#Branded podcast

[sunnibits]

some people really need to learn how to knock

[beetlerings]

Colored this doodle

Hehe I luv yucky green overlays

[fixated-dark-king]

Sooo, I had the amazing experience of attending a panel C.S. Pacat was part of during the Sydney Writers’ Festival on 25th May 2024. The panel was called “Creating a Monster” (with two other YA authors).

And finally a week later (because adult-ing is hard), I had time to actually go through my notes and write up some of the fascccccinating things Pacat had to say about: monsterous heroes, and villains, and enemies-to-lovers deliciousness, and queer identity!

I didn’t want to forget some of the interesting things said in this panel and thought others might be interested in hearing about them too? Please indulge the splurge. :)

(Please note that all bold headers are just my thematic summary of each section for people to jump to, not the actual question asked.)

WHAT APPEALS ABOUT ‘THE MONSTROUS’ TO PACAT:

From a technical writing standpoint, the ‘Monstrous’ is appealing because a villain will often do an act and the hero reacts to that. It gives unconscious clues to the reader that when the villain turns up, something exciting is going to happen. In that sense, villainous characters have a special sort of ever-present attention given to them (possibly because human nature is to always keep one eye on the dangerous thing that could harm you).

On a personal level: A) When queer characters are awesome but also ‘Monstrous’, Pacat says it can feel really ‘electric’ and empowering to reclaim/allow yourself to embrace the monster role that you’ve been told you fit into by society. Like in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles where queer people are allowed to be beautiful/glittering & powerful & witty & have existential conversations about good and evil while fitting under the Monstrous label. Like heck yeh, that’s cool. And B) as an author, you can feel a ‘minority pressure’ to have characters be Good all the time and be the perfect ambassador for that minority, but sometimes you just want to be a vampire and take over the world, you know?

THE EXISTENCE OF ‘PROTAGONIST-CENTRED MORALITY’ WITHIN THE DARK RISE BOOKS:

When pondering whether it is hard as a writer to convince readers that a Monstrous protagonist is a likeable character, Pacat pointed out that the funny thing is that the question ‘How am I going to make readers like this monster?’ never really ends up being an issue because people actually really like monsters! The thing you might not expect is that the struggle is actually: ‘How am I going to make these readers who are barracking for the protagonist feel that this ‘monster’ is actually monstrous?’

Pacat explained that when a protagonist is also a monster, it brings into play something called ‘Protagonist-Centric Morality’ -- where you bond with that protagonist and want the best for them etc, so much that it can obscure when the protagonist is actually doing something bad. Pacat mentioned that he has found the Protag-Centric Morality fairly striking in the case of the Dark Rise books because people have said to him things like: ‘The Dark King Did Nothing Wrong Ever In His Whole Life’ and Pacat questioned whether the moral centre of the story was landing somewhere different than intended. He was curious whether the other authors had experienced that with their ‘monstrous’ protagonists too.

IF A HERO IS ALSO MONSTROUS, HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DIFFERENTIATE THAT FROM THE VILLIAN? When pondering over the distinction between a Monstrous Hero and a Villain, Pacat shared some thoughts from his lived experience. He said the times when he has felt most threatened by the ‘Monstrous’ is when that person isn’t clearly identifiable to others around you; where there isn’t a shared understanding between everyone that ‘yes, that person is a monster’. Extending from that, the Truly Monstrous is when that person has some kind of control over you and control over the narrative as well; if the monster is the one telling the story but casting you as the monster. Essentially gaslighting via ‘narrative control’.

ENEMIES TO LOVERS TROPE:

This is Pacat’s absolute favourite romantic trope. And he elaborated that he doesn’t mean that in the sense of ‘these characters sort of don’t like each other’, but rather to the point where two characters really hate each other and for a very good reason. He likes when a path between two characters feels IMPOSSIBLE to overcome.

This trope was first explored in the Captive Prince trilogy and Pacat loved it so much he just had to use it again for the Dark Rise trilogy. The planning behind it for CaPri was brainstorming: ‘What is the worst thing I could think to use?’ (Answer: Killing a character’s brother, which lands the bereaved character into a set of hellish circumstances.) But that meant when Pacat decided to use it again for DR, he had to extend that to: ‘Now I need to think of something EVEN WORSE THAN THAT (CaPri)’ in order to separate the main characters. So Pacat had to spend ages thinking about what could be the absolute worst thing to use this time -- and he hopes that he came up with something that is ‘truly, truly way worse.’ Which essentially had everyone, including the moderator, laughing loudly in fear. XD

WILL KEMPEN: FOUND FAMILY & THE LONELINESS OF INAUTHENTICITY:

Pacat spent a lot of time trying to develop a really meaningful platonic friendship between Will and Violet. It meant a lot to see a friendship like that reflected on page for Pacat because some of the most important friendships of his life were across gender lines. The reception to Will and Violet has been so pleasantly surprising, so Pacat supposed he wasn’t the only one with a hunger for that kind of friendship within the romantasy genre.

