#I can't think of more examples because I got so fucking bored with this trope by my twenties that I abandoned it

[shit-my-asexual-friend-says]

Ooooh, similar but in reverse! I loooved the edgy power fantasy of being an entitled, abusive, snarky fucker who could get away with being a complete asshole and people will not only tolerate but look up to you anyway. Really threw me off later in life when people started describing all of the male characters who I loved for this reason with phrases like "heart of gold" and "working through his troubled past."

Anyway Dirk Strider gave me something sorta adjacent to gender envy

Honestly, a not-insignificant contributing factor to my mid-20s gender crisis is that I used to think I was viscerally repulsed by playing as male characters in video games, but eventually I realised it was literally just playing as smarmy brown-haired thirtysomething dudes with an emotional range running the gamut from dull surprise to generic rage that put me off, and basically every other sort of male player character was fine. It's just that this happened to be when the Uncharted series was really taking off, so a solid 50% of all male video game protagonist fit that mould! Nathan Drake sucks so much that he made me question my gender, is what I mean to say.

[anhed-nia]

I was delighted to learn that there was a crazy-girl Black Swan movie from before BLACK SWAN, and disappointed that it's exactly as mysogynistic, just in a much dumber way. We're all familiar with the John Hughes model of romance, in which girls who reject you just want you to be increasingly persistent and controlling--but there's a sort of kid brother to this framework, that says that when women reject you it's actually because they're literally fucking insane, and they need your help with that. In the movie ETOILE aka BALLET, Jennifer Connelly aka the most beautiful woman in the universe plays a ballerina whose psychotic obsession with Swan Lake interferes with her non-relationship with some little dweeb who decides he's entitled to her. The guy looks and kind of acts like the wormy new wave guy Chuck in RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD (fig. 1), but in ROTLD that used car salesman suit is a joke so I don't know what the makers of ETOILE think I'm supposed to feel when I look at this asshole (fig. 2). Something positive, apparently. It's funny, in my life I live firmly in the Ugly Girl camp and I have all the usual neuroses about it, but certain situations unlock this protectiveness about beautiful women--case in point, watching this jerk kiss Jennifer Connelly. I mean if he were like Bud Cort or someone with that Funny Valentine quality, who is warm and charming, then it would be fine, but with this low-end cretin it's really like...sir, please back away from Jennifer Connelly. This is not for you.

In this movie Jennifer Connelly is frankly way too good for this guy, and if this were real life, it would make perfect sense that she's polite to him and then gives him the brush-off when he pushes his luck; but of course, in the fantasy world of this movie, the reason she rejects him is that she's fucking possessed or something and she's just waiting for him to rescue her from her feminine irrationality. This is extra funny because the script itself directly references the myth of Apollo and Daphne which is like the original version of this: Daphne just wants to be left alone, but Apollo assumes his advances are desirable no matter what she has to say about it; to get away from him she transforms into a tree, and he's so sad about it that he desecrates her corpse weaves a wreath from her leaves. This is really the ultimate reflection of a man refusing to believe that a particular hot chick really, genuinely doesn't want him, but ETOILE isn't capable of figuring out that subtext, so the guy just forces himself on Jennifer Connelly until she isn't "crazy" anymore. Bonus points for the scene where he repeatedly screams at her to stop dancing, because there's really no bigger threat to romance than a woman's career and personal interests.

I wish I could think of more examples of this trope, I know they're out there, and I did just see another one called FEMME FATALE where Lisa Zane marries Colin Firth and then "mysteriously" leaves him, so he has to go on this whole odyssey to retrieve her. This is a particularly funny example because Firth is mopey and boring and untalented and a bad listener and out of shape and a drag, and Zane is this turbulent sexpot who is making it really obvious that she's not satisfied with him right up to the point that she "strangely" vanishes. Spoilers ahead I guess but the first thing Firth finds out is that she was in some psychotic art film by a militant lesbian who she used to date...and still the spurned husband thinks, nah, it CAN'T be that I'm boring and sappy and self-centered and I ignore her needs, and it ALSO CAN'T be that maybe she secretly prefers girls or is, at the very least, way more sexually exotic than I am. There has to be some OTHER reason I got dumped, something that involves me pursuing this uninterested woman to the ends of the earth and forcing her to admit that she loves only me, forever. And the movie totally agrees with him: There's no moment where Colin Firth realizes that he misread all the evidence, or even that she's EVIL or just not who he thought she was or whatever. Instead what he finds out is that she's literally insane! She's a paranoid schizophrenic whose only valid choices of companion are her dad or, you guessed it, Colin Firth. When I saw this I thought wow, this movie has gone impossibly far out of its way to explain that when a woman rejects you, it's not because you're a dullard and a jerk, it's because she's dangerously crazy. Only an actual lunatic would turn down a catch like YOU.

Anyway I know I was just talking about not being pointlessly mean about movies in public, but all bets are off if the movie manages to say something this insulting. I am now done talking about this and I will leave you with this hilarious thumbnail from a YouTube clip of FEMME FATALE, which pretty well sums up the whole movie.

[fractalkiss]

fic commentary/notes for the year you thought you were dying.

trying this thing where i do fic commentaries here instead of on dreamwidth since most of my recent dw posts will be private now.

influences:

there was this BL titled "my 40-year-old prostitute" in english or something like that that a mutual from twt recommended. look, it was good. im so fucking serious. the yaoi art was beautiful and sexy and it started out so well with compelling characters. but the translators ceased uploading translations by just chapter 2 in 2020 on [redacted] site. which effectively meant the premise never left me for months and i was so sad.

joke's on me tho all of this really became serious after i wrote tumblr ficlets of 1418 hooker au in response to some fun ask prompts in the summer, which are in my fic tag somewhere.

some quotes from more influences:

"It’s obvious that the range of people who sought out sex for money would change dramatically in a kinder, gentler world. [...] Sex work would also attract stone butches of all genders and sexual orientations—people who want to run the fuck but are not interested in experiencing their own sexual vulnerability and pleasure. Often these people are the most adept at manipulating other people’s experiences. They are more objective about their partners’ fantasies and do not become distracted by their own desires, since their needs to remain remote and in control are already being fulfilled. - pat califa, 1994, 2000

"You. What will you let yourself become for me?" - dorothy allison, her thighs, 1992.

the essay "her thighs" is about lesbian power play and so influential to me. i think dorothy allison is a very powerful writer and i love her poetry.

this is an allison excerpt from jane ward's the tragedy of heterosexuality:

i kept this in mind too while i was writing manuela's short backstory.

the process:

i wanted crazy thangs with the structure. i wanted most of the sexual intimacy to be revealed much later to the reader, after we go through mostly the companionship aspect of the service -- which i realise now is not crazy but a boring approach and would really change the story so i didnt do it.

sex pollen fic done this way is my fave tho. helenish wrote this sga fic called This Gun for Hire with sex amnesia in it where everyone is in denial in the aftermath about the kind of sex that was repeatedly happening. there are other fic examples (can't quite remember or have bookmarked) where the denial and delusion is so completely off the charts with a character in trying to get through the aftermath of the event without a freaky sex trope involved.

so i wondered if i could pull off that kind of blurriness and denial in the structure for a character who KNOWS what is happening but thinks they're still straight and will die straight lmao. but fernando in this story is just jaded, retiring and isn't cripplingly repressive.

the notes from my word tracker doc that i had to do to be able to write long fic. i laugh at this every time:

my projected word count for this was 20k, which was so off lmfao.

