I am not certain this is a valid application of intertextuality.
But when I thought of it I thought is was slightly brilliant.
So I took a super-long walk today because it was almost 70 degrees outside (yaaay!), and as I often do on walks I thought about fic. Specifically that Ratchet/Arcee AU, because the Almanac has informed me that Ratchet has a little hologram-picture of Arcee in his room and I'm not sure if that's sweet or moderately creepy but either way I like it.
One thing I've had to think about on the off-chance I ever write this thing is how Arcee's tutoring of Omega Supreme would differ from Ratchet's. She probably wouldn't have the same reluctance he does, given that she signed on for Project Omega in the first place and as such if she does have moral objections she can swallow them long enough to do her job, but from what we see of her she still seems like a decent person and I'm betting she'll start having moral objections once Omega actually comes online.
But for some reason, the one trait that stuck in my head is that she would be very polite to him. I don't know why I'm rather attached to this bit of characterization, but whenever I imagine her piloting Omega, I imagine her always saying "please" when she asks him to do something, and "thank you" when he does. It's perhaps a holdover from her days teaching very young bots (because while they don't have the same societal rules we do we do witness them doing things like saying "thank you" and thus I'm assuming some version of decorum exists in their society), but mostly it's a veneer over what, exactly, she is asking Omega to do, a way of making herself feel better about her mission because at least she's only asking - she's not really giving orders to kill or level cities.
While I was on this train of thought, Bioshock popped into my head, specifically the "Would you kindly?" phrase. If you haven't played the game, your Mission Control - the guy supposedly talking you through the beginning of the game - often gives you your instructions prefaced with this phrase, i.e. "Would you kindly pick up that wrench." And, of course, as the player, you do so, because it's your only option at the time and you have no reason not to trust his suggestions. And then, late in the game, you figure out that your character is a brainwashed human weapon and "Would you kindly?" is his trigger phrase, causing him to obey any command given in conjunction with that phrase. It's a rather brilliant way of manipulating the player-game interface and one of the reasons I will yammer on to anyone who will listen about how Bioshock is an argument that games can too be art.
And I thought it might be a neat little extra to include that phrase as something Arcee says in the fic, just as a bonus for anyone besides me who plays Bioshock and watches Transformers (surely there's overlap, there has to be), but then the full implications of the use of the phrase set in. See, to someone who realized the context of "Would you kindly?", Arcee using it would make this wonderful point about the ultimate falsehood of her politeness, the lie she's telling herself to keep her conscience from biting her about controlling a weapon of war - she persuades herself that Omega is an independent being with a choice in what he does, but in reality she is more than his teacher - she is his master, and he is programmed to do as she says, more or less. And no amount of "please"s and "thank you"s and "would you kindly"s will change that. I think it'd be a neat bit of characterization.
Granted, there are problems aplenty with this, namely that a) no one would get it and b) even to people who do get the reference it'll probably come across more as "LOL Bioshock reference" then "O hai I am using intertextuality to make a point", because who does that in a Transformers fanfic, obviously this is a sign that I take things far too seriously. So I thought I'd put it down here because despite it being rather impractical even if I do write that Ratchet/Arcee AU (which I probably won't just because it'd have to be so damn long), I still think it's a nifty idea.
A ha ha I am looking at the combination of spoilers listed in the cut text and realizing that no one will read what is behind that cut ever. It is so hard being a nerd with disparate interests and an overactive imagination.
Speaking of crossovers that no one but me finds entertaining, last night I watched D play a bit of Mercenaries 2, which is an absurd game based primarily on explosions. Anyway, at one point Big Burly Mercenary Player Characters are sent off by Mission Control to locate something called "The Devastator". You have a little arrow on your map telling you where it is, and at first you think the Devastator is a great big tank. Mission Control giggles and says "That's not the Devastator, guys. Check around back."
The Devastator, it turns out, is a tiny lilac-colored Vespa with tassels on the handle and a little skull on the front grille. And your Big Burly Mercenary Player Characters spend the next part of the mission riding around on it. It is a glorious sight.
More to the point I would like to demand politely request fanart of Devastator the Decepticon combiner riding Devastator the little purple Vespa into battle (or a version scaled to him, at least). Because it would be epic is why.
