Crazy Idea - Freischütz + Asushunamir + Fab Music = Maho gun battle!

Now this really is a crazy idea. So crazy it might be truly wonderful at some point. It comes from two/three different sources.

The first is a character in from the manga/anime franchise Hellsing called Rip Van Winkle. Winkle is a Nazi vampire who only lasts one volume/episode, but she has a very special ability that puts most of her cohorts to shame. She has a single bullet for her rifle, and once fired she can guide its course to hit whatever she wants. Her character directly references both the legend of Freischütz and the German opera based upon it by Carl Maria von Weber. The legend of the Freischütz -- or its Slavic equivalent the sčarostrelec -- tells of a marksman entering a Faustian pact and blessing seven bullets. Six out of the seven bullets will hit whatever the shooter desires, but the seventh bullet is completely under Lucifer's command.

The second is a character from pre-Islamic Middle Eastern mythology (very well summarized here). As part of the myth of Ishtar's descent into the underworld, the creator Enki fashions a non-binary gendered being called Asushunamir to rescue the goddess from her captivity. Asushunamir successfully entrances the underworld goddess Ereshkigal and manages to rescue Ishtar, but during the escape Ereshkigal curses Asushunamir and all like them to be shunned and despised by the rest of the world. While she can't undo Ereshkigal's curse, Ishtar gives Asushunamir and all like them the gifts of knowledge, healing and prophecy.

So my crazy idea mashed these two together into..... LGBT Maho soldiers! Wait, hear me out.

So I had three characters in mind within about five minutes. The first was -- obviously -- a woman. When a swarm of monsters is attacking our helpless everyman "protagonist", she apparently causes every radio around her to switch on and start pumping out some mean music. She then produces first a pistol out of nowhere and begins shooting down her enemies, then she eventually gets a long-barrelled cannon and blasts away the mounting hoard. With the final attack, she uses the the cannon's barrel as a prop and spins on it, summoning a gattling gun to blast away the last remnants of her enemies.

The next scene would be later when the woman's incapacitated, and the protagonist is temporarily gifted with her powers; he also triggers a blast of music, and does something similar in a one-on-one bout with a shotgun, six-shooter and a small railgun. His fight is more brutal, simply because his temporary power requires more energy to keep from dissipating, and his opponent is a lot tougher than a simple grunt of the wayward soul.

The next merry character is initially portrayed as the hostile outsider, but he also shares the woman's abilities, only he has a special trick. His own gun can shift form between a pistol and a very long rifle (both single shot only), and he only needs one bullet; he can fire in any direction, and any target selected with his eyes will be hit. Once done, the bullet returns and will be reloaded for the next fire.

And basically, all of these people have an inherent gift; due to their ambiguous gender or non-heterosexual status (to use an archaic term), they have the blessing of Ishtar to be medics for the soul, whose woes are manifested through monstrous beings.

And that's my crazy idea. Vaguely like an anime, but going much further into LGBT territory than any mainstream anime dares go in this day and age without resorting to stereotypes like the onee.

I hope you all have a marvellous New Year. Enjoy!

Crazy Idea; Opening Inversion

As part of my ongoing series of "Crazy Ideas", I've decided to tackle something slightly different. The opening of a fantasy story, with an idea that probably isn't that crazy when taking the entire genre into account, but still has very little place in the mainstream. Oh, and apologies about the title if anyone's offended by the terminology.

When I ask about fantasy worlds, what comes to mind about openings. Certainly in visual media movies and television, it's about a mysterious locations and the enigmatic character who may or may not be the main protagonist. The concept has been used so often that it's become something of a cliche in the genre, and spread across to other genres including science fiction, mystery/thriller. But can we trust it?

Here's my idea, or rather my vision.

You're in a woodland setting, divided between two parts of the same forest. The two leads of this particular scene are walking with their faces hidden. They look somewhat similar, except for their clothing. One is slightly broader, wears trousers and armour, has a sword at their belt, and close-cropped hair. One clearly as longish hair, is slimmer in build, and walks with a delicacy you don't expect from the average traveller. One is a knight, one is a mage, both are on the same mission.
The knight's name is Aileen, and the mage's is Franco. To use modern terms, she's butch, and he's girly. But we don't know that until the last second, when we first see them. 