i put off getting them to have sexy fun in italy at one point because i didn't know yet what emotional point they needed to get to and what grounds they'd be on then. i wrote a bit of a very different scene to lead up to it, but then scrapped it. and then i wrote the auction night and the morning-after scene. tension and conflict (without having to use miscommunication as the necessary crutch) is always one of my most favorite things to write about so i was so glad i got to this point LOL. the payoff of reaching a compromise and then an emotional release later is so rewarding to me! i love that shit

emotionally i just knew i needed it to be like the mindy nettifee poem i grabbed the fic title from.

figuring out how to write lance in this fic was really hard ngl since i went into the story almost blind. cofi made me realise this blind spot when i showed her an early wip and i was like hold awn.... if i wasn't sending @strulovic broken drafts and doing lanceology consultations with her, i wouldn't have gotten anywhere in the story.

alonso being a divorcee irl is so important to each and every one of my agendas thank god for the gay uncle. i did a lot of google searching to be able to write fernando's approach to sex and relationships outside of the job. i knew what i wanted to take away, like the difficulties with intimacy that former workers have had, and still have after the industry sometimes. fernando scrubbing his hands clean at lance's place after the auction despite not having sex with the auction client, his views on wanting the sex with his ex-wife and other exes to be "acceptable and proper" in contrast to whatever he's done for work, and how the internalised homophobia warps this for him while he tries to play the gentleman with lance in italy (and lance being able to read through him and understand that fernando DOES want to fuck him nasty ‼️ though lance doesn't understand the extent of fernando's issue with it). there are also accounts where sex work gave a worker the experience, space and autonomy they needed to slowly heal from prior traumatic and/or abusive experiences. the research was very interesting.

relied on music A LOT. an honorary ldr song [hears collective groaning] that didn't get included in the fic playlist was Love song. lance was in that passenger seat beside fernando in their sleek '67 restored fiat on the way to umbria wishing and wishing to get railed.

ALMOST FORGOT TO INCLUDE: ferrari to mclaren 2.0 fernando was the print here. he keeps the ferrari depression beard ofc.

truly not an overstatement, i think this fic was what made writing smth as long as this quite enjoyable and bearable for me. dare i say fun! haha

[festive-unserious-fellow]

Okay... this is gonna sound like blasphemy, but istg if I dont get this out into the world for people who care to read about Im literally going to go insane, so here it goes. I think Felonyglob is kind of boring. Don't get me wrong they're still a really cute couple! I just. Don't find their relationship all that interesting. Like there isn't all that much to explore in their dynamic.

I think most of the problem lies in Felony Carl not really being all that interesting on his own? Like, he isn't meant to be his own character. He has no depth. Which is okay! Not every character needs to be fully thought out or layered, but typically, the better thought out a character is, the more interesting their relationships are. Felony Carl, right down to his NAME, is really just a joke character. The joke being the juxtaposition between his appearance as a big strong criminal biker guy vs his emotional maturity and comfortability in who he is. He's kind of a cardboard cutout of a man. And instead of his relationship with Globby adding anything to his character, he ends up falling victim to the age old trope of "token love interest to motivate the main character". Like, the Princess Peach to Globby's Mario(it was the first example that came to mind don't @ me andnfnsmsm), minus the damsel in destress stuff. Granted Mario isn't all that interesting of a character either but yOU GET THE POINT RIGHT- Felony Carl just kind of falls flat. I was initially gonna drive this point home even further by comparing him to a really similar, and much more interesting, character, Brock from the Unikitty show, but this paragraph is getting long so I'm just gonna leave it at that. He's also really hard to ADD depth to because we just don't get that much info on his backstory outside of how he used to be named Misdemeanor Carl and that he has a good enough relationship with his father to willingly attend his birthday, which really isn't much! There's nothing interesting about this man to latch onto and expand upon without teetering dangerously close to OC territory!

Now, like I said before, having flat characters is fine. It's kind of a necessity, actually. If every single character in every single show got their backstories fully explained to us then there would never be time for any kind of. Plot. Ever. And, for normal viewers of BH6tS, Felony Carl being flat is perfectly okay, because he really had nothing to do with the main cast. But for ME, a weird little freak who likes to pretend BH6tS is actually The Globby Show(the amount of times I've rewatched literally only the episodes with him in them is evidence enough), Felony Carl is a lot more prominent because, to my eyes, he's technically the main love interest of the show. And he's just. So boring. Funny, but SO BORING.

Now, I am ABSOLUTELY not saying you can't still enjoy this pairing. Literally doesn't fuckin matter. I get the appeal, hell I've made stuff for the ship and have plans to make more! I just think it would be fun to explore Globby's potential dynamics with less one-note characters, y'know? Like, there's an ABUNDANCE of interesting adult characters in BH6tS and the only other Globby-related pairing(bcuz remember I only ever pay attentioj to Globby related stuff) I ever see is Globby x Honey Lemon. Which is a fine pairing, and they do have an interesting dynamic(and before you say that pairing is problematic it fucking isn't Honey Lemon is 21 and when your a consenting adult a 20 year age gap is literally fine omfg), but I think we should get more CREATIVE with it!!! And by we I mean people who. Like to think about Globby and put him in Situations. Actually maybe I'm the only person who really cares about this there's only like one other person on here that posts about him regularly... downsides of having super obscure interests, I guess.

But yeah if anybody wants to like... build up some fun cool ship dynamics between Globby and other characters my dms are always open hehe. This post was actually just a really longwinded and dressed up way for me to ask if anybody wants to talk about Globby ships with me. Sorry not sorry I just want more excuses to talk about this man-

[arttrampbelle]

TW:VENT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hate that damn thing in media where the guy is like "maybe if im funny n persistent enough I'll get the girl. The power of pu**y will save my character development"

It pisses me off to no end.

Johnny cage is a prime example of this and i hate how y'all treat it as cute when it kinda wasn't.

I love johnny cage but that wasn't even remotely a cool idea of NRS. And it was very very shitty writen. Plus sonya has no fucking chemistry with johnny. At all.

Yeah i will continue to hate this. Call me salty. Idgaf. It was gross to me.

It was a bastardization of both of their characters.

All for what?!

To have some cheap bland California dollar store knockoff kid in a loveless marriage with no chemistry to fall down a bootlicking military lifestyle she probably never asked for? All for a non existent plot that NRS can't make their minds up what they wanted. And not to mention cassie has no personality. Only "hey hey hey fellow millenials,im hip and cool spunky girl,i have guns and I'm forcibly trying to be snarky n funny. but also im not like other girls cuz i got tude but im stil conveniently attractive for guys to oogle at because I'm bait for horny dude with no life,tee hee hee"

Sad to say but.

If cassie cage got killed off i wouldn't mourn.

So Yeah piss off with this cageblade bullshit. It's a dude wet fantasy. Not anything remotely good outside of piss poor porn plot.

You can miss me with that shit.

Liutana has to get blueballed(tho i would like it more if they actually did something that's what turned me off from that ship long ago tho i still dont mind it but im more neutral about it. Like i dont hate it but i just feel it's boring now) and jax suffers from suffering and traumas (he deserves better,so does his fam tho im not so keen of how it was written either. Still tho jax deserved better)while johnny cage gets to play military barbie malibu dream house with sonya blade of all people?! Gtofh.

NRS can kiss my whole asscheek for that.

Sorry not sorry.

