The MGLN Franchise

[Epsilon]

To be honest capturing the tone of the Phantom Books can be tricky which is why I'm hesitant to try. That and I have a ton of other things and fics that occupy my time.

 

[lhklan]

And how does being Mr. Exposition help his case for added screentime? Yes, his knowledge is invaluable but then after his exposition thing gets done, he'll just be another background character. Similarly, the TSAB already know the things that they know because they asked him offscreen. In Vivid's case, the fact that he pointed them to a still un-archived section of the Ancient Belka era means the IL still needs a lot of work, and there is only so much he can do.

It doesn't exactly have to end with him being just Mr. Exposition. For example, he could be deploy to the field in emergency case since he's the only one that knows and is experienced in how to deal with that sort of stuff - even after he already told them how to do it.

I mean, it's not as if you could make something just by hearing somebody else guide you with words, right?

I think the problem with Yuuno's character is that there are too many things that can be done with him if the series actually stuck with the "ancient things that needed identified and/or controlled" thing. Heck, his proficiency in binds and barriers should've been one of the things they explored in StrikerS, as he did teach them to Nanoha, and would be the perfect teacher for the Forwards, with Vita making a possibly snide comment about why such a scrawny nerd has such strong barriers. His field work experience will actually benefit Enforcers like Fate or Tea. Similarly, Force could actually make a storyline with him being targeted by both the Hucks and Hades, as he might possess and/or has access to knowledge about the Eclipse and the Seed of Origin, something that the Hucks want and Hades possibly doesn't want anyone finding out.

To be honest, ViVid and Force have element that I think would make him shine.

Both of them deals with things from ancient civilisation - the Emperors and the virus respectively - and it could have show him in a side adventure related to the main story.

There was a mention of other books/scrolls in the IL having their defense programs still active. That could be a good story in itself: Yuuno asking Nanoha's help to clean up a section or two in the IL that contained a lot of hostile books.

Nah, her presence only make things worse since th IL and some of the books know he likes her and they does not like it one bit.

 

[Mr Coin00]

@lhklan, and some of those books has some feeling for the librarian, yelp, just hoping that some of those books are not the manifestation of the works written by HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allan Poe.

 

[Azure]

Sorry for being late to reply, I was busy yesterday, but here is my reply.

I think this first principle is really the core of Chrono's character

It has little to no impact on his day-to-day life. The only character in the franchise attempting to rewind the clock was Precia, and there hasn't yet been a canonical Lost Logia that facilitates time-travel.

Gil Graham wasn't trying to bring Clyde back from the dead, he was just trying to make sure no more families would be torn apart by the Book of Darkness. Chrono's conviction to "Serve and Protect" is what led him to oppose Gil.

If I wanted the first principle to motivate Chrono more strongly, I would reword it to something like "Don't live in the past". This would represent his own personal struggle against the pain of never knowing his own father, and his anger at the Book of Darkness which tore his family apart. It would also motivate him to avoid dwelling on any mistakes he makes in the future.

Maybe "Don't live in the past" might work better, from what I understand those principles should try to apply to the character's everyday life, right?

alongside the second one, it's the main motivation that drove his big scene during A's. WHen Gil told Chrono about his plan for Hayate and the Book, it was that chance for Chrono to avenge his father just by sacrifcing Hayate. In that moment, Chrono just had to accept, and he could stop anyone else from losing people the the book, at the cost of Hayate.

I agree that the anime could have done that, and possibly should have done that. I don't feel that it actually did, though. I didn't get the sense that Chrono was tempted to sacrifice Hayate in the slightest, not even to defeat the Book of Darkness.

Part of this is how easily and quickly Chrono laid out why Gil's plan wouldn't have worked anyway. If Chrono had struggled with the temptation, he would have needed more time to see the flaws in the plan. Instead of seeming to look for ways it could work, Chrono seems to have immediately looked for ways it could fail. Which tells me that he just didn't like the plan in any way at all.

I wish he had been tempted (at least to develop Chrono some more), but I guess Nanoha has a ton of things I wish it had done diferently. Even if Chrono was not tempted I think that this still speaks of Chrono's moral fiber, that he wouldn't follow Gil's plan (even if it was to avenge his father) because it was the wrong thing to do.

About the Vita thing, that's a very interesting point, never knew that.

It only seems to come in the video games.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that Chrono is an Enforcer, so Vita treats him like a full knight and respects him.

