Megathread The Lara-Su Chronicles and Ken Penders topic - READ PAGE 164, POST 4096

[Agie]

I'm not gonna deny that I myself would like to live in the past. We all develop nostalgia goggles at some point.

 

Kenny boy, however, can't even accept that change happens, and there isn't much you can do about that.

[Gabz Girl]

Sometimes I wonder how Ken Penders' would've reacted if that awful Play on Playa saga was with Knuckles as the chick magnet instead of Sonic. Do you think he would've let it slide? He certainly didn't give a shit that they were ruining Sonic (before we found out it was actually Evil Sonic).

[horridus]

You know, this just reminds me how g*ddamn hypocritical Kenders is when it comes to his characters. ...Hear me out.

 

Remember the first few years of Ian's run on the book where he spent quite some time axing certain characters, and Kenny-boy berated him for killing of characters with potential? (BTW, anyone know if he threw a fit over Karl killing off Hunter with all the things that happeded during Return To Angel Island?)

 

He'd introduce characters like Julie-Su's long lost adoptive parents and name certain members of the Dark Legion or Echidnopolis, yet never do anything with them, yet complain when they are thrown out like chaff.

 

...And then blow up the whole planet, killing everyone, save for "Floating" Island. Honestly, I have no idea why Kenders feels he has to tell a prologue story with Geoffrey, when odds are the skunk (or whatever dumbass Avatar-esque name he'll be) is going to be dead in LSC's main narrative.

 

Given that even Ken himself didn't like the Hunter arc (though that doesn't stop him from defending the Brotherhood attempting to murder Monk, of course), I don't think Hunter getting killed off stuck in his craw as much as the entire status quo he had set up for himself being disrupted and Eggman running roughshod over his precious pets. It's extremely telling that the first thing he tried to do after coming back was reversing all the damage that had been done and trying to force things to go back to how they USED to be. 

 

And yeah, Ken very much is a hypocrite in this regard. Even before the whole 'The Planet Blows Up!' thing, he never really DID much of anything with his characters once he set things up; Elias for example only got character development under Karl Bollers, as did Geoffrey St. John, and he casually killed off Kragok and Tobor despite the fact that there was more that could have been done with them, excusing himself by saying that 'not all stories get resolved' (AKA 'I got bored and had no further use for them'). 

 

Penders frankly is not just a hypocrite, but dangerously complacent. He operates under this weird logic that people will keep buying stuff if you string them along by laying out not-so-subtle hints and the like... its a shame that the cancellation of the Knuckles series wasn't enough to teach him how false this really was.

[Verb & Noun]

...And then blow up the whole planet, killing everyone, save for "Floating" Island. Honestly, I have no idea why Kenders feels he has to tell a prologue story with Geoffrey, when odds are the skunk (or whatever dumbass Avatar-esque name he'll be) is going to be dead in LSC's main narrative.

 

The other chunks of Mobius are going to fly through space like makeshift spacecraft.

[Disonoid 3000]

The other chunks of Mobius are going to fly through space like makeshift spacecraft.

 

Which is absolutely hilarious, considering the guy insists this is a "hard sci-fi" story. 

[horridus]

Which is absolutely hilarious, considering the guy insists this is a "hard sci-fi" story. 

 

Yeah, he keeps tossing that around, but I don't think he really understands what it means. There's nothing wrong with wanting to do soft science fiction, but don't pretend you're doing a serious, using-real-world-science type of story when you're doing stuff that wouldn't be out of place in Star Wars.

[biznizz]

The other chunks of Mobius are going to fly through space like makeshift spacecraft.

...Did Ken really say that? Like seriously? I'm not trying to doubt you, but sometimes its hard to tell when a joke is being made about Kenny-boy's plans given how mindnumbingly stupid they can be.

The Floating Island surviving the planet blowing up was stupid enough, but one could easily suspend some disbelief since its handwaved the Master Emer-, I mean POWER CORE, has mystical b.s. that Kenders can lean on as he's done so often in the past.

