#I would put all of the characters but that's so many

[definitively-different-drivel]

Guarantee that everyone everywhere makes someone somewhere uncomfortable, so like, deal with the discomfort of the fact that the world is varied and the things in it are varied to provide for varied tastes and ways of being and maybe celebrate the fact that so many incomprehensible weird things can bring joy to people even if they aren't for you.

Because not everything in life is for you and that's ok.

You would have to be a pretty selfish childish sort of person to expect all the breadth of life and experience in the world to only cator to your individual outlook and preference, you know?

Besides. If I live in a world where small talk makes me deeply uncomfortable and socializing with strangers is stressful but the world expects me to anyways, then you can put up with things existing that make you uncomfortable too.

It builds character, as they used to say.

from the bottom of my heart: just because something makes you uncomfortable doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed to exist

[svetamillss]

omg I love your writing, can you do one with squid game characters seeing the several bruises on your body that you have been trying to hide pls?

Headcanons: their reaction to your bruises🩵

Featuring: Cho Hyun Ju x Reader(f), Thanos (Su Bong) x Reader(f), Se Mi x Reader(f)

Summary: you studied at the university. And often faced bullying. Many guys humiliated and beat you, which caused you to have bruises that you tried to hide.

A/N: Thank you very much for such a charming order! I hope you liked what I wrote!

🩵🩵🩵

Cho Hyun Ju

You didn't want to tell your girlfriend anything about it, because she had her own problems because of the transition to a girl. That's why you tried to hide all your bruises.

But you couldn't do it forever. After all, you sleep in ordinary pajamas, which opens your skin of your feet and hands well.

And because of this, the following situation occurred.

Ju was already lying in bed when you quickly came running and covered almost with a blanket, it worried her.

- Did something happen, baby? Why did you hide from me? - she asked, looking only at your head, which was looking out of the blanket.

- I'm just cold, don't worry.

- Hmm..but now the weather is hot..and you often started wearing warm clothes. Maybe you're sick??? Then don't cover yourself up so much!! - the girl said excitedly, removing the blanket from you, you tried to stop her, but nothing came out, she defeated you.

Pulling off the blanket, Hyun Ju noticed a lot of bruises on her arms and legs, her face turned pale sharply.

- Baby... Why do you have so many bruises??? - you had no choice but to confess everything.

After your story about being beaten at the university, Hyun Ju got very angry, preparing to deal with your abusers at such a late time, but you barely stopped her.

- No one will dare to touch my baby with a finger. Tomorrow I will go to your university and deal with everything. And I don't care if they look at me askause, I won't let them touch you.

Your favorite girl will definitely deal with your abusers, that there will be no wet place left from them.

Thanos (Su Bong)

In your opinion, the guy was not the one who would worry about the problems of others, even if something happened to loved ones.

That's why you decided not to tell him anything, but just put on clothes with long sleeves so that nothing could be seen.

But you didn't take into account the fact that Su Bong is quite observant and quickly notices changes, especially if they concern you.

You were going to go to the movies. You put on a long-sleeved sweater again, not paying attention to the fact that it was quite hot outside.

- Are you a fool? - he asked rudely, entering the room, seeing how you were dressed.

- What are you talking about?

- Have you seen the weather outside? Why the fuck are you dressed like in winter? Go change your clothes! - he was worried about you, although he showed it in a different way, you decided to take a chance and admit what was going on.

- I can't dress openly yet.

- Why else is that?

And you told him everything, from the beginning to the very end. His face changed with each new word, from neutral to more evil.

- WHAT THE FUCK?! WHY THE FUCK WERE YOU SILENT?! - he shouted, but you understood that he was not shouting at you, but because of the whole situation.

- I thought you wouldn't be interested..

- Fuck! You're completely crazy! How could you think that?! It makes me very angry! That's it! Tomorrow I will go and kill everyone who touched you. I'll do everything so well that they won't suit you anymore. If, of course, they stay alive.

You couldn't refuse him. Although, even if you refused, he would still do his own thing. After all, he loves you very much.

Se Mi

The girl worked very hard, so you didn't want to burden her with your problems.

But Se Mi was very attentive and therefore immediately noticed that you began to wear baggy clothes, although you usually wore more open clothes.

- Honey, have you decided to change your image? - she asked, laughing a little, when she saw you in a huge sweater.

- I just decided to experiment.

- When you lie, your ears turn red. - she said, after which you immediately covered your ears with your hands, realizing that she caught you.

The girl came close to you and said in a stern tone:

- Undress. I have to see what you're hiding from me. - you blushed from her words,but obeyed and showed all your bruises.

The girl gently stroked the places of your bruises, silent for a long time.

- Se Mi?

- Who did it? - you explained everything to her, she was angry, but tried not to show it to you.

- Don't hide it from me anymore. Tomorrow I'll deal with everything and everything will be fine.

Se Mi never throws words to the wind, she will help you cope with everything. She won't care that she's a girl and go deal with the guys, your safety is the main thing for her.

🩵🩵🩵

[unluckilyimnot]

Friend trying to win your bf over/talking shit behind your back

Characters: isagi, sae, rin, karasu, nagi

Note : I did this for a request but I'll do it with more fandom (genshin and windbreaker), so tell me if anyone want one with a character in particular (hc / one shot...) or another fandom

Tr ver.

m.list | rules

Sae

Sae's not there to be fucked around or around people he loves

So let's just say that your friend looking down on you will only happen once 

He hates the way she interrupts you to talk about her own feelings or point of you to HIM 

Why would he care about someone else? 

"Nobody cares. Go on, Dear."

He's not scared to speak for everyone since he clearly realized she's trying to steal time and space from you specifically 

He's the type to just stop listening to her of answer her – not that he paid much attention before 

It's almost boring how quickly he reacts, but he can't accept someone hurting you when your his everything 

Rin

Same as Sae, he's not open to other people and rarely care about them 

He's less blunt though

He doesn't really like your friend for the start but he'd almost admire her persistence if it wasn't turned against you

He's lost count of how many times he just sighs at her face or side eyes her to death when she's trying to be better than you 

He'll generally put up with it if you can defend yourself but he also turned her down a lot when he's tired of it

He's impressed how quick you shut her up the second she tries to touch him though

He hates it and you can't put up with that, she can try to look down to you in front of your bf but she can't step too close in his personal space

Rin convince you to cut her off after that

Yoichi

Does realize what's she trying to do but LATE 

He really thought for a long time that she was just trying to be included and to get to know what he liked so he wasn't left out

He also told you that you were exaggerating the few first times you mention her attitude 

It honestly put your relationship in danger bc he couldn't get himself to push her away when she got a bit too close to him or he ended up listening to her more than you 

It took his friends to mention her weird attitude around you two, PLUS you yelling him to open his eyes before he finally get to realize she was like this only with him 

And how much she looked down on you on every chance she had 

He's more than quick to turn her down after that and oh gods, he's doing his best to regain your trust

Karasu

He's not buying her overly cute and harmless behavior but still let her a chance 

He also get the chance to understand why you think so low of yourself, with friends like her around 

He's careful around her, staying close to you, paying close attention to you and assuring you that you're doing enough when she tries to push you down 

He's sick to see that she's always trying to get close to him even if he brings every conversation to you, even if you're not here

He push her away before you get the chance to do so, and then insisted for you to cut her from your life 

Nagi 

He's honestly not interested in anyone but you and his few close friends, so let's say it doesn't go the way she wants to 

She can talk to him all she wants, he's not listening, he doesn't even realize it's for him 

He only thinks she's full of herself and boring to be around 

You're probably annoyed and frustrated at first, and you talk to him about it

But when he tells you that he find her so boring you can't help but laugh and let her do so much before cutting her off 

But not before nagi told her himself that she's so boring he wants to leave every time he sees her

Let me know if you liked it !!

