(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	tetradecimal 2011-03-24 06:57 pm UTC (link)
	Is that what it is? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	judyhazeleyes 2011-03-24 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	Well, I've never seen the original show, but I RPed with a Xellos, and he was a huge troll. So I assumed there must be some connection. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

beccastareyes
2011-03-24 07:54 pm UTC (link)

::has seen the show::

Basically, in Slayers, Xellos is a powerful creature who feeds on negative emotion. Since often he is engaged in some byzantine plot for his mistress and can't do things like torture dragons and blow shit up, he limits his feeding to being a pain in the ass to people when it won't screw with his long-term plans.

Granted, he does have a sense of subtlety -- he's generally more prone to innocent things that domino into a whole lot of yummy chaos. Or, once his reputation is known to the other characters, occasionally just sitting quietly and watching them wonder when the other shoe will drop.

(If Xellos were to troll the Internet, IMO, I'd say he'd be more likely to make a post on a controversial topic that would get two (or more) sides arguing on their own, rather than getting them to argue with him.)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	judyhazeleyes 2011-03-24 08:03 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, thank you for enlightening me! I didn't mean to distill his character down to such a simplistic statement as a knock - I honestly didn't know. He sounds quite fun! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	beccastareyes 2011-03-24 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, no offense taken. (Reply to this)(Parent)

aruru
2011-03-25 06:34 am UTC (link)

Heh, you pretty much articulated several of my thoughts on the actual character in a much better manner than I would've been able to. Best I could manage was "Wow, if that was intended as some kind of bizarre roleplay, that person is really OOCing their internet handle/avatar."

I want to ask, though (and apologies for asking in a thread that's already gone OT anyway?) - I think I recall the same troll posting a while back about the multiplicity community and their issues with an anon comm that sprang up not too long ago. The language was pretty much like what you could find in this latest trolling, and I noticed that the replies I happened to read joined in with the mocking. I was wondering, did anyone call "Xelloss" out on the behavior then and got their replies deleted? Because by the time that post happened, it had already been established by the user's couple of earlier postings that it was pretty much a troll and had been called out on the behavior then, and I found it a bit weird that he/she didn't seem to get called out on it that time. Just wondering.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ruaki
2011-03-25 06:29 pm UTC (link)

Best I could manage was "Wow, if that was intended as some kind of bizarre roleplay, that person is really OOCing their internet handle/avatar."

Yeah, when I saw the handle of who posted the initial fandom_lounge post, my first thought was "SOMEONE IS TRYING TO TROLL LIKE THEIR XELLOSS NAME BUT FAILS EPICALLY" and I almost fed the troll by saying "Xelloss is old hat; if you want to troll, get a Hazama handle."

Even the writing "voice" makes me think someone got kicked out of too many LJ-RP Slayers comms for being complete fail and is trying to desperately get their RP fix by trolling at JF.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aruru
2011-03-25 07:24 pm UTC (link)

Hah, I was just rereading some of the threads and noticed this one, specifically the line: Well, you presuppose that I'm a human being, but I guess that's your right.

So, either a failtastic roleplayer (most likely), or maybe an otherkin of the otaku variety (if the latter, it would make the poster a tremendously hypocritical tool, especially if they believe any of the opinions they've posted).

I almost fed the troll by saying "Xelloss is old hat; if you want to troll, get a Hazama handle."

ffffffffflol I still need to consider checking out BB someday - my boyfriend loves the first game and he wants to get the second soon (he's most fond of Tager). XD

But aww, I think the actual Xelloss by Hajime Kanzaka will still always be among my top favorite troublemakers. XD

Even the writing "voice" makes me think someone got kicked out of too many LJ-RP Slayers comms for being complete fail and is trying to desperately get their RP fix by trolling at JF.

Heh, so true. I mean, for starters, like

beccastareyes mentioned, where's the usual subtlety the character has? I mean, as hilarious as non-subtle antics from him could be in the hands of a COMPETENT RPer (and in an RP comm, rather than invading random unrelated communities looking for attention), that's not his usual depicted style (Weren't the times when he was most openly/mercilessly assholish seen mainly whenever he was exchanging insults with Filia, anyway?), so it's probably better used sparingly for greater impact. (Unless the RP comm was intentionally/knowingly OOC as a joke in which the players were all in on, which is another thing entirely.)

