#ANIMATION IS A MEDIUM NOT A GENRE AND THE STORIES IT CAN TELL ARE SO FUCKING COOL

[bumblebeebats]

Wow, Guillermo del Toro really said You know what my animated kid's musical needs? Catholicism. War. Death. Alcoholism. Fascism. Frankensteinian undertones. A haunting meditation on mortality and grief. Cate Blanchett making monkey noises. And he was so fucking right

[whirlwindwonderland]

What do you like about Princess Tutu (as someone who only knows the name)? What made you enjoy it?

Oh boy.

Okay so Princess Tutu is one of my favourite ever stories. And if I were to list everything I liked about it we'd be here long enough for you to actually go watch the show yourself.

Which you should do.

Because it's awesome.

But to sort of sum up my feelings... I like Princess Tutu because of how it chooses to tell its story. Every story is told a specific way for a specific reason, and Princess Tutu chooses the medium of a Magical Girl Anime about Ballet to tell a story about Love, Hope, and Willpower triumphing over Tragedy and Despair.

That's fucking genius.

It plays its premise completely straight. There's no subversive takes on the magical girl genre here. No turning to wink and laugh at the camera to try and save face. It's completely earnest, plays its tropes completely straight, and makes it all work together, and it all serves the main themes of the story.

You can really get a good summary of this in the main character Ahiru.

Because Ahiru, in the general space of the magical girl anime genre, is not an outlier from what I can tell. She's kind and she's sweet and she's a clumsy, and her power comes from her empathy and her love of others. There's a lot of characters like her.

But Ahiru is different because all of these things- Her empathy, her kindness, her silliness and innocence and clumsiness and big open heart, they all serve the themes of the story. Because when the main villain, the big bad, the thing you have to stand against, is a seemingly inescapable force of fate, pulling you down the path of tragedy, it takes a special kind of truly indomitable soul to fight back.

See, this is a magical girl anime built around the stories of ballet, and a neat thing that many don't know about ballet is that a solid 75% of what's considered the 'Classics' of the medium are tragedies. Swan Lake, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, and La Sylphide are all referenced in the show proper, with Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet being referenced particularly often. The overarching Villain of the story could be said to be this conceptual tragedy that Ballet seems so enamoured with.

But by applying the fixings of the magical girl genre to this tragedy, approaching this idea of roles in life being fixed like the roles on a stage, of working towards helping someone you love knowing that the result will ultimately be your demise, with the attitude of "I'm going to fix this problem with the power of love and friendship". you get a really interesting story.

Over and over again, Ahiru sees dangerous situations, and reaches out with a kind hand to help those involved. Over and over again, she succeeds. Over and over again, Ahiru almost falls in the face of the despair of her situation. And over and over again, her own kindness comes back to help her, as the people she's befriended come to her side, to support her, to catch her when she falls, and to give her the openings she needs to solve the problems.

Despite being told that her life is meant to be a footnote on the stories of others, that her role is one no one else would take because no one else would want it, that she can never share the love she feels with others, because to do so would literally kill her. Ahiru continuously chooses love. She never becomes bitter to her situation, and continuously chooses to do what she thinks is right, to be kind, to care, and to try to help, and it is this unfailing kindness that, in the end, forces the genre of the story around her to change.

By being unflinchingly and unfailingly herself in the face of adversity and a story that wants her to suffer, she inspires others to want to help her succeed. And in doing that, she forces a grand, cyclical tragedy, to finally resolve with a happy ending.

It's such a clever and beautiful marriage of two different storytelling mediums, and that's just the basics of what you can talk about with the protagonist. The rest of the cast is equally as interesting, and I love them all so very much.

I love stories about storytelling, stories about the triumph of hope, and stories about love and friendship, and Princess Tutu is all of the above. I honestly cannot recommend it enough, it's one of my favourite things ever.

Also it's hilarious. Where else am I going to get a cat ballet teacher that repeatedly threatens his students with marriage if they don't improve at ballet? Or a girl in a donkey costume delivering love notes all around the school? Or... Femio? Just Femio in general???

Great show. Go watch it.

[armoricaroyalty]

Film Grammar for Simmers

What is film grammar?

"Film grammar" refers the unstated "rules" of editing used in movies and TV. Different types of shots have different associations and are used by editors to convey different types of information to the audience. Many of these principles were first described in the early 20th century by Soviet directors, but they're used consistently across genre, medium, and even language: Bollywood musicals, English period dramas, Korean horror movies, and American action blockbusters all use many of the same techniques.

Because these rules are so universal, virtually everyone has some internalized understanding of them. Even if they can’t name the different types of shots or explain how editors use images to construct meaning, the average person can tell when the “rules” are being broken. If you’ve ever thought a movie or episode of TV was confusing without being able to say why, there’s a good chance that there was something off with the editing.

Learning and applying the basics of film grammar can give your story a slicker and more-polished feel, without having to download shaders or spend hours in photoshop. It also has the bonus of enhancing readability by allowing your audience to use their knowledge of film and TV to understand what's happening in your story. You can use it to call attention to significant plot details and avoid introducing confusion through unclear visual language.

Best of all, it doesn't cost a dime.

The basics: types of shots

Shots are the basic building block of film. In Sims storytelling, a single shot is analogous to a single screenshot. In film, different types of shots are distinguished by the position of the camera relative to the subject. There are three big categories of shots, with some variation: long shots (LS), medium shots (MS), and close-ups (CU). This diagram, created by Daniel Chandler and hosted on visual-memory.co.uk illustrates the difference:

Source: The 'Grammar' of Television and Film, Daniel Chandler, visual-memory.co.uk. Link.

In film, scenes typically progress through the different types of shots in sequence: long shot, medium shot, close-up. When a new scene begins and the characters arrive in a new location, we typically begin with a wide establishing shot of the building’s exterior to show the audience where the scene will be taking place. Next comes a long shot of an interior space, which tells the where the characters are positioned relative to one another. The next shot is a medium shot of the characters conversing, and then finally, a close-up as the conversation reaches its emotional or informational climax. Insert shots are used judiciously throughout to establish themes or offer visual exposition.

Here's another visual guide to the different types of shots, illustrated with stills from Disney animated films.

This guide is almost 2,000 words long! To save your dash, I've put the meat of it under the cut.

Long shot and extreme long shots

A long shot (sometimes also called a wide shot) is one where the entire subject (usually a building, person, or group of people) is visible within the frame. The camera is positioned far away from the subject, prioritizing the details of the background over the details of the subject.

One of the most common uses of long shots and extreme long shots are establishing shots. An establishing shot is the first shot in a scene, and it sets the tone for the scene and is intended to give the viewer the information they’ll need to follow the scene: where a scene is taking place, who is in the scene, and where they are positioned in relation to one another. Without an establishing shot, a scene can feel ungrounded or “floaty.” Readers will have a harder time understanding what’s happening in the scene because on some level, they’ll be trying to puzzle out the answers to the who and where questions, distracting them from the most important questions: what is happening and why?

(I actually like to start my scenes with two establishing shots: an environmental shot focusing on the scenery, and then a second shot that establishes the characters and their position within the space.)

Long shots and extreme long shots have other uses, as well. Because the subject is small relative to their surroundings, they have an impersonal effect which can be used for comedy or tragedy.

In Fargo (1996) uses an extreme long shot to visually illustrate the main character’s sense of defeat after failing to secure funding for a business deal.The shot begins with a car in an empty parking lot, and then we see the protagonist make his way up from the bottom of the frame. He is alone in the shot, he is small, and the camera is positioned above him, looking down from a god-like perspective. All of these factors work together to convey his emotional state: he’s small, he’s alone, and in this moment, we are literally looking down on him. This shot effectively conveys how powerless he feels without any dialogue or even showing his face.

The same impersonal effect can also be used for comic purposes. If a character says something stupid or fails to impress other characters, cutting directly from a close-up to a long shot has a visual effect akin to chirping crickets. In this instance, a long shot serves as a visual “wait, what?” and invites the audience to laugh at the character rather than with them.

Medium Shots

Medium shots are “neutral” in filmmaking. Long shots and close-ups convey special meaning in their choice to focus on either the subject or the background, but a medium shot is balanced, giving equal focus to the character and their surroundings. In a medium shot, the character takes up 50% of the frame. They’re typically depicted from the waist-up and the audience can see both their face and hands, allowing the audience to see the character's facial expression and read their body-language, both important for interpreting meaning.

In most movies and TV shows, medium shots are the bread and butter of dialogue-heavy scenes, with close-ups, long shots, and inserts used for punctuation and emphasis. If you’re closely following the conventions of filmmaking, most of your dialogue scenes will be medium shots following the convention of shot-reverse shot:

To keep long conversations from feeling too visually monotonous, consider staging the scene as a walk-and-talk. Having two characters move through a space can add a lot of dynamism and visual interest to a scene that might otherwise feel boring or stiff.

Close Ups

Close-ups are close shots of a character’s face. The camera is positioned relatively near to the subject, showing just their head and shoulders. In a close-up, we don’t see any details of the background or the expressions of other characters.

