation very quickly.

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not to mention dumping rin's character growth  onto hf which is crap imo

I think that was necessary given the nature of HF as a story. Her character development needed to address Sakura, and Sakura couldn't be dealt with in UBW and still  have HF work as a route.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 25, 2013, 04:33:36 PM
Hf shirou was dumped into the damn Kobayashi, hf didn't need to exist then. Ubw was rin's route and so if her development means hf doesn't work then so be it
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 25, 2013, 04:40:25 PM
Hf shirou was dumped into the damn Kobayashi, hf didn't need to exist then. Ubw was rin's route and so if her development means hf doesn't work then so be it

The thing is, it's not fair to drop Sakura's character development in favour of Rin's.

Sure, UBW was Rin's route, but that doesn't mean it has to be entirely centred around Rin, or that all of Rin's development has to come in that route. Why should Sakura's character development be shunted into Rin's route and, consequentially, limited to things that are directly Rin-centric?

There is simply no way to have all of Rin's character development in Rin's route and all of Sakura's character development in Sakura's. They're just too connected. Nasu decided that it would make for a better story if you had Sakura's development in her own route and the Sakura-centric parts of Rin's development there also, because HF would just not work if Sakura's relationship with Rin came up beforehand, whereas the converse is not true.

The only way I can see for UBW to contain all of Rin's character development would be for Sakura to not have a route, and given her nature as a character that would massively limit her development, not to mention being unfair. You simply cannot expect the routes to be as specific as you want, because there is simply too much inter-connection.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 02:06:25 AM
Rin orbited her route at best
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 02:08:14 AM
I don't deny that, but I don't think Sakura was the cause of that, and nor could they have really put all the Sakura/Rin stuff into UBW without completely screwing up the story.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 02:34:01 AM
The point is I find the dump to be cheap
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 02:44:40 AM
The point is I find the dump to be cheap

Like I said, HF wouldn't work without that, and Sakura is a character who is designed to have a route of her own. I understand your reasoning about Rin's character development, but I'm not sure how it would be fixed.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 02:50:48 AM
It already barely works
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 02:57:41 AM
Well, possibly, but as a basic principle a Sakura route requires there to be some stuff left unresolved in Rin's route or, else, for Sakura to get a lot of her character development outside her route. Otherwise it would just be repetitive.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 03:06:51 AM
I don't buy that, sounds like an excuse
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 03:18:13 AM
I don't buy that, sounds like an excuse

How is it?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 03:25:21 AM
It seems more that nasu dumped rins character development into hf to pad out the route and to give fake emotional gravity to the whole thing.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 03:55:44 AM
No, it just doesn't make sense for Rin not to get character development in HF, because of her relationship with Sakura. And, that development could not be done elsewhere for the same reason.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 04:21:01 AM
See that is what I doubt
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 04:32:43 AM
The thing is, character development for Sakura and Rin goes together in that respect. Either you do it in Rin's route or you do it in Sakura's route, or else you duplicate the whole lot.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 04:42:05 AM
It would not be duplicated and even then the split could have been done along character lines
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 04:46:08 AM
It would not be duplicated

How wouldn't it be?

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and even then the split could have been done along character lines

I don't see how it could be in a sensible manner, both girls will naturally develop in that way if their relationship is resolved. Further, even mentioning their relationship in UBW would ruin the surprise of HF.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 05:00:23 AM
Hf ruined a lot  so taking the hit of a lost surprise is fine by me
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 05:03:41 AM
Hf ruined a lot  so taking the hit of a lost surprise is fine by me

Yeah, but Nasu isn't writing the story to ensure every route is designed around one character, he's writing it to make a good story. I do wish Sakura's situation would have been dealt with more in UBW, but I'm not sure how that could have been done without making HF completely obsolete.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 05:20:49 PM
Given the plot it is obsolete
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 05:25:06 PM
Given the plot it is obsolete

What? How is it?
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 05:32:59 PM
Because literally anything would be better than it. They Worf so many characters  for no good reason
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 05:52:22 PM
Because literally anything would be better than it. They Worf so many characters  for no good reason