And in this one scene, a standard expectation is thrown out the window. Our expectations, as set up by countless movies and games that have used stereotypical physiques for male and female roles (even Cassandra from the Dragon Age universe is notably slim when compared to other female knights in that universe), are subverted.

Like the article's title suggests, this is just a crazy idea, and a fairly weak foundation for most stories without a lot more thought and fleshing out. How many times have you just flipped physique and gender roles out of frustration?

Crazy Idea: "A Miss Werewolf to see you"

Remember my last crazy idea? Well I've been brewing another one for some time. Slightly more fantastical, and just as obscure. It came from watching several movies and absorbing other media related to werewolves. Have you ever noticed that while female vampires are plentiful, female werewolves are anything but. You'd think that werewolf kind was some kind of male-only realm like the Garrick Club. So I thought to myself; what about a female werewolf?

Before anyone says anything, I know female werewolves have been seen. Once. In the final scenes of The Howling. But that hardly counts. And they are present in fiction such as Housman's The Were-wolf, just not mainstream stuff and not often in the sympathetic light shone on female vampires such as Carmilla. In popular culture, the figure of the werewolf is still very masculine, as has been noted in this article on Artsy.net.

So there's the vision I had. Not only is this werewolf female, but it's not the atypical ravening beast so many have come to expect. Imagine this.

You walk through a forest in the dead of night. The moon is full above you, the air is cold and damp from a clinging mist, there are no lights within range aside from the single lamp swinging in your hand. Then you see a form reclining on the bow of a tree up ahead. A humanoid lupine figure with a long tail swinging absently below it. It turns its head, and its eyes reflect the lamp light's gleam. It shuffles and jumps down, standing a head taller than you, digitigrade legs propelling it forward with stately grace. You are frozen to the spot in fear. It speaks.
'A late night to be out. Where are you heading? I'll be your escort, if you wish.'
A woman's voice; deepened and with a subtle growl in the throat, but a woman's voice nonetheless. You nod automatically, too dazed to think clearly. And that night, your escort is a female werewolf. She talks in a candid way about her travels during the night of the full moon, wandering the forest. She talks of flowers, or badgers, of loneliness, of the difficulty telling people she "just wants time to herself each month". You reach the bridge across to the town where you are staying for the night. After a cordial farewell, the werewolf vanishes into the night.
Little do you think that the following full moon, your servant will come in and say,
"A Miss Werewolf to see you. Are you in?"
And even less do you think that the following night would be one of cordial and interesting conversation with a dark-haired lady. Or rather, a lady with dark hair all over her. 

This werewolf isn't a voracious monster, but is still a wild thing. She is able to comfortably wander through a land that terrifies and bamboozles normal people, as any woodland animal would. But she hasn't lost either her humanity or her key female elements by becoming a towering humanoid wolf creature. Bear in mind, this is a prototype for a "crazy idea", and needs both time and polish before it becomes anything substantial.

But aside from that, what do you think? What female werewolves do you know about? Please share and comment. Until next time!

Crazy Idea; Flamenco Fighter

Hi there! Here's the first in a new sporadic series. It's called "Crazy Idea", and it's where I put out a few of the random titular concepts into the open so I don't forget them, and you can share in their craziness. The idea came to me on Friday morning when my father was playing a CD of concert performances by renowned guitarist and composer Paco Peña.

During a conversation about the flamenco dance, I heard that the moves were influenced by very old European styles of martial arts, primarily defensive moves against blade attacks such as knives or rapiers, plus a few moves related to breaking noses and crushing feet with arm and foot movements. Plus the rhythm of a dancer would lull the attacker into giving themselves an opening for a counterattack. Even if it turns out not to be documented or fully accurate, it makes for a cool idea. This gave rise to my own crazy idea.

A potential character who goes through something akin to the premise of the 2008 movie Wanted (average person trained as assassin, ect.). But rather than the impossible feat of curving the flight path of bullets, this character is trained to use realistic martial arts to the highest possible degree of skill. And the way they are trained to focus and improve their skills is to learn a flawless flamenco. This initially seems nonsensical to both the reader/audience and the character, but later during their training when they are attacked, they are forced to use the only skills they know to any degree; flamenco. The attacker is successfully fended off and defeated.

To myself, and to anyone who looks at this, the idea of flamenco being a realistic means of self-defense might seem nonsensical. But then again, flamenco is about coordination and movement. What better way to prepare someone for real martial arts?

And that's it, my first public crazy idea!