In film, close-ups are used for emphasis. If a character is experiencing a strong emotion or delivering an important line of dialogue, a close-up underscores the importance of the moment by inviting the audience to focus only on the character and their emotion.

Close-ups don’t necessarily need to focus on the speaker. If the important thing about a line of dialogue is another character’s reaction to it, a close-up of the reaction is more effective than a close-up of the delivery.

One of the most iconic shots in Parasite (2019) is of the protagonist driving his employer around while she sits in the backseat, speaking on the phone. Even though she’s the one speaking, the details of her conversation matter less than the protagonist’s reaction to it. While she chatters obliviously in the background, we focus on the protagonist’s disgruntled, resentful response to her thoughtless words and behavior.

In my opinion, Simblr really overuses close-ups in dialogue. A lot of conversation scenes are framed entirely in close-ups, which has the same effect of highlighting an entire page in a textbook. The reader can’t actually tell what information is important, because the visuals are screaming that everything is important. Overusing close-ups also cuts the viewer off from the character’s body language and prevents them from learning anything about the character via their surroundings.

For example, a scene set in someone’s bedroom is a great opportunity for some subtle characterization—is it tidy or messy? what kind of decor have they chosen? do they have a gaming computer, a guitar, an overflowing bookshelf?—but if the author chooses to use only close-ups, we lose out on a chance to get to know the character via indirect means.

Inserts

An insert shot is when a shot of something other than a character’s face is inserted into a scene. Often, inserts are close-ups of a character’s hands or an object in the background. Insert shots can also be used to show us what a character is looking at or focusing on.

In rom-com The Prince & Me (2004) (see? I don’t just watch crime dramas…) the male lead is in an important meeting. We see him pick up a pen, look down at the papers in front of him, and apparently begin taking notes, but then we cut to an insert shot of his information packet. He’s doodling pictures of sports cars and is entirely disengaged from the conversation. Every other shot in the scene is an establishing shot or a medium shot or a close-up of someone speaking, but this insert gives us insight into the lead’s state of mind: he doesn’t want to be there and he isn’t paying attention.

Insert shots are, in my opinion, also used ineffectively on Simblr. A good insert gives us extra insight into what a character is thinking or focusing on, but a poorly-used insert feels…unfocused. A good insert might focus on pill bottles on a character’s desk to suggest a chemical dependency, on a family picture to suggest duty and loyalty, on a clock to suggest a time constraint, on a pile of dirty laundry or unanswered letters to suggest a character is struggling to keep up with their responsibilities. An ineffective insert shot might focus on the flowers in the background because they’re pretty, on a character’s hands because it seems artsy, on the place settings on a dining table because you spent forever placing each one individually and you’ll be damned if they don’t make it into the scene. These things might be lovely and they might break up a monotonous conversation and they might represent a lot of time and effort, but if they don’t contribute any meaning to a scene, consider cutting or repurposing them.

I want to emphasize: insert shots aren’t bad, but they should be carefully chosen to ensure they’re enhancing the meaning of the scene. Haphazard insert shots are distracting and can interfere with your reader’s ability to understand what is happening and why.

Putting it all together

One of the most basic principles of film theory is the Kuleshov effect, the idea that meaning in film comes from the interaction of two shots in sequence, and not from any single shot by itself. In the prototypical example, cutting from a close-up of a person’s neutral expression to a bowl of soup, children playing, or soldiers in a field suggests hunger, worry, or fear, respectively.

The Kuleshov effect is the essence of visual storytelling in a medium like Simblr. You can elevate your storytelling by thinking not only about each individual shot, but about the way they’ll interact and flow into one another.

Mastering the basics of film grammar is a great (free!) way to take your storytelling to the next level. To learn more, you can find tons of guides and explainers about film grammar for free online, and your local library doubtless has books that explain the same principles and offers additional analysis.

Happy simming!

[superectojazzmage]

Watched the Nimona movie last night. Review I guess. It was pretty damn good. Definitely would’ve probably been regarded as Blue Sky’s magnum opus if they’d gotten to release it instead of being fucked over by Disney. Very cute, very funny, very powerful in the right moments. A thing that stuck out to me is that it’s really only an adaptation in the loosest sense of the word. It takes the core premise and beats of the comic but is functionally an entirely different kind of story that does its own thing. And given that ND Stevenson was heavily involved in production, I suspect that was intentional.

The comic was much darker and more downbeat in a lot of ways, plus it was significantly longer and thus could afford to be slower paced. But more than that, it was a lot more meaty in terms of themes and scope. The whole “LGBT allegory” element was there, but it wasn’t the sole focus, the comic was a story about a lot of different things; not just an LGBT experience, but also discussion of fantasy genre tropes and clichés, criticism of other fantasy deconstructions, character study, exploring what it means to be a hero or villain, critique of the glorification of crime and cruelty in underprivileged communities, corruption in governments, peer pressure, the senseless and self-perpetuating nature of violence, the worthlessness of revenge, etc.. And above all that, it was a story about trauma and people’s responses to it, with Ballister representing people who actually deal with their problems and move on while Nimona represented people who let their mistakes and suffering and grief consume their identity, or worse, use it as an excuse to indulge their worst qualities and take out their feelings on everyone around them.

The movie, by contrast, has a much more narrow focus. The LGBT allegory is front and center and basically the entire focal point of the movie, aside from a spattering of themes about the danger of zealotry and rigid fundamentalist thinking. This gives the movie a much tighter narrative and pacing that suits its inherently shorter runtime, but also leads to a ton of changes to the story either to convey a different kind of message or just work better in a different medium. Most obviously in how Nimona is vastly more sympathetic in the movie and essentially really is the silly gremlin the comic fakes you out into thinking she is, scrapping the comic’s twist that she was a genuinely bad person who was completely serious about wanting to be a villain, caring nothing for the lives she destroyed with her behavior and idolizing Ballister because she thought he was the same as her and would thus tell her what she wanted to hear (i.e., that she was justified in killing and destroying everything around her in the name of getting even). And in the changes to the Institution’s history and nature. And all sorts of other things.

All in all, I feel if you go in comparing and contrasting the movie and the comic, arguing which changes are for the better or worse, you’ll be setting yourself up for disappointment in either direction because they’re two different beasts and it’s like comparing apples and oranges. So keep that in mind if you’re a fan of the comic watching the movie or a fan of the movie wanting to look into the comic. I think ultimately I still like the comic better, but that’s purely my personal opinion and there’s plenty that I think the movie did better.

Some other observations:

Riz Ahmed my beloved, thank you Mr. Stevenson for this perfect casting. Literally perfect for Ballister.

Acting in general was very good. You can tell this was a passion project for a lot of people, not just Stevenson.

Only two changes that are objectively bad are Ambrosius losing his awesome Van Halen hairdo and changing Ballister’s last name — Blackheart is a way cooler name than Boldheart and it’s a pointless change, one that I’d argue even hurts the narrative since it makes it too obvious that Ballister isn’t actually a bad guy.

The animation is really great with fantastic expressions, stylish movement, and wonderful aesthetics that perfectly suit the story, but there’s times where it feels a little off. But there are parts where it looks less “movie” and more “cheap mid-2000s CGI-and-Flash cartoon show from France”.

The humor can be a hit and miss, in a “going through the motions of a Hollywood animated comedy for kids” way. The movie excels when it’s either imitating the comic’s Old Internet sense of humor or going hard on the drama, but there’s bits where it seemingly slams on the brakes to do Illumination-esque Twitter humor and those bits definitely throw off the vibe.

Having an actual straight up attempted suicide in the climax was shockingly ballsy. I genuinely can’t believe they went there, but I’m glad they did because the film wouldn’t have felt nearly as raw without it.

I don’t know how they managed to make the Director even more of an asshole than in the comics, but they did.

[animationgirl89]

[MESSAGE TO THE MURDER DRONES FANDOM. 💜💀]

(Please Read)

Hello There!! So, with the Murder Drones Series finale now out and released I wanted to discuss this as I've seen many express their disappointment and even hatred for the series finale and have sent hate towards Liam and Glitch and it's just unfortunate and I feel this needs to be said and talked about. Alright, so everyone's allowed to feel however they feel about the finale and you're allowed to feel unsatisfied and even disappointed, but to send hate towards the team and creator and call them talentless or sending them hate won't solve anything and shouldn't be justified in the slightest, y'all need to be reminded and see that the series finale wasn't intended on being any longer than any other episode or series finale for other shows out there made by studios that are financially funded by huge studios. And I know y'all say, "ohhh!! But it felt rushed and unearned and the finale was terrible and awful and should have been much longer and an hour." Yeah, because an INDIE animation studio has the money for that...plus, I don't think some of you know how animation works and how much time it can be, animation takes so much time and for a Indie animation it's NOT easy in the slightest and also cost so much money, it's extremely hard but isn't impossible. Making animation is extremely expensive and time consuming to make and that's very hard and difficult, funding for a show, a INDIE animated show is incredibly hard especially when it's animating for a full season and that's why these studios sell merch to help them make their stories, to make their dreams come true and help create the shows, the stories they wanna make, every dollar and penny goes into making these shows a reality.

