Writers' Workshop General Chat Thread

[GastlyGibus]

So has anybody seen the new Detective Pikachu movie yet? I just got back from the theater, I'm actually quite impressed with how it turned out. I was expecting some kind of cheap Hollywood cash-grab on a popular franchise, as Hollywood is prone to do, but the movie was handled quite well in my opinion. Really, the only two complaints I have are that the plot seemed very rushed at times, and one of the plot points being explained very... strangely.

Not going to spoil anything here, but there's a good amount of events in there too that could be fun for folks to write about. I myself am already having ideas from certain scenes in the movie. I'd definitely recommend for folks to go and see it.

 

[canisaries]

i haven't seen it, but i wouldn't at all be opposed to seeing it if a good opportunity arose. from what i've seen, it really does look a lot better than most video game movies, and i'm glad - it might mean more nice video game movies in the future, now that the stigma has been broken a bit and hollywood doesn't just go "they're gonna hate it anyway" and don't bother trying.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I may see it in the near future, really for something to do with a friend than any other reason. That it's based on a video game franchise rather than a video game plot is a point in its favour, for me

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I saw Detective Pikachu on Saturday. My lasting impression is that I found the villain's plan cool, even though it was nonsensical and I predicted who he was the moment he appeared on-screen. The scene with Mr. Mime was hilarious. The Torterra thing was cool. The Morellul were beautiful.

All of the people on this forum talk about fanfics they've been working on for years, but I usually write fanfics a few days after I come up with them. I'm impatient.

 

[Snuggle Tier List]

For some reason I haven't been getting notifications about this thread even though it's watched. Thus, I have a horrible life and you should all pity me. /s

Clogger?

Yes, a clogger. The interweb tubes. You clog them with content; in particular, the YouTube. Is that not an accurate description of the webosphere? (technical term) /s

Also, I'm probably not going to be able to watch Detective Pikachu in theaters. My real-life acquaintances would probably laugh if they knew I wanted to watch a kids movie and/or suspect I'm a pedophile. And I don't have independent transportation. All they know is I like videogames, which I do, but I also moonlight as a fanfic author. They must never know. not /s, unfortunately

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Speaking of Pokémon movies, my mind just went down on a tangent about how weird it is that The Power of Us was in cinemas where I live for two non-consecutive days. I get that anime is niche, but it's Pokémon! It prints money! The cinema I saw it at was an hour away from where I live. It also had a poster for another annual anime movie (My Hero Academia, I think?), so make of that what you will.

 

[canisaries]

For some reason I haven't been getting notifications about this thread even though it's watched. Thus, I have a horrible life and you should all pity me. /s

have you always checked the notifications and scrolled to the bottom? if you don't, the forum doesn't give you further notifications on the thread, because it still falls under the "there may be newer posts under this" area. took me a while to figure this out, i think i asked someone in support and they told me. i haven't found the option to change this, i think it's a permanent feature of the site.

been hitting a more depressive episode lately. i'm not sure why, but it could be due to finally uploading dragony part 5 the other day, and i always get kind of a spike and then drop in mood when i post a new chapter of something. i'm also kind of apprehensive about working on hh, because it's the last chapter to revise and... idk, i just don't like letting go. unless it's of something i'm burnt out on, which dragony would fall under.

i've also been working on a oneshot, though i'm worried it's getting a bit all over the place in its themes instead of being well tied together like i'd planned. at least there's nice scenes to write in it. there's also yet another pmd shortfic i'm planning, but its story is still stuck on me not knowing where to take it from the middle and how to conclude it. i don't want a repeat of the dragony burnout, so i'm refraining from starting it before i know where the plot will go.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Hallo all! I'm doing quite well, on a bit of an upward trend. It turns out there's a writing studio with relatively reasonable pricing literally just adjacent to my house. I couldn't be happier, and I'm writing to you from there right now. Still no sign of a job interview, but it'll happen.

