rionaleonhart | And 'How on Ivalice?' Just Sounds Silly.

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And 'How on Ivalice?' Just Sounds Silly.

When it seems as if the phrase might fit their speech patterns, it is incredibly difficult to remember not to have characters say 'How on Earth?' or 'Where on Earth?' when they are not, in fact, from Earth. Argh.

This is apparently going to be an entry of Laments About Writing. Hurrah!

- Getting the tenses clear is bloody confusing when characters have travelled into the past and are talking about their present.

- The Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood is far too different from the Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who for me to feel entirely comfortable when writing the character. I don't know how to reconcile the two characterisations.

- Fran is far too quiet and also incredibly difficult to write for. She just sort of fades into the background while the other two take over the story and make it into the Balthier and Harkness Show. This is entirely unfair, because Fran is awesome and should really have a larger part than she's getting.

- In fact, although I feel fairly all right when it comes to Balthier, I find myself completely at sea when it comes to characterising any of the other characters from Final Fantasy XII. This is an enormous shame, as I had sort of hoped to be able to have the Balthier/Fran/Jack team encounter them occasionally.

- Why can't I work out how Withnail and Jeremy Clarkson would interact? They obviously need to meet (in order to put the fear of God into their long-haired friends, if for no other reason), but I have no idea what would happen. I really want to write this crossover, but I can only actually come up with the tiniest of snippets:

He reaches over, appropriates Jeremy's scotch and downs it, apparently entirely ignorant of the fact that this is a fairly large violation of the rules of etiquette.

"James and whatsisname seem to be getting on well, don't they?" Jeremy observes. "What is his name, anyway?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know?" Withnail asks, irritably.

- I wish I'd stop accumulating Inappropriate Real-Person Threesomes. Clarkson/Hammond/May (Top Gear) is - well, it's completely insane, of course, but on its own it's all right. Then, of course, I had to fall for Morgan/Holden/Cowell (Britain's Got Talent (the shame!)), and now I find myself thinking about Alex/Jess/Paul (The Real Hustle). This latest is probably at least partially due to the fact that, when they're talking about the psychic scam, there's a point at which it looks as if Alex's hand is on Paul's leg; I realised after looking more closely that it was actually Paul's hand, but by then it was too late. I think that the lesson here is that I really, really need to stop watching non-fiction programmes with any sort of trio at the core. (This may not strictly be a lament about writing (unless I ever actually write Alex/Jess/Paul, which would be an awful thing to do and please don't let me do it), but that does not stop it from being true.)

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He reaches over, appropriates Jeremy's scotch and downs it, apparently entirely ignorant of the fact that this is a fairly large violation of the rules of etiquette.

I misread this as:

He reaches over, appropriates Jeremy's crotch and ...

Right. Moving swiftly on ...

The Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood is far too different from the Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who for me to feel entirely comfortable when writing the character. I don't know how to reconcile the two characterisations.

Same here. It doesn't help that in 'Utopia' RTD appeared to reconcile the two characterisations by ignoring the Torchwood one. Good old Rusty - he does love that big old reset button! I'm interested to see how Jack is in Torchwood series 2. Less angsty? More angsty? The same angsty? Because I sure as hell would not be feeling frightfully chipper about the year that Jack's just had.

GWEN: So, what happened?
JACK: I went off with my old mate, the Doctor. The man I really, really love.
GWEN: That's nice.
JACK: No, it wasn't. He said I felt 'all wrong', on account of the whole immortality thing. Kept giving me funny looks. And then I was held prisoner by the Doctor's arch enemy, the Master. He spent a whole year torturing and repeatedly murdering me, just for fun.
GWEN: Well, that must have made the Doctor very angry and sad.
JACK: No, it didn't. He forgave the Master. Didn't even ask him to say sorry. And the only thing that upset him was when the Master refused to regenerate and died in his arms.
GWEN: Your old mate's a right bastard,isn't he?

Well, something like that. ;)

Ha! I'd probably have to include at least the idea of Withnail/Jeremy at some point.

Oh, dear, you're right, aren't you? I'm not sure I could take another series of Jack being utterly miserable. PLEASE LET US HAVE THE JACK CHARACTERISATION FROM DOCTOR WHO; HE IS SO MUCH MORE FUN IN IT.

He reaches over, appropriates Jeremy's crotch and ...

Right. Moving swiftly on ...

AHAHAHAH!!! :DDD That happened to me as well!

"I misread this as:

He reaches over, appropriates Jeremy's crotch and ..."

So it wasn't just me, then? Good. I mean, Withnail has no subtlety but that was a bit much.

Also, at some point, they would probably end up arguing over the fact that Withnail doesn't have a license but still insists on driving.

FRAN IS AWESOME.

Also lol, "What on Ivalice?" does sound a bit daft. how about "what in the world?" no, that sounds silly too. D:

lol torchwood jack. srsly.

um. I COULD MAYBE HELP WITH THE OTHER FFXII PEOPLES? Maybe. Although probably not because Vaan is whiny and Basch just IS THERE and Penelo and Ashe sorta just get ignored by me? Although Penelo is quite awesome.

I like Penelo, but she doesn't come anywhere near Balthier and Fran. THEY ARE HOGGING ALL THE AWESOME. I think I'm going to have to play through XII again if I want to get a better grasp on the characterisation, and possibly this time try to listen to all the characters instead of just thinking 'WHEN IS BALTHIER NEXT GOING TO SAY SOMETHING?'

instead of just thinking 'WHEN IS BALTHIER NEXT GOING TO SAY SOMETHING?'
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I started a new game in which I was going to power-level (but then gave up because of being bored and dying a lot) and have decided my main team will just be Balthier, Fran and probably Basch for his ability to just kill things.

You know that if you're really doing a sky-pirate thing you must put in Captain Harlock at some point, don't you?

You do realise that someday you're going to fall for an inappropriate RPS threesome with people you actually know, right?

Oh, dear, you're probably right. Please do feel free to clock me across the head if that ever happens.

Working on my stun-gun as we speak, ma'am.

You should cop out by just writing 'I' and James, and sort of hint at the Jeremy-Withnail interaction in the background?

When it seems as if the phrase might fit their speech patterns, it is incredibly difficult to remember not to have characters say 'How on Earth?' or 'Where on Earth?' when they are not, in fact, from Earth. Argh.
Sort of like in Star Wars, when Han Solo calls Jabba 'a wonderful human being'.

I read it as "crotch" too! Riona, it would appear that you have the power to communicate some kind of magical subtext. Magical crotch subtext.

I am happy not to have seen Torchwood so that I can forever imagine Jack as wonderful and fun and happy and running around with Nine and Rose and WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, PARTING OF THE WAYS? I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA

...Though I recently heard that James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) is going to be on Torchwood playing some kind of nasty semi-psychotic who is totally gay with Jack, and, er. Now I don't so much want to see the show as just read some Spike/Jack. (Oh my gosh Jack in the Buffyverse would be wonderful and they would all fight demons together and I must stop thinking about this at once.)

I know, the Fran thing! DON'T LET HER FADE INTO THE BACKGROUND, SHE IS TOO AWESOME

Oh my gosh you do not even know how excited I am that you're writing more of their adventures. al;kjfaskladklsgdklkls

How bizarre! Obviously I must find some way of harnessing my powers of crotch-evocation to fight crime.

Not watching Torchwood is possibly the best decision, yes. When I was reading your fic, I was thinking 'Yes! This is the Doctor Who Jack! I've missed him so much!'

I couldn't possibly not write more! I love these three far too much.

draegonhawke told me a little bit about Torchwood Jack, and I was kind of a little horrified. It sounds like they took everything that made him Jack and tossed it out the window. WHY.

BECAUSE THEY HATE THINGS THAT ARE AWESOME. Er, despite having created Jack in the first place.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE THINKING. IT IS A TRAGEDY.

The Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood is far too different from the Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who for me to feel entirely comfortable when writing the character. I don't know how to reconcile the two characterisations.

Oh, god.

I am so there with you. I RP the bastard, and the only way I can justify canon is 'um, yes, he's mad. Crazy-doolally. Er.' Damn canon and it's bowing to RL-casting!

Oh, dear, I imagine that would be a nightmare. Well, madness is as good an excuse as any!

I suppose the inconsistency of his characterisation could sometimes have benefits, as you could blame any part in your writing that seems unJackish on the fact that he is liable to change completely depending on how the letters in a title are arranged. But that's only a good thing when you're taking advantage of it.

*nods*

I suppose the fact that there's meant to be decades in between sections of canon helps. But still, he comes across as ever so dull after the fun of Who-verse.

Eeeeeeee YOU HAVE TO WRITE MORE.

I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to get Balthier or Fran's voices down right. You and Baco are amazing.

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And 'How on Ivalice?' Just Sounds Silly.

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