Topics

Why can't Oda, the master storyteller and plot artist of One Piece write good female characters?
Eiichiro Oda is one of my favorite mangaka of all time and the proclaimed writer of the epic over 900 chapter-long, continuing manga, One Piece, the current top-selling manga. He continually astounds readers with his beautifully interwoven story arcs, character development, and unique artistic style and yet one aspect of his work persistently falls short of the mark — his writing and designing of female characters.

Oda has displayed an immense array of designing abilities, drawing influence from artistic and regional styles from all over the world and yet all of his female characters have the same face and body shape. Vivi, Nami, Robin, Rebecca, Shirahoshi, etc. All of these unique characters would look the same if you gave them the same hair and eyes, something that would not work for the male characters who display many different kinds of eye shapes, hair styles, body types, nose shapes, etc.

In terms of writing as well, even characters who are supposedly "strong" like Rebecca (a freaking gladiator), are swept up and saved by male heroes. Oda doesn’t seem to like to give his female characters proper adversaries to fight, a necessary component to completing a character arc in the world of One Piece – all plots lead to a final showdown of some sort. And yet the female characters only face off against other villainous female characters of the same caliber (Nami vs Kalifa/Miss Doublefinger) whereas Luffy and Zoro are always given stronger and better challenges.

Oda doesn’t seem to respect a woman’s ability to battle a man on equal footing; its a logic that doesn’t seem to exist in the narrative. Throughout the series Oda betrays a serious awareness of historical and political issues regarding human injustice, inequality, authoritarianism, colonialism, etc. And yet why is it that he utterly fails in turning this critical eye to gender?

Many modern movies that are marketed to kids like Pirates of the Caribbean and Maleficent try to portray the villain in a more positive light. I think an interesting article would talk about the genre of kids' films and how villains have changed over the years. For example, Goonies and Disney's Little Mermaid have clear, evil villains.

The modernist period in literature saw a massive shift not only in the structural and generic elements of literature, but also in the thematic foci. One area that began to gain greater representation was the discussion of mental illness, especially through the lens of female authors. Great examples of this are Virginia Woolf's 'Mrs. Dalloway', Janet Frame's 'Intensive Care' and much more, Charlotte Gilman Perkins 'The Yellow Wallpaper' and more. We are almost 100 years on from these breaking edge works that helped shape a greater understanding of experiences of mental illness. The prompt I would suggest would be to look now at examples of contemporary fictional works that deal with mental illness and how those experiences and stories are creating new conversations.

Analyse why the byronic hero trope continues to be popular and "sexy" male characters are still often depicted as arrogant, proud, brooding, unemotional on the surface and somewhat antagonistic to the female protagonist in the beginning to create sexual chemistry. Why haven't we moved past the Mr.Darcy fantasy- now the Mr.Grey/Edward Cullen fantasy? Why do male characters, especially those in YA such as Jace Herondale in the City of Bones series for example, continue to be by far one dimensional leather-jacket-wearing, smouldering "bad boys". There are SO MANY examples that could be discussed and explored here!!

So the other day, I'm surfing the Internet looking at Harry Potter writings (I'm a recent Potterhead and enjoying the addiction). I came across someone complaining about The Cursed Child and the Deathly Hallows epilogue, saying that they were too "heteronormative." In other words, this person wanted to know why it was always necessary for our favorite characters to get married (to a heterosexual, but I guess really to a person of any gender) and have kids to be happy.

Now, I'm a sucker for what TV Tropes calls Babies Ever After, but that post made me wonder. Why is marriage/babies held up as the ultimate happy ending? Is it the only one? What works can you name where this didn't happen, but the characters were still happy and fulfilled? How has the concept of "happily ever after" evolved? Discuss.

This article could explore the popularity of a particular character in a fandom, even when the appearances have been limited. A good comparison maybe someone like Boba Fett from Star Wars. This piece could take a look back at the history Broly, why he has remained so popular, and predictions on his role in Dragon Ball Super.

Todays professional sports have now created their own storylines within the games, and are publicized enough in the media, that sports have become more intriguing and entertaining than reality television. With sports not being scripted, and available across the globe no matter the language, they are more accessible.

Take the recent 48 minute gameplay video of Cyberpunk 2077 as a starting point or even an exemplar in explaining how the gameplay demo should be undertaken. Compare CD Project Red's open and self aware approach to marketing their games versus perhaps some contrasting examples of other promotional campaigns that leave much to be desired. For example discuss the limitations of the 'cinematic trailer' that a lot of games use nowadays. Ultimately, discuss cosumer vs anti consumer marketing practices and that raw unfiltered gameplay is far more consumer orientated compared to heavily edited and scripted demos and videos whose sole purpose is to create shallow hype. Perhaps you could also trace the history of how triple A companies have marketed their games in order to provide some useful context.

Are there any words or inventions that we use today that once only existed in movies and books? For example, the word "muggle" is now understood by people who might not have ever read the Harry Potter series. I also heard that Star Trek was the inspiration behind many of the new technology that we have today.

With Better Call Saul entering it's fourth season, it may be a good time for discussion on how well the show works. Specifically, how does it compare to the main show it evolved from. The writer could look at narrative and character similarities, stylistic choices and maybe even potential flaw if any are noticed.

