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Essays, Not Rants! 109: For Want of a Glass of Water Kurt Vonnegut once said, “every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.” This piece of advice functions as a very simple and straightforward way to ensure a character has some semblance of depth. What's important about a goal? A goal gives a character purpose and gives an audience a reason to invest. In Star Wars, Luke wants to leave Tatooine. In How I Met Your Mother, Ted wanted to meet the mother (or at least we thought he did). In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow wants his ship back. As viewers, we want characters to want something. It’s dull if a character just exists with no want (i.e. Ted for many of the later seasons of Mother). Chuck begins with a very complacent Chuck who’s just floating through life. Receiving the Intersect gives him a purpose too. Characters then have to do something about it. Solid Snake crawls trough a microwave chamber in Metal Gear Solid 4 to stop the Patriots. Katniss famously volunteers as tribute. Taking a proactive role about their goals is what separates Katniss from Bella Swan. The former may want Edward and/or Jacob, but she just sits around; Katniss actively fights for not only her life, but for those of her friends. It’s not enough for a character to have a goal, they have to do something about it. Jack Sparrow spending two hours talking about how much he wants the Black Pearl would be a terribly boring movie. Those are the fundamentals of having a potentially interesting character. Following that we need conflict. There has to be something stopping the character from getting what they want. Harry wants to be a wizard with the sense of family and acceptance it entails, Voldemort wants him dead. That conflict of interest fills seven books. This so called ‘external conflict’ as your High School English teacher called it can be far more subtle. In The Last of Us, Joel’s goal becomes to protect Ellie whereas her goal is to make her life count. For the most part the goals don’t interfere, but when they do we get some magnificent, quiet drama. Additionally, having the protagonist conflicted makes them that much more interesting as we get to watch them change or resist it. Columbus in Zombieland already has the zombies interfering with his goal of staying alive. His emergent want to win Wichita’s heart, though, also screws with his sense of self-preservation. Suddenly, Columbus has to make a choice: what does he value more, his life or Wichita? A conflict like this forces the character to change. Columbus has always been a wimp, someone who’d rather cower than take action. His interactions with Wichita force him to nut up and grow. But what if she doesn’t get the water? Sometimes the most interesting thing to happen in a story is for the character to not achieve their goal. Tom’s goal in (500) Days of Summer is to win Summer’s heart, then to stay with Summer, and then to win her back. It’s his proverbial glass of water and what the film centers on. Tom, however, doesn’t end up with Summer. The complete destruction of his goal forces him to reassess everything and, eventually, gets him back on track to doing what he wants in life. Losing the goal he thinks he wanted reveals what he really wanted. Like a conflicted desire, it gives added layers to his character. Conversely, achieving a goal may crush the character. Zero Dark Thirty ends with Bin Laden dead and Maya Lambert successful. She’s achieved her goal, but her goal was all consuming. The film leaves her suddenly aimless and without purpose, adding a sense of somber hollowness to it all. Just as giving a desultory character a goal yields interest, so does robbing a purposeful character of hers. Wants and goals fuel stories. Look at Game of Thrones, everyone wants something, almost always at the expense of someone else. These goals breed conflict and add depth to characters. Just make it more than a glass of water.

The only reaction appropriate for this topic? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC8zz95rm8s

Happy Easter everyone! Went by incredibly fast or maybe I'm just getting old (gulp). As for retirement my dad retired from the Navy last Friday and guess who was one of the people to congratulate and wish him luck? The one and only Michael Dorn (or Whorf)! So that was some Easter.

Personally I had the opposite problem with the pacing: I thought it moved way too fast, and as a consequence lost out on portraying moments that could have developed the characters more, or at least given them a more solid arc. To each their own, I suppose.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Code Lyoko's first broadcast in the US. The episode was Teddygozilla, and it was weird. I didn't know about it at first. I'm not sure exactly when I discovered it, but I remember the scene that introduced me: Odd was fighting a Blok in the Forest sector. He jumped over it and shot it and it blew up. It was just on TV and it looked cool. I'm really glad I found it when I did. This show was my late childhood. Finding out there was going to be a second season was a huge deal. I lost track of it a bit in season 3 I think, but season 4 got me back into it. It's a shame the execs at CN screwed it up so much.

Remember when this was what Lego blasters looked like?

