Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories VIII

It's been a while since my last edition of Building Better Backstories. In the past, I've discussed literary and cinematic alterations but this edition is both a first for me and something that I'm actually quite excited to discuss.

This eighth edition of Building Better Backstories will be the first to discuss the narrative of a video game. In particular the fourth and final game in the legendary Sly Cooper franchise: Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

Released in 2013 by Sanzaru Games, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time is visually and gameplay-wise, very similar to the previous entries of Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves. However, where the game is almost universally disliked by fans of the franchise is in the area of story, as the fourth game in this franchise famous for well-established character-driven story moments feels almost lifeless and seems to even revel in making character twists and revelations that either hinder the games' storytelling potential and, at worst, make previous entries in the series feel shallow or worse because of the revelations.

With that in mind, I realized, after speaking with my sister who is also a huge fan of the series, that my mind had actually already come up with several solutions to this issue. So that is what I will do. I will go over the narrative problems in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and then lay out my solutions for fixing an average game and transforming it into what I would feel is a fantastic game.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories VII

I have made it no secret that I have a rather neutral, leaning-negative, perception of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Several weeks back, I had the "pleasure" of reviewing the third film in the franchise and while I will admit that I enjoyed it significantly more than its predecessors, even then I noted that it had a tremendous amount of problems attached to it that were simply systemic of the franchise as a concept.

Which is a real shame because I absolutely love the Harry Potter franchise and it made an incredible impact upon my childhood and teenage years. The world-building was superb and was deeply connected to the characters that inhabited that. While I have grown to hold some reluctant hesitance with regards to uncomfortable subtext within the universe due to the reputation of the author, the series as a whole still holds up.

This enjoyment of Harry Potter, but general ambivalence towards Fantastic Beasts, has been a consistent mystery to me and motivated me to explore and figure out what about the prequel series has me so frustrated and disappointed. The conclusion I came to, and the solution that I would prefer, was something that I absolutely knew needed to be my next issue of Building Better Backstories, especially in the wake of The Secrets of Dumbledore. As you will see in the article below, that film had an element present that the other films were mostly missing. A crucial element that truly helps set the tone and genre of the Fantastic Beasts.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories VI

I am back from HarmonyCon and I am ready to talk some shit about A Song of Ice & Fire, the (hopefully) ongoing fantasy series by George R.R. Martin. Those of you who are not of the reading disposition may know this series better through its television adaptation, Game of Thrones.

Now everyone and their mother has given an opinion on the final season of Game of Thrones and how much of a fucking catastrophe it truly was; an opinion that I agree with and thus feel I have little to nothing to contribute towards. But what some people may not know is that I actually think that there is an element of the George R.R. Martin's world that is born from the author's own mind that I actually think was a major missed opportunity and a failing on his part.

My problem stems from the Ironborn, the Viking inspired pirate civilization that lives on the barren rocks to the West of Westeros. Considered primitive and inherently untrustworthy, our most present viewpoint of Ironborn culture for most of the series stems exclusively from Theon Greyjoy, who is a prisoner (ward) of House Stark following a massive failed Independence movement perpetrated by Theon's father.

Theon's story soon expands to include several other characters that shift the focus of the story towards the selection of a new Ironborn king, which leads to Theon's uncle usurping his sister's position and placing both of them in potentially dangerous political waters, with implications that Euron Greyjoy has something very magical and dark going on in the background. In the books, this storyline has yet to be fully actualized; but the TV series did precisely dick-all with most if not all of the Ironborn plot (a fate seemingly shared by the Dornish).

But I think that there actually was a storyline that Martin could've made had he recontextualized Balon Greyjoy's independence movement and the general relationship between the Ironborn, their own history, and the Iron Throne as a whole. One that could've helped to build conflict between the Westeros as a whole and feed indirectly into the larger plot involving the Others.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories V

So this editorial was always going to be a real pain in my ass. For one, it seems to have become culturally "cool" to rip into the Star Wars sequel trilogy and mock it relentlessly without taking into account any of the positive traits that the series does possess. And there are a few truly positive elements of the sequel trilogy that I think need to be given their due credit, especially if we are going to try and improve upon the franchise. The trilogy has some truly inspired cinematic and narrative moments that, if properly explored, would've been absolutely inspired.