I just can't see why people dunno how weird,lowkey creepy it was for them to put Johnny cage of all people with sonya also the way it was done too. And sonya to even remotely think about romance.

I just hate how people think this ship is remotely healthy or cute in any way.

I'm sorry for the visceral reaction to this ship but every time i see it i see rage. Because it reminds me of how fucking annoying men are about relationships. And how strong female characters are treated still as love objects if they are persistent enough. Its just lowkey predatory and gross. And i hate how people are so cutesy about it. It pisses me off.

Sonya hated johnny from the beginning. At best tolerated him because realm in crisis type shit.

It wasn't some bullshit "hurr durr i lowkey like you because uwu hidden fweelings". Urghhh i wanna tear my eyes out everytime someone thinks this shit!

Like i hate how sonya went from badass women hellbent of revenge and learned to make friends to tough grrrl trophy wife trope. Urgh. It's disgusting.

It makes me violent.

Ok im done venting.

[darkwithasharpenededge]

A "I Can't Believe I Finished This Book This Fast" Bitch's Review of Magician: Master by Raymond E. Feist

Rating: 70/100

Summary: Finally deviating from its tropes, Magician: Master brings the plots set up in Magician: Apprentice to their rather too tidy conclusion.

Remember how I said yesterday that I wasn't going to read this book for a while? Yeah not even I really understand what happened to that. I read one chapter last night, and I picked it up to read another chapter this evening, thinking that I might as well get through it. And then I got through it. Review contains spoilers, blah blah blah.

Plot: Pug: Pug is the reason I read this book as fast as I did. It was my interest in Pug's plot that kept me going, and the scene where he was being trained to be a Tsurani Great One was the best scene in the entire book, and was singlehandedly responsible for this book receiving a 70 instead of a score somewhere in the high 60s. As much as I hate to admit it, it fucked.

Plot: Tomas: More on this in the romance section, but I had mixed feelings about Tomas' plot. I thought that some of the worldbuilding with him having to merge himself with a long-dead member of an ancient violent race was pretty neat, but the actual resolution of the plot was not to my liking, especially with how much it tied into other aspects of the unsatisfactory ending.

Plot: Politics: The politics stuff was shit. It had some really interesting bits with the feeling of the civil war from the first book finally possibly coming to fruition, but I was sorely disappointed. The king died, he named a "good guy" his heir, there was a bit of brief succession drama at the end with the bastard brother to one of the main characters, it was all extremely convenient and sucked. Tempted to go back and knock my score down two points just because of how much I hated the politics stuff.

Plot: Resolution: Extremely convenient and everything worked out for everyone with no bad consequences. I have a feeling that if I end up picking up any romance this year as part of this challenge, I'm going to have this same problem again.

Pacing: I didn't note this in my previous review, but this problem was also prevalent in my read of the first book: The book often had extremely large timeskips that made it difficult to gauge how much the characters had changed in the offscreen time. For example, at the beginning of this book, we're told immediately that four years had passed, and then later in the book, another four years passed? The reader is told that it took nine years in total for the events of the first and second book to transpire, but I'm not sure that the time scales all add up.

Also the book often felt slow, but that was partially down to writing style. Prose Quality: I didn't pay as much attention to it this time, partially because I was reading noticeably faster. Still serviceable, still fairly heavyhanded in some places, with a tendency to spoonfeed the reader that I don't care for.

Characters: My attachment to Pug as a character kind of dwindled after the two giant timeskips, and as Tomas mutated my attachment to him dropped as well. I liked Amos (the pirate captain), he had some extremely funny lines and brought some much needed comic relief, but I didn't find anyone new to latch onto.

Worldbuilding: The Tsurani are imo pretty clearly Asian-coded, and honestly I find that a sign of weakness in an author. Imagine being so uncreative that the most exotic thing you can think of for your invading army from another planet is just "what if they were Asian". Boring. What if your main characters were Asian and they were invaded by Stock Standard Medieval Fantasy World, that would be WAY more entertaining.

But I will give some credit to the worldbuilding for Pug's scene where he learned the entire history of the Tsurani in one go. That scene was in fact really good and I really enjoyed it. Best scene in the entire book. No I won't shut up about it.

Action Sequences: The combat sequences in this book were still pretty meh, but there were some decent chase sequences, one on land and one on sea. And if Pug's scenes where he was learning the Tsurani ways of magic count as action sequences, well, then, this book can get some points back for that too.

Romance: Awful no good very bad evil. I wrote in the margins when I reached certain scenes between Tomas and the Elf Queen that every day I respected Paolini more and more for having Eragon and Arya not get together at the end of the story. Awful horrid choice. Hatred forever. We love to see a thousand year old queen accept emotional abuse from her boyfriend. /s. Also the whole "oh what if he becomes king by marrying her" plot is INSUFFERABLY stupid. Just don't get married! Not getting married was always an option!

Female Characters: What female characters? Every woman who appears on the page is someone's romantic interest.

Gay?: I wish.

Was It Worth It?: Yes, if only for that single chapter where Pug was attending Tsurani wizard school. That was the good shit.

Will I Continue The Series?: Nope.

Final Verdict: If something freakishly similar to Pug's scene in Tsurani wizard school appears in my own writing, well, you didn't read this review, shhhhh. The conclusion of this story was kind of awful and full of extremely convenient events and manufactured succession drama that nobody had any reason to give as much of a shit about as they did, but whatever. I did it. I have knocked this one off my list in record time.

Review Word Count: 969

[ghcstvalleychief]

I actually like a bit of toxic in relationships but not because its toxic. Its the complexity of that relationship that I like it. Its how emotional, raw, psychological and dark it gets that fascinates me. The most intense emotions are usually rooted in darker parts of humans its why I like ep.7 ending so much the possession, desperation, anger and envy yet madly in love is so overwhelming that it makes you think and feel. Its fun to explore intense relationships but with added sweetness.

I like a little flavor in my ships. I like some toxicity thrown in, just as a treat, you know? I find "healthy" ships to be boring for the most part. Mostly because it's too easy, if that makes sense to you. There are no trials and tribulations that they have to overcome so their relationship is smooth sailing the entire time, and that's hella unrealistic.

Most shows don't know how to write healthy ships and keep them interesting at the same time. They have to pick a lane and they always pick the wrong one. Either they keep the ship healthy but it's so boring that no one gives a fuck about it or they keep including contrived drama that makes no sense whatsoever and it ends up ruining the ship altogether. Either way, we all lose.

If you ask me what my favorite relationship trope is, I love the obsessive and possessive. For example, Sib/Gene from Lovely Writer is a favorite ship of mine, yeah? But I can't stop thinking about the untapped potential that they had. The writers could have made Sib a helluva lot darker than he was and I wanted that. Sib was downright obsessed with and possessive over Gene, but they kept the show so bubblegum pop that we never got a chance to dive deeper into the darkness. The shit that Sib did was WILD and creepy but I was into it. If you've ever seen that series, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. They wanted to keep it sanitized and clean, but that show could have definitely made him darker.

The possessiveness of Kinn literally calling Porsche 'loose' because he didn't want anyone else touching him drives me crazy. This asshole saw red, anon. You just knew Kinn was holding back because he wanted to kill Vegas's ass so damn bad. Just the idea of Porsche entertaining someone else almost drove Kinn to insanity. I was like, yes! That's what I want! Give me more! I want Asshole!Kinn that refuses to even let Porsche leave the house because he wants to know where he is at all times.

