rpanons | [D] Haa. Haa. Haa.

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Like the subject says, I would be grateful for any advice on taking Sophie from the original HMC novel. This would be my first time playing from a non-visual medium and I'm nervous about keeping IC without paraphrasing or lifting exact words from the book.

Clarification or other interpretations of Sophie's magic would also be appreciated! "Talking life into things" seems too vague a power for apping into a game.

I wouldn't say no to advice on trying Howl either, but I would like to pick up a strong female character. :)

Sophie is actually a wonderful character to play for being taken out of her world. She's a very take things as they are and deal with it as best she can type of person, so the key in her arrival anywhere strange is to not have her dwell on it. Even when she's cursed she just sort of takes it in stride and then goes off to do what she thinks she should.

Sophie has a very broad power sadly which is hard to define. It really is just what she tells a thing to be, that thing will be. I wish I could be more helpful about it, but it would be good to keep in mind and mention the fact that Sophie is a very practical person, so a power like that with her would never even be applied past practical applications. She also frequently forgets she even has it, and even in the third book, though she has better practice at it, she doesn't use it much.

I could go on and on about Howl if you wanted.

Please do! What you've said about Sophie helps. I hadn't noticed how scarcely she uses her magic, as she spends most of the first book unaware of it.

Alright then I will!

There is actually a lot about Howl we are told, though very little we are told directly. However there is a lot you can figure out simply through environment and how he relates to others. Before focusing on how he is in Ingary I find it is a good idea to have a concept for him from before he traveled there. Yes he is a great and powerful wizard in Ingary, but before that he was simply a university student in Wales who ran away from situations he didn't want to deal with (as he runs away from all things he doesn't want to deal with).

Now I personally have a few theories about him in Wales which I'll offer up, but of course your free to have your own conclusions that may differ.

First it's safe to assume that he was a literature major, one that specialized in classical lit. It is also safe to say that he went though graduate school as he mentions having had a thesis. The reason classical lit seems to make the most sense is the sort of books he has around, the poems he quotes and the old school books he was looking for at his sisters. On a minor side note he seems to prefer fantasy as a genera as a lot of the casual quotes he uses are from things such as Alice in Wonderland and the Oz books.

Second it is more likely than not that his sister was a major influence on his upbringing. There is never any mention of his parents, his things are at her house and her conversation with him is almost more like a mother than an older sister. The way Howl mentions her husband also seems more how you would ask about someone you grew up with than simply an inlaw. There is a sense that she had to sacrifice a lot for him with hopes he would succeed, which is some of the tension in their conversation when he comes by.

Now when the book was written there was a lot of political stuff happening in Wales, as well as a huge rescission and a lot of money problems but it would be up to you to have an early 80's Wales or a contemporary one as Diana Wynne Jones has always wrote things to reflect the time she has written them in more or less. (Such as Chrestomanci which was first written in the 70s but had later books written in the 2000s and had technology to reflect that.)

Now to Ingary. It's important to remember that Howl came to Ingary at the age of 23/24 and that is when he got Calcifer and thus did not emotionally age after that. So despite the fact that he's 27 during the first book he has the maturity of an immature 24 year old. And even after he gets his heart back he doesn't exactly mature much in some ways. Or, perhaps instead simply stays difficult in many of his chosen actions. He is an ass you either hate or love, but is not a bad person.

The fact he is not a bad person is an important thing to keep in mind, he is bratty, is a jerk, is selfish, a drama queen and many other things, but he will never purposefully hurt anyone. Generally when faced against situations with people in need he will try to avoid it, and if he can not avoid it he will try and do something about it as he can't ignore them as much as he would want to.

And now for his insecurities. Howl has a lot of them, which is one of the reasons he is so concerned by his appearance and other things. He has sever self loathing. He thinks he's plain and ugly and in general has a low opinion of himself. It's easy to miss this as his act seems to contradict this, however his tantrums reflect this truer self. Personally I don't think he's as plain as he makes himself out to be as much as he sells himself short. Calcifers comments are also more a reflection of Howls opinions than a true observers as Calcifer has little to base his ideas off of.

Some general book canon advice:

Even if you don't have a Kindle, you can get a Kindle app for your phone or for PC, and you can buy the Kindle edition of the book. Once you've done that, you'll have a searchable copy of the book that you can highlight, annotate, and mark specific pages in... anything but copying the text and pasting it somewhere else. This is a lot more efficient than filling a paperback copy with flags and underlining and sticky notes!

For Sophie's powers I highly suggest reading the other two books, as we get to see her use them a little more after some training. However, we are generally lead to believe that she can have inanimate objects (and sometimes animate) do her bidding by speaking to them. I would expect that she generally has to speak directly to the object and only the object. In general I think it best to play with her powers on the "hit or miss" kind of way. Clearly she does not always have a clue if they are going to work and how. For example, Howl's jacket. They wanted it to get larger, and while we don't see her do it on-screen it's to be suggested that she told it to get larger and it did just that, only not as planned.

[D] Haa. Haa. Haa.

Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons

Re: Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons

Re: Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons

Re: Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons

Re: Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons

Re: Sophie Hatter | Howl's Moving Castle (first book) OR General | Playing from Book Canons