Vol. 2 November 2011
The Characters of The Legend of Zelda
Fantasy and Science Fiction Character Development The New Mechanics of Skyward Sword
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Contents Literature Section Book review: Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman Book Art
Game Section The Legend of Zelda Game Art
Film and Animation Section Movie Review: Breaking Dawn
The DC Team Contact Us Credits
Page 6 Science Fiction and Fantasy Character Development The Characters of The Legend of Zelda Page 8
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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Page 8 We here at the DC are proud to bring you the November issue of our web magazine. Everything you see has been put together by a team of only a few people. The links you see are fully functional, and we encourage you to visit the pages of the artists and sites featured. Our first issue seemed to be a success, and we hope to continue bringing you interesting articles and artwork features. WE are currently looking to expand our team, particularly in the Film and Animation section. We are also always looking for artwork to feature and sales to advertise. If you are interested in contributing to the magazine or promoting your work, see our Contact Us page. -The Dragon’s Claw Team
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[THE DRAGON’S CLAW] Book Review
Stravaganza: City of Masks by Mary Hoffman Reviewed by J Imagine: you’re an Islington teenager, receiving chemotherapy for a brain tumor. You’re one of the unluckier persons, badly affected by it. You often can’t talk and one day, your father takes a beautiful book with him from his work, so that you can write in it when your throat is too sore to talk. You fall asleep listening to him telling about Venice, where the book comes from. And that’s where you wake up, in your pajamas, holding the book in your hand, feeling stronger than you have done for months. This is what happens to Lucien Mulholland, or Luciano, as he’s called in ‘his’ city, Bellezza, our Venice. He soon meets Rodolfo, who tells him everything he has to know: Lucien has arrived in a parallel Italy, called Talia, that is stuck in the sixteenth century. The duchessa, leader of the city, is in danger. Somehow, Lucien has to save her, but all Rodolfo can tell him, is that whatever danger will come, it will probably come from the dangerous di Chimici family. This family wants to rule all twelve city states, whatever the cost. It’s up to Lucien to make sure that Bellezza won’t be the seventh of their city states… Hoffman’s story gets a lot of its appeal from the way it is told. There are many points of view, both in Talia and in London. Sometimes, the many names in the books are confusing, especially in the later books. The story, however, is great. You get to know the important characters, and when the end nears, you’ll feel sad it’s finally there. The Italian words that are used in the book, pull you even deeper under its spell. Danger, intrigues, murder and technology – this book has all of them. A great choice!
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Book Art Feature
↑Eyes like Stars by Velvet-Moonlight Commissioned by author Lisa Mantchev for the website of her novel Eyes Like Stars
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Science Fiction and Fantasy Character Development By AJ November was celebrated around the world as National Novel Writing Month, shortened to NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo is also an event that challenges writers to write 50,000 words of fictional prose over a mere 30 days. I participated, managing a measly 15,740 in between work and side projects. In the process, I shared writing tips and even learned a few myself. I’ve written one novel so far in my (hopefully long) novel-writing career. It’s called Among the People Lost, a post-apocalyptic, science fiction sort of romance novel with references Dante’s Inferno. I put a heavy emphasis on character development, and also on making very minute details as accurate to real life as possible, even setting the novel in a city that’s close enough to be considered my home town. The novel I attempted for NaNoWriMo was quite different. Titled The Devil’s Blade, it’s a romantic medieval fantasy that follows the Grim Reaper through an alternative England as he falls in love with a mortal and goes against all of Hell. I guess I like writing about romance and Hell. They seem to be recurring themes. Jumping from 2026 to the 1400’s is a huge leap. Accuracy is an entirely different game when you’re doing fantasy as opposed to science fiction. In the future, you’re determining how people will progress. The future you create is unique; no one else will ever come
