Bright Swords

 In between writing Star Warden Book 2. I did not want to leave the blog unattended and there was something I wanted to talk about. Star Warden and Uplift Protocol along with the similarities and differences between them. But I did not just want to talk about making comparisons and leave it there, plus neither series is complete at the moment so there could be more similarities and differences that might pop up. However, there was a core element both had which inspired the name of this post. 

First, what do both serials have in common? (Non-exhaustive list)

1. Both leads have red white and blue in their color scheme, are American, and have Star somewhere in their name. 
2. The leads are in a stable romantic relationship. 
3. Both series take place in settings that involve worlds off Earth and have a sci-fi/fantasy theme.
4. Clear Good and Evil 
5. Ancient lost civilization with technology left behind.
6. The main heroes are the bright symbol of hope people rally behind and can affect change with their presence. 

The last one is the subject of this post. Sam and Eliza are both the Bright Swords cutting through the darkness of their respective universes. Modern heroes today are usually conflicted and question themselves and their purpose. They are given a huge amount of flaws, they mope, are focused on their own problems with their powers grounded. Unless you are a symbol of representation then you get all the power with no training, everyone loves you, and the bad guys are the people who don't like them. 

But enough about Rey and Carol Danvers. 

The fact of the matter is a lot of current stories don't have the Bright swords anymore. Superman is either modernized by Snyder or gets his life ruined in the comics. When people think of the Superman archetype they think of Homelander in the Boys. In Game of Thrones, the characters who die are the honorable and idealistic types. I mean even Shazam (true Captain Marvel) doesn't have his idealistic origin anymore. His new 52 origins which were used in the movie get the focus. Instead of being a pure soul and truly good, chosen by the Wizard. He's now just the last act of a desperate old wizard giving his power to a cynical kid abandoned by his mother and living in a group home.  

Now, this brings me to the differences. Since it is common to believe that these old-style paragons can only exist in the past or settings that have no conflict at all. I will disprove that by presenting the differences between the two serials. The large scale one is the very settings they inhabit.

Uplift Protocol: Somewhat of a Sugar Bowl; a bright idealistic world filled with heroes. Friendly aliens patrol the stars and most people are trusting and helpful of each other. While there are still threats, interpersonal conflicts, and obstructive bureaucracy. At the end of the day, the world is a nice place to live. 

Eliza lives in a NobleBright world and is meant to defend it from ending. She preserves the status quo for the most part and changes the not so bright parts. 

Star Warden: Somewhat of a World Half Full/Crapsack World. A darker world where evil has free reign and heroes are few and far between. But the heroes that are there are bright, hopeful, and successfully make things better in small or large ways. A world where suffering is commonplace but the response to it is to fight back against it. The world is not a nice place to live yet but with work, it can be. 

Sam lives in a NobleDark world and is meant to make it a better place. He is changing the status quo despite the fact it appears to be an uphill climb.

There I just described two stories both with bright paragons of virtue and their settings couldn't be any more different. Heroism is timeless and easy to do and you don't have to make your story basically Sesame Street to do it. You just need one, or a few, good people who can smile when the going gets tough and inspire others to trust in them and in their own capacity to help. To quote Jor-El. 

"They only need the light to show them the way."

 Even if this is not considered "realistic" and human nature is flawed and many might abuse their superpowers or fall into despair. So what? 

People like Bright Swords. They want to see them draw their blades, don their bright armor, and charge once more unto the breach to repel great evil so the sun can shine brightly once again. I mean Hollywood is trying to reboot old properties that had those Bright Swords in them because those stories stood the test of time. Even if they ultimately just want the built-in audience for easy money, it's proof that escapist fiction with brave heroes lasts a lot longer than brooding ones.

 Considering all the events in 2020 there is even more of a reason to keep pushing not just Star Warden and Uplift Protocol. But also the idea to make more uplifting, superversive, and old-school paragons. Because people want and need them to get through the day to day. I mean if you've read one or the other then you know what Sam and Eliza have gone through. If they can go about their days with a smile on their face it can inspire someone reading it that they can get through their troubles or at least put them to the side for just a few moments and tackle them again with a fresh mind.

Do all heroes need a flat character arc? No Luke Skywalker is proof of that and even he got turned into a Downer. All I am doing is making an appeal to have heroes that smile and enjoy their work. They can have any kind of background go any place and be in bright, dark, or realistic settings. You don't even have to copy Uplift Protocol or Star Warden. They just need to be heroes full of passion and optimism not perfect but always focused on doing good, stopping evil, and inspiring others by their example. Also, you know a loyal companion by their side to help carry the burden, romance not required but highly encouraged. (No will they won't they crap.)

The darker the world the brighter the hero must be.

Star Warden Book 1: Here

Uplift Protocol Book 0: Here

Writing Needs

 I was watching a video by Fiannawolf and she was talking about writing from an economic standpoint or writing as a labor of love. If you want to focus on making money then you would try to write a lot of content that would fit into popular wheelhouses in the mainstream. Naturally, I would want my writing to be a career, considering the current economic and political situation it may be the only job an outside force can't take away from me. So logically I would make work that fits into the popular wheelhouses of the public and market it as such. 