Analyse what causes people to view products with celebrity names on them more enticing to buy. What difference does it make whether a product is made/sponsored by Ariana Grande, Jenner, Vanessa Hudgens, etc.? Also, do these buyers know that there is a difference between the product having the celebrity's name on it just to sell more, and that the actual celebrity makes the product? It's important to know the distinction, and which age range is affected the most.

Hip hop/rap music is often associated with thugs and those "on the wrong side of the law". The whole genre is thought to be filled with angry artists who have a bad temper and it's stereotyped that it encourages negative attitudes in those who listen to it (dis tracks, rants etc.) Meanwhile, the disco music that filled the 70's with fun and dance, is seen to be much more innocent. If hip hop/rap is simply an evolution of disco – a spin off of the adored genre – why are the reputations of the two so different?

Non-conventional episodic formats have been growing in popularity for a number of years now. With streaming services and premium cable lifting restrictions on how episodic content is made and consumed (doing away with standard 21/46 minute programs forced by advertising) how will this shape the way programs are made? BBC series have had this sort of format for years and now even shows like Game of Thrones have changed the way they shoot their episodes (originally opting for a more conventional structure but now ending the series with 6 approx. 2 hour episodes) Will this be more alluring for creatives?

'The shift from a single track, uniquely verbal medium such as the novel (or the short story), which "has only words to play with", to a multitrack medium such as film, which can play not only with words, but also with theatrical performance, music, sound effects, and moving photographic images, explains the likelihood – and I would suggest even the undesirability — of literal fidelity' (Robert Stam)

How do you think the adaptation's of Dracula by Bram Stoker, most notably Francis Ford Coppola's film, explore the complexities of adaptation ?

There seems to be a lack of critical analysis with regards to the Maze Runner theories, especially with regards to the religious, sociological and political perspectives.

Fan fiction has a rather negative image within the literary genres. Works such as Fifty Shades of Grey do not not necessarily help the genre to renegotiate its stand in the literary world. Why is it that fan fiction is oftentimes seen as problematic? What are some positive examples? What might be the future of fan fiction?

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about the dissolution of the physical descriptions of characters in books if the narrative does not periodically draw attention to their descriptions, and particularly if the character's physical description is not a crucial part to the story (e.g. Harry Potter's tousled hair, scar, and "eyes like his mother's," etc.). Instead, we posited, readers start to develop their own visions of the characters in their mind based on the people in their life with similar personalities. What are the psychological factors at play here and what are the ramifications of this? Is this valid?

Alternatively, how critical are physical descriptions in casting adaptations of novels? Are they more or less critical than establishing the same personalities/motivations of the character in the novel? Why?

A common complaint in literature is the presence of one-dimensional secondary characters. These are characters outside of the standard formula or protagonist and antagonist; or are characters that act as a stimuli for plot progression. Understandably a character that is only going to dominate a single scene or at times a single line of dialogue in your story is not going to be one that you develop in any real depth. However, the lack of any consideration, or flippant description, can be both jarring and demoralising for your reader and will ultimately remove their engagement in the story. The two most common issues are completely generic stereotypes – the balding fat cop or the little asian punk girl – or the use of disjointed extremes – the asian emo-punk girl cop with pink hair but still wearing the standard police uniform – both of which will break the verisimilitude of the reading experience.

One suggestion is to begin to develop framework secondary characters using RPG character sheets. This is similar to making up a skeleton outline of a character, but using a template that keeps all the information in the same areas. The idea is that by using these pre-generated character sheets it will allow characters to be briefly fleshed out in ways that create them as more than a stereotype, but less than a full-blown character. The use of a standard template is already a good organisational strategy that will help you manage your secondary characters. And anyone who has had experience as a DM/GM will know how vital this is for developing NPCs (non-player characters) that populate their worlds. An RPG template will help you categorise the different abilities, skills, characteristics and even notes on physical appearance of each of your secondary characters in a fast and efficient manner.

The choice of a name is quite powerful in literature, and in most popular-culture texts, as it can set particular expectations, symbolise aspects of the character, identify even the unique context of the narrative. Children's literature in particular has used this to good effect with the choice of names that capture the popularity and every-man position of the particular period in which it was produced. For instance Mary of 'The Secret Garden' is an ideal choice for the period in which the book was set, as it was an iconic English name. An example of a symbolic name is Bella Swan from 'Twilight' that means beautiful swan, which sets against the symbolic fact Bella perceives herself as an "ugly duckling" that blooms within the love story. There are many such examples of both selecting names of the time and names with symbolic value. What other examples can you identify?

Literature is a field of study. It is categorisation of all written (and some multimedia) texts that engage to some extent in narrative storytelling. It covers early Greek theatre, ancient mythologies, classical romance and gothic, horror verses weird, modern, post-modern, paranormal romance and so much more. It is a vast and unwieldy monster of source material.

As such, to make sense of it literary critics engage most often with literary theory – lenses and concepts that can be applied to categories of works. These range again widely: genre, feminist, post-colonial, structural, mimetic, queer – theories, etc. The use of these different lenses is important as it helps to highlight the various hidden, intended or contested views within different literature. It also helps make sense of the context in which a text is produced, and reflected on through the context in which it is being examined.

However, for many the plethora of literary theory is a terribly daunting and overwhelming spectrum. I would propose a great article that would help many would be to take a single text, one not too complex or long, and apply the different lenses to show how they work. Actually what would be excellent would be if a few people took on this topic with different texts (some old, some new) to help show the diversity of theory.