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Alphabet Meme, C
Jun. 7th, 2011 11:12 amAs B is done but not typed up.
Clavis, Angelique: The definitive mental image of Clavis I have was, oddly enough, taken from this Clavis/Julious fic I read once, from a scene where, after a bit of dithering between he and Julious, he somewhat timidly but chivalrously disrobed, took the initiative, and advanced unclothed, that dark, all-enveloping curtain of hair moving with him as he walked, enveloping and...well, never revealing, actually. It was not only a striking physical image but aptly defined Clavis as an inwardly, quietly strong yet sadly vulnerable presence inherently loathe to self-disclosure. (Oh, dear, I've confessed to reading a slash fic and must therefore surrender my membership in the Serious Gamers club.)
Anyhow, it's tempting, and at least partially accurate, to mark the loss of Kaneto Shiozawa as Clavis as the start of Angelique going downhill. It's perhaps not true, wholly - Shiozawa passed away during the Trois era, which was the franchise's artistic peak. Yet Tanaka's Clavis, while not bad per se, is soft and "wet" in the Japanese sense, overtly emotional, without Shiozawa's sarcastic bite that came from a lifetime of bitter experiences. Shiozawa Clavis was the franchise's heart, and without him, a significant part of its specialness was lost.
(That said, I don't think we can write off seeing good things from Angelique again entirely. I'm typically dour about continuing a franchise past the creator's interest, and great things aren't coming from the LoveLove Tenshi social game, surely, but the Six Knights of Dark Love title is an intriguing idea that would never have been produced under the original regime. It's a cliche to say, and one often voiced by those who were never buying what a given work was selling in the first place, but the franchise did need handlers who'd be rough enough to break it a bit, instead of letting it be mummified in doilies.)
Celes, Final Fantasy VI: Celes is a drip. So is Terra, even more so, but we're not to the T's yet. Celes's whole character arc is "stop insisting on personal independence and be content as a helpless damsel in distress." The backlash to the mostly female party/awesomeness of Faris in FFV must've been huge, since it takes three whole installments for FF to stop treating its female characters like crud despite placing them in higher-profile roles. Though we're not yet up to pimping out the entire female cast with FF6, we do get an FF with females in the lead who are nonetheless so spineless they're invertebrates. Anna would laugh at them. So would Amy. Well, maybe not laugh at her, but at least express contempt in her general direction.
Celia Robinson, The Cat Who...: I don't dislike her, and she's good when well-used (as in her first appearance in Went into the Closet), but I've never really warmed to the idea of Celia as a full-fledged supporting character like Braun thinks I should have. She's a bit too thinly drawn for the series at its best, too fatuously jolly - she can be like an old joke told one too many times. The series, when it was getting on, often introduced new characters that were shallower shadows of ones previous, and even though Celia was introduced when the series was still in its prime, I can't help but think of her as a knockoff of the multifaceted Iris Cobb.
Cecil, Final Fantasy IV: Call it the Rayne effect: I like Cecil way better when the narrative's not pushing him at the expense of other characters. For Cecil, that's been ever since the recent FFIV resurgence, where Kain and Golbez are compelled to atone endlessly more for their envy of and desire to surpass King Harvey despite their perceived inferiority to him than for their actual misdeeds. (This has kind of wrecked Kain's character in the modern FFIV follow-ups, where he suffers thoroughly wretched fates and is smeared as weak-willed and incompetent, but After Years is kind of self-wrecking in the first place. Shame about Dissidia, however.)
If I ever do get Dissidia, though, I'm still playing Cecil first. (But only because I don't think you can play Kain first.)
(Also: that recent Trading Arts statuette of Cecil is lovely and insanely detailed for the price. It's a small comfort in the age of Square's great selling-out, but it's a joy finally to see quality character merchandise after such a long drought.)
Carlo, Deep Red: If I had a knowledge of Inform, IF mechanics, and actual willpower, I'd love to make a text adventure of Inferno and have Carlo as a secret character. I imagine his withering running commentary on events would be far more entertaining than that of the ever-outmatched Mark. (Such a reimagining would be the only way to get any good out of the miserable Inferno, anyway.) I've seen Deep Red once and didn't have an overly positive impression at the time (memory has been kinder), but I recall taking to Carlo the most out of the cast. For all his self-despise and cynical bile, he seems rather (half-drunkenly) avuncular to others. Life is shit, but Carlo doesn't hold it against you.