So has anybody seen the new Detective Pikachu movie yet?

Yes! It was a solid 7/10 as a movie assessed purely on cinematic merit, honestly, but it was 100% worth seeing as a pokémon fan. I was delighted with so very much of it, and even though it wasn't perfect, I'm hoping its success will lead to a pokémon cinematic universe as is rumoured to be the intent. I would love that. Truly. Deeply.

My real-life acquaintances would probably laugh if they knew I wanted to watch a kids movie and/or suspect I'm a pedophile. And I don't have independent transportation.

No public transport? Also, seriously, this thing is a global phenomenon making absolute bank off of adult fans fuelled by nostalgia. If you'd get labelled a predator by your acquaintances for seeing it, then get better ones.

i've also been working on a oneshot

Best of luck, mate! Hopefully this time I'll leap on it as it's released, rather than holding out for a good free day. Oof.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I saw Detective Pikachu over the weekend, and it was a thousand times better than I expected. Some of the writing was pretty mediocre (and a bit bad in places) and the twists were deeply expected, but I'd say it was pretty good regardless. Someone in our movie group mentioned that it would have been a lot better if we weren't all exposed to so much fanfiction; if you're a frequent reader of pokemon fanfiction, you pretty much know what to expect, because the movie plays out exactly like one.

I would actually recommend the movie to people, probably the first movie in history that I've been able to wholeheartedly recommend. In fact, I recommended it to my mother (who doesn't follow pokemon at all) and she seemed genuinely interested. It has a very broad appeal that works for lots of different types of people; kids, adults, nerds and comedy lovers alike.

Oh, since someone mentioned the Torterra part... honestly, that felt completely, 100% unnecessary. It's like the movie came in massively under budget and they needed an excuse to blow the rest on CGI. Impressive CGI, admittedly, but the thing that whole sequence set up could have been achieved much more simply, and in a way that doesn't completely throw the question of power balance out the window. What the Torterra represented was something far, far worse than the main plotline if it fell into the hands of the wrong people; entire countries could be demolished with that kind of power. (spoilered out of caution even though it's kinda minor)

 

[Snuggle Tier List]

No public transport? Also, seriously, this thing is a global phenomenon making absolute bank off of adult fans fuelled by nostalgia. If you'd get labelled a predator by your acquaintances for seeing it, then get better ones.

While I don't think this was your intention, this statement cut deep, to the point I feel the need to publucly speak up.

As you may or may not know, I suffer from hospitalizing mental illness, and part of that is social anxiety. This makes it near-impossible to meet new acquaintances, assuming there's acquaintances in my community worth meeting. My current acquaintances are close relatives that, if I were to cut contact with, I would become homeless. I have no stable income; for instance, yesterday I had to return groceries during checkout due to an EBT card malfunction. Living away from my current acquaintances is a luxury I cannot afford, assuming I'm capable of signing a lease in the first place.

Hopefully, this clarifies my living situation for those reading this thread. It's not something I'm comfortable with. I don't need empathy; however, in the future, I prefer my living situation to be acknowledged as outside my control. Please.

 

[Beth Pavell]

If there's one trope I'd love to get rid of (At least today), it would be Youtubers stopping in the middle of (Often) thoughtful and (Moderately) intelligent essays to do some live-action schtick. Which usually isn't funny and usually belabours the point, Seth McFarlane-style

 

[Nitro Indigo]

@Beth Pavell What I don't like is when people put "don't forget to like and subscribe" in the middle of their videos.

I was worried about posting on here because I didn't want to feel insensitive by mentioning something light-hearted after what Snuggles said, so thanks for that.

Anyway, I've been having second thoughts about this Pokémon/Digimon crossover I've mentioned a few times (the one with the Beautifly) because I keep discovering that the Digimon lore is more complicated than I thought, and I'm paranoid that I'll become laughingstock for ignoring massively important things.

