drawn Jan 25, '04
posted for Jan 18, 2007
(49)
This is Ecthelion, the Captain of the Silver Fountains of Gondolin
or something like that. Whatever his real title, Ecthelion represents
all of the above, as well as unparallelled bravery and unflinching self-sacrifice.
(cheers) This armour is perhaps toned down a little, since I wasn't good
at 'character design', but it has his signature jewelled spike on the
top of it and his shield has its thousands of 'stars'. I want to paint
a really good Warhammer figure based on this. I cropped the shield and
put it up beside him, as it was wasting space. I think he actually looks
quite determined, even if his hands are too small and funny looking.Ecthelion is one of the great heroes and characters of Middle Earth, although he is mainly remembered for killing Gothmog chief of Balrogs, he is the one who greeted Tuor and let him into Gondolin when Tuor showed up, and also is remembered fondly by Eärendil for playing on his silver flute.
I like the character type of 'nice guy, friendly with kids, very kind' who turns into 'noble sword-wielding anxious-about-others hero' when need arises. Probably also unconsciously poses a lot without realizing it. Yes, I said the same thing twice in two different ways.
The Last Exile is also better than Skyland in terms of scripting in this aspect: While Last Exile leaves each episode with cliff-hangers or a 'to-be-continued' feeling or a resolution that lays a foundation to be built on sturdily in the next episode, Skyland has one-episode blocks: a problem is raised, the characters must figure out how to fix it, and then they fix it and have a party or at least congratulate themselves. I understand this makes it perhaps easier to understand, but I wonder why it's not more popular than it is? Duh! It's not as gripping after a while. Dragon Booster, too. That one only had one or two sequences of shows where the episodes were directly connected. Tsubasa Chronicles is somewhere in between, but closer to Last Exile: The characters enter a new world, muck around for a few episodes, and then go on to a different world, different problem to solve, etc. but things from the previous episodes do become important, not like Skyland where, say, that escaped prisoner... wozzizname... Sansken disappears after his happy ending and never shows up again. Tsubasa characters call up memories of previous episodes, using the experience they have gained in past experiences to help them in whatever they're stuck with.
Oh, and I saw the Tsubasa 'movie' on YouTube (don't look now, copyright pushed it off) and the plot was actually 'rushed' because the 'movie' was only about ten minutes longer than a normal episode and they tried to cram two or three, maybe even four episodes worth of plot into 35-40 minutes. Pacing is important: I know this now!
I think that writers of TV series' should take a hint from Japanese series' formats: Brief introduction using clips from the previous episode, summarizing the action to that point, opening credits. Then, the main body of the episode, followed by end credits and a very quick, enigmatic preview of the next episode. This will force them to write plots that are not disconnected and also entice people to watch more often, since to miss one episode is to miss a whole part of the story that actually matters. Although, even though I can't see The Last Exile's episode 10, I picked up what was going on from what characters said at the end of 9 and at the beginning of 11 (that's what those bits are for - so if you DO miss an episode, it isn't the end of the world).