But some don't seem to understand how difficult and how much time animation truly takes and even understatement it which is unfortunate, animation is a form of art, animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre for kids and can be enjoyed by everyone, It Is a medium. People need to realize and see that, again you're allowed to feel how you feel about the finale and I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion, but harassing and trash talking the creator and the team isn't it and won't solve anything, everyone at Glitch worked extremely hard on this finale, they've been working on this finale for over A YEAR, some of you fans are honestly very ungrateful and awful especially for how you treated the creator and Glitch to the point one of the VA's had to tell you STOP, and I know all fandoms are like this..but some of you MD fans are fucking terrible and make this whole fandom look bad, and although I'm grateful to be in this community as I've met some incredible people and will forever love the show, this fandom as a whole (especially Mdtwt) is honestly kinda a hellpit and we honestly didn't deserve this show, some of you really took this show for granted and just didn't seem to appreciate it, appreciated the love, dedication and hard work that went into it and not to mention some of y'all hated on almost anything that's not Md and harassed Glitch and even other fans, again I'm thankful for this show and feel satisfied with the ending however I'm disappointed for how bad this fandom has gotten..I'm saddened and feel some in the community really took this show for granted and didn't really appreciate it, but as a whole I feel this fandom NEEDS TO DO BETTER and improve going forward, and should STOP mistreating both each other and harassing the ones who made the show, just please do better. ❤️

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/751922123233165312/this-isnt-really-a-criticism-more-something-i?source=share

not to be the tumblr old doing the "we go through this discourse every week, comrade" but yeah people love to do this with every new shounen manga that gets popular and has enough female characters who don't suck enough that female fans can relate to them. I remember about ten years ago that Attack on Titan went through this because of Mikasa. A few years before that, Fullmetal Alchemist went through the same thing, and people got really really mad if you pointed out that they might be better than most shounen women but most of the female characters in that manga are still primarily there as supporting roles to men's stories. Like with FMA it's mostly that you can really tell that a woman wrote it in how the women feel like more fully realized people than in a lot of shounen, but Arakawa is far from the first woman to write shounen and that doesn't make it a feminist masterpiece either LOL. Like "women who feel like real people" that bar is on the floor!

And it's SO unnecessary in a medium like manga/anime that not only has genuine feminist masterpieces like Revolutionary Girl Utena, but whole genres that are focused on primarily female casts and/or that cater specifically to female audiences. Like if Jujutsu Kaisen or Attack on Titan or FMA is your idea of Feminist Writing you're going to have your ass blown out of the water by like, any magical girl show (that isn't one of the ones that's primarily fanservice for dudes, at least). Go watch Sailor Moon or something lol

--

I'm back reading 緋桜白拍子, which is about a plucky shoujo heroine fluttering over her crush and worrying about her beloved adopted father while assassinating her way through the Heian court.

[akanemnon]

hi! I was wondering, since you have a really big au, if you had any advice on making one. I've been trying to make my own, but I just wanted to see if you had any advice. If you wanna check it out just look at @midnight-does-stuff for my au

Is it really that big? I dunno ._. Honestly I'm really no authority on that subject. Mainly because Twin Runes was more or less just... an accident? A happy accident, but an accident nontheless. But I would say an AU is just very similar to a story you want to tell. Difference is that you already have the pre-established world and characters. Unless you want to add your own characters into the mix. Again, it all is based on the story you want to tell. First you need a basic premise. Something your AU boils down to, that can be descibed in a sentence or two. You also need to know your tone. Is it comedic? Serious? Scary? ...Stuff like that. What can help is placing it into a type of genre. Adventure, slice of life, hurt and comfort... you get the idea. From then on out you can really just treat it as a story. Pretend you're writing a book that people can engage with.

If I DO take Twin Runes for example: it's primarily comedic in nature but it is also sort of a mystery with hurt and comfort elements. The basic premise is that the world of Undertale and Deltarune became mysteriously connected, which in turn messes with the balance of these two worlds.

So yea... have a basic premise, know your tone and decide on a medium you want to tell your story with (fanfic, comic, animation... you name it)

[c-rowlesdraws]

final very superficial appraisal of the live action one piece show:

👍:

-the set design was wonderful and had a cool sense of unreality to it (as in, the environments feel like built sets and it’s part of the fun), it was colorful and theatrical and captured the manga’s blend of piratey genre aesthetics (wooden boards, sailing ships, rolled-up old maps) and “modern” elements like t-shirts and neon signs in a really pleasing way

-the show clicks to the top of the first rollercoaster hill at the end of episode 3 and then goes at the start of ep 4 and it’s just one breathless ride to the finish. I didn’t want the show to end. I do not care about one piece and started watching kind of for the bit but now I’ll actually be really upset if it doesn’t get a second season. That’s how good the second half of this show is.

-I love how all of the characters with colorful hair have clearly-dyed hair where their roots are showing (as opposed to wigs), and in flashbacks to a few of them as children the child actors have the exact same sort of imperfect dye job. It’s wonderful. It adds to the theatrical energy of everything, like “we know you know this is artificial, but we trust you to suspend your disbelief and enjoy this fiction with us”.

-with very few exceptions, all of the actors’ performances are great. They are all cool and fun to watch and there are lots of sweet and funny and emotional moments that work because the writing is sincere. Nobody rolls their eyes for the audience’s benefit at how weeeeird their world is— they live here! I love that.

-the trap beat they did for Arlong’s theme music rules

-this story with its global ocean and seafaring/island-based societies is kind of like “what if Waterworld was like a big colorful carnival” and I love that

-the Snail Phones 🐌

Things I liked less below the cut - 👎:

-Zoro’s backstory bff being depressed because “a girl can beat a boy, but no woman can beat a man [in a swordfight]” was a disappointing line to hear two characters just… play straight in a world that up to that point had seemed pretty non-sexist? But this girl sincerely believes that, and this boy doesn’t push back at all. In this world of self-dismembering clowns and people with axes for arms, you’re telling me that there are no champion swordswomen for little kids to admire? Not one?? From skimming the wiki, it seems like in the manga Kuina’s views are influenced by her sexiest dad, but the show doesn’t include that context.

-Kuina dying offscreen in “an accident” was the only tragic thing in the show that didn’t land for me. It’s just so blatant and funny. You’ve got to get rid of her so she can motivate Zoro, because she’s dead in the manga and that’s how you motivate male main characters, with dead women, but… how? Doesn’t matter! There’s been an accident. Typical backstory girl bff behavior. Call that Fridge To Terabithia.

-Iñaki’s energy as Luffy didn’t always work for me. Some character behavior works in manga and anime, but seems awkward and jarring in real life. It’s very difficult to pull off wild limb-flailing anime exuberance in live-action— live-action Cowboy Bebop’s glimpse of Ed comes to mind. But also, I never really liked Luffy in the parts of the manga I read, either, so maybe I’m just not the target audience for a Luffy in any medium. Iñaki seems like a friendly and chill dude and he certainly gave this role 100%— and also Oda himself loved him for the role, so that says a lot.

-the whole thing with Arlong and his Fishman crew where they’re part of an oppressed and formerly-enslaved minority, so of course they have beef with humans (“but slavery’s been abolished!” shouts a human character), but they’re taking things too far and not just fighting for equality, but domination, which includes extorting, killing, and enslaving humans, starting with this poor little girl here. And since this group are clearly evil and have these big evil plans, it’s cool and great actually for the heroes, who are all humans/members of the majority, to kick their asses and kill a bunch of them. Like… I get there’s a whole thing here with Arlong being twisted by hatred into the very thing he says hates, and maybe we’ll meet more Fishmen later in the story who are just people and not bloodthirsty evildoers, but it’s not a great fictional look?

It takes me back to hbomberguy’s critique of RWBY’s portrayal of the Faunus, and the problems with making your bad guys out of an oppressed ethnic group who, the story says, might have a point, if they went about things peacefully, but are just taking things too far with this domestic terrorism stuff. The Faunus and Arlong should really be writing to their congresspeople instead!

[physalian]

Character Descriptions 101 (Or, the ugly truth about what really matters)

A lot of the appeal of being able to write your own book is being able to take all the characters you dream about and put them onto paper for everyone else to drool over as much as you do. You might create a character so iconic, they can be recognized by their hazy silhouette alone.

Not everyone designs Sherlock Holmes, though.

Not everyone needs to be Sherlock Holmes.

How well you describe your characters, especially your protagonist/opening narrator, says a lot more than you’d probably like about your experience as an author. I’ve got eight years of practice with my own works, twelve if you include my early days of fanfic – and resisting the urge to describe characters in the tried and true clichés is still hard.

So here’s the ugly truth about describing your characters, and some other pointers curated from the Internet you may have seen before.

At the end of the day, what is really important?

Unless you are writing in the genres of fantasy or sci-fi, or you aren’t writing humans, your character will likely be a very average looking human. Doesn’t matter if you think your special bean’s black hair/blue eye/snow white skin combo is unique – is the shape of his face, curve of his lips, how wide his shoulders are really that important outside of, I don’t know, a steamy romance novel?

