March 31, 2023

Two kinds of monsters, one with a hat 🤠

Friendship with malicious angry cyborg over, classy tar-pit heart man with a hat new best friend!

Hi shiny & snarling ,

You probably already have got the impression that I really like monsters.

And robots. If my Hateship game is anything to be judged by.

So put the two together, and surely, my top choice in Star Wars would be this guy, right?

The one and only malicious robot cyborg, General Grievous.

And… Well, yes, judging by all this old fanart, that was very much the case.

The first time he appeared in the prequel trilogy (yup, I was brought into the franchise that way) as a villain battle scene, I was fascinated. And when he became a returning character in Clone Wars, the 3D animated series, I wanted front-row seats.

But, there was one issue that bugged me: the way he was written was lackluster.

Here’s this terrifying monstrosity with a kick-ass design…

Whose fighting strategy takes full advantage of his mechanical nature…

And a tragic story to boot (nothing like having an anger chip installed in your brain).

And yet....he runs away as soon as the trouble is too great, and gets used as a plot bucket to kick whenever the heroes have run out of boxes.

Thar he goes again!

We all can appreciate a snivelling coward, and not all villains need a front-loaded emotional component, but for a figure as significant as Grievous to be consistently treated as fodder, more so than the replaceable droids he smashes in frustration? The sympathy runs out.

So, I broke my rule.

There’s two kinds of monsters, after all.

Enter Cad Bane, the local cool cat, mysterious man in a hat, tar pit heart with wry tricks and class.

He’s shown up in a total of 13 episodes in the animated Clone Wars series, and 3 in Bad Batch (which makes up less than a tenth of all the screen time), but every appearance is a pristine capture of this cold and calculating figure.

(Not so in Book of Boba Fett. Don’t get me started on a rant there.)

While Cad still never delivered in depth of character development, what makes up for it are a number of fascinating threads:

• He’s known (as a gag or otherwise) for asking steep prices for his services. Yet he never overdresses, and the closest thing he had to a ‘home’ was a brick of a space station base (surely expensive, but not grandiose or greedy by any means).

• With seemingly no interest in showing off, he insists on having a nice, big hat.

• He’s kidnapped innocent babies, but several years later, for some reason (which I hope maybe they’ll touch on one day), he sounded REMOURSEFUL when doing a similar job again.

Sometimes, inconsistencies can make for poor storytelling, but in this case, we simply don’t know what’s going on beneath the surface. Purposefully, both by Cad and the writers, the cards are close to his chest.

A more specific example: we know he won’t hold his word. Back-stabbing is always on the table, even towards clients if a better deal comes along. Once, he said he’d let a hostage go if a Jedi, capable of manipulating the world with their mind, unlocks an artifact for him. Of course, as soon as the exchange was made, he pressed a button on his gadget gauntlet to release the vacuum lock, the only thing between the hostage and outer space.

Fast forward to a different situation, where an assassination job he was paid to do was completed by somebody else. Two Jedi come across the dead body as well. Instead of doing a surprise backstab, he approaches them casually; he has no business causing either of them trouble since they’re not a target.

It doesn’t stay a peaceful exchange for long, but it makes you wonder… what is Cad’s sense of honour? Where does he draw the line?

I love a good mystery, so you can expect me to see me explore a lot of him in the future, where I reverse engineer many loose strings.

I hope you’ll forgive me for veering away from the classic strong monster from time to time. The elegant, tall persona (most often with, than without, a hat) is a solid second archetype in Jen’s books.

What’s a character you didn’t expect to like more than your usual archetype?

cheerio,

Jennifer

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Project Updates

I generally don’t like making promises I know I can’t keep.

It comes from a history of worrying about letting people down and perfectionism.

This is sensible to follow for everyday situations where over-exaggerating your capabilities really can put a wrench in your relationships. But I’ve applied it so rigorously, that I don’t even announce, let alone show, any of my projects publicly until I can guarantee a final release window.

Again, with so many crowdfunded projects out there that go bust from unreasonable promises, this sounds okay from the outside.

Except, I learned: I deliver better when I have a deadline.

Launching Hateship on Valentine’s Day, and being a holiday which I can’t ask kindly to move for me, meant I committed to getting something out there, regardless if scope cutting was necessary. And for all my commissioned projects, the first thing I establish is a deadline, even if the client doesn’t really have one in mind. Somehow, that’s enough to get shit done.

So, I want to establish a deadline with you.

I will complete all writing by the 15th of May.

This isn’t yet a release date for the final version of Hateship, but an interim one to keep me on track.

And goals are all fine and mighty, but here’s the strategy I will implement to follow through:

• Write at least 30min a day. (Lately I was struggling doing any story writing while also preparing everything I write for my blog, this newsletter, and social media. So this is a minimum!)

• write first thing after I’m back from my day job (or else I get carried away with everything else)

• Use my task manager, with a Gantt chart, to break up the writing into smaller goals and schedule them ahead.

• and, of course, I’ll keep you up to date every two weeks, even if progress is stunted for whatever reason!

With all that said, here’s a draft sample from one of my latest writing sessions:

They prompt questions about Vezok’s escapades, with great curiosity and respect.
From what you gather, he’s been in charge of entire platoons.
Guest: “… And last I recall, you had the onslaught pinned against a steep hill?”
Vezok seems to straighten ever so slightly, not having expected this kind of treatment.
Vezok: “No. It was the mud. When we pushed forward, it was after the rains. They sunk. The hill was like a wall to them, then.”
Guest: “Ohhhh, that’s risky business. Quite daring.”
Vezok: “… That’s… battle?”
Guest: “Tell us, where do you learn all this strategy? What goes through your head?”
Vezok’s body language shifts. It curls in.
His gaze darts away for a moment, looking at you.
Vezok: “Uh… Um…”

And… playing some dress-up with the lads. They’re gonna look real spiffy. 😉

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