[FANTASY HEADQUARTERS] up with the same progression of events. In the past, it’s all been done. I realized as I wrote The Devil’s Blade that I needed to go against historical accuracy and strive to make my setting closer to a fantasy world. Medieval romance and clothing just don’t fit what I’m trying to get across. I essentially broke down medieval history into what I could keep and needed for the medieval feel, and what would hinder my story and need to replace with modern concepts. Character development is a little different, too. Science fiction stories typically have a lot of potential for characters that are extremely intelligent, especially when you get into the age of starships and engineers that need to get you from galaxy to galaxy. Dante, the protagonist of Among the People Lost, has a decent assortment of abilities and skills, from his job as a mechanic to his drawing ability to his aim with a gun. The reaper Valdius, on the other hand, born as a human in the 1100s-1200s, was a fisherman. He may not even know how to read. Every combat technique he knows was learned after he became the Grim Reaper. Even emotions are different, especially in romance. In medieval times, chastity, honor, and chivalry were very important. Before that, most marriages were arranged, decided by parents for their children based on land and financial gains. It’s quite different from modern day settings, where relationships are founded on attraction and an emotional bond. Most fantasy settings, while reminiscent of medieval times, use a modern approach to love, largely because we simply don’t think of romance in the same way anymore. The audience would be left feeling very disconnected if time period-appropriate customs were used. Science fiction certainly has an element of realism; it has the word “science” for a reason, after all. Fantasy allows for the writer to take the most basic skeletons of realism and flesh them out in any way he or she desires. A knight can suddenly encounter a coven of vampires and become a bloodthirsty monster, or a castle can be attacked by an army of orcs. The possibilities are endless, the only restrictions within the author’s imagination.
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[THE DRAGON’S CLAW] Featured Game
The People of The Legend of Zelda By Jakku People, Places, Personalities (Sorry, Zelda spoilers abound here, kids) Zelda, I think, has more of a personal feel to a larger game like Skyrim. I mean, think about it... Skyrim may have hundreds more towns, etc., but you know all the characters of Zelda have been specifically crafted to be there... They all have their own little backstories and interactions and emotions. That's the important thing. Characters have to have character. Okay, let's think of some examples. Formative people from everyone's Hylian childhood, even if you're seventeen and think yours still hasn't ended. Saria I thought I'd start with Saria, as she's a fairly memorable character from the series, aside from the big three of Zelda, Link and Ganon. She of course pops up in Ocarina of Time as Link's childhood 'close friend' (because love is the H word in videogames), and whilst their relationship isn't really emphasised, she seems very attached to Link. She gives you your first Ocarina, for example. Once you get to the future, a new and scary world that seems to have gone fairly pear-shaped in seven years, Saria remains a constant, one of the only characters who've not undergone significant changes. I like to think that many people played through the Forest Temple: a) To get a shiny medallion, and a bow; b) To find out what happened to Saria...
[FANTASY HEADQUARTERS] Midna One of the only princesses in gaming to actually kick ass, rather than just stand on the sidelines, Midna is the Twilight Princess herself. Although manipulative and relatively uncaring at the start, Midna grows along with Link, so much so that TV Tropes' WMG page for Twilight Princess is rife with shipping the two. She also has a sense of a humour, which one appreciates if you're going to be adventuring around with her on your back for a few months. Although bossy at times, Midna was hundreds of times better than Navi, or Tatl, and that's recognition enough, I think. Midna's 'death' before the final battle actually made me sad, and I think that's what character is all about in games. Making you want to feel for them, and with them. ď ´
Next Page → Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
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[THE DRAGON’S CLAW] Featured Game