[mlthree]

(tf141!reader x simon riley)

simon riley was amazing at hiding his facial expressions.

keyword, was. as in had been, as in the past tense.

he learned from an early age how to do so because of the family he grew up with, but once he got to the military and put on that mask, his skills slowly began to fade away. he needed some way to convey his emotion other than shooting guns and giving death stares.

so his brain adapted, erasing years and years of learned stoicness in his facial muscles. after all, if he decided to raise his eyebrows, purse his lips, or tighten his jawline — it would be hard for one to tell. not that many people had the guts to look him in the face when he was talking, anyways.

and then came you. he was even worse at hiding it when he was around you, which was fine, because the mask was doing all the work. but when that mask came off and you got to see his face, the first ten minutes told you all you needed to know. you were a good enough intuitive to be able to read his eyes, but when the rest of his face was added in the equation, you felt like you were watching a pixar character react to anything you said.

“si, do you want to watch la la land tonight?” his face contorted as if he had smelled milk gone bad, and you couldn’t help but laugh. “so that’s another face you’re hiding under the mask?” “no. just the face i make when my girlfriend wants me to sob myself to sleep tonight.”

“lovie, how the hell did you get yourself into this situation?” he kneels beside your rather uncomfortable cot in the med bay, his shaky hand taking hold of yours. his eyes are full of fear, darting all over your face, his eyebrows furrowed, and you can tell he’s biting the inside of his cheek. “i’m okay, si.” he clenches his jaw, unconvinced. “promise.”

“si, hey, listen. it’s okay. i’m here.” you’re coaxing your lover into deeper breaths, watching the terror slowly fade from his face when he realizes it was just a nightmare. in the dim light of the lamp you can see his eyes wide with terror, lips trembling ever so slightly. you move your hand and cup the side of his face, his eyes instinctively shutting while he leans into your touch. “thought i lost you.” you pull the timid giant towards you, placing his head in your lap and smoothing out his hair. “‘m right here, si. don’t worry.”

simon isn’t stupid — it didn’t take him long to realize why you could read him much quicker with the mask off. it scared him. being vulnerable like that scared him. he had half a mind to retrain himself to be unreadable again — but something about you stopped him. something about the way your smile just made everything feel lighter, even when the world was coming crashing down. something about how instead of trying to break his walls down you’d wait patiently behind them, knocking every so often to get him to let you in himself. something about how you radiated warmth, how everywhere you went the mood was instantly uplifted. and in the face of all of that… how could he not want to be seen by you?

⁀➷ more

[tc-doherty]

I have been known to talk about this before but ooooh it really grinds my gears

I get that people explore all kinds of things, and different things can matter in different ways to people and that is all fine! But I hate it so much personally. For a lot of history (mostly talking about Europe here, but a lot of fantasy is 'based' on Ideas About Europe), it wasn't built into the infrastructure to Be Queer. It wasn't necessarily an identity, so much as a set of behaviors people engaged in. But at the end of the day, most people still needed to go get married and have children so they could actually survive.

I'm not saying nobody engaged in queer behavior, they absolutely did! A lot! And for a lot of history it wasn't even an issue. In the eyes of the church, sure it was a sin, but so were SO many other things like, you know, all premarital or extramarital sex in general. And having sex for reasons other than procreation.

Very rarely was there any aspect of identity or community similar to what we have nowadays. And there was also a very different understanding of gender and sex and behavior, which is all super fascinating to explore and gives you lots of ways to deal with this in fiction!

In some places, queer behavior was expected, but to be grown out of, or only in certain circumstances. In many places it wasn't an issue as long as you still did what you needed to do for your family (i.e., getting married and having kids). I've even seen this attitude still reflected in modern society in some places - listening to an interview with a lesbian woman in China whose family members basically told her "get married, have kids, get divorced, and then you can do what you want to do, no one will care at that point"

If you go look up the laws of Hammurabi* there four specific rulings about male/male sexual conduct that bring up some really interesting things about the society. About who owes who what based on what role they play, and what it might say about them, and anyway if you were upper-class and also the bottom and then decided you didn't like it, you could literally sue someone for fucking you as like......deformation of character, basically? Hilarious! Queer history is great and fascinating! There's so many ways to approach it!

People can do whatever they want, but queer as an identity (neutral) just doesn't really show up in my work. It doesn't seem right to me that my characters would talk about themselves like that, or that their societies would be built like that.

And it just doesn't do anything for me personally to have modern queer frameworks put into non-modern settings.

*It was a while ago that I was doing this research, so it is possible that it wasn't Hammurabi specifically but a similar legal code from the same period. But, you know.

he would not fucking say that but it’s he would not fucking talk about his queer identity like he was reading out of a college campus lgbt center brochure

[tempo-takoyaki]

Transmigrator!Hua Cheng AU (aka SVSSS x TGCF AU) | I mean technically it's an AU but I wrote it in a way that would make it fit as HC's POV throughout TGCF, so AU or theory? Take that as you will | Warning: Canon Compliant Violence, Suicide ideation, Implied non-con (not between Hualian and never actually happens here)

"A Tale of Three Princes" was Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky’s latest novel. Unlike his previous success, Proud Immortal Demon's Way, ATTP (as it was called by the fans) was a renowned  masterpiece. Far from the stallion novels Airplane readers had been used to, ATTP was more akin to one of those classics that would be taught over and over again throughout  the centuries. What made it so peculiar though was the narrative device used to tell its story.

ATTP was not in fact a single story, but three, set in the same universe, centuries apart. The three stories were updated one after another daily, by chapters of ten thousand words (as Airplane readers were used to). Which meant that the readers had no idea how each story ended before being swept up into the next...

Which also explained why Zhu Qiang did not know any of the three endings when he got reincarnated into ATTP.

It had been just another terrible day for Zhu Qiang when he died. He had found a quiet spot in his school's stairwell to unwind and read the latest update of ATTP when his bullies had found their way back to him. He had put up a good fight, maybe too much, as he could still remember losing his footing and falling head first onto the stairs. When he had opened his eyes, it was not to the stairwell's ceiling, or even a hospital, but a busy street where people in ancient clothing looked at him strangely.

After a few minutes, he had put two and two together relatively quickly. He  had transmigrated in none other than the second story of ATTP, also called the Xianle Arc. As for which character he was supposed to be... He had no idea. When he had asked the system about it, it only flashed him a [System has encountered an error. System update…] which was not helpful in the least. Despite his more introverted personality, he had no other choice but to ask around… And the answers came relatively quickly: “It’s the monster child!” “Get away you fiend!” “Disappear!” With a sigh, he came to the realization that unlike many of those popular transmigration novels, this life wouldn’t be too much different from his previous one.

He hadn’t been the best looking guy back in his hometown, at least from what he knew, and people had always bullied him for it. This time around, he had no mirrors or phones to confirm what others said, but he supposed he wasn’t much different. (Though to be fair, even back in his previous life he had always carefully avoided mirrors and photos, he couldn’t even recall what his own face actually looked like). Once the system had finished its update, it tried to give him some helpful directions to survive, like where he could find food or shelter, but any questions about what character he was supposed to be were left unanswered. (All that he knew was that he was about ten years old). However, he finally got access to his stats (after days left to his own devices) and he almost choked on the spot.

