TOWOID is going to have 2 fairly explicit sex scenes by the end of the story. But the sex scenes aren’t really the focus of the story? So in that instance when a story has sex scenes but isn’t about sex scenes, I tend to mark it as Mature instead of Explicit. I just see “Explicit” as a rating as something people search when they’re looking for a smut story and I don’t want to mislead them into thinking TOWOID has a bunch of smut with that rating.
But, the smut is pretty explicit, like the camera does not look away or fade to black at all, which is how some people define “Mature” vs. “Explicit” sex scenes.
So my question is, once TOWOID’s final chapter with its sex scene drops, should I elevate the rating to Explicit because there’s now two explicit sex scenes, or keep it at mature because sex scenes only make up like 5% of the story?
So I watched the first episode of The Dragon Prince last night and I must admit I wasn’t terribly impressed. Which is not to say it might not improve in later episodes but I wanted to quickly address what the issue was with the opening, since it’s not a bad object lesson.
(Spoilers for like, the first 5 minutes of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince)
We open with a classic fantasy prologue in which we are introduced to all the magical powers and lands of this magical kingdom that has elves and dragons and humans. Genre fans will recognize this trope of the prologue that introduces the fantasy setting, it has echoes of this team’s other work “Avatar: The Last Airbender” in the introduction of the four lands and the conflict that exists between them, but it’s an unfavorable comparison.
This is because The Dragon Prince does not start us out with a character.
As I mentioned in this essay about the strengths of My Hero Academia, a modern audience needs a character to latch onto! Yes the Dragon Prince gives us some Sauron-ish figure, but he’s clearly not a main character or someone we’re supposed to be rooting for at this point. Mostly it’s just sweeping references to magical people and places we don’t care about yet. We don’t care about them because we’ve been given no reason, no character, to whom these conflicts are central.
In contrast, Avatar: the Last Airbender also has an introduction but that introduction contains an “I”statement by a character that’s going to be one of our central protagonists. We set up the nations, the conflict, but then Katara ends, “But I believe the Avatar can save the world.” – This sets us up immediately the relationship our narrator or main character has with the conflict and magical world you’ve presented. Katara (we don’t know who she is yet in the first episode) is someone who lives in this world at the center of its conflicts and she believes that this other character, who will certainly be relevant and central to the story (The Avatar) can save the world. Boom! We as an audience know what we signed up for and have been introduced to the promise of this story, the central issue that these characters will address.
I know prologues are out of vogue in novels right now. I think in many instances this is wrong and pure fashion. But when it comes to the classic fantasy setting prologue where all we get is a long diatribe about where this place is and how it works with no characters introduced I can completely understand why that kind of prologue needs to die.
TL;DR: When starting your story, especially a genre story that’s in a world removed from our experiences, start us out with a character. Preferably a character we can root for or identify with on some level, even if they’re awful, and one who is going to be relevant from the beginning of the story so we’re not wondering why we just met this person. Then you can give us your long diatribe about how your magical world works through their eyes and that way we can care and also understand wtf any of this has to do with the story. For such a team of expert writers I was shocked that The Dragon Prince didn’t follow this simple, obvious rule, and at the very least start us off with the kid characters and then have the prologue given to them as a history lesson so we could get their commentary on it and relevance to their life, jfc.
Sometimes it’s really lonely being an author. Because when you’re writing, you’re doing it alone, and there’s no one there to gush over silly feelings with you.
And I suppose that’s why reader comments are important to authors. It’s not about the compliments. It’s that we’ve been alone with our thoughts this whole time. It’s an awesome feeling when a friend shows up to share them with you.
Of all the universes they could have had, this was theirs: A Newton Geiszler shaped thing trussed up in a cell, and Hermann Gottlieb desperate and unable to give up hope. . To save Newton’s life, Hermann is driven to tinker with the very handwriting of god.
Chapter 19: Waiting for him to Reclaim
The PPDC is in new hands, and preparations are made to turn the Precursor’s Plan B against them.
For this chapter I commissioned a piece from @lydkyd-art. I highly recommend following them here and on twitter.
Avelera 