I ask this because character descriptions fall into three camps: Thematically important beats, thematically unimportant beats, and “oh damn I have too many blondes, uh, here’s a redhead” beats.

I ask this, because “this character doesn’t look like they did in the book” arguments will never stop happening and we all have our sides on what matters and what doesn’t.

These details can be height, hair color, eye color, skin color, hair style, clothing, tone of voice, accent, birthmarks, scars, and tattoos, and anything in between. Sometimes, this trait is this person’s defining trait. Sometimes, the author just felt like it – sometimes the curtains are just blue.

But sometimes, a lot of times, they’re not.

My two cents: If that piece of their design is thematically important, the adaptation should respect it and include it. If it’s not, who cares?

Thematic Character Design

Thematic character design is the intent behind the choices the author makes when deciding how they will present their character to the world. This is *why* the character looks the way they do.

Visually, you see this in anime all the time. Crazy hair colors and styles help distinguish the cast when their faces might otherwise be too similar, or when drawing them from a distance. Sometimes the protagonist will have the most unique, or the loudest hair style (think Yu-gi-oh). Or the Important Lady Character will have pink hair. Or the sad angsty anime boy will have white hair (see my post about color in fiction).

In the written medium, you can “show don’t tell” a few different ways cliché ways:

Give the villain a facial scar

Make your femme fatale a redhead

Make your hero blonde/blue-eyed

But hey, they’re tropes for a reason, everyone knows what you mean when you write them. You might give your character green eyes like their mother, a trait Very Important when a redeemed-ish villain dies. You might give your character a brunette French braid that goes on to become the style of the rebellion. You might make your Illegal Divine Children the only three black-haired major characters in a sea of brown and blonde because they are the Three Illegal Divine Children. You make all your grisled fantasy men have beards and your elves clean shaven.

The existence of these traits serve the plot and the themes of the story. It matters because these traits make them look like the villain, or the dead legacy they must live up to. These traits ostracize them from their community, or help define their culture. These traits are the hallmark of a chosen one, or a pariah. These traits are emblematic of a special power or handicap, religion, faction, rebel cause.

These are the details fans complain about when adaptations get it wrong, and it’s not without merit. But what happens when those details aren’t all that important, no matter how much you think otherwise?

Unthematic character design

Everyone lost their minds when Hunger Games was being adapted and to everyone’s unnecessary horror, Jennifer Lawrence is blonde. Everyone got mad because it’s the little details you have to get right, otherwise you’re disrespecting the source material, yada yada. Is it really so hard to wear a wig, if you can’t get this tiny thing right, what else will you mess up, etc.

Question: Was the color of her hair more important, or the style that it was in?

She dyed it anyway to stay faithful, but which detail mattered to the plot, versus just being what the author picked for her?

Dare I wade into the “this character was white in the book” cesspool? Reluctantly, yes. And all I will say is this: Does their skin color serve any legitimate purpose to the plot or how they define themselves? No? Then shush and let the actors do their thing.

… But what if race *does* matter?

Is this a slice of life novel about some plucky high schoolers in your average American town? If the story isn’t any deeper than prom dates and football games, the skin color of your character is not important. Is this a treatise on segregation and the struggles of womanhood in repressed societies? Then yeah, the skin color of your character might affect their outlook on life a little bit.

In other words: Does your character care what they look like, and does their appearance affect the trajectory of the story?

Yes, it’s disappointing when you see your favorite character on screen and have to be told that’s them because it just doesn’t look like them. But what’s important is if they fit the spirit of the character, even if they don’t quite match their looks (a lesson I, too, need constant reminding of).

Character Descriptions in Fantasy and Sci-Fi

If making sure the adaptation stays faithful to the character design matters anywhere, it’s in these two genres. Why? Because you have free reign as an author to describe your mythic creatures, your aliens, your supernatural entities however you choose, and you worked hard trying to make them distinct from every other fantasy series out there.

But hold your horses on how specific you get.

Generally speaking, the traits that most authors describe first are hair, eye, and skin color, because it’s the easiest to get out of the way and everyone knows what humans look like to fill in the blanks. When you enter the realm of non-human characters, you have a lot more legwork to do to make sure your audience imagines what you want them to.

Maybe they have slit pupils like a housecat or a snake, or they have really floppy elephant ears, or they have antennae that twitch when they’re angry, or they have wings like a bat, a bird, a dragonfly. Or they have distinctive tattoos from their tribe. They have scales or feathers or fur and you want everyone to know how fluffy it is. You want your audience to know how tall they are, how heavy, how lanky, how robust. The shape of their face, their hands, if they have fingers like a pianist or a catcher’s glove.

Or, it matters because you’ve written an allegory on race, class, colonialism/imperialism, a World War, Apartheid, what have you, and your made-up nationalities need their own traits to be bigots about.

Answer: Hire a sensitivity reader before you design an insulting stereotype.

Otherwise, feel free to add as much fluff as you’d like. You go out there and you give exact measurements, constant similes about the textures of their skin, write an essay on cultural wardrobe, take two paragraphs to describe that ballgown and masquerade mask… and accept the fact that your readers will happily go SKIP!

Because description and exposition are also entwined with tone and the purpose of the story. I am writing an 18th century royal ball scene in a steamy romance novel and my hero is about to get her man – my audience might care about things like a sweetheart neckline, perfume, what kind of flowers are in the lacework, how it hugs her body, how the pink looks so damn sexy in the candlelight, how the skirts sweep so elegantly, every piece of jewelry she's wearing and how expensive it is and exactly how she did her hair.

Or, I am writing a fantasy adventure that happens to feature a pitstop at a royal ball – Your audience does not give one flying f*ck about what flowers are on that dress. Describe the color and something cool and eye-catching and move on.

The Ugly Truth: Does. It. Matter?

You can wax poetic about the minutiae of your absolutely unique and like no other fairies no one else has ever written before. Maybe you designed them less like Tinker Bell and more like anthropomorphised flowers – that matters!

You want your hot love interest to have a cupid’s bow and to remind the audience of that detail at least four times throughout the narrative? Not important unless the narrator is weirdly obsessive over it (or, again, romance/erotica).

The same thing goes for fantastical settings.

At what point are you describing the color of the grass, the kind of marble in the walls and floors, the exact shade of blue paint they used, the gables and the roofing tiles and the scalloping on the columns to unnecessary ends?

This also affects pacing.

If your entire story is set in a beautiful castle and the heroes never leave? Describe as much as your little heart desires. Is it just a pit stop on the way? Call it a castle, maybe it’s in ruins, give one uniquely defining trait that’s thematically relevant, and move on.

Side characters too: If you don’t even bother naming the poor schmuck, give their gender and maybe one fun fact and move on.

You’d be surprised how little character descriptions, or lack thereof, are even noticed. The amount of fanart head-cannoning a character being Not-White because the author technically never clarified is everywhere. I just reread the first two PJO books and Chiron’s human half is never described beyond his age and his beard. Everyone who read it filled in the missing details with what they wanted or expected to see and that doesn’t impact his character one bit.

Pacing your descriptions

See this post about how to pace your narrative.

Everyone knows the trope of the narrator waking up, gazing into a mirror and describing themselves to the audience. It’s cheap, it’s fast, it’s dirty, it’s effective.

So why do people hate it?

I think it’s less because it’s overdone, and more because it’s robbed of potential. When I wrote about pacing, I said every scene should be pulling double duty – character descriptions fall under exposition, and should do the same.

If you really want to have your hero describe herself to you via mirror, don’t just write a textbook, give it flavor. Is she self-conscious about her looks, saying she has choppy blonde hair but wishes it was some long, luxurious brown like some girl she’s jealous of? Does she have a big nose and wish it was smaller because she’s bullied? Or, does she love her green eyes, because her late father had them and she loves the connection they share?

Good pacing isn’t about how many or how few words you take to describe something, it’s how efficiently you use those words. Short doesn’t always mean it’s bland, long doesn’t always mean it’s profound. Don’t take 300 words to say something that could be said in 30 – but some things do deserve 300 words.

Examples:

A: She woke and rolled out of bed and stared at herself in the mirror. She had hazel eyes and blonde, curly hair that she pulled up into a ponytail.

B: She woke on the third alarm and rolled out of bed. Staring back at her in her vanity were tired hazel eyes beneath a mop of dishwater blonde curls and crease marks from her pillow.

C: She woke on the third alarm and dragged herself out of bed. Her vanity mirror glared back at her – a rats nest of dishwater blonde and crease marks from her pillow. She scowled and rubbed the sleep from her hazel eyes and raked her curls up into a messy ponytail to be dealt with after coffee.

Or, go even longer, really weave those details into the action of the scene, I didn’t here because this is a blog, not a book.

No matter what, best practice is to not infodump the description, spread it out – another criticism of the mirror trope. There is no one size fits all for any writing advice but if you’re spending more than four consecutive sentences describing a single character, object, or building, break that hot pile of exposition up and look how much better it reads.

Similes for describing your character, like any comparison, should serve a purpose. Think about describing an intimidating queen with snow white skin versus bone white skin – what vibes do you get from one simple word change?

