Hey, Ryuu....

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo.

A Quickie: Why Ryuu Steals From Other Artists

And lo, in a single comment, Ryuu reveals the cornerstone of his philosophy:  "I can't do it myself, so I'll take it from someone else who can."

Oh, Ryuu. There's no thrill in experimentation for you, is there? No fascination in research. Why go to all that trouble when you can take the hard work of others and get all the credit?

The ultimate irony is that this was supposed to be his big breakthrough into "original" storytelling. This was when he was supposed to take his Zelda OCs and put them in their own universe. All it proves is that Ryuu is capable of incredibly bold lies -- now he claims that he's being completely original while he rips off the work of others. At least when he was still working in the Zelda universe, he had an excuse to source from it.

Surprise Q&A: The Wayward She-Elf and The Squid

Hey look! I come bearing presents. The She-Elf agreed to do a Q&A for us, so enjoy.

This doesn't mean you're going to be seeing her posting again, but that (and other things) are covered in the following. The Elf's responses are in blue, my questions are in gold, blah blah blah. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, Elf!

Was there a reason you decided to make Ryuu the subject of the blog?
You’ll have to forgive me, as my memory is not the best. I don’t think there was any one, particular reason, at the time. He just caught our attention, and there was a dearth of criticism on his work. It was one of those ideas that just pops into your head, sometimes. “Oh, let’s go do this thing!” “That could be fun!” I might be forgetting something. If I am, I apologize to the others.

Was there any event in particular that made you guys decide to found the blog?
I think the catalyst was the set of homophobic rules on his forum. I think it was that spark of anger that caused me to create it, instead of just talking about it and forgetting about it. Yes, while the lot of us thought it was a fun idea, I think it was rather obvious to anyone who knows me that I did the initial creating. Why else would there be so much blue?

What was your goal in starting the blog? Did you expect the amount of support it's gotten, or is this a surprise?
We had a few objectives. We wanted to provide some criticism, because he received so little commentary that wasn’t praise, we wanted to provide a place to vent, because it seems more polite to do that than to post aggressive complaints on his page, and we wanted to inform others about his character flaws. 

I didn’t expect any support, though. I figured if it didn’t get outright ignored, it’d get nothing but hate.

I know you already covered this in the FAQ, but we seem to be getting this a LOAD recently anyway. Why did you choose this route as opposed to leaving criticism directly on Ryuu's forum/deviantArt or sending it to him privately?

Well, first of all, it seemed intrusive. It seems especially intrusive to go onto his forum to criticize him, actually. 

Second of all, it’s easier to brush off criticisms on your own ‘territory,’ as it were. We wanted a place where it couldn’t get washed away. No, no creator has to use any criticism he or she gets. No critic should expect his or her suggestions to be used, either. However, it did seem to me, at the time, that what very little criticism he got was brushed aside with excuses. He just explained away why the critic’s concerns were invalid and never fixed anything in his art or writing to show what he claimed. 

That’s his decision, too. He’s welcome to it. I didn’t see why it would be different if it was on Z:EF as opposed to his deviantart, forum, or email in-box. I still don’t. He can just as easily brush them off here as he could on his own page. 

Additionally, no one even knows if we have deviantART accounts. People can browse sites like that without accounts. I still don’t have a fanfiction.net account, after all. Though, I suppose that’s a moot point, because you can (sometimes) leave anonymous comments.

And something else I know you and I have covered in private. Why did you choose the name Zelda: Epic Failure?
Laziness. I took the title of his forum and replaced Journeys with Failure. Now that I think about it, I probably should have used the word ‘Failures.’

Why did you leave the failblog?

A combination of reasons. First: I gave my word that I wouldn’t post about Ryuu until he and I had reached a resolution. He left our conversation after three messages and never got back to me. Around this time, I renamed the blog and played around with doing other things, which was a terrible idea, as it watered down the focus immensely.

This contributed to the Second: I had a massive falling-out with Rinku, in part because of the way I ran the blog. I did create the blog, but we didn’t actually have a hierarchy. I turned over formal management to him, and we had other issues that I don’t feel like posting online. Eventually, I stopped my neutral posts and left after a final argument that is irrelevant because it’s not about Ryuu. 

