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[Tinmachine]

Fun thread here. No actual harm
intented.
So, which one of you was bothered when
Joker uttered „We're sitting ducks out here“? I heard the paper
rustling, for the first time in the entire game. I do understand,
say, that George Lucas would use the phrase in Episode 1 to
compensate for the witty one-liners he couldn't devise, but for the
Bioware writers that's really poor. They know how to create
characters, how to make them come alive, how to be unique. Then they
make one of their best, Joker, say something like this. Is this
really Joker's cup of tea?

C'mon, we know you can do better. And
we can do without sitting any ducks in ME3. Please, do avoid it. It
does not help anything. I am a Shepard who was not born in an English
speaking environment (national states still exist on Earth,
remember?), I have never sit a duck at anything and I had a conversation with Joker like this:




JOKER: We're sitting ducks out here!
SHEPARD: What? How are we sitting any
ducks? I know Williams in ME1 told me you could set a dog on
something, but can you sit a duck on -
JOLER: No, no, we are the ducks!
SHEPARD: ...No, we're not? I most
certainly am not a duck -
JOKER: It's a metaphor, ok? We're like
sitting ducks, you see -
SHEPARD: But we're not sitting here –
well, you are, but we
are in fact flying in a rather
high velocity -
JOKER: We
say that because... I do not know why! We say that when you are an
easy target and desperately want to sound serious and original!
SHEPARD: Is
it because ducks were usually shot at during a hunt up until the beginning of the 21st century and when they were sitting, they made an easy target?
JOKER: I
do not know! I've never hunted anything! I saw a duck once in a zoo,
and all hunting is illegal now back on Earth...

SHEPARD: I
suggest next time, you just say „We are easy targets“.
Sounds serious enough, and it is also
cool in a certain no-nonsense way.
GARRUS: What's
a duck?
JOKER: It's
a bird! A flying animal back on Earth! Can we move outta here now?
SHEPARD: Joker,
are you telling me that you've spent all this time explaining us how
to sit a duck, rather than piloting? Are we going to die?



Yep.
Just don't say it no more.



P.S.:
to sit a duck: 1) to
use the phrase „We are sitting ducks“
                                 2)
to utter any corny idiom in a conversation, with an effect adverse to
the utterer
                                 3)
to inardentvently fire a dud and die horribly as a result

[Amethyst Deceiver]

i want to sit a duck

Modifié par Amethyst Deceiver, 24 février 2010 - 09:33 .

[Tinmachine]

ORIGINAL POST IN READABLE FORM. Formatting is a bia-you-know-what.

Fun thread here. No actual harm intented.

So, which one of you was bothered when Joker uttered „We're sitting ducks out here“? I heard the paper
rustling, for the first time in the entire game. I do understand, say, that George Lucas would use the phrase in Episode 1 to compensate for the witty one-liners he couldn't devise, but for the Bioware writers that's really poor. They know how to create characters, how to make them come alive, how to be unique. Then they make one of their best, Joker, say something like this. Is this  really Joker's cup of tea?

C'mon, we know you can do better. And we can do without sitting any ducks in ME3. Please, do avoid it. It
does not help anything. I am a Shepard who was not born in an English speaking environment (national states still exist on Earth, remember?), I have never sit a duck at anything and I had a conversation with Joker like this:


JOKER: We're sitting ducks out here!
SHEPARD: What? How are we sitting any ducks? I know Williams in ME1 told me you could set a dog on
something, but can you sit a duck on -

JOLER: No, no, we are the ducks!

SHEPARD: ...No, we're not? I most certainly am not a duck -

JOKER: It's a metaphor, ok? We're like sitting ducks, you see -

SHEPARD: But we're not sitting here – well, you are, but we are in fact flying in a rather
high velocity -

JOKER: We say that because... I do not know why! We say that when you are an easy target and desperately want to sound serious and original!

SHEPARD: Is it because ducks were usually shot at during a hunt up until the beginning of the 21st century and when they were sitting, they made an easy target?

JOKER: I do not know! I've never hunted anything! I saw a duck once in a zoo, and all hunting is illegal now back on Earth...