Vita doesn't address Signum, Zafira or even HAYATE with that kind of respect. Nor the Three Admirals. So it's not about Chrono's rank.

Then why would she do that... wait didn't Chrono take care of Hayate post-As and introduce her to Carim and the Belkan Church? That might be why Vita respects Chrono (besides the whole the book killed your father and you forgave us bit).

I know that this might get some people angry, but I kind of liked FORCE.

I'm not saying that everything about FORCE is terrible, but a lot of it is terrible indeed.

The horrid pacing, the new and more powerful Anti-Magic technology in a Magical Girl setting, the Huckebein being ridiculously unsympathetic for supposed anti-villains, taking the story away from the new cast of heroes and putting it in the hands of the old cast of heroes, Carren coming out of fucking NO WHERE like a Diablos Ex Machina to save the Huckebein when no one had even mentioned her before, and she makes Hayate, Vita, Erio and all of Riot 6 look like chumps...

In a way, I don't think that including Anti-Magic tech into the Nanoha setting was a bad idea. In setting, Jail proved that Anti-Magic is a good tool to deal with the TSAB, so it makes sense that other groups would be willing to research into it some more to find a stronger weapon to counter mages, aka the Eclipse.

After Stikers, Nanoha formula (exclusind Vivid) has been changing from a magical girl show with sci fi/mecha elements, to more of a sci fi with magical/fantasy elements. Hence the thematic shift from getting power from personal skills (although it still matters) to technological development (aka the Arms race between Magic and Anti-Magic), which helps introduce conflict now that Nanoha and Co are basically the strongest in the TSAB.

I do think the Anti-Magic in FORCE was handled badly; they should have made the Eclipse weaker (to give magic a fighting chance here) or start the TSAB with working AEC equipment, that way the good guys would have a fighting chance against the Hucks, even if the Hucks keep a small advantage. Either way, FORCE should be the end of this Anti-Magic plot point, and I wish it had introduced something down the line that made Magic work even when faced with Anti-Magic.

About the Hucks being such unrepentant and unsympathetic pricks, I think it was done on purpose. One of FORCE's themes was supposed to be Family, and Hucks should represent the type of people that would put their family over the law and everyone else, not caring if they hurt others, contrasting with the sort of family Subaru and the others would represent to Tohma. Still, I don't doubt that if FORCE continued, they would have managed to give Carren and the other Hucks some sort of sympathetic backstory (they already started with Veyron).

I really dislike how Nanoha and co took over force and replaced the new characters, it gave me horrible flashbacks to SEED Destiny. Just at the time that I was feeling that we would get the real start of Tohma's character arc, it gets nipped and Tohma and Co get absorbed by the TSAB.

The original idea of having Tohma and Lily on the run from both the TSAB and other Eclipse Users looked like it would have been really interesting, and it was sad that FORCE just gave that up to refocus on Nanoha and friends while shafting the new characters.

About Curren's and her gank on Hayate, I am actually fine with that point, we always hear how Hayate is bad at fighting herself, so it's nice to finally see that weakness on screen. I do dislike how she simply took down Vita and Erio like that, because it feels like such a shounen cliche, and like many things in FORCE I do wish they had done it better.

In the end, I like to think of FORCE as a flawed series that had a bunch of good ideas that were implemented in a bad way. I really like many of the new characters they introduced (Curren, the Grendels, and Hades are interesting, and Tohma had a good potential at the start), and the idea of focusing a Nanoha season from the viewpoint of the guy who would normally be the Final Boss was an interesting one.

I feel that FORCE had a good potential to do something different (in a good way) with Nanoha, but sadly the manga made a bunch of terrible decisions and the monthly pacing never helped it. So my hope is that if they continue FORCE in the future, they decide to rewrite it to make it better.

Also, the one season failed to have Yuuno was Vivid.

I don't remember him appearing in FORCE at all, despite the Book of the Silver Cross allegedly being ANOTHER ancient and forgotten Lost Logia.

In a plot about learning about Ancient Belka History and meeting the reborn Kings of Old, they couldn't find some space to fit in Yuuno? Even when the Vivid girls took a trip to the Infinity Library? That's a massive fail on their part.

Preaching to the choir. That shit was ridiculous.

They even made Lutecia a scholar of Ancient Belkan, rather than going to the WOLKENRITTER.

But then, these problems with ViViD are also problems with Sound Stage X.

