That doesn't change the fact that they were illegally charging a toll in the first place. This is fundamentally different from a bus driver or someone in a similar position (who owns, or works for someone/thing that owns, the means of transportation) and therefore has a right to charge the person for its use. Those grunts did not build that gate. They do not own that gate. They were using their superior numbers and gang affiliation to strike fear into the passerby and extort money from them. That is not kind to me, even if they decided to give the player a "free pass" through the gate in the event that they did not have enough money.
Then again, we're arguing about the actions of the "villains" in a game that was developed for children. Of course they aren't going to beat the player up, which is a moot issue considering that when any other grunt has tried to beat up the player, he/she just defeats them in a pokémon battle. Not to mention that in real life the villains wouldn't stop trying to achieve their goals just because a ten-year-old defeated them in a battle. I would assume that they would have a Plan B. Like a firearm.
I never said that it was not possible. I know it's possible. I just said I was having a bit of a hard time finding a balance. That being said, I do intend to focus on world-building a great deal, because I want to make it so that this piece has a story running through every layer. While I have indeed stated that this is a story about two children and how their experiences with a criminal organization changes them relative to their other childhood friend, this is also a story about the nation they live in. I am aware that treating this universe's Japan as "the flesh" in your analogy is unfeasible and clunky, so I am trying to strike a balance between characterizing Green, Red, Leaf, Giovanni and company and developing the world around them, which is very much integral to the plot.
This fic is contained to indoor scenes at the moment because Green and Red are confined to Rocket HQ, ostensibly against their wills. You did put your finger on why the scenes are monochrome and what-not. Since the previous updates have been working toward creating an immersion for the reader in Team Rocket that mirrors what is happening for the boys, there has not been much of an emphasis on what is going on outside the walls of Rocket HQ. Still, there are other characters like Leaf and Professor Oak, and though it might seem like it, I have not forgotten about them.
I think one of the hardest parts about writing a long-fic with multiple installments (and it being a work-in-progress) is that while the writer knows where everything is going and has the holistic experience, from beginning to end, in his head, the reader does not. While this installment is more drab than its predecessors, I can assure you that this is not going to be the tone for the rest of the story. I can also say that this is essential to the story. How I went about introducing it to the reader may have been heavy-handed and boring, I know. In fact, I believe this is the gist of what you are trying to convey to me.
So no; I have not forgotten that writing is about more than dumping loads of information onto a reader's plate. Trust me, I have not. Given that this is a long-fic, however, and that its ultimate purpose and impact has to encompass more than what kettering or armistice day did, things need time to develop. If I laid them out now, I can assure you that they would not feel as intense as they will when I get its foundation laid out. Again, I know that in laying out this foundation I may be presenting it in a manner that is too cut, dry and bare, so I am trying to rectify my errors by editing Act II (Part 2) before I post it to my journals and FFN.
I do appreciate what you are saying. Trust me, I do. I can only hope that I can improve enough to write at or beyond a level that amazing writers like Terry Pratchett do, or produce writing that evokes images like the comic does visually. Because I know for a fact that I am nowhere near that level yet, ha ha.
True, a toll isn't usually extracted in a gate like this, but they had more or less conquered the town. It was their gate now. The gate was there so people can cross the field without running into wild Pokemon. It was still a service. They did not build it, but they owned it for the time they had it. This might not be a good example, but North America was populated by the Natives at first. Then foreigners drove them into reserves and took over the land. Then they charged immigrants that came later, like the Chinese, "head tax" for living in this land. It was only near Y2K that the tax got removed. Both money are charged for using a land that the current owners did not own at first. Both are used for the owners' survival. A country needs money to stay alive. TR needs money to stay alive. The people using the land need it. It's a survival thing. It's the desire to expand and prosper. It's not evil by itself.