That being said, I would be lying if I didn't understand and at the very least agree that the Star Wars sequel trilogy overall wasn't a steaming hot mess almost from the word go. Which is a damn shame because the acquisition by Disney had all the hallmarks of being a momentous achievement and a chance to restart the series from all of the enormous weight of the Legends canon; that is the Star Wars material released independent of the Lucas-era films up until the Disney acquisition.

I've known ever since the release of The Rise of Skywalker that some kind of Building Better Backstories was going to be necessary for the sequel trilogy, but I also struggled to figure out how best to fix the franchise.

It will be difficult, but I think I have a solution. It may not contain many specific narrative elements, but we will take a look at what went wrong, what they could've used, and how that might have worked for a better trilogy overall.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories IV

Last week, I reviewed Jurassic Park III, ultimately giving it a disappointingly low 4.5/10. This hurts because the Jurassic Park franchise has always held a special place in my heart.

My first and oldest passion has always been dinosaurs and paleontology and Jurassic Park did much to foster that affection. Among my earliest memories was watching the original Jurassic Park, so for me to say that the third film in this franchise is a disappointment hurts me a great deal.

I think that's why I needed to do a Building Better Backstories for Jurassic Park III. I thought long and hard about what changes would need to be made and, I hope that you guys enjoy what I came up with.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories III

Last week I took a long look at Frozen 2 and throughout that review, I felt myself inherently comparing it to its predecessor. This is perfectly natural, as any sequel will be held to the standard set by the previous entries in any series (sometimes to its determent).

But while I was watching Frozen 2 in theaters, that unavoidable comparison brought an interesting thought to my mind. The story of the original Frozen is a fairly strong one, possessing only a single element that I feel is fairly weak and could be improved upon.

With that in mind, I was sitting in the Frozen 2 showing thinking about just how one minor change to the overall film could change the narrative direction of the film, and even improve its thematic and dramatic elements.

Which naturally left me realizing that that would make an excellent article for Building Better Backstories. So let's take another quick look at the Frozen franchise and change one story beat and see whether or not the "new" film is better or worse than the original?

THIS ARTICLE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS TO THE ORIGINAL FROZEN.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories II

Welcome back to Building Better Backstories.

The premise behind this series of editorials will be amending or transforming the backstories behind famous fictional characters, events, or organizations to fix issues that I see with them. This could be something as complex as a complete rewrite of a backstory, to a simple retexturing of the overall lesson.

My aim with this series is for you to join me in considering why fiction utilizes certain backstories and how those stories and the changes we make can have a fundamental impact on the overall "feel" of the character, event, or organization in question.

And in today's Building Better Backstories, we will take a look at Marvel's most infamous villain, anti-hero, somewhat well-intentioned extremist.

The Master of Magnetism and Leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants: Max Eisenhardt/Eric Lehnsherr, otherwise known as Magneto.

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Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories I

Welcome to Building Better Backstories.

The premise behind this series of editorials will be amending or transforming the backstories behind famous fictional characters, events, or organizations to fix issues that I see with them. This could be something as complex as a complete rewrite of a backstory, to a simple retexturing of the overall lesson.

Today's Subject? Batman

My aim with this series is for you to join me in considering why fiction utilizes certain backstories and how those stories and the changes we make can have a fundamental impact on the overall "feel" of the character, event, or organization in question.

And for our first post in this series, let's take a look at one of the most famous superheroes, with one of the most well-known backstories of all time.

He is "The World's Greatest Detective (in the DC Universe)", He is Vengeance, He is the Night:

Bruce Wayne, otherwise known as Batman.

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