I certainly had anapaestic in mind when writing it, which took around 25 mins while walking to work; composed on my phone which explains the occasional misspelling (and then copy/pasted from my Facebook status to here), so silly poem is entirely appropriate. (I guess it fits the usual metric patterns for a ballad?)
I agree with you that "desperate" should be two syllables to make it fit the stress patterns; I also agree that the Artoo and Threepio line doesn't scan too well.
I read Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Traveled last year and the discipline needed to fit words to the meter is a fun challenge compared to prose writing. Terza rima or anything like that may be a bit much for a Facebook status, however!
Elcalion, waxing poetic
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Nice work! by
on 2017-05-07 11:24:00 UTC
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Agreed (nm) by
on 2017-05-07 11:10:00 UTC
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This is, it is a glorious thing by
on 2017-05-07 06:06:00 UTC
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Hurrah for the king, hurrah for your Pirate King!
***
Yep, the Pirate King is definitely the lead role. For sure. Uh huh. Maybe not officially. But he's a pretty fantastic part and definitely more fun than Fredrick.
--Key has dreamed of playing Ruth since age ten and knows nearly every song by heart.
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Err, I guess I'm a little late here but: Constitution by
on 2017-05-07 05:58:00 UTC
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A lot of people in this thread have been requiring apologies from one or more parties. I would like to draw some attention to article five: Apologies for making a mistake, and for being unclear, are recommended, but should not be demanded.
What good is a forced apology, anyway? Does it really feel good to hear an apology that's being made because the other party has to make it? What's it supposed to accomplish?
--Key
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Meter!!! by
on 2017-05-07 05:41:00 UTC
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Aren’t the two meters your friends are proposing the same thing?
An iamb and three anapests: u / | u u / | u u / | u u /
Three amphibrachs and an iamb: u / u | u / u | u / u | u /
Without the |foot| markers, they’re exactly the same: u / u u / u u / u u /
And foot divisions are kind of artificial, right? I’m not an expert; if there’s some nuance that I’m missing please someone call me out on it.
If you're interested, while I was trying to work this out, I went through your poem and annotated most of the first stanza in excruciating detail with analysis and concrit. I'm having some problem with HTML where the stress marks aren't lining up over the syllables I want them to line up with. . .let me know if you're curious about what I'm driving at but can't figure it out.
***
Summary impressions: The meter is fun and bouncy (appropriate for a jokey Facebook-status poem). There are few variants, and those which are present feel unintentional rather than like deliberate storytelling strategies. I find long series of rhymed couplets irritating, but am forced to admit that their jingling, cutesy tone is appropriate for a silly poem celebrating a holiday with a pun baked into the date.
/ /u u / u u / u u /
Wise Obi-Wan, grey-haired and weathered by age
(Spondee, anapest, anapest anapest. I see how some of your friends may have decided that first foot was iambic, but I wouldn't do that myself -- as an actor, I would stress it to avoid its getting lost and the audience's thinking of Obi-Wan as merely a doddering old man. Plus starting on a spondee is usually pretty strong and dramatic. I like it.)
OR
(Antibaccius, two amphibrachs, and an iamb. If the first syllable is unstressed (as I advised against above), you'd get three amphibrachs before the iamb.)
u / u u / u u / u u /
Had long been in exile from Emperor's rage
(there's the initial iamb and series of anapests your friends were talking about, or three amphibrachs with an iamb on the end)
u / u u / u u / u u /
Until Princess Leia in desperate appeal
(Just like the last line. I feel like "desperate" has too few syllables and want to spell it "desp'rate," but I think that's just my problem :P)
u / u u / u u u / u u /
Did Artoo and Threep'yo into peril most real
(What is that one extra unstressed syllable doing in the middle of the line? In neither of the proposed meters should there be three unstressed syllables in a row, and I don't think this moment in the story is dramatic enough to justify breaking the meter this way -- it causes the reader to halt and stumble for a moment, which is good if you want them to dwell on a line or phrase, but here just gets in the way of understanding this important bit of exposition. I suggest rejiggering this sentence (perhaps try replacing R2D2 and C3PO's names with something like "the droids," or using their full names, or their names in a different order). If you do decide to revise this, I also advise experimenting with ending this line on an unstressed syllable to help it flow into the next line, which is a continuation of the same idea. Putting a stressed syllable here, especially with the completion of a rhyme, makes it feel very final, which is confusing since that's not actually where the thought ends at all.)
