‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 647

Bandit's assumptions keep dying.

30 Comments

Okay, that’s a fair point. Since I am a nitpicky person I’d say “Yes, she can act, she just can’t improvise, but following a script is still acting.”, so I understand why Jake inquired, because he might have expected that at least Danni enjoyed being someone else.

Let’s see if Danni will accept a role after all and do a clumsy and half-hearted roleplay. For Aneeka the challenge is always one level of acting higher than for Danni, because she has to make Danni act like Danni half-heartedly acting like someone else. Challenge time! 😀
But a normal Danni would be entertaining as well, because in a chaotic and self-destructive group there should always be one member who does the face-palms.

Anyway, get well soon! 🙂

just following a script isn’t acting any more than dumping a bunch of ingredients in a bowl in the right order is baking.

That is so wrong that I have to assume that you’re just trolling me. 😀

Following a script is like following the recipe, improvising is like creating your own recipe as you go along.

You know what would help with this friendship thing, Bandit?

If you stopped rolling your eyes for 5 seconds and actually looked at the person you’re talking to.

Doesn’t sound like she had a very good dance teacher if it was all rote, choreographed moves. Well, some ballet traditions emphasize perfection and a small set of classical routines instead of ever doing new choreography.

In professional ballet, many dancers are often on stage at once. To keep the show synchronized to music and to the other dancers, every ballet is choreographed, with the exception of some improv ballets. That doesn’t mean it’s all classical routines though. You can choreograph more modern, unique shows as well. I think Danni means that for every show, she has to memorize the choreography and practice it, then repeat for the next show, which makes total sense. She’s not saying it’s the same set of moves for every dance — she’s just going over the process of learning the motions for each dance.

Yeah she even says “for a program,” not for every show ever, so she has to learn new choreography for each upcoming program. 🙂

But most Ballet Masters will have improv sessions in the lessons. AND the top-billed performers are expected to work with the choreographers to tweak the routine a bit. (Mostly in the acting flourishes or a couple of the stunts)

Plus the dancers routinely practice parts they are NOT dancing just for fun. Danni really should have some basic acting ability. Did she simply ignore that skill like she did social skills?

It sounds like you have a lot of knowledge about ballet and unless Aneeka also has this information we may just be seeing that lack of information come out in the comic

Possibly this. She was also a child genius of ballet though, and even now post-ending she’s what, early 20’s? Mid 20’s? Assuming that age, it’s entirely likely that her teachers understandably focused on the choreography and didn’t have her suggesting any developments or any of that nonsense because she was a teenager with limited experience, if amazing skill.

“But most Ballet Masters will have improv sessions in the lessons. AND the top-billed performers are expected to work with the choreographers to tweak the routine a bit.”

None of which matters when you are putting on the same show daily (or several times a week) for a couple of months, which is the primary activity of even the greatest dancers. Other things, while they happen (and much more for the higher level dancers, of course) are much less common, simply by way of the shows being repeated so many times.

Yes, even shows where, initially, there is “tweaking”, etc.

Honestly?

I don’t think she likes Mr Bandit.

her exprsssion, her tone….

Part of her answer may be shaped by that

It seems she had new routines each time, but spent lots of time perfecting the routine. She is perfectly capable of using separate techniques, and it’s fairly obvious from earlier mentions of her career that she wouldn’t just repeat a show each time.

Also, I have to disagree with you. Just because you’re not doing something new every time, does not mean your teacher is bad. It means that you are currently at the skill level for this move, and should learn it well before moving on to something else. I’d say learning a move for a one-off performance and never perfecting it is the worst way to learn anything, especially dance.

If this line continues, Bandit could truthfully say that ballet and The Game have this in common. In order to become at a certain game, one needs to memorize button press sequences, just as one would need to memorize ballet moves.

Oops. I meant, “In order to become good at a certain game….”

It is about assuming a character though not merely getting good at the game, though I guess it would switch her away from the noob role at least.

I hope the “role” they decide on is one similar to what she’s already doing, i.e. the “straight man” role that others have already pointed out. Something like “group mom” or “the one who gets things done”. Maybe even the group mediator, since half the team isn’t talking to each other but they all seem to be talking to her. Once she gets the hang of the game and loses the noob thing, I bet she could be a highly effective hero 😀

Hope you feel better, Aneeka!

Bandit and Danni actually trying to understand each other: and mostly failing.
More than not, the characters in NAV seem slightly to extremely anti-social, non-emphatic. Like when the poor blob made it to L.I.F.E.!

The lack of easy empathy makes perfect sense if the ‘inner’ (outer?) reality is that everyone is a survivor, hurting and struggling. But that lack emphasises when they do act kind. Which makes it heroic that Kat’s quest is to be a kind person.

Great story.

I think the amount of empathy people have is realistic given the situation, but unfortunate. Still, our main characters are pretty good in that respect.

Well ya know Bandit, to assume to is make a donkey out of u and me.

Following a script is different from ad-lib, but there is a middle ground. You can just memorize a small arsenal of lines and actions, and draw from that based on what seems appropriate for the situation.

Fun fact: due to the physical demands of the profession, if they don’t retire early due to injury, most ballet dancers retire sometime in their mid-thirties, as ballet MASSIVELY effs up your feet and ankles.

Okay, so it’s not actually a very fun fact.

And injuries are COMMON.

a funnier fact is how so you think you can dance intentionally crippled people on tv

OMG, the condescending look on Danni’s face in the last panel is priceless. Ballet nerd looks down on computer nerd.

I like her look, too, but I didn’t see it as condescending. I get the impression that she’s just very weary. Not even weary of having to explain stuff to Jake, because I think she can respect it if someone makes an honest mistake, just weary at the fact that she has to do something she hates so she can survive.

There is no place at all for improv on the stage with twenty to thirty dancers. And when the prima donna gets (most) of the stage to herself, she must at least be perfectly timed to the music. This is not jazz. You don’t “improv” in classical ballet. If the lead dancers have a discussion with the director about modifying the routine, that is how it is done–with the approval of the director, planned in advance, and then drilled, drilled, and drilled.

That’s in many ways the opposite of improv acting, which appears to be what Danni thinks Bandit is talking about. Yes, of course, the emotion which she put into her routines was acting, but that does not go very far down the road that she believes is needed for what Bandit wants.

bandit is clearly saisuke

Yeah, I think his reaction in panel 1 supports that. 🙂

What Danni really needs is not acting. What she needs is to genuinely get invested in some aspect of the Game that is not making money on it. She needs something to catch her interest in-universe, and then genuinely, no acting, follow that interest. And THAT will make her fun to the viewers.

Kat is invested in being nice and winning (which is a conflict and therefore even more fun to watch), Bandit is invested in maintaining his persona, Dude is invested in not dying (which, yes, is pretty basic, but he sells it really well), Jane is invested in murdering everything in her path. Danni just needs an interest that viewers can also see and invest in alongside her, and she’ll be all set.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

‘Not A Villain’ Webcomic – Page 647