“MINUS THIRTY-SIX ON LUCK?! WTF?!”

The reason for  these god-awful bad stats? A passive skill called Eye of Misfortune which reduced his own luck by a hundred points, and the one of surrounding people by fifteen percent. Completely unfair… But it explained people’s glares and insults. Again, with no mirror to look for, Zhu Qiang had no idea of what that Eye of Misfortune actually looked like. But at this point, he had understood that the best way to stay on the down low was to hide it. Usually, those types of novels would then introduce a special ability only the protagonist could have to solve his main issue and become a total badass… But asking the system about it, for the very first time, it seemed to express an actual tangible emotion.

[System apologizes. There has been an error. UV003 has no special ability attached to this vessel besides Eye of Misfortune and Demonic Heritage.]

Ah, yes Demonic Heritage. Another passive skill that actually was useful, unlike the other, as it made him less receptive to pain by fifty percent. He supposed it was linked to Eye of Misfortune in some way… But again how could he know when he’d apparently spawned out of nowhere with a backstory he wasn’t aware of? As time passed, the hope of bettering his life slimmed down until it seemed barely believable. 

He had no parents to take care of him. No home to find shelter in. No prospect of finding a job with his “deformity” as people called it… Only two months went by before he called it quits.

If he hadn’t died in that stairwell, he probably would have jumped from the rooftop of his school. He wasn’t afraid of death, he had hoped for that prospect for many years prior to reincarnating. But reincarnation hadn’t been kinder to him. It hadn’t offered him a life he could change, one he could better to prove he was worthy of something, anything. The system flashed him warning signs, but fuck it, he was tired. So tired of playing into God’s hand. 

[Major Event Activated: The Last Parade of Xianle.]

At the top of the castle’s wall, he could remember the first chapter of the second story of ATTP. “His beauty was beyond compare, his stance the one of a mighty warrior, and his gaze behind the mask: determined, fierce, and maybe even sly in his own childish way.” (Chapter 2 of A Tale Of Three Princes) He was too tired to go on, but if he had to go one last time, he wanted to see the prince, his favorite character, before doing so.

Once he saw him in his golden clothes, Zhu Qiang took a step beyond the edge and…

…

[Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! Great things must be said three times! You have successfully changed the plot "The Star of Bad Omen" into "A Fateful meeting"! Character role changed from "Canon Fodder" to "Side Character". +100 B-points!]

… Uh?

He was cradled into a pair of strong arms, holding him tight against embroidered robes despite his dirty appearance. He heard the sound of a wooden object hitting the floor, and he looked up. There, with the most gentle eyes he had ever seen…

[New Character Unlocked: Xie Lian, Prince of Xianle. Second protagonist of A Tale of Three Princes.]

Zhu Qiang wanted to strangle the system with all his might. Finally, finally he knew which character he had been transmigrated into: THAT ONE STUPID KID WHO KILLED HIMSELF DURING THE PARADE OF XIANLE, CURSING THE ENTIRE COUNTRY IN THE PROCESS. WOW. That one child who had no name but haunted the entire second plotline of ATTP. Never named but always present, the curse of the city, the failure of its inhabitants, a character full of symbolism but no actual practical utility to speak of… No wonder his luck stat was so low and the system did nothing to make up for it!! He was born to die!!! 

That alone, pissed him off enough to reschedule his suicide at a later date. If he had to die he wanted it to be by his own hands and his own choice. If the system wanted him dead, then it was no better than his bullies back in his previous life! Besides, he was already laughing in its face, because he had been held by the Crown Prince of Xianle, a beauty amongst beauties, the most perfect and fascinating character ever written (in Zhu Qiang’s own biased opinion as a 16 year old).

What happened afterwards though was embarrassing to say the least. First he had been found out by Qi Rong (that bastard traitor, he had always hated him even when he was only a reader) who had beaten him to a pulp (he was so thankful for Demonic Heritage at that moment), then Xie Lian had saved him (yay!) and he had taken care of him (double yay!) and then he and his subordinates had asked him questions (fuck).

“What’s your name?” He doesn’t know. “What does your mother call you?” Uuuuh people said his cursed eye was red so maybe… “Hong…Hong-er?” “How cute!” Nailed it. “Where are your parents?” Damn, he wishes he knew! “I… ran away from home.” “Poor boy…” He would have felt awful if it weren’t for Xie Lian’s gentle hands and his soft smile. Any lie in the world was worth it if it allowed him to see him. He was however, feeling very uneasy in the presence of Feng Xin and Mu Qing, Xie Lian’s two closest servants and friends who were eyeing him as if he had a bomb hidden under his clothes. Especially Mu Qing, the last chapter of ATTP about Xianle he read implied that Mu Qing was about to betray the prince, and so Zhu Qiang (now renamed Hong-er) didn’t trust him one bit.

But even so… After that awful cultivator told him he didn’t deserve to live (and god did he already know that)... Xie Lian took him in his arms and said he wasn’t a monster. No matter how ugly his sobbing was, no matter the reason for his misfortune, Xie Lian, unafraid of him, held him and told him he was not a monster… that was more than anyone had ever done for him in two lifetimes. And for the first time in a long time, Zhu Qiang cried.

He already knew he was a curse on legs, and so no matter how thankful he was, he couldn’t extend his stay. He knew what sort of character he was, if he did, things would only get worse for Xie Lian from then on. And he didn’t want that for him… And then Xie Lian ascended.

It was a miracle that he stayed alive for so long. His saving grace? Not Xie Lian’s temple he had built himself and took care of. No. It was beating the other street kids like they had beaten him up before. Hey, no judgement, those weren’t modern times, the worst that would happen is some other kids coming back to get revenge and then he could whoop their ass over again. Uh? He was an adult beefing with kids? That’s a detail, system, buddy! Let him enjoy this miserable life of his that had not improved one bit in three years besides that!

[+32 exp point. User has obtained a new success: Child Beater. Congratulations… (-_-)]

Now it’s just making stuff up. Anyway, life was going, that was it. Every day was the same: go in the fields to get a flower for the crown prince’s statue (not only did it make him happy, it also raised his Faith stat!), pray, take care of the temple if need be, take leftovers from one of the big houses in the neighbourhood, beat other kids up when they came to provoke him (or steal his food), go back to the temple to pray (again), clean it up (again), steal food (again), beat kids (again) and sleep where no one will see him (...again). It was fine the first year. The second, it had become redundant, the third, he was wondering what the heck he was doing. Beating kids raised his stats slowly but surely, but becoming stronger wasn’t his goal. What he wanted… And that was it, he didn’t know what he wanted. And after three years, doubt made its way in the cracks of his broken heart: he lived so he could spite the system for attempting to kill him… But was it worth it? 

Xie Lian was a god now, and with his shitty luck, was he going to live long enough to even see him for the upcoming civil war? What was the point of it all in the end? He wasn’t supposed to live. He had never been meant to live at all… So why…?

“If you don’t know what to live for, then live for me.”

[Class upgrade: Beggar -> Soldier. Skill update: STR +15. DEF +13. CHAR +5...etc]

[New passive skills acquired: Blade of Xianle, doubles the amount of exp gained from killing humans. Demonic Heritage II, the might of your ancestors give you +20 to your Strength and Speed.]

[Major event coming soon: Land of Tender, Land of Loser.]

Reading about the Land of Tender had been excruciating. One of the main criticisms towards ATTP was how downright cruel some chapters were towards the main three princes. Each had one specific traumatic event that would shape them up for the rest of the story, their own fall from grace. In the case of Xie Lian… It had been the Land of Tender.