[demonsfate]

Hi again! "Not only the whole "IF A MERE FATHER-SON QUARREL IS ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE WORLD, THEN SO BE IT" ---> I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this sounded weird from Jin's part. I completely agree that was his T6 personality. I truly hope we see good Jin again in T8 because I can't deal with another character assassination. I totally understand what you say about Xiao and Alisa's interactions, at times it seemed like ok this is important for the plot but how much of it do we need? Is not that I don't enjoy these two characters (Xiao is one of my faves), but I think the writing was just plain bad and all over the place. I can’t even remember what was the whole point of them spending so much time together 💀. Other than fighting over Shin(?) And yeah, Jin didn't care about hurting her which, again, kind of strange when you see him being so protective of her in the past??? Like you can be an ass but you can also care about your friends. Tek writers said NAH he's an ass with *everyone* and gives no fucks! Imo, I think his design in Blood Vengeance is a little weird. He looks young and grown at the same time. His neck area throws me off lol

Really, it felt like Blood Vengeance didn't really know what it wanted to be. With the whole Alisa and Xiao thing - it felt like they just wanted a cutesy slice of life high school thing with the beloved cutesy girls of the series - especially with fuckin LEE being like a teacher at the school??? And... g... Ganryu being the principal or something??? IIRC??? Which I wouldn't have mind if they did just create a full on silly Slice of Life thing that meant nothing but only for fun. But it felt like they also thought, "well... this is Tekken. We can't just do THAT, people want ACTION, and they want the Mishimas fighting" so they just came up with a contrived plot to get that rolling, and just to get some forced fight scenes going. And it all just became a boring mess and had the viewer wondering why they're even watching it or what's even really the plot of the movie.

I ADORE Xiao - a lot tbh. And tbh, I also liked her much better in Blood Vengeance than the anime, Bloodline. Whenever I complain about Xiao's characterization in Bloodline - people get critical of me and say "well we can't have her be a naive bimbo school girl!! that would look bad!!" And I could get into why I don't agree with that statement itself but it's not just that I didn't like that Xiao wasn't nearly as bubbly/cutesy in Bloodline - it's other parts of her characterization I didn't care for. And Blood Vengeance did her better and I'll say how -

in Bloodline, Xiao was able to DEFEAT fuckin Nina Williams - all on her own. A 16 year old VS a trained assassin. And yes, Xiao is trained, too - but not to kill, I'm sure not as harshly, and also not as experienced. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao struggled against Anna. This is much more realistic. As Anna is quite similar to Nina - trained assassin, more experience, and all that. And many argue that Anna is supposed to be the inferior sister in terms of combat skills. So, it shows just how fierce these sisters are against Xiao (who's 18-19 now, but still) Now this might be nitpicky as hell - but the scene where Xiao "attacks" Jin when they're walking to (or from) school. I guess because she didn't like how injured he looked, and he wasn't talking to her? But it just felt like an example of trying to make Xiao just a "cool female character who takes no shit!11!!" trope. Just because in Blood Vengeance, XIao was a very soft person who understood ppl and never pushed them around just bc she got upset. And in the games, she was also very caring of Jin and wouldn't do that. (hell, in the Pachinkos - she's even very gentle with Devil Jin, going as far to softly touching his face - she only attacks him in self defense.) Anyways - my point is, even if it is just a mere joke and nothing more - it felt very out of character for Xiao, and very forced. And one last example is that Xiao actually showed way more emotion for Alisa's "death" in Blood Vengeance than she did for Jin's death in Bloodline LMAO. Like she screamed, but afterwards - she just sounded more... angry at Heihachi than anything. In Blood Vengeance, Xiao showed she was angry at both Jin and Kazuya for why Alisa had to die. But you could really see her tear up, and crying about Alisa - as well as being gentle with her, and holding her mutilated body. There was a lot more emotion that could pull at your heart strings with Xiao experiencing Alisa's death vs Xiao experiencing her best friend's (and potential crush)'s death.

So, whilst I'd still rather watch Bloodline even if I did think Xiao was a better character in it - because whilst it was boring to me, it wasn't as boring as Blood Vengeance was. Nor did it feel as contrived - it just suffered from expositions and stupid writing choices.

I think the whole fighting for Shin thing was actually just an elaborate plan by Heihachi to get Kazuya and Jin together so he can kill them both and take the power of the Devil Gene for himself, as well as get back the Mishima Zaibatsu. Yes, you see - Shin had an elaborate plan and was playing 4D chess, but Heihachi had an EVEN MORE elaborate plan and was playing 5D CHESS. The thing about Jin in Blood Vengeance is that sometimes he looked fine. But many times he did kinda resemble more of a teenager in the face than his game counterpart does. It's hard to explain, I guess he just looked... more baby-faced, meanwhile Jin in games is "rougher" in the face. I rly don't know how to explain it SDSGJNDFGN.

The thing about Jin being an "ass" before is that whenever he was standoffish to his friends - it wasn't because he's just a jerk, it's because he genuinely cared about them. He apologizes to Hwoarang if he felt he broke a promise they made - he showed concern to Xiao by telling her the tournament is dangerous, and told her to go home. (And in Xiao's TK4 ending, he told her to follow her dreams and make them a reality) Jin may seem cold, but he really shows that he cares for his friends (and his coldness is also just another way to care because he doesn't want them hurt by his dangerous life, or his devil - who wasn't even really in Blood Vengeance lmao)

A good example of just how awful his character has become is in TK6 when he says this to Hwoarang -

or in King of Fighters mobile crossover when he said this...

(annoying little brat - they're literally the same age lmao - nearly the same height iirc) When in TK5, when Hwoarang got offended, and suspected Jin thought he'd found a stronger opponent - which Jin is quick to deny this.

Instead, just telling Hwoarang the truth - life has gotten too busy for him and he can't keep his promise of a rematch (which Jin apologizes for that - twice.) Had this been the Jin in TK6 / other medias, he wouldn't have apologized nor would he have denied Hwoarang's claims. He would've mocked him here. But no - Jin doesn't here because not only does he care about Hwoarang, but because he was also a good person. (Altho not gonna give TK5 all the credit, as they did kinda kickstart TK6 Jin - but who knows if TK6 was actually really planned)

But yeah - I'm just really hoping we see the compassionate, and caring Jin who struggles with his morality instead of the jerk Jin who doesn't give a fuck about anyone else or the world for no reason. He definitely seemed to be better in TK7. Because again, whilst it's hard to really say as he wasn't really in it much. But there was Miguel's ending where he showed remorse, and even wanted Miguel to kill him. (Whereas in TK6 when Miguel confronts him, Jin says "I don't need forgiveness from someone who's about to die.) And whilst they kept his "power is everything" (🙄) and "you're a joke" animations - they did remove his "fear the wrath of god" as well as the smirk pre battle ones. And of course, his determination to kill Kazuya in the end of TK7 for what seems like the better good. So I do strongly believe in TK7, they were already trying to do damage control, and make Jin back to being Better. I just hope in TK8 we get the full on good guy Jin we've always known. The actual Jin, not the cheap Kazuya clone LOL.

Tho I'm also hoping TK8 retcons TK6. At least Jin's involvement in TK6 - so therefore there can be something that can excuse his behavior, and ppl can STFU about him being a villain. Either go with my idea that it wasn't Jin, but just Devil Jin who had completely consumed Jin at the time - and everything he said about "helping the world" was just his way of trying to manipulate good people into siding with him on the war. Or, as I've had someone on here tell me before - have it that Azazel just practically brainwashed Jin. (Similar to how Ogre brainwashed Nina in TK3)

Anyways, this went on for toooooo long - but I tend to get rambly when it comes to Tekken SJNDFJGN

[santaclausdeadindian]

Sorry for doing it this way, I think OP deleted their post or blocked me like a mature, balanced person would, so I have to tag you in

@mr-laugh

Oh boy, lot to unpack here.