...okay, what the hell, I'm overthinking this, aren't I? Ah well, characterization (over)analysis is often a weakness of mine, especially if it's for Slayers, LOL. XD

Anyway, whatevs. BTW, I like, owe you a bunch of replies to your latest posts, since for one thing, I noticed we seem to have crossed fandom paths again, ahah. Lemme see if I can work a few in in the next few days or something - I seem to have gone on perpetual lurker mode. ^^;;

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	white_serpent 2011-03-25 07:39 pm UTC (link)
	Weren't the times when he was most openly/mercilessly assholish seen mainly whenever he was exchanging insults with Filia, anyway? Yes. Indeed they were. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

OT: Slayers overanalysis gogoGO! >D

aruru
2011-03-25 08:28 pm UTC (link)

Heh! I re-re-re-watched the whole series sometime late last year (after I had gotten the Revolution/Evolution-R official releases, so I could watch it all in a lovely brain-melting run ♥), so the anime canon's still kinda fresh in my mind. Still wanted to know if my impression was justified, though. :D

As for his open assholishness then, I suppose it was justifiable by Mazoku logistics - she was from his most hated enemy's race, after all, and at the start of Try, she acted rather know-it-all/holier-than-thou about a lot of things, which didn't seem to impress him much either. I know this isn't the dialogue at all, but my impression of their flow of logic for part of early Try was kinda like:

"You're a mass-murdering evil bastard!"
"Oh please, as if your kind isn't just as violent!"
"You spread chaos, destruction, and want to end everything!"
"Well, yeah, that's in our job description. At least we're not hypocritical about what we do and our methods!" (His probable logic, but it MIGHT be slightly flawed depending on how you look at it, given a few things in canon.)
"Well, you serve a decrepit old frozen lord ANYWAY." (Ok, for those who're not familiar with the series, THAT was in the actual subtitled dialogue, and it made me LOL muchly since the first time I saw it. XD)
"Okay, NOW IT'S ON. Sit down and STFU miss, you're younger than me anyway."

I'm just surprised he didn't try retorting with "Well, your original lord's LONG DEAD and you're just serving a shade of him, at least mine's just broken up in pieces! >P" (Though that might also have its logic flaws depending on how you read canon?)

And I suppose the other time he was also most openly assholish then was in the fight in the caves with with Valgaav, though that has another set of logistics involved - partly because in that exchange where he explained why he was looking for Val in the first place he was mostly "just business" ("Look, we're having a bad time right now, so we're considering pardoning you and asking you to join us. No? Yeah, I had a feeling that was going to be your answer. Ok, then we have no use for you and you're getting in the way of our overall plans, so DIE. Oh, and since you're part dragon ANYWAY, I'm gonna enjoy this!"), and partly because I was under the impression that Xelloss looked genuinely surprised when Val revealed himself to be an Ancient Dragon (IIRC the subtitles in that part, I'm pretty sure he said that was "unexpected" at the very least.) which would imply he actually did NOT know that bit of information, which would mean that for once he wasn't 100% clear on who/what exactly he was dealing with. (Which - if I'm right - would also imply that Gaav and Val somehow managed to keep that little detail under wraps for a very long time.)

...and, er, wow. Sorry about that. I obviously have the series on the brain forefront yet again. I blame fic-writing+world-building/canon-playing&twisting. Apologies? XD

(Reply to this)(Parent)

ruaki
2011-03-25 09:26 pm UTC (link)

Whoa, I didn't notice that line, as I ... kinda couldn't stomach the entire thing, especially since it IS a troll. That totally cinches it; I bet "social experiment" is gonna be thrown around real soon--this kid is just RPing to a public that never wanted it. What an failtastic asshat.

Hahaha, Tager is actually really awesome! I like him too. Hazama's better seen in the second game IMHO. I actually forgot he was in the first cause he doesn't do anything except be kinda mysterious till he's like LOL GUYZ. There's a reason that TVTropes named him their God of Trolling after the release of Continuum Shift...