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword By Tim The newest installation of The Legend of Zelda series is Skyward Sword, which is exclusively for the Wii. Skyward Sword requires the use of a Wii Motion Plus controller because of its complex and precise controls, so if you don’t have either a Wii Motion Plus controller or the adapter to upgrade the original Wiimote to a Motion Plus, you’re unfortunately out of luck if you want to play this game. I won’t be revealing any of the plot points in Skyward Sword at all, but I will be going over many of the new mechanics that were introduced. I’ll start out by talking about Link’s stamina gauge. Yes, Link has a stamina gauge in Skyward Sword. This stamina gauge will appear next to Link as a green filled circle when you start to use stamina, and decreases as you continue to use stamina. There are 3 ways to restore your stamina. The first is to just stop whatever action is using stamina and let it restore automatically. The second is to grab a stamina fruit, which will instantly fill your gauge (the fruit is bright green with a few
[FANTASY HEADQUARTERS] points on top, so you can’t miss it). The last I’d try to avoid, but if you run out of stamina, your gauge will restore even faster than if you stop to let your stamina restore when you still have some. Be careful though. If you let the stamina gauge run out, you won’t be able to attack and Link will slow to a crawl, leaving you wide open to attack, so watch your stamina gauge. Next, I’ll move on to what uses stamina. One example of an action that uses stamina is dashing. If you press the A button, Link will dash. Dashing is by far the best way to get around. It greatly boosts your speed, but it decreases your stamina gauge very quickly. Once again, watch your stamina gauge and try not to let it empty. You can also dash while crawling through tight spaces, also using stamina, and also to run up walls a short distance to grab ledges. I’m sure some of you are wondering, “But what about rolling? That’s how I always got around faster.” Don’t worry, the roll is still in this game. While dashing, if you shake the Nunchuck controller, Link will roll, which you can use to knock stuff out of trees or roll into walls to shake thing around like in previous games. Rolling uses a chunk of stamina however, so watch that stamina gauge. Another example of something that uses stamina is carrying a heavy pot or barrel. Carrying either of these objects will slowly decrease your stamina. If you let it run out, Link will put down the object and you’ll be open to attack and have to wait for your stamina to restore to pick up the object again.
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[THE DRAGON’S CLAW] Yet another example of what uses stamina is hanging from ledges or ropes. When hanging from a ledge or rope, your stamina will decrease about as slowly as when you’re carrying a heavy object. However, you definitely don’t want to let your stamina to run out when hanging, because you will most likely be hanging off of a ledge or rope overlooking a bottomless cliff/chasm, and you don’t want to fall down one of those. When hanging, you can also shake the Wiimote to “leap”. Leaping makes you leap along the edge/rope you’re on, which makes the trip faster, but it knocks off a small chunk of stamina, so be careful when leaping. Next I’ll move onto a simple, but cool new feature involving small, round pots and bombs. You can now roll pots or bombs by pointing your Wiimote towards the ground while holding a pot or bomb then flicking it forward. It’s a simple feature, but it’s very useful. Also, on a quick side note, you can now place bomb flowers that you pick into your bomb bag by pressing B while holding one, which is the primary way to get bombs. Finally I will be talking about the precision of Link’s sword, which is the highlight of the entire game. Using the Wii Motion Plus technology, Link’s sword arm perfectly mimics your own arm. In Skyward Sword, you will need to accurately swing your arm at specific angles to accomplish specific things, like hitting enemies in their weak spots, stabbing into holes to hit switches, cutting down trees, etc. At last, the precision that everyone who has a Wii has been waiting for has been realized, and in a Zelda no less. The precision of this game makes for a truly enjoyable experience, and, in my opinion, easily makes Skyward Sword one of, if not the, best Zelda to date. There are some other cool, new features in Skyward Sword that I’d like to mention, but I’d be spoiling some things for people, so I’ll just conclude by saying that this game is an absolutely must have for any Zelda or action/adventure lover, and I highly recommend picking up a copy. If you love either Zelda or action/adventure games, you won’t regret buying it.
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The Legend of Zelda Timeline Dates are for the North American releases, and some platforms were released at a later date. Wikipedia has more information here.
