Alphabet meme, H
Sep. 15th, 2011 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigozealHarvey Moiseiwitch Volodarskii, No More Heroes: Harvey probably has the dodgiest voice-acting of the main characters - he sounds slightly Bullwinkle-ish. Those twin-beam wands are pretty stylish, though.
That's a bad death he got there, wasn't it? Eyes burned out, pleading piteously for light not realizing what's happened to him, buzzsawed in half while still alive. That's a sendoff you give a Captain Rhodes, and I'm not sure what Harvey did to deserve it - even Speed Buster, who killed Travis's master, got off with a clean shot to the neck. And yet, if you look back to the start of that cutscene, his act doesn't have many tricks that don't involve him skewering or chopping up his assistants, who do move to secure him to that iron cross pretty quickly. Maybe his employees got tired of catching bladed weapons.
Hyuga, Neo Angelique: I liked Hyuga a lot more before I read his first lead story in the manga, where he and Ange are sent to assist the relief effort in a burning village. Things turn bad, the fire isn't getting any better, and so Hyuga grabs Ange by the arm and tells her - doesn't consult with her; outright gives an order - that he's made a decision, she's leaving. Ange is understandably shocked and angered at what she perceives as Hyuga's cowardice - regardless of the condition of the buildings, there're plenty of people in need of medical treatment - and, quite atypical of a neoromance heroine, tells Hyuga to shove it, admirably standing her ground. Just then, however, the rafters of Authorial Fiat come crashing down from the flaming ceiling, and Hyuga sternly stands over her staring her down, less oh-my-God-are-you-all-right? than Daddy-told-you-so, to deflect the blow. He then turns in silent smug/angry satisfaction to leave the village, expecting his woman to follow. Ange follows sheepishly behind, like a chastened little girl.
Later that evening at Hidamari, however, her conscience gets the better of her, and she slips downstairs to make her way out and back to the village. Yeah! On her way, however, she overhears Hyuga asking Nyx to fund a rebuilding effort for the village once the fires die down. Ange is conscience-stricken that she didn't believe in Hyuga and, most dishearteningly, later apologizes to him for...caring about the innocent victims and having a mind of her own, I guess? Was there any good reason why Hyuga couldn't let Ange in on his plan before they left, even after they got home? The entire incident is hugely disappointing, particularly in view of how the artist in previous chapters went out of her way to make Ange a self-motivated, driven character in contrast with the usual neoromance perfect passive princesses.
Hugh, Phantasy Star II: While reading Hugh's mini-bio in the PS World Guide's character section, I was rather gobsmacked by its assertion that Hugh was mildly autistic. This was in the days when autism was still largely defined by Rain Man and the DSM committee hadn't yet resorted to the "broad side of the barn" school of diagnosis regarding the condition, so my reaction to this news was in the neighborhood of WHAT. I mentioned this tidbit to a friend, still incredulous, and he responded, "Oh, yeah! I was diagnosed with mild autism, too!" and I was WHAT. Still more sensitive and less ignorant than Autism Speaks, ladies and gentlemen!
Anyhow, Dr. Thompson impresses as an eminently presentable fellow, from the crisp bob of his bangs and cut of his chin to the bright and sharp contrast of his purple and green ensemble. He personifies the PSII aesthetic - of vivid and vibrant palette but cleanly futuristic and crisply utiliarian. (Someone from the PS Ages version saw fit to encumber him with a knitted muffler from the "I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!!" school of winterwear, but inexplicable accessories seem a hallmark of that version.)
As mentioned in Anna's entry, I stuck religiously to guidebook party recommendations and didn't pay much attention to Hugh, and even in a runthrough where I leveled everyone up, I remember him as being merely OK. But I like Hugh characterwise. Character portraits convey a good deal in PSII, and the clean, cool lines of his, the alertness in his expression give the impression of someone clinical, still a scientist, a man of numbers - but the bright hues and slight faraway gleam in his eye speak to a man still a bit of a child, still in touch with the natural world.
(Excised from this already-long entry: a mention of the Hugh-centric fanfic "Restoration," unique in its focus on getting a Mota after Mother Brain up and running again - salvaging power sources from the dams, characters from a world of screens readjusting to little things like writing their own names by hand - and note of Hugh's odd but memorable exit line.)
Hahn, Phantasy Star IV: Back when newsgroups were still a thing, there was note of Hahn being a curiously fan-favorite character, and we stopped once to take stock why that was. I recall that the main reasons we came up with related to how uniquely everyman Hahn was - he's not the bestest ever in his field, he doesn't have an ostentatious wardrobe or dichroic hair; he's just a hardworking fellow holding down an unglamorous profession trying to save up enough to marry his schoolteacher fiancee. In the typical RPG world-spanning quests, it's remarkably refreshing to have a character with such relatively small, relatable, human goals.
Helen, Clock Tower: I like Helen over Jennifer as the Clock Tower (2) heroine; it's not often the spotlight's given to the older female instead of the younger, the level-headed professional instead of the virginal naïf, and Dr. Maxwell has a good chemistry with the entertaining(ly rumpled) Gotts, both on a personal level and in the amiably adversarial give-and-take of two professionals, each smart in their own way, who recognize their differences but fundamentally like each other anyway. (It wears particularly well when compared to 15-year-old Jennifer's creepy flirtations with the bland, late-twenties Nolan.)
And yet there's something within me that resists Helen. It has to do with a Clock Tower character-rating project in which I participated, in which I was pegged as Dr. Maxwell. Similarly, in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
angemedia's chara rating post, it was suggested I was most like Luva. I can't fault anyone for this and would probably draw the same conclusions myself, and yet I hate being pigeonholed as the mature teacher type. I was thrilled when one of the CT folks suggested that due to a couple misanthropic comments I'd made I might be more like Ghost Head's cleaver-dragging Saidou.
