Discussion Thread

[Leto]

Due to my left hand being damaged I won't beable to post as quickly. I'd let either Lyonize or Leorgarthar take control of Tarajii when it's needed until my hand is mended. I dunno the extent of the injury yet, but it's rather painful. And typing is a pain in the tail.

Sorry for the inconvienience guys. I'll be back soon <3

[cheezeegriff]

Get well soon:). A painful hand ISO a pain in the tail.

[cheezeegriff]

Before anyone worries I've added another NPC, I haven't. I'm just using the outlander names from here: z3.invisionfree.com/fantasmic/ar/t3292.htm

[cheezeegriff]

Sorry about the triple post. I hope it's acceptable, given it's a new topic and posted several days after the last post:

As we discussed privately I mentioned that I had a plan I'd mention here, so it's out in the open. Now personally I don't mind if anyone creates roadblocks to this plan. I'm happy to be flexible. But just so it's out there:

We discussed earlier in this thread what the menace the lion guard will have to face will be, and I offered to provide the main antagonistic force. Currently there's a group of outlanders plotting the overthrow of the pridelands. It's bigger than anything Janja could come up with and hence there's a suitable villain added to the mix too. That's about as much as I can tell you without giving stuff away. Once the lion guard is formed (or maybe before) I might start mentioning problems the pridelands is having. A sufficient investigation will lead the lion guard to the problem. During the implementation of this plot I will keep an open mind as to suggestions for the direction of the roleplay. If it gets too dark, tell me. If it's not exciting enough, tell me. My aim is to create interesting things for the Lion Guard to face, not to take over. As always, let me know your concerns.

[Leorgathar]

I like the sound of your idea, I'm up for eventually moving towards that, it'll be great
As for where I stand, I don't really have a plan beyond where Khari is right now. His idea is to cross the desert and get to the jungle, but he could get captured, or get stranded in the desert, or something. Maybe it could be something small for some of the future Guard members to deal with (like to discover they can work together, for example), and when they get back to the Pridelands your Outlander plot can begin.

It's just an idea, but just like you I'm ok if people have other things in mind ^^

[Lyonize]

I don't remember if I said it in the skype chat or here but I had a character for an antagonist in mind. It'd be an NPC so controllable by everyone as well.

Edit: Oh I did say it here.

Dec 3, 2015 4:15:21 GMT Lyonize said:

I want to mention something I said in the skype chat so I'll copypaste it here.

I do realize that there does need to be some planning, like who the main antagonist is going to be but I think it'll be more fun the less about the future we know. That being said, I have an idea for an antagonist. Like a really BAD character. Not only that, but it's unique too. And I'm confident when I say, it's really good. But I don't want to bring it up with anyone until the character rears their head. I want to have the characters profile posted when I introduce them into the story. At which point, I'll make the character and NPC so that I'm not in complete control over the story.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

[cheezeegriff]

You said it here. I think we then went on to mention that we can probably have multiple antagonists acting at once, all vying for control of the pride lands. Trying to work out who is causing what will be harder that way:).

[Lyonize]

I think ABB had that idea. As for the badguy I have in mind, I have no idea what his intentions are going to be tho. The character himself is, I think, unique and would really be considered a dangerous enemy. Cheeze, you seem to have some ideas. Maybe we can collaborate on this.

[cheezeegriff]

A collaboration might be cool. My bad guy's a kinda give orders from the shadows kinda guy - you'll hear about him a lot before you see him. I believe that will make him more enigmatic and threatening. But he will need people to carry out orders. Would your antagonist fit that role?

Anyway, I know you guys are feeling stumped about what to do next, but can I encourage you to role play your characters doing... Something? Nuka's just left the cave and I'm thinking Zulu's probably going to have her looking for liking guard members. Putting your characters back in the world is gonna help Zulu to have Nuka approach them to join the Lion Guard. Lyonize, if you want an idea, it sounds just like Alari to get up to mischief and be just outside the lion guard lair (snooping) when Nuka runs out. ABB, you put Leto's character in a definite spot. Good job. We should probably discuss how your new character is going to be accepted, maybe?

