Vryheid continues!

[farla]

You shouldn't have to "lay it out". Show me someone else figuring it out, because I looked on Serebii as you suggested and found nothing. Unless you explicitly write out the name of the Pokemon inside the story, or provide a better argument for another Pokemon through evidence from the text, I honestly believe my interpretation is just as valid as yours. Simply saying that I'm wrong without a clear explanation isn't a fair response.

This in response to just saying that the comparison "like a clever hypno" means they can't be hypno and that saying the hypno is just best so they prefer it doesn't work because it doesn't fit with the central plot either.

I'm not sure how they missed me saying the FFN reviewers were the ones who got it, either.

So, I go through the chapters and list off physical description that only fits mew, mewtwo and maybe abra/kadadra, every time they do stuff that's crazy powerful, the fact they're using black catch-anything pokeballs, the fact they consider themselves separate from regular pokemon and totally outclass those pokemon, and then the fact they're discussing Cinnabar as the genesis of their race followed by Deus identifying the mansion as the focal point of Cinnabar. And that they're all male and they only use terms like "mother" to refer to pokemon, not the adults taking care of the kids. (Really, finding it completely normal that all mentioned trainers and adults, including parents, just happen to be male is so very TvTropes. Nearly as much as the blind certainty that Deus' family must be a proper het one and there's no way both of them could be hes.)

I'm not sure if that set off the redoubled crazy or if it was that I ended by telling them they were being stupid and arrogant for attacking me about my explanation not fitting the story before I even said what the reasons were or even what the explanation itself was. You're really supposed to wait for the person to say stuff first, you know.

And I get this in response:

A new review has been posted to your story.

Story: Inheritors
Chapter: 1. Chapter 1

From: Vryheid ( http://www.fanfiction.net/u/3920619/ )
-------------------

REREVIEW:

After the author decided to insult me and generally be an asshat through the PM system, and proclaimed that I was oblivious to the plot for not coming to the conclusion that the main character was a Mewtwo, I've decided to give the story a second look. Since Farla apparently is far too well informed to actually pay attention to the TVTropes article I linked regarding why I thought responding like that was a terrible approach, I'll reiterate publicly why I think the conclusion that I simply "didn't understand the plot" is a load of crap:

I DO NOT CARE WHAT THE WRITER PLANNED THE STORY TO BE.

This isn't Where's Waldo. It isn't Encyclopedia Brown. It isn't some puzzle game where I have to try to pierce through the author's convoluted, cryptic train of reasoning to figure out what the "right answer" is, because unless they explicitly say so in the story, neither interpretation is any better than an educated guess. And frankly, there's already plenty of evidence why interpreting Deus as a Mewtwo is total horse-shit:

1. Mewtwo doesn't breed, and it certainly would not and could not recreate itself in any way. It's created in a lab, by humans, and the technology used in its creation was completely destroyed after it escaped. It's a total loner only interested in self preservation, and it hides in a cave all of its life simply because it tries to avoid the outside world. There is no way it would EVER be able or be willing to model itself after a human family. Not in any canon, nor in any legitimate source material expanding the Pokemon universe.

Seriously, what planet would a writer have to be from to think that this kind of setup for a fanfic is remotely reasonable?

2. If you're playing this game that a "black pokeball" is evidence of Mewtwo, then you have to accept that the rest of both anime movies involving Mewtwo can be interpreted as canon in your plot. That means it's pretty much set in stone that Mewtwo hates trainers and humanity in general. It was tortured and abused by humans growing up, and it dedicates most of its later life to avoiding them and protecting the clones from being attacked or captured by trainers. It ended up at peace with the rest of humanity, but it still didn't want to involve itself in their kind of lifestyle in any way. It would NEVER have decided to emulate some sort of ridiculous and totally unnecessary gym badge quest.

Giving him a 180 degree personality shift makes about as much fucking sense as Team Rocket joining the Catholic Church.

3. Plenty of in-context clues showing that Mewtwo being the main character doesn't fit his physical description. First of all, Mewtwo can't learn Teleport without the use of a TM. No humanity left? No teleportation. Mewtwo doesn't have hands, it has paws, and those paws certainly aren't going to be used as utensils. There's no indication Mewtwo even needs to eat, and it frankly most likely never would need to if it manages to spend all of its life sitting in a cave.

The author completely fails to understand that "clues" like "omg black pokeballs" and "HURR DURR CINNEBAR ISLAND" are NOT EVIDENCE, they are obscure references from different media that could just as easily have been original elements to the plot. And they don't even make sense in the context of the source material. How the fuck am I supposed to know that the author is willing to completely change the game mechanics and plot to put in some dumb references to that terrible anime movie in some instances while not doing so in others? Did it seriously not occur to them that if they were going to mix and match canon maybe they should have said so in an author's note, instead of useless, judgmental bullshit like "By now it should be clear what Deus is"?

Anyways, reader, when you're done realizing that this story is apparently just a bunch of poorly thought out narrative fanservice in disguise, you should try reading a story like Legendary Athlete to see a writer who actually understands Mewtwo's character and is willing to write about it properly.

Comments

[antialiasis.livejournal.com]

What.

"Death of the author" makes some sense when it comes to analysis of themes and meaning in completed works, but factual plot points in a work in progress? (Unless Inheritors was completed and I didn't notice.)

[farla.livejournal.com]

That's the weirdest part! Apparently if I publish another chapter saying Deus is a mewtwo, then and only then am I right. Describing him as a mewtwo doesn't count because maybe the omniscient narrator is being unreliable when it talks about his tail and the rest, but saying he's a mewtwo would be definitely reliable because that's different, and also saying he isn't a hypno doesn't work the same way?

[falconpain.livejournal.com]

I realize that this post is over a month old, but I only now did the ego search (I wrote "Legendary Athlete") and noticed it.

I will admit that my first reaction was "oh, great, Farla's talking about one of my fics" before I understood that this post was quoting a review. And I will also admit that I have often disagreed with her opinions in the past, and that I am still a troper. But none of that is why I'm replying.

I'm replying because I disagree with Vryheid, and think that citing my fic in this argument was a bad idea. This is for three main reasons.

First, one of the nice things about fanfiction is that you don't need to stick to a single character interpretation. (This can also be one of its faults if done poorly.) This is especially true for a fandom that has several canon universes and plenty of AU potential on top of that. I have never jumped on any writer for imagining a character differently from how I do. It may make me stop reading in some instances, but that's a different thing altogether.
In fact, I once got a PM from someone asking if they could use my version of Mewtwo as a cameo in their fic. I suggested that they not do so, because I would rather see their interpretation of the character and would hate for mine to be considered the correct one.

Second... "terrible anime movie"? I know some people don't like the show, but it's a really bad idea to bring that up while recommending my work. After all, I enjoy the anime, and while I still haven't finished the story, I've put in more than enough hints (ones that are less subtle than this fic's hints about Mewtwo) that the Mewtwo in my story is the same as the one from a previous fic I wrote... which happened to take both movies as canon and even referenced the anime version of Sabrina.

And third... let's just go down a few of the other complaints.
"Mewtwo can't learn Teleport without the use of a TM" - my Mewtwo teleports often, and did so in the previous fic before he ever learned what a TM was.
"Mewtwo doesn't have hands, it has paws" - In the eleven chapters released so far, I refer to Mewtwo's hands seventeen times, not counting figurative uses such as "handful" or "out of his hands".
"There's no indication Mewtwo even needs to eat" - his need to do so was a minor plot point in the previous fic.
"HURR DURR CINNEBAR ISLAND" - It's explicitly mentioned in my story. (As a bonus, while it's not ready yet, the black Pokéballs will be referenced in a future chapter as well. Once I have a chance to get back to it.)
And most of all, "it's pretty much set in stone that Mewtwo hates trainers and humanity in general" - his struggle to overcome this happens to be one of the central points of my fic and its predecessor!

I'm not saying my story is perfect, and I'm pretty sure a critical reader can point out many things wrong with it, but it simply cannot be used as an example of a story that avoids the criticisms being levied here.

[farla.livejournal.com]

Really? That's hilarious.

If you have time to kill, maybe PM them to say that and see what happens. Maybe they'll explain to you why you're wrong and how actually your story is about game-only Mewtwo sitting in a cave activating teleport TMs with its paws.