I took some time to myself grieving the loss of some friendships and focused on my spiritual and religious growth. For those who don’t know, I consider myself deeply religious.

Is there anything you wish you would've done differently during your tenure?
There’s plenty I would’ve done differently. I wouldn’t have been quite so aggressive. Not because I feel an aggressive tone is inherently wrong, but because I was more aggressive in tone than I am as a person. I was already anticipating arguments, and I wanted to be the target of those arguments, rather than my friends. It’s not a logical way of thinking, no, but that’s the one I had.

I also wouldn’t have given my word to remain silent. I’m not sure what that would’ve done in the short-term, and I don’t think it would’ve prevented my issues with Rinku, but I wonder if it would’ve been more useful in the longterm. 

I think I would’ve liked to actually edit my articles, too. I’m sure it’s obvious I didn’t put enough effort into my posts. I slapped on rough drafts with minimal proof-reading. So ugly.  

 I also would’ve kept the site blue.
 
Do you have a favorite and/or least favorite character of Ryuu's? Is there any character in particular you think could be salvaged? Is there one you think should just be killed off and never spoken of again?
Sort of. I don’t have a favorite character, because while there are traits of Vassi that are all right and interesting parts of an unused character of his, a deku named Dominick (Domi for short), I am not emotionally attached remotely enough to call either of them my favorites. 

As for the character I dislike most, I’m going to go ahead and say Callock, because you know I’m a fan of Dragon Ball Z, for one thing, and you know how much I think Gotenks is one of the worst things to ever exist on the show. 

I think Vassi could be salvaged. I actually toyed around with it and had a few overly-complicated conversations about timelines. 

I’ll also surprise you by saying I don’t think Ryo is unsalvageable. In a way. Who he would be as a character, and what he would look like, may actually be drastically different, and one might say it would be no different than scrapping him and creating a new character, but explaining how would take up a lot of room and energy, and I’m not sure if I want to make the effort right here. 

But, to answer your question, Rebé. I even wrote a large thing explaining why, but the simple explanation is: orientalism. I find the character painfully racist and sexist beyond salvaging, and some of that is not just Ryuu’s fault. Racism is a thing that most people have to unlearn and it’s a slow process. It’s a heavy accusation, too, and I would like to make it clear that I’m not trying to say he’s a terrible person. I don’t believe she’s an intentionally racist character. It’s a complicated matter, and, again, I don’t feel like taking up the space and energy to explain it too deeply.

Any thoughts on Ryuu taking his characters out of the Zelda fandom to make them more “original”... while ripping more shit off?

Yes. Simply put: I don’t think he should do it. I don’t say that to be mean. I just honestly don’t think he’s ready to do all that would need to be done to actually make a successful transition. While I do think he’s made an effort, I don’t think he’s completely fixed the problems his characters have as fan characters. 

I think if he wants to try an original setting, he should start completely from scratch, just for practice’s sake. Perhaps after that, he could try transitioning his characters.

 Do you have any good Zelda-based stories you'd like to recommend?
Actually, I don’t. I’ve read less than half-a-dozen that I would recommend, but I don’t have them saved in my favorites and I don’t remember the names of the authors. I don’t actually read a lot of good Zelda fan fiction. When I say that, I don’t mean it’s hard to find. I mean, I tend to enjoy finding bad Zelda fan fiction.

As someone who also suffers from badfic disease, are there any other Zelda fanfics you'd recommend?

Oh my, yes. There’s one called The Legend of Zelda: Diamond of Eternity. It’s been a favorite of mine for a while. I should revisit it. On a purely technical level, it’s okay for a thirteen-year-old’s work. I don’t give it that much of a pass, though, because she revisited her account years later—eight years later, according to when it was last updated—and it’s still up, so the story itself is fair game. 

The author isn’t, though, because c’mon. 

The obvious choice is My Inner Life, which I’ve tried digging into several times, in several different ways. That author is loopy, by the way. 

