Hitting Budapest ~ Worldbuilding

What are the precise strategies that are used by its creator to convey the world to us and us to the world? 

Rather than giving us bland visual descriptions of everything in the story, the author uses the characters and their interactions to convey information about the world. This allows the reader to visually perceive the world where the characters dwell without needing to much description. There is also a good use of contrast at play, where a standard neighborhood from our perspective seems to be on a much grander scale from our characters. When the author does use physical description, it is never plainly stated out what the object is at times. Such as when the tall, thin lady was eating the food the characters wanted. It's never stated what that is, but it leaves it up to the  reader's imagination (I for one thought of poptarts). The author describes this as a mystical food, and this also reveals more about the world and how that area is more high class and fantastical than the world our characters grew up, which is completely left to the reader's imagination. The author also plays with the contrast between their world and the reader's world, and they make use of this contrast to make the world seem more surreal, which allows the reader to have a more imaginative view of the world, which also makes the world seem more connected to the reader.

Story of an Hour ~ Relationships

How are relationships between men and women (or characters assuming male/female roles) portrayed in the story? 

In the Story of an Hour, we see how the author interprets the roles of men and women in the world, or more particularly, in marriage. The story deals with a wife receiving the news that her husband had died. At first she grieved for the loss, but after a while she came to the realization that she was free. This tells us what the author thought about a woman's role in marriage. How she is not free with a husband, and that the husband in some way controls the wife. You get the feeling that she did love him, but at times it feels like it suggested that she was conditioned to feel that way. Such as when they mentioned that the wife tried to beat down the "horrific" thoughts of freedom. As if it suggested that she was conditioned to feel love for her husband or that she should never act independently from him. In that sense, the husband from this point of view is a jailer, while the wife is the prisoner. When the wife accepts these thoughts of freedom, she begins to wish life would go on, as opposed to when her husband was alive and she feared a long life. In this way the author is stating that a woman is tied down by her husband, and thus is not "free." This reveals the stance the author has on their views of marriage. The irony was that her husband wasn't dead, but the wife ended up dying in a sort of retribution for having these thoughts, which suggests that women shouldn't think like that.

I find this story interesting because it shows up how much has changed since this story was created. I am not discounting that some marriages may feel like prisons, but woman have certainly gained a lot more ground than previously, especially in cases of divorce settlement and child custody. Many of the strides made are from our more recent decades, and it reflects how much is changing in the world today. More people are supportive of woman's right than ever before, especially since the past few hundred years. A scenario like this in today's society would favor the woman in a more sympathetic light than the people of the past would have. The relationships between men and women have vastly improved since then, and will probably continue to improve in the future.

My Female Heroine

As someone who wishes to create video games for a living, I believe in equally representing characters in said games. So for this week, I'll discuss a female heroine that I first began developing since my time in high school, and a character that is still being developed. Her name is Marelda.

Since her creation, I've always envisioned Marelda as a strong character, cast as the central protagonist and the would-be playable character. Marelda acts a bit tougher than most people she knows, she wears this facade to ease the people around her and make them feel secure, even when she could be struggling to keep it together. That being said, she is not internally fragile and is cable of making tougher decisions for the good of everyone. Even if she is prepared to make those decisions, she takes every precaution she can think of to prevent those choices from happening. She desires the strength to protect everyone and does physical training everyday to ensure her body doesn't fail her in her time of need.

The key concept in her character is that a woman can also be strong, not just physically, but emotionally as well. She appears as one of the strongest women in her world, and can make tougher decisions if she needs to. There are times when she will be emotionally challenged and she'll have to overcome those challenges in order to do what's right. When she first received her power, she was disinterested and wanted nothing to do with it, believing that she wasn't worthy of such power. It wasn't until the loss of her parents that she decided to master this power in order to ensure that nobody else would need to experience a loss like that. Even if the goal was inconceivable, it spurred her into action to reduce the despair in the world. However, because she was afraid of losing others (namely her little brother), she cut herself of emotionally from them and it would take time for her to finally open up again.

In her world, Marelda possesses the ability to use a regna, a weapon I've designed for the world, named Harbinger. This regna allows Marelda to manifest weapons that reflect her soul, and the more diverse the soul, the more variety that regna can manifest. Marelda's weapons in particular take more larger heavier shapes, representing her resilience and inner strength. Marelda isn't the only one who possesses this power, however her power is so great that she limits its flow of power in order to preserve balance in the world. The reserved power is held back by twin markers on both of her shoulders, and she only releases the seals during more riskier situations. The flow of power is also influenced by her emotions, where more agitated emotions can cause her weapon's forms to fail (like anger or sorrow). It isn't until later that she discovers that more positive emotions can strengthen her weapons.

If I were to choose what attributes I think women of today could learn and look up to, it would definitely be that one's determination at something can help and benefit those they care about. Women should be able to be strong in the face of adversity, whether it is a physical threat of an emotional one. I feel that woman can be the protagonist of their story without sexually exploiting them, and they can have their own drives and motivations for why they fight. I would like Marelda's more positive aspects to shine, but at the same time I want to show her changing over the course of the story, where she has to open up to people and to overcome her challenges to be the hero she wants to be. There will be times where she will be wrong, but that's fine, after all she is human. I would like that to pass on as well, where you don't need to be perfect, you can make mistakes and learn from them to move forward.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my heroine, and hopefully one can see her in a video game one day leading the charge. Til next time.