You might think that, but personally I'd rather Sakura not get completely ignored....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 06:20:54 PM
I  did not say that
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 06:27:28 PM
Well, that would come under the definition of "anything"....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 26, 2013, 06:47:36 PM
Contextually in this case no it wouldn't
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 26, 2013, 07:22:58 PM
Contextually in this case no it wouldn't

Well, OK....
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 29, 2013, 06:01:46 PM
It means literally means any thing would be an improvement in Sakura's route and obviously Sakura's route involves Sakura, hence why I want to write an alternative route to hf
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 29, 2013, 06:12:12 PM
It means literally means any thing would be an improvement in Sakura's route and obviously Sakura's route involves Sakura, hence why I want to write an alternative route to hf

Well, OK.

I'm not convinced HF is particularly bad (although there are some issues with it), but I'm sure as hell not going to discourage you from writing an alternative. More Sakura-centric fics are always welcome.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 29, 2013, 07:08:27 PM
It was completely contrived given what I saw
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 29, 2013, 07:41:38 PM
Well, I don't think it was, personally (although there were better ways of resolving the situation), but I can't be bothered to argue it.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 29, 2013, 10:22:56 PM
Any way with shirou and Sakura out of the way who next
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 30, 2013, 01:15:38 AM
Well, not sure really. I might have a go at doing one for Rider later.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on May 31, 2013, 01:16:07 AM
Not much there in terms of canonical information
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on May 31, 2013, 02:51:51 AM
Well, personally, what I like about Rider is how loyal and protective she is. I don't like servants who take the attitude "I'll obey whoever I am contracted to because the rules say so", but Rider's not like that. She genuinely cares for Sakura, and makes every effort to protect her as a result. She does do some rather dubious things, yes, but she never abandons Sakura, even when things look hopeless, she always sticks by her. But, at the same time, she doesn't always just do what she's told, to the point of fighting against Sakura when doing so will help her in the long-term. I admire her resilience and absolute refusal to give up on the person she loves no matter what.
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: lantzblades on June 01, 2013, 09:33:44 PM
To be fair most servants are dead set on winning for their own measure so obeying your master regardless of whom is sorta the normal thing to do, saber is the same with shirou and lancer made kirei use a command spell to keep him from killing the priest, so its not like that loyalty is exclusive to rider
Title: Re: character discussion
Post by: Cherry Lover on June 01, 2013, 10:09:31 PM
To be fair most servants are dead set on winning for their own measure so obeying your master regardless of whom is sorta the normal thing to do

The difference is that Rider's goal is to save Sakura. She isn't protecting Sakura because she wants to win, she wants to win because she wants to protect Sakura. Also, I said loyalty, not obedience. Rider does not obey Sakura unquestionably, there are several occasions where she goes against Sakura's orders because she thinks it's in her best interests. However, she does genuinely care for and love Sakura, and tries very hard to protect her.

To see the difference you only need to look at Rider's attitude towards Shinji. She detests the guy, but she still obeys him because she wants to protect Sakura and she knows that, if she disobeys him, Sakura will pay for it. Plus, if she wins the war she can hopefully obtain freedom for Sakura. But, she has no issue with aiding Shirou in defeating him when he threatens Sakura, and nor is she particularly upset if he gets harmed.

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saber is the same with shirou and lancer made kirei use a command spell to keep him from killing the priest

Well, Saber is the same with Shirou to a certain extent, yes, but Saber puts obtaining her goal first, at least initially. Hence why, if you don't get enough affection points for Saber in Fate, she ends up killing Shirou to obtain the Grail. Rider, conversely, is always protective of Sakura despite Sakura not really being in a position to protect or be affectionate towards her.

As for Lancer, he just liked Bazett, because she was a hot chick and a cool fighting partner. As opposed to Kirei, who is a dick who is trying to make him suffer as much as possible.

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so its not like that loyalty is exclusive to rider

The distinction is that Rider's loyalty has nothing to do with Sakura being her master. Even Saber is loyal to Shirou mainly because she's his servant, at least initially. In Rider's case she would be just as loyal and caring towards Sakura if she were summoned by someone else with the same knowledge and understanding of her plight.