Talk:The Perils of Voice Acting

Very, very nice, Joysweeper. The TG was handled well for both characters. --Buck 14:11, 19 February 2008 (EST)

Later: So, now Peter is Arkadais, and his daughter Sarah is the Little Brother. Well, at least they're still family. :) Seriously, you've done a very good job setting up this fictional 80s cartoon. I can see Arkadais' personality has insinuated itself into Peter's mode of thinking (Sugar!). But Peter remains more or less intact as a person. But now she gets to be a fifteen year old girl to boot...

At any rate, I imagine Arkadais herself as a tomboyish girl who hates being mistaken for a boy, but uses it to her advantage when necessary. The show itself seems to be a mixture of He-Man and Conan the Barbarian. I can actually imagine the opening sequence of he cartoon (probably animated by the same company that did Transformers and GI Joe). In the opening shot, the camera speeds along towards a high ridge, getting closer to Arkadais and her companions (4-5 of them). She draws her sword, which glows and fires off a beam, which the camera follows. Segue into a montage of action scenes from various episodes.

Every 80s cartoon had a toy line, of course. The show was probably intended to appeal to boys and girls alike, which might have accounted for its failure. They tried to mash He-Man and She-Ra together in a tomboyish female protagonist, and it didn't quite work out. --Buck 19:16, 19 February 2008 (EST)

Heh. I wonder what she'll think of her action figures. Those things are often a little extreme in their proportions, but in her case it'll have to be pretty accurate. :) Good to see more secondary TFs in Xanadu, they spread the joy. I wonder if Deuvoci's really satisfied, or if she's going to be continuing to try to tweak her surroundings to match the story she's imagining. With all those minds bundled up in he there's plenty of room for new issues to crop up. Bryan 22:49, 19 February 2008 (EST)

Arkadais and Chalvic might have the memories of Peter and Sarah, but that seems to be all, just as Deuvoci remembers the memories of all the many, many fans that make her up (I think of Ami's Song when Nick became Sailor Mercury, she had Nick's memories and still loved her family, but she knew she wasn't Nick). This was really an in-depth story in spite of it's length, and a absolutely positively fantastic read. Check your mail for another deeper review.

I wish you had an IM program, I could discuss this story all day and all night!

--Matthew Lenz/Alex Warlorn 4:18 PM, 19 February 2008 (PST)

I couldn't wait to say this. It's clear that Deuvoci 'aura of effect' that happened to Peter and Sarah, and possibly shadow mountain, has to do (IMHO at least) not only with the power of story telling, but the conbined BELIEF the multiude of die-hard fans had for the show that got crammed into one character that was Deuvoci. Nearly all the other character's were born out of the belief of one person (save type like everyone's eastern dragon), but Deuvoci was born out of SEVERAL fans who LOVED the little show that lasted only one season. And I doubt we have seen the last of this effect, though I doubt it'll cause any human misery (would be out of character for the story), and would be a totaly cheat on the happy ending we've had.

--Matthew Lenz/Alex Warlorn 4:36 PM, 19 February 2008 (PST)

Hey, comments and an addition to Bryan's Picks! Wow! :D

Thanks Jon! From you, that means a lot. I really didn't go into detail or serious changes in thinking, though... didn't really fit the story. Everyone who writes Xanadu has a different "type" of person they like to focus on, it seems. Mine is cosplayers.

I really think it's a pity that so few TF stories feature the families of those who changed. It's like almost everyone is an orphan with one or two people they've known since childhood, at most. Hopefully, the next story, if I go with the bird instead of the jury duty one, will focus on that even more. It's rather ambitious... I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew.

Thank you! "Sugar" was really Peter's idea from the beginning - you know how some parents try not to swear around their kids. I had no idea how Arkadais would swear... still, the word gets repeated a lot. Sooner or later I should go back in and replace a few of those with "fudge" or something.

You've got it right on the nose.  :) Arkadais has one Berserk Button - she usually becomes comically furious when unobservant people call her "boy", which happens fairly often. It's never serious, she just shouts and glares crazily and usually ends up helping them anyway. I was more than a little inspired by the example of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist and the way he freaks out anytime it's hinted that he's on the small side. I didn't really think about the title sequence, but that sounds about right. The theme song would be very energetic and enthusiastic, and there'd probably be at least one fast-moving action sequence that never appeared in the show. I love those.

Thanks Bryan! I copied a passage from your text, inventing an 80s series so I wouldn't get a real one wrong - I'm not old enough to have watched those series when they were at their peak. I really wanted to do something with voice/and or regular actors - originally I was thinking of a blog-style post about, for example, Hugo Weaving being abducted. Because seriously, the man voiced Megatron, and he played Elrond and Agent Smith, and probably more people that I know nothing about - surely someone from Xanadu would be a little confused and angry. I actually just really like the idea of characters blaming their actors or creators for their problems.