Yeah, Yuuno could have had a cameo at any point to at least talk about these things, but they keep sidelining him for other characters in a very sad way.

That said, I do think that just having Yuuno go and do exposition wouldn't be the best way to handle his character, maybe it would be better to give him an arc that involves him into the plot. Like he finds a promising dig that might have information on the current plot and thus the TSAB has to send Nanoha and Co to guard him while he finishes the dig or something.

 

[Sunder the Gold]

Maybe "Don't live in the past" might work better, from what I understand those principles should try to apply to the character's everyday life, right?

Like I said from the start, Intimacies (Principles and Ties, both) come at three levels of intensity: Minor, Major and Defining. I did not bother to rate any of the Intimacies I listed, and organized them primarily in a chronological fashion.

"You can't bring back the past" would be a minor Principle at best, given how little impact it probably has on Chrono's day-to-day life. So minor that you might not bother to write it on a character sheet at all.

But when you're playing out a scene at the table with your storyteller, you or the ST or another player might look at what's going on, think about your character's personality and back ground and say something like:

"Hey, Chrono lost his dad to an accident right? Now that he knows what Precia is up to, that probably resonates with him."

"Hmm, you're right. Hey, ST, is it okay if we treat Chrono like he's always had a minor Principle against trying to turn back the clock? That might be important if they get into a debate later and Precia tries to win Chrono over."

"It definitely fits, it doesn't contradict anything that's happened so far, it makes things more interesting, and it can be easily dropped later if the story doesn't need it anymore. Sure, let's go with that."

There are mechanical rules for adding and removing Intimacies, but the rules are meant to be guidelines and Intimacies are supposed to come and go as the story demands... even if that means adding some in "retroactively" as more of a character's backstory is "revealed".

Then why would she do that... wait didn't Chrono take care of Hayate post-As and introduce her to Carim and the Belkan Church? That might be why Vita respects Chrono (besides the whole the book killed your father and you forgave us bit).

It's possible that Hayate and the Wolkenritter have been introduced to Charim before the videogames take place, but I don't think it comes up, so I would doubt it.

Also, Chrono's not the only one who lost family members to the Book of Darkness. He might be the only one who has forgiven them, but treating all those other victims with less respect seems unwise... even for Vita.

In a way, I don't think that including Anti-Magic tech into the Nanoha setting was a bad idea. In setting, Jail proved that Anti-Magic is a good tool to deal with the TSAB

That doesn't mean that introducing Anti-Magic in StrikerS was a good idea, either.

helps introduce conflict now that Nanoha and Co are basically the strongest in the TSAB.

There are ways to challenge the Aces in combat without raw power. Nerfing the Ace's raw power so that the new challengers can match them in a slugging fest isn't REALLY any different from introducing "the newest, strongest opponent" like DBZ did.

Also, conflict would have been easier to generate if Touma's story didn't exist at the scale that would provoke the TSAB to send in the Aces. There are probably lots of small fires out there which are dangerous for Touma but not dangerous enough that the TSAB needs to re-establish Riot Force.

About Curren's and her gank on Hayate, I am actually fine with that point, we always hear how Hayate is bad at fighting herself, so it's nice to finally see that weakness on screen.

That wasn't part of my complaint. It does make sense that someone with close-combat power could gank Hayate while she's concentrating all her power on a different target.

As you say and as I said, the problem was that Hayate had taken that into account and had herself sufficiently guarded with Vita, Erio and a spaceship's crew and sensor-suite and point-defenses to watch over her.

 

[Akiyoshi]

Well, about Vita and Chrono he was one of the people helping them the most in the aftermath of the BoD incident so it's understandable Vita is grateful and have respect for him.

 

[Zextrace]

Yukari is retiring. Taken from her blog:
http://tamurayukari-diary.com/?eid=2692

私にとっての2015年は、別れの年になるのだと思う。

終わりのはじまり。
そろそろカウントダウン。
見えないように目を瞑っていたけれど。


「離れても、逢えなくなるわけじゃないから大丈夫」

だなんて嘘ばっかり。

私はいつも、自分の心に嘘をつく。

 

[Hoki]

Yukari is retiring. Taken from her blog:
http://tamurayukari-diary.com/?eid=2692

私にとっての2015年は、別れの年になるのだと思う。

終わりのはじまり。
そろそろカウントダウン。
見えないように目を瞑っていたけれど。


「離れても、逢えなくなるわけじゃないから大丈夫」

だなんて嘘ばっかり。

私はいつも、自分の心に嘘をつく。

She's joking... probably.