Hey, Silver did punch/kick/throw the player in the same game. TR had the same potential. They just couldn't because the player had their Pokemon ready most of the times. When Silver hit the player, the player didn't have his or her pokemon yet. In the gate, the player was caught by surprise and wouldn't have the time to get the pokemon and TR there didn't know that the player is strong at pokemon battle. They could've decked the player in the face because they wouldn't know they'd have their ass handed to them once the player gets his or her hands on a pokemon. Yet they didn't.
Firearm? My pokemon can spit fire for no extra charge, but bullets cost money. Firearms aren't efficient in that world. And do your guns make baby guns that grow into big guns by themselves? No. Pokemon do. They need long-lasting, low maintenance weapons. Therefore, Pokemon and whips and maybe rocket launchers. It's more economically efficient. I suppose high-ups might have firearms, but grunts might not get such privilege. Equipping all these grunts with guns and constantly provide ammunition cost money. Make them equip themselves with wild beasts and have them earn their own food money is cheap and highly profitable. And the high-ups are pretty honourable, thankfully for the protagonist, so even if they do have guns they won't use it on a kid.
Giovanni? Like I said before, I suspect he saw a son in Red and wanted to play fair with him. Red was special to him. In HGSS, in the Celebi event, at first he wanted to ignore the protagonist and just go back to TR, but then he saw the protagonist's face and said something like "your eyes... just like him..." before doing the same fair bet again. If the protagonist didn't remind him of Red, maybe he would shoot him/her if pressed too much. But it didn't go that far.
Because of how all this happened, I can affirm that gameverse TR are Lawful Evil. They are evil, but they have standards rules that the decided to follow, no matter the consequence. The TR you see is more of a Chaotic Evil or Neutral Evil, mostly Neutral Evil. While they bear the same names, they do not have the same alignments. Yes, I can see that you see the game TR as incompetent for not having a plan B, but keep in mind that they have never run into trouble before the player came around, so they didn't have any mistake to learn from. In Pokemon Special, nearly all gym leaders, some with their personal armies, who are not already TR are actively fighting against TR, so they had a lot to learn in order to stay alive and powerful and more ruthless. The kinder/less competent grunts just cannot survive in that world as a TR, so all that are left are at least Neutral Evil.
Good, because I'm getting a claustrophobia fatigue and it's getting less effective... A movie with its entire story indoors is just 3 hours long. Because of decompression, your fic is already giving me the impression of something longer than that and it's lessening the ambience-feel. Others might get the fatigue later or sooner than me, but from my pacing if you don't show other colours by Act V it's going to be feel-less.
Edit: I'll trust you on that one and at least wait till the end of this fic to give a final judgment (as in, a final rating of the strengths and weakness of the writing). Notes: (Sorry, Freudian Slip because of mid-sentence idea change.)
Then again, we're arguing about the actions of the "villains" in a game that was developed for children. Of course they aren't going to beat the player up, which is a moot issue considering that when any other grunt has tried to beat up the player, he/she just defeats them in a pokémon battle. Not to mention that in real life the villains wouldn't stop trying to achieve their goals just because a ten-year-old defeated them in a battle. I would assume that they would have a Plan B. Like a firearm.
I never said that it was not possible. I know it's possible. I just said I was having a bit of a hard time finding a balance. That being said, I do intend to focus on world-building a great deal, because I want to make it so that this piece has a story running through every layer. While I have indeed stated that this is a story about two children and how their experiences with a criminal organization changes them relative to their other childhood friend, this is also a story about the nation they live in. I am aware that treating this universe's Japan as "the flesh" in your analogy is unfeasible and clunky, so I am trying to strike a balance between characterizing Green, Red, Leaf, Giovanni and company and developing the world around them, which is very much integral to the plot.
This fic is contained to indoor scenes at the moment because Green and Red are confined to Rocket HQ, ostensibly against their wills. You did put your finger on why the scenes are monochrome and what-not. Since the previous updates have been working toward creating an immersion for the reader in Team Rocket that mirrors what is happening for the boys, there has not been much of an emphasis on what is going on outside the walls of Rocket HQ. Still, there are other characters like Leaf and Professor Oak, and though it might seem like it, I have not forgotten about them.
