#And outside of their defining character traits of “kind” and “vengeful” they don’t have much going for them.

[randomtheidiot]

Shoutout to Rebecca Colton from Amanda The Adventurer for being a murder victim in a mascot horror game that’s actually a character with a personality, thoughts and feelings.

[parasite-core]

!!! I'm not sure if you've answered something like this before, but a la TMA, what would your OCs be avatars of? And I'm curious about whether you have any OCs on the backburner! I tend to have a lot of OCs that Ive made but don't necessarily have a whole story attached to them yet, and I was mostly curious if you do the same thing, and what kind of OC ideas you would be excited about in the future!

Haha you asked at a good time, because my friend and I just started a tma AU of our OCs last week so I have thought about it extensively lately.

Lucien would definitely be an Avatar of the Vast. He’s very Simon Fairchild about falling from heights. But also he has a thing for stars and the night sky, so he’d have a very space-centric set of vast abilities, and his go to horror would be leaving people in the void of space, seeing and truly comprehending the sheer enormity of space and how much emptiness is in between everything.

Haruki would be an Avatar of the Slaughter. He’s actually acting as the first villain in our AU. Haruki uses a crystal knife that infects people with wrath. People who act on it become like Melonie was with the bullet, Slaughter aligned although not necessarily an avatar in their own right. People who try to bottle up their feelings and avoid their anger, afraid of losing control or of what they might do to others, will be devoured by it, the crystals overtaking them and feeding in their fear.

Roland was a victim of Haruki in the AU. But if he were an Avatar I think he’d be an Avatar of the Lonely. He has a hard time making connections with others outside his close friends, it took him a long time to open up to the party in his canon campaign, and he spends large parts of his story outside the campaign alone.

Kiyo would be an Avatar of the End. Death and their relationship with it defines their life so much, even if they would want to escape it, it’s inevitable they’d become a part of it.

Sai in the AU takes a role similar to Gerry. If she were an Avatar, I’d say...maybe the Corruption. She’s been known to turn people she doesn’t like onto insects, so that in a larger scale. Either that or the Eye, because she is extremely intelligent and likes to Know things.

Kaius in the AU is an archive assistant. If he were an Avatar, he’d be an Avatar of the Hunt. He’s a vengeful person when you wrong him, and he will hunt you down if he thinks you deserve it.

Morris in the AU is a former assistant to Jergen Leitner. As an Avatar...I honestly have a hard time picturing Morris as an Avatar. Maybe the Eye? But that doesn’t feel right. I could see the Stranger maybe. Yeah I think that’s the closest to true to him.

Umbrolus in the AU is Umber, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London. Because we decided it would be funny if it were him instead of Kleio (who is based on Jon). So in the AU he’s going to be an Avatar of the Eye. This happened because he got traumatized by the entity that Umbrolus would originally have been aligned with, which is the Vast. Umber is on the radar of four entities: the Vast, the Slaughter, the Eye, and the Lonely. He has a lot of potential to fall to any of them from his combination of character traits. Although the Vast traumatized him and now he can’t walk outside at night without almost going into an anxiety attack.

As for characters I have on the back burner, I have two at the moment.

The first is Calio Caecos, an oracle who accidentally stumbled into just the right set of magical artifacts and rituals to start becoming a lich unintentionally. Calio is a bit of a narcissist, and because the beginnings of lichdom have caused him to start looking unhealthy (a la Voldemort) he’s very upset about this and trying to find a way to undo it (not actually knowing that becoming a lich is what’s happening, he just thinks he was cursed or something). His backstory is going to just be a list of different things he touched/stumbled into/nearly got killed by/did that was a bad idea, which led to the lichy end result. This includes a year that’s basically the black out drunk Skyrim quest where he doesn’t remember a thing that happened during it because of one of the many rituals/artifacts he touched that he shouldn’t have. He’s going to be my character in a Reign of Winter Pathfinder game. I expect he’ll die quickly because I’ve already rolled his stats and they aren’t good, but I think I’m going to have fun as long as he lasts. He’s going to be a bit of a terrible person and a huge flirt, which I don’t usually do, so that’ll be different.

The other is a elf magus named Caladrel. I made then to be a one-off character in an arena fight against Umbrolus in the RP I was doing with him, but I liked them a lot after the scene was over so now I’m holding onto them as a possible backup character for either Umbrolus or Calio. I don’t know much about Caladrel yet, except that they travel around seeking challenging opponents, are honorable, but also don’t like when others hold back against them so they are willing to egg their opponent on if it’ll mean a better fight.