/ / u u / u u / u u /
Send unto Kenobi to beg for his help
(Like the first line, with the same caveat about the first syllable -- I'd stress it, because the fact that the droids were sent is important information, but I suppose you don't have to.)
u / u u / u / / u u /
In helping their owner: bold Anakin's whelp;
(I'm torn over whether or not to stress "bold" -- obviously, having it unstressed fits the meter better (however one chooses to describe said meter, there's definitely a general pattern), but. . . it doesn't sound good to me. This poem is so much of a bare-bones summary that each rare adjective seems important. Also, I don’t think a semicolon belongs here, although Djel help me if I know what punctuation you should use.)
***
This is approximately when I realized I ought to be doing my homework instead of nit-picking at a Star Wars poem that was probably written as a joke in less than an hour. Thank you for posting this; this is some of the most fun I've had procrastinating in a while!
--Key
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Sent my permission attempt. (nm) by
on 2017-05-07 04:29:00 UTC
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Or a tragic Darth? by
on 2017-05-07 04:09:00 UTC
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^ Is the joke I expected to follow from Cat's post title. {= )
~Neshomeh
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A tragic dearth? by
on 2017-05-07 02:46:00 UTC
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Do you know of these? I believe you'd appreciate them.
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The first rule of recruiting Sues: by
on 2017-05-07 02:39:00 UTC
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Don't.*
While there are always exceptions, and whether or not to recruit borderline Sues may be a bit of a toss-up, full-blown Sues bad enough to warrant sending assassins after them in the first place are, by definition, not salvageable.
At least, that's the conceit in-universe. Out of universe, this correlates to the notion that we shouldn't be going after fics that are only kinda mediocre but could be fixed with some better SPaG and a few tweaks; we should only be going after fics that are awful, with poor SPaG, OOC canons, irritating OCs, and nonsensical plots. Fics where the best way to fix them is to burn them and start over from scratch.
As for borderline Sues, there aren't any hard rules. It's basically just a question of whether you can get a good bit of story out of it and feel like taking on another character.
~Neshomeh
* This is not an actual rule, I'm using an ironic subversion of expectations to be funny, please don't take me too seriously.
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Japanese Hard mode for me. by
on 2017-05-06 22:21:00 UTC
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I really recommend to download the audio if you can, it's more than worth it.
The real pain with Psi is the fact youu're the only able to use it for quite a while, so it can drain your SP pretty hard, and in Hard mode you just need all SPs you've got. Still, that's one of the better ways to deal with them. (The only more efficient one I can think about is checking the fusions for weaknesses. Not necessarily nice, but it helped for me.)
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Agreed (nm) by
on 2017-05-06 20:26:00 UTC
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I may have this to some extent. by
on 2017-05-06 17:53:00 UTC
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But I don’t call it fear; I’m just overly shy. I might never have posted on this board if there hadn’t been this outsider hauling inaccurate accusations around to explain why they didn’t like the PPC, so I just had to step forward to show another outsiders view, before I made a proper introductory post.
Also, I don’t think of it as crippling. Over the years, I persuaded myself that I like to be the nerd in the ivory tower, and that I don’t want lots of friends or to be considered a valuable member of a community (and then the PPC happened). That’s probably not an advisable way to follow, although it worked for me, with lots of luck.
Fortunately, I don’t have that nightmare. I don’t care whether I’m remembered and recognized. (But then, why do I use the same name all over the internet, unless the site insists that I can’t have a space in my name, and it’s too many letters anyway?)
