Subject: It can work
Author:
Posted on: 2011-03-09 22:03:00 UTC
To be fair, it can work well even if your reader doesn't know the canon at all. I've recently been reading through a lot of older PPC stories, including a few set in the Fire Emblem 'verse. Despite having no former knowledge of Fire Emblem prior to reading the stories I still enjoyed them and got probably half the jokes involved.
Hi guys! I'm having trouble with a mission I am writing and I'm wondering what you guys think of it, and if you're able to help.
So I am sporking a Fire Emblem fic. It takes place 1000 years in the future of the particular world canon (Tellius) and a lot of silly things have happened. Like races not living in their homelands (for useless convoluted reasons that would never happen or don't make sense) and fantastic races aging at rates that aren't normal for them. Granted, there are a lot of nonspecific charges too, like unrealistic combat and invoking hammerspace...
But I'm having trouble writing this because a lot of the charges rely on knowing the canon. This would fly if it was a LotR fic. You can charge a LotR fic for having Elrond suddenly be Lord of Moria. But if I said I am charging for a Hawk Laguz being the king of Serenes Forest, nobody would know what I mean. When really it's the same thing and the same joke.
So I keep having to bog down the mission with explanation of canon. Which makes it not funny and tiresome and more like whining how it's messing up canon than pointing out the error and letting the absurdity speak for itself. Because people don't know it's absurd, and explaining why it's absurd murders the joke quite completely.
I don't want to say this is a bad fic to spork, because it has EXACTLY THE SAME dillemmas as any badfic. But I don't want to be limited to what's popular here. Because that defeats the point.
Is there any way I can introduce the canon information somehow or make it clear something is not right? Because it's not very funny so far and that's the worst.
TLDR; I feel trapped and unable to make jokes that people would get. But shunning the fic for this reason would mean shunning the canon just because less people know it, which is against the spirit of the PPC.
How can I get around this problem?
Personally, I don't have a problem reading missions in continua I don't know. The reason is that I extract humor from how the agents are reacting more than anything else. If you're worried about the details of the canon going over our heads, focus the humor on the agents. Use more physical and visual types of humor—the spit-takes, the headdesking, the mad scramble for Bleeprin, etc., and especially any weird manifestations of the bad writing. The mental images will provide plenty of humor.
~Neshomeh
To be fair, it can work well even if your reader doesn't know the canon at all. I've recently been reading through a lot of older PPC stories, including a few set in the Fire Emblem 'verse. Despite having no former knowledge of Fire Emblem prior to reading the stories I still enjoyed them and got probably half the jokes involved.
I've read several missions where everything I know about the original canon comes from hitting the "Random Page" button on TV Tropes. I'm certain I've missed some of the jokes, but I'm picking up that something Should Not Be Done in that canon just fine.
I think a lot of boarders here skip the missions set in fandoms they don't really know. Mainly, I guess, because they think they would not get the joke. Or they read them and accept that they won't get all the jokes. If something ends up as a charge, that ought to be enough information that something was stupid to do. Explaining the jokes is thus not needed, as the people who know canon don't need it and others don't expect it.
If you think explaining is needed, you could make one of your agents an absolute noob about the fandom they got kicked into. Then everything would have to be explained to them.
Not all boarders know LotR (blasphemy, I know).
As you mentioned, it's hard to explain a joke without killing it.
The best way to do it when you don't know who'll know the canon?
Have it explained beforehand. Or have mental shortcuts in your explanation. Or give someone the role of not knowing the canon so you can explain it in character without talking to the fourth wall.
Make comparisons where it works and helps illustrate the point of ridiculous. "Hawk Laguz being the king of Serenes Forest? That's like having Elrond suddenly be Lord of Moria!" Looksee, that gets the point across to us doubly. People familiar with both get a doubly absurd image to be amused at, and those familiar with only LotR get to boggle at the wrongness it'd translate to in LotR-terms and imagine what it must mean for the canon being covered.
There are plenty of ways, just takes a bit of practice and retooling.
Yeah... I do have a character who doesn't know. But I really have to stop every five seconds and explain something to him and I feel that breaks flow terribly.
But you're right. I just have to get the hang of this particular device. I'll just draft until it's good. I think this calls for a Crappy First Draft.