How does your source material impact your shrine?

[Destinie]

I was looking at my own shrines and thinking: "Would I ever actually finish this project?" Because the original source material is so massive! For example, I wanted to make a tribute for Godzilla but there is so much potential information that it would become a massive burden. So it made me wonder how the source material impacts other people who make shrines.

Do you really like a topic and the source material keeps you from making it? Do you choose to tackle, or not, certain projects based on what is available from the source material (IE: movie, cartoon, anime, game, tv show, etc.)?

[Todd]

Oh no, Destinie, I was looking forward to Godzilla from you! I understand where you're coming from, though. In your case, I'd make it more of a personal tribute. Discuss your favorite films, compare and contrast your favorite versions of Godzilla, etc. I do agree making a typical fansite to every aspect of Godzilla would be a ridiculously huge project.

I'm kind of having this issue with Hei from Darker Than Black! He's the main character in the series and there's a lot to discuss about him. I'm going to try to take somewhat of the approach I mentioned above as well as providing the very basics of his character for new fans, and adding to the site over time.

I would love to shrine Spider-Man, as well, but his canon is HUGE.

[Camy]

I think that's why I gave up on Loki's, even with the only focus on the movie, I felt that his character was still so complex for me to create a site for and his story + development is crazy. Not as crazy as in the comics, but it just was too much.

[Destinie]

@Todd Aww thanks! I might do it one day but I would have to really think about what I wanted to talk about on the topic instead of getting too deep into the weeds. There's just so much to potentially cover about that character that I have no idea where to start - much like Spider-Man! I'm looking forward to Hei!!

@Camy Those feels.. Even his movie canon is pretty complicated because you have the Thor movies and then Avengers 1 so you would still have at least three films to cover and not just one - and then the potential of him returning in future films. I could totally understand why that would be overwhelming x_x

[Larissa]

This is hands down what I struggle with the most, and it absolutely impacts which sites I make and in what order. For better or for worse, I happen to really like a number of roleplaying games that tend to take 30-60 hours to replay. This tends to make site-building a long, involved process, and I have to be really committed to something to want to work on it for months and months without losing steam.

This is the exact reason why I haven't made any further progress on my FF13 site. I really want to write indepth character analysis and talk about the overarching themes, but there are three flippin' games. Even a cursory refresher of the material (like rewatching the cutscenes online) is a huge time commitment. I end up getting really intimidated by it and saying "okay maybe I'll work on something I can get done in a week instead." Sob.

But yeah, like Todd said I think the best approach is to figure out what your angle on a really big topic is, and break it down from there. You can always start small and work your way up.

Personally I think having a solid outline from the start is the best way to approach a really huge subject; you can always change the outline as you make the site of course but it gives you a good framework to build your ideas around. This helped me a lot with Winds of Change; I left a couple of pages on the cutting room floor (so to speak) because they didn't end up working out, but I can still go back and rework them later.

[nyxmidnight]

Fortunately I fall in love with minor characters usually, so I don't experience this problem much.

Except that now I want to shrine Lucifer and the Demi-Fiend from Megaten.

Lucifer is in nearly all Megaten games.

Demi-Fiend is in a game with 6 different endings based on how you play him.

orz

[Robin]

This definitely affects me--it's one reason I have a lot of minor character shrines and shrines to paper media stuff. TV shows and video games are very hard for me to shrine because I can't just quickly refer to paper/digital pages when I want to fact-check something or expound on a plot point--I have to rewatch a whole ep or replay a whole section again, and UGH. So much wasted time. To top it off, brief summaries made by other people are often lacking the depth I need for shrining, so I end up just doing it myself (and hating every minute).

(Case in point: I'm kicking myself for not writing up notes on Sam Stewart from Foyle's War while I was watching through it the first time, because each episode is like 1 1/2 hours and there are 28 episodes. And most of the eps on IMDB do not have good summaries at all. But I got caught up in the series and didn't want to be distracted by taking notes...orz *bangs head against wall*)

[Mikari]

I don't think you're "obligated" to cover everything. You can cover what stands out and make it a more personal tribute where you talk about your experiences and your "relationship" with the franchise. Just write as much as you're comfortable and happy with writing. If you want to inform people, but don't want to write about a particular movie/version you can always offer links for additional information, so people can go to those sites if they want to see more.

[Laura]

I agree with Mikari! :D You aren't obligated to cover absolutely everything in your shrine! If you want to add more at a later date, there's nothing stopping you. :3

I actually had a lot more planned for my Kyo shrine but the amount of work was just overwhelming so I scaled back some sections that I plan on adding at a later date, when I feel a bit more energized. The bonus there is that viewers have something new to see when they come back later. XD

A lot of my sites are shrines to characters from series that have 50+ volumes of manga. 9_6 It IS daunting, but you can set limits for yourself! A lot of series have story arcs and you can say, "I'll do story arc 1 through 5" at first, and then come back and gradually add content when you feel like it. Breaking it up that way helps a lot! :3

I also focus on the original source material too... which usually means the manga or novel. I'll then add separate sections for other adaptations where applicable.

[Lethe]

What Larissa said, including source material size having quite some influence on the order in which I tackle shrines. When I made the shrining resolution topic a few months ago and looked at my project list, I sat down and wrote what kind of shrines I'd consider making this year, and listed each of them by anticipated size of the shrine along with the biggest hurdle in making the shrine. And I thought to myself "maybe I should just go ahead and shrine whatever has the least source material, that way I'll end up granting myself more wishes". :|

A lot of manga I like are over 20 volumes long, and video games, especially JRPGs, take a LONG time to replay... I love rereading manga and do it all the time, but some series I have to stay away from for a while due to the things they do with my emotions, and when those happen to be long series on top of that, yeah. <_<

Even if I adopted the "selective" approach - which I really think we should be considering more often - in that I don't attempt to say "everything" about the character, I'd still want to reexperience the entire source material first. And of course, the temptation is always there to have a shrine detail "everything" about a subject, just because of your immense love for the subject alone. T_T

Of course, nowadays it's, in some ways, easier to shrine certain things... There are Wikis that you can refer to, or Let's Plays and HD videos for video games, but... It's not the way I shrine, and there are things you don't pick up on (which, to me, may just be the interesting things) unless you play the game again yourself. (Most obvious example: When you want to discuss how to best use a party member, how you personall use them, or what they bring to the party.)

I also can't imagine ever shrining a long anime or television series. I heavily work with bookmarks in my manga or make a selection of scans I have on the PC so that I can quickly refer to things I'm shrining and go back and forth between them. I can't do that with video files. :|a