Hey, folks. I thought I pop in and share how my B-Day went today. Really there is not much to say. I didn't exactly do anything special. I mostly just treated it like a normal day. Well, I should say a normal weekend day as otherwise I would been at work for most of the day. But anyway, I basically I just watched a lot of Star Trek: The Next Generation today (I am currently on season 3.). So yeah, I wouldn't say it is very productive or eventful day. Not that I am complaining though as I like chill days like this. Hm...What else should I mention? Well, I got some cards from relatives and I also got two gifts from a friend of mines. Uh...I had some cake with my dinner. I unfortunately don't have a picture of it though. It basically looks like an Easter Egg, if you really that curious. Oh, and I have some chocolates too. That's all I really have to say about my birthday. As a side note, yesterday was my 4th anniversary of being employed. I don't really anything say about that, beside obvious that I am rather graceful to still have this job. In other news, it seems that next Saturday (April 26th) my friend and I are going to check out the public day for Philly BrickFest, so that I should be a fun little trip (Its much shorter trip than one to BrickFair VA.). I'll be sure to take a bunch of pictures from that to show you folks. Oh, and if you are also going, I probably be wearing my BZPower shirt, so I probably be easy to notice (Whether or not I can buck up courage to introduce myself to anyone is the real question.). Alright, that's enough from me for today. I apologize if this was kind of boring read. I hope you all have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read this. Talk to you later, BZPers. - JMJ 2014

They're nifty little models, but I'm really feeling like mocing them into mechs, that seems cooler to me than chibi fighters, even if I am pretty fond of the chibi Millennium Falcon. I definitely have enough pieces I can use as joints in the X-Wing to give that one leg and shoulder joints.

You never realize how much you love grain products until you have to start denying yourself every single craving that pops into your head

IMPROVE THE SHORT STORY!

Essays, Not Rants! 108: Interconnected I’ve been waiting for Agents of SHIELD to really get into its groove proper. It finally did last week, courtesy of some major plot points from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Which is kinda odd, really. A feature film bearing a different name affecting a TV show that much. I mean, it makes sense within the universe they’re creating, but from a meta perspective, it’s terribly uncommon. And that’s one thing I love about the stories Marvel Studios’ been telling. They’re all connected. This was a gamble. Back in 2008 when Iron Man came out and Nick Fury mentioned the Avengers Initiative, Marvel was asking audiences to wait a few years and watch a few seeming unrelated movies in hope of a big team up coming out later. It could have failed, some of the movies could have sucked, but they took the risk to try and build their cinematic universe. Seeing as The Avengers made what businesspeople call a ‘crapload of money,’ it paid off. Not only that, but it was a legitimately awesome film. Best of all, it stood alone. You didn’t have to have seen any or all of Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, or Captain America: The First Avenger to get it. Sure, watching those movies helped, but it was great on it’s own. Each Avenger was quickly and succinctly introduced enough for a new viewer to get what was happening. Every Marvel movie works that way. Someone can see The Winter Soldier on its own, or after having only also seen The First Avenger, or seen all the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe chronology as well as Agents of SHIELD and enjoy it. There’s a decided effort for each film to be able to stand on its own and yet play with the others around it. They compliment each other but are not dependent on the others. It’s a fun sort of storytelling; you follow a group of independent characters and then see them all in a big event, then see them apart again. Marvel’s asking viewers to embrace a sort of storytelling not really seen in film (or TV, really). Outside of the occasional Alien VS Predator, having independent franchises team up like what happened in The Avengers just doesn’t happen. Though it does in the comics. Their Guardians of the Galaxy title may intersect with the Avengers title, but you don't have to be following both to understand what's going on. Does it help? Sure, but it's not a requirement. Consider the last episode of Agents of SHIELD, "Turn, Turn, Turn." What happened in The Winter Soldier directly affects the show in a massive game changing sort of way. Like in the comics, they’re weaved together to stand alone but also enhance each other. “Turn, Turn, Turn” offers a different perspective on what happened in The Winter Soldier and the film shows the big picture of the events in the show. This also makes great business sense. See, Marvel’s smart; they know that not everyone will watch every one of their movies. It’s to their benefit for every film to be as stand alone as they are. It allows them to remain accessible to anyone. Winter Soldier deftly sets up Steve Rogers as being a man out of time who feels a bit lost in a way that doesn’t feel obtrusive to someone who’s seen the prior movies, yet so that someone new can follow what’s going on. It plain works. Add in the fun of getting more understanding the crossovers and Marvel’s market expands. I’m so glad Marvel managed to pull this off. Things like seeing Bruce Banner at the end of Iron Man 3, references to Stark tech in The Winter Soldier, and Sif showing up in Agents of SHIELD remind me of the Iron Man and Spider-Man cartoons I’d watch as a kid where anyone could and would show up. Somehow, Marvel did it: they made a cohesive cinematic universe. Now I really wanna see what happens next in that world.

The movie needed more snow puns.