So you didn’t even know there were that many subgenres of fantasy, one of the most popular classifications of fiction on the planet... And you think you know enough to tell ANYBODY what classic fantasy is?

And where exactly I attempted to do that, huh?

If you don’t even know the most common subgenres of this vast pool of fiction, why are you jumping into this discussion? You just admitted you don’t know anything!

There is no discussion, there is a stupid ass post. Don't flatter yourself, you don't know jack shit.

Me not knowing what exactly are the precize subgenres of a genre of literature, which, btw, are completely arbitrary and for your information, sword&magic is a legitimate category, has absolutely nothing to do with what that post you were so keen on agreeing with above. It was you who said pretty much any classic fantasy is like that: some poorly written, self-indulgent and borderline racist.

Did ya read the link, buddy? Howard talked about knowing what burning black man smelled like. He was quite approving of these things! And the books are pretty racist, it’s not hard to see, unless you ain’t looking.

Yes, I started reading and by the end of the first paragraph I was convinced he was ahorribly racist man. And? Still doesn't change the fact, that for my 12 year old self, there was nothing racist about it. I definetly wasn't looking for it, that much you got right. If I'd read it again, I'm sure I'd catch on to it now, that I know what kind of asshole he was. So the implied racism would be there. You got a point for that.

Rugged individualism? It always amuses me how that argument always pops out of the mouths of guys who are aping what they’ve heard their buddies say. If ten thousand mouths shout “rugged individualism”, how individualistic are they?

Then you should amuse yourself by looking up why this thing crops up as of late. It's coming from certain, supremely racist yet unaware of it publications that claim ridiculous shit like "rugged individualism" is a hallmark of white supremacy, among other, equally laughable things, like punctuality. It's a joke.

Again, I will give Howard to you, if someone that racist writes a black man saving the hero of the story, I bet there was something else still there to make it wrong.

Conan’s not some avatar of rugged individualism.

Uhm, yeah, he pretty much all that.

He’s as unreal and unrealistic as the dragons are,

It's called fantasy for a reason, buddy.

but more dangerous because White Men model their ideas of reality on Big Man Heroes like him;

Glad you are totally not racist, yo!!! It's such a relief that White Men are the only ones with this terrible behavior of looking up to larger than life, mythic superpeople and nobody else. Imagine what it would be like, if we would have some asshole from say, hindu indian literature massacering demons called Rakshassas, by the tens of thousands, or some bullshit japanese warlord would snatch out arrows from the air, or a chienese bodyguard would mow down hundreds of barbaric huns without dropping a sweat, or some middle eastern hero would fight literal gods and their magical beasts in some quest for eternal life.

it's a poison that weakens us, distracting us from actually trying to solve the world’s issues, or banding together to deal with shit.

This is what you just said. It's up to the white man, to get their shit together, be not racist and solve the world's problems, because those poor other people's just can't do it. If we would just not be oh, so racist, then China would surely stop with the genocides they are doing now, or blowing more than half the greenhouse emissions into the athmosphere, the muslims would stop throwing their gays from rooftops or ramming trucks into crowds and would just start treating women as equals, India's massive rape problem would be gone, subsaharan African would be magically bereft of the host of atrocities committed there on a daily, yeah, you sure have that nonracism down, buddy!

A rugged individualist would be smart enough to realize that even the most individualistic person needs others; no man’s an island, and a loner is easier to kill.

Individualism doesn't mean at all what you think it means, it's a cluster of widely differeing philosophies that puts the individual ahead of the group or state, it's ranging from anarchism to liberalism and is also has nothing to do with my point.

Central Europe?  What, Germany?  Because let me tell you, historically they are SUPER concerned about race!

Germany traditionally considered western european, central europe would be the people stuck between them and the russians, to put it very loosely. We are equally nonplussed by the self-flagellating white guilt complex and the woe me victim complex of the west. We did none of the shit those meanie white people did to the nonwhites and suffered everyting any poc ever did and then some. We don't give a shit about your color, we care about what culture you are from and if you respect our values.

I’m an American from a former Confederate state; trust me, race is everything.  It always is.

No it really isn't. How old are you? Asking without condescension, genuinly curious, because if you are in your low twenties at most, it's understandable why you think like this.

See that hike? Do you know what happened at that time that made virtually all american media suddenly go all in with racism?

Occupy Wall Street, that's what. It's a brilliant way to sow victimhood and hate and desperation amongst the people who have one common enemy, the powers that be, the banking sector, the politicians, the megacorporations.

Can't really blame you if you are in your early 20's at most, you grew up with this bullshit hammered into you. If you are older, step out of your echochamber please!

If you actually believe, that mankind doesn't progress naturally towards a more accepting society purely on the merit of there being more good people than bad and sharing a similar living with all the hardships in life, seeing that our prejudices inherited by our parents are baseless, that's how we progress, not virtue signalling courses and regressive policies. I was raised as any other kid, I had a deep resentment towards the neighbouring nations, I said vile, racist shit against people who I actually share a lot of genes with, of which fact I was in deep denial about, and then as I gradually got exposed more and more actual people of these groups, I started to realize I was wrong and everybody should be judged by their individual merits. It works throughout the generations, my grandma was thought songs about Hitler and how all jews are evil in school, she legit thought all black people at least in Africa are cannibals and shit, my mother stillsays shit that would get her cancelled in the USA, and I will probably have a mixed race kid as we stand now.

This whole racism is an eternal problem is laughable and disingenuous and I am actually sorry for you that you feel like that.

Moving on. As for Dany, the “noble white girl sold to scary dark foreign man” is a very popular trope, especially in exploitation films, which Martin draws on much more heavily than most authors do.

No, he fucking doesn't. I already wrote a bunch of examples from the books you seeminly ignore willfully. First of all, she is sold to those olive skinned savages by a white man, who is a terrible, increadibly evil man. He want's to fuck the then 11-12 ish Dany so bad, she picks his slave most resembling her and rapes her repeatedly, "until the madness pass." He also maimes children and traines them as disposable slave spies by the hundreds. There is no boundaries colour here, GRRM prtrays all kinds of people as reprehensible, evil and disgusting. Just like you can find plenty of examples to the opposite.

What is he drawing from your exploitation movies exactly? He writes about the human anture, he writes about the human heart at war with itself, that's his central philosophy of writing.

ASOFAI is basically just a porn movie with complicated feudal politics obscuring it, which is probably why it worked so well as an HBO series (up until the last two seasons or so.)

There is no gratuitous sex scene in the books, the rapes are described as rapes, they are horrible, they are very shortly described and usually just alluded to.

The people commiting them are not put into generous lights and one of the single most harrowing stories hidden behind the grand happenings of the plot is a girl named Jeyne Poole, whose suffering although never shown, is very much pointed out, along with the hypocrisy of the people who only fight to try and save her, because they think her a different person.

Honestly, if you actually read the books and they came of to you as porn, you might want to do some soulsearching.Btw, the HBO series was a terrible adaptation, it immedietly started to go further and further from the books with every passing season and the showmakers made it very clear to everybody, that they didn't understand the very much pacifist and humanist themes of Martin. And neither did you.