You have a long time to describe your narrator, it’s okay if we don’t know what they look like on the first page. Give the details as they become relevant. If you open en media res and the hero is in a nasty fight scene – describe their hair as it flops in their eyes, describe their skin as it’s covered in sweat or scratches or bullet holes, describe their eyes as they patch themselves up and one is now black and blue – or describe their color full of fear, hate, malice, grief.

Describe them against another character so you get two birds with one stone. Whether the narrator is jealous of, attracted to, or appreciative of their fellow character’s appearance. Describe them self-conscious about trying to impress a crush, their spouse, a superior, interviewer, parent, the public, the press. Or describe them unhappy about how they’re being forced to look compared to how they usually are, e.g. a school uniform, prisoner’s uniform, fancy dress/suit, skimpy undercover costume, bargain bin, ugly hand-me-downs, holiday costume, sleepwear, full face of makeup, or no makeup.

All of these are motivated details that will read better than halting the narration to drop textbook lines of exposition.

Lastly, do not let your characters get side-tracked describing themselves when they have more important and prescient concerns. In the above hypothetical fight scene, a “she swept her blonde hair from her eyes and got back to her feet,” is going to read smoother than “she swept her blonde hair aside. It was short and choppy, cheap highlights fading and flyaways tickling her face. She got back to her feet.”

And even then, personally, I think this reads better still: “She swept her hair from her face and got back to her feet, sweaty blonde tangles stuck to her skin.”

Have intent, make it motivated, and the less it feels like awkward exposition.

Pitfalls to avoid

Full disclosure, I am white, from a long line of the whitest white Europeans. I do not write a pasty white cast of characters. Boy, was it an eye-opening experience realizing how harmful my earlier descriptions used to be, just from the books I grew up reading and through no ill-intent of my own.

So another detail in the realm of “does it really matter”: Not all brown skin is the same shade of brown, but resist the urge to compare it to any flavor of food or chocolate. I just reread a favorite kids’ book of mine and saw “chocolate milk” and as a kid, I never noticed or cared, but you bet I zeroed in on that little beat as an adult.

Is this hard? Kind of, yeah. I suppose you could go scorched earth with the food comparisons and describe all your characters in their flavor of milk. Pale skin has a lot of options: Snow, frost, paper, bone, fair, pale, lily, sandy, fawn, etc. and of course, milk, cream and sugar to boot.

The “brown skin like milk chocolate” is tempting, but dehumanizing particularly when only brown characters are described with food. Decide if the exact shade of brown is important, then get respectfully creative with the comparisons. The same goes with hair styles and textures.

Related to skin color: Be careful with what idioms and metaphors you use when describing characters who aren’t supposed to be white, doing things only possible or noticeable with light skin.

A certain famous author really tried to tell the world Hermione wasn’t *technically* white and the HP fans went and pulled page numbers proving that she has to be based on the behavior of her skin.

I’ve caught myself (and had to be told) a few times describing a not-white character “white-knuckling” something as shorthand for being stressed and tense. Faces blanching, paling, reddening, blushing, turning green, looking sun-burnt and bruised and scarred all look different depending on how dark their pigment is.

I am not at all an expert on what you *should* do for non-white characters so I will say this once again: Do your research and get a small army of sensitivity readers. Even if you don’t think you’re being racist, you might be. Accept the constructive criticism, and change it without complaint. Do not lie down and die on a milk-chocolate hill.

The Beautiful Truth

In the written medium, unless you canonize character art and take no constructive criticism, all your audience has to go on is suggestion. That means that your audience has the freedom to imagine their favorite characters however they want.

That means you get a million variations of the hero in their fan art – that’s amazing! If you never described the protagonist’s skin color? You get an audience that makes him or her or them the hero that they want to see and how you’ve inspired them – that’s amazing!

That’s what I mean when I ask if it really matters. You will always know how your literary darlings look. Is it more important that everyone else draws a million different paintings in their mind of the exact same face like a photocopier, or that you now have an audience giving you a million unique paintings of your life’s work immortalized in the grand literary canon?

[spnfanficpond]

New Member Spotlight - May 2024

The Pond is always growing and we want to make our new members feel welcome! Here’s a list of recent additions to our fishy family, along with a little info about them!

Guppies, Jellies, and Mutuals, oh, my!

Tumblr name:

@masoena

Other handles:

AO3: Masoena, Discord: masoena5

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest but I ship just about anything that is SPN I would say I'm a multishipper overall.

Are you in any other fandoms?

Shadowhunters

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking to connect with other writers and artists and create amazing things together, lift each other up be that through brainstorming, feedback, advice or collaboration.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics

Wincest, Sabriel, Arthur/Dean, Samwena, Destiel are my favourites and I do love triple ships to e.g. Dean/Sam/Donna or Wincestiel or pretty much anything in SPN

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Hurt/comfort, angst, A/B/O, smut, dom/sub, bdsm, angel kink or grooming, protective character saving other character(s) in peril, BAMF characters, meet-cute, animalmorph characters (not bestiality just humans with some physical animal traits e.g. Sam with cat ears), case-Fics, alternate Universes, creature fics (vampires, weres, etc.), crossover fics, enemies to lovers (sometimes) and anything from short one-shots to super long fics found its way into my bookmarks.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

There are a few who I keep going back to and love the works of: SamandDean76 - on both Tumblr/AO3 compo67 - on AO3 nyxocity - on AO3 (but believe they are no longer active) brokenlittleboy - on AO3

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

My works list is a mix ranging from drabbles, medium length to long fics. It really depends on the idea and inspiration. Some stories need 2k words to be told others need tens of thousands but I believe my sweet spot is around the 10-15k mark as I like to plan plot outline and majore milestones but also love just letting it flow however it wants to.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

My most underappreciated fic is a drabble but most underappreciated fic that I was super excited about posting but which did not get a lot of attention was a choose your own adventure A/B/O fic that had a Wincestiel main pairing. And I wonder if I posted it in the best way or if there is a better way to do it. :)

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

Moments like this happen as I take part in more bangs and reverse bangs where people put forward concepts and ideas that have never occurred to me and it is endlessly fascinating to try out new ideas and things. As of right now I can't think of anything that I want to but haven't tried yet.

Tumblr name:

@corpsexcquis

Other handles:

Corpsexcquis for Tumblr / Hyobe or/And SonofEros for Ao3

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincest/SamDean

Are you in any other fandoms?

Haikyuu! / JJK / Twilight

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I’d like to meet more people in the SPN fandom and get some help with writing.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Usually ships, rarely poly but with the right combination I’m open to anything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst and dead dove mostly

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

Dollylux is one of my favourites for SPN (they’re inactive on Ao3)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Usually long ones, Angsty, 90s/80s/70s dirty America, heavy with codependency and references. I never quite manage to finish them though hehe

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I think a story that is during the medieval era. I love it but I don’t know enough about that time period just yet ! Perhaps betaing ?

Tumblr names:

@clarrisani

Other handles:

Clarrisani

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Wincestiel & Destiel are a tie

Are you in any other fandoms?

I dabble in Good Omens

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

Seeking a beta reader and support to get back into writing SPN fan fiction,

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

I have an original novel coming out in August. Updates are on my writing twitter https://twitter.com/katrinamckee03

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

I like reading a bit of everything

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Whichever strikes my fancy for the day.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

I like to dabble in a bit of everything

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Tumblr name:

@candygramme

Other handles:

Same handle for Ao3, Threads, Discord, Live Journal/Dreamwidth and X, which I rarely visit. On Instagram I am candygramme1 and on Facebook I am Sue_Ashworth, but not really active.

Do you have an SPN OTP?

Dean/Sam

Are you in any other fandoms?

Yes. I have written in a few others - Highlander, Roswell (the original one), The X-Files and CW RPS.

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I'm looking for friendship, inspiration, a chance to help new writers.

Do you host any fandom events or podcasts, or do you have a shop where you sell things that we can boost for you?

Not really. I occasionally art, but want to learn to vid if there's someone around to teach it.

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Not Reader inserts, for sure. I like plot and longer fic myself, but pretty much anything between Gen and Explicit is great if its well written. It's all about nailing the character for me.

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Yes is the short answer! I love all of it, but tend to write crack although not always. I love angsty stuff, and casefic.

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

felisblanco is on both. Roxymissrose is on Ao3 and deadlybride is on Tumblr (zmedia) and Ao3 too. There are others, but those are a good start.

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

Cracky, silly stuff, plotty casefic and occasionally PWP.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

So many things. I have countless wips sitting waiting for me to finish them. I just get stuck and don't get back to them.

Tumblr:

@libby99hb

Other handles:

Libby99HB(AO3), Materialgwooorl (Discord)

Are you in any other fandoms?

The Vampire Diaries

What are you looking for in the Pond? What can we do for you?

I haven't used Tumblr in years, so I'll be semi-new here. I'm looking to connect with people, find new things to read, get inspired, create, and maybe even make new friends through this community. It's a place to connect with others who love what I love and learn from them. 😊

What pairings do you like to read? Reader inserts? Ships? Poly fics?

