philautia-agape

[philautia-agape]

I did the meme :)

[philautia-agape]

[philautia-agape]

no more group chats. we meet once a week from now on and everyone prepares 2 personal stories and 3-5 memes and we sit in a circle and have a Socratic seminar covering these topics

[philautia-agape]

i love six o clock because the clock looks so stupid. "|" like get real

[philautia-agape]

I understand the value of artistic liberties but what exactly is Yugio's haircut supposed to be. I've wondered this since childhood

[philautia-agape]

They really just wrote any old shit for video game plots back in the 80s huh

[philautia-agape]

can you imagine a timeline in which the story let Dabi and Geten team up to be Shouto's final boss. Fire and Ice vs Fire and Ice. Fire hotter than Shouto's and Ice control more varied and precise than Shouto's vs Shouto. Shouto needing to reconcile both sides of his fucked up family and save both his brother and (distant) cousin.

Imagine the story having Geten be carried off by Machia too during the Jaku arc. Dabi giving his reveal, Geten may or may not have known it already, this connection between them that was so obvious the moment Geten showed up in My Villain Academia. Dabi and Geten calling truce and combining their bitterness over the bloodlines that screwed them over.

Enji was supposed to die, Horikoshi said that on record - likely it was when he was frozen by emotions and Dabi was coming for him. But like, Dabi's thing was that he wanted to die with his dad, right? Kill himself and his dad together in a blue blaze. Enji's body can't stand that degree of fire. But Dabi's can.

Enji's dying, but Dabi is still alive - perfect time for Shouto (and Best Jeanist?) to intervene. Shouto tries to use ice not only to subdue Dabi, but also to capture him - except Geten has control over all ice. Geten able to control Shouto's ice, manipulating it in complex ways Shouto can't because Shouto can only create ice.

Imagine the rest of the Todoroki family actually getting a role in saving Touya because Enji's dead. Imagine Rei able to be free of Enji, and now also able to confront her family that sold her. That made victims of her and her branch family cousin.

Imagine the story delving into Geten and Dabi as foils. Add in Shouto as a third foil, too. Two main family sons, one heir and one spare, and then a branch family child. Shouto was forced to train, Dabi wanted to train but wasn't allowed, Geten wanted to train and encouraged to. Shouto hates his dad and doesn't want anything to do with Enji if he can help it, Dabi hates his dad because he wanted his dad's love, Geten caring deeply for a father figure in ReDestro and having receiving affection. Yet all three still trapped in the toxicity of family history and the darkness of quirk society.

And in the final battle, Shouto's cold fire able to confront both fire and ice, both sides of his family, all aspects of his blood. Geten sprouting dangerous ideas about strength, Dabi wanting to prove his power within that same framework that excluded him, Shouto the one to break free from that framework altogether - and bringing both his brother and cousin out from it too.

[philautia-agape]

There are a lot of wild writing decisions in Undertale, but for my money the wildest has to be, hey, we're going to casually reveal that Alphys and Undyne's meet-cute was actually an interrupted suicide attempt, and imply that Undyne might be deliberately playing up her oblivious meathead persona because she's aware of this and doesn't want to have that conversation, then never bring any of this up again because the story isn't about them.

[philautia-agape]

When you’re constructing characters, how do you figure out everyone’s personalities without listing off character traits or relying on nebulous “vibes?” I’m able to figure out the characters’ trauma, values, motivations, justifications, etc..but, so to speak, I’m missing the wrapping that’s supposed to go onto the present. So you have any advice?

Honestly, I find the most useful question when I'm writing scene-to-scene stuff, or trying to figure a character out, is What are they hiding (and why)?

Say a character doesn't want anyone to know they're upset. The source of the upset can range from something small to something larger (or appear to be small but actually be large, or vice versa). Do they hide it because they're ashamed to admit they're upset in general, or the source of this upset specifically? Do they hide it because they think there's more important things to focus on? How do they hide it? Do they get snappish, or force smiles/jokes?

