WIP Rage of Angels

Discussion in 'Works in Progress' started by Yuli Ban, Mar 8, 2019.

  1. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Remember when this was a harem story?
    [​IMG]

    It's still got some gothy catgirls, but I wanted to have more fun writing it. So I toned down the romance side of it and decided to call upon an old, eh... "style"? "Subgenre"? "Aesthetic"?
    It's complicated, but around 8 to 9 years ago (god, man!), I gathered together a bunch of disparate story aesthetics and connected a few common elements together. That aesthetic has been driving my ideas on and off for about a decade now. It was borne out of the high-contrast colors, hues, and shadows of cel-shaded and ultra-stylized games, shows, and movies like Jet Set Radio Future, The World Ends With You, Mirror's Edge, and some others. Then also I noted a common thread of "modern setting with supernatural, anime-esque or video game-like elements" also seen in FLCL, Durarara!!, Scott Pilgrim, and Kick-Ass. Then I noticed that these works and a few others had angsty youths fighting each other and/or kids exploring some location with some overarching statement on growing up or fighting for some ideal, like you also saw in Chronicle, Super 8, and Kill la Kill and now you're wrapping around again.
    The music was also usually noteworthy in each of these cases, tending to be eclectic and alternative (and I mean legitimately alternative, not "2000s radio rock" or "twee indie pop").
    What's more, this style works very well with video gaming culture— does anyone recall that "proto-litRPG" I claimed to have created a decade ago? It was in this style as well, hitting each of the aforementioned "tropes" even though said style wasn't even fully formed at the time. That's how long ago I was aware that this aesthetic and style was around. And I wasn't even the first one to note it.
    I was entirely preempted by the 2007 indie movie We Are The Strange. And the creator of that called the style "str8nime": a style of film incorporating Anime and 8-Bit video game influences, and a limitless sense of complete strangeness. Extremely damn close to what I had in my brain, but that name is just too mid-2000s to work, unfortunately.

    Considering how long I've had this aesthetic on the brain, it seems odd that I haven't exploited it. So why not do so?

    Well to be fair, I did. That was Astral Falls, which I never released.
    And there's 58th State, which is this aesthetic on crack (fun fact: 58th State was specifically created to push this aesthetic as far as it could go).


    But I figured "Hey, let's try it for Rage of Angels. See where that goes."

    As a result, I've already got the entire gist of the story in my head. Beginning, middle, end, and specific scenes.


    General plot is: brilliant young man rescues a catgirl, and then becomes a supervillain out of a garage while getting into street fights with other superpowered outcasts and evil plants. I may have skipped a few steps. And there may still be a harem in there. But it all makes sense, I swear.

    Edit: Actually, forget the harem.

    The LitRPG elements are more "augmented/gamified reality" than anything.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2019
  2. Laendrea

    Laendrea Level 8 (Thug) Roleplaying Beta Reader Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    Hi, sounds like you gave this quite a bit thought! I have a question though: how do Angels fit into the story?
     
  3. Yuli Ban

    Yuli Ban Level 18 (Magician) LitRPG Author Citizen Aspiring Writer

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    I beg your pardon?

    If you're referring to "Angels" as in angels, then that's just a case of something being named after angels. There are no actual angels in the story. Well, at least not in the version that was. Of course, this entire project has changed because I feel there is another story concept that deserves the title. In that story, there were entities very similar to angels...
    In fact, I like the idea of a trilogy of stories all with titles referencing Abrahamic mythology but with the story itself having nothing to do with said mythology:
    1. Rage of Angels
    2. Heaven's Devils
    3. Hell's Vengeance

    They're all fun titles.
    This would also be a 'Venus in Furs' situation because it's not a reference to the 1980 book.
     




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