[Repost] Incoherent Rambling - REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

@WJohnston#2820 

 

 ```the whole thing with overlord is like being thrown into a real-life fantasy world where momonga is the evil overlord villain, with a strong focus on character interactions  i just do not see overlord as being tied to game mechanics at all on a narrative or thematic level it has no need to hold onto those things ther than a crutch for writing.``` I agree with you that from a narrative stand point there is a strong foundation of tropes being played with where characters we see like Momonga fulfill roles that are common in fantasy in general but we see these people contour and deviate from tropes in their interactions. However I cannot agree with you on your other points. First, when creating any writing, you need a foundation for how things work - from physics to what have you. Instead of real life models, Maruyama chose to base his world's physical aspects on hard game design and other series. This affects the logic of the world itself, from potential technology to standards of living. At it's core that is one facet that will shape society as do how things like classes affect people's stations in life. Overlord isn't holding onto these ideas, it was built with them in mind. ```Notbeingabletotelloutcomesyoupreferbecauseyouareboundbysettingsisprobably Overlord’s shortcoming. That’s synonymous with Overlord however(being constrained by settings and RPG rules). This weakness is the kind ofdetail Maruyama wanted to use as a stepping stone to use to write a story!```[V14AT] It's not a crutch. Rather it's like trying to walk with giant spikes in your feet. It forces you to write with verisimilitude in mind as both you and your audience pick up on rules of the world and this creates depth but also burdens you with adhering to internal consistency. Secondly, Overlord's references are intertwined with it's narrative and themes. Sadly most people don't see it due to how niche the message is. There is an entire essay you can write on the conflict between tier and wild magic. 

Overlord has to hold onto these things because Overlord relies on inter textuality to paint its many broader meta textual ideas. It can stand on it's own merits by virtue of it's characters given it's broad appeal, but thematically, you need these game mechanics to better understand why history and conflicts turned out as they did in Overlord in the grand scheme of things. The further you dig, the more you connect, you'll start to see the real reason behind all sorts of events in the setting that come off as contrived. People bitch about Ainz always being at the right place at the right time for instance. From a writing stand point,m yeah you want to show the interesting stuff or have some purpose in midn. But in universe there is actually a reason as well. Now beyond that, there is broad meta commentary on 'game logic' in Overlord as well, even if it is vestigial. This ties in with the broader themes of aspects of the series. There is the plot reason why stuff happens. The game design behind it. The meta narrative why. And then the lesson of these ideas spring up from intertexuality outside the setting driving the interaction and resolution of the component pieces. For example, Nazarick steam rolls the New World or Players stomp Dragon Lords into genocide. We get the plot reason why (dragons lazy and didn't play toxic mmos, etc), the game reason whys (level lower, out geared, cash shop is hax, world class items, etc), the meta narrative (these are homages to the age of dragons being a now bygone era ushering in a new era more reminiscient of fantasy stories or settings or games) and finally the intertextual reason (you can infer what you will from what you think inspired Overlord). This isn't an exhaustive list by the way, but one of the facets of Overlord is far too niche to explain. If you can understand what the corruption of the New World really is then you might start to understand....   

I can understand why you might see Overlord the way you do. But I just can't sit back and let you trivialize Overlord as you did. There is a reason why Overlord takes so long to come out. Speaking as someone who has tried to emulate Maruyama's style exactly it is pure suffering. And then the majority of your audience will not even be aware of all the nuance and just latch onto what's visible on the surface. Is it vital to the core plot? Most people would say no, as they didnt' notice but got what was 'going on'. The broad strokes. But if you can't grasp the finer strokes, can you say you really understood the painting completely? In our modern culture people enjoy binging things, watching at 1.5 speed on their phones various media, watching videos on content they consume, etc. All of this comes at a price as people miss minutia, inadvertently affect their own interpretation of the content (eg film makers sometimes have shots linger or have silence in dialogue for a reason it's not something to just skip to get through it faster), and consuming summaries or another person's interpretation puts up a degree of separation from the true essence of the series. Just because you might not value the components of the piece doesn't mean the piece itself and it's artist were wrong to include them as part of the sum total of it's existence. Art is a composite of many things from homages, sampling, inspiration, exploration of ideas, commentary on many aspects, or evne direct rebuttals or responses to other art. When you just axe part of something you felt detracted from one element you value, you are censoring and belittling the other elements and the feelings that went into including them. It's akin to making light of all the cultural, linguistic, intellectual factors that led to the creation of various creation myths, of folklore told among the people of the past. Things are the sum total of their parts. Sometimes they may seem lesser but in others they are greater.