For anyone who can find it through the wayback machine, most of Zelda’s Odyssey: Inverse Purity still exists somewhere on the internet. Most of the ending is gone, though. It’s completely insane. Thirty or so chapters of converting-the-Zelda-cast to Christianity, or else. I genuinely lament that I can never read it in full.

SQUID'S EDIT (2 July 2013): That's not the case, apparently! Someone emailed me a link. It's still around, so if you like badfic, have fun.

That last one sounds laughably terrible, and I'd probably be as entertained by that as that one Judas/Jesus story we laughed at. Do you have any recommended non-Zelda based stories?

The Chronicles of Amber. You were expecting that. It’s a ten-book series by Roger Zelazny, my favorite author of all time. In fact, I recommend anything by Roger Zelazny, but my favorites are his Amber series, This Mortal Mountain, A Rose for Ecclesiastes, and Horseman! 

I could list three or so more favorites if I really wanted to. 

Besides that, I recommend Gawain and the Green Knight, as translated by Tolkien. I’ve tried one other translation, myself, and it was not very good. I haven’t tried a couple other translations because I don’t read ones that weren’t translated in verse. He’s the translator my medieval cultures professor recommended me in college. 

I’ll leave it at that, though, before I start talking about everything I’ve read and liked. What’s important is that everyone like Roger Zelazny. He’s one of my heroes. 

I don’t think I need to recommend any bad books, since some of those get popularized, but my favorite badly written book series is Left Behind. You were also expecting that, considering I’ve even got you to read it. Save the Pearls is also terrible, but I don’t recommend it because I think it would be morally wrong to advocate giving money to that racist woman.

Have you read Ryuu's non-Zelda stories? If so, do you think the writing is better or worse?

I wasn’t aware that he wrote more than a ‘Mario’ fan fiction based entirely around his Mario fan characters. The Plight of Plum, I think. 

I found the writing on that better, overall. The characters seemed to have more personality, the prose was more concise. The dialogue was still stiff, but it was definitely leagues better than his Zelda fics. The plot was simpler and had its own problems, but for what it was, I suppose it was passable. 

If it counts, I’ve read his original comic, which is hard to classify as better or worse. The characterization was blander, but they only had something like half a dozen pages where not much happened. I wasn’t impressed with what storyline there was, either.

Whoa, I was not aware of a comic. D'you remember any details?

Of course. The basic premise was some all-powerful giant named Na Ture (I had a post I never finished about the name of that giant and the giant’s nemesis, actually, that never got posted before I gave my word to stop, actually) with seven rings each with a power based on some sort of element. I forget what exactly happened to him and his nemesis Hadiis de Ville. 

The protagonist was, from what I recall, according to Ryuu, based on himself, so I assumed a self-insert. And that happens. Most people have done a self-insert. I never actually wrote one, to my memory, but I played pretend when I was in early middle school as that sort of character, for ReBoot. I just admitted that. I kind of hate myself for it, but I’ll leave it in, because I’m not better than anyone else. 

Anyway, average story. Bullied outcast kid discovers another, hidden part of the world and gets some sort of powers. In the beginning, he’s getting bullied by a snotty rich kid because of some girl, based, I assume, on Lady-Zelda. You know, the kind of thing you might see in the Beginning of Jumanji. 

“Stay away from my girl.” 

“We’re just friends.” 

“Not anymore, you’re not.”

The bully’s friends do most of the work, victim gets trashed. I assume later girl-being-fought-over would’ve later shown up to check on him. Not to compare Ryuu’s comic to Jumanji, it was just the first example of that sort of theme that came to mind. Jumanji’s a good movie, by the way, and I think you like Robin Williams. Dunno HOW I got that impression, though.

Is there anything in particular you'd suggest Ryuu read (I know “everything” is ideal but that's not going to happen)? Either because you think it'd help or because you'd think it'd be interesting.
Actually! Currently, I’m reading a book called Arena. It’s a Christian allegory with sci-fi elements. I know what you’re thinking. Me, reading sci-fi? Yes, it happens. Zelazny writes it, so I read it. I’m running out of excuses not to read Piers Anthony. Eh, I guess I’ll pick him up after I finish the handful of books I bought last month. 

