Lightflame he/him Posted September 30, 2013 Posted September 30, 2013 (edited) The latest Penny Arcade is a childish attack on Brandon Sanderson. Seriously? What the heck? This boggles the mind. And apparently they haven't even read his books, they just heard about them from fans. http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/09/30 Grr. This makes me want to use my internet rage. Edited September 30, 2013 by firstRainbowRose please avoid use of profanity. I know it is frustrating, but please keep in site rules.
Morsk he/him Posted September 30, 2013 Posted September 30, 2013 Someone on Reddit said the comic is inspired by Brandon being popular with some coworkers, but not others. It's definitely not as good as the Pat Rothfuss / Kvothe one, which was funny whether you liked the book or not.
Arcanist Lupus he/him Posted September 30, 2013 Posted September 30, 2013 (edited) The stupid thing is that the points are kind of valid - if the first panel hadn't been so blatantly confrontational, it probably would have been funny. Heck, replace the 2nd and 3rd lines of the third panel with "Sanderson's books", and the comic works. Also, the proper term for one of Brandon's fans is a Sanderfan, not a Sandersonian. Sandersonian is an adjective. Edited September 30, 2013 by Sir Read-a-Lot
Two McMillion he/him Posted September 30, 2013 Posted September 30, 2013 Yeah, this was pretty annoying. We need an outlet where we can express our displeasure. I have a carton of eggs and couple rotten apples.
Satsuoni he/him Posted September 30, 2013 Posted September 30, 2013 />Yeah, this was pretty annoying. We need an outlet where we can express our displeasure. I have a carton of eggs and couple rotten apples.I'll grease the (awakened) rope and polish (metal) stake. Where do we meet ? Also, they mention workplace division in comic commentary itself.
Galavantes Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I found it neither offensive nor funny. It was utterly "meh". There was a much funnier article a while back about Sanderson being mugged and hit over the head with a copy of tWoK.
Ete'ni Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 (edited) Sandersonian? Oh, lord... I hope all One piece fans got some good laugh just seeing this. Sandersonian... gotta tell my friends... gotta hurry and tell my friends Edited October 1, 2013 by Aetae
Miyabi She/Her Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I found it funny. I don't think it was an 'attack' on him like a lot of people seem to think. It seems more of a joke about hearing fans talk about him all the time about how great his magic systems and world building is...
Morsk he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I've figured it out! Those of us who didn't find it funny have never been in the situation it describes: we've never been around someone hyping Brandon's books at uninterested people. Which means we've never done it ourselves. So when we say we didn't find it funny, we're outing ourselves for not hyping Brandon enough. 2
jag519 he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I just thought of it as not funny and an attempt to get Sanderfans to go there and bring up their views. And it got us talking about it and is posted here and on reddit, and has more people that don't read their comments going there and adding to their views. It was not funny or entertaining, but it was effective.
Scriptorian he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 (edited) I just felt embarrassed because I may have actually said things like that to people (at least in trying to convince them how awesome his books are). Edit: Hey, at least we can all take comfort that such a facade would never work on a 17th sharder. Co-worker: "Yeah...worldbuilding..magic...blah..blah" 17th Sharder: "I know! So do you have any ideas on the feruchemical properties of Lerasium?" Co-worker: <head explodes>. Edited October 1, 2013 by Serendipity 1
Kurkistan he/him Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 I did that once... Also, Brandon's being downright positive about it on Twitter.
Observer Posted October 1, 2013 Posted October 1, 2013 Keep in mind how horribly annoying a Sanderson fan sounds as they blab about "magic systems" and "worldbuilding", two things most people don't give two crap about. I didn't find it offensive, though it wasn't terrifically funny either. Really more of a case of He Panned it, Now he Sucks in action.
Arcanist Lupus he/him Posted October 2, 2013 Posted October 2, 2013 Keep in mind how horribly annoying a Sanderson fan sounds as they blab about "magic systems" and "worldbuilding", two things most people don't give two crap about. I didn't find it offensive, though it wasn't terrifically funny either. Really more of a case of He Panned it, Now he Sucks in action. My issue is that there is a difference between panning something and calling it vomit inducing.
king of nowhere Posted October 2, 2013 Posted October 2, 2013 I didn't find it a criticism towards sanderson's books, but towards some of his overzealous fans. Well, I tried myself to get other people to pick up his books, but I am careful to not insist, as I know other people won't be particularly intersted. Anyway, I found it totally lacking any kind of humorism. It just wasn't funny. It didn't even look like it was supposed to be funny. And not because it was picking on sanderson, I generally like satire on stuff I like (the wheel of time article on the italian unycyclopedia is probably my single favourite article there, and I started enough mock threads in this forum myself). I simply found it kinda stupid and lacking whatever special twist is required for humorism. Too bad, the subject of the joke had good potential. 1
Unknowingly he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 This actually made me realise that I need a new approach on how to gst more people to read his books... I am very gulty of praising his world building and magic systems
Argent he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 It was... alright. I saw the strip because Brandon linked it, so I started off with a positive attitude anyway. But I enjoyed the strip Penny Arcade did Pat Rothfuss' Kvothe more...
Cheese Ninja he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 (edited) I'm surprised how many people here haven't had to listen to annoying, overzealous fans. You could even put a fair number of posts on these forums under that category. I think it's ultimately a matter of perspective. Plenty of authors get away with vaguely defined magic systems and/or shoddy worldbuilding, and some of them still write great books despite that. Brandon himself argues that the main reason to define the magic system is that it makes using the magic to resolve situations feel less like deus ex machina. There's plenty of readers who don't want nitty gritty details, and instead just want the overarching story and characters. Edited October 9, 2013 by Cheese Ninja
Argent he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 I would argue that a well designed magic system does contribute to better storytelling, partially because it eliminates much of the deus ex machina, but also because (invoking Sanderson's Laws) a "scientific" magic system forces the characters to work within the exact confines of the system's abilities and limitations, which ultimately leads to more creative, interesting, and alive characters. 1
Shardlet he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 For me it is not necessarily the structural and defined nature of the magic systems that is particularly appealing. It is the originality. 1
Arcanist Lupus he/him Posted October 9, 2013 Posted October 9, 2013 As Wit put so well in tWoK, what's valued most by society is novelty. Interesting Worldbuilding and magic systems create that novelty.
name_here Posted October 12, 2013 Posted October 12, 2013 The comic didn't particularly offend me because Penny Arcade is always like that. The joke was funny, and given the overall context of what they've written previously it didn't feel malicious.
Recommended Posts