Hey don't try the old false dichotomy ploy on me! (Destiny)

by Leviathan , Hotel Zanzibar, Friday, December 12, 2014, 10:52 (3875 days ago) @ scarab

Complaints about cop outs are complaints against lazy writing. Destiny has enough story issues without adding lazy writing to the mix.

I don't think that sorcery is worse than ONI because sorcery is fantasy. It is worse because it can excuse everything. At first thought having a cop out that works universally sounds great for the writer. "Hey, I don't have to bother with: "does it make sense?" or, "how does this character know that?".

The problem with such an easy cop out is that working out stuff and making it make sense is part of a good writer's toolkit. Those muscles will atrophy. It also removes a chance to impress your audience. When you realize that the writers have taken the time to work their stuff through, to make it make sense... you think, "This writer is rather good. I enjoy this story more."

The danger with sorcery is that stuff doesn't have to make sense. I despise sorcery and I despise technobable (I've spewed venom on ST's technobable on HBO and, probably, here as well.) I see technobable and most TV/Film sf as fantasy wearing science lipstick. And I really hate it :-)

And, for the record, I didn't like ONI as an excuse for Halo writing shortcomings. I dislike the ONI excuse. It is bad. It's just not as bad, as corrosive as sorcery.

And ONI isn't technobable.

A final question: how does Eris know what's going on and how is she talking to us? Does her third eye see all? Has she a radio? Did she swap her soul with Dinklage? Is he minding the store whilst she is on away missions with you?

EDIT: The Ghost can relay video and radio signals. We've had the Vanguard and others talking to us and reacting to what we're doing this whole time.

-PS was that one question or was it world class darts?

Sorcery/magic/technobabble can be good, and even insightful, when used well. It's an admittance of mystery, and mystery is a part of our reality, whether you look at it scientifically, spiritually, etc. There ARE unknowns. Having a work explain every little detail to me is a waste of time and often just sounds like the author's trying to convince me they know what they're doing instead of letting me trust them on that.

When I played the three Dark Below missions, none of these unknowns bothered me - I inferred or speculated their answers rather quickly. Also, Bungie has always told stories through their visuals without blatant announcements. Eris has three eyes. A third eye is a long-endearing symbol of enhanced perception, foresight, precognition. Put that together with the Hive, and well, the clues seemed to fit pretty easily together in my head.

I think if we had a mind-blowing story mode, these questions wouldn't bother folks, instead they'd become sources of speculation.

Destiny's story problems are not in a lack of answers and details - it's essentially all in the lack of present, changing, and interacting characters. Simply having multiple people talk on the radio to each other, not to mention an increase in cinematics like meeting the EXO stranger or the Queen of the Reef, would weave everything together more smoothly regardless of whether we're actually getting more plot or not.

When you have someone telling you something, that's okay. But having two people ask questions of each other? It's far more exciting and it shapes the world more, as well as making you feel a part of the mystery instead being left out of it. When the Arbiter and Johnson confronted Tartarus, we didn't learn anything we hadn't before - but it was exciting because characters were interacting and changing the world.

So I don't believe Destiny's universe is poor or in need of more answers. I even think most of the cinematics were pretty intriguing. There's simply not enough of them (or another method of storytelling) to give us engaging characters that breath more life and a flowing narrative into what's there. In short: we need cool characters doing things.

Since I am still hopeful of an improving narrative and still find the universe fun, I'd rather speculate on what we do have instead of just throwing it out.