[laviarray]

Why I can’t stand Ian Flynn’s writing style.

 Ever since I read his stuff from issue 160, he consistently makes fundamental mistakes that no professional writer should ever make. He incorrectly builds his story lines, doesn’t know how to handle characters unless told, his themes are poorly thought out and shows no imagination in his fantasy or action beats. However, I tend to ask for positive opinions before because I wanted to get more insight into why people like his stuff. While I am glad for the input, I can’t get past how his writing is ambitionless and lacks basic understanding of storytelling, leading to a very unengaging script.

 EXAMPLE?

A good example of this is in issue 267, where Sonic and Rotor meet an Eggboss and Rotor’s father, Tundra for the first time. Flynn said he wanted to try to set up the mains to have rivals, with Rotor’s being Tundra. In this story Rotor meets Tundra after not seeing him for years, gets mad at him for working with Eggman, Tundra throws them into prison and then they break out with the ending being Rotor and Tundra looking up to the sky to show a parallel of… something?

Rival?

There are a lot of problems here, but the main one is that the story fails to establish these two as rivals, mainly because they have nothing to be rivals about. Being rival isn’t just being on different sides of a fight, it’s about two characters who want to beat each other for their own personal reasons and are usually written in for the writer to challenge something about at least one of the characters. Ash from Pokémon shows this pretty well. Each of Ash’s rivals are usually written in to challenge him on some element of his character. Gary challenged him on his lack of privilege and struggling to keep up. Paul challenged him on his kindness and loving nature to his Pokémon. Sawyer on his pride and his seniority getting the best of his ego. Just to name a few.

 Tundra on the other hand, doesn’t challenge anything about Rotor. Tundra does call his technology interest “hiding behind his toys” and calls him weak, but so what? Besides the fact that working for Eggman contradicts this worldview, what does this mean to Rotor? None of what Tundra speaks here contradicts Rotor’s beliefs. Rotor has never defined his strength or character to his technology nor does he have any world view that deals with strength or lack thereof. Neither of them have any reason to want to butt heads over or to compete against each other and neither of them have anything to prove by beating the other. Rotor doesn’t even have any anger or animosity towards Tundra after meeting him. He just sulks in the cell before Sonic tells him to get over it (remember this).

Maybe this could’ve worked as a revenge subplot for Rotor wanting to get Tundra for failing his home town, but that ends up being undermined when Rotor isn’t mad or vengeful towards Tundra during this whole issue. Sonic gets more upset at Tundra than he does. However, this still falls flat because the only reason you would know or care about Rotor’s home town is if you read supplementary material. Not universe issues, which still would be a bad place, but special issues that most people couldn’t get. So… yeah, there is no animosity between these two.

 Rotor’s character

I’m not surprised this doesn’t work, mainly because Flynn doesn’t know how to write characters and Rotor suffers from this the most out of the leads. Throughout the shattered world arc, Rotor is never given any major character traits besides being super focused on saving the world, and by that I mean being a straw man for why the characters keep getting distracted from the A plot to focus on side missions. He’s never given any personal moments or conflicts before this, nor does he have any motivations or wants outside of the conflict of the arc. So by the time we get to 267, the only thing of note about Rotor is that he is into technology, but not in any way that is personal to him. So having him get a rival was always going to be pointless.

 Give Flynn a break!

However, as I hear from every Flynn defender, “This might’ve been fixed later”. Two problems. One, why would any sane writer introduce and have the rivals interact without establishing some animosity or reason for them to see each other. Two, if that wasn’t the goal of this issue, this comic issue is beyond pointless. Nothing else of note happens in this issue. They have a light show of a fight scene, get caught, meet Tundra, breakout, leave. Besides getting a Gaia key, that could’ve been anywhere, there is no other reason to get these two on their own to meet Tundra, other than to establish their rivalry. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that they dedicated half an issue to this half-baked idea, or that they wasted the other half on Eggman getting Metal Sonic back, that should’ve been 3 pages at best, instead of writing a story that is a major game changer for a lead character to the fullest.