 

[Beth Pavell]

Being pestered to like and subscribe in every video is a good way to get me to never like or subscribe. So is begging for money on Patreon

 

[Nitro Indigo]

I'm reminded of when I wanted to make a parody of Zelda theories on YouTube, but I never got around to it because I couldn't think of anything and I'm not that interested in Zelda any more.

 

[Snuggle Tier List]

Being pestered to like and subscribe in every video is a good way to get me to never like or subscribe. So is begging for money on Patreon

The like and subscribe begging is annoying. I'm fine with a Patreon plug, though, so long as the videos are ad-free. Patreon has many flaws, but it's far better than the YouTube algorithm-pandering ecosystem. Which I find results in better quality videos, or at least videos without ads. But if they use Patreon and allow ads, then there's a problem.

Also, sorry about darkening general chat's tone. Thank you Beth for switching the topic. And no hard feelings @unrepentantAuthor, BTW. You couldn't have known.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

@Snuggle Tier List no worries, man. It hadn't occurred to me that you might rely on these people, since "acquaintance" doesn't imply to me that they're involved in your life particularly. Now that I have more background knowledge I totally get the picture. I wish you the best of luck with your circumstances and I hope you get to see the film privately on a personal digital device at some point.

"Like and subscribe" reminders are irritating because they're not persuasive, and at this point fucking nobody forgets to like and subscribe. Patreon plugs I don't mind at all provided they're respectful and placed appropriately at the tail of the video.

I just went to see Detective Pikachu again, as it happens. Just me, my mate and two strangers in attendance, but that's small town UK cinemas during a weekday afternoon for you. I had fun, again, and this time I noticed loads more pokémon that had melted into the background before - emolga, slaking, octillery. I really hope we get more films like this!

 

[Nitro Indigo]

It feels like the Sonic movie was only made live-action to appeal to a wider audience (seriously, watch the opening cutscene of Sonic Unleashed; I'm not even into Sonic, but I'd watch an entire movie that looks like that), but for Pokémon, it fits a lot better; it's a whole new way to see Pokémon living alongside humans.

I've also noticed for a while that there's cutscenes in video games that look as good as any theatrical CGI movie, but I find them a lot more creative. It feels like most CGI films nowadays are too... mundane? Is that the right word? It's not the "generic animated kids' feature" storyline that makes me feel that way, because the world of My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) was really interesting to look at, and I wish that CGI companies would make more films set in a world other than our own. That's why I got burned out on Pixar.

 

[Misfit Angel]

I really hope we get more films like this!

Yeah, seriously. I don't know if I want a sequel to Detective Pikachu, but I'd love another movie that focuses on another "normal" profession in the Pokemon world. Maybe a law firm that focuses on interspecies disputes or something.

 

[Nitro Indigo]

Maybe a law firm that focuses on interspecies disputes or something.

So... Pokémon Rangers SPD?

I always feel the need to ramble about my fanfic ideas on a forum to seek approval, even though most of the (family-friendly) fanfics that trend on Fimfiction are oneshots someone cooked up on a whim. I worry a lot that rambling about my ideas will come off as self-absorbed, and also because you're apparently less motivated to start something if you talk about it a lot beforehand.

Because of this, I'm keeping a fanfic idea I got yesterday a surprise...

 

[GastlyGibus]

I just went to see Detective Pikachu again, as it happens. Just me, my mate and two strangers in attendance, but that's small town UK cinemas during a weekday afternoon for you. I had fun, again, and this time I noticed loads more pokémon that had melted into the background before - emolga, slaking, octillery. I really hope we get more films like this!

Oh yeah, that was another thing that pleasantly surprised me, the decent representation from all the generations. Usually with these kinds of things I expect a ton of gen 1 fanservice, which I can understand, since that's the one people remember most fondly, but they put in a whole bunch of 'mon from all the games.

I'm still docking a point though because there was no Scrafty, and that is just something I cannot forgive.