There is if you've got popcorn. - And Sprite.

There is if you've got popcorn. -

MATANUYAMAJAI - THE LEGEND Ivaha vahai, Mata Nui ini-wahi uvoya; Nohi-artakhai akoa, Matoran roya, karaya. In the time before time, The Great Spirit descended from the heavens, Carrying us, the ones called the Matoran, To this island paradise... - Oa kaitura, maitura; Mata Nui i-Haua-Ngavongu, Kaita, Maita, Vaita, Oai takaya. We were separate and without purpose, So the Great Spirit illuminated us With the Three Virtues: Unity, Duty, and Destiny... -- Oa i-Hau kouya; Ihahla, oa Mata Nui Inohi-reahi rokha; Nga i’Amana rohi. We embraced these gifts, And in gratitude, We named our island home Mata Nui, After the Great Spirit himself... -- Oa-hahli rhourakha: Mata Nui-ro, nga Makuta, Suva vorakha, akai guurakha. Makuta ikouka Mata Nui zya. But our happiness was not to last. Mata Nui's brother, the Makuta, Was jealous of these honors and betrayed him. Makuta cast a spell over Mata Nui, who fell into a deep slumber... -- Makutaka nohi maya, Itaua bo-wahi jutlamoya, Avotaka kokha, Hau-raga ceuraya. Makuta's power dominated the land, As fields withered away, Sunlight grew cold, And ancient values were forgotten... -- This was originally posted via tumblr over the space of a few weeks, and now that it's complete, I thought I'd share it here. It's a rough translation of the Legend of Mata Nui, and if you've been following along with the last three posts, you may recognize a few things. I'm considering posting a full gloss once I find the time. Currently, a continuation is in progress: The Prophecy (of the Toa), the first few passages of which have already found their way online. Enjoy.

NO YOU'RE WRONG I CAN'T LIKE WHATEVER I WANT YOU LOUT Takuma Nuva

I wouldn't really call it taste, I would just call it bigoted. -Tyler

Yeah I saw them. What I said earlier about it was directed to each and every one. +1,000 mega bonus points to Mak.

Roablin, I have to take your first paragraph piece by piece, because it is a doozy. This is very much true. This is something that would be great if changed, because society is slowly moving away from that mentality. Society has men taking care of children while women work. We have women working while women take care of children. We have men working while men take care of children. We have single parents pulling dual-roles. Society is also slowly getting used to the idea that not everything is pivotal around the nuclear family. You don't have to have kids. It's not the most important thing in the world. Where your day-to-day life isn't centered around what you are doing to raise a child. Correct, up to the point where you use the word reality. See above for more. We have centuries of film telling these stories. 99% of the time. We can start focusing on other stories finally. Precisely. I too think it is ridiculous to make the guy the hero all the time. To have the male actors paid obscenely more than female actors. I agree that we need to work to change that ideal. Also, more generally speaking; Literally no one is making the argument that all stories all the time need to be 1:1. No one. The argument for representation is this: Write good women. Write strong women. Write vulnerable women. Write flawed women. Write evil women. Write incorruptible women. Just write more women.

Hahli Husky and DV are super great and know what they're talking about much more than I do, but I might as well try and add something here. Except you don't seem to realise that the reason there aren't more women in roles such as those is because of sexism? And that there would be much more women in work like that if women were afforded the same opportunities as men? And that the unequal ratio of men to women in media is a part of this problem? I get where you're coming from, but I think you're again missing the issue. Sure, in a perfect world, the ratio of men to women in any particular story wouldn't be such a huge deal. But where we are, the ratio of men to women in media and stories and whatnot is constantly skewed towards the men, so it's kind of a big deal? The problem is that an unequal ratio towards the men is the norm. And it really, really shouldn't be.

Just because you didn't seem to understand what I was saying there: the girls I was talking about are real live actual members I know who spoke about this elsewhere, and were too frustrated and afraid of backlash to respond to anything related to this discussion, not guests or people I figured exist. But yeah, BZP discussion is dominated by men. But there are definitely several women listening in, and I'm not just guessing at that. Sure there are assertive women in this world, just as there are many passive, aggressive, and passive-aggressive ones. But assertiveness is a set of tools, not a personality type, and even women who know how to be assertive may choose to keep silent in certain situations rather than risk someone on the internet being horrid to them or getting in to an argument with someone who just wants to shut them down. This is incredibly common around the internet and in our society as a whole, and sadly has tended to create a lot of passive women who'd rather not speak up. I used the "nonsensical" bit (notice the quotations I used up there) due to some people in the discussion saying that it wouldn't "make sense" to have a larger amount of women in certain media, which is funny because so much of the Lego movie didn't technically "make sense" in the first place, in a real world sort of way. That argument just baffles me to no end.