We also get no indication Essos will eat it when Winter comes; hell, they seem to not know Winter exists, given the way people act, even though that is also unrealistic and weird.  Essos was just super badly designed, and Dany is a terribly boring character.

to be continued

[mercurytail]

Ashe

I just wanted to make a post talking about Ashe, her character, and her lore. 

A lot of this is culminated from my own personal context and views. So, if you disagree with anything, that's perfectly valid and you are 100% allowed to have your own opinions. I'm not sharing this to try and change anyone's mind. Just putting it out there for the sake of discussion and to share my own thoughts. (this is all very personal, please keep that in mind)

(I won't be commenting on race, sexuality, or relationships in this post.)

Ashe is a beautiful (tho sexualized and de-aged) portrayal of the classic 'Southern' femme fatale and a good counterpart to McCree in that aspect. She's got the attitude, the look, and the talk to match up to McCree in image in almost every way. I like the 'headstrong' female type. (McCree is also a stereotype; the sweet Southern cowboy with a heart of gold, a crooked past, and the charm to get out of anything.) 

As a person raised in the southwest of the usa, I am quite fond of my southern heritage. ( :I barring the fucked up moral stereotypes and other negative images that come along when thinking about 'southern' culture.) To see such a 'classic' portrayal in a game I love made my heart sing! I thought: "fuck yeah! I can relate to this character!"

Its personally a heart warming quality because it reminds me of my mother, grandmother, aunts and even adoptive family that were raised as fine southern ladies that don’t take no shit.

That said, my experience in being raised in the southern usa is my own.

Here in the 'South' at least in my experience ( I understand that this can also be seen as an over-generalization.) you are raised to believe family is important. Family is EVERYTHING.

Yes, you are your own person. You can choose what you want to do with your life. However, you are raised with a DEEP respect for your elders and family. (even if that family isn't blood). You don't talk about someone's momma, sister, brother, or whatever in front of them and get away with it.

Also, you do not disrespect your momma or grandmomma period. It's a common trope to 'stick to your family' or 'your roots' in southern culture media.

"Everybody needs a family - I don't care how tough you think you are. they should always be there for support. no matter what." This is a SOLID line. I was raised with the mindset of love and care for my family, loved ones, and friends wholeheartedly, no matter how 'bad' it gets or how bad they act. Dedication, if you will.

And these ideals are VERY visible and vocalized is southern society even if you aren't a part of any specific family. A good example is 'Southern Hospitality'. That old lady/grandmother that won’t let you go hungry or being raised with the mindset of helping each other out through thick and thin, even if its out of the way or giving a little more when you trade crops/goods with someone your close to.

So, Ashe KNOWS her family isn't Ideal (in the setting she's in) "Some people at lucky enough to be born into the perfect family."

Her parents are cast as nonexistent. Not there at any point. She is utterly alone with only her 'mute' butler as a companion. (fucking love B.O.B.) It also seems she had trouble in school. In the principal's office she is between two beat up boys where she seems fine herself. Also, she is alone, all the adults are pointing at her. No one is on her side.   

Now, Idk why because there is not REAL context to it but, I can make a couple of assumptions. Either she got into fights for attention or the boys picked on her and she stood up for herself - which also shows her "tough”ness. (if they picked on her there is a long list of reasons why but, the most prominent in my mind is the lack of 'family' she has. like: "where's your momma? ya ain't got one?" - this is all assumptions tho.)

Now, I want to ask "what does loneliness do to a person?" Well, you tend to do things to better your situation. Like act out for attention or find other ways to get that 'Family' bond.

I feel like this is a good spot to mention yes, she's rich as fuck. Yes, she had monetarily everything she could want but, is that really all she wants? As many can tell you, money doesn't buy happiness. It can't buy genuine love, connection, trust from someone...a lot of things that are essential for a healthy happy human being. I understand some would argue that money can buy a lot of other things but, given the context of 'classic southern' setting and all this family talk from Ashe herself, I'm leaning on the fact the money wasn't what she wanted or the issue.

(this is very opinion based) I don’t think it’s that she was ‘bored’, I think Ashe committed some small criminal acts in an effort to catch her family's attention. She finds she ENJOYS doing it. It fills all her tick boxes. This is how McCree comes to meet her. "a chance meeting with a local ruffian, named Jesse McCree, and an impromptu string of crimes committed together opened her eyes to her true calling." (there is no explanation for 'chance meeting' so, i chose to assume since shes shown alone at the police station in her origin story, she at least committed some small crimes on her own to begin with and this is how the 'chance meeting' happened.)

Crime gives her an avenue to what she wants; a purpose "Calling", friends AND with McCree it gives her a 'bond'. The first piece of her 'Family'.

McCree likes her intelligence and attitude. So, he takes the chance to get this well-off young lady on his side and they become partners, and gain a sense of sister-brother bond along the way. They meet others that join the 'Family' and then She, McCree, and her ‘Family’ founded The Deadlock Gang. Giving Ashe in a way what she's always wanted.

To me, If McCree was her first real 'Family' that she found. It explains really well why she would keep a picture of him around EVEN after twenty years. It hurt her deeply after he left/taken from her 'Family'. I could see her holding quite a bit of rage and resentment towards him (at least in the beginning). Somewhat reflected in their interactions in the short: "Doesn't always have to be this way Ashe." - McCree, "Apparently...It does." - Ashe. 

This alludes to a strained or rocky relationship. Idk if it is meaning always as in since they met or since McCree left or some weird in between. (If it were an in between woah... that opens a whole nother can of worms i'm not gonna get into in this post. 'possibly leaving him short on deals once they got big or without help when a certain sting happened')

Also, Even though she loses to the ‘Hero’ in the short because she is the ‘villain’ (I mean, who wouldn’t be upset if McCree lost in the short???), that doesn't make her weak. She is super intelligent and capable. Shown by her past. She’s smart and knows how to use her connections AND Shes the BOSS of the gang!

Anyway, that sums up most of my thoughts on Ashe. ^u^ I'd love to discuss more on it. If you disagree that's valid and as I said i'm not here to change your mind. I just ask you respect my view on it. I don't mind if you come along and discuss it with me, maybe show me stuff I didn't see or your views on it. It'll be fun!

[somanypetals]

ok ok ok. are you a spuffy fan? i feel like i've seen spuffy on yr blog and if that's not true then please ignore but i've been thinkin recently and i'm very interested in what you think/how you reconcile spike's attempted rape?? bc as a spuffy fan i love them together but i also can't ignore this part of their history in good conscience. was it ooc? was their relationship building to a horrible climax? i'm just very interested in what people think abt that writing decision

omg I’m sorry for taking so long to answer this, I wrote like half an essayand then firefox crashed and I got grumpy about it for a few days lol ;___;

anyway in short: do I ship it? yes. is my relationship with the shipcomplicated? fuck yes. can I reconcile the attempted rape? on a base level, no.on a character level, I am able to move past it but not look past it. on awriting level, I don’t reconcile it at all. was it ooc? yes and no,which is the interesting part

this got really long and I’m hoping that I can remember everything I wassaying before I had to start all over again (rip) but I’m sorry it got so longunder the cut

so I do still ship spuffy, but I have a really complicatedrelationship with it. I’ve shipped it since I was a tween, before I reallyunderstood the unhealthy parts of it (rape scene aside, which I was very clearon), and I’ve come to see those in a new light the past five or so years, butI’m still also someone who is very adamant about people being allowed to shipwhatever the fuck they want in fiction whether it’s unhealthy or not becauseit’s fiction, and at the end of the day I’m shipping something because I findit entertaining or interesting, not because it’s the paradigm of relationshipexamples. in fact most of the time it’s not, because I find most of thoserelationships boring on screen. so like, I do still ship it, but not the way Iused to?