Let's get this RP rolling, peeps!

[Lyonize]

Yes. My antagonist would definitely fit that description. He's a mastermind though, he's also tough. Think of it like an old Megaman game. He's the boss of all the bosses. Like the leader of an "anti Lion Guard" of sorts. I'll PM you some details.

[cheezeegriff]

Hey Leto. You still away? Would love you to respond to Jono's comment (what are you looking at?) but if you or those playing as you are too busy then I'll just pretend Rafiki has returned before you can respond.

[Lyonize]

Reminder:

Feb 3, 2016 4:03:49 GMT Lyonize said:

I'm leaving it up to you guys to post freely but also be courteous.

We don't want to leave Leto behind.

[cheezeegriff]

Exactly why I posted this here.

[Leto]

I'll get back into it very soon. My hand is in a worse state than I thought it was. So you guys can continue just have Tarajii tagging along I suppose

~ Leto

[cheezeegriff]

If very soon is in the next week or so I'm happy to wait:). Otherwise if you want to meet on Skype some time I'll be your fingers for you and you can dictate your post to me? I just need to get the admin to invite me to the chat group.

[cheezeegriff]

So given the mumblings on the skype forum about new posts here, do you guys want me to post or not? I'm holding off because the vibe I got from this discussion thread is I should wait for Leto.

How long, O Lord, how long?

[Lyonize]

Yeah, go ahead. We need to get this ball rolling again. If it comes to it, I can post for Leto.

[cheezeegriff]

Done. Let me know if anyone's not happy with it. I've left another opening for Leto to interact, if he wants.

[Tamber]

I'm posting right now. Given the fact that all the characters we created for the Guard are lions, it seems to me Nuha would need a good reason to select only lions to join. Especially given the fact that she knows so many animals around the Pridelands and is deeply curious about their peculiarities.

I've chosen to have Nuha select only lions because of tensions she sees in the pride - latent hostility toward rogues, half-breeds, or former outlanders. Her rationale is that bringing outcasts and more accepted lions together could help mend tensions in the pride.

I bring this up here because I know other RPers imagine Pridelanders to be more tolerant than this. I'm not sure to what degree we're willing to attribute prejudice to Pridelanders, given the changes we've made to correct for that in the past. I've written it this way not to challenge that, but because this is the only way I can conceivably imagine Nuha choosing only lions for the Guard. She needs to have a compelling reason to disregard 1) Kion's inclusive precedent, and 2) her knowledge of how various species excel at different things. Personally, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect tensions from the Pridelander-Outlander reunion to still be high, even if we haven't explicitly seen it yet. If others are willing to work with me on this, I think it could be an interesting way to explore cultural tension in a society of well-meaning, albeit imperfect and biased individuals.

If anyone has a problem with the approach I'm taking, we can discuss it in here, and I can make changes.

[cheezeegriff]

Hey Zulu. That sounds like a great idea. It's a shame no members are direct descendants of outlanders.

Leto, thanks for posting. Interesting conclusion regarding Jono's dream too. I was wondering where to take that:).

[Lyonize]

I think it's a good post, and I see your reasoning. This just means we need to keep track of which characters are prejudiced against which. I can totally see Zuri being all snooty and generally disliking the outlanders as well as Jono. But she's about the only pridelander I can think of. So maybe roll it back a bit on the pridelanders as a whole being prejudiced?

So, as we go along, I'll update the character list with things like that.

[Tamber]

Cool, I'm glad you guys are on board ^^

I could see that in Zuri, too. Maybe a bit of resentment on Vitani's part, toward Pridelanders? Same could be true of former outlanders.

In general, I think we could convey some distrust with a combination of blatant statements ("I don't trust Pridelanders") and micro-aggressions (Kovu being less patient with rogues, Kiara being unfairly critical of former outlanders). Could just be one of those things we pepper in here and there.