But we do believe so many lies fed to us. It doesn't make us helpless. Countless women, men, and other people believe the drivel that the media and other sources lay before us and ingrain in us. A lot of sources don't even realize the harm they're doing. Men come to expect things from women. Other women expect things from women. People shame women for not being some sort of norm. You know this; I can tell from this blog entry because you fight to be who you are. The struggle you have is real. Women damage their bodies and their lives trying to lose weight. Girls of color in our culture believe they are not beautiful because they are not white. They try to straighten their naturally curly hair. Women try to wear clothes that make them unhappy. They are shamed into speaking quieter and not laughing as loudly. They are told to "be like this so guys will like you". And it's good that you fight that. It's good that you decided to be yourself. But this doesn't mean all other women are going to do this. Too many of them don't even realize what is happening, and that's why we're having this problem. I've known so many girls and women who try to be what we are told to be, verbally and by implication. Shave your legs because you have to. Cover that face with makeup. Be cute. Be dainty. Be submissive. Be feminine. No man will want you if you don't. No one will respect you if you don't. I starved myself. I picked at my face until it bled trying to get rid of acne. I'm in therapy because I have anxiety and depression resulting from expectations that I should be a certain way "because I'm a woman". I'm not alone. I'm nowhere near being alone. Countless women have hurt themselves, hurt each other, been killed, settled for less, been denied privileges given to others, and ended their own lives over this stuff. But at the same time, there's an overwhelming voice that tells us something else. You shouldn't shave. You shouldn't wear makeup. Don't be cutesy. Be outgoing. Be a STRONG WOMAN who likes fighting and guns and "manly" stuff. Don't be what we told you to be, and you'll be praised as "not like other girls". This compliments some women by shaming the lifestyles and preferences of others. This is also very, very wrong. I copied this from something I can't share as a whole: The point isn't that we shouldn't do certain things because they're a stereotype. The point is that you need to be who you are and don't shame other people for being who they are. People in our culture seem very concerned with telling women what they can and can't be. That's the problem here. And like Pat said, we're gonna come across this stuff in our lives no matter what. We can be all they tell us, and they say we're trying to hard and we're mindless conformist bimbos. We can completely ignore it, and we get ignored or told to "freshen up", "smile", "reinvent our wardrobe", "don't speak up for ourselves". We can do our own thing, and we still get fussed at for "being or not being a certain way". Now, I'll get to why I'm saying all this on this entry. I don't like speaking up on things like this because I get nervous and have trouble expressing myself, especially on BZPower. Guys on BZPower have tried to shame and argue with me too many times, and also done the same to many other girls. But unless they're trans and lived through these struggles, they don't have that firsthand experience. They may accept what we tell them happens. Some of them see all this garbage at work in the world. They want to help. That's why DV and Makaru speak up. I always appreciate what they have to say. They've learned from women around them, such as myself, Nukaya, and Tufi Piyufi. You say you're speaking to an audience of guys, but to be honest, several women are reading this blog entry. They read the topic about more female characters in the next Lego movie. They love the idea of more women being represented. I know this because they're my friends. But why don't they speak up? I wonder if it's because of the backlash we've received, both here and in other faucets of our lives? In the end, yeah, the only one you can control is you. You have to go into this stuff being willing to let go and know that you're not going to change the entire world by yourself and in one go. But I'm not going to give up or fall into "all or nothing" thinking. I haven't changed the minds of plenty of people. But I have friends now who have watched me and what I say and support, and they understood and now stand beside me. Some of them are content creators who are writing excellent balances of men, women, and non-binaries in their works. Would that have happened if I hadn't been fighting and speaking out on my blog and other internet spaces where they could see? I'm not sure. Other, greater content creators have seen this huge outcry for equal representation. That's part of why we have the Lego Movie creators so ready to include more women in the first place. We shouldn't get angry over every single lie told to us, no. But I think getting fired up over feminism is a really excellent cause. Why? Hey, I've got another quote. We don't have to explode or lose our minds. I mean, in this entire post I'm not upset or angry. But as a woman, I want to speak up. My voice is important here because it's about the representation of women, the lack of which has discouraged and hurt me inside. I am passionate about my cause and ready to educate anyone willing to listen to me. And if people don't, okay. But I'll still speak out. I'll still speak up for equal rights and representation and a proper treatment of all women. We need to see more varied women in our media because it reinforces that we all exist outside the stereotypes and we're more than what people say we should be. There are just as many women in this world as men (I hear that it's more women than men actually but I'm not sure atm.) So why are there way more men in so many movies and comics and games? And why is this so when women and girls are close to half of the consumers of said media? If we can have something as "nonsensical" as a giant floating cloud city or mecha cyborg pirate with a live shark on his arm in a movie, then we can have something as "nonsensical" as more female characters, too.