What do you mean by newsletter? I don't know if there'll be action figures now. I'm not actually sure what happens after this - they do get recruited by Project X at some point, but other than that, I don't know. I'm not adverse to them cameo'ing if the chance comes up, though.  :)

Chalvic was about as enthusiastic and fearless as Sarah, but he was also a little less friendly with strange things and people. Both of them were pretty young; Sarah was just starting to memorize her storybooks, the step that comes right before learning to read early, so I'd say she was three or four, which makes Chalvic only a year or so older, and boys develop slower than girls anyway. I'd say the Chalvic at the end of the story was mostly Sarah. Similarly, Arkadais is still at least partially Peter, not just in memories. She's a bit more of a realist than the series character was.

Shadow Mountain is still a pathetic little hill, but that confrontation took a surprisingly long time. I actually stole that hill from an anecdote one of my professors used once... still, I don't specify where it is, so all's well. I won't specify how many fans passed out of existence for Deuvoci, but the number does limit how much changing can be effected. As do situations. I don't really plan on doing much if anything more with these guys, really.

I have a very clear mental image of Arkadais draped over an office chair, legs over an armrest and belly up, chewing on a pen and filling out paperwork. In the background Chalvic is playing with some random creature that looks terribly fearsome, and Deuvoci is crouched under the desk so that her eyes glow, either feeling guilty about existing or trying to decide out if she should spring for the Cheetos or the trail mix. There was no way to work it into the story, but the Arkadais at the end still enjoys the accounting-type stuff that Peter was good at. --Joysweeper 23:06, 19 February 2008 (EST)

The "newsletter" comment was just a Simpsons reference, where at one point someone was explaining something to Homer and he responded "Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter." I use the phrase commonly with my RL buddies so don't mind me. :) Anyway, that's a fun mental image. It didn't make it into this story but who knows? You wound up writing a sequel to 501st, maybe these guys will make an appearance in some future story too. Bryan 23:24, 19 February 2008 (EST)

I guess I'm just a sucker for mental change and all that jazz, that's how I interpreted the story as being, and I'm kinda stubborn about that. Did ya get my mail? And AS for the differences in character: to point out, when any series gets restarted, there are going to be some changes and recons of character (with our main character being a bit more realistic about the world, and her brother being a bit more mature). Plus, it's possible the black beast just wanted to lure her to the dark tower as a pretense, so they discuss turning on her evil master, since she could could NEVER do it out in the open, and what better way to get someone's attention than by kidnapping her little brother? I know you said you didn't think things through as much some have read into it: but SERIOUSLY, it's like sudoku. They fill in the blanks logically. Just go with it.

-- Alex Warlorn 2008 Feb 19th 9:30 PM PST

Did you ever get my e-mail? I never got a reply. Like I said, this story just got me VERY VERY excited. And it's funny, in the series, depending how much effort was put into it: I can imagine people asking what a 'country bumpkin' is doing with a 'fancy sword like that?' in the series.

-- Alex Warlorn/Matthew Lenz 2008 Feb 20th 11:45 AM PST

Regarding Family

I was thinking about your earlier comment about so many characters apparently isolated. So I wonder if I should try writing a story with the opposite tack. Man with a large extended family, home for Christmas, becomes a woman. There is a kind of reality alteration that eliminates all physical evidence this character had been a man, creating a new personal history out of whole cloth, but does not alter any memories of the people inside the house. What happens next? --Buck 23:28, 20 February 2008 (EST)

It's highly dependent on the reactions and relationships of the family members, which is probably why this sort of thing is so hard to write. Characters are complicated. :) Some ideas off the top of my head;

• Gran believes him, but considers it a "Christmas miracle" and flies off the handle trying to come up with the religious meaning behind it, making the protagonist rather uncomfortable.
• His wife doesn't believe it and becomes confused and angry, thinking that this mystery woman is playing some kind of unfunny prank.
• His father doesn't believe it, thinks the mystery woman's playing a prank, and finds it hilarious. :)
• His mother believes it and tries to keep the situation "under control", but is deeply shaken and winds up needing support
• Elder daughter believes it and finds it hilarious
• Young son believes it and simply accepts it at face value.

Not that I'd be able to write such complex character drama. :) Bryan 23:48, 20 February 2008 (EST)

I think it would depend on if the TG happens overnight while he's sleeping, or right in front of everybody during Christmas dinner. --Buck 00:07, 21 February 2008 (EST)