.
That's a bad death he got there, wasn't it? Eyes burned out, pleading piteously for light not realizing what's happened to him, buzzsawed in half while still alive. That's a sendoff you give a Captain Rhodes, and I'm not sure what Harvey did to deserve it - even Speed Buster, who killed Travis's master, got off with a clean shot to the neck. And yet, if you look back to the start of that cutscene, his act doesn't have many tricks that don't involve him skewering or chopping up his assistants, who do move to secure him to that iron cross pretty quickly. Maybe his employees got tired of catching bladed weapons.
Hyuga, Neo Angelique: I liked Hyuga a lot more before I read his first lead story in the manga, where he and Ange are sent to assist the relief effort in a burning village. Things turn bad, the fire isn't getting any better, and so Hyuga grabs Ange by the arm and tells her - doesn't consult with her; outright gives an order - that he's made a decision, she's leaving. Ange is understandably shocked and angered at what she perceives as Hyuga's cowardice - regardless of the condition of the buildings, there're plenty of people in need of medical treatment - and, quite atypical of a neoromance heroine, tells Hyuga to shove it, admirably standing her ground. Just then, however, the rafters of Authorial Fiat come crashing down from the flaming ceiling, and Hyuga sternly stands over her staring her down, less oh-my-God-are-you-all-right? than Daddy-told-you-so, to deflect the blow. He then turns in silent smug/angry satisfaction to leave the village, expecting his woman to follow. Ange follows sheepishly behind, like a chastened little girl.
Later that evening at Hidamari, however, her conscience gets the better of her, and she slips downstairs to make her way out and back to the village. Yeah! On her way, however, she overhears Hyuga asking Nyx to fund a rebuilding effort for the village once the fires die down. Ange is conscience-stricken that she didn't believe in Hyuga and, most dishearteningly, later apologizes to him for...caring about the innocent victims and having a mind of her own, I guess? Was there any good reason why Hyuga couldn't let Ange in on his plan before they left, even after they got home? The entire incident is hugely disappointing, particularly in view of how the artist in previous chapters went out of her way to make Ange a self-motivated, driven character in contrast with the usual neoromance perfect passive princesses.
Hugh, Phantasy Star II: While reading Hugh's mini-bio in the PS World Guide's character section, I was rather gobsmacked by its assertion that Hugh was mildly autistic. This was in the days when autism was still largely defined by Rain Man and the DSM committee hadn't yet resorted to the "broad side of the barn" school of diagnosis regarding the condition, so my reaction to this news was in the neighborhood of WHAT. I mentioned this tidbit to a friend, still incredulous, and he responded, "Oh, yeah! I was diagnosed with mild autism, too!" and I was WHAT. Still more sensitive and less ignorant than Autism Speaks, ladies and gentlemen!
Anyhow, Dr. Thompson impresses as an eminently presentable fellow, from the crisp bob of his bangs and cut of his chin to the bright and sharp contrast of his purple and green ensemble. He personifies the PSII aesthetic - of vivid and vibrant palette but cleanly futuristic and crisply utiliarian. (Someone from the PS Ages version saw fit to encumber him with a knitted muffler from the "I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!!" school of winterwear, but inexplicable accessories seem a hallmark of that version.)
As mentioned in Anna's entry, I stuck religiously to guidebook party recommendations and didn't pay much attention to Hugh, and even in a runthrough where I leveled everyone up, I remember him as being merely OK. But I like Hugh characterwise. Character portraits convey a good deal in PSII, and the clean, cool lines of his, the alertness in his expression give the impression of someone clinical, still a scientist, a man of numbers - but the bright hues and slight faraway gleam in his eye speak to a man still a bit of a child, still in touch with the natural world.
(Excised from this already-long entry: a mention of the Hugh-centric fanfic "Restoration," unique in its focus on getting a Mota after Mother Brain up and running again - salvaging power sources from the dams, characters from a world of screens readjusting to little things like writing their own names by hand - and note of Hugh's odd but memorable exit line.)
Hahn, Phantasy Star IV: Back when newsgroups were still a thing, there was note of Hahn being a curiously fan-favorite character, and we stopped once to take stock why that was. I recall that the main reasons we came up with related to how uniquely everyman Hahn was - he's not the bestest ever in his field, he doesn't have an ostentatious wardrobe or dichroic hair; he's just a hardworking fellow holding down an unglamorous profession trying to save up enough to marry his schoolteacher fiancee. In the typical RPG world-spanning quests, it's remarkably refreshing to have a character with such relatively small, relatable, human goals.
Helen, Clock Tower: I like Helen over Jennifer as the Clock Tower (2) heroine; it's not often the spotlight's given to the older female instead of the younger, the level-headed professional instead of the virginal naïf, and Dr. Maxwell has a good chemistry with the entertaining(ly rumpled) Gotts, both on a personal level and in the amiably adversarial give-and-take of two professionals, each smart in their own way, who recognize their differences but fundamentally like each other anyway. (It wears particularly well when compared to 15-year-old Jennifer's creepy flirtations with the bland, late-twenties Nolan.)
And yet there's something within me that resists Helen. It has to do with a Clock Tower character-rating project in which I participated, in which I was pegged as Dr. Maxwell. Similarly, in
angemedia's chara rating post, it was suggested I was most like Luva. I can't fault anyone for this and would probably draw the same conclusions myself, and yet I hate being pigeonholed as the mature teacher type. I was thrilled when one of the CT folks suggested that due to a couple misanthropic comments I'd made I might be more like Ghost Head's cleaver-dragging Saidou. .
