Subtext, Themes and Analysis - a conversation

Welp, you had me at Terry Pratchett.

I would say that the main theme of my story is learning to embrace uncertainty, which is something I need to work on myself.

A lot of shit happens when you're hanging out with the god of chaos, but if you let your fear of the unknown run your life, you don't get to hang out with a chill god character. Definitely no allegory there.

The theme of the blood wars is being able to go through a set of horrible events and still getting out ok. Or another theme is understanding ones flaws. Like going through war or finding out youre brother is an evil king.

Interesting topic!

For Devil's Triangle, I have two main themes. The first theme is regarding parenting and how there is no single right solution to bringing up a child. The second theme is something that is repeated in my other novel, which is that like any tool, technology is a double-edged sword that should be used carefully.

In Shackles, the main theme is about balancing duty and responsibility with one's desires. There's also an underlying feminist theme due to its setting in ancient China.

Finally, Dark Bytes focuses on the same technology theme as Devil's Triangle but in far more detail - each story takes a certain technology (virtual reality, fake news, mass surveillance, cyborgs, AI, etc) and explores how it could affect humanity.

There are a few at play in Blue Star Rebellion. The primary one is about the willingness to pitch in and fight against cruelty and injustice. But underpinning that are themes about the importance of truth, and how one must understand and accept the realities of the universe, or they risk alienating themselves from it, which has very real consequences in my magic system. There's a lot of Spinoza in my work.

Another theme is that of forgiveness and atonement. Even the worst monsters can chose an alternative path, should they realise they were wrong, and wish to fight in order to make right what they have broken.

I feel like I added too many themes in my novel, though I hope I'll be able to incorporate them all smoothly. These are some that I think are pretty important in it. For my novel, the world itself is inspired by Neoplatonism's emanation and Lovecraftian themes (fear of the unknown and stuff). I'd say existentialism is also a big part of it i.e. giving an answer to the value of human existence. Basically finding an answer to the purpose of your life. No on else can answer it but you, the supreme being of the world forever silent.

But ultimately, I would say the main theme is love lol Both my male leads pretty much led a loveless life and their hatred for the world has become deep-seated, which is the main motivator of their goals. But then they learn to love it along the way! Yay.

Interesting, I've never head that before, but I've had similar thoughts. I think believing in these ideas and assigning meaning to meaningless things is the most beautiful aspect of humanity that should be embraced. To say "lies", while true, I feel undermines that beauty. But whatever, I suppose my lie is that it's ok to trust other people. That you can open up to others, get to know them, and form a friendship.

Or something like that

For Rocksteady Mining Co, I'd say the main theme is learning to forgive yourself for past failures and allowing yourself to grow. The importance of letting people into your life and not keeping the world at arm's length is also a major theme.

(Also that is one of my favorite Pratchett quotes)

Nice topic. It really suits your novel.

For Trial Run, I wanted to show 2 things.

First, the stark difference between reality and what you perceive. It's shocking how much people can twist up their experiences all because of what their brain ends up perceiving. I rely on normal trickery and schemes to convey it but will soon start putting it in a persons perspective. With such a mechanism in our own heads, can we even trust ourselves? People not only change what they are seeing, they also sometimes twist and turn their own memories! Was everything that you remember even real? I hope to make people question themselves in this line.

Second, with my main character and his purpose, which is that of a "villain" I want to convey how ambgious the concept of good and evil is, Why is there only black and white and no gray? People don't realize every implication their actions have. As many people have said, good and evil are two sides of the same coin. Every good will cause evil and every evil will cause good. So, is good and evil truly the correct scale to place your actions on?

I don't think I am able to convey these things properly, but I surely hope I can eventually.

Here's the link btw:

The main theme of Errant is power.
I'm a big fan of shounen manga and superhero stuff, you know, power fantasies... But I also find that these stories tend to lack criticism of their core concept. A person having the power to decide what is right and to enforce that through superhuman strength is actually pretty scary, whether that person exists outside of any oversight, or if they work for an organisation or higher power with an agenda.

I wanted to take a more self-critical approach, both to power fantasy narratives, and to this modern trend towards "girlboss" stories about "female empowerment", with this angle of how white women like me can gain power in an unjust system through basically ignoring or even taking part in the oppression of more marginalised people. Terrible guys get into positions of authority in all sorts of industries and political circles, and women who criticise their bad actions get shut out and can't move their careers forward, while women who are happy to keep their mouths closed and be a "cool girl" who doesn't criticise the system get rewarded. Rekki is a white girl who takes a promotion offered by a really terrible guy who abused her gay asian friend, and to take that promotion, she ignores the bad things her friend tells her he's done with this shaky excuse of plausible deniability becaus she wanted that promotion and terrible guy's approval. Now her life as an "empowered superhero" is a living hell. She's exhausted, she's working for a terrible guy (turns out terrible guy is a terrible boss! What a surprise!), and people are rightly critical of her bad decision. She has to put it right, and she's lucky to have a group of friends (notably all of them some flavour of LGBTQ+, PoC, Neurodiverse) who want her to be better... but she is going to have to deal with the idea that "getting better" in this story may not mean "getting more powerful" or "getting ahead" like a typical shounen manga or an "empowered girlboss!" movie.

I like drawing girls.

LMAO I’m sorry I died at this....

For Rewrite I would say the main theme of a good chunk of it all is dreams and the underlying desire to make ones life “meaningful” and “worth it” as well as the physically/emotional change (both negative and positive) one may have to go through in order to do so

I always loved the stories told in Adventure/fantasy tales, I’d even include certain shonen in that. But I also ponder on questions of what can make a life actually worth it and what could make one persons dreams and life more “important” than someone else’s.

But prior I knew I wanted the art style and themes/tone to contrast in a natural way at the story’s start to kind of have a sort of style dissonance throughout it

I've plastered this all over my notes while writing it to make sure I never got into a tangent while writing the story - Splitting Image's theme is atonement.

Why is killing the Dark Lord something that solves every problem, in so many stories? Why people inflict harsh judgement on minor shit, then make their target suffer so much they turn right back into causing suffering themselves? And it doesn't stop with "villains", why do people treat celebrities(even minor ones) as bastions of purity, then wish death on them as soon as they don't conform to that ideal?
And down in the depths, where the real meat of the angst is - when people internalize that, can you really quantify atonement? Should you suffer four times as much as you inflicted? Should you sacrifice your life to "prove" someone else you're guilty? Is everything horrible that happens to you from then on, your just desserts?

(a disclaimer, those don't apply to heinious crimes, war crimes and friends - but it still explores the themes that you're not really done when you remove the person from the picture)

There are many lessons in Talipandas, but the main lesson of Book One/Part One/Unang Yugto is that all decisions have pros and cons and you always get BOTH pros and cons. You can't have the perks and benefits without taking responsibility. So, I think the main theme right now is taking responsibility for one's actions. Throughout the whole Part One, Iris will face small but still significant challenges in her life that she will need to own up in order to grow. Since there's still no villain in the book, people might think that what she was going through is "eeh" and might get bored but it's those little things that matter when honing a person's characteristics and personality.

Title: Talipandas
Genre: Fantasy, Slice of Life, Romance
Status: On-going
Description: When spoiled rich girl Ari's life ends, she finds herself reborn as Princess Iris in a fantasy world created by her childhood imaginary friend! But being a princess comes with being the last hope to remove an evil curse from the royal bloodline, which would be a lot easier if she hadn't inherited the most useless kind of magic in the world.
Latest Chapter: Chapter 51
Chapter Link: https://tapas.io/episode/2203979