The English Major Strikes Again

The abused, neglected orphan of parents of noble lineage with the heart of gold so pure that he can stand up to exposure to pure evil and still be wholly, fundamentally good despite it all: Harry Potter is not only a fairy-tale hero straight out of the Grimm brothers, he is also the literary descendant of Oliver Twist. As supporting evidence: J. K. Rowling uses naming conventions clearly modeled after Dickens's.

Also: Harry Potter is a bildungsroman to the core. Is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a picaresque, or does that style require them to win in the end?

The English Major Strikes Again

The abused, neglected orphan of parents of noble lineage with the heart of gold so pure that he can stand up to exposure to pure evil and still be wholly, fundamentally good despite it all: Harry Potter is not only a fairy-tale hero straight out of the Grimm brothers, he is also the literary descendant of Oliver Twist. As supporting evidence: J. K. Rowling uses naming conventions clearly modeled after Dickens's.

Also: Harry Potter is a bildungsroman to the core. Is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid a picaresque, or does that style require them to win in the end?

Whoohoo!

Yay: Possible sequel to Masters Of Orion in the works!

Could be yay or boo: Same folks want to do a StarCon II sequel (ignoring the mess that was StarCon 3) - but they're not Toys for Bob. I really, really want to see TfB's vision of a StarCon II sequel. Even if someone else has to bankroll it, I'd like to see them hired as story consultants. (Mostly because SC3 was so very bad and untrue to the character design and worldbuilding of SCII - I mean, I know it says in the story there that they recognize that, and they think they could do better, but the Toys for Bob guys have so much stuff that didn't make it into the first two games . . . )

If anyone's wondering why I'm so much more concerned with SC than MoO, it's because MoO had neither characters (except for Loknar, and we learn very little about him) nor much in the way of story other than the overarching game plot. It just had a world - a rather cool one. SCII had all three - plot, worldbuilding, and characters. And they were all good - even given that most of the characters were semi-parody exemplar members of their races (Fwiffo, Tanaka, Talana, Commander Hayes, Greenish, Content to Hover, etc.; honestly, I think Admiral ZEX is the only exception).

Whoohoo!

Yay: Possible sequel to Masters Of Orion in the works!

Could be yay or boo: Same folks want to do a StarCon II sequel (ignoring the mess that was StarCon 3) - but they're not Toys for Bob. I really, really want to see TfB's vision of a StarCon II sequel. Even if someone else has to bankroll it, I'd like to see them hired as story consultants. (Mostly because SC3 was so very bad and untrue to the character design and worldbuilding of SCII - I mean, I know it says in the story there that they recognize that, and they think they could do better, but the Toys for Bob guys have so much stuff that didn't make it into the first two games . . . )

If anyone's wondering why I'm so much more concerned with SC than MoO, it's because MoO had neither characters (except for Loknar, and we learn very little about him) nor much in the way of story other than the overarching game plot. It just had a world - a rather cool one. SCII had all three - plot, worldbuilding, and characters. And they were all good - even given that most of the characters were semi-parody exemplar members of their races (Fwiffo, Tanaka, Talana, Commander Hayes, Greenish, Content to Hover, etc.; honestly, I think Admiral ZEX is the only exception).