WIP report: 1 July 2021
Jul. 1st, 2021 05:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sleeplesspotatoMore delays: my computer's file system got messed up last week and I had to both get that fixed and offset my work hours. It seems unlikely for me to finish 21 Days to a Novel this week, but I'll keep trying just the same.
Castlevania OT3. I've been going back-and-forth on my version of Speaker culture since there's very little to go on in the anime; I'm still figuring out how a caravan of nomadic scholars can make a living (the answer seems to be that only a handful of them are scholars while the rest are engaged in herding livestock and other pastoralist activities). There's also the problem of Sypha's magic -- it's in her bloodline in the games, yet her grandfather is implied not to have any magic in the brief scenes in which he appears in the anime. I've assumed that it skips generations and that Sypha isn't the only mage in her clan, though it seems that magic is relatively rare among her people (only Sypha is shown to have magic among the group of Speakers in season 1). I've had more to think about and it's reshaping how I see Sypha and her role in the story.
One thing I've noticed is how Sypha's background (as I'm coming to know it) makes her the protagonist of a different story -- a coming-of-age one wherein she goes out into the world and finds herself, so to speak. It seems like a tangent compared to Trevor and Alucard's intertwined fates; in weaving her story into theirs I keep thinking about how she's primarily a support character in the games, the mage who turns out to be a woman when you get to know her (IIRC this was in her first appearance) and settles down with the hero after the game ends. If I'm not careful I could wind up relegating her to a similar role -- a way to prop up Trevor and Alucard's stories and give them descendants for possible sequels*.
I'm hoping I can make her character arc compelling yet still cohesive with Trevor and Alucard's arcs.
---
* Sypha's magic combining with the Belmont bloodline eventually leads to Richter's OP-ness several generations later; his Hydro Storm attacks are ridiculous, especially in Symphony of the Night once he's been unlocked.
Castlevania OT3. I've been going back-and-forth on my version of Speaker culture since there's very little to go on in the anime; I'm still figuring out how a caravan of nomadic scholars can make a living (the answer seems to be that only a handful of them are scholars while the rest are engaged in herding livestock and other pastoralist activities). There's also the problem of Sypha's magic -- it's in her bloodline in the games, yet her grandfather is implied not to have any magic in the brief scenes in which he appears in the anime. I've assumed that it skips generations and that Sypha isn't the only mage in her clan, though it seems that magic is relatively rare among her people (only Sypha is shown to have magic among the group of Speakers in season 1). I've had more to think about and it's reshaping how I see Sypha and her role in the story.
One thing I've noticed is how Sypha's background (as I'm coming to know it) makes her the protagonist of a different story -- a coming-of-age one wherein she goes out into the world and finds herself, so to speak. It seems like a tangent compared to Trevor and Alucard's intertwined fates; in weaving her story into theirs I keep thinking about how she's primarily a support character in the games, the mage who turns out to be a woman when you get to know her (IIRC this was in her first appearance) and settles down with the hero after the game ends. If I'm not careful I could wind up relegating her to a similar role -- a way to prop up Trevor and Alucard's stories and give them descendants for possible sequels*.
I'm hoping I can make her character arc compelling yet still cohesive with Trevor and Alucard's arcs.
---
* Sypha's magic combining with the Belmont bloodline eventually leads to Richter's OP-ness several generations later; his Hydro Storm attacks are ridiculous, especially in Symphony of the Night once he's been unlocked.
