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tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-04-13 11:33 pm
tenshinoakuma) wrote2011-04-13 11:33 pm
Thoughts on infomodding in TWEWY fanfiction
You know, something that's kind of bothered me a little on a... well, I guess on an information level about TWEWY fanfiction, is when Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme (especially Neku) seem to magically know about the inner workings of the Game with no explanation to how they know this.
I'm talking about them knowing about stuff like the Angels or that the Composer is something like an underling to the Angels who are underlings to a greater cosmic being that is implied to be God, or that Mr. H is actually an Angel instead of a sketchy coffee barista (though granted, his appearance to the Players was rather odd and one can join the dots... and figure out he's more involved in the Game than a Player as what Uzuki thought he was. Figuring out he's an Angel just from what Neku sees of him is a huge leap of logic!).
How do they even know about this kind of stuff? Even the Reapers don't know that kind of information! You, as the player of the game would not have known that information until you read the Secret Reports, which, as the name implies, were secret. Most of the participants in the Game don't even know what the Game's purpose is! And I highly doubt that Joshua or Mr. H would divulge such secretive information so readily to any of the Players. Maybe bits and pieces if asked, but never the whole picture. Neku, Shiki and Beat know Joshua is the Composer (Rhyme can learn from the other three... if they don't decide that she's better off not knowing)... and that's about it.
I mean, I can definitely see instances when Joshua and/or Mr. H would divulge such knowledge (like, if Shibuya was in some kind of danger they can't handle alone), but again, it'd probably be on a need to know basis rather than everything. It's just that when Neku and/or gang somehow know all the inner workings of the Game without any explanation or justification, it comes off as... well, bad writing to me. TWEWY itself makes it pretty clear that what Neku and gang experience is quite different from what has been going on behind the scenes, what with the split between the Game you experience playing and the Game you read about in the Secret Reports. I mean, playing to the end for the first time was a big WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED, and even going back to piece together everything that happened from a Player perspective, you really end up with a whole lot of nothing in regards to the Game's backstage. I'm pretty sure the list of backstage things the combined knowledge of Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme would be something like:
I'm pretty sure there's a bit more than this, but this is what I can think of off the top of my head. But imagine if this was all the information you had available to you to somehow discern the true nature of the Game. You're not likely get anywhere near the 'real' answer (I say 'real' because there's some leeway in interpreting the Game).
I'm not sure whether I've been guilty of this fault myself (I've written so many one-shots for this fandom I've lost track of what I have and haven't written), but I notice this random knowledge seems to be more common in Neku becomes Shibuya's new Conductor stories. Oh, and in Mr. H and/or Joshua have been punished for being bad kids stories. And in Joshua ascension stories. So basically stories that dabble in the Game's backstage. IIRC, this issue doesn't come up so much in "THERE IS A NEW THREAT TO SHIBUYA, SAVE US NEKU" stories, at least from what I've read (since I've never been too fond of those stories). Maybe because one of the key things is that while Neku's floundering around trying to help, Joshua's being a dick and withholding information Neku would really like to have.
Is this kind of infomodding happening because people don't want to write Joshua and/or Mr. H explaining backstage Game crap to Neku and gang? (I'm pretty sure you can get away with a "Mr. H told Neku and gang everything about the Game. Neku and gang are totally tripped out by this new knowledge and have a hard time grasping all of it straight away" or something of the like for most stories.) Or is it just plain oversight?
Who knows, but I'm having the opposite problem for my Digimon/TWEWY crossover planning, where I'm having trouble getting this backstage information from the TWEWY cast to the Digimon cast in an IC manner. The tables I'm flipping over this is made up by the fact I will get to write new!Composer Joshua flipping shit all over the story and it will be glorious.
I'm talking about them knowing about stuff like the Angels or that the Composer is something like an underling to the Angels who are underlings to a greater cosmic being that is implied to be God, or that Mr. H is actually an Angel instead of a sketchy coffee barista (though granted, his appearance to the Players was rather odd and one can join the dots... and figure out he's more involved in the Game than a Player as what Uzuki thought he was. Figuring out he's an Angel just from what Neku sees of him is a huge leap of logic!).
How do they even know about this kind of stuff? Even the Reapers don't know that kind of information! You, as the player of the game would not have known that information until you read the Secret Reports, which, as the name implies, were secret. Most of the participants in the Game don't even know what the Game's purpose is! And I highly doubt that Joshua or Mr. H would divulge such secretive information so readily to any of the Players. Maybe bits and pieces if asked, but never the whole picture. Neku, Shiki and Beat know Joshua is the Composer (Rhyme can learn from the other three... if they don't decide that she's better off not knowing)... and that's about it.
I mean, I can definitely see instances when Joshua and/or Mr. H would divulge such knowledge (like, if Shibuya was in some kind of danger they can't handle alone), but again, it'd probably be on a need to know basis rather than everything. It's just that when Neku and/or gang somehow know all the inner workings of the Game without any explanation or justification, it comes off as... well, bad writing to me. TWEWY itself makes it pretty clear that what Neku and gang experience is quite different from what has been going on behind the scenes, what with the split between the Game you experience playing and the Game you read about in the Secret Reports. I mean, playing to the end for the first time was a big WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED, and even going back to piece together everything that happened from a Player perspective, you really end up with a whole lot of nothing in regards to the Game's backstage. I'm pretty sure the list of backstage things the combined knowledge of Neku, Shiki, Beat and Rhyme would be something like:
1) Joshua isJesusthe Composer.
2) Mr. H is somehow deeply involved in all this. Possibly as the maker of the pins due to the CAT design as well as how he bound Rhyme to a pin.
3) There are different classes of Reapers, and harriers need to erase Players so they have enough points to stay 'alive'. The Conductor is the head honcho of the Reapers.
4) The UG is below the RG (I think Mr. H mentioned this to them) and Noise have their own plane.
5) Noise can be bound to a pin (Rhyme). With some reasoning, one can deduce that the parts left over from when people are erased can form a pin/Noise.
6) There is some power loss when Reapers and Composers go to the RG.
I'm pretty sure there's a bit more than this, but this is what I can think of off the top of my head. But imagine if this was all the information you had available to you to somehow discern the true nature of the Game. You're not likely get anywhere near the 'real' answer (I say 'real' because there's some leeway in interpreting the Game).
I'm not sure whether I've been guilty of this fault myself (I've written so many one-shots for this fandom I've lost track of what I have and haven't written), but I notice this random knowledge seems to be more common in Neku becomes Shibuya's new Conductor stories. Oh, and in Mr. H and/or Joshua have been punished for being bad kids stories. And in Joshua ascension stories. So basically stories that dabble in the Game's backstage. IIRC, this issue doesn't come up so much in "THERE IS A NEW THREAT TO SHIBUYA, SAVE US NEKU" stories, at least from what I've read (since I've never been too fond of those stories). Maybe because one of the key things is that while Neku's floundering around trying to help, Joshua's being a dick and withholding information Neku would really like to have.
Is this kind of infomodding happening because people don't want to write Joshua and/or Mr. H explaining backstage Game crap to Neku and gang? (I'm pretty sure you can get away with a "Mr. H told Neku and gang everything about the Game. Neku and gang are totally tripped out by this new knowledge and have a hard time grasping all of it straight away" or something of the like for most stories.) Or is it just plain oversight?
Who knows, but I'm having the opposite problem for my Digimon/TWEWY crossover planning, where I'm having trouble getting this backstage information from the TWEWY cast to the Digimon cast in an IC manner. The tables I'm flipping over this is made up by the fact I will get to write new!Composer Joshua flipping shit all over the story and it will be glorious.