[Lyonize]

I don't think Kiara would be at all critical of former outlanders, considering what she said at the end of TLK2. Kovu, while perhaps being quick to judge, is probably just protective of the pride in general. Not more so towards anyone in particular. I think we should just stick with our previous agreement that the former outlanders are more prejudiced against Jono being a crossbreed since they were indoctrinated by Zira to believe things like "Only the strong deserve to survive and only those with pure blood are strong." That sort of thing. I don't think any of the original pridelanders would be distrusting of the others with the exception of Zuri. I just feel like we shouldn't focus too much on putting a lot of animosity between NPCs. It just demands focus on NPCs and I think it's more important to focus on our own characters more.

[Tamber]

I can see the NPC point. How is this animosity thing going to play out, then? Just among former outlanders and Zuri? Or are you thinking it's going to be too distracting, since we'd rely on NPCs to fuel that conflict?

[Lyonize]

Well, the only reason we have any animosity between NPCs at all, (at least as far as I know) is for Cheez's character, Jono. For Jono's character development to go the way Cheeze would like, there's got to be somebody who's prejudiced against him and I think some of the outlanders and Zuri would make the most sense. Maybe not all the outlanders tho. I'd personally like to see at least one outlander that found it easy to adopt the pridelanders way of thinking.

[cheezeegriff]

Well, Zulu would also like to use the prejudice thing as a reason to make all the members of the guard lions. I don't have a problem with that, and I think it's a good idea. I didn't intend for prejudices to play out in a big way in this RP, other than as a means of explaining why Jono is the way he is - conflicted and bitter. I figured such a character was unlikely to come about in a pride where everyone was a goody-two-shoes Disney character. So I made up a reason for why he'd be a bit of an outcast that wasn't his fault. (Of course the things he does because of this ARE his fault, mind you - that's why he's a conflicted character). That's really as far as I intended to take it, for now. Of course depending on how things developed I might bring it up again. I was happy for all your characters to be fairly oblivious to the prejudices too. That said it's fine that Nuka knows a bit more about it going in than I originally intended:). Either way, it really doesn't bother me and I'm happy for this to go where it will.

[Tamber]

It seems to me this can be a thing that plays out pretty subtly. Maybe we don't need to be terribly deliberate about creating a biased atmosphere - as Lyon suggested, it could be something that shows up in a handful of characters.

So far, I've gathered an underlying social problem because of Jono's character, and I've gathered as much without a lot of explicit prejudice in the story. It's also worth noting that Nuha is particularly perceptive of conflict and mistreatment, even when it's subtle, so she's prone to taking note of micro-aggressions that others might not see.

I mostly wanted to make sure other RPers were okay with occasionally portraying NPCs as biased or intolerant. I think Cheez and I agree that canon characters, even the "good" ones, can conceivably have problematic opinions of others without being evil or inconsistent (people are like this in real life, after all). But I'm comfortable keeping that among the characters we mentioned above, if that's how y'all want to go about it.

[Lyonize]

Mar 12, 2016 17:19:33 GMT Tamber said:

It seems to me this can be a thing that plays out pretty subtly. Maybe we don't need to be terribly deliberate about creating a biased atmosphere - as Lyon suggested, it could be something that shows up in a handful of characters.

Exactly my thoughts.

Mar 12, 2016 17:19:33 GMT Tamber said:

I mostly wanted to make sure other RPers were okay with occasionally portraying NPCs as biased or intolerant. I think Cheez and I agree that canon characters, even the "good" ones, can conceivably have problematic opinions of others without being evil or inconsistent (people are like this in real life, after all). But I'm comfortable keeping that among the characters we mentioned above, if that's how y'all want to go about it.

Yup. That works for me.

[cheezeegriff]

Hey Leto. Do you want to post before I have Jono run off into the night? I don't want to miss an opportunity for our characters to interact, is all.

[cheezeegriff]

So it's been a month. Who's still interested in continuing this?