Don't really ever like to read any fics with ships mostly OFC or Reader inserts

What genres do you like to read? Angst? Fluff? Smut? Crack? What are your favorite tropes?

Angst, Fluff, Everything 18+, Smut, and all AU's

Do you have a favorite Fanfic writer? If yes, tell us who! (Please let us know if they are on Tumblr or AO3.)

I have three AO3: @smolandgrumpy @Zeppelin_Skies ( on Tumblr @zepskies) @neganslucilletblr (Same @ on Tumblr)

What kinds of fics do you like to write?

The fics I like to write revolve around love.

Drop a link to your masterlist on Tumblr or Works list on AO3 so we can check out your writing!

Drop a link to your most underappreciated fic!

The only fic that I have up at the moment is a TVD one. Right now it's on a little break because I have three SPN fics that will be out sometime this summer.

Is there something you have not written but would like to try? Why haven't you tried before? How can we help?

I'd like to try writing some one-shots. I have a hard time keeping things short and sweet, but hopefully, I'll be able to hop on a writer's challenge after connecting with others on here.

That's all for this month, folks! (If we're missing anyone, let us know and we'll add them to next month's list!) Make sure to say hi to the newbies and make them feel welcome! Thanks to all from @manawhaat, @mrswhozeewhatsis, @mariekoukie6661, @thoughtslikeaminefield, and @heavenssexiestangel!

[bryce-bucher]

Midwest Lost Post #1

Introduction:

This is my second time writing this post because I pressed ctrl z on accident at the end of my (very long) first attempt and apparently tumblr doesn't have a redo button. I am going to scream. Anyway, Midwest Lost is a souls-like set in the American Midwest in which you play as an angsty teenage boy with a big fuck off sword. My main inspirations for this project are the mainline souls games (also bloodborne psx), metal gear rising revengeance, and kingdom hearts 358/2 days. The best way I can describe my goal for this project is that I want it to be a fun, earnest, introspective, and emotionally raw teenage drama with a focus on atmosphere, narrative, and cool bossfights. As you can probably tell this project is the most early in development of the three I'm currently working on.

Story:

I'm not going to go into too much detail here because I want to avoid talking about spoilers, and, also, anything is subject to change at this point. The gist of it is that you are playing as an emotionally troubled teenage boy who (figuratively and literally) hides behind his big ol' sword. His ultimate goal is to leave his dead-end home town behind and make a better life for himself. The first obstacle of many in this goal is the protagonist's abusive stepfather who serves as the introductory bossfight of the game. I have a lot of ideas for bossfights that I am extremely excited about, but I'll avoid talking about them here so that I can show them off when they are more developed (one of them I'm excited about is a mom van). The game is likely going to be 50% exploration of a vibin small town and 50% fighting bosses, so most of my effort is going into those two things. The game's story is going to take place in chapters with various time gaps between them. This will allow me to set different chapters in different seasons, and, most importantly, it will let me set a chapter on Halloween night. The last thing I'll talk about in regards to the story is that, as absurd as the subject matter may get, I want to avoid the game feeling irony poisoned at any point. I want the game to feel earnest as that is how I'm feelin' while making it.

Mechanics to Appease a Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain:

I would describe my enjoyment of games as a medium as belonging on a spectrum where the left has experiences that touch me in an more complex emotional sense, and the right has experiences that are pure serotonin injected straight into my soul. The souls games sit comfortably in the middle. This is because the atmosphere, storytelling, and general vibe of the souls games is really harrowing and beautiful, and the gameplay gives me the kind of intense brainworms that lead me to play through it twice a month. Before working on my current three projects, I hadn't really worked on something that I intended to necessarily be fun. In a way, I'm sort of getting out of my comfort zone by making something so mechanically heavy. It's been a nice change of pace to learn that I can focus on atmosphere and gameplay without either of them feeling creatively unsatisfying. Something you must know about me is that I have an immeasurable fixation on dodge rolling, and I think it's one of my favorite mechanics of all time. All this to say I put a dodge roll in my game, and I think it's feelin' really good.

Animation is Hard:

(But if I'm being honest, I'm getting there.)

Souls-likes are sort of unique as a genre in that animation is extra important in them. In something like a platformer you might have a bad jump animation that makes the gamefeel all wonky, but the jump itself will still work the same. In contrast, a 3D-Action game like Dark Souls is very dependent on its animations to control timing, spacing, and telegraphing on top of the gamefeel. Before starting this project I didn't really know if I had the animation chops to pull something like this off, but heading straight into the deep end has, I think, really helped me improve my animation skills quickly. The moment I got the stepfather's "lunge + spin knife around" attack implemented (as pictured above) I got a lot more confident in my ability to probably make this game feel pretty dang fun. Recently, I had to make 8 different strafe animations and it strangely didn't feel like a chore at all. I'll talk about that more next week since it's related to the mechanic I'm currently working on.

Drinkz:

The main healing items in this game are a variety of energy drinks, coffee brands, soda, etc. that each have their own unique effect. In the above gifs you can see the two that I have currently implemented. These are the green and blue varieties of in-world brand "Vlade Energy". The green one is the most basic heal item, and it's the one you start off with. It allows you to take two sips per can with each sip healing a good deal, and you can roll out of the drink animation at anytime; however, cancelling the animation also discards any sips yet taken while still using up the can. The blue one stacks a passive buff on the player that allows them to heal by dodging through enemy attacks. I'm really happy with the presentation of the heal mechanic with the fun particles, the sfx (take my word for it I guess), and the animation of the protagonist throwing the empty can away.

Music:

The game currently has none. I'm looking to commission a bunch of artists to fill up the soundtrack with some banging Midwest Emo or songs that otherwise have an indie feel. If you make music and are interested in doing a song or two please hmu. It'll be a p long while before I'm actually worrying about getting music in the game, but I thought I'd mention it. There is also gonna be some fights that have tracks way outside of the Midwest Emo genre, so don't be afraid to hmu if you are making different types of stuff.

Conclusion:

I wish I could talk more about this project, but I'm gonna have to wait until it's further along. Next week I'll be talking about my strafing / sidestepping mechanic that I'm currently implementing, so I'll see ya then. I'd like to end this post by mentioning that the amazing portrait of the main character seen in the health UI was commissioned from lonesomnia. I cannot stress enough how much I love how that piece came out.

[opinated-user]

transcript of the clip LO posted: "some make the argument that star was meant to be this way because it's inspired by anime, but that's a statement that need qualifying. which anime? well, sailor moon obviously. but that sentiment is found on any of the other shows. anime is a pretty wide medium with many irons and many fires, but the phrase anime inspired always narrowed it in small niche and culturally embarassing side of it that even Japan doesn't like to be reminded of it" (source_not_found) "when someone says anime inspired they never say that they were inspired by hello kitty or hamtaro or that silly one where everyone is sharply dressed and ridiculously buffer" (an image of Jojo Adventures) "no, it's always this shit that no one in their right mind would be caught with."

the last part of the clip shows this:

let me debunk this clip piece by piece. 1. you literally just said that SVTFOE is inspired by Sailor Moon, the anime that really popularized and cemented the magical girl genre for the public. although it wasn't the first one, it's the one everyone immediately associate whenever "magical girl" it's mentioned. to say that SVTOFE is inspired by Sailor Moon it's already saying that it has magical girl elements and many conventions of that genre baked into it. that's what it means. even the less knowlegeable people in anime will know what Sailor Moon is and if you tell them "this is inspired by Sailor Moon", they would know what it means. the fact that you insist that needs more "qualifying" and go on this completely incoherent rant talks more about your own ignorance than anything. "this show about a magical princess that comes from another dimension to earth in order to fight bad guys was inspired by this other show about another princess from another world that comes to earth to fight bad guys" is not a confusing statement at all, so i'm confused as to what you thought was necessary to "qualify" here? LO, when people say that your video are becoming worse because you lack structure and keep pulling words that don't end up connecting to any central idea, this clip is an example of what people mean. this whole rant was entirely unnecesary and it didn't help your point come across. any editor would have told you to either remove it entirely or worded it a lot different. by your response i can see that you think you were doing something there. i promise that you didn't.

