Frequently Asked Questions
At this point, they are Occasionally Asked Questions.
If you have any questions about Ninja Shizatch, leave a post under this article – no signup is required. If someone posted a question you would like answered, quote it and +1 it.
Ie:
"The scaling is sometimes confusing; who is taller, Jade or Bronze?"
+1
Q: I'm a bit confused with the breaking of the 4th wall...
Are the characters part of some RPG? Or is this really happening? And if it's the former, is it table-top or a video game, and do they know that they're in it?
A: This issue has been purposely left vague to allow for personal interpretation. My own interpretation, which may vary from yours, is that Ninja Shizatch is a webcomic, based on a live-action movie, based on a video, game based on a tabletop RPG group - and the breaking of the 4th wall occurs on all four levels.
By this interpretation, NS first started as a campaign in some fantasy tabletop RPG d20 system, possibly Dungeons & Dragons or a variant thereof. The samurai are the Player Characters, run by real-life people, who make out-of-character comments, regarding computers, football, their character sheets, dice rolls, the Game Master, etc…
Secondly, the tabletop RPG was adapted to video game format. The samurai are still the Player Characters, who are now all connected to the same game server over the internet (or playing on the same console). Jokes are made involving skipping through NPC dialogue, possessing invisible inventories, inputting cheat codes or otherwise hacking, etc…
Thirdly, a movie/movie series was made about NS, and the samurai are now played by leading actors. The rest of the cast consists largely of extras (ninjas who are seen on screen for a few seconds before dying) or characters with minor speaking roles. Jokes are made involving resentment for failing to get the leading role, receiving fan mail, delivering monologues, etc…
Lastly, a webcomic was made. The samurai are the protagonists, and jokes are made involving viewing the webcomic itself, narration, panels, etc…
Some of these are less obvious than others, and many jokes can seem to fall under more than one category. The players/actors behind the samurai are sometimes able to keep in-character – particularly during dramatic or otherwise plot-important scenes, because that’s when they know they should be taking things seriously. After all, the players know that their characters can die, and the actors know that their characters can be killed off.
Q: Does Sapphire have a weapon?
A: Sapphire has throwing knives, which she launches with deadly accuracy.
Q: Why was Sapphire picked instead of Shadow for The Legionaries of the Shadow? Is it seriously because they were looking for a girl?
A: Shadow and Jade are the same age, whereas Sapphire is slightly older. At the time, Sapphire had more experience than Shadow, and was the superior samurai.
2 comments:
thats absolutely genius. The different layers of subtlety and reality bending narrative in the comic is awesome when you explain it like that. Its so awesome I have to question if you just came up with that on the spot when you were trying think of a cool answer or was that your original intent (lols not that it matters now). Thats probably the most interesting method of breaking, no fucking demolishing the 4th wall I've seen so far. Explains why in some other comics too much 4th wall breaking seems to get lame and its stayed so fresh in yours! congratz keep that story coming bro!
Thanks a lot, pio!!
I can’t say that when I first started the comic, I had in mind that it was based on a movie based on a video game etc… Originally, it was to be mainly tabletop RPG humor, but that has been done so well by other comics, such as the Order of the Stick. So I shifted the direction of the comic to be more widespread.
The roots of Ninja Shizatch lie in Flash animations. Different episodes made up different seasons of Ninja Shizatch, akin to a television show. In Season 1, Silver was actually a badass, cool guy (and the only character). In a trailer for Season 2, I made a voice-over narrative explaining how the actor who played Silver moved on to bigger and better roles, so they hired some dumpy new actor who was willing to work for less than minimum wage.
I had kept that whole aspect of the characters being played by hired actors – you can even see this early on, in the audio interview with the actor who plays Silver. From the beginning, I had planned out interviews with Silver, Shadow, and Jade. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find a female voice actor to play Jade (though I haven’t searched very hard). I’ve always intended on making another NS Flash movie, but since my animation skills aren’t that great, it would require a great amount of time – and there is still the issue of requiring voices for Jade and Sapphire.
So I suppose the 4th wall breaking story has always been subconsciously on my mind while working on the comic – having to answer the question made me convert it from vague, implicit concepts to a concrete description.
Thanks again bro!
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