 anyway, was it ooc? in terms of mythology canon I don’tthink it was ooc at all. spike had no soul, he was at a base level evil. I don’t think this excuses theattempted rape at all, nothing excuses it or forgives it, but it does explain abit how the spike who dressed buffy’s hand wounds at the start of the seasonwas the same spike who flipped a switch and attempted to rape her near the endof the season. spike never became “good” when he had no soul, he was like aferal animal on a leash. he learnt to play relatively nice with others andbecame fond of some of his owners, but he still wasn’t cured and if you tookthe leash off at the end of the day he would have bitten them. yes, spike lovedbuffy in his own soulless way, but he still had a literal, animalistic demoninside him (we even see in angel in over the rainbow etc. what the actual demoninside vampires is like at its base level) and no soul to control it—only theintellectual knowledge that some actions would get him in buffy’s good booksand some would get him in buffy’s bad books and so he kept it under controlbecause he wanted her and he also wanted to not be killed by the scooby gang.again: this does not excuse the attempted rape at all. nothing forgives it. butlike, it does explain why buffy and many viewers are able to move past it. Idon’t think that on a mythology canon level it was ooc at all, I think thatpeople just forget that spike was stillevil when he was being nice to buffy or dawn or joyce. I think that’s partof the reason it’s so hard to piece together whether spuffy really could workor be good as a ship, because the show never separates spike with a soul fromspike without a soul the way they did with angel. with angel it’s so clearlytwo different people, but with spike it’s a muddy mess of the same thing and ifyou don’t write spike with a soul differently to how you wrote him withoutone—how are viewers supposed to forgive him for what he did?

 was it ooc on a character level though? that’s a wholedifferent thing because that opens the can of worms of spike being ooc ingeneral. the spike we see in season four onwards is drastically different fromthe spike we see in season two, and I do think part of that is just plain oldcharacter development but I also think that part of that is due to them wantinga slightly different character when he became a regular? spike was almost woobified by his own writing team? I don’t thinkit’s anything like the character assassination of britta for example, and Iwouldn’t even call it character assassination, but I do think that at somepoint late during season three or early season four they decided they wanted aspike who was funnier, a bit more sympathetic, and a bit more worthy of being afan fave. it's less like character assassination and more like characteradaptation? I feel like they saw that james had this excellent comedicpotential and wanted to use that, and I’ve seen that with other characters onshows too. I think they had to bend spike a bit along the way to get the spikethey wanted and who they could have fun with. he went from spike the genuinelychilling villain, to spike the comedic relief, to spike the stalker, to spikethe coping mechanism, to spike the love interest…and it definitely wasn’t astraight line of development. they definitelyhad to bend the character along the way and lose some of what was thereoriginally and add some of what wasn’t there. and like, it’s not necessarily abad thing, like I fuckin love comic relief spike and I can totally understandwhy they might’ve been like “fuck this james guy is good we want more of that”,but I do think that on a character level they ended up with something that wasquite frequently messy. if you’ve taken this villain and woobified himyourself, then even if he is still evilit’s not surprising that people are surprised or find it ooc for him to attemptto rape buffy because they made him a puppy with a temper instead of a wolfwith a playful streak, and then suddenly his fangs come out again. andobviously to a degree that was the point of it, to remind viewers that he wasevil and he wasn’t good and buffy forgot that, the scoobies forgot that, everyoneforgot that, but at the same time if you woobify a character that much doesthat point land? or does it just become ooc? I think a spike in love with buffyand protecting dawn and getting flowers after joyce died could be consideredjust as ooc as a spike who attempted to rape buffy. he became a bit of a messycharacter if you really think about it for too long, and they never separatedhis soulless state from his soul-having state enough to keep track of it

 so anyway, on a character level I’m able to move past itbecause I think at the end of the day��spike didn’t have a soul when it happenedand he was written kind of weirdly over the course of the show but I still likehim. I move past it as a viewer because I wantto move past it, and because I find the spuffy relationship interesting (yet Istill want more/better for buffy always? man, I said it was complicated hahah)

 NOW, FROM A WRITING STANDPOINT

 bullshit bullshit utter fucking bullshit.

 why though? well apart from the reasons I’ve already mentionedabout kind of messy character writing and it being impossible to tell whichparts of spike are ooc or not…………the attempted rape scene was not about buffy,before during or after it happened

 they wrote it as a gateway to spike’s redemption arc. theytraumatised their main character, this beautiful female character and one of mytop favourite characters of all time, to boost a man’s redemption arc, andthat’s just fucking awful and we’ve seen it too many times and buffy doesn’t deserver that bullshit.

 now I don’t know whether there’s a solid answer on whetheror not spike went to that demon at the end of season six to get his soul or toget his chip removed, but it also like…doesn’t matter, lol? I personally alwaysread that scene as he went to get his chip removed so he could kill her, andthen the demon was like lol psych herehave a soul! which I think also makes it easier for me to move past theattempted rape, because then it didn’t literally lead to him choosing to go have a redemption arc andbecome a better man for her, but like a lot of people do read it the secondway. and either way!! it’s a crock of shit!!

 not only did they put in this scene so they could kickstartspike’s redemption, instead of picking some other non-rape or non-violence againstbuffy related plot point to lead to him getting a soul, but then they sort ofmade it all about spike in season seven too?

 they do address bits and pieces of buffy’s trauma afterwardsand how it impacted her, but way way too much of the focus was placed onspike’s guilt and spike’s wanting to fix it and how it impacted spike etc., sonot only did they have buffy almost raped to kickstart a man’s storyline, butthey barely focused on her trauma over the “trauma” of spike and that’sjust…fucking awful. like it makes me so mad and it makes me feel so gross.

 as a writing decision I think it’s sexist, disgusting, lazyand unforgivable and the biggest fault with what is literally my favourite tvshow of all time lol (you wouldn’t think it is from this rant?? but it is?? andI like spike and ship spuffy??? god this is a mess) and I think it was probablythe worst fucking writing decision on all of buffy (and this is the show thatkilled tara, a literal lesbian angel)

 and honestly……the fact that I am aware of and think it’s theworst writing decision possible almost makes it easier to move past from acharacter standpoint? because it was a bad writing decision, it takes some ofthe weight off of spike’s actions for me and I’m aware that it was stupid and grossand it would’ve been better if spike tripped and accidentally fell into a gravethat had a stray soul in it that he inhaled.

