Storyflash: Resolving Issues

Well, I'd better get this over with, shouldn't I? Ahh, what the heck, these are just ideas, so I'm sorry if they're half-baked! You (Mr. Reader) supposed refine them, lolz. Well, firstly, his Highness Jun Yi has pointed out several flaws in the stories, including the seemingly overpoweredness of characters.

Well, I have to say that it is true. Especially for Transpirers, not imposing any boundaries on the powers of the funny invention thing is a recipe for world destruction. Nevertheless, I guess it is important that the reader realise that Transpirers aren't about world destruction - it's about transferring your knowledge, combining it with creativity, and unleashing it in a physical form.

The focal point of Transpirers is the ability of the human imagination, not the powers that you can use. Remember that being in school, we are some of the smarter people on the planet. The characters in the books may not be smart at all - they don't know what a vector is, how to use it, etc, etc. In other words, many of the supposedly "over-powered abilities" may just not come about, because the characters don't know them.

It all depends on your creativity - after all, you are likely going to be pwned by someone who has a more creative mind than you. If you really want to, then you could say that certain things can't be done, and "balance" the whole Transpirer thing, although that really wasn't what I was trying to achieve here - this isn't a game or anything, so there're no restrictions on which guy is too powerful, etc, etc.

Second observation - If so and so is too powerful, then why can't he do blah blah blah and just end it all. This is also very true, but here is where an author's creative juices come into play. There are several ways to solve something like this: Firstly, it's to come up with parameters that reduce the power of characters, to make them conditional, to make when weakened in a particular way, or a manufactured weakness. This is the "safer" way to do it, because then there's really no way for the character to take over the world easily.

The second method is to come up with a plot device that prevents this from happening - for example, sealing the character in a icy throne so that they couldn't move around and rule the world, or something like that. This is also a "manufactured method", a deliberate attempt to try and "balance" the story. I don't really like deliberate attempts to curb my characters, so this is a no-no method for me.

Finally, there is the "Weave" method - something about the plot itself prevents the character from ruling the world so easily. There could be, for example, a different motivation for the character. The Spiral King in TTGL could have completely destroyed the humans, but did not. Why? Because there was some other event that prevented it, ie Anti-Spiral storyline + morals of the Spiral King, blah blah blah. I am a great fan of this method, but it not only prevents seemingly obvious things from happening, but also adds to the storyline.

Applying this to the story, why can't Transpirers destroy the world? As stated before, they don't know how - I very much doubt a manga artist would know how to destroy the world, and neither would a rabid MMORPG player, etc, etc. Why didn't the Cluster obliterate the humans? There are two reasons for this -> To steal technology from humans to escape to the other world, and because most of their efforts and resources were being channelled in an attempt to invade the other world. There is another reason, but that's revealed in the next chapter.

If there are any other problems, just remember that the stories I've written here are merely ideas. I've never had the intention of writing them, nor am I planning to do so in the future. It's merely a conglomerate of ideas melded together, so obviously there would be a few holes in the plot, incongruity of storyline, etc. Nothing can be perfect, and neither are my story ideas. Far from it, in fact.

In the end, realise that these are just musings. The reader must use their own imagination to come up with their own story, to figure out how things work out, to learn for themselves what the world is like, and maybe to formulate their own story, which is exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to spoonfeed you something, so you really can't take anything at face value here.

Anyway, I hope that resolved some issues and made my intentions clear. Off to write the third and final part of the story.