Unlike his previous novel Airplane hadn’t romanticized what happened at all. It was so raw and so awful many readers had considered dropping the story right here and there, Zhu Qiang had been one of them. It was the start of the fall of Xianle, marked by this cruel beyond humanly possible event.

Now, standing straight with his sword in hand, Hong-er faced the flowers. He couldn’t let them close, he knew what would happen if he did. It’s the exact reason for why he had followed Xie Lian in the forest to save Qi Rong even if he hated him. If he gave up, if he wavered for just one moment… Never could he forgive himself.

And then the flowers changed appearances, and laughing, they took the face of the Crown Prince.

Back when Xie Lian only used to be a character in Zhu Qiang eyes, he admitted he looked at some fanarts or some skimpy fics about him, sometimes even watched videos imagining it was him. Face with the real deal, he had vowed himself to never see him again as some sort of forbidden pleasure. And yet those flowers had seen right through him… Maybe they had all been right, his bullies, his parents, his teachers, the villagers, everyone… Maybe he was a monster.

“You’re not a monster,” he had clinged onto those words for years. But his palm against the white skin of his prince, he felt his devotion waver. He thought it was faith, he thought it was fate, now… he wondered, hadn’t it all been in the name of lust and obsession? When Xie Lian left, and he asked for him, he reminded himself of why he shouldn’t have gotten closer in the first place: he was a jinx.

Mu Qing kicked him out of the army after this event. There was no point in arguing with him. No matter how Hong-er told him he was the one at fault for abandoning the prince, the only acknowledgement he got from him was a slap to his face and his insignia snatched out of his hands. And back to the street he was. He wasn’t beating kids anymore, no point to that, he would destroy them at the first occasion. His stats were high thanks to how much he had killed (Paper men, he reminded himself after washing the blood off his hand, paper men). There was the epidemic too. Since he was immune, he got recruited to take care of the transport of the ill. The grotesque faces made him want to puke, but it hadn’t been the worst he’d seen at that point.

He saw Xie Lian one last time. And then another time, his eyes closed, holding the pagoda… And then Xianle fell. And he was back to beating kids up to protect the temples he rebuilt.

“I’ll never forget you!!” His one reason to hold on in two lifetimes.

He died in Xie Lian’s temple, stabbed by Qi Rong, not without smashing his head in retaliation. Heavens, he hated that guy. He laughed low and quiet, the system flashing his health bar lowering and lowering. And then… As he had expected it, everything faded to black.

[GAME OVER. 2/3 life left, start again?]

Wait… HE HAD SPARE LIVES???!!

[Class update: Soldier -> Malice. Base stats changed from Human to Ghost. Passive skills still active: Eye of Misfortune, Demonic Heritage I, Demonic Heritage II, Blade of Xianle...]

[To continue…?]

(I don't know if I'll do it in multiple parts or not, if you like it I'll continue. Other than that, here's the tweets that started it all:)

(I added one of the replies mentioning that it could explain why his writing is so bad because I hadn't thought about it when I made my first tweets, but looking at his writing in adaptations and comparing it to how modern chinese students write... You can see similarities.)

If you enjoy the concept you can add onto it in the replies, the reblogs or send me asks!

[anthurak]

Having been rewatching some of Ice Queendom lately, I’d like to talk about something I really wanted to discuss after the series wrapped, but haven’t gotten around to until now.

Namely, the shows use of Jaune, and specifically how it’s one of my biggest issues with the anime.

Now talking about this is somewhat complicated because I don’t have any issues with how Ice Queendom presents and writes Jaune directly. In fact I was actually pretty IMPRESSED watching the show at the frankly keen understanding the writers seemed to have of Jaune’s character and what he’s meant to represent.

Namely, that Jaune is a massive subversion of so many classic male fantasy-hero protagonists. He’s NOT some cool, badass fighter and whenever he tries to be one, he gets his ass handed to him. Instead, he’s able to show his real strength by supporting and helping others.

And there’s a bunch of great subtle details like how Jaune’s dream weapon being this flashy, oversized sword that he just cannot fucking use not matter how hard he tries is just the PERFECT metaphor for his character in the early volumes. A weapon that represents all the ‘big strong hero guy’ expectations Jaune believed he had to live up to at the beginning of the show but is actually IMPOSSIBLE for him to use because that’s NOT what he’s really meant for. And the one time he IS able to wield that sword is though the assistance and support of his friends, namely (dream)Pyrrha, which in turn provides a great hint towards his still-dormant semblance.

Instead, the real issue I have is that every time I look back on Ice Queendom and see Jaune, I can’t help but ask myself ‘Why is Jaune even here?’ Specifically, WHY does the story need Jaune to be Team RWBY’s ‘guest party member’ to go into Weiss’s dream to rescue her from the Nightmare?

Now sure, they bring up the idea that Jaune having just been possessed by a Nightmare basically ‘inoculated’ him to the Grimm and could allow him to be undetected by the Nightmare possessing Weiss. But let’s be real; that’s a justification, NOT a true narrative REASON for Jaune to be going into Weiss’s Nightmare.

Because what actual connection does Jaune even HAVE to Weiss that would give him a thematic reason to be going into her Nightmare? He’s not on her team and they only even met a few weeks ago. Especially given that IQ even removes almost all references to Jaune having any kind of big crush on Weiss. During Ruby’s first visit to the nightmare, we see what Weiss thinks of him:

Lumped in with Nora, Ren, Cardin and literally everyone else she doesn’t have time or patience for.

So what’s the actual narrative potential of Jaune joining Ruby, Blake and Yang to save Weiss? How can he tie into the story of Weiss’s character and Ruby’s, Blake’s and Yang’s attempts to free her?

Simply put, he can’t. And so he DOESN’T. Instead it feels like the only reason Jaune is here is simply because he’s the most prominent supporting character in the franchise.

And the REASON this sticks out to me so much is that I can’t help but think that a different character would have made a far, far BETTER option to join Ruby, Blake and Yang to save Weiss:

PYRRHA.

I mean, the reasons for Pyrrha going into the Nightmare to help Weiss kinda write themselves, right? From minute one it’s clear the Weiss idolizes Pyrrha, and it’s really all but outright stated she has a huge crush on Pyrrha. It’s only natural that Ruby, Blake and Yang would go to her for help getting past Weiss’s emotional defenses in the dream.

Like I think it’s easy to imagine how Ruby might happen upon this idea: In her first entry into Weiss’s Nightmare, Ruby could note that Jaune, Ren and Nora are all in ‘Silly Jail’, but Pyrrha notably ISN’T. And later while scouting or perhaps while fleeing from Weiss, perhaps Ruby catches a glimpse, far off, of Pyrrha within the walls of Weiss’s castle, perhaps looking out a window.

And when Ruby mentions this to the others, Shion could comment that this means that Pyrrha is special to Weiss, and thus keeps her memory ‘close’ to her. At this point we’d probably get Yang chiming in with a quip about how Weiss ‘Hasn’t exactly been subtle about that.’

Then of course, one of Ruby, Blake or Yang hit on the idea that if they brought Pyrrha into the nightmare, she might be able to get past Weiss’s defenses much more easily. Something which Shion confirms to be very likely. From there, RBY seek out Pyrrha for her help much like what happened with Jaune. But with the difference being that Pyrrha being some kind of ‘secret weapon’ feels FAR more natural based on what we already saw in the show up to that point.

