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Okay, I'm going, shhhh, you just got hold on to something and hope none of it gets in your eyes or mouth, but, okay, the feet.

See, Tolkein earned the feet because he spent so much time worldbuilding. Yes, he never explains why the fucking hobbits have big hairy feet. Maybe he's like a foot fetishist? Maybe he thought it was cute? (The Hobbit was a kid's book.) But he spends so much time explaining everything else that, like, one weird little detail doesn't really have an explanation, it's okay. You don't need to over-explain, sure, but, the guy literally started with the languages because that's what he did for fun. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings basically exist because he spent so much time making up the history and lore and shit of Middle Earth, he had to come up with a story to justify it's existence.

I mean, have you not read the Silmarillion? Actually, no one's read the Silmarillion, because that book is the opposite of Generic Bad Furry Novel, and is all worldbuilding, no story, and therefore kind of boring. But my point is, Tolkein thought that part was fun. So it's weird to use him as an example to justify the belief that explaining things is not necessary to fantasy fiction, since his writing is the opposite. He uses fantasy fiction as justification to explain things.

Okay, there's this Flash game, it's called Space Paws, it's a porn game. Visual novel-ish type. Basic premise; colony ship, you're supposed to repopulate the human race with your partner. Furry aspect comes in with all the planets you visit are inhabited by furries; so dog planet, cat planet, fox planet and lizard planet. And of course you can date and fuck all of them. It doesn't seem to have actually been made by anyone active in the fandom, mostly the art just doesn't look like a furry would do it, and also far and away most of the sex scenes actually involve your human partner. Seems if anything like a small group who decided "hey, these furry guys, they look exploitable."

But, anyway, actually getting to the point, ironically, if you choose, in the end, to stick with your human partner, you get an ending that explains why these planets are populated by Earth animals, or furry equivalents thereof. (It involves black hole time travel and genetic engineering. Spoiler.) And I'm playing this stupid jerk off game, and I'm like, "Holy shit, they just justified almost everything in this game." Why are they Earth animals? They're from Earth! Why are they domesticated dogs, not wolves? They sent dogs, not wolves! Why do they have vaguely Earth-like cultures? They're from Earth! Why can the protagonist fuck and impregnate all these creatures, including the lizards? They were designed that way!

They didn't justify the magical genie, though. That's the equivalent of the hobbit's feet. It's a porn game.

But that's my point, it's a fucking porn game, and it took the effort to explain itself! The fucking goal is to make me horny, not make me think! And yet more effort was put into the fucking backstory of this fucking masturbation fodder than way too much of furry "literature."

Why did they do that? Because it's fun! Because it's fun for the reader, and it's fun for the writer! Worldbuilding and lore are some of the chief pleasures of the fantasy genre. That's fucking why!

Also, it's just lazy not too; the hobbit's feet aren't important to the story of The Lord of the Rings. The fact that Frodo is a hobbit is. The fact that he's small and from a group with little political or military power in his world greatly effects the quest. So Tolkien explained what a fucking hobbit is. Likewise, if you're going to make a piece of fiction starring a talking fox or whatever, the fact that he or she is a talking fox or whatever should probably effect the story. And furthermore, it's also nice if we know a little bit about their backstory.

In conclusion ... oh, shit, I just realized the top article is by me and about Redwall.

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