1987 The Legend of Zelda
1992
1988 Zelda II; The Adventure of Link
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the past
1998
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2001
1993 2000
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
2002
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past & Four Swords 2003 The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
2004
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
2005
2006 2007
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
2011
2009
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
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Game Art Feature ←Thank You For
Saving Me by Alumyn
King Bowser Kong→
Shapeways
On
by Vybeosa Sprockets and Pistons
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Breaking Dawn Reviewed by AJ It feels like forever ago that I attended a midnight release at Borders for a copy Breaking Dawn. See Tim all decked out with his pin and sticker? That’s what we did, because we’re dedicated. Tim and I attended the movie premier for Twilight when it came out, being dedicated fans to a generally so-so book. We were pretty disappointed with the actors they chose, so we didn’t expect it to be great. It was worse than we expected. When New Moon came out, we did the midnight release thing once again, even though we knew it was going to be a pretty bad movie. We kept up with tradition and saw Eclipse, which we actually enjoyed, and then the first half of Breaking Dawn. We really expected the latest movie to be just awful. After all, we saw in New Moon that Kristen Stewart has no ability at all to scream, and she gets torn open in this one. She seems to have improved in that area a little, at the very least. In general, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Like we expected, though, it definitely left out a lot of the emotion. That was an issue we had with the previous movies, and it carried over. There were a lot of details left out that should have been included. The biggest problem we both had with the movie was (spoiler alert if you really don’t know by now) the end where Bella is turning into a vampire. In the book, she went through three days of agonizing pain, knowing that if she moved, she would lose her resolve and scream. The movie does a very poor job getting that pain across. They could have used a voiceover, which they did in previous movies and wouldn’t seem very out of place. Overall, not the greatest movie, but what can I say? It was an experience.
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The DC Team AJ
Jakku
Audrey J. Ross spends much of her time on various art projects. She sells jewelry, crafts, and art prints, and she has a book published on Kindle. She plans on going to college for visual arts to further her artistic studies. When not being artistic, she is often cooking, listening to metal, and/or browsing the Internet for hours on end.
Jakku Diran Ebansu is a pseudonym. He's a 17 year old amateur artist and professionallyserious gamer. He represents Britain on the DC team by complaining about the weather a lot. He loves high-tech scifi and exaggerated science, like in Eureka, for example. He believes he reads far too much scifi and fantasy. The scifi diet starts tomorrow. Supposedly.
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Tim
Jet (pronounce as: yet) is a Dutch sixteen-year-old girl. She’s still in school, but wants to study Biology or Archeology after that, even though languages are her strongest subjects. She loves reading, writing and drawing, but can also often be found doing some sport or another. She often listens to music from Disney movies.
Tim Geary is an avid gamer and eater of spicy things. He’s often spotted leaving his natural habitat with a bag full of snacks and a bottle of hot sauce. He hopes to attend college to pursue interests on wildlife biology and psychology. He is currently researching metaphysical and paranormal phenomena and beliefs from all over the world.
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The DC on the Web
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Submit Artwork Get in touch through any of the above sites or email AJ directly if you’re interested in having your art featured in our magazine! What We’re Looking For We accept fan art and original works that incorporate fantasy, science fiction, or gaming. No nudity or extreme violence, please. More info can be found in our DeviantART group. Advertising Contact AJ if you would like to place an advertisement in our magazine. You can message her on any of the above places or email her directly. Join the Team Think you can do what we do here? We’re looking for team mates! Fill out our application if interested. Email AJ at eternal_night11@yahoo.com
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Credits Artwork used in cover image © Nintendo http://www.nintendo.com Stravaganza cover © Bloomsbury USA http://www.bloomsburyusa.com/ Book Art Artist http://velvet-moonlight.deviantart.com/ Saria, Midna, and Skyward Sword cover images from the Zelda Wiki, © Nintendo http://zeldawiki.org Skyward Sword screenshot by Mashable http://mashable.com/2011/11/13/legend-zelda-skywardsword-review/ Game Art Artists http://alumyn.deviantart.com/ http://vybeosa.deviantart.com/ Advertisements http://www.shapeways.com/shops/sprocketsandpistons This entire webzine was made in Microsoft Word 2007 http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Word-2007-OldVersion/dp/B000HCZ8GW
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