Pacat also reflected on Will’s complex relationship with his Found Family -- that having the support of a Found Family can be so essential, but in Will’s case that lifeline is undermined by secrecy, turning that Found Family into a different kind of loneliness. Because the thing is: if something so immense happens to you that you feel you can’t talk about, or you feel some way about yourself but think you can’t share that with others, it means you can’t really be your authentic self. But if you’re not being you’re authentic self, who are your friends friends with? They can’t be friends with the true You; they can only be friends with a facade/with a performance. So as long as Will is scared to show his true self and remains hiding himself away from even his friends, he will be alone. It’s a hard step to take. (Note from me: so heavvvvy but poignant.)

NOT DR-RELATED, BUT PACAT’S FAV MONSTERS FROM POPULAR FICTION: Pacat was so excited to namedrop his favourite monsters from popular fiction, he volunteered to go first LOL. The answers: 'The Brat Prince' Lestat (Lestat has been on his mind a lot recently because the AMC TV portrayal captures Lestat so well & has completely rejuvenated Pacat’s 12 year-old love of vampires. Total mood); serial killers such as in the Ripley series; and simply: American Psycho.

Great panel, right? Now it’s Europe’s turn!

[aq2003]

catherine tate spending a lot of time not knowing donna was as popular as she was bc a journalist said to her before she went in to film series 4 "what do you think of the fanbase hating the fact you're coming back". is a) so fucking heartbreaking and b) the most on-brand donna noble thing i could ever think of

[honeyspotpie]

Trudy Trout you are so important to me. For a show that's been specifically about the trails and tribulations of parenthood from the perspective of father figures and viewed from the lense of said fathers only, it's so refreshing to have a main MOTHER character who is as painstakingly tragic as Trudy. Because yes, her character is a commentary on the negativity of tradwife values - but being a "tradwife" doesn't exclusively mean being a perfect lover for her husband, but being a perfect mother to her children as well - and I feel like a lot of people are forgetting that and not acknowledging it nearly enough. Women, especially in that time, had to pretty much carry the entire burden of shaping and properly raising their children into functioning human beings, being their singular caretakers. Trudy (or the husk of the person who is Trudy now) having to properly shape and form the minds of her children when she herself is not properly shaped and formed. Raising them to be ready to face the great wide world out there, the same world that she struggles to face herself, the world that kicks her down everytime she gets up. There's so much potential to explore, so many poignant points to be made. Like look, I'm as fascinated by her relationship with Tucker as literally everyone else, but I do hope that at one point in the narrative the focus shifts to her relationship with Tuck, Tina and Timmy. Make Trudy realize how much her motherhood is intertwined with her personhood, and let us watch her grapple that.

[rosesofenvy]

Pining Parkthur inspired fully by this potatolord art :) @potato-lord-but-not you inspire me endlessly

[stuckinapril]

By God I am never consuming any celebrity product ever in my life. Never

[freshhotflavors]

A Fresh Hot Flavors skirt for every TMA entity (except extinction, shh)

This took me...like two entire days to put all these together lmao. I made them all on Shuffles, so you can go check them out over there if you wanna see the sources for the rest of the outfit pieces.

I think The Spiral was the most fun to make. I just kept adding colorful junk. Ideal.

Also gotta mention the skirt for The Desolation is our Desert Sunset maxi made in collaboration with @mayakern!

-rad

[alatariel-galadriel]

Juno and Peter deserve at least one (1) more ball dance before their Penumbra saga ends

Based on this Linedecker painting

[lickmycoffeecup]

Someone says Dig.

YOU DIG.

[krakenantlers]

Malevolent is an eldritch horror thriller. It is creepy, delightful, and dark. But every single time John has to tell Arthur, "No, your other left!" I absolutely lose my shit. 🤣

[inspector-montoya-fox]

Leading up to our Sly 3 coverage on the podcast, i'm comparing the depiction of Sly's evolution between games. Although Sly 2 continues Clockwerk's story from Sly 1, it sorta benched the ancestors and the Thievius Raccoonus for the entire game. Instead, Sly's development was shown through the upgrades to the cane. In Sly 3, SP shifted focus back to the ancestors with the vault being at the centre of the story. Admittedly, it feels as if the vault and by extent the ancestors are only touched upon in the prologue and Honour Among Thieves. But, in reality, Sly's development throughout the game takes the form of him indirectly channelling his ancestors.

Think about it: the disguises Sly dawns almost every episode are a skill Thaddeus had perfected; piloting the plane akin to Otto, and a pirate adventure like Henriette's. We don't see him directly reference the Thievius Raccoonus but i think that was done deliberately to show how he's studied it so much at this point that he's learned everything by heart. Now at the end of the series, Sly is fully capable of embodying his ancestors. This (a) acts as a natural climax to the exploration of the vault at the end of the game, and (b) helps Sly come to the conclusion that yeah this rich legacy is embedded in him but also he's his own self and he needs to carve out his own path going forwards

[friday-answers]

guys i didnt post about aled last's birthday throw me in a jail cell .

[heartru]

hey sorry but your buddy fabian fell out of the van trying to do a flashy manoeuvre. no he’s fine but he almost got crushed under the wheels- oh you’re listening to your podcast? you expected this to happen? uh, alright then.

[butididntpourthewhiskeys]

They aren't lying, love this for Trav https://x.com/britt_swiftie13/status/1846018754263617928

SO VALID. As much as he finds her hot AF I think he adoooores her character