...oh crap it's almost eleven, I have quizzes what need taking. One week till Spring Break. I can make it!
So I took a super-long walk today because it was almost 70 degrees outside (yaaay!), and as I often do on walks I thought about fic. Specifically that Ratchet/Arcee AU, because the Almanac has informed me that Ratchet has a little hologram-picture of Arcee in his room and I'm not sure if that's sweet or moderately creepy but either way I like it.
One thing I've had to think about on the off-chance I ever write this thing is how Arcee's tutoring of Omega Supreme would differ from Ratchet's. She probably wouldn't have the same reluctance he does, given that she signed on for Project Omega in the first place and as such if she does have moral objections she can swallow them long enough to do her job, but from what we see of her she still seems like a decent person and I'm betting she'll start having moral objections once Omega actually comes online.
But for some reason, the one trait that stuck in my head is that she would be very polite to him. I don't know why I'm rather attached to this bit of characterization, but whenever I imagine her piloting Omega, I imagine her always saying "please" when she asks him to do something, and "thank you" when he does. It's perhaps a holdover from her days teaching very young bots (because while they don't have the same societal rules we do we do witness them doing things like saying "thank you" and thus I'm assuming some version of decorum exists in their society), but mostly it's a veneer over what, exactly, she is asking Omega to do, a way of making herself feel better about her mission because at least she's only asking - she's not really giving orders to kill or level cities.
While I was on this train of thought, Bioshock popped into my head, specifically the "Would you kindly?" phrase. If you haven't played the game, your Mission Control - the guy supposedly talking you through the beginning of the game - often gives you your instructions prefaced with this phrase, i.e. "Would you kindly pick up that wrench." And, of course, as the player, you do so, because it's your only option at the time and you have no reason not to trust his suggestions. And then, late in the game, you figure out that your character is a brainwashed human weapon and "Would you kindly?" is his trigger phrase, causing him to obey any command given in conjunction with that phrase. It's a rather brilliant way of manipulating the player-game interface and one of the reasons I will yammer on to anyone who will listen about how Bioshock is an argument that games can too be art.
And I thought it might be a neat little extra to include that phrase as something Arcee says in the fic, just as a bonus for anyone besides me who plays Bioshock and watches Transformers (surely there's overlap, there has to be), but then the full implications of the use of the phrase set in. See, to someone who realized the context of "Would you kindly?", Arcee using it would make this wonderful point about the ultimate falsehood of her politeness, the lie she's telling herself to keep her conscience from biting her about controlling a weapon of war - she persuades herself that Omega is an independent being with a choice in what he does, but in reality she is more than his teacher - she is his master, and he is programmed to do as she says, more or less. And no amount of "please"s and "thank you"s and "would you kindly"s will change that. I think it'd be a neat bit of characterization.
Granted, there are problems aplenty with this, namely that a) no one would get it and b) even to people who do get the reference it'll probably come across more as "LOL Bioshock reference" then "O hai I am using intertextuality to make a point", because who does that in a Transformers fanfic, obviously this is a sign that I take things far too seriously. So I thought I'd put it down here because despite it being rather impractical even if I do write that Ratchet/Arcee AU (which I probably won't just because it'd have to be so damn long), I still think it's a nifty idea.
A ha ha I am looking at the combination of spoilers listed in the cut text and realizing that no one will read what is behind that cut ever. It is so hard being a nerd with disparate interests and an overactive imagination.
Speaking of crossovers that no one but me finds entertaining, last night I watched D play a bit of Mercenaries 2, which is an absurd game based primarily on explosions. Anyway, at one point Big Burly Mercenary Player Characters are sent off by Mission Control to locate something called "The Devastator". You have a little arrow on your map telling you where it is, and at first you think the Devastator is a great big tank. Mission Control giggles and says "That's not the Devastator, guys. Check around back."
The Devastator, it turns out, is a tiny lilac-colored Vespa with tassels on the handle and a little skull on the front grille. And your Big Burly Mercenary Player Characters spend the next part of the mission riding around on it. It is a glorious sight.
More to the point I would like to demand politely request fanart of Devastator the Decepticon combiner riding Devastator the little purple Vespa into battle (or a version scaled to him, at least). Because it would be epic is why.
...oh crap it's almost eleven, I have quizzes what need taking. One week till Spring Break. I can make it!