Lengthy post alert.
Anyway, no one gave a shit about Aina Dupree until I killed her so, yeah, whatever. Her death was necessary, but hey, it's not like I've written in the past about killing storylines (and characters).
An immortal elf. Harlequin's best friend. Dead.
(She was also the Vice Chair turned Acting Chair of the Draco Foundation)
It's going to be hard making him give a shit about that character, since I don't in any way shape or form give a shit about her. I will endeavor to manage.
Normally when the word 'Mary Sue' comes up I get pissed, because I think it gets overused to a pretty disgusting degree by people with a much-too-broad definition of what it means. But Aina Dupree, if it's the character I'm thinking of, is one of the worst EVER.
That's sad to read.
First of all, there are people who care about Aina. Our group for example. For ones, we have Aina as major NPC in the campaign.
Yes, Aina was a strange cookie in an already disfunctional family that immortal elves are. But just because you try to avoid your slightly insane uncle whenever you can doesn't mean you don't love him. Especially not in the way 'since no one cares, she dies. Ha-ha!'
Secondly, Harlequin, Aina's close friend, one time lover, comrade-in-arms and one of the few people on earth (save probably the late Dunkelzahn) who took her seriously, wouldn't care about Aina? Wouldn't care about the death of one of the dozen, at most, human beings in the whole world who are on par with him? He may have had his reservations about her, but he loved her.
And I can understand that her death is part of the yet unpublished story (which must be real big as Aina is [should try using 'was'] second only to Harlequin himself in power), but the attitude towards it baffles me. If she is such unwanted child, why just don't leave her out? The death of the character of the scope Aina was is a big deal, it should serve some purpose other than just to get rid of her and make some big waves. This could as well wake other elves up. As far as I know, immortals have never previously lost one of their own.
To stop grumbling, the book itself is good and pretty. I have some issues with art for the last two chapters and Agent, but other than that art is superb.
Let's see. First off, I apologize for my unprofessional and offhand comment. The mindset that anything I say can and will be taken as representative of the opinions of Catalyst or even the freelancer pool is a hard one for me to get into. I had a lot more leeway with what I could say publicly when I was only coming from fan stance. With that said, my comment about Aina Dupree was most likely unfair and certainly irrelevant. I did not kill the character, nor was I asked about her killing before it happened. Nor, importantly, was her killing the irreverent blue note you may have assumed from James' comments.
Without spoiling anything, I believe that the actual manner of the character's dying within the universe's fiction is extremely respectful, certainly much more so than my offhanded comment, which I honestly did not pause to consider the ramifications of. As for the character's death being offhandedly mentioned in a publication other than the one in which she died, that was indeed a goof up, but not my department.
We need harlekin to go on a city killing spree untill he has found the people responsible for her death and throws them all into the horrors waiting arms.
And that Posting is basically EVERYTHING that's wrong with current writing of shadowrun.
In. One. Single. Posting.
I'm sorry that you feel that way, Stahlseele. I've been following your posting for a long time several places, including the Den. Watching you and Frank and the gang discuss everything, I really never wanted to be part of the problem. : (
All I can say, honestly, is that I do my best to read every critique everywhere it's posted, to sort out the fair from the unfair, and to improve upon what I can improve upon.
Not a personal criticism. However I'm afraid your confidence in Lugh is sadly over-rated. Have a look on Dumpshock for the Fields of Fire campaign. it was all very silly (or cinematic if you prefer) and never went very far but all the PC's qualified as 'legendary' (1250 karma, which works out as the original base of 750 plus exactly the 500 needed to be legendary) and I'm pretty sure every single one of them would have given Lugh a run for his money and I'm certain that one or two would have wiped the floor with him.
I agree that it is fine for a character like Rigger X to be poorly optimized but it is not okay for legendary icons like Lugh, Hestaby or Lofwyr. They can have as much fluffy window dressing as you like but at their core they must be capable of handing the PC's their asses if need be.
I took all of the immediate action within my power to correct the Rigger X stats when the errors with them were pointed out. That thread was then locked by powers beyond my control. I will post my unofficial errata up here soon, unless Jason for some reason wants me not to.
As for Lugh Surehand, I do not understand why it is problematic that if he got in a fight with a team of the world's most legendary shadowrunners in the open, he might lose. Although for the record, I contest it. If you would ever like to have some kind of an exhibition, Surehand vs. six 1250 Karma Shadowrunners, let's do it. Heck, I'd be happy to GM a Shadowrun with the objective of killing him to see how your superteam fares. I think it may be less well than you think. In any case, even if I were wrong, I think it would be fun, right?
The same is true in the 22+ year metaplot we've got here at Shadowrun, and we're aware of it. So while here just in casual conversation on the internet we might seem flippant or light-hearted about a casual death, please know that we're not. The book was delayed because writers are taking their time and getting it right.
This, this, this,
1,000 times this. Also please, now and forever understand that as long as I remain a non-employee freelancer, my words should not be taken as representative of the point of view of Catalyst or of any of the other writers. Honestly, this being the internet, sometimes they're not even representative of my own innermost beliefs. Sometimes I'm just saying shit on the internet...and I will have to adjust to the fact that just saying shit on the internet is something I no longer have the freedom to do. : )
Otherwise, when freelancers(note the plural here) come out and SAY that they don't care about a character and then SAY that they killed them off because to them it SEEMED like everybody else did not either . .
Then that is just not right.
Aina, even if NOBODY had cared about her, was STILL one of the top 5 powerplayers in shadowrun . .
She was an immortal elf and if she was not as powerfull than Har'lea Quinn, she technically was MORE powerfull than him, because SHE had her own AA or tripple A MegaCorp to commandeer after The Nadja vanished . .
And because she, herself, could influence Caimbeul to do what she wanted too . . now FROSTY is the ONLY FRAGGING PERSON who has SOMEWHAT of an influence on him.
And as has been said, he is more powerfull than several adult and some great dragons . . And now somebody went and killed his lover/friend/comrade for literally hundreds, if not thousands of years . .
Go find Lofwyrs nest, show it to him. then show a steamroller driving over the eggs. The outcome would not be much different than this.
Those are things to be considered in such circumstances, even if nobody cares about her. Her death has in universe consequences damn it!
If it was not in the fight against the horrors or because of something she got pulled into because of Harlequin, then he will do what he can and what he wants to find who is responsible this and make them suffer for it.
I think you make some excellent points, and I will keep all of this in mind in my future writing.
A third Harlequin adventure would rock very, very hard!
You don't say...I happen to agree with you on that.
