More Minutiae

[Akril]

What really confuses me is that Old Town Radio calls its collection "The Complete Box 13 Radio Series", and also repeatedly claims that you can order "18 CD's with 52 different shows", while I got 17 CDs and only 48 complete episodes, with a 50th episode that is incomplete, as well as a repeat of one episode that is also incomplete. If you only have 48 episodes, I think it would be a good idea if you changed the text on the Old Town Radio webpage

 

Just a few more trivial things about GF I thought I'd post a thread about.

 

A while ago I mentioned that the cats at the race track might be based on Oaxacan wood carvings. (Hope these links work)

 

Here's a photo of a carving of a leopard...

 

And here's an assortment of carvings.

 

I'm still not entirely sure why Tim Schafer (probably) based the cats on the carvings...but then again, I'm not entirely sure why he chose to create elephantine cats that ran in derbies like horses.

 

Another thing I've noticed is the designs on the characters' hands. Most of the main characters have distinctive designs, while most of the minor or infrequently appearing characters have a stylized metacarpal pattern. Manny and Meche have simple, yet aesthetically pleasing line designs, while Nick has an elaborate double spiral that reminds me of a Celtic triskel, minus one loop. Domino (naturally) has a pair of dominos on each hand, and Salvador’s hands are plain white. Hector's hands seem to have elaborate crucifix designs (I’m not sure how to interpret this kind of symbolism. It could get too violent in here). I’m not sure whether the dolls that the characters are based on have similar designs or not.

 

Lastly, I’ve noticed how Hector’s skull is considerably different than everyone else’s in the game. Different colored lines and dots accent his features, and at times he seems to have actual eyes. I just realized that his head looks a bit like the sugar skulls that are made to celebrate Dia de los Muertos (apparently they are called “calaveras”, but some sources have stated that that’s what the little skeleton-populated dioramas are called…or sometimes, the skeleton figures themselves). I couldn’t find any good photos, though.

 

 

Akril

[JofaGuht]

Originally posted by Akril

I'm still not entirely sure why Tim Schafer (probably) based the cats on the carvings...but then again, I'm not entirely sure why he chose to create elephantine cats that ran in derbies like horses.

 

Might not have been Tim Schafer's idea. It's possible a lot of this could be out of Peter Chan's mind (actally Chan does environments but he's the only name other than Schafer on the team I know of so please replace Chan's name right there is the character designer)

 

I'm not sure there is too much symbolism to explore in the character design, although it's possible. There's stating the obvious of course: Domino's hand are dominos. I wonder what that's trying to say.

 

Sorry man, I wish I had something more insightful to say.

[VampireNaomi]

Originally posted by JofaGuht

 

Sorry man, I wish I had something more insightful to say.

 

My thoughts exactly. Here I am reading the interesting original post and thinking "Hey, why didn't I think of that? Why don't I know anything cool about Mexican folklore or symbols or whatever?"

 

Well, I guess I have to say something, err... I actually did pay attention to the designs in the characters' hands and I did wonder what they meant. I only recognised the dominos in Domino's hands though, so I stopped thinking about it.