2. LO, Japan is not embarassed by anime. i actually don't know from where you took that one. otakus were seen as embarassing because they were our equivalent of the incel stereotype that doesn't interact with people and lives indoors all day, but even that's changing. anime by itself was always part of the cultural expression of the country. they treat Evangelion like here in the west we treat Mickey Mouse, they plaster the images of those characters everywhere in the most populated areas. similar to how you have the "baby sister" you decided to romance in baldur's gate all over your tumblr, while trying to insist you don't have incestuous attraction to your younger sibling. but at least they don't do it to flaunt their incestuous attraction. you keep projecting this image of Japan being embarassed and annoyed by the existence of anime without any evidence or even an attempt to explain how that makes any sense. the anime industry is huge, it's one of the cultural products that Japan more profits with because they can export it to the rest of the world and the rest of the world wants more of it. in what planet does it make sense that they would be "embarassed" by something like that? 3. do you want to know why nobody ever says that something was inspired by hello kitty or hamtaro, LO? that's because Hello Kitty doesn't have an actual story. it's an cutesy aesthetic around a bunch of cute characters that a company made in order to sell cute merchandize. there was to my knowledge only one show made with Hello Kitty, but i believe none of that had anything to do with the official canon of the character. if you think about it, Hello Kitty is kinda like Barbie. it's a recognizable icon completely by itself. there can be stories made with it, but Hello Kitty will never go through a character development moment and will never change. she will always be just a cute kitty, just like Barbie can be whatever is the most convenient for Mattell in any given moment. as to Hamtaron, it was just a slice of life anime about cute animals. it was cute, indeed. but it didn't do anything new that thousands of other people weren't doing after or before with their own spins on it. here, a list of anime/manga that were exactly the same as Hamtaro without being directly inspired by it because nobody really invented the "slice of life story through the perspective of a pet" genre. it took me one google search to find, there's more if you want to see. if you're so desperate for more content "like Hamtaro" it was always that easy to find. ... more so, again, what does this have to do with SVTFOE or literally any other show that isn't about cute animals being cute? about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and nobody ever was inspired by it in the west... you have to be joking with that one.

here are videogames inspired by JJBA: https://www.thegamer.com/best-jojos-bizarre-adventure-video-game-references/#bayonetta

other manga and anime it inspired: https://www.cbr.com/jojo-bizarre-adventure-anime-manga-inspirations/

shows in the west that it inspired/have direct references to JJBA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHhNUVtozKY one of the shows mentioned is Monkey Kid, which her wife watches. do you know why you don't hear that something wasn't inspired by this, LO? because nothing of the shows you watch had anything that could be inspired by JJBA or you wouldn't even understand the reference in the first place. one of the other shows that also had references was Amphibia... which LO refused to see because *checks notes* it had a plot.

4. the two things i circled in red are not even anime. they're games. the one with two girls hugging and looking up with fear is Rape Lay, a infamous game about raping underaged girls and their mother until you get them pregnant and they either kill you or you force them to have babies. the other one is Doki Doki Majo Shipan, a game whose main objective is that you have to undress and touch the bodies of different characters in order to find a "witch mark". many of those characters are underaged, but a few are adults and you play as a highscholer so it's still not better.

i just want to ask the following. why did you bring two games, two infamous games about touching or raping underaged bodies for that matter, when talking about SVTFOE at all? just why? what was the thought process here? how does this make your point any more clearer? how it does examplify better that "anime inspired" is bad when you don't even show anime and is instead games? anyone should seriously question why you brought this games up at all when talking about a show that was made by Disney. a show about a underaged magical princess of another world. why did your mind ever went to those games when talking about this? you just exposed, with no warning mind you, a bunch of your audience to these games to discover by themselves. you did that. and that was bad and you should feel bad about it.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @jasperygrace

Who You Are:

Jasper || She/he

I am an artist and writer, and I'm always pushing to do bigger and better things with my work.

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Adventure, Fantasy, Horror, Psychological. New Adult and Adult

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Fantasy because there's so much you can do in a fantasy setting. You don't even need to have a "high fantasy/ high magic" world for it to be considered fantasy. It's an extremely versatile genre.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

I cannot write contemporary.

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

I don't have a concrete audience in mind-- I suppose my writing is for people like myself: those who enjoy experimental writing and those who've been disillusioned by everyday life.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

My writing tends to focus on what it means to be human, and what defines the human experience. I don't know why I'm particularly drawn to this subject. Perhaps I simply enjoy exploring what others define as human characteristics.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

I'm not one for "us vs. them" narratives; it's always left a sour taste in my mouth when I read works with that thematic framing. Other than that, I'm fairly open to different themes and tropes-- if you can tell a good story, I'll probably read it.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

The current project I am working on is "An Immortal Laid to Rest" (or Project : Desert for those who've been around long enough). It's a story about freedom and reconciling one's past. Come the end of June, I'll have been working on the project for three years.

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

I write because I want to share my thoughts and experiences through the lens of a fictitious world of my creation. It's an art that's become something very personal as I've gotten older, and it's my hope that my writing can help lift the spirits of someone who's gone through similar hardships.

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

I've been writing since the small, small age of 10, but I've only been writing seriously since I started college. As a kid, I got really into anime and manga, and I always wanted to tell a story like the things that inspired me. However, I hated drawing comics (I still do) and writing became the happy medium between my art and my knack for storytelling.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

I get my inspiration from other pieces of media I enjoy; this becomes more obvious to those who are familiar with my likes and interests, and I don't try to hide that fact. For my current project, one of the big pieces of inspiration is the game "NieR: Automata". It explores many of the themes I'm interested, and I look up to Yoko Taro as a storyteller.

What work of yours are you most proud of? Why?

It would have to be "An Immortal Laid to Rest". I probably would have lost interest in the project were it not for my friends who've stuck with me during its development. I look forward to the day I will finally be able to publish it.

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

I actually do have a poem that got into a publication! I can't speak much more about it until it comes out, but it's my intent to publish more of my poetry in the coming year.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I have time set aside to write, and I try to write 3-4 times a week in short bursts. After a writing session, I will record what I accomplished that day and my current word count.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

I've been actively part of writeblr for about a year and a half, maybe two years. Frankly, I feel like I was absorbed into the community rather than actively seeking it out. I simply started following other writing blogs and before I knew it, I became part of the community.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

@ashen-crest - I think they were one of the first writeblrs I actively interacted with, and it's been so awesome watching them publish two books in such a short time. @theboarsbride - It's been a ride watching them grow and I love it when I see their art cross my dashboard. The gothic romanticism is something I don't see often, and I'm here for it.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I personally enjoy the community events like Worldbuilding Wednesday. I enjoy the moments when I'm able to peak into the world of another writer as they're working.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

This is more of a gripe with the tumblr community as a whole, but I think we could learn to reblog others' work more often. Tumblr thrives off reblogs; it's how we help our fellow creators.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

I interact with art more often than not.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I mainly post my artwork and excerpts from my project. Sometimes a meme or two.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

You can find me on Artstation and Youtube @jasperygrace.

[bravestworriers]

writer interview game <3

thank u to @pricemarshfield who tagged me in this :) i'm so glad we're friends and u let me bombard you with random writing snippets as i go along!

i will be tagging the og writing wife @atxvanhalen (circa 2012), ao3 famous bffl @riverdanceeee, fantasy-pilled love of my life @multilevelmargoting, the coolest film reviewer in the biz @kaafka, and my begrudgingly kind editor @takeavacation2010 . & anyone else who'd like to write a little something about themselves!

read below if you dare!!!

When did you start writing?

probably as long ago as i could figure out how to & started winning little competitions for it! i love telling stories, usually through a visual medium (storyboarding, screenwriting etc), but it's all writing at the end of the day, no matter how put it down on a page.

i recently located my half finished writing from elementary school (so i must have started from the age of at least 8), all in the email drafts of my oldest email account, and it's always a treat to see how i used to think about romance, about drama and all that good stuff! (i was wrong and sad, but adorably so!)

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

i love big sci-fi adventures, heists, life or death sort of stuff, just as long as it's grounded in something tangible and human. i also just love media where you can tell that the artists are having a lot of fun with the medium and they way they're piecing everything together. like i adore the films kneecap (dir. rich peppiatt) and american animals (dir. bart layton) and dick johnson is dead (dir. kirsten johnson), even though i could never see myself writing a true story/biopic feature like that -- they're just exploring what a feature film compiling those ideas looks like today, fighting against the rules of what people think it should be, and just going for it. other than that, i watch a lot of BAD movies and BAD tv because it's fascinating to pull it apart and figure out where things went wrong -- like looking under the hood of a fucked up car.

mostly, i think i read and watch a lot of the types of things i like to write, lots of introspective dramedies and coming of age stories. but usually no tragedy, it makes me too sad.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

in school i got compared a LOT to tim burton (i made a lot of fantasy focused films that existed in the real world), which honestly feels like a little bit of an insult now. if i was compared to henry sellick, now that would be a compliment.

i'd love to emulate documentarian and cinematographer kirsten johnson! (it's not going to happen. but i love her.)

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

i really can write anywhere, as long as it's in complete isolation listening to the same piece of music over and over until whatever i'm doing is complete (that's the autism for ya!). usually when i'm working, i'm lying down in bed in the evening, or weirdly standing with my computer on a counter in the kitchen early in the morning as i'm getting ready for my day. i'm a slow writer and can't get anything done without a deadline (work related) or a special interest (fic related), and usually things sputter aimlessly until someone explicitly asks for it (this is why my ao3 never has anything finished. sorry guys! #shamelssplug!)

(right now the piece of music i'm listening to is norman's walk by jon brion. and yes, if you're curious, my repetition of single pieces of music always messes up my spotify wrapped.)

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

the only theme i can think of is one of meeting someone that you're meant to meet, exactly at the point in your life that you are meant to meet them. life is chance upon chance upon chance, i've found, and i love capturing that life-changing feeling as it balances temporarily on a pinpoint. i especially love when it ends in tragedy too.

agnes varda's cleo from five to seven is a favourite of this trope. a bit of severance by ming le also has this concept wrapped up in it. and billy wilder's the apartment.

i don't think it surprises me though, i think it's always something i'm looking for in life. to eventually look back and see the path i made, and to know even if i didn't at the time, that it was the right one because of the people i had the pleasure of meeting, even briefly.

i also love 90s wedding movies and the strict structure they're written with, it's fun to replicate and poke fun of in my own work.