But if THIS is true, and an overarching goal is to reunite the pieces of the shattered world into one planet again, then... Oh, God.

He's STILL sucking blood out of Sonic even more than what we thought possible, given I just apparently gave a synopsis for Sonic Unleashed as told by someone who has never played it. And has brain damage.

IF this IS what his "multi-book saga" is about, with Lara-Su as the Sonic/messiah role. Keep a look out for any stretchy limbs, she's already got the hideous look down.

[Disonoid 3000]

It's hard to see through Ken's weird wording, but it's there;

 

 

Later on they talk about needing space travel to "transit between the biosystems", so yeah.

 

Though he doesn't seem to want to reunite the pieces. 

 

http://www.kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2549

[Verb & Noun]

I can't give you a direct quote on other landmasses being spacecraft as well, but I'm fairly sure (like 85%) I've heard it somewhere when someone was questioning where the other characters would be since they're not part of the Floating Island.

 

I'm pretty sure I heard this somewhere because it's not really the kind of thing my brain would trick me on, since it's pretty dumb.

 

It's also kind of basically a rehash of what seemed to be his idea for a Sonic movie, because concept pieces for that showed images of Mobius exploding.

[Streaksyd]

Why does he feel the need to write so many beats? In screenwriting 101 you are literally told to refrain from using beats unless it can enhance the scene by making it more dramatic or something along those lines. And that's just only using one beat. Ken here is using 4 on one page for basic exposition. But I guess its because he is such a professional, he can use as many beats as he wants since his way is the "right" way.

[Verb & Noun]

His other scripts have even more beats. It's basically after every other line.

It's kind of like how he italicized everything.

[Disonoid 3000]

I always took beats to be Penderese for "New speech bubble". 

[horridus]

Why does he feel the need to write so many beats? In screenwriting 101 you are literally told to refrain from using beats unless it can enhance the scene by making it more dramatic or something along those lines. And that's just only using one beat. Ken here is using 4 on one page for basic exposition. But I guess its because he is such a professional, he can use as many beats as he wants since his way is the "right" way.

 

Penders has repeatedly demonstrated that his understanding of narratives and writing is minimal at best and utterly abortive at worst, and he tends to try and ape ACTUAL professionals. He has likely told himself that's how its done, and so he does it that way, no matter the reality of writing a script. 

[Zaysho]

I always took beats to be Penderese for "New speech bubble".

 

This was actually my thought just now. It'd at least make sense. Though, considering he is planning for an audio element... I am a little curious if those beats are meant to be ignored then.

 

Penders has repeatedly demonstrated that his understanding of narratives and writing is minimal at best and utterly abortive at worst, and he tends to try and ape ACTUAL professionals. He has likely told himself that's how its done, and so he does it that way, no matter the reality of writing a script.

Never mind he doesn't even follow basic comic scripting format. I know he's on his own and can do what he wants, but if this is meant to be a comic page, it shouldn't look at all like a screenplay, but knowing what he wants to do, it's probably intentional.

[Verb & Noun]

He's said before it's a screenplay first and a comic secondarily, because it's intended to be a future movie/tv-show/whatever.

[Disonoid 3000]

...You know, Ken's never ending certainty he was getting a multimedia franchise out of this thing used to amaze me, cause even knowing he thinks he's hot stuff with writing and drawing, there's definitely an element of luck as to what becomes a hit massive enough to spawn a franchise, no matter how good the original work is.

 

Then I realized, of course he's so sure he'll get a movie/tv show running, he'll make it himself!

 

Of course, by "make it", I mean make a horrible trailer and then act as if it's still going to exist, but still, in his mind it counts. 

[Agie]

He'll totally....make that...movie...soon.

 

I mean, come on, you're just not as rad as the great and powerful PENDERS, amiright?

 

(apologies if this isn't stilted enough).

[shdowhunt60]

Penders has repeatedly demonstrated that his understanding of narratives and writing is minimal at best and utterly abortive at worst, and he tends to try and ape ACTUAL professionals. He has likely told himself that's how its done, and so he does it that way, no matter the reality of writing a script.