Arena is… well, I haven’t gotten around to reading much of Pilgrim’s Progress, but it seems vaguely akin to that. Not as obvious, but it’s not really subtle. It’s not obnoxious about it, but it’s not subtle. 

It’s not the best. So far, I’d say the writing is… fair, I guess. Then again, I read R.L. Stine, still. He was my favorite writer when I was in the second grade and I recognize his flaws, now, and writing for a young audience is no excuse, so there’s no shame in reading lower quality work for enjoyment, in some cases, especially if you recognize its flaws. But, I’d recommend this more for his enjoyment than for critical reading, anyway. 

I’d also like to recommend the Tao te Ching, because I think reading other holy texts is healthy for spiritual growth, and it’s a fairly short one. I recommend everyone read at least chapter 49 in at least three translations. They’re easily found free online.

Obligatory favorite Zelda game/character/race/dungeon question! What's your favorite Zelda game, character, race, and dungeon? (YES I AM THAT CREATIVE.)

In order: 

Majora’s Mask, because it’s dark and unnerving and I’m a horror junkie. Also, I love masks and playing with masks as a symbol. Second-and-third: Wind Waker and Adventure of Link, because I love the water and because it’s pure evil, respectively.

On that note, The Happy Mask Salesman. He’s just perfect. He might be evil. I don’t actually care. Close second-and-third: Sheik and Linebeck.

The Sheikah are my favorite race, because there’s so many interesting things for me to play with, and because of the answer to your last question. Second-and-third are the minish and… maybe the Garo, or maybe the Subrosians. I like secretive, mysterious things. Also, cute things. Honorable mentions to the dekus and miniblins, because I wasn’t sure if they counted, because they’re typically enemies.

Shadow Temple in Ocarina of Time, along with Under the Well. I am a sick creature. I love how evil and awful they are. I love the idea of the Sheikah, essentially enslaved by Hyrule, hiding the bloody, nightmarish past of Hyrule and its royal family. A kingdom built from the bones of others. Screaming nightmares lurking under a pleasant town… 

Second-and-third: the Tower of the Gods in Wind Waker (Gee, I wonder why that would be) and the Stone Tower Temple because it’s just so cool. And that theme is so wonderful. Honorable mentions go to the Forest Temple in Ocarina of Time for the creepy theme, and the Temple of Droplets from Minish Cap, because, well, I guess I like tiny things.

And your least favorite Zelda game/character/race/dungeon?
In order: 

Twilight Princess. Second-and-third: Twilight Princess, and Twilight Princess. WAY TO EMOTE, WOODFACE. YOUR SCENERY SHOULD ALSO BE MORE BROWN. 

That’s a hard one. I think this is where people expect me to say Tingle or maybe Navi, since those seem to be the fandom punching bags. Actually, I quite like Navi. Hm… maaaaybe Tatl. I know she’s more juvenile not just in personality but in actuality, and she mellows out later, but I don’t have a better answer, and I never quite got over how snotty she was. I like her bell sounds, though, and I understand, mostly, why she’s like that. 

And… I don’t hate them by any means, but I’m going to go ahead and say Hylians, anyway, just because of the whole hegemonic, enslaving anyone (anyone who is a Sheikah) born in Kakariko village thing. Unless I can answer enemies, here, in which case everything undead, because I hate the undead and they freak me the hell out because I hate them and they’re the worst, and there’s a romantic story with zombies, now?! Wtf is wrong with people, necrophilia is the grossest thing I can ever imagine, ever. So, I guess, ReDead, Stalfos, etc. 

The Temple of the Ocean King. Again, I don’t… really hate it. I just don’t want to do it over and over and over again, yanno? Of course you know. I think that’s why you hated the game. I still loved the game, actually. And whatever that one temple was in A Link to the Past with the Moldorm, because you can get knocked off and you’ll have to start the boss over. It wasn’t a huge problem, but sometimes I’m bad at video games, okay? And it’s the principle of the thing. I don’t care if it was my fault.