Star Warden however was not born from such a mindset, it was born from a love of writing and to fill certain needs. Needs that modern entertainment was not addressing. This blog isn't for talking about Dead or Corrupted IPs. So today I will talk about what were the needs that lead to the creation of Star Warden. 

1. Heroic Needs
2. Romantic Needs
3. Villain Needs
4. Terminator Needs.

Heroic Needs

Star Warden fulfills my heroic needs. I honestly see too much of Mary Sues or Anti-heroes with chips on their shoulders. Others are condescending teenagers who care more about what someone said on Twitter or disrespecting older more established heroes. If they are not just gender/race/ swapping them altogether for political brownie points. While I like Shield Hero and there are in-story reasons for his personality, Naofumi is another cynical, standoffish anti-hero. Considering people like copying things that are popular ala the Boys and Watchmen, I obviously need to make my own heroes that act as a counterweight. 

So I created characters like Sam Bailey and Princess Kaguya along with many others of their like in Star Warden. Sam is a somewhat cocky, nice guy, Kaguya is the nicest person in the universe, and while they both have been through personal tragedies they never let it color their perception of the world. They are heroic despite what has happened to them and what has happened to the world around them and fight to fix it. Even if the reward for their efforts sometimes appears impossible they keep fighting for it. The darker the world the brighter a hero must be.

Romantic Needs

Most romances I see are either harems or highly dysfunctional couples. Some just keep breaking up and getting back together for drama while others have both characters just be too shy or embarrassed to just admit the truth. Until they finally do it by the end of the story. Luckily there are other examples of healthy couples in media like Sword Art Online, Record of Lodoss War, and My Love Story; a romantic comedy about a couple with no internal drama. (Also watch My Love Story great anime heavy on sweetness.) 

This inspired me to create an established couple within Sam and Princess Kaguya along with other married couples that appear in the series. This allows me to put lighter moments in the series and shows that a supportive and communicative couple can work. Also, it's just nice to write about it and creates another example for people to enjoy and be inspired by. 

Villain Needs. 

I could make a long list of villains who have become boring sympathetic antagonists and point out the pattern that western cartoons seem to want to pass out redemption like candy. But I rather focus on how Star Warden handles the Villain part of the wheelhouse and yes Villains not antagonists. There is no gray morality in Star Warden it's clear black and white. 

Daimos fills the role of the honest to God, pure evil, love to hate villain that you don't see anymore because such characters are now "bad writing." For good writing, the villain must be the hero of their own story, or have a sad backstory, or redeeming qualities, or just be a moron. Daimos rejects those things and is just a pure out and out villain with his own goals and motives that are not relatable to the average person. I don't want to get too detailed on him since the first book does plenty of that. But I can say he is competent and highly self-motivated. 

Something else to think on, how many of the "badly" written villains are remembered? How many people remember Naraku, DIO, Skeletor, Dr.Eggman, Megabyte, Mumm-Ra, etc, etc? If you can remember those names off the top of your head. It proves my point on how dastardly villains can stand the test of time due to their great contrast with an aspirational hero. Daimos will join that list. 

Terminator Needs.

This last one isn't really a super important need and is just me wanting to do the war against the machines scenario. Terminator had that chance but Salvation didn't do well enough and Dark Fate effectively killed the franchise. So this is me just bringing back something that a Dead IP is no longer using, also I tend to like the machine uprising scenario in my fiction. (Sonic SATAM needs more love)

Conclusion 

I have honestly no idea if my pulp-inspired, sword and planet, sword and sorcery, raypunk sci-fi story will grab readers. It is honestly a niche product and goes against a lot of the grain. But I keep writing because I love what I made. I know close friends of mine like reading it. So I have hope that this will go well, I just need to put in the work. Because in the end, it is not just for me it is also for that one reader out there that needs some hope in their life as well. 

Someday I'll probably be someone's favorite writer. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day and it might come sooner than even I think it will. 

Fiannawolf's video in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRu6ThvSKFw

Villians: Pure Evil and loving it.

Villains are the necessary ingredient in any conflict. Some are all-powerful and nearly unstoppable others are intelligent and conniving. You have competent ones, bumbling ones, ones you laugh at, and ones that give you nightmares. They are normally the counterpart of the hero and for one reason or another oppose the hero or protagonist in their goals. 

These days I noticed the most popular way to write the main antagonist is to leave them in the background until the final battle. The second option is to make them complex, sympathetic, and very human. They took a dark path and only need to be redeemed or have someone care about them in order to return to the right path. Only then to reveal the true big bad everyone hates at the end. Though if there is no true big bad then everyone is just redeemed and happily ever after. For example, look at Steven Universe and how they handled the Diamond authority.

So what happened to the other class of villains? The supervillain, the rogue, the blackguard, the one you love you hate, the smug snake. These are not seen unless they come out at the very end, so they can take the heat for the more relatable and loveable antagonists the audience and writer don't want to see dead. But in the past, they used to be very common and expected to lead from the front and start whatever the plot of the week was. Now they usually just sit at their base and do nothing but yell at their subordinates, if they don't ultimately get redeemed as well. 