And from that point on, I feel like it’s kind of obvious just how well Pyrrha would fit into the narrative and both Weiss’s and Ruby’s character arcs. Like I joked about a ‘White Rose/Schneekos Love Triangle’ while the show was airing, but that’s kind of exactly what we see potentially set up in the first three episodes of IQ:

Weiss is clearly massively enamored with and idolizes Pyrrha, while Ruby really wants Weiss to like her and be friends with her.

And placing Pyrrha into the nightmare as a major figure alongside Ruby, Blake and Yang for Weiss gives the perfect opportunities to play Pyrrha and Ruby off of Weiss. Exploring what Weiss being so enamored with Pyrrha actually means to her, what that could mean for her feelings about Ruby, and how Ruby and Pyrrha could get her to confront those feelings.

Imagine the story making a point about Weiss having essentially put Pyrrha up on the constructed, idealized pedestal instead of knowing the actual Pyrrha, and then contrasting this by showing that Ruby actually embodies so many of the traits Weiss idolizes Pyrrha for.

Which in turn has Pyrrha being the one to help Weiss realize that.

Not to mention on the flipside, this change would give us a lot of Pyrrha and Ruby interaction. Which I think we can all agree would be VERY fun and interesting.

I mean just picture Ruby really wanting Pyrrha’s help to save Weiss, while also clearly repressing a fair bit of insecurity and maybe even a bit of jealousy over how enamored Weiss is with Pyrrha, which in turn leads to a meaningful and cute conversation where Pyrrha gives Ruby a much-needed pep-talk while also diving into Pyrrha’s own well-hidden insecurities and generally revealing just how similar these two really are.

Which in turn perfectly plays into Ruby’s journey to save Weiss across Ice Queendom.

Finally, there is a more subtle, but perhaps most meaningful reason why I think Pyrrha would have made a much better option over Jaune:

For as well as Ice Queendom writes him, we really don’t learn anything new about Jaune that we didn’t already know. The fact is, we know Jaune pretty well after the (at the time of IQ’s release) eight volumes he’s had in the show.

So what if instead of a character we’ve already spent all this time with, what if Ice Queendom focused on a character we only had three volumes to get to know?

A character who, unlike Jaune, Nora, Ren or basically any of the other supporting characters at this time in the story, is no longer around to get focus or development.

Simply put, Pyrrha being the member of Team JNPR to get the most focus in Ice Queendom would have been a chance to explore and develop a character who we simply DON’T have opportunity to do so in the series proper.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hello! Hope your day is going alright. I was wondering if you have any advice for when all characters feel the same? Despite having different core traits and mannerisms, when I write them it always somehow ends up feeling like they're copy pastes of one another to me. I noticed that I've been having a hard time with giving my characters agency too which led me to wondering if that isn't causing the former issues.

Thank you for taking the time to run this blog and help so many people, cheers!

Writing Notes: Character Identity & Agency

Identity chart. Example:

What parts of themselves are influencing their decisions in your story? Familiarize that part of their identities.

Try to maintain the truth of the group and to simultaneously think of your character as an individual.

Thinking about why your characters behave the way they do and why they make certain decisions is important to writing a good story.

The plot moves along because of the decisions your characters make.

Be honest with yourself and what you know and don't know, do some research and ask for help, you'll create more authentic characters that way.

Your Character's Agency. Some writers prefer to map out their story but allow their characters to help lead the story.

This technique is more often used by "pantsers".

A pantser is a term most commonly applied to fiction writers, especially novelists, who write their stories "by the seat of their pants."

The opposite would be a plotter, or someone who uses outlines to help plot out their novels.

Many writers fall into one camp or the other, though it's not uncommon for writers to try both methods from book to book.

Author Victoria Schade describes giving her characters agency:

...I kept stressing out about a specific plot point I couldn’t untangle, and over time my characters slowly revealed the answer to me. It wasn’t an “a ha” moment, it was a gradual realization, and when it all came together I couldn’t help but think, “It was there the whole time!” But that’s the beauty of letting characters have agency and giving them an active role in the writing process—they surprise you!

It pays off to let characters have agency, she has found, particularly in the drafting process.

WRITING TIPS. When creating a character, try to understand them so that their actions and words are consistent with their personality and history.

Who we are is at least partly hardwired, inherited from parents and grandparents.

A lot of those characteristics like how extraverted or introverted someone is, how open or private they are, how conscientious or empathetic or neurotic they are is there in a child’s brain.

Knowing those basic characteristics could help you understand where a person has come from.

But those traits are plastic; they are moulded by experience and especially childhood.

Writing a backstory for a character helps the writer make certain that even confident social behavior (from an introverted character) is different from the social behavior of an extravert.

No personality trait is better than another, extraverts don’t have easier lives than introverts, conscientious people don’t do better than slapdash people.

Everyone struggles with their own nature in the wrong settings.

Of course, writers delight in putting them in the wrong settings.

Understanding motivation is crucial to developing a character, most writers do this automatically.

They may have a plot-driven goal (solve the crime, deliver the ring, marry the hero), but they also have

personal motivations (revenge against a killer, loyalty to comrades, love or loneliness).

Example: You don’t want a shy, lonely character to suddenly propose a karaoke night, because the reader won’t find it believable. Maybe she has to be talked into it, dragged even!

When creating main characteristics, it’s worth jotting down a personality sketch and basic history.

Smaller characters are just as important.

It's okay if you don’t delve into their history much, but you don’t want them to be stereotypical characters, just ciphers for the plot.

These smaller characters are great opportunities to reveal something about the main character, as they are seen through their point of view.

Example: A confident person meeting a surly waiter might challenge them, or ignore it. An anxious person might blame themselves.

We are interested in people and how different they are from us.

Stories of extraordinary life experiences draw us in.

We want to learn about personality traits that we don’t understand, like psychopathy or obsession, which explains the popularity of true crime books and fiction about murder.

Human beings are varied and interesting, we like to understand what they do.

A death, a divorce, a lost job, a miscarriage, all lead to a fresh start—it’s a brilliant trope, because we all experience them in our own lives.

Characters are revealed to us as they struggle and adapt, make new choices, build new relationships.

People don’t move on cleanly; they trail the past around with them for years.

Allowing a character to experience doubts and fears going forward makes them more relatable, more realistic.

Our senses produce a lot of memories.

The most evocative are smells.

We can activate memories from our childhood, even babyhood from a scent.

Example: Smoke from pipe tobacco can evoke someone's grandfather, who they hardly knew because he died when they were just a toddler. But the smell could bring back the sound of his voice and his bristly beard, huge leathery hands.

The "Read a lot" Writing Tip:

Read psychology articles and real-life stories, just to enrich your fiction.

As writers, we collect stories.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Thanks so much for your kind words! Try some of these tips and see which ones work for you as a writer, or perhaps for that specific story you are currently writing. Some writers don't find it necessary to give their characters agency, but it can work at times. When characters start to feel "the same", one technique is using charts like this, or templates, just to help with keeping track of your characters' traits and further differentiating them from one another. Hope this helps & have a lovely day/night as well.

More References for Character Development

Some Writing Worksheets & Templates

[zorilleerrant]

I have a theory about this actually!

Okay, so, we've all seen the writing advice of 'just get the first draft done; it's easier to revise than write' and I do think that's mostly true. I just think that people come at it from two different angles, and nobody bothers to give different advice, even tho these are basically opposite problems from each other.

One group writes the first draft for The Vibe. And what they do is basically only voice - they get really distinct characters, settings, snappy dialogue, probably a decent amount of storybuilding. But their stories are either way too short or way too long, usually, and they don't always go in the right order. The second draft of these is just So Much Structure. At this point they might write an outline and move all of the scenes around.

