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Why am I (are other people) more (less) accepting of things happening in stories?
I've noticed that, rather often, things I experience in a story that I am totally okay with turn out to be things that people criticize about a story. It's like, I don't notice plot holes until people point them out, or I somehow enjoy plot points or scenes or other arrangements that many people consider to be flawed to the point of taking away from their enjoyment.
Is this because I get too immersed and caught up in the excitement that I don't notice or just gloss over these things?
And if so, is this bad? I'm wondering if it's a good thing that I'm still able to derive enjoyment out of something. Alternatively, if something does seem jarring to me, then it's pretty bad, or simply obnoxious enough to make me notice the fourth wall.
This is coming off a discussion Nova and I had earlier about the latter half of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS. I thoroughly enjoyed the teamwork aspect; she says that aspect was weak. After our discussion I can see how it's not narratively particularly interesting, but I still enjoyed it and how everything fit together very neatly.
So I was thinking back on other experiences defending things others think are flawed. Kiddy Grade is another obvious example. The plot of Final Fantasy V is another (I like FFV for its plot, seriously).
Comments
That's not a bad thing.
Works can be simply awful, and people can enjoy them; and works that are just mediocre can be entertaining enough for people to watch.
This is evident in the popularity of series like Bleach and Naruto. Both have their good moments, but taken on the whole, they're pretty mediocre stories with some troublesome aspects, such as their treatment of women. However, many tens of thousands of people still watch the shows, and like them unironically.
There may be a problem when the aspects of the shows you like are the terrible aspects- for example, liking the sexism within a sexist show.
However, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with liking shows despite their (lack of) quality and their troublesome aspects.
There may be something wrong in watching a show and being unable to pick out the troublesome aspects of it, but I think that's something different to what you're saying.
> There may be a problem when the aspects of the shows you like are the terrible aspects- for example, liking the sexism within a sexist show.
Is this a general statement or in reply to something I posted?
> There may be something wrong in watching a show and being unable to pick out the troublesome aspects of it, but I think that's something different to what you're saying.
Well, I'm not certain that I'd agree with crowd opinion on what's troublesome. For example, the plot of FFV is said to be cliche as all hell, but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the drama it set up and fulfilled, and I thought it did it pretty darn well.
On the other hand, I was significantly less entertained with the plot of FFIV, which people seem to adore.
In general.
Cliches don't always make a story worse.
Another example: the music of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance. One of the oddest things is that I didn't even realize at first that it contained chiptune instruments until it was pointed out to me (albeit, shortly after I finished the game, and I hadn't played any other Castlevania games before).
People were criticizing it for sounding tinny...which it totally did not, for me. I thought the music fit very well. "To the Center of the Demoniac Castle" fit the dark, foreboding corridors throughout the central areas of Dracula's castle. The harmonically and rhythmically unsettled "Chapel of Dissonance" track very well fit the rapidly-flowing clouds in a dubious daylight behind the Sky Walkway. "Aqueduct of Dragons" had a twisted tonality to it that perfectly matched the freaks of nature represented in that area. Even the relatively dull "Luminous Caverns" track was a great fit for the creepy, cramped, and strange cave-like areas.
And these aren't things I consciously thought of as I was playing the game, either. It just happened, and then after playing the game, I thought back at what made those tracks effective, what it was that was so effective at making stuff work out, that I've been able to isolate the factors listed above As I was playing the game, my feeling was "whoa, this music fits really well".
(On the other hand, Lydie Erlanger's theme was boring.)
But like, every other person out there, at least, can't seem to get very far past the "tinniness" of the partially-chiptune instrumentation of the tracks.
Did I notice that something was different about the instrumentation, as I first played the game? Yes.
Did that get in the way of my enjoyment of the music? No, and considering what other people have been saying/writing, apparently this is a minority opinion.
As for the whole "not noticing, or glossing over, things" bit, here's an example from that same game:
As I played Harmony, I barely understood the plot, but still really enjoyed the game, mostly because I got to keep seeing all sorts of weird and interesting locales accompanied by interesting, creepy, and otherwise awesome music. In fact, the whole plot could be simpler and I'd enjoy it equally. I remember being a bit confused as to what Lydie was doing, only figuring it out later. I wasn't even paying attention to the plot at all, merely feeling my way through the drama. Of course I could tell that shit was going to hell when, say, Maxim started looking funny, but I kinda don't even remember anything he said. And I really don't need much more than that as a minor driver to keep the game moving forward and to barely justify why I'm going all over the place in this gigantic castle (or two) hunting down Dracula and his minions.
Fun fact: I just now, or less a minute ago, noticed that Lydie's name is "Erlanger" rather than "Elranger". That should tell you how much I was paying attention to the script.
wait
what?!
I have played that game two or three times and I never even noticed.
I thought it was really obvious.
Admittedly, I played the game two or three times when I was twelve.
I played the hack version instead. Storming the castle as Julius Belmont with Don't Wait Until Night as the entrance theme is just awesome.
Yeah, the music uses both the 16-bit instrumentation channel as well as at least one of the 8-bit instrumentation channels.