The Tainted Times - July 2015

[Leyrann]

Tainted Times - July 2015

 

July has passed. A glance at the main page tells that this has not been the most active month in the history of the Black Tower, and I'll be honest, I, too, am to blame for that. So lets have a look at what did happen last month before we're going to make sure next month will do better.

 

 

None, I'm sorry.

 

 

Cairos has been promoted to Soldier, Chaelca to Attack Leader (that one's been coming for like three months I believe), and Mashiara Sedai to Dedicated! Congratulations everyone!

 

 

Pointses are still up for grabs! I almost feel like just leaving it as it currently is... Or maybe I should up the points reward.

 

Games

 

wheeloftime13's British Monarchy mafia has both started and finished last month. You can read it here. Also, congratulations, Town!

 

Also, the Wheel of Time elimination game has finally ended, with Noal coming back for Olver being voted the best scene in the whole series. The next one will start after Tina's mafia game has been played.

 

Talking about that, it's about Tar'mon Gaidon, the tel'aran'rhiod part to be exactly. Sign up here. (contains AMOL spoilers, as I suppose can be expected)

 

Contests

 

Longest thread: The Magical Number 7 by Nikon

 

Posts in the 300k thread:

 

First of all it's really disappointing, but that's at least partly my fault for being absent so much.

 

Crimson_Ayla: 7

Balwer: 5

Nyanna al'Meara: 4

lord of the dawn: 3

Shadar Alantin: 1

Nikon: 1

Panchi: 1

ThePowerOfSaidin: 1

 

So yeah, I'm gonna go with 10 points for Ayla and 5 for Balwer. Though maybe there should be a minimum amount of posts lol.

 

Tainted Times Headers: I'm going to go ahead and up the points per picture to 15, for up to 75 total. And you'd better be fast, because I may resign from this position in a month or two (depends on RL), and if I do, maybe my successor won't give out points.

 

Food For Thought

 

Many book series, television series and other stories that are released in multiple parts share something called "Early Installment Weirdness", which means that early on, you often see things happening that, later on, are considered impossible or (like in that link) extremely out of character, as the character still needs to be established.

 

Even a series like Wheel of Time, generally considered extremely consistent, shows it. For example, in Baerlon, Moiraine uses the One Power to make herself appear larger when they meet the Whitecloaks. Now, that's one thing, no reason that's not possible. However, she is then able to step over the wall while appearing huge. Later on, this is most certainly not possible anymore. Or think of Narg, the only Trolloc in the whole series that actually uses human speech. Or in general the strength of Trollocs and Myrddraal. Part can be explained by the protagonists getting stronger, but Lan should not get that much stronger that in tEotW he has trouble killing one Myrddraal, but in aMoL he kills two at the same time, seemingly without even trying.

 

Is that a problem? On one hand, it simply lacks consistency. Something appears possible at first, but later on everyone, even the one who did the feat, will tell you that it is proven to be impossible, as in "it breaks a law that is part of this world's local magic system". It also makes it a lot harder for the fandom to theorize about the world, which is something that we all know this fandom in particular really liked (and probably still likes, though there's officially nothing to theorize about anymore).

 

On another hand, however, it is nearly unavoidable. In book series, it's because it might have been written with "it's more or less this" rules in mind, while later on deciding on exact rules, such as, Mask of Mirrors changes appearance, but it's only an illusion. In television series it's often even worse, because the first episode tends to be a pilot episode, which is used to see if people want this series, and thereby nearly guarantees the "more or less" rules because you don't want to spend half a year outlining rules if you don't know wheter it's going to reach more than 45 minutes screentime.

 

So, early installment weirdness, does it make a series really worse, or is it better to just overlook it because there's no way to avoid it?

 

Member Contributions

 

Again, none. I will up the points though. Writing Food For Thought (only about an hour work if you got a topic in mind) will earn you 20 points, while Member Contributions earn you 15.

 

Other

 

Goal: 300 000 replies

Current: 230 783 replies

Yes, that's only 23 posts. I'm sorry.

 

General Discussion: 819 645 replies (5 550 this month)

Black Tower: 664 443 replies (2 211 this month)

We have even less than last month, and this month 1700 of those are from the mafia game. Yes, we should really post more.

 

And now I'm signing off for the month and continuing to enjoy my holiday in Austria. Once I'm back, next week, I'll come around more.

[Panchi]

I think early installment weirdness is inevitable. If the series is going to be big, it is unpredictable how it may proceed and some disparities will creep in. Some things might be explained later on but in case of magic, great stuff can only happen while magic is mysterious and if the main character uses magic later then he/she would have to understand rules and not make it mysterious anymore.

 

In WoT, through the series some impossible things become possible, so why not the other way round.

[Leyrann]

But if you create the magic system already before you start writing, even though the main character does not know it, then do you not remove inconsistencies too?

 

Also did I really see a Black Ajah siggy? Didn't expect that...

[Leyrann]

I just realized I forgot to give out the points...

 

Ayla: 10

Balwer: 5

 

And I'm afraid that's it. Come on people, send in some fun reads!

[Nikonis]

Hey Leyran, since no one has submitted any graphics I took a shot at the header, you like?  Any suggestions or changes?

 

I can take a crack at the others if you'd like but wanted to at least get this one in for you to look at and discuss.

[Leyrann]

I actually hadn't thought about the header, but I guess it's a good idea. The problem might be that we need a new month every time, then again you could just post the next 20 of them (starting with August) somewhere (staff board maybe?).

 

And I'd say - go ahead with the others. I do see though, what I did not realize at first, that their size is a bit different from the standard signature picture. Is there any chance you can make them that size too?

[Nikonis]

What size would you like?  DM siggies are 125 x 500 per the "If you want to make a Sig" thread in the siggie playground so I just went with those numbers but since this isn't actually a siggie we should be able to make the size different if need be.

[Leyrann]

I don't know what it is, but I mean the same size as the New Arrivals, Promotions and This Month. If I'd have to guess I'd say 80-100x600-700.

[Nikonis]

Okay, I'll work on that once I get home