I did a presentation on Cloud Atlas for an academic conference on robots called ‘Learning to be Human: Models of Education in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas (2004)'. I focusing on Sonmi 451's education and the ways she overcame trauma to act more human. Even though she is a clone, she is similar to a robot. The point is, Tim, I used a lot of your videos, especially the one on Zuko's psychology to help me form my argument, so thank you that was really helpful. Your videos always inspire me.
Regarding 57, I think you're really good at your job and your videos are great. Even when I have a bad day, your videos cheer me up and I learn nice things about writing and literature (both I love) so thank you for doing everything you do! I am very happy to be able to read your first novel when it comes out!
I started watching for your HTTYD videos and I went and rewatched them recently and you have made so much progress in how you speak and communicate. You've only grown as a artist and writer
I don't know if you've seen it already, but I would recommend the anime HunterxHunter. Togashi has a very unconventional storytelling style and the animation of the anime is gorgeous. It might not be your thing, but if you do investigate it I will let you know that Togashi doesn't really get his footing until the Yorknew City Arc.
29:54 that is a bad answer. You are scared of hardships and want easy life as a protagonist, but what I come to understand more and more - that is not how life or great stories work. Life is prone to catastrophes. You can lose family member, wife, kids or everyone at once. There could be WW3, nuclear holocaust, fall of democracy and rise of totalitarian/authoritarian dictatorship, Ai uprising terminator style, another even deadlier pandemic *cough, cough* natural disasters and etc and etc. And in that story called life you can either be hero, good character, bad character or villain and everything in between. Good fictional stories teach you to deal with it. If you aren't ready to take on adventure of fictional characters, are you ready to take on the adventure of your life? I don't mind taking on adventure of Gandalf, Aragorn or Samwise Gamgee myself because I know there is at least a happy ending. I don't know anything about happiness in the near future, looks like it could be opposite of that, and I just wish I could be strong enough as my heroes to get through it and do what is right. To quote Tolkien: “I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” What's your story is going to be?
While one comment doesn't necessarily lead into the other, I like how your favorite genre is sci-fi and then you mention always going back to things like Avatar and LotR which are very much fantasy.🙂 Keep doing you, love the content. Learned so much about what makes stories work (or not) from your videos.
On 57: I think our brains are not made for what the internet offers: too many people. What I mean by that is that I truly believe we have no comprehension of large numbers of people. Our brains seem to work in village-size populations when it comes to calculating the value of feedback. That means that if 10 or 20 people have something negative to say we can’t comprehend that it’s 10-20 out of 100 or out of 100,000 - and that messes with the perceived relative number of this kind of feedback. 10-20 out of a village bears so much more meaning. I‘m not even suggesting to do the math each time and calculate a percentage. The quality of the feedback is the only thing that matters. If it’s any sort of constructive criticism, it is worth thinking about. All the rest rules itself out right from the start. Only if someone offers a new perspective and suggests considering it, take the time and figure out what to do with it. Have a good one, you all!
I very much agree with Fingolfin being a favourite character in the Silmarillion. That scene where he marches up to Morgoth's domain, challenges, and Morgoth is *scared* is just so dang powerful. For those who aren't familiar with the Silmarillion: Morgoth is a fallen Valar - Sauron at the height of his power is one of his lieutenants, as are literally hundreds of Balrogs. That is how absurdly powerful this character is. Fingolfin is....an elf. Elves in the Silmarillion are definitely more powerful than they are in Lord of the Rings - Fingolfin is pretty close to the peak of Elven society and is legendarily badass among elves of that period, so he's pretty intense as far as semi-mortals go....but he's still an elf. The entire *species* of elves has been at war with Morgoth for most of their existence at this point, and this one individual challenges him to a duel one on one. And Morgoth is so terrified of this guy that the only reason he accepts the challenge is that his underlings would see him not responding as a sign of significant weakness. So the duel happens, Fingolfin wounds Morgoth 7 times - wounds Morgoth never fully recovers from - but is ultimately crushed by Morgoth's hammer. The Silmarillion gets a bit of a bad rap for its writing style being so aloof but...there's a couple of readings of this section on youtube, it's well worth looking up this part at the very least. It's such a cool scene.
The number of balrogs is not entirely definitive - in the material Tolkien himself had published, only one appears - Durin's Bane. In the unpublished works, the number dwindled from many before the publication of LotR, to no more than seven in the writings that became the published Silmarillion. Because Tolkien himself never arrived at the point of producing a finished Silmarillion for publication, it's impossible to know what his final decision would have actually been, but the available evidence points toward there not having been many. But, yeah, that doesn't take away from Fingolfin's achievement in wounding Morgoth. One of the more tragic elements of the Silmarillion is that, purely in terms of strength of arms and will, the elves, fresh from Aman, could possibly have defeated Morgoth if Feanor hadn't been constitutionally incapable of working with anyone else - instead, the elves settled into separate camps, and their strength slowly faded away from the light of the Trees and Morgoth had all the time he needed to build his forces and gradually defeat his foes piecemeal until only the voyage of Earendil allowed the last remnant to be rescued.