What is your reason for writing?

i started writing because i would get really overwhelmed with my feelings over whatever was going on in my life, and need to parse through them somehow. they say it's always best to start with a nugget of something, and build off of it. it's how i've coped with everything from romantic kerfuffles, to immigration, and racism, to parents splitting up, death, and everything else life has to offer. explicitly in my writing, or not.

maybe i've just been exceptionally lucky, but every time i've shared something that felt so isolating and devastating i did not know how to deal with it, i've always met someone after the fact who looked me in the eyes and told me they felt exactly the same thing.

it makes me love being a person on this planet.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

i don't know! if you like it, please let me know! if you don't, please don't tell me i'll think about it for the next twelve years of my life and also cry.

no, but in all seriousness, i just want to make people feel like some part of them is understood, whatever that looks like. yell into the void with me, or yell back at me from the void, whatever works best for you.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

pacing and emotional beats. i can always feel when a scene is done, or when i want it to be done. i love writing the emotional stuff, i don't really care about the stuff that it takes to get there, other than it makes those beats happen.

writing my dialogue is like pulling teeth. writing my inner monologue gets convoluted. writing, i'm a slower than the oldest, most decrepit turtle. writing my descriptions can get too long in screenplay format. literally nothing but pacing out a story and hitting those emotional beats.

How do you feel about your own writing?

it makes me sick to my stomach. after i've obsessed over something for months and it's done, i can't look at it. i'm always terrified that it's so much worse than i want it to be, or that i'm envisioning it is. (i've had this exact experience at a festival with one of my films before and it haunts me forever.) i need other people to tell me it's written okay before i start to feel normal about it. i want to get over this sensation eventually, but it doesn't seem like it's happening anytime soon.

that being said, i don't think i could make myself stop writing and telling stories if i wanted to. my cross to bear, i suppose.

that's all. thanks for this, sarah, and if anyone read this, i hope you enjoyed it :^)

[maleyanderecafe]

What happens if you have a possessive Yandere boyfriend? (Manga)

Created by: Would you like BL Sandwitches?【Manga】

Genre: Slice of Life/BL

This one is in the same medium as How to Train Your Handsome But Overbearing Boyfriend, where it's essentially a comic, but in video format and in voice acting. This one is a bl, and while the thumbnail makes it seem very horror based, it's actually far more slice of life based and (for the most part) rather cute.

The story starts out with Ren Shidou going to his childhood friend (and crush) Itsuki Tachibana's house. While hanging out in Itsuki's room, he finds a book about yandere boys. Itsuki clarifies that he got the book from his sister and asks him to put it back. Ren notices something weird on the shelf, but ignores it and asks Itsuki what a yandere is. After he defines it, Ren tells Itsuki that he can relate to it as he does have a crush on him. Itsuki asks if he can roleplay being a yandere to Ren, to which he agrees as he's happy to have Itsuki look at him. The next day, Itsuki does exactly as promised, getting jealous when other people get near Ren, giving him creepy notes in class all while Ren is livid that he's getting so much attention from Itsuki. After school, the two confess to each other and become a couple. They go back to Itsuki's place where Ren points out the weird camera, though Itsuki bats it aside stating that he wants to know everything about him. At the end, it's revealed that Itsuki was an actual yandere, with the camera inside the book to spy on Ren, along with having a gallery of Ren's pictures behind the bookshelf.

The story itself is pretty simple, it is essentially just Itsuki playing a yandere character and then revealing that he is one in the end, but the overall story is pretty simple and sweet. Still, I'm not a big fan of the way it was animated since it looks very stiff and I honestly would have preferred it if it were animated more like How to Train Your Handsome But Overbearing Boyfriend where it's essentially like a comic dub. Still, I do think overall it was sweet and while it was foreshadowed that Itsuki himself was a yandere, I was surprised to see that he did actually have a shrine right behind his bookshelf. Other than that, it is a basic story with a semi interesting premise.

It's a short and simple story about two guys, one of which happens to be a yandere. I think it might be a good look into a yandere if you don't really know what it is at the very least.

[the-owl-tree]

oh my GOD I love your isekai warriors au.... I love that the isekai trope is becoming a lot more popular, especially in anime... please tell me more about it!!

shaking ur hand rn hello fellow isekai anime/other mediums fan :3c FIRST lemme go on my tangent about this genre and my main inspo because wow this got way too long lol

isekai is total comfort food for me haha it's my go to genre of manga/manwha/webcomic reading whenever i'm feeling down and while i generally feel the genre is getting bloated and somewhat stale in anime, i still enjoy it quite a bit. It's a cute idea with a lot of potential, i just wish less of the shows went for the wish fulfillment route of things since we have so many by now.

mine is very inspired by a lot of korean manwha style stories in which the protag gets trapped in a show/game/book/etc. and has to deal with it, specifically what if you became the villain of a story. A lot of them play off the trope of the one dimensional evil villainess and how an average person would have to deal with coming into the body of someone like that and dealing with consequences. That, or it's the tragic villain, someone's who's life is marred by tragedy usually of their own doing.

The most interesting ones are those that play on how character archetypes would actually work in the story. The cold bad boy is just a shitty abusive guy, the shy guy who follows the girl is kind of a stalker, and so on.

One of my bigger inspirations was a plotline that also stuck out to me: a teen girl who died too soon and got reincarnated as the mother of the protagonist. obviously she has no clue what to do, she's a kid who wants to go home! And the only way she thinks she can is by ensuring the story goes as planned (and this of course is doomed from the start, unbeknownst to her, the villain is a reincarnater too and has already made tremendous changes). She dies and the reader never knows if she gets to go home or not. It's kind of this rough around the edges gem of an idea that I love and obviously had to steal for myself.

note for anyone getting intrigued by my descriptions uh a lot of these stories tend to be pretty shallow in their exploration. this subgenre consists a lot more of wish fulfillment/revenge fantasies comparatively to like a deep dive of "oh my god i've fucked up the narrative". Not to say they don't have interesting ideas! many are super interesting. just like. temper your expectations if you're going in

originally the story was gonna be set in a canon arc but that felt boring so i decided to just make up a whole story for it

The story is meant to be a (loving) poke at old fanfiction, common tropes in the aforementioned subgenre of isekai, and just a general ""cliche"" Warriors series (in the human universe here, I figured it's call Battlers/Battle Cats or something stupid lmao). In this story, Frostblaze is born into [ONE OF THE FOUR FAKE CLANS I HAVENT FIGURED OUT NAMES YET IM SORRY]. She's the born to an unnamed mother who tragically died of illness when she was just a young baby and has no clue who her father is.

She's isolated from her peers due to her eyes which some believe are an omen of her unnaturality. This only worsens when she is apprenticed to their Clan leader and causes Honeypaw, the daughter of the Clan leader, to become enraged with jealousy. She is one of Frostpaw's worst tormentors in the early parts of the book and eventually, during a battle, tries to off Frostpaw herself....but is killed by Frostpaw's love interest, the dashing and handsome (if a bit stupid) Eaglepaw of [INSERT RIVAL CLAN HERE].

The two hit it off (Honeypaw is an after thought at this point) and work together to stop the eeevviilll leader of uuhh eviiiiilll clan. They win, live happily ever after, Frost is actually their Clan leader's daughter and Honeypaw is her half-sister and blah blah blah.

At least, they're supposed to. Honeypaw, out hunting, is hit by a truck at the same time a human is. Human wakes up as a cat about to be buried because everyone thinks Honeypaw is dead and freaks the fuck out.

A lot of the plot points are kind of just me working through my gripes of the subgenre lmao:

"the person who is reincarnated is more adept and cool and better than their character and everyone loves them" -> Honey is awkward, neurotic, and can come off as rude to those who don't know her. Even her coolest trait, her wrestling ability, is off-putting because oh my god why are you putting a cAT IN A SPIDER GUARD THEIR SPINES DON'T BEND LIKE THAT HONEY PUT HIM BACK TO NORMAL-

She reread the story before she died but, because she has no pen, no paper, and sadly of all, no thumbs, she's unable to write it down to keep remembering it when she gets sent to this world. It's awful and she desperately wishes she had thumbs back.

she stands on two legs, makes weird comments alluding to being a human, and just is a bit of a weirdo. Honeypaw was isolated for being mean, Honey is isolated for making everyone uncomfortable (unintentionally). However, her isolation allows her to slip under the radar and do some more investigating, as she's noticed that some of the details in the story aren't adding up...

The story is strange and the characters aren't as she remembers now that they're in the flesh. Of course, her main priority is to thwart Honeypaw's assassination attempts, the spirit being intent that the way to get her body back is if she dies again. It's only from a near death experience that they realize that that's not gonna work and have to work together to change the story so they don't die!

and, as many people have pieced together, they're not alone.