Today such villains are considered one-dimensional and an example of bad writing similar to their aspirational counterparts. This is a misconception as while pure evil or classic villains are simple to write they can be fleshed out without needing to be made overly complex. They can be given histories, hobbies, be seen doing something else besides planning an attack against the heroes, show how they interact with their subordinates or fellow bad guys. These villains are compelling because like aspirational heroes they have no self-doubt. They are also extremely fun to write in my opinion. 

Similar to how aspirational heroes represent a standard of objective good, these villains are the standard of objective evil. Darth Vader wouldn't have worked as a character without an objective evil to work against so he could be redeemed. Pure evil villains set the bar for villainy in a story which allows fallen and sympathetic villains to exist due to contrast. If you don't have a standard of what is truly evil then it blurs the line between good and evil and that doesn't always equal an interesting story. I've seen the whole gray morality used as an excuse to have "heroic" characters not live up to the standard that the word implies.

If aspirational heroes are the heaven to aspire to then classic villains are the hell to avoid. They are also just fun to watch and read since they normally have bombastic personalities or are cold-blooded to the max. So we should have more pure evil villains that enjoy their work not sad sacks who just wished they had friends. Considering how many people remember Cobra Commander, Dr.Eggman, and Skeletor even in the modern-day. That goes to show that being a relatable villain does not mean good or memorable. 

Since I like having solutions more than complaining. You can be assured the main villain in Star Warden is 100% real deal Holyfield evil, no substitutions.

Aspirational Heroes

I will admit when I first learned of superheroes the aspirational hero did not interest me. My favorite was Spider-Man and I enjoyed the Punisher. When I first got my hands on some comics I read Suicide Squad or Secret Avengers. Spies, Anti-Heroes, or Heroes who started out not as perfect but inspired by tragedy and struggles to stay in the fight and not just throw it away. I kind of liked the struggle the imperfection, the secrecy, and they were under no obligation to save everyone which allowed for body counts.

I still do like Spider-Man these days, but now a hero who I had no interest in originally has become one of my favorites, Superman. Originally I didn't care or know who Billy Batson or Captain America was but now I've been reading up on both of them. All three have something in common, they are all Aspirational heroes. Heroes who inspire and do not have internal struggles, they fight for what's right because it is right and that is all the reason they need. Some had tragedy in their life and others didn't but what's unite them is they are optimistic, friendly, and dutiful. 

Aspirational heroes on the surface are called boring because they don't change or struggle, some call them unrealistic and if you are Superman you are just called the worst of both worlds due to having the blue plate special of superpowers. I understand why many people see them that way, we all have flaws. We all mess up and sometimes let our emotions overwhelm us. It may not be easy to stand firm or be dedicated to a moral code and desire an emotional catharsis. To make someone or something pay for what happened to us all understandable. 

But that is why Aspirational heroes exist to show that it is possible to stand by a moral code and not fall to one's baser instincts. One can inspire a reader that even with dark times or personal loss we can still be better people. That there is hope that people can be redeemed or stay good people and not be corrupted by personal vices or failures. If written correctly they can be great and memorable characters after all we have many of them, even if currently they are being drowned out by darker ones. 

My new found love for aspirational heroes reason is why I created Star Warden. To add to the list of straight-up heroes. Considering how 2020 has been it looks like people need some hope and heroism in their lives. I certainly would like some and I'm going to write some. The best part about these heroes you can put them in the brightest setting or the darkest timeline. Because heroism is timeless and universal. 

Welcoming Statement.

 This is the Heroic Chronicle. This blog is for one thing uplifting heroic fiction.

In our current entertainment, we have a lack of true heroic fiction. Most mainstream fiction is dedicated to subversion, relatability, flaws over virtues, grit, and realism. I as a writer, reader, and consumer do not enjoy this state of affairs. So left with a choice either to complain about the death of my favorite franchises or make new franchises. I choose the latter because it's fun and Hollywood will not change their course. They are also dying financially so there is no point in entering that market. 

Thus this blog is to promote heroic fiction where heroes are heroes and villains are villains. Where hope burns bright even if the story of a world is dark. Where true love is real if you are willing to commit to it. A place where morals are clear and defined. Where redemption is possible for those willing to work for it and evil is punished accordingly. 

To help promote such fiction I am entering the ring with my own series of stories. The Star Warden series. A sci-fi/fantasy book of an Earthborn knight on an alien world fighting to reclaim it from an evil overlord, with the aid of a beautiful princess. Classical good vs evil story with an aspirational hero at the helm. 

More information on Star Warden coming soon. As the first manuscript is complete. I hope you are prepared for uplifting, heroic, popcorn fiction. I don't write for politics or to be relevant. I just want to know the answer to one question. Are you not entertained? Because that's what is missing from the world, entertainment. 

If you agree with me and are not entertained by the current crop of pop culture. Then welcome to the Heroic Chronicle.