.
Clavis, Angelique: The definitive mental image of Clavis I have was, oddly enough, taken from this Clavis/Julious fic I read once, from a scene where, after a bit of dithering between he and Julious, he somewhat timidly but chivalrously disrobed, took the initiative, and advanced unclothed, that dark, all-enveloping curtain of hair moving with him as he walked, enveloping and...well, never revealing, actually. It was not only a striking physical image but aptly defined Clavis as an inwardly, quietly strong yet sadly vulnerable presence inherently loathe to self-disclosure. (Oh, dear, I've confessed to reading a slash fic and must therefore surrender my membership in the Serious Gamers club.)
Anyhow, it's tempting, and at least partially accurate, to mark the loss of Kaneto Shiozawa as Clavis as the start of Angelique going downhill. It's perhaps not true, wholly - Shiozawa passed away during the Trois era, which was the franchise's artistic peak. Yet Tanaka's Clavis, while not bad per se, is soft and "wet" in the Japanese sense, overtly emotional, without Shiozawa's sarcastic bite that came from a lifetime of bitter experiences. Shiozawa Clavis was the franchise's heart, and without him, a significant part of its specialness was lost.
(That said, I don't think we can write off seeing good things from Angelique again entirely. I'm typically dour about continuing a franchise past the creator's interest, and great things aren't coming from the LoveLove Tenshi social game, surely, but the Six Knights of Dark Love title is an intriguing idea that would never have been produced under the original regime. It's a cliche to say, and one often voiced by those who were never buying what a given work was selling in the first place, but the franchise did need handlers who'd be rough enough to break it a bit, instead of letting it be mummified in doilies.)
Celes, Final Fantasy VI: Celes is a drip. So is Terra, even more so, but we're not to the T's yet. Celes's whole character arc is "stop insisting on personal independence and be content as a helpless damsel in distress." The backlash to the mostly female party/awesomeness of Faris in FFV must've been huge, since it takes three whole installments for FF to stop treating its female characters like crud despite placing them in higher-profile roles. Though we're not yet up to pimping out the entire female cast with FF6, we do get an FF with females in the lead who are nonetheless so spineless they're invertebrates. Anna would laugh at them. So would Amy. Well, maybe not laugh at her, but at least express contempt in her general direction.
Celia Robinson, The Cat Who...: I don't dislike her, and she's good when well-used (as in her first appearance in Went into the Closet), but I've never really warmed to the idea of Celia as a full-fledged supporting character like Braun thinks I should have. She's a bit too thinly drawn for the series at its best, too fatuously jolly - she can be like an old joke told one too many times. The series, when it was getting on, often introduced new characters that were shallower shadows of ones previous, and even though Celia was introduced when the series was still in its prime, I can't help but think of her as a knockoff of the multifaceted Iris Cobb.
Cecil, Final Fantasy IV: Call it the Rayne effect: I like Cecil way better when the narrative's not pushing him at the expense of other characters. For Cecil, that's been ever since the recent FFIV resurgence, where Kain and Golbez are compelled to atone endlessly more for their envy of and desire to surpass King Harvey despite their perceived inferiority to him than for their actual misdeeds. (This has kind of wrecked Kain's character in the modern FFIV follow-ups, where he suffers thoroughly wretched fates and is smeared as weak-willed and incompetent, but After Years is kind of self-wrecking in the first place. Shame about Dissidia, however.)
If I ever do get Dissidia, though, I'm still playing Cecil first. (But only because I don't think you can play Kain first.)
(Also: that recent Trading Arts statuette of Cecil is lovely and insanely detailed for the price. It's a small comfort in the age of Square's great selling-out, but it's a joy finally to see quality character merchandise after such a long drought.)
Carlo, Deep Red: If I had a knowledge of Inform, IF mechanics, and actual willpower, I'd love to make a text adventure of Inferno and have Carlo as a secret character. I imagine his withering running commentary on events would be far more entertaining than that of the ever-outmatched Mark. (Such a reimagining would be the only way to get any good out of the miserable Inferno, anyway.) I've seen Deep Red once and didn't have an overly positive impression at the time (memory has been kinder), but I recall taking to Carlo the most out of the cast. For all his self-despise and cynical bile, he seems rather (half-drunkenly) avuncular to others. Life is shit, but Carlo doesn't hold it against you.
.