My greatest fear is that I unintentionally say something that offends people I want to like me. Not talking in my native tongue here doesn’t help with that. So, far too often I prefer to say nothing at all. Which probably causes that people do not know me well enough to actually like me. Yeah, I’m aware of my shortcomings; I’m working on them since nineteen-fiftythree.
HG
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I agree. (nm) by
on 2017-05-06 17:03:00 UTC
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And more here too by
on 2017-05-06 17:03:00 UTC
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http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Recruit#Newcontentneeded.3F
This asks for a few guidelines on what kinds of Sues to recruit versus assassinate.
-Twistey
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Actually, thank you for doing all this, and much more. by
on 2017-05-06 16:58:00 UTC
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Yeah, this can’t be said too often.
Since I don’t like to take more responsibility than is absolutely necessary, preferring a staff position over being a leader, I’m mostly glad when I come to the board, see what’s going on and find that I’m too late again, because "somebody" already did what needs to be done. It’s sad that so often "somebody" has to be you, but I won’t tell you to stop; I’ll try to not wait for you if I happen to be there first.
Also, thanks to everybody else who helps to make this the place I like. I started a list to thank you all personally, but when more and more names came to mind, from Neshomeh to ninny4370, I realized that putting Boarders in a particular order and drawing a line anywhere above "never even tries" would be a bad idea. So, just thanks to y’all.
HG
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I'm playing on Normal with the English audio. by
on 2017-05-06 16:30:00 UTC
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I didn't even know the Japanese audio was an option, actually. I'm gonna have to hold off on downloading it, though: my PS4 is a bit pressed for memory at the moment, and I don't want to push it too far over the edge...
And eh, the regular mobs that repel physical attacks actually don't bother me much. Whenever I encounter a new enemy, I generally start by lobbing as many of the different elements of magic at it as I can, until I find the weakness. Which led to interesting results back when I didn't have any Psi skills, but hey, I did my best!
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Yeah I saw that. by
on 2017-05-06 16:17:00 UTC
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The fact you're hitting the first regular mobs who flat out repel physic attacks and skills don't help either.
And just wait for the next plot twists, they're even better. (Out of curiosity, are you playing with the Japanese or English audio? And what difficulty?)
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Agreed. (nm) by
on 2017-05-06 15:45:00 UTC
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This thread is great. (nm) by
on 2017-05-06 15:37:00 UTC
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Made a suggestion on the "For Other People" FAQ by
on 2017-05-06 15:22:00 UTC
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http://ppc.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:FAQ:ForOtherPeople#Newsections.2C_possibly.3F
This suggests two more sections, the first being "I don't need writing help!" and the second being about criticizing the work being supposedly oppressive because the author is female or LGBTQ+, instead of other sections where it's about the character.
Let me know what you guys think of these ideas!
-Twistey
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I actually didn't like the fifth dungeon as much. by
on 2017-05-06 15:09:00 UTC
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The design was really cool, sure, and I had a good laugh at the party's reaction to the fact that the "Break" option on one of the puzzles lasts about five seconds, but it was hard to find places to ambush enemies from, and that got annoying fast. The airlock puzzles in the latter half of the dungeon didn't help, although those were kinda satisfying when I finally solved them.
Still, the plot twist around it is really awesome, so... Yeah, fun times!
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I... watched a stream when the Japanese version was released by
on 2017-05-06 14:55:00 UTC
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Let's just say the remaining part of the game still raises the bar for future games. Can't wait to reach it myself.
Especially fifth's boss. From the stream I saw, in Hard mode he's everything an Atlus boss should be: challenging, pushing you and the gameplay to the limits, and so satisfying to take down.
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Yeah! by
on 2017-05-06 14:48:00 UTC
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I'm not a super hardcore fan of Persona, though: I actually haven't played Persona 4, and I only got about a third of the way through Persona 3. But it's always been an interesting series of games nevertheless. But yeah, Persona 5 is awesome.
I just hit the fifth change of heart myself. And I can't wait to go on from there, either...
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Re: A little too late to the party, mate. by
on 2017-05-06 14:41:00 UTC
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Oh, woops. That's what you get when you don't read post dates.