It sounds to me like you have a good idea of the characters' Core (their inner workings, fears, hopes, etc) but are lost on the Presentation. Gonna copy and paste from a meta I did for the fantasy show The Dragon Prince, since they're really good at demonstrating the difference in their foil/character dynamics:

One thing that I find particularly useful when it comes to discussing/analyzing characters, or when creating them, is the difference between a character’s core vs their presentation. The most classic kind of example we see is the “jerk / bad boy with a heart of gold” archetype where the character’s presentation is one way (outwardly prickly and/or mean) but their internal core (values, priorities, ‘truest self’ etc) is very warm, loving, and caring. We see it so often it borders on the point of being cliche. However, it is useful in explaining just how much a character’s core can differ from somebody else’s, but their presentation might be similar, or vice versa, with their presentations being different but their cores being similar. And obviously even that is simplistic (characters can have pieces of one another’s core but still be very different.

I'll use an example of two of my own OCs from @alvoskia (aka my fantasy debut is getting published in 2026 and I'm very excited!!) since I had considered merging the characters because they fulfilled similar purposes, but ultimately decided on keeping them separate because of their presentations were different enough.

George and Bill are two very similar characters. They have a similar background—in the fact, the most similar out of anyone in the main case, since they were raised by the same adoptive mother figure since they were very young (under 1 year)—and similar goals. They love their friends, want to help them, are generally good/kind hearted, slow to anger, etc.

However, Bill is more of a peacemaker where George is more avoidant. Bill attempts to address and smooth things over, whereas George puts everything in a box. Bill is more responsible and George younger and more mischievous. Bill will hide his problems because he doesn't want to burden others, and George hides his problems because he's pretending that he doesn't have any.

Similar cores, different presentations.

That said: how to craft presentations?

There are certain characters where I knew their personalities right away, others where I thought I did and then they surprised me while I was actually writing. (For example, I gave my main protagonist—George and Bill's mutual friend—a fierce temper, which I thought would be her main character flaw from the start. It turns out her temper is secondary to her current main flaw, at least, of constant comparison of herself to others / her ego and penchant for resentment.) Some characters, like George because he's a side main character, took a while (aka multiple books/drafts) for me to feel like I fully had his reactions ironed out.

That said, if we feel like we don't know anyone's personality, it can make us feel like we don't know where to start writing wise, so "finding the personality along the way" isn't necessarily helpful advice.

What I find, then, is that most characters fall into 2 categories: they have certain traits/values and the personality traits we expect, OR there's a purposeful contrast between traits and personality. The "jerk with a heart of gold" is a contrast, for example, that we see so often we do expect it.

For an example of the 1st category (i.e. when the core + presentation are the same and played pretty straight), basically every character in Avatar: The Last Airbender has the values/cores and then presentations of what you would expect. Fire is wild and out of control and more overtly violent; Zuko is hot headed, destructive, and impulsive. He has to learn control of his temper and improved control of his bending, as well as to let go of the more violent ways of his people.

Meanwhile, my Fire aligned character isn't angry or impulsive. She's very bright and warm and sunny, but also performative and deeply caring / passionate.

Or, for a less element/power aligned variation: say you have a character who is a Healer. The Expected Character Traits (Presentation) is someone who is very caring and therefore very selfless, someone who is going to be patient and understanding. Their Core is probably going to be wanting to help people (values) and afraid of not being able to help/save others.

The immediate contrast to that would be a more prickly, less compassionate doctor (common on live action tv shows who have an "genius but an asshole" character, less so in novels) who has a softer side occasionally shown, but is a lot tougher, maybe jaded from the patients/loved ones they couldn't save. An example could be Bones from Star Trek.

To be clear, the contrast isn't necessarily better than the played straight option; both can be extremely interesting (or boring) depending on the execution. Shows like Grey's Anatomy have everyone be a nurse and/or doctor, and have a wide array of personalities on display. There's also a variety of ways to get in the Middle between contrast and playing straight. Perhaps the healer character only cares about healing their loved ones, or will withhold certain aid because they think others need to be tougher, or is also motivated by their faith and that puts them into some kind of crisis with their profession. Maybe the healer is nice and gentle to everyone but when someone tests their patience or doubts their knowledge, they get immediately cold/terse, etc.