(We totally needed to cut pages from learning about and developing a lead character and dedicated the same amount of time to seeing Eggman get Metal sonic back... Im not kidding they are both 10 pages.) Now the reason I was asking you guys for your thoughts was because I want to gauge how others view the comics too. However, when I get outside of comic fans, I get… interesting views. For example, I showed this issue to a group of people that all have daddy issues (as in they had to fight their dad to protect their mom kind of issues), so it should’ve been easy for them to relate to Rotor. They were also a wide range of opinions on Sonic, ranging from hardcore fans to ambivalent. However, after reading it, they all had the same reaction of “Well… That happened…” with all of them feeling nothing after reading. And after we discussed it, we figured out why. The story never gives you a reason to care about Rotor, Tundra just shows up and leaves, leaving no impact on the story or audience and there isn’t a reason to get invested with the conflict when Rotor isn’t.

 “OK, that was a bad issue, but that isn’t all of them?”

Except it is. Every last problem that I brought up here shows up throughout Flynn writing.

Poorly developed main characters?

All of them written around this quality and the ones that aren’t usually have characterization mandated or coming from other parts of the franchise.

(ok... we were five stories in at this point... Why were their 12 characters in the main cast (Chip not pictured)? Longer slice of life stories would have issues developing characters with a cast that big.) Rivalries that don’t go past superficial elements of the characters and don’t challenges the leads well?

Pretty much all of them, but especially Antoine’s with Hood, Nicole’s with Phage, and Bunnie’s with Cassia

“What about Sally and Clove?” I don’t count them as Flynn said in his podcast “Sally would be too busy to have a rival”. Which speaks volumes about his writing priorities.

Having characters get Pep talks to get them over writer inflicted trauma and to never address again?

Flynn did this 8 times in Shattered world and already 2 times in IDW (Issues 1, and 3)

B plots that go nowhere and should’ve been cut early in production?

Most of the issues during shattered world

Dedicating an entire issue to one plot detail that may or may not be relevant to later issues?

This is practically his brand at this point.

(These two are going to be soooooo relevant and integral to the story. Just... you know... Not for this entire arc...) And these aren’t his only problems.

  What is your point?

So why am I going through all of this? Why did I just type all of that for you guys? For 3 reasons.

1) I want you to understand where my vile for Flynn’s writing comes from. Not because of one thing he did wrong or that he doesn’t get a certain character right. But from a comprehensive look at his written patterns and worldview on writing.

2) I do genuinely want to understand why this man is well liked as I’ve seen some writers do half the crap Flynn does and get flogged by their fan bases.

3) If possible, try to get us to ask for better. I don’t hate Flynn or anything, but it boggles my mind that he is seen as a great writer when he is subpar at best. I don’t want him fired or anything but I don’t want him on any other branch of the franchise, nor do I want to see anyone thinking he should be either.

Now I’m fully willing to admit I’m wrong on all of these points, so feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to get ready for the completion of the arc in IDW. Expect a full essay by Janurary!

[blodreina-noumou]

Hey, I was just curious: Do you have any thoughts, meta, headcanons, et cetera, et cetera, for Echo and Octavia? I love reading all your others writes, so I was wondering if you had any for these two? :-)

Sorry it took me a couple days to respond, and thanks for being patient! Also - oh my goodness, this is one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me about my meta writings?? You gave me something new to chew on too, and I love that.

I see Echo and Octavia as foils. They have very similar arcs, if you break them down into basics - but each are defined by their choices, their losses, and how stable their homes are, especially during the time jump.

(More under the cut. This is a long one!)

Both grew up and came of age on the edges of their societies - Octavia as “the girl under the floor” and Echo as a young spy for Azgeda.

Both long for a home, for a place to belong, and don’t feel they have one until they fall in love with someone who they once viewed as an enemy.

Octavia finds her home with Lincoln, a grounder, when The Hundred are still very much so anti-grounder. In 2x15, Jackson implores Octavia to return home with him and the rest of Skaikru. Octavia, who thinks she’s about to lose her brother inside Mount Weather, and Lincoln to his clan’s brutal punishments for traitors, replies, “I have no home.”

Echo finds a place to belong with Bellamy and Spacekru, despite them being on opposite sides up until Praimfaya. She has a similar dark moment in 4x13 when she’s about to commit suicide and Bellamy interrupts her, telling her it would be easier to just step outside. She responds, “Go back to the sky where you belong, Bellamy. I belong nowhere.”