As I recall, the Xelloss in the novel is actually a lot more dark than the anime portrayed him? But you're the Slayers expert; I never saw all of NEXT, actually. XD; But yeah. This troll? Not even in the vicinity of the way Xelloss two-faced his way through the series. The fact that this kid's going after such a trigger-topic for their juvenile jollies is just plain disgusting.

But yeah, over-analyzing. That's enough of my time spent on on that. XD

... DID WE CROSS FANDOM PATHS? WHICH ONE? I AM SO LONELY it seems like I keep going further and further into stuff no one I know even knows about.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

aruru
2011-03-26 03:59 am UTC (link)

Don't ask me how I managed to get through the whole thing, personally. Either I've somehow developed a filter for blatant and ignorant trolling attempts, or I'm just a glutton for punishment. (If the latter, it's a wonder I have yet to develop high blood pressure from that and my tendency for anxiety.)

Heehee, he's no expert at any of them (that title would probably go to one of his pals, from what he's told me about him), but the BF is pretty knowledgeable about the fighter genre since it's one of his favorites. (Whereas I don't know too much about them despite having played a bit of Street Fighter 2 and MK back in the day and having fun just mashing buttons to see what I got. XD Amusingly, he knows next to nothing about RPGs [though he's started playing a bit of Valkyrie Profile PSP and is liking it], and you know how I feel about those, so I guess we complement each other decently. XD) He tends to play the big guys like Tager and Zangief.

I think he might be curious about Hazama and a few of the other new playables in CS, even though I'm sure he'll main Tager again in the long run. He was amused when I told him about Hazama earning the TVTropes "God of Trolling" title, though. XD (Didn't spoil on why, of course - partly because it would be mean to spoil a recent title he's looking forward to getting soon, and also because I don't really know the exact details of what he actually did in BB's expanding storyline to get that title anyway. XD)

Ahaha... actually, I consider myself in NO way an expert on the series (That would and [likely?] always will be Hajime Kanzaka, the author - from what I've seen thus far, he seems to know what he's doing.), just that I've watched the anime (hopefully) enough times, and on-and-off tried to dig up additional info (preferably stuff that I can access/peruse firsthand and thus not get as much of a bias as if the sources were secondhand, if possible) and varying perspectives from other fans to have distinct impressions/interpretations of the characters and world... and of course, as I'm just yet another fan, I have my own personal biases too (which I think you're quite familiar with by now, LOL ^_-). But I am flattered/amused you consider me knowledgeable enough to blabber on like this! XD

Admittedly though, I have to say that I consider myself mostly ignorant of the novels from a "I have read them personally and here's my views/opinion on that continuity" perspective, aside from having read Tokyopop's edition of the first one (which covers the first half of the first series, and I consider both continuities to be very faithful to each other at that point). I HAVE the other novels that Tokyopop managed to release (save for vol. 3, I think) before they axed the series, and I really need to sit down and read them (especially now that I've actually finally started a new attempt to hash out that Certain Old Project Idea of mine you might remember ^_-) to see what other kinds of useful info I could cannibalize from them, but as it stands right now, all the info I've got on the novels is secondhand and thus might have personal slants that are not mine.

I CAN tell you, however, that the first book - despite the whole comedic moments in it - definitely has an overall more serious "feel" to it than the anime in general. And I have indeed seen random people before claim that Xelloss has a darker characterization in the novels too, which, given my impression of the first novel's tone, is probably believable and unsurprising to hear. (I have also seen claims that Xelloss just overall seems a bit more... detached? ...in attitude from what he does - just a "business is business, as usual" kind of thing, was the impression I got from those claims.)

[cont.]

(Reply to this)(Parent)

aruru
2011-03-26 04:00 am UTC (link)

[cont.]

As for the mangas, I've only read the Shouko Yoshinaka version that was translated by CPM years ago (never saw the 8th/last volume, though - dunno if they even managed to bring it out before they went under), and was more or less ok with it until the 7th volume, where I had a bit of a disappointment. I'm completely unfamiliar with the Knight of Aqualord manga and anything else that came after it, though I think there were scanlations out there for the former - might have to dig around and find them someday to see if there's anything good there.