 

[vic-vic]

I hope so.

The wording is... elusive.

And the headline of her post called "boredom".

 

[Zextrace]

"To me, 2015 is the year I think will bid farewell.

The beginning of the end.
The countdown is about to begin.
I’m closing my eyes so I don’t see it.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The wording is evasive, but surely she is not joking. To me it sounds like she's either retiring from some part of her career, or she's gone suicidal. She actually does have a severe case of depression going by some posts she have made in the past...Although none of them implied she was retiring.

 

[Azure]

Then why would she do that... wait didn't Chrono take care of Hayate post-As and introduce her to Carim and the Belkan Church? That might be why Vita respects Chrono (besides the whole the book killed your father and you forgave us bit).

It's possible that Hayate and the Wolkenritter have been introduced to Charim before the videogames take place, but I don't think it comes up, so I would doubt it.

Also, Chrono's not the only one who lost family members to the Book of Darkness. He might be the only one who has forgiven them, but treating all those other victims with less respect seems unwise... even for Vita.

Then no idea as for why Vita would respect Chrono in that way, I guess we have to think she just likes him his attitude or something. I really do wish we could know

In a way, I don't think that including Anti-Magic tech into the Nanoha setting was a bad idea. In setting, Jail proved that Anti-Magic is a good tool to deal with the TSAB

That doesn't mean that introducing Anti-Magic in StrikerS was a good idea, either.

I was talking more of a perceptive of having FORCE as a sequel to Strikers. Strikers also made many mistakes that I wish they could have changed, like the larger cast, how Mid as a society was handled, the time skip itself and the training arcs, but I don't think that the Anti-Magic was that bad an idea. It fits the idea that technology can overcome technology which fits the sci-fi tone that Strikers was trying to change Nanoha into.

helps introduce conflict now that Nanoha and Co are basically the strongest in the TSAB.

There are ways to challenge the Aces in combat without raw power. Nerfing the Ace's raw power so that the new challengers can match them in a slugging fest isn't REALLY any different from introducing "the newest, strongest opponent" like DBZ did.

Also, conflict would have been easier to generate if Touma's story didn't exist at the scale that would provoke the TSAB to send in the Aces. There are probably lots of small fires out there which are dangerous for Touma but not dangerous enough that the TSAB needs to re-establish Riot Force.

Actually I agree with the idea of stating with a smaller conflict, if they had done maybe they could have kept the original idea of Tohma being an outlaw who has to avoid both the TSAB (it would have been a good chance to meet other TSAB forces) and the Hucks/Grendels/Hades. If they had to have the Aces appear, they could eventually escalate the conflict until the point they would have to get involved (or show some of those other AAA+ Rank mages the TSAB has).

In some ways, I do think that FORCE should have been kept as a separate Spin-off that didn't need to involve the main cast, but that's life.

About Curren's and her gank on Hayate, I am actually fine with that point, we always hear how Hayate is bad at fighting herself, so it's nice to finally see that weakness on screen.

That wasn't part of my complaint. It does make sense that someone with close-combat power could gank Hayate while she's concentrating all her power on a different target.

As you say and as I said, the problem was that Hayate had taken that into account and had herself sufficiently guarded with Vita, Erio and a spaceship's crew and sensor-suite and point-defenses to watch over her.

Like I said, that was was just a bad shounen cliche, it's part of the bad writing that hinders FORCE from being truly good. I guess they could have hand-waved it by saying something like, Curren has some stealth spell or something, but they didn't even bother with that?

 

[Van Silverlight]

"To me, 2015 is the year I think will bid farewell.

The beginning of the end.
The countdown is about to begin.
I’m closing my eyes so I don’t see it.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

This post really sound dark to me.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”

Either her "important person"/co-worker/fans/family...

I’m always lying to my own heart."

I'm really glad if you referring the lying part about shipping nanofate...

 

[Zextrace]

I'm really glad if you referring the lying part about shipping nanofate...

Nopenopenope.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

 

[Amaranth]

I'm really glad if you referring the lying part about shipping nanofate...

Nopenopenope.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

Well... This is unexpected. She wasn't one of my direct targets... So... It's sort of... Strange... Was she known for posting stuff this dark before?

Grrr... Why couldn't it been an actually horrible seiyuu that was doing this?

 

[Zextrace]

I'm really glad if you referring the lying part about shipping nanofate...

Nopenopenope.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

Well... This is unexpected. She wasn't one of my direct targets... So... It's sort of... Strange... Was she known for posting stuff this dark before?

Grrr... Why couldn't it been an actually horrible seiyuu that was doing this?

She's posted some...odd things. For instance, she posted that she wished she was a bird because they were free. She also posted that she doesn't even know who she is anymore so she wrote a blog post completely using the 3rd person. This is the first time she's posted anything about farewells, though...

 

[Van Silverlight]

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

I don't get it...

 

[Amaranth]

I'm really glad if you referring the lying part about shipping nanofate...

Nopenopenope.

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

Well... This is unexpected. She wasn't one of my direct targets... So... It's sort of... Strange... Was she known for posting stuff this dark before?

Grrr... Why couldn't it been an actually horrible seiyuu that was doing this?

She's posted some...odd things. For instance, she posted that she wished she was a bird because they were free. She also posted that she doesn't even know who she is anymore so she wrote a blog post completely using the 3rd person. This is the first time she's posted anything about farewells, though...

I understand the metaphorical posts (I wish White Day never existed) but the later is something either incredibly emo wannabe (she wants to be edgy) or something rather disturbing...

“It’s not like we won’t see each other if we’re apart, so it’s okay,”
is just a lie.
I’m always lying to my own heart."

The second sentence is referring to the first sentence.

I don't get it...

The first sentence is her lying to herself.

Also, doesn't anybody find Putin's disappearance for no apparent reason and then this a bit... jarring?

 

[vic-vic]

President Putin already reappeared, comrade o.o7

Anyway, I just hope Tamura-san simply sentimental and soo she get her high spirit back. .

 

[Amaranth]

President Putin already reappeared, comrade o.o7

Anyway, I just hope Tamura-san simply sentimental and soo she get her high spirit back. .

I know... But people disappearing out of the blues and then going "suicidal" isn't the best omen one could get.

 

[Hoki]

Okay, so with this shocking announcement, what do you think is in store for the MLGN franchise now that Nanoha's VA is retiring?

As some people in AS said, it may still live on in manga form, as well as the various merch it sells, so Force gets a chance of not completely screwing shit up and Vivid gets a chance to spice it up a bit more.

On the flip side, we may never get to see Force animated, or get a new video game. The third movie is kinda on the rocks now too, The only hope for it now is if Yukarin retires after she finishes her last VA roles, which hopefully includes this movie.

It's sad that Yukarin is retiring, since in my opinion, she's the only one who can do justice to Nanoha's character.

 

[MastaofBitches]

Can't they just replace her? Maybe now they'll tone down the Yuri overtones.

 

[Hoki]

Can't they just replace her? Maybe now they'll tone down the Yuri overtones.

Well they can. The problem is would the fans (both Japanese, Asian, and western, but mostly the Japanese fans) like the new VA?

As for the yuri overtones? Highly unlikely, as it is one of the franchise's selling points.

 

[MastaofBitches]

Can't they just replace her? Maybe now they'll tone down the Yuri overtones.

Well they can. The problem is would the fans (both Japanese, Asian, and western, but mostly the Japanese fans) like the new VA?

As for the yuri overtones? Highly unlikely, as it is one of the franchise's selling points.

They'll get used to it.

And let me have my dreams damn it!

 

[Hoki]

Can't they just replace her? Maybe now they'll tone down the Yuri overtones.

Well they can. The problem is would the fans (both Japanese, Asian, and western, but mostly the Japanese fans) like the new VA?

As for the yuri overtones? Highly unlikely, as it is one of the franchise's selling points.

They'll get used to it.

Hopefully.

And let me have my dreams damn it!

Well, we do want to see Yunno get his well deserved harem.

 

[Amaranth]

Can't they just replace her? Maybe now they'll tone down the Yuri overtones.

Well they can. The problem is would the fans (both Japanese, Asian, and western, but mostly the Japanese fans) like the new VA?

As for the yuri overtones? Highly unlikely, as it is one of the franchise's selling points.

They'll get used to it.

And let me have my dreams damn it!

I'm on this boat as well. That said, I hope it isn't an awful VA like Maaya Sakamoto or Kanae Ito... Though finding a good female VA these days is no different from finding needles in a haystack.