I've frequently heard the comparison that Penders is a bad fanfiction writer. I can safely say from being on that site for over year that, frankly, it's an apt comparison. I mean, he has all characteristics of one:

*Obsessing over trivial details

*Wish fulfillment

*Very high emphasis on OC's

*Pretentious melodrama

*No subtlety

*Awful formatting

*Lack of narrative focusfocus

*Shipping. Oh God, the shipping.

And probably the kicker, and most damning thing in my eyes:

*He absolutely rejects any form of negative criticism

It's something of a hallmark of bad fanfiction writers I notice. They absolutely reject any sort of negative criticisms, while the good ones tend to readily except it.

[Zaysho]

I've frequently heard the comparison that Penders is a bad fanfiction writer. I can safely say from being on that site for over year that, frankly, it's an apt comparison. I mean, he has all characteristics of one:

*Obsessing over trivial details

*Wish fulfillment

*Very high emphasis on OC's

*Pretentious melodrama

*No subtlety

*Awful formatting

*Lack of narrative focusfocus

*Shipping. Oh God, the shipping.

And probably the kicker, and most damning thing in my eyes:

*He absolutely rejects any form of negative criticism

It's something of a hallmark of bad fanfiction writers I notice. They absolutely reject any sort of negative criticisms, while the good ones tend to readily except it.

 

The sad part is that he isn't even a fan--he's a so-called professional with the attitude of this sort of writer. I really do wonder sometimes how he managed to springboard into writing (I do recall him saying he did not start out as a writer) and I'm sure he worked with editors who gave a damn, but I'm guessing any advice they gave him didn't stick (evident by his flippant attitude toward Pellerito). He's just a guy that's so in love with his ideas that the second he gets a platform to express them, he'll gladly abuse the hell out of it for his own purposes and still claim that he "got" that property better than anyone else.

 

It'd be funny if every word that came out of his mouth didn't grind my gears.

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

This might be late, but the fact that he does not arrange the panels properly in a comic, (I saw one of those pages a few pages back via link), is very confusing. It would be more sensible to add arrows to show the order, that's what I do when I draw comics!

[Zaysho]

This might be late, but the fact that he does not arrange the panels properly in a comic, (I saw one of those pages a few pages back via link), is very confusing. It would be more sensible to add arrows to show the order, that's what I do when I draw comics!

 

Believe it or not, this is a normal thing to do. Even Yardley and Bates have done it on occasion, it's just a helpful guide to keep the reader from getting lost if some panels are busy, but then again they (and most people making comics) don't lay out their pages in the shape of a fucking Z.

[comic321]

Believe it or not, this is a normal thing to do. Even Yardley and Bates have done it on occasion, it's just a helpful guide to keep the reader from getting lost if some panels are busy, but then again they (and most people making comics) don't lay out their pages in the shape of a fucking Z.

 

But can't you Z? He's obviously preparing for the sequel series: The Lara-Su Chronicles: Z!

[Daisy-Fan]

But... but... it was a best-seller! The trailer said so!

 

 

it is birdemic kinda style? i really didn't watched it.

[biznizz]

Umm... it's as incompetent as James Nguyen's usual work...

 

But it's still sad to say that the Birdemic guy's got more of an output (4 movies since 2003, three of them well known as reviewer fodder infamy), than Kenny-boy (left Archie in 2005, STILL hasn't put out his g*ddamn book).

[-blank-]

Umm... it's as incompetent as James Nguyen's usual work...

 

But it's still sad to say that the Birdemic guy's got more of an output (4 movies since 2003, three of them well known as reviewer fodder infamy), than Kenny-boy (left Archie in 2005, STILL hasn't put out his g*ddamn book).

 

Yeah, with all the time he spends on twitter and his forums, how much actual work has Ken put into this thing? Even now he's still, ahem, 'discovering' elements of his story. Most people by now would have gotten much farther than I imagine he has, even if they worked by themselves like he is.