Interesting note: Oh, and while I've never offically been "in" Slayers fandom (despite my incessant gushing about it) given my incredible lurking tendencies, I've peeked here and there recently to see what people ~~argue~~ talk about since the last time I actually looked at community opinions, and apparently at some point there's a hatred of/backlash against Slayers Try that sprung up? It's... kind of amusing to me, to say the least.

But anyway, yeah, that is one failtastic troll. :P

Yes, we did indeed cross fandom paths, and I was surprised! See, I hadn't checked up on your entries since a little bit after the last time we spoke, so I had somehow totally missed that you had picked up Sengoku Basara! I actually preordered that and bought the 1st season of the anime (which came out a little before SB3's release - I also managed to dig up the second season fansubs) at about the same time, because I had really liked the designs for a while (I think the first time I saw designs of some of the characters was... well, I'm not sure, but I remember definitely having seen Masamune and Yukimura somewhere before, at least.) and heard it was so over the top funny that it becomes really awesome, so I thought "Eh, why not?"

And oh boy, watching the first season and playing a little bit of SB3, it was indeed awesome (and VERY gay) - I have to finish watching season 2 (I left off about 7 eps in), but I think the anime version is going to be among my top favorites, and... god, I NEED to make more time for SB3 as I've barely scratched the surface due to my random on-off gaming habits (Seriously, despite having preordered it, I've only played Ieyasu's and Mitsunari's paths once each, and I'm now slowly working on-and-off on another of Ieyasu's paths - forgot if it was the green or the blue one, since the color switched partway.), so you've long blown WAY past me - now you're the expert on this one! ^_-

But yes, awesome series. And I seriously need to make time and read your ChikaNari fic soon. ♥

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ruaki
2011-03-26 09:51 pm UTC (link)

Ah Rora, you totally beat me when it comes to verbosity. XD♥

My knowledge is only limited to the original Slayers and TRY, and it's definitely been quite a number of years since I saw either. (I tried watching Revolution, but Slayers is just one series that doesn't fit my tastes as it is now.) So, really, you are more of an expert than I (even then!). XD

I know when I was in fandom when Slayers TRY first came out in JP that it definitely was the least popular of the series among Western fandom at that time. The biggest complaint I remember is the general "darker" overtone it had--it wasn't as silly or humorous, and of course, Valgarv was a pretty angsty villain (with justification). Also, Slayers NEXT was always a huge fan favorite--coming on the heels of it, I think any third part would've been held in disregard. I always compared it to the Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi thing.

OH HO HO HO HO HO SO YOU ARE A SENBASA FAN
A BAZILLION POINTS TO YOU!

I'm... not a huge fan of the anime, but oh man, I love the games. I LOVE THE GAMES. wwwwwwwwwwwwww

I think most anime/game fans with any experience with Japanese side of fandoms would've run across some form of SenBasa because it's so big there. Like you, I was pretty familiar with "it" without even knowing what it is. I watched the anime on that premise, was disappointed that the designs I saw were barely in it, and then later found out we got a game from the series that wasn't bastardized like Devil Kings was.

300 hours later... =_=
An import later... =_=

WE ARE SO OFFTOPIC BUT I HAVE TO KNOW WHO DO YOU LIKE??? :D?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Conversation has moved! aruru 2011-03-29 02:39 am UTC (link)
	Uh, my reply to you got way, WAY too long and it would probably annoy tetradecimal to keep getting a bazillion off-topic notifications at this point, so I actually used my JF account for something other than commenting and made it its own entry, LOL. XD See you there, I hope! ^_^ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	iczer6 2011-03-26 03:39 am UTC (link)
	"Xelloss is old hat; if you want to troll, get a Hazama handle." I can't believe how long it took me to get that. I always thought Hazama would be the guy that would discover how to slap people through the internet. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	ruaki 2011-03-26 10:03 pm UTC (link)
	Ahahaha quoted (and tweeted) for truth. ♥ (Reply to this)(Parent)

	darksumomo 2011-03-25 06:39 am UTC (link)
	(If Xellos were to troll the Internet, IMO, I'd say he'd be more likely to make a post on a controversial topic that would get two (or more) sides arguing on their own, rather than getting them to argue with him.) Like this? (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -