Talk:A Modest Destiny

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People who want to delete this at the authors request, you might be better looking at his personal article rather than here, and even then try a vote for removal instead. As it goes I'm a fan, but i don't believe in removing useful articles.

Fancruft, non-notable website, more wikibullshit, etc.. 62.136.97.227 23:33, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Contents 1 Done and needed 2 fluffy? 3 New Beginning 4 characters 5 Contact Information 6 I must disagree 7 Criticism

[edit] Done and needed

I did a quick pass over the article and made all the tenses match (I chose past tense as kind of the default), killed a few rampaging typos, and tweaked the wording slightly. Is there an official abbreviation for the first AMD? I'm unaware of one, so I gave it "AMDM" (M for Maxim) for convenient reference.

Needed: Expansion of the major characters list, and tagging them by AMDM/AMDF/AMDW as appropriate.

Do we want one paragraph per chapter? More? I'd be in favor of expanding the first two a bit.

There should be some mention that the clichés were intentional, as a sendup of some of the badly overused fantasy staples, but it's 2 am and I'm too tired to write that so it looks good.

And we can't forget the ninjas.

Worldwalker 06:12, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

I think eventually, we should have enough paragraphs per chapter to sufficiently summarize the the main plot points and the main sub-plots. I would say that once we have enough info, we should split the history section up into "history" (of the comic) and "plot". History would deal with the real-world stuff (when each section started, etc.), while the plot would be localized in the plot section. Probably have each chapter be a header, and have several paragraphs to describe the plot of the chapter. - Matthew0028 06:24, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

The first chapter needs an abbreviation. Mr. Howard, if you don't like AMDM, pick one you do like; I don't care what it's called as long as it's called something. We're going to need it for things like tagging which characters are in which part and general discussion.

Worldwalker 18:50, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

It's just called AMD. It doesn't have an abbreviation and never has. I'm against inventing one for the purposes of this article because that would be more along the lines of making news rather than reporting it, and when none of the fans would actually recognize such an abbreviation, it seems rather improper to state it as canon after the comic was closed down. A better solution would be to simply split the character descriptions up with the different summaries. Truth be told, nearly all the major characters are telegraphed within the first story. Giggles, Matilda, and Gustav are all mentioned in AMD, and Fluffy is actually shown (in a slightly premature design) in the last "the end?" comic. Ruby and Zanzabar are the only ones off the top of my head that are truly introduced for the first time in a future series.

- Sean --68.35.229.38 02:39, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Problem is, AMD can also mean the whole series. If we say "Maxim was a major character in AMD" that tends to indicate he was in everything called "A Modest Destiny", not just the first part. If you're talking about "Star Trek", are you talking about the original series, whatever's currently on the air, every TV show that has ever been called Star Trek, or what? It's the same problem.

I wouldn't be worried about making news rather than reporting it in this case. I doubt if Paramount used "ST:TOS" to designate the original Star Trek series, but fans who have a need to differentiate betwen the many Star Trek series labelled it. It's just a matter of practicality. The issue isn't what you called it, but what we can call it so we can tell it apart from AMDF and AMDW when we're writing about it. So, some designation is needed for the sake of clarity.

Worldwalker 03:17, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I clicked a link and wound up here. (Sorry, Squid.) Did some edits, here are some points I noted but wasn't sure how to handle:

• Tenses: Feels all wrong. At the top, the comic "is"; in the middle, it "was". Don't know if this is normal or not, but feels like it should be one other the other.
• Acronyms: Squid has a point here, not sure how to handle it. It's a list of three titles in which two have accepted abbreviations that aren't actual acronyms. Do we make one up, go with the actual acronym MSW for the convenience of the article? If the latter, do we need to note this isn't pre-existing?
• War destroyed: the quote is "in a world that had all but been destroyed by the war against the undead." This is saying...hm. This says to me that both the undead and the humans were allowing the wanton destruction of the world, fighting their war at any cost. Is this true? Or is it that the undead were winning, cutting destruction through the world as they saw fit, but basically making a world they wanted? Because, if so, the war wasn't destroying the world for them.
• Links to dates: eh I know I'm new, but...is it really necessary to link to, like, March 16? Is there a possibility that someone reading the vast majority of Wikipedia articles is really going to need to link to March 16?

-- Spinn2 04:59, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Oh, and forgot to mention: yes, I deleted "The cast of A Modest Destiny is significant, and many of the characters have complex histories" because it's redundant. Yes, it's significant, that's why they're listed; yes, they have complex histories, look at the descriptions.

-- Spinn2 05:04, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

The tense did feel wrong, and that's because it described the actions within the work in past tense. It sounds absolutely improper to say "In the first chapter, Maxim was old". In the first chapter, Maxim IS old. I've doubled checked the summaries of several other well known books on Wikipedia, such as Grapes of Wrath, A Tale of Two Cities, and All the King's Men and this is the standard voice used. It sounded rather uncomfortable otherwise, but I couldn't put my finger on it until now.

As for the abbreviations, the fans labelled ST:TOS, not Wikipedia. Since the fans do not use an abbreviation, I don't think it is at all appropriate to invent one here. The entire time I've been doing the comic, it's never been a problem. AMD has always referred to the work as a whole, much like Deep Space Nine refers to seven seasons making up over a hundred different episodes, each with their own titles. I consider AMDF and AMDW to be individual stories within AMD, but the first season of AMD is actually more like a serial of several stories that work together. It's one of the reasons why I've never felt the need to identify all 362 comics in AMD as one work. More often than not, I'll refer to pieces of it, like saying that so-and-so happened during the slime storyline, Maxim does something during the Deo-Deo battle.

Another thing is that AMDF was originally named rather than simply being more AMD because it was originally intended to be a side story with none of the main characters in it. It wasn't really Maxim's story, and he's the one with the not-so-modest destiny. However, the story had a rather significant impact on the world (which wasn't originally planned - AMDF began with no planning at all and was more of a quick switch to get TSD complainers off my back as quick as possible), AMDF stopped being a side story so much as it was a prologue. By then, the acronym sort of stuck. AMDW took one as well because it was a single, collected story compared to the rambling multi-adventure first season. That's just for historical perspective. I'm just against inventing information to be included here. Wikipedia is meant to chronicle information, not force newly created material down people's throats as the truth.

As for "war destroyed", yes, the war was very much waged at all cost, destroying the land and peoples with it. It's the reason why the sky is always red and the ground has no living vegetation.

- Sean --68.35.229.38 05:42, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

If we really need to refer to chapter 1 by an abbreviation (i.e. if we make lists of characters and want to succinctly state which chapter they were from), we can figure it out when it happens. If nothing else, "ch. 1" would work. As it is now, however, we have no such need for an abbreviation. Sqidi's right that we shouldn't make up an abbreviation for the first chapter just because every other chapter has one. So in short, we don't need one at the moment, and there isn't a (pseudo)official one (either by the author or the fans), so we should leave it out.

- Matthew0028 15:13, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

"War destroyed": yes, it's clear the world was being destroyed, that's not my question. Is the war destroying the world, or are the undead destroying the world? If you were describing some real historic battle, you might say "a land ravaged by war"--but that's because both sides are human, and both sides would find the destruction of the land a bad thing. In this case, the undead might actually like what's happening to the land, so it's more that they're destroying it, rather than just being a by-product of the fighting.

-- Spinn2 15:49, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

hm...but then I get the idea you're saying that the humans were also fighting the war and not really caring the effect their fighting was having on the land. Okay, nevermind.

-- Spinn2 16:25, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] fluffy?

SOmeoen just changed all the refs to "fluffy" to "fluffs-a-lot". Is this actually accurate? I was pretty sure it was the dread lord fluffy. ora 06:35, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New Beginning

I just put in a note about the new AMD Chronicles Squidi's been putting up recently. Only problem is, I had to guess on the exact date. If anyone knows the exact date it started please correct me.

-- Pyritefoolsgold 08:28, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] characters

I notice Gillian isn't in the character list-- is she a major or minor character? I'm sure there are more that are missing (I just like gilly and noticed her absence), does anyone want to reform it? Kuronue 01:36, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

guess not. I'll get to work. It'll be slow though Kuronue 15:41, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

sorry for multiple edits, I keep getting interrupted on my laptop and having to pack up and move. I'm done for now. Tried not to put too many spoilers Kuronue 16:17, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contact Information

Where's the e-mail and such for Sean Howard? Jachra 07:58, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I must disagree

that comic at the bottom is complete trash! cow goes what now? good lord! Marge4 01:31, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism

That's a section this article seems to be missing. There could at least be more dicussion of the controversy and various what-not in the history of the site.. I mean, come on.

I've gotta agree, to a degree. I don't know about specific criticisms being necessary, but I think that the various contreversies that Sean Howard has gotten into and the effects its had on the comic (he stopped making the comic for a time because of a harassment from people he had angered) should be worth noting. 71.125.90.14 23:27, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is meant to be reliable, neutral encyclopedia full of verifiable information from third-party sources with reputations for fact checking and accuracy. If there are such sources writing criticism about this comic (say, reviews in The Comics Journal or in The New York Times), then feel free to add such criticism and cite your sources. If the only sources are personal websites or blogs or message boards, then the criticisms are neither verified in a trusted source nor importnat enough to be in an encyclopedia. -- Dragonfiend 23:34, 26 November 2006 (UTC)