On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 03:13:44PM -0500, pddb at demesne.com wrote: > On Tue, Aug 19, 2003 at 02:49:35PM -0500, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > > Matthew Hunter <matthew at infodancer.org> writes: > > > I think this is a fair criticism. We haven't really had any > > > truly menacing characters in Dragaera. Personally, I would like > > > some, though it might substantially change the tone of the > > > series. Maybe Vlad needs a recurring antagonist? The Jenoine > > > might be slated to fill this role, but I don't think they would > > > do it necessarily well. > > I dunno. I think Sethra, and Aliera, and Morollan, and Vlad are > > *really* menacing character. *I* sure wouldn't want to argue with > > them about anything too important. > Yeah, that was my reaction too. > I wonder if this is really a question of tone. If you just listed > the various characteristics and actions of those people and other > characters in a straightforward fashion, they'd seem pretty menacing, > but Vlad doesn't like to seem impressed and Paarfi, well, let us say > perhaps that Vlad is given to understatement and Paarfi to overstatement, > which may cast an unmenacing light on these people. Don't get me wrong, I find Morrolan, Aliera, Sethra, and Vlad all fairly menacing as characters. They just don't get *menaced* much, and between Vlad and Paarfi, the tone of the books is much less menacing than the characters perhaps warrant. This can be a good thing, in that it is unexpected and fresh to have to be menaced between the lines, but there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. ;) In response to the person who indicated that endless battles of light against dark get boring: sure. But I'm not asking for that. I'm just sort of hankering to see Vlad, Morrolan, Sethra, and Aliera in full menace-mood from some terrified Teckla's perspective. Sort of like, what do you do when you meet Sethra in a dark alley and she says she wants to share a drink with you... and doesn't drink wine? The "Tecklavision" in Athyra worked really well for this. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp