|
>>
|
4a5db0.jpg
Green Noon Flitter
4a5db0
ok, i finally got caught up on everything. i read ruby quest a long time ago via the flashes, but i read the archived threads this time. read every last bit of the threads for nanquest too. and oh god it took so long. but damn it, i wanted to be informed.
>>23929
i know you posted this literally years ago, but... Weaver, i really admire your writing. rubyquest was excellent, and nanquest is excellent too. i think rubyquest was a bit better, but i'm attributing that -mostly- to the audience being more focused and serious. there were suggestions in rubyquest you could just choose from and reply directly to. nanquest's audience has changed their expectations, and a lot more railroading becomes necessary simply because of the lack of suggestions that would move the story forward in any meaningful way. as a fellow writer, i really sympathize.
but i said "mostly." nanquest has a lot more characters. there were brave attempts to mitigate the drawbacks of this by separating the group into teams, but that only made things worse. in rubyquest, the audience was pretty much able to focus on ruby and tom running around solving puzzles together. it felt more intensely like everything happening was to them instead of the nebulous group-as-a-whole thing you get in nanquest. you also didn't have to take asides to develop the main pairing's relationship as it was so well woven into the same plot elements that moved the story along. so nanquest ends up lacking focus, and that only encourages the bad tendencies the audience already has to jump at all the plot hooks at once.
but so what? find a way to fix it in the future maybe. nanquest is great. i honestly think you're great at what you do. you have the underlying abilities a great writer does: pulling meaning out of seemingly unrelated events and manipulating your audience without them knowing it. also, your pictures are stylized and expressive. you may not "stack up to professional artists," but there's really no need for that. it would be different if the drawings were different, and i like what you've given us.
sorry about that. here's my theory on nanquest. and forgive me if i'm repeating anything. like >>62449 i tried my best to read the whole discussion thread, but i skimmed over some parts.
>>>/questarch/61524
guys, nan doesn't experience timeskips or anything. she just has an overactive imagination. really overactive. remember back in chapter 1 when she knocked over this vase on the way to 117 and then it was repaired on the way back? i think she didn't break it in the first place; only just barely caught herself before she did and strongly imagined a reality in which the vase was broken, so strongly that she was lost in it. that's how imagination works. we're constantly processing multiple futures in the background so that we can be sure of the right course of action. ...granted, she did attempt to put it back together, but i think that was just her being cheeky rather than her having some kind of repair ability that she doesn't know about. actually, both possibilities support what i'll say later in different ways; but i think the imagination one is correct because a similar experience happened later in the padre's room.
...
this is angel beats. everyone's in this hotel because of something they regret. kim calls them "sins" like our current bible passage (5:06). anyway, nan's job is to use her imagination abilities to go into those souls' memories and make sure the moment they regret never happened so they don't keep reliving it. (this is similar to freeing souls from purgatory so they can ascend to heaven, which is why we have other religious imagery. but do i think that nan is literally an angel or something? no.) so, when we get into these scenarios in other people's lives after shining our flashlight, we shouldn't be suggesting actions that keep nan from harm; we should be figuring out what happened in that person's life and then make sure it doesn't happen that way.
we succeeded with >>>/quest/473900 pablo, >>>/quest/470354 sister maggie, and >>>/questarch/302702 possibly anna. in anna's memory, we gave her the screwdriver, allowing her to finish her work; but she didn't disappear in a flash of light. maybe that's because it was before Weaver decided to use the flash of light? i dunno. it's not clear whether dropping the screwdriver led to the elevator accident she regrets or whether not tightening the screw did. but, if we failed to change her memory, it's possible we can access it again like we did with the pilgrim. since she got eaten, we'll have to find her soul to do so. if she soul's not here, we succeeded and she got out of the hotel.
anna's screwdriver and pablo's totem were found in the cubbyholes behind the front desk of the hotel. this seems to be the place to find items closely related to others' memories.
this having been said, i don't know if it's wise to go to the lounge yet. the memory of the padre seems to be in there, and all we really know is that he set his congregation on fire because he was "cold." do we really know what his regret even was yet? actually... i'll speculate on this later. also, guys, the lounge is going to catch on fire when we get there, and, if we don't succeed, we're just gonna be imagination'd back to underwear nan opening the door front door. we'd better really make sure we know what we're doing when we go there.
it seems to me only being eaten by a shadow demon can turn a "live" person into a shadow demon. we guessed at several points that staying too long in the hotel turns one into a shadow demon, but staying longer in the hotel likely only gives you a greater chance to be eaten. evidence is that anderson and alan have both been in the hotel about a month.
>>>/questarch/448676
>>>/quest/460300
>>>/quest/500354
this is also higurashi. no one is "the bad guy." everyone has negative emotions, and those summon the shadow beasts. that's why the darkness left mysteriously in the first chapter when pablo told the padre he wasn't afraid to die. and why santiago could play piano safely for hours. that's when santiago was happy. we need to share all our feelings upfront so we can get clues.
>>>/questarch/449879
>>>/questarch/449886
shining light at a shadow beast makes your own shadow beasts appear behind you (where there isn't light, there's shadow). this is why santiago panicked when we turned the oil lamp to max because he really loves nan and didn't want to get into any trouble since he didn't know if he could keep her safe. the times we've used the light, we've been around allies, who have saved us after we blanked out: santiago outside the piano room, henry in the chapel, pablo in the padre's room, and anderson outside the saferoom. but using the light when we're not around any allies seems like instant game over. but, in the end, we're going to need to face our own shadows to get ourselves out. i wonder if nan's regret has to do with letting someone down, which is why solving her regret involves solving everyone else's? either that or defeat the hotel or live here with santiago <3
...
i'll speculate on the padre. his journal said that citrus fruit arrived at the beginning of the summer season. either he didn't eat it for some reason and got scurvy or the fruit got infected with a local disease, which he had no immune system for. either way, he got sick. his health slowly degraded until he had a constant high fever and accompanying intense chills.
>"it's cold"
fire was the only way to relieve the cold, but the fevers only got more intense. he found or built a huge furnace underneath the chapel because he needed more fire to stay warm, but it quickly consumed his available firewood. the only fuel he had left was his congregation, which he didn't care for much from the beginning, secretly calling them "vermin." however, he was a man of god and didn't want to do it. he desperately tried to hang on without committing this atrocious sin for weeks, remembering to whom he owed his oaths.
>"for the love of god"
but he was unable to hang on in the end. he fed the fire so much fuel that the chapel above caught fire as well, burning the whole remaining congregation at once, including his favorite pilgrim, lorenzo. possibly in an attempt to save him, the padre got consumed by the fire himself. but it was already too late because he had already chosen to sacrifice other children of god, thus letting the shadows eat him.
the padre was/is a failed Job. ending his regrets probably means helping him endure the toture or otherwise curing his ailment. he won't die from the ailment because, in Job, God didn't allow Satan to take Job's life.
...
lastly, i really, really want to save santiago, you guys. especially because we let red die in ruby quest. please let's put some concerted effort into solving his regret. nan is an awesome repairwoman; she must be able to repair -everyone's- lives. i'm reasonably sure santiago always wanted to be a famous pianist but was never noticed for some reason and/or made a mistake when he had a chance to succeed. that feeling of impotence leads him to be castrated while in the hotel. eventually, he gives in to the darkness and kills himself. even in the hotel, he can't fight the darkness; he just wants to be free to play. nan is his hope; this is why he was so happy when she liked his piano and when she forgave him for trying to rape her.
list of regrets so far:
>nan: ???not saving a loved one from an automobile accident???
>henry: ???
>pablo: abusing and murdering his wife
>anna: elevator accident
>anderson: ???letting his son down???
>kim: ???
>santiago: ???never being noticed for his piano???
>sister maggie: not seeing her mother before she died
>lorenzo: not getting the father's blessing and being alone when he died
>the padre: burning his congregation and his church
>the beast: ???
>alan: ???not apologizing to his father???
>anasazi/druid: ???
|