Nobody here is every going to argue that women are helpless little creatures that believe everything they are told about themselves. But one doesn't have to look past, well, themselves, to see how media representation of women (and men) has set up stereotypes and perceptions of both of these genders that are part of the cultural zeitgeist. Again, a ton of actual scholarly sources were posted in that topic, but you must have ignored them to be making the point you are making now. No matter how smart an individual is, society and culture are made of conglomerates and social movements made up of a social, shared consciousness. The conversation at hand has never been "are these stereotypes legitimate," because of course they're not. We all know that, because we are on here having this conversation. I know that the idea that all women are passive or submissive is garbage, because I only have to look two feet to my left and ask Maddison something and she will definitely refute that. Stereotypes are obviously not applicable to indviduals very frequently, and even when someone falls into a stereotypical interest group in one way, they fall out of it in another, as evidenced by Becca's post above. As Bryan said even further up, the problem here is that you are consistently seen to argue against the idea of greater inclusion in media, and it seems you reach deeper and deeper into the depths to come up with reasons why. You make decent points, but then you take those points to false conclusions. You're right, we can't force writers to stop producing these works that perpetuate false perceptions, roles, and representations of women, but we can and we should change the world around them so these works are the outliers and the ones viewed as weird and uncomfortable. And we do that by spreading education and by demanding the status quo change, and we do so by applauding, visibly, publicly, purposefully, the moments when big companies, big media moments, big characters, challenge that status quo themselves. Because if they can see that, yes, there is a market for this, that having a movie full of strong, smart, independent women who don't define themselves based on their relationship with a man, that this won't tank their profits, that this gives them a positive public perception, they will continue to move that direction. Yet here you are saying that striving for that is "a stack of illogic" which is both disgustingly dismissive and is, itself, a "stack of illogic". The world is set at an almost exact 1:1 ratio of men to women (with women globally having a slightly stronger lead currently), yet, again, men make up the majority of all power roles in the world. This is your world. Your entire post internalizes so much of that stuff it is ridiculous. All your "I'm not like the girl stereotypes" things are an attempt to prove yourself not a part of the "stereotyped girls" set-up by showing how much better you fit into traditionally male-dominated aspects of society. There's nothing wrong with those ideas or interests at all, whether male or female or intersexed or trans or whichever, but it reads like "I don't have these problems because I don't subscribe to femininity at all, and women who do are the problem" and there's some straight-up misogyny in there. This is your world. You are a woman who, at some point in time, is going to run into these problems in your life. People are going to assume you are weaker, dumber, more passive, etc, at some point in time. It will happen. And what we are trying to say is that not only should it not, but that part of making sure that this changes, that we can say to future generations that this is a thing of the past, is to increase visible recognition of women in power roles on media, because media is propaganda, because it does define the shared cultural consciousness, and by influencing that, we can change this. I debated going through and adding some more caps and exclamation marks, but I felt the point was made without them, just as it was the first time.

I'm not like the female stereotypes, either. I'm actually a dog. Actually, I was amused by your stereotype breakdown and wanted to fill it out for myself. Stereotype: "Girls don't like Lego."Me: *was really into Bionicle but kind of appreciates LEGO from the side nowadays* *mostly buys Friends and Mixels sets because I'm poor and they're cute* *also wanted more girls in the Lego Movie* Stereotype: "Girls like fashion."Me: *loves clothes* *is becoming a lolita so as to wear frilly poofy dresses with bows* Stereotype: "Girls like animals, especially horses."Me: *desires kittens you have no idea* Stereotype: "Girls are less likely to enjoy courses in science and math, and rarely do they program."Me: *hated math in school, enjoyed science, did some programming in college but eh* *wasn't for me* *loves programming games tho* *but is an amateur* Stereotype: "Girls are soft."Me: *doesn't have to wear lotion* *ever* *also I just shaved* *feel my legs* *so smooth* *blue belt in taekwondo tho* Stereotype: "Girls like jewelry and painting their nails, etc."Me: *me too omg* Stereotype: "Girls can't use logic."Me: *spills your fruit* *excellent comeback* *10/10*

Ha! It's generally not that bad, but some teachers think it's their job to overload you with work. As long as you manage your time well and don't let stuff sneak up on you, you should do better than me.

College sounds fun. I'm getting motivated. -Rez