I'm Just Fighting Fire With—

[rionaleonhart]

A couple of days ago, I thought I'd pick up the Undead Nightmare add-on for Red Dead Redemption again, as I'd never finished it. As I rode through the New Austin desert at night, I suddenly saw an alert informing me that a mythical creature had appeared in the area. Said mythical creature was War, one of the horses of the apocalypse, and it wasn't difficult to find; its mane, tail and hooves were on fire. I broke it and hitched it and now it is my trusty steed.

In my last entry, I said that if John Marston had a Pokémon, it would be a Ponyta. I'm pleased to have my belief so thoroughly justified.


In other news, I was watching Channel 5 yesterday. During an advert break, a short trailer for Big Brother played, in which the hosts (I was going to say 'judges', but I don't suppose Big Brother really has judges, does it?) stepped out onto a balcony above an arena and one dramatically announced 'Let the fun and games begin!'

I don't know whether this is deliberately trying to echo the phrase 'Let the Hunger Games begin!', but I really hope so. The publicists for a slightly cruel reality show deliberately evoking a work about reality shows taken to outright evil extremes? Got to admire that.


The thing I was watching, incidentally, was 'Desperate Souls', episode eight of Once Upon a Time. My thoughts mainly consist of 'MR GOLD, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD'. At the beginning I was thinking 'Well, Mr Gold seems sort of... nice? Bit creepy, but pleasant enough? Not particularly like his fairytale counterpart?' And then he became more and more magnificent and bastardly until I was just gaping at the screen. I fear and sort of admire him.

I am more amused than I should be by all the mirror-based puns whenever Sidney Glass is around. Keep it up, Once Upon a Time.

And I really like the friendship between Emma and Mary Margaret. I want Mary Margaret to find out Emma's true relationship to her - it could be so interesting! - but it doesn't look like that'll happen for a while. Still, I'm enjoying this series immensely, so for now I'm happy to wait.


It's just occurred to me that the ridiculous Once Upon a Time concept is one that can be applied to other fandoms. What if the characters of Avatar: The Last Airbender or Final Fantasy X were living in a small town in our world, having lost their memories? ...well, they'd just go about their business, I suppose, unaware of their former lives. It would essentially be a 'mundane existence' AU. This is a terrible crossover idea.

(Hey, what if the cast of Final Fantasy VIII were living in a small town in our world because Rinoa secretly put them there with her sorceress powers, trying to keep them from fighting Ultimecia and getting killed? One day, it occurs to Squall that, although he and Rinoa are married, he can't remember how they met. She becomes quite strange and cagey when he asks her about it. Slightly more workable as a concept, but I still don't think I'd be able to write it.)

Comments

[dev-chieftain.livejournal.com]

I should really be going to bed, but your concept drew me out. I like it; I actually can't stand depowered mundane AUs unless the point is that the affected persons will realize what's up and do something about it, and Rinoa trying to protect her friends (or possibly prevent them from saving the world?) is a neat one!

[wolfy-writing.livejournal.com]

I know a lot of people who love mundane existence AUs. (I'm the opposite. I want relatively ordinary characters to suddenly be up to their neck in fairies and vampires and space aliens.)

[rionaleonhart]

Come to think of it, there do seem to be a curious number of 'what if they ran a bakery?' AUs. My tastes on this point run similar to yours.

[wolfy-writing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I mean I can imagine Aang being perfectly happy running a vegetarian bakery and never having to worry about powers or being the Avatar or war or genocide or anything like that, but I don't want to read about it.

[captlebubbles.livejournal.com]

Shouldn't he have a Rapidash? Since Ponyta are, well, ponies, and thus not actually big enough for a grown man to ride comfortably? Or are you going for the cuteness factor to balance out the Tough Guy factor?

[rionaleonhart]

I was thinking more along 'Rapidash are quite hard to find' lines, so he'd have to catch a Ponyta and evolve it. War is more Rapidash than Ponyta, certainly; Ponyta has flames quite high up on its legs, whereas both Rapidash and War have flames near their hooves.

[captlebubbles.livejournal.com]

Ah! That makes sense. He'll have to evolve it as soon as he can, then, since he'll look a bit silly riding on a little Ponyta.

(I've just looked, and Ponyta are only about three feet tall, so, yeah, probably needs to get on that evolution thing.)

[sparrowsabre7.livejournal.com]

Highly doubtful. I mean "let the fun and games begin" isn't an unusual turn of phrase. So it's just a coincidence, but an amusing one I'll grant you.

I love Undead Nightmare, though I re-caught a unicorn the other day that was immediately murdered by zombies, I was so pissed... I love the approach to zombies that UN has, just that everything's gone to shit and they're all over. You don't know when and where they'll be. I just wish John would move faster while reloading the blunderbuss...

[rionaleonhart]

A bit of poking around reveals this post about the trailer by Jamie East, one of the hosts:

Does it give any secrets away? Well, possibly - it certainly has an air of The Hunger Games (mainly my horrible suit) and the Olympics (Brian's muscles)... there's a chance that could bleed over into this Summer's house...

IN WHAT WAY IS THE HUNGER GAMES GOING TO BLEED OVER INTO BIG BROTHER? This is absolutely terrifying. Way to self-fulfillingly prophesy, Collins.

Undead Nightmare is pretty great. I love that it never quite takes itself seriously, because I am a terrible coward; I'd probably be too scared to play if it weren't so silly.

[sparrowsabre7.livejournal.com]

You should give Dead Rising 2: Off the Record a go. If there's a poster boy for zombie games that don't take themselves seriously, that would be it =3

[lotus0kid.livejournal.com]

Eee, first Community and now OUaT. It's such a ridiculous show, but it's become important to me. Very glad you're enjoying it!

Applying the OUaT concept to other fandoms is interesting, though I can't quite think of one that's fantastical enough to really work. Discworld, maybe? Doctor Who kinda did it with the Family of Blood arc, I think.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

ONCE UPON A TIME IS ADORABLE. THEY HAVE A BELLE. AND AN AWESOME RED RIDING HOOD.