I think one of the hardest parts about writing a long-fic with multiple installments (and it being a work-in-progress) is that while the writer knows where everything is going and has the holistic experience, from beginning to end, in his head, the reader does not. While this installment is more drab than its predecessors, I can assure you that this is not going to be the tone for the rest of the story. I can also say that this is essential to the story. How I went about introducing it to the reader may have been heavy-handed and boring, I know. In fact, I believe this is the gist of what you are trying to convey to me.
So no; I have not forgotten that writing is about more than dumping loads of information onto a reader's plate. Trust me, I have not. Given that this is a long-fic, however, and that its ultimate purpose and impact has to encompass more than what kettering or armistice day did, things need time to develop. If I laid them out now, I can assure you that they would not feel as intense as they will when I get its foundation laid out. Again, I know that in laying out this foundation I may be presenting it in a manner that is too cut, dry and bare, so I am trying to rectify my errors by editing Act II (Part 2) before I post it to my journals and FFN.
I do appreciate what you are saying. Trust me, I do. I can only hope that I can improve enough to write at or beyond a level that amazing writers like Terry Pratchett do, or produce writing that evokes images like the comic does visually. Because I know for a fact that I am nowhere near that level yet, ha ha.
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Hey, Silver did punch/kick/throw the player in the same game. TR had the same potential. They just couldn't because the player had their Pokemon ready most of the times. When Silver hit the player, the player didn't have his or her pokemon yet. In the gate, the player was caught by surprise and wouldn't have the time to get the pokemon and TR there didn't know that the player is strong at pokemon battle. They could've decked the player in the face because they wouldn't know they'd have their ass handed to them once the player gets his or her hands on a pokemon. Yet they didn't.
Firearm? My pokemon can spit fire for no extra charge, but bullets cost money. Firearms aren't efficient in that world. And do your guns make baby guns that grow into big guns by themselves? No. Pokemon do. They need long-lasting, low maintenance weapons. Therefore, Pokemon and whips and maybe rocket launchers. It's more economically efficient. I suppose high-ups might have firearms, but grunts might not get such privilege. Equipping all these grunts with guns and constantly provide ammunition cost money. Make them equip themselves with wild beasts and have them earn their own food money is cheap and highly profitable. And the high-ups are pretty honourable, thankfully for the protagonist, so even if they do have guns they won't use it on a kid.
Giovanni? Like I said before, I suspect he saw a son in Red and wanted to play fair with him. Red was special to him. In HGSS, in the Celebi event, at first he wanted to ignore the protagonist and just go back to TR, but then he saw the protagonist's face and said something like "your eyes... just like him..." before doing the same fair bet again. If the protagonist didn't remind him of Red, maybe he would shoot him/her if pressed too much. But it didn't go that far.
Because of how all this happened, I can affirm that gameverse TR are Lawful Evil. They are evil, but they have standards rules that the decided to follow, no matter the consequence. The TR you see is more of a Chaotic Evil or Neutral Evil, mostly Neutral Evil. While they bear the same names, they do not have the same alignments. Yes, I can see that you see the game TR as incompetent for not having a plan B, but keep in mind that they have never run into trouble before the player came around, so they didn't have any mistake to learn from. In Pokemon Special, nearly all gym leaders, some with their personal armies, who are not already TR are actively fighting against TR, so they had a lot to learn in order to stay alive and powerful and more ruthless. The kinder/less competent grunts just cannot survive in that world as a TR, so all that are left are at least Neutral Evil.
Good, because I'm getting a claustrophobia fatigue and it's getting less effective... A movie with its entire story indoors is just 3 hours long. Because of decompression, your fic is already giving me the impression of something longer than that and it's lessening the ambience-feel. Others might get the fatigue later or sooner than me, but from my pacing if you don't show other colours by Act V it's going to be feel-less.
Edit: I'll trust you on that one and at least wait till the end of this fic to give a final judgment (as in, a final rating of the strengths and weakness of the writing).
Notes: (Sorry, Freudian Slip because of mid-sentence idea change.)
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