SHEPARD: I suggest next time, you just say „We are easy targets“.Sounds serious enough, and it is also cool in a certain no-nonsense way.

GARRUS: What's a duck?

JOKER: It's a bird! A flying animal back on Earth! Can we move outta here now?

SHEPARD: Joker, are you telling me that you've spent all this time explaining us how to sit a duck, rather than piloting? Are we going to die?


Yep. Just don't say it no more.


P.S.:  to sit a duck: 1) to use the phrase „We are sitting ducks“
                                  2) to utter any corny idiom in a conversation, with an effect adverse to the utterer
                                  3) to inardentvently fire a dud and die horribly as a result

[Tinmachine]

edit: double post

Modifié par Tinmachine, 24 février 2010 - 09:36 .

[enormousmoonboots]

Well, the ME universe isn't that far away from modern day. I can go watch a movie from 80 years ago use the phrase 'sitting ducks', it's not implausible that it would continue to survive; besides which it's a human using a human phrase (and Joker has a propensity for idioms and odd phrasing, like that creepy kid who sat behind you in comp sci and he's 'special' 'cause he lights fires and stuff). Now when Garrus says "I got your six!" is when my head spins around.

Modifié par enormousmoonboots, 24 février 2010 - 09:43 .

[Amethyst Deceiver]

whats that colorful phrase your species like to use..."fly in the ointment"?

[Funkcase]

Now everytime i walk by the canal and i see the ducks just sitting there im gonna laugh.

[Tinmachine]

Interesting note with the six stuff. It actually seemed natural to me, although Turian way of measuring time and relaying it to compass might be waaay different to ours. Mind you, logic has nothing to do with this stuff; I was perfectly happy with Miranda sprinting in vacuum on her high heels, or Garrus actually cuddling with Shepard. It is just the corny factor of this particular phrase.

Still, what actually bothers me is not the phrase itself, but the fact that it is such a boring cliché. The "dialogue" I envisioned is a result of that feeling, and it was the only moment when the writing really seemed poor to me. I just didn't click - not because I wouldn't recognise the phrase, but because I knew it all too well.

So tell me: What are YOUR ultimate corny-phrase turnoffs?

[Tinmachine]

Amethyst Deceiver wrote...

whats that colorful phrase your species like to use..."fly in the ointment"?

Exactly! Now that is how you use a corny phrase in writing: you make it's being corny work for you. It even fits Garrus: the character that is always questioning everything, even himself, is unsure about how exactly to use a phrase. Good writing.

[Amethyst Deceiver]

"i got better" was pretty f**ing bad

[Tinmachine]

Amethyst Deceiver wrote...

"i got better" was pretty f**ing bad

True. When I heard it first in-game, I was playing a paragon soldier-Shepard named "Arnie", guess who's look-alike. It actually felt all right and I even laughed (because that really felt like playing through Commando... "I let him go"). On the next playthrough, with a female sentinel, that phrase was very much out of place.

Still, ducks are far, far worse, they remain my enemies for all days to come. No matter how I roleplay, they never fit in. Still they persist. Maddening!

[enormousmoonboots]

Tinmachine wrote...

Amethyst Deceiver wrote...

whats that colorful phrase your species like to use..."fly in the ointment"?

Exactly! Now that is how you use a corny phrase in writing: you make it's being corny work for you. It even fits Garrus: the character that is always questioning everything, even himself, is unsure about how exactly to use a phrase. Good writing.

That's Lorik Qu'in, actually, the turian on Noveria. If you give him his evidence you get an email from him in ME2 full of borked metaphors. Garrus has zero problem with human idioms, which always struck me as strange. IIRC it says somewhere in the Codex that turians have a very literal language and culture, so idioms and metaphors throw them off (Lorik uses them because he thinks they're funny, and he's...not very good).

Femshep's Renegade Interrupt to the Blue Suns recruiter calling her a stripper is pretty awful. What was it, "Show me yours, I bet mine's bigger" or something? I cringed. Just threaten to shoot him, for God's sake!

Modifié par enormousmoonboots, 24 février 2010 - 10:20 .