Both of them are fierce warriors, fighters - arguably the two strongest and most capable hand-to-hand combatants left in the human race. Both are loyal to their own people, whoever that might be in the timeline of the show, and are willing to break the rules and make ruthless choices for the sake of keeping those people alive. Neither is afraid of getting blood on her hands. Both were venerated within their own cultures for their exceptional ability at killing. Both eventually meet their downfall because of this ruthlessness and violence.

When the second Praimfaya comes, Echo is at rock bottom. She’s been cast out and stripped of her clan; she’s going to space, unheard of for a grounder, with a group of near strangers who were her enemies only days before. She’s alone, terrified, and about to enter an entirely new world.

Octavia, on the other hand, seems to be thriving. She finds redemption through winning the Conclave and saving all the tribes, creating Wonkru, uniting the clans in the way only a “true commander” was able to previously. She earns the veneration and respect of her people and becomes their leader. 

(Side note: I personally found her s4 arc a bit confusing and I’m not sure this redemption was actually earned - whether that was bad writing or a herald of darker things to come is up to interpretation. I side with bad writing. The way we whiplash from her spiraling out of control, trying to walk into the black rain, and then choosing a peaceful farm life with Ilian - only for her to become Champion and earn so much respect by shedding so much blood only two episodes later - is very jarring and conflicts with the show’s primary themes.)

By the time s5 comes around, we see they’ve switched. Echo has Spacekru, a dedicated and kind romantic partner in Bellamy, and a stable, safe home on the Ring, undoubtedly for the first time in her life. Octavia has become a lonely, violent, bloodthirsty tyrant through bearing burdens for her home and clan that no one else was willing to. Echo loses a clan, but finds her family. Octavia loses her family and gains a clan. In this case, neither clan is good for either character - Azgeda pushes Echo to be a manipulative, scheming person who betrays and misleads former allies and friends. Wonkru pushes Octavia to incredibly dark places, up to and including executing her people for refusing survival cannibalism.

The difference in their arcs, the defining trait that makes them foils, is that Echo finds love, while Octavia, still grieving Lincoln, rejects it. We can see the hope and tragedy in that. Prior to s5, Echo seemed irredeemable, while Octavia could apparently do no wrong. After the second Praimfaya, they switch, with Octavia doing brutal and violent things for the sake of her people, and Echo laying down her sword and her burdens as a spy for a peaceful, domestic life with her family and Bellamy.In 5x13, this dynamic plays out to its fullest extent. Octavia is humbled, torn down from her oppressive throne, and reminds herself of who she was before all of this began. “It’s kind of like closing the door in the floor, right?”Echo, meanwhile, remains steady within Spacekru and their allies, being an instrumental part of the victory in the gorge. She ends the season more or less where she began - because with Bellamy and Spacekru, she’s already the best version of herself.But where does that leave them in relation to each other at the end of s5? My biggest issue with s5 is that we were robbed of so many character interactions at the very end. If only we had seen more of Echo and Octavia together onscreen besides that very brief scene where Becho blocks her from approaching Madi in 5x13. Octavia has seen the love Bellamy has for Echo now, she knows how far he’s willing to go to protect her and the rest of his family. Will that help her accept Echo? Can Echo ever accept Octavia after how vindictive and vengeful Octavia was towards her?I am interested in where these two fierce warrior queens go from here. Bellamy is clearly so important to them both. Octavia has lost all power and ability to maintain the banishment she placed on Echo before the second Praimfaya. Echo has so many allies, from Bellamy to Spacekru, and Octavia has never been more alone. Will she be able to swallow her pride and accept Echo? I imagine that struggle to forgive and be forgiven will play into her arc next season.My favorite headcanon for them right now is that Echo, Octavia, and Diyoza become best friends on the new planet and form a bad bitches club where they talk shit about everyone else and practice sparring with each other, since no one else really wants to keep getting their asses kicked. Echo helps Octavia learn to “fight like Azgeda” and that phrase becomes a compliment instead of an accusation. Diyoza somehow finds more tequila and they all three spend a drunk night braiding each other’s hair (after the baby is born, of course) and talking about hardwon spars and battles of the past. Octavia and Echo become fiercely protective aunts of Diyoza’s baby, and they watch her together - but mostly, it’s Octavia nagging Bellamy into doing her part, so he can learn how to change diapers and swaddle, since she’s more excited than ever to be a “real” aunt to a cute little Becho baby.Thank you so much for the question, and sorry I wrote you a novel! I had a lot of fun doing it, and I hope you enjoyed it too!