The other group knows exactly what they want to happen. And so they write something that's probably beat for beat how the story should be shaped, with the plot laid out exactly how they want, only changing a few plot holes along the way. But there's only a ghost of thematic elements, not much interiority, and all of the places and people and times have a real placeholder vibe. The second draft is to start differentiating them, giving them motivations and ways of interacting with the world of the story.

But with editors being so much more pressed for time and the writers having their own crunch deadlines, people don't get to the rewrite stage. Or they only have time to get through the first pass of the rewrite, essentially the rough sketch stage. There were always books like this, but I think we're seeing them more, and more from experienced authors.

With TV it's harder to see the same type of problem, because the scenes can be rearranged after they're recorded, and because actors will put a lot of themselves even into very samevoice characters. But, still, we're seeing a lot more of this type of complaint for TV and movies, too, not just books. They're under the same type of timecrunch, even tho the system works really differently; if it were an education or training problem it would probably crop up in ways that didn't look so similar.

This is why I think another type of book that's appearing more and more is one with really well thought out characters and interesting motifs, but the pacing is just wildly off. It meanders. It's way too long in parts and too short in others, and often it just ends abruptly. Or tacks on way too many epilogues. It's not that it's too long overall, but just that your memory of the story and when you try to look at it, the elements don't look the same shape.

Anyway I think these are two sides of the same coin, and caused by the same problem. But there's only so many people who can hire freelance editors for their work.

another writing pet peeve that I'm noticing more and more is, voice.

So... the words you pick, express more than just their meaning? I've noticed more and more in books published a kind of wooden? overly formal tone, a lot of words to impress your SAT tutor.

Particularly in first person the words you pick the way your character speaks and thinks and the words in which they do that, tell us the readers things about them. Are they smart are they good at school, bad at school, not articulate, etc you can tell me a character likes poetry without ever mentioning that they read it by how they express themselves.

and oh btw if you have two characters in dueling narrative, I should get a distinct difference between them, two different people shouldn't be written just the same way, how they talk and think should be different.

[marscantread7]

Don't feel like doing that fancy shit w/ the pictures and borders and colors, so js headcanons I have for Sy and Xav and YOU! The reader, not mc. So basically Xavier and Sylus x regular, avg citizen reader. Ig for info. Ur a college student working some normal job js to pay off ur tuition. Like a barista or sumn. Not doing fast food, bc I'm currently a drive-thru worker at a fast food place and I cannot put my self insert character through that😭💔

Sorry abt the other LIs😭💔 I'm tryna get rid of my drafts so I'm js gonna do my two favorites for rn💀💀💀 I'll come back to this concept w/ the other three at a later date

Xavier

- he's suupppeeerrr overprotective of u. Bc like, ur not an evolver at all, and u have no sense of urgency, so like anytime there's fluctuations in the area, or even a wanderer appearance, he's teleporting u far, far away

- He loves helping u study for exams >_< and like, for ur online classes, esp if it's a gen ed class that isn't important to ur major, he will do ur assignments for u and even take tests and quizzes

- "Brings me back to the good ol days🙂‍↕️"

- He will have u bring home recipes for the new coffee ur shop has for a limited time so he can practice making it. He really loves (to try) cooking for u ans even if his croissants come out a little burnt, u enjoy it either way.

- u actually live in a dorm bc unfortunately u can't afford an apartment😓💔 Xavier always gets nervous when he's there bc "what if ur roommate says smth?" And ur js like, "She's always bringing smb new over. I promise u, she will not gaf abt me bringing the same boy over everyday."

- he will always make sure to visit the coffee shop everyday to get breakfast or lunch, and even drop off a treat for u.

- "Saw this fresh banana bread and brought u a few slices"

- keeps u in the dark abt everything involving protocores and wanderers bc bless ur soul! Ur too curious for ur own good and would definitely try to do ur own exploring

- he's caught u one too many times looking up the N109 Zone and has scolded u for it.

- oh yeah! And nothing against u, but he refuses to tell u that he's Lumiere bc of how curious u r. And crazy. U would definitely try to hunt him down to get exclusive pictures for ur Lumiere blog💀💀💀

- "Omg Xav!!! Look at this new Lumiere post? He's so cool!"

- *Xavier trying to keep his cool* Yeah. I bet he is😅😅😅

Sylus

- ur more chronically online than he originally thought when he first met u

- "What would u do if when he okay, so u said yes would go?" "Darling, what the FUCK r u talking abt rn?"

- he's trying so hard to convince u that u don't need to work and he can js pay off school for u

- "Crow man. Listen. I get ur super, mega rich, but u might not always be here to support me. I also feel like less of a burden on u. At least w/ my own money I have that security and assurance that I can still support myself if things don't work out between us, or if smth happens to u." "Kitten, I get that, but for the time being, I'm truly not going anywhere. Why don't u js let me pay for everything and u js put all ur money in a savings. I truly don't mind letting u use all my money, I have more than enough to spare."

- gave u one of his apartments to live in so ur not in those janky ass dorms.

- He refuses to let u step foot inside the N109 zone

- "Ur lucky ur even alive rn. If I hadn't caught u snooping around all those months ago-" "Ugh! Live a little? Aren't u all abt living life ln edge?"

- has to hide his motorcycle from u bc for some reason u know how to hotwire different vehicles????

- Mephisto always snitches on u when ur up to no good

- Srsly, bless ur heart. Ur such a curious soul, and Sylus HATES it. He's genuinely surprised on how u have made it this far in life bc the amount of dangerous situations he finds u in

- "So u knew the energy fluctuations in this area were high and u still decided to go???" "I've always wanted to see a Wanderer in person" "😐"

--------------------------------------------------------

Haha😭😭 js Starcrow w/ a regular ass reader who has no sense of danger LMFAOOO. Kinda half assed the end of them bc I'm js trying to clear out my drafts rn while I have a burst of writing energy rn

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi! I'm trying to get into writing twst fanfiction, but I'm having some trouble with keeping the boys in-character. What do you think are their base traits? Like, what's the foundation of their personalities?

Hello! I spent a long time debating about whether to respond to this ask or not. Ultimately, a lot of the thoughts I would include in my response are the same as what I have already expressed here. However, I've noticed that this has become sort of a recurring issue, so I'd like to address this more seriously.

I've recently been getting a lot of people requesting that I basically tell them how to write the Twst characters. Tens and tens of them, in fact (too many to include all in one post). Sometimes it's an ask like, "please list out strengths/weaknesses or a summary of their character traits", and sometimes it's more specific like, "here is a prompt I am working on; how do you think [character] would act in this situation?" I'm NOT comfortable with either type of ask and refuse to answer asks of this nature.

I want to be clear: this is NOT the same as asking for general writing advice; this is literally just asking to be spoon-fed the answers. There is a difference between seeking advice on how to overcome writer's block or asking what are techniques to show, don't tell (which is general writing advice) versus asking someone to specifically instruct them on how to write Leona Kingscholar from the hit Disney mobile game Twisted Wonderland. The former is okay with me, while the latter is not.

While I am flattered that people care about my opinion and hold it in high regard, I am not here to be a cheat sheet, and nor are my opinions the "most correct". There is no single "correct" way to write a character, and even if there was, it's certainly not mine. Only the Twst devs themselves are the "most correct", as whatever they produce is what ends up as canon.

