Actually, the foolishness of Romeo and Juliet is a major part of the point of the story as it was originally told pre-Shakespeare. The main morals of the story are: hatred kills love, killing breeds killing, and love is foolish (it's sort of like "love is blind" but, y'know, slightly different.) So, I am not underanalyzing. I'm pointing out one of the main facets of the story -- they're idiots.
Agreed, and Shakespeare himself loved the tragic heroes, who were good people, but whose faults led them to their downfall. Romeo and Juliet were teenagers. Brutus loved Rome too much so that Cassius could manipulate that to make him lose sight of what actually mattered and justify killing his friend. Othello was naive, not because he was stupid, but because he was a military commander who could just not conceive that someone under his command would lie to him for no discernible motive. Hamlet was too indecisive and it took his own imminent death (and the slaughter of everyone around him) for him to finally do something. The list goes on and on.
Anyway, it occurred to me that there was one issue that tended to crop up in the writing of TSL that bugged me. I will hasten to point out (as I have in the past) that it doesn't ruin the game for me, but it does bug me when it happens. That is when we get some of the longer back stories, which I know have meaning for the writer, because they can picture it happening, but when we as an audience hear it, it just doesn't have an effect. An example would be Edgar talking about how Rosella had him dress up in a disguise during the Mask of Eternity celebration. Yes, it tells us a bit about Rosella, but we never saw that as an audience, so what we have are two characters sharing an inside joke that we have no context for. It just doesn't translate as well. And, in general, I did feel some of the exposition about Rosella got to be a bit much. We're at a point that we need to actually meet her, not just hear about her. Otherwise it seems like trying to build exposition on something that doesn't exist. Now, I have no doubt that this issue is exacerbated by the fact that there's time between episodes, which makes it seem like we've gone an eternity without seeing Rosella. If we were just playing the game straight through, that issue might not be as major. That said, though, I know I'm at a point where I don't want to hear about what a free spirit and how willful Rosella is. I want to see her act these things out in her dream world or in a flashback, or something that gives more context and meaning than two people talking about it.
Another example of exposition that just didn't seem to work for me would be the vases in the castle and the sour grapes. In both cases it reminded me of many conversations I've had with my sister, where she says, "The funniest thing happened!" and then proceeds to tell me this long story, which then ends with a punchline and total silence on my end. Because you just had to be there. The humor doesn't translate. I literally had that thought with the sour grapes story. When the narrator gave Rosella's response of "No, they were sour!" I basically just nodded my head and thought, "I guess I just had to be there." It's an easy trap to fall in to. Heck, we've all been there, we've all told those stories, and we've all sat through those stories. And I know if I'm writing something, I do the same thing. I find myself writing long exposition which I find fascinating, because I'm imagining it, because I'm creating the situation, the facial expressions, the tone, everything. But once an audience is there, they don't get that, and the story loses context and the meaning drains out.
Like I said though, it doesn't ruin the game (not even mildly), mainly because you don't have to look at the vases or the sour grapes to beat the game. If every little thing you did brought out a long story without the context of having been there, then I'd say it's a problem. But it's just a few optional places that leave me thinking, "I appreciate what the writer is trying to do, but it's become lost in translation."