 I don’t know if that makes sense, in fact I don’t know ifany of this makes sense…but it’s like: spuffy is interesting. to me they havechemistry, they have narrative and trope appeal (even though it wasn’tfulfilled, or wasn’t fulfilled right), they are two characters I likeindividually, and so…I continue to ship it and enjoy it despite the horriblefucking bad writing decisions that went down in season six. I know that evenwithout the attempted rape season or even without season six it’s still anunhealthy ship and it’s problematic (and I want better for buffy at the end ofthe day), but it is at a base level to me entertaining, and that’s what I likefrom my ships

 god this is almost two thousand words I’m so sorry I have alot of thoughts and I had to rewrite half of this so it’s really, really scattered and confusing butlike…yes I ship it, no I don’t think the attempted rape was a good writingdecision, no I don’t excuse or forgive it but I do move past it

 and in answer to what other people feel about the scene andship….it’s really divided lol, a lot of people feel like I do, a lot of peopleprefer bangel, a lot of people prefer spuffy, a lot of people can’t look pastthe rape at all, a lot of people look past the rape too easily, and a lot of people probably don’t know what to thinkor have no strong opinions lol

 god

this is two thousand words I’m sorry

[ourimpavidheroine]

Hello favorite author of mine! Here's a question that you don't have to answer if there are spoilers involved (and if so I'll ask again later, but I can't help but try now because I'm NOSY): I know you've said that Qi just appeared on the page while writing the 5 Times fic, so at what point did you realize what Qi's future in relation to Wu and Mako would be? Was it prior to writing ASoSaA?

So because you are you, I’ll give the long answer instead of the short one!

There may be some mildish spoilers ahead - so read or not as you please.

I’ve said before that I have set myself some challenges as a writer. Please Excuse My Penmanship was me tackling the dreaded letter fic (and there are still some people who will not touch it with a ten foot pole because of it) and I decided early on that Wu as a character would do really well with a first-person diary format (even though, again, there is a lot of hate out there for first-person fanfic and people won’t read it because of that). 

LoLo was planned, absolutely. I wanted someone for Lin, and I wrote that character specifically as someone I thought would be a good match for her (or at least my version of her). All of the kids were planned as well - oh, there might have been some waffling about names (I went back and forth between Poppy and Lily for a long time but in the end I think Poppy suits her better) and even gender (Goba was supposed to be a girl but I just kept writing “he” over and over again and finally gave it up and let him be the boy he so clearly wants to be) but they were planned. (It’s why I know so much about Sayuri as well as Ikki’s kids). Naoki was written as my way of trying to take a character like Azula - a brilliant prodigy - and put her into a loving and supportive family, and see where that would take her. Would she be boring if she didn’t have that villain arc? Or didn’t have a redemption arc like Zuko? Could I make her the best bender of her age and still make her real? Likable? A character people resonate with? A character that people want to read more about? That was my own challenge when it came to the Butterfly, right down to making her a firebender who will eventually be jumping right into a Chosen One trope.

I had characters that were supposed to be relatively unimportant just take off. Nuo is a fine example of that. I was going to write about Wu searching for a secretary but realized it would bog the story down. (Wu’s recounting of it for Iris in AtWtPHM was my original idea that I had to scrap.) So I had to create this secretary for him out of nowhere. She was never meant to be as instantly engaging as she was; there was no plan at all to have Wing fall so hard for her. She quite literally just started happening in Dear Diary; I just got the fuck out of her way and let her run her part of the story. (It’s always best to let Nuo do that anyhow.)

Baatar Junior is my redemption arc, of course. His attraction to Ikki kind of hit me upside the head and I was like…no way! This could never work! CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. (He was also a gift for my betareader - he’s her favorite character of all of mine, and so I knew I had to do right by him, as difficult as he is. And he is! He’s the most difficult of all of my characters, canon and OC alike, to write.)

So that leaves me with my Qi. That scruffy kid of non-determinate gender who showed up sitting in the chair next to a hungry Mako’s desk. As I’ve said before, I never planned for Qi. Qi just showed up on the page and I let them. I had no idea what was going to become of that kid; they took over the story like Nuo did, but in a totally different way. I realized very early on who Nuo was and what her future would be - she was going to stamp her way right into Wing and Zaofu’s heart. 

But Qi? 

Qi was a slippery little koi fish. I could never quite grab ahold of them - I tried to determine gender and it just wasn’t happening and I realized to myself that it was because this kid was actively rejecting gender and I knew I needed to let that happen. I did not set out to write a nonbinary character the way I did a trans character (and yes, I have an OC that is trans that not even my betareader knows about yet, because they will be coming out as part of the storyline). Qi made themselves nonbinary and as a writer I had to respect what the character wanted for themselves. And that’s how it has always been with Qi. I realized early on that this character wanted to write themselves and I made a conscious choice to let that happen instead of planning things out for them. How would this work for me as a writer? Would it be a red hot mess? Or would the character just keep unfolding, like a flower? Hopefully the latter. 

My betareader can tell you that there have been several times that she has read something and said, Wait, I thought Qi was going to that other thing instead of this! And all I can do is shrug my shoulders and say, I know! But what can I do? Qi tells their own story. Qi doesn’t really care all that much for my careful planning, either.

It was during AsoSaA that Qi let me know that Qi was actually in love with Wu - that it had gone way past the mostly grateful crush that Qi had been sporting for Wu for years. Qi also made it clear that there were feelings for Mako as well. And it kept going from there. Qi’s changes as Qi gained confidence and an understanding of their place in the world - the learning to read and write, changing the accent, the true and unique fashion sense - were never planned. I just let Qi lead the way. There a few things I do know about Qi’s future; one or two things that are set in stone already. But Qi IS a slippery koi and just when I think I have grasped something about them they are out of my hands and swimming somewhere new and unexpected. I’m just following along as best I can. So what I’m saying to you is that I still don’t know what all Qi’s future holds for them. I really don’t. Qi will tell me when Qi is ready to as Qi always has.

I’ve had some questions from readers about the whole polyamory thing. Ikki is in a traditional Tibetan fraternal polyandry relationship; I wrote it deliberately that way. (So to be clear: There is no incest happening. Baatar and Huan are not sleeping together and they won’t be having any threesomes with Ikki, either. I’m not kinkshaming, it’s just not what I am writing.) It’s why the folks in Baidi Village are completely fine with the whole thing - it is the cultural norm for them. Because of this, their relationship is never going to cause much comment up north where the temple is. (That is obviously not the case elsewhere.) I am not writing my fic for kids and I have unlimited time and space for it so I can delve into some of those more traditional and geographical influences far more than Bryke ever could, of course. Most ATLA/TLOK fanfic relies heavily on Chinese and Japanese influences; I wanted something different. Asian influence, of course, but something outside the mainstream. Thus Baidi village was born.

My Wu, on the other hand, has been strongly influenced by Imperial China. Which the canon Wu was as well, of course. The Earth Monarch was clearly based on that. I’ve run with it. (I’ve researched and then talked so much about Imperial China that I finally sat down and re-watched The Last Emperor with my son. The movie does have its issues, of course, but it’s meant a whole lot of really interesting dialogue about racism and colonialism with him.) It makes me want to throw my hands up into the air and kick people when I get the comments I do about polygamy. “I’m not into it” or “The characters would never do that” or even “This whole thing makes me sick to my stomach.” Polygamy is a real thing in many non-western cultures. The ATLA/TLOK universe is not set on our Earth; it is not Asia, but rather Asian-influenced. But I will tell you one thing it isn’t, and that’s Christian. Western Judeo-Christian influences do not apply. Wu being a King in a dynasty that was clearly based on Imperial China would have had a consort and concubines. It’s just how it is. He’s not the king any longer, but he is a prince, and in his mind, having more than one partner is not only normal, it is to be expected. Qi obviously just swam their way right into that!

So this is my incredibly long-winded way of telling you that I really can’t nail down a specific time when Qi told me they were going to have a relationship with Wu and Mako! I still haven’t written the whole Qi and Mako thing out because Qi just hasn’t gotten around to telling me what it is yet. I am sure they will. When they do, I will write it down for the rest of you!