As I have said in my previous post on this topic, having someone else tell you how to write does little to help you. Writing is a skill, and skills are not inherent. They are something you train in, practice, and learn. Looking at a bunch of adjectives will not help you write or understand the characters any better than you currently do. If anything, it just means you don’t develop or practice your critical analysis skills. In a worse-case scenario, it devalues what a writer does, as it places the burden on them to condense what they know into a laundry list of characterization--as if it doesn't take us tons of time to hone those writing skills. The only real way to get the results you want is to do your own research, develop your own interpretations, and practice, practice, practice. There is no magic pill or shortcut or streamlining or easy way to do it and come out with a quality result. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to learn a skill, and that extends to writing, be it for this fandom, another fandom, or even for non-fandom writing. Think about it like this: when you're writing a good research paper, do you go and ask a single other source to gather all your data and summarize it for you? Of course not. You have to go out and manually collect the resources, do the reading, take notes, and gain an understanding of those resources. Then you use your newfound knowledge to summarize and to synthesize your own conclusions in your research paper. The same logic applies for writing in fandom.

I'm not sure why there is this sudden interest in shortcuts. Is it social media shortening our attention spans? Is it the rise of A.I. like ChatGPT making people more reliant on and more comfortable with summaries? Is it that people are concerned with nailing characterization or instant success the first time around? Is it that the internet's so much crueler with comments + feedback that we want to avoid OOC-ness as much as possible? Is it that I just so happen to like talking about character analysis so people think I must know everything? It could be any of these reasons or a combination of them--but whatever the reasoning is, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's concerning to me that it seems like people are becoming less and less interested in thinking for themselves and instead are increasingly reliant on others telling them how to create. You NEED to fail and get stuff wrong. You NEED to be able to have the courage to try things on your own. Don't be afraid of failure--failure isn't inherently a bad thing, it is how we learn, grow, and shape our own styles and ways of thinking! I definitely was not perfect when I first started out. I had to fail and stumble and struggle to get my craft to where it is today. So did every single one of your favorite creators. Artists had stick figures, writers had their first words. No artist or writer started off making masterpieces. Arguably, they still don't. Every creator is continuously learning and trying to improve their craft. It's not as though they hit perfection one day and decided to stay stagnant. I feel that it devalues what we make when we try to boil down all the skill we've developed into easy "answer keys" for others to digest. Again, you can ask all you want and seek out as many shortcuts as you like, but that's not going to be properly absorbed into your brain unless you walk the walk for yourself. You can't assume that learning these things will be as easy as reading a summary, memorizing a tutorial, figuring out what brush someone uses, etc.--it wasn't for the people you're asking for this advice from either. Failing is normal and expected. You will also never be able to create something that pleases everyone or something that everyone agrees with--so instead of trying to appeal to an unseen audience, please focus on creating what makes you happy. You have your own creative journeys ahead of you, so don't be scared to walk that road! It can be tough and you'll hit roadblocks and challenges--but overcome them, and you'll become even stronger and more skilled than you were before.

Best of luck!

[olderthannetfic]

This has been said before but really I do hate AUs with burning passion. All kind of AU's. High school AUs. College AUs. No Powers AUs for superhero stuff. 'film I liked so now I will replace the film's characters with my blorbos and just copy the film script' AUs.

I don't go on the authors page and yell about this obviously but every time I see a widely popular fic being an AU it just kills something inside of me.

It is especially apparent in this new big anime fandoms. MHA is filled with these. Do you even care or do you wanna put the ship you like into a jock/nerd dynamic that doesn't even suit them? I wish there was an easy way to filter it all out and never engage with it and mute people. Because the way this popular AU fanons eat away and take so much space is really exhausting sometimes. I would love to even start a "No AU" community or something but people will call me all sorts of things.

--

This is an evergreen complaint from readers.

Honestly, I think these things are popular with writers only half because they actually like the fanon and AU and half because many of these AUs are way easier for them to write than more canon-adjacent fic.

[wormtoxin]

"And one specific iteration of this is that during the 60s and 70s, among certain feminist thinkers, the idea arose that before Judaism brought monotheism to the world, the patriarchy didn't exist. This is absolute historical hogwash."

"And it's only within this framework, this conspiratorial antisemitic framework, that the idea that the Jews are lying about a figure from Jewish folklore, for whom that folklore is the only source, makes any sense at all, and it's only within this framework that Gentiles taking that figure, divorcing her completely from her folkloric roots, and then worshiping her as a goddess, would even be appealing."

I found this to be really disingenuous, and went and read some of those original texts. During the 60s and 70s, these "certain feminist thinkers" were, themselves, Jewish.

I found, in no particular order:

Lilly Rivlin's 1972 article "Lilith" for Ms. magazine.

The Jewish feminist magazine Lilith, founded in the fall of 1976

jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow's "The Coming of Lilith", a feminist "contemporary midrash" published in 2005.

American poet and professor Enid Dame's poems titled "Lilith", "Lilith's New Career" and "Lilith and Her Demons"

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb's theatre piece, "About Lilith", discussed here in an interview with Judy Waxman from Veteran Feminists of America in 2022. I really like this quote about the piece's use in her community work, so I'm going to post it in its entirety:

"I created a theatre piece called, About Lilith. It’s a very funny piece, and I performed it thousands of times. And in this piece, Lilith, as the old story goes, as we learn from Judith Plaskow in particular, Lilith refuses to be on the bottom. And rather than put up with her domineering mate Adam, who wants her to be on the bottom, she flies off. And I had a lot of fun with this story, and I used to create workshops. What would happen if Lilith met Eve?

I did that hundreds of times, and I tried to create a safe space for women to explore issues of agency. Because issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse on the preventative side can happen if women feel more agency. That’s one aspect. Especially young girls, if they have the language to feel like they can resist and they know how to keep themselves safe.

Another component is the question, “What resources does the community have that can assist women?” So, in Albuquerque, where I was a rabbi for 25 years, I’m still rabbi emeritus there – Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I founded my own community. That’s something else I learned from feminism. It’s a lot harder to reform…it’s almost impossible to reform, actually. I realized I needed always to start with a clean slate, and I could build an infrastructure from the foundation that was equitable. That was really the only way for me, and I believe for many people, to not spend years banging your head against the wall, but rather just from the beginning to create that space."

Jacqueline Lapidus' poem "Eden", which "imagines a lesbian encounter between Lilith and Eve. Using the Lilith legend, Lapidus invents an origin story for love between women."

"Scholar and author Ohad Ezrachi frequently writes about Lilith as a split-off sexual component of women, an image created by men fearful of a full relationship. He encourages men and women to see Lilith and Eve as the same person."

Rabbi Jill Hammer's article for myjewishlearning.org's "Women & Feminism" section, titled "Lilith: Lady Flying in Darkness". This is the article I've been quoting above. I like this article's final few lines, which I'll quote here:

"While some disapprove of this widespread embrace of a former demon, Lilith’s rehabilitation makes sense. The frightening character of Lilith grew, in part, out of repression: repression of sexuality, repression of the free impulse in women, repression of the question “what if I left it all behind?” As modern Jews begin to ask questions about sex, freedom, and choice more directly, Lilith becomes a complex representation of our own desires."

Both of the articles I read (which I'll link to below) acknowledge Lilith's place in contemporary folk Judaism as a demon, with references to the practices sometimes employed to keep her away. This confirms the second paragraph written in the post above.

To respond to specific parts I disagreed with:

Gentile feminists are not responsible for the so-called "feminist reclamation" of Lilith. Being actively Jewish themselves, these authors, poets, and academics, theologians, and rabbi probably did not, in fact, give rise to the idea that "before Judaism brought monotheism to the world, the patriarchy didn't exist."