It can also be useful in creating conflict. If a character's core values peace/rationality, than a loud/emotional/impulsive character (some of which are more personality than not) would get on their nerves, even if their plot goals may align.

Basically:

Think about what personality traits would either contrast (hide) or highlight (accentuate) the cores and conflicts you want your characters to have.

Other useful questions to ask are:

What is the line of separation between how my character reacts to adverse situations when they're scared, or when they're not?

How does my character react because of their unaffected personality, or because of their trauma?

If two characters have similar cores, do they get along with one another? Why or why not?

If two characters have similar presentations (i.e. both are show-offs) do they get along, or dislike each other? Why or why not?

How much does my characters' traits change personality wise because of circumstances? (ie. a character who is very observant when relaxed or concerned could be deeply caring, but when they're stressed, it can turn to 'right for the jugular' style anger)

More ideas on character construction can be found here!

[philautia-agape]

At the company retreat, one extremely drunk girl asked what my pronouns were. (Eventually, it took her a while to word the question.) After the whole conversation was done, she goes- "YEAHHH GURL, Get on with--with THY bad self! See what I did?? They/them/thy."

I was almost holding back tears from trying not to laugh as I told her yes that's great you nailed it honey. Thank you very much I am feeling the love.

Anyway I've been assigned Thee/Thine at Supportive Drunk Girl

[philautia-agape]

I missed most of the Iraq war due to being a baby, but every time I read about it I start wondering why we aren’t all talking about it all of the time

[philautia-agape]

Listen up: if you see ICE distract them! Scream LA MIGRA (la me-graw) top of your lungs to let people know ICE is there and to GTFO basically

Film ICE, get in their faces live stream it, yell at them, ask them questions, throw rocks at their cars, if you’re bold enough and by this I mean can’t be deported take a fucking swing at them. Distract them , waste their time. By doing this you’re buying people time to get to safety.

You’re going to tell Spanish speaking people “No hables” (no ha-b-las) it literally means don’t speak

You’re also gonna say “Pide un abogado” (Pee-day un ahb-o-gah-do) ask for a lawyer

These ICE agents aren’t going to be speaking Spanish , it’s people’s right to have a lawyer if being detained or questioned by ICE

They’re starting these raids in blue sanctuary cities to try and punish us for being blue, now blue state governments are gonna push back but until they can do that, look out for the people.

NO ONE IS ILLEGAL ON STOLEN LAND! ICE WORKS FOR NAZIS! PUNCH NAZIS

If you’re going to be doing this, cover your faces and identifying marks. It’s flu season shame if everyone was wearing N95 masks, or had kuffyias or bandanas covering hair and face…I mean it’s not like it’s winter or anything

[philautia-agape]

tumblr discourse after 13 years on this fucking website

[philautia-agape]

id be sooo good at being the nice lady who levels you up in souls games,,,,

[philautia-agape]

I will never get tired of how funny it is when people respond to the posts they don't like by turning it into blackout poetry. What sheer fucking splendour, grabbing something you loathe and then turning it into art as an expression of your utter disrespect and disregard of this person's stupid-ass opinions. It's not simply contempt, but an elaborate display of how little it matters to you.

What a way to show that you find this person so beneath your respect that you won't argue their stupid opinions, you won't even gracefully ignore them like you would politely and tactfully turn a blind eye to the embarrassing mishaps of some fool who doesn't know better. No, you choose to turn it into a plaything, making it your arts and crafts material.

The hilarious indignity of having someone pick up something you thought were bold and fine statements, the pinnacle of truth, and saying "this block of stupid text is as worthless as a rock, but allow me to carve it into art, so that it could perhaps be turned into something that possesses worth and beauty."

[philautia-agape]

[philautia-agape]

Keep your messaging simple:

“Trump fired everyone in charge of airplane safety, and a week later planes started crashing into each other.”

That’s it. That’s the messaging. Don’t get bogged down disputing Trump’s false claims. Just blame him, in short and repeatable sentences.