@@rmsgrey I thought I'd remembered that one hidden Elven city - Gondolin? - being attacked by "a host of balrogs" or some such thing - a term generally implied to be a fairly sizable strike force and not...7. I could of course be mistaken, or that could well have been a remnant of earlier writings when they were intended more as heavy shocktroops than as high ranking leaders. I fully admit it has been a very long time since I've read the Silmarillion in its entirety. I do remember the War of Wrath featuring "fleets of dragons" which is, considering how powerful Smaug is, a terrifying concept...but then that's the finale of Morgoth's reign and everything is terrifying about that battle. (Folks who haven't read the Silmarillion: yes, its writing style is very oddly paced and it doesn't have as much polish as the books Tolkien had ready for publication, but...there's parts of it that get absolutely wild. There's definite payoff if you can get in the right headspace for it.)
@@rashkavar I've most recently read through the History of Middle Earth, so it's possible I'm remembering something that didn't make it into the Silmarillion for whatever reason - toward the end of HoME, there a quite a few times when Christopher Tolkien comments something along the lines of "I would have put this in the Silmarillion only I didn't know about these papers at the time"
Tim, you are an amazing person and such an inspiration to many! I really love your job and seeing how you grew over the years makes me genuinely happy and hopeful. I'm sure you will get a lot more recognition and appreciation in your job. Wish you all the best!
Those soft Vs hard magic system videos where how I found your channel. It feels totally unreal that I've ben following your channel for half a decade already.
I hope that when you are living in Europe you will have some time to come to conventions like the Fantasy Fair, would love to shake hands with you some day
If you do ever do an analysis of a "JRPG", I think its probably worth first looking at the recent discussion surrounding the term itself, because it has a pretty unsavory history and a lot of Japanese game developers really dont like the term as a result
For Mange/Anime, I recommend you reading/watching Detective Conan (Aka. Case Closed); I would love hearing your review on this long going series. Personally speaking, as series, I rank it right after Avatar the Last Airbender! It has a well structured story, great characters development and world built nicely.
Because I need to maintain predictability, I'm going to make a firm and enthusiastic recommendation for an anime series: Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Only 12 episodes, so easy to complete within a short time frame, and, without giving away anything else, could be quite useful if you want to do a video about cosmic horror.
Have you read "Legend of Condor Heroes" series, either a fan translation or some of the new definitive edition translations that came out in the last few years? If so, what did you think of them?
"How much anime have you watched?" "I've watched all of the big ones." Names like three anime. Sorry Tim, but have I got news for you. Even if you say "only the big ones," you're still looking at hundreds, maybe even over a thousand different titles. No one has watched all of the big ones. But as a long time fan of both you and anime, I am super excited to see you delve deeper into weeb culture. I was ecstatic when you watched my favorite anime Eva.
A good place to start Anime for you, I think, would be my favourite "Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World". Now, it's an isekai, and it deos explore a lot of the tropes, like your average good-for-nothing shut-in in the real world is a hero in the other world. But to me it's still very unique to the subgenre. The first thing is that Subaru has to actually grow into that hero, and the way IS freaking hard. It sure took me for a ride. I was in love, then utterly SHOCKED, then in love again, and then everything means just so much. And it's not afraid to plunge deeply into the deepest emotions, not unlike a really sophisticated and deep comtemporary drama. The show's got its criticism, and probably for good reason, but I think there's also good reason to love it. I'm waiting impatiently for the third season.
I recommend "Spinning Silver" by Naomi Novik for Eastern European style fantasy. It's a great book and a refreshingly well-done representation of Jewish people (speaking as a Jew myself).
On #65, I would kill to see you go through your writing process like that. I’ve always wanted to be able to pick the brain of an author and find out why they make the choices they make in their craft, and if anyone has the platform and audience for it, it’s you, Tim.
Would you ever try reading a Japanese Light Novel in the Isekai Genre, a Korean Novel in the Hero/Demon Lord Fantasy Genre and a Chinese Novel in the Xianxia or Wuxia Genre?
The fact that my request for uninterrupted momo time made it in to the last video bings a tear to my eye knowing how many people with legitimate questions I beat out 🥹🥹 LOL thank you for making another video for the other questions, could listen to you talking about what you're passionate about all day!! 😊
