Blog Post: Building a Better Broken Bird

[Gloom]

http://somnovastudios.blogspot.co.il/

If we writers have offended, think but this - and all is mended: that you get to to complain here, where this OP did appear.

For now, good night unto you all.

[jarek56]

...Thank you, Gentlemen and Gentlewomen. Thank you.

I never believed anything else, but thank you for that. I already knew it, sort of, but to have such points laid out for others to understand...thank you.

I feel I have made a wise choice in choosing to do all in my limited power to support, assist, aid, and further this project, as I always have.

More importantly, I think I now really believe in you people.

Godspeed, okay?

[Smokey]

creepy amputee sex

Amputee sex is never creepy. Just beautiful.

[TheLastMelody]

creepy amputee sex

Amputee sex is never creepy. Just beautiful.

Whatever it is, it is someones fetish, remember that ^_^

Anyways, Gloom, I will be PM'ing you, I am not sure I quite get the Broken Bird concept.

EDIT:
NVM, I figured this was on-topic.

So, can you please try to explain the broken bird concept a bit clearer for us(or just me) dumber ones?

[Waytfm]

The broken bird archetype is where you have this character who suffers from something, injury, disability, etc. and it's the main characters job to "nurse her back to health" as one might do with a bird with a broken wing. Or, if nursing back to health isn't an option for some reason, the main character might try to white knight or generally do everything for the broken character. At least, that's how I view it. Gloom might be using a more nuanced definition here.

[Malkav]

This is heartening to read.

[imperial.standard]

For broken birds, there is also an option to pluck their feathers, twist their neck, and then roast them for dinner. This is also a viable yet somehow often unmentioned method - for reasons only God knows.

You do know pigeons taste delicious, right?

[kosherbacon]

Well, urban pigeons probably aren't fit for human consumption, but I'm down to eat a dove.

[Gloom]

Well, urban pigeons probably aren't fit for human consumption, but I'm down to eat a dove.

Fun fact: according to Judaism, doves are the only birds which may used as a sacrifice.

[Shiidaji]

Well, urban pigeons probably aren't fit for human consumption, but I'm down to eat a dove.

Dove tastes amazing if it's prepped right.

-

She makes the reader (put in the role of the loving protagonist) feel strong and important by making it obvious that she needs someone strong and important to survive.

You have to wonder what the fact that this kind of ego-stroking works so well on us, the VN reading crowd, says about us, don't you?

I never really put much thought into the idea that the response to somebody trying to 'fix' the Broken Bird can be received as ego-stroking, it's an interesting thought. Then again, the concept of fixing a Broken Bird doesn't appeal to me much anyway, eheh. I greatly admire people who find ways around their own problems independently.


I like your writing style Gloom, d'you have any works up online?

[Gloom]

I never really put much thought into the idea that the response to somebody trying to 'fix' the Broken Bird can be received as ego-stroking, it's an interesting thought. Then again, the concept of fixing a Broken Bird doesn't appeal to me much anyway, eheh. I greatly admire people who find ways around their own problems independently.


I like your writing style Gloom, d'you have any works up online?

That depends on whether or not you can read Hebrew. If you can, then yes. If not, then only whatever's here and on the KS forums (where I was known as the Minister of Gloom).

If you ask me, the appeal of the Broken Bird, when you come down to it, is almost never in "fixing" it. There's a reason for that: once fixed, it is no longer Broken, no longer in need of help and care and protection. The protagonist might make a token effort, perhaps, but it is unlikely that a classical Broken Bird would ever be completely fixed (within the story, at least) because its appeal would be gone.

It's only care, protection and more care for all eternity. Who else is going to tend to her as well as you do, after all?

[imperial.standard]

You have to wonder what the fact that this kind of ego-stroking works so well on us
works so well on us
works so well on us
works so well on us

I REALLY hoped that ego is the only thing that you stroked.

[jarek56]

You have to wonder what the fact that this kind of ego-stroking works so well on us
works so well on us
works so well on us
works so well on us

I REALLY hoped that ego is the only thing that you stroked.

We can always hope, Imperial, but really, is there any kidding ourselves here?

[Malkav]

For more on the subject of "stroking", visit the #MissingStars IRC channel. Particularly when kosherbacon and VacuityMechanica are around.

But more seriously, I have personally never been subject to the Broken Bird syndrome that seems to plague readers everywhere. Indeed, I often found myself rather turned off to the idea of trying to "mother" a love-interest. I've always understood, of course, the attraction to it, but... perhaps more than ego-stroking, it seemed that the addiction to having to care for someone was an attempt to replicate a real "love-love" relationship by being artificially/superficially "needed". It's one thing to want to offer yourself to an individual. Generosity/selflessness, after all, is part of what makes love love. However, for one to seek after another because of that other's weakness or injury... does that not constitute a mild variation of rape? To insert oneself into a position of power, knowing that the other person will have little choice but to cling on to the "white knight" for support? It was far kinder (and more logical), I had always thought, to simply facilitate a Broken Bird's recovery without such baggage or seeds of resentment. As Gloom stated, healthy and fruitful love is between equals.

Perhaps the proliferation of literature with such views will lead to a gradual change in the attitudes of the general populace as time advances. Perhaps not. Either way, this was a very significant post, and I'm glad to see that there is a dev on board who probably thinks very much the same way I do. /LengthyFollow-UpResponse

[Mr Immortal]

Glooms a main writer now?! God, I've been gone for too long

[imperial.standard]

He's been so for a while now, MrImmortal

[TheLastMelody]

Glooms a main writer now?! God, I've been gone for too long :shock:

So that's were you were... I was (almost) missing your sarcastic comments everywhere

[Mr Immortal]

Glooms a main writer now?! God, I've been gone for too long

So that's were you were... I was (almost) missing your sarcastic comments everywhere

Ah, well, good to know I was missed...or something akin to being missed, anyway May as well go see what else has changed around here.

[jarek56]

Glooms a main writer now?! God, I've been gone for too long

So that's were you were... I was (almost) missing your sarcastic comments everywhere

Ah, well, good to know I was missed...or something akin to being missed, anyway May as well go see what else has changed around here.

This is a TAD off topic, but just so you know, they've changed the wallpaper in the Employee break room. Other than that, not too much.