I agree with you on the whole that it is disingenuous and antisemitic to claim that "jews are lying" about the figure lilith, or in most any context. I also think it's academical disingenuous to claim that "Jewish folklore is the only source" for Lilith. The article and encyclopedia I discuss above and link below show that, outside of folklore, Lilith is also interpreted and conceptualized through the lenses of Jewish feminism, Jewish poetry, Jewish theology, Jewish history, and Jewish literature.

Works Cited:

“Lilith is part of a closed religious practice” except it’s not appropriation to worship her as that is not practice what is within the closed practices of judaism :) Lilith is not an exclusive figure! Lilith is open

So according to your logic, it's okay to worship Lilith because she isn't worshiped in Judaism so therefore worshiping her isn't cultural appropriation. So if I a completely non-Native American/First Nations person were to start worshiping the W*ndigo, that would be completely fine, and not at all cultural appropriation, and not deeply fucked up, because W*ndigos are not worshiped in any of the cultures that have them as part of their cosmology and traditions. And I'm sure that the people from the various cultual groups that originated the W*ndigo, who tell me that doing that would be deeply deeply fucked up, and culturally appropriative, are just wrong and harshing my squee.

Don't incorperate Lilith into your practice if you aren't Jewish, and worshiping the demons from other cultures is no less culturally appropriative because they aren't worshiped in their home cultures. Hope that clarifies things! :)

[magnusunpopularopinions]

I'm not sure how unpopular of an opinion this actually will be but let's go:

I think people over inflate how bad of a person Elias actually is, and in comparison, treat characters like Basira, Nikola, Gertrude, etc much more softly. Don't get me wrong, Elias isn't the best person and his morals are questionable, but they're questionable because he hasn't been human in a good 150 years. His behaviour is in line with every other avatar we see, if a bit more held back violence wise. He only purposely hurts anyone if he feels it interferes with his plan (Which many Main avatars we see attempting a ritual don't do, like Nikola or even Peter in his day to day), or alternatively, puts Jon in an awkward position information wise. The way he handles Jon's ascent into becoming the Archivist isn't even that manipulative. It's less straightforward, yes, but he has his obvious reasons for it (Wanting Jon to Know and See and Understand without having it be explained to him, which would end with him relatively weak and vulnerable). The reasons themselves aren't Great for Jon, but otherwise, he handles himself in a very passive and socially acceptable way. He doesn't go through with doing anything about Not!Sasha, not because he didn't want to, but because there was literally no way he could have fired her or done anything to her without it being a tiny bit suspicious and causing a bit of an Archival uproar. Not doing anything about Prentis was his own fault, I'll be real, but I think he may have genuinely underestimated the amount of worms there are and I doubt he actually considered that the table may house the Not-Them, as he seemingly didn't expect Sasha to be taken. On top of that, him being all 'mysterious' during the Unknowing was just him having issues trying to figure out what he can or can't give Jon to help him figure things out because he genuinely can't Know these things due to the conflicting nature of the Stranger. Otherwise, all of his points of interest are very Avatar based. He eats, he works towards his ritual, and he works with others to make it happen. All things that other avatars do, that don't get overinflated into being fully 'evil'

TL;DR: I'm an Elias enthusiast and think he's just following his nature as an avatar, even if that mainly affects Jon and the archival team (Saying this as I'm relistening and nearly done with s4 lmao)

Thanks for sharing! Let’s chat!

I see what you’re saying, but may I also remind anon of… well:

“Apologies for the deception Jon, just had to make sure you were reading….”

and

[BPM]

and a couple other incidents I could probably come up with after I’ve published this.

Now, I’m not trying to ignore the ESSAY anon submitted full of evidence to back their point. I’m rocking with it- I’ll agree with you that Elias was simply doing his avatar job and withholding info, but I must say, I disagree with you on one point: Elias is a violent man.

Yes, his violence has a “purpose” but we must remember that even though Elias isn’t human, we are. The other characters (for a while and to an extent) are. The violence we do see from Elias is cruel and unfeeling. You can blame it on his avatar-ness all you want anon- and in fact you did an excellent job proving that he’s just an avatar doing avatar things- but the violence…. Elias is, imo, a very cruel being.

So, to summarize: I agree with anon on certain parts- Elias’s actions throughout the series reflect for sure that he is definitely not human. He’s an avatar working towards a goal. But I’ll disagree with anon when they say Elias isn’t that violent of a person/that the fanbase hypes up how evil he is.

In fact, I think the violence backs up anon’s point even further- the fact that he IS so cruel proves that he hasn’t been human for a while.

Hope that made sense- again, thanks for sharing and keep your words kind!

-E

[lame-cameoliob]

The Narritive Potential of lower level! Kallus

Alright literally nobody asked and this is totally just me thinking way too much, but I NEEEEEEDDD to talk about the Kallus from the lower levels headcanon and just how much narrative potential it has

(also If you see anything spelled wrong or phrased weirdly NO YOU DIDN’T)

To be completely frank I think that Kallus’ character is almost out of place in a children's TV show– DO NOT GET ME WRONG, he is a fantastic character that is integral to the Rebels plot, but many implications made by his character are much more fitting in shows with higher ratings– that’s why he comes of so fucking ridiculous half of the time, he is a character with massive implications, but he has to be readable to a younger audience. PLUSSS Rebels was made on a tiny budget compared to other Star Wars animated projects, so the producers could not put time or money into further delving into his arc because they needed to focus on the main cast. They couldn’t afford to go into smaller character-centric arcs like in the clone wars. Now, taking that into account, it is no doubt that Kallus has an incredible character arc (tbh I’d say the best in Star Wars, but i might be glazing idk) but there are aspects of that arc that could not be explored more due to the aforementioned restrictions on the production side.

Thing is, Star Wars is all about making connections to the real world (ex. Return of the Jedi was an allegory for the vietnam war– or also THE ENTIRETY OF ANDOR) And although Kallus’ arc already does that on a baseline level, its potential for drawing these connections was for sure not explored to its fullest. 

Now, I know you didn’t sign up for a lesson in world history and politics when you started reading this but you’re gonna have to stick with me to see where I’m coming from; 

It is no secret that the greatest defense against propaganda is education. That’s why maps that show which states have less extensive education and maps that show which states are conservative look nearly identical. That’s why conservative states are far more likely to pass legislation that bans books with political content; they need people to continue to be uneducated in order to keep the state conservative. Even if we omit nefarious political intent, in order for educational institutions to truly thrive they need funding (which tends to be severely lacking in conservative communities) State legislation aside, some school systems literally cannot afford to give their students an all encompassing education. And next to that, in many impoverished rural communities, you end up having kids that need to start working early on in order to make money to support themselves and their families OR they start working early just cause they want to (bootstraps mentally and all that); these kids do not have a reason to set aside their time to sit down and think about the politics of the world around them, which is why a lot of people end up just falling in line with the conservative mindset that surrounds them. 

“What about the people who aren’t conservative / patriotic? How do they play into this?” You may ask– AND LET ME TELL YOU– it’s not really a huge secret that the United States Military does this quirky little thing where they pay for your college and give you financial benefits while you’re an active service member. That’s actually a MASSIVE recruitment tactic that they use in schools! IN FACT, (as someone who grew up in a blue state) wherever military recruiters would come to my school to yk…recruit people, they would almost ALWAYS stress the financial benefits more than promoting the whole “SERVE YOUR COUNTRY RAHHH AMERICA” thing . 

So basically it’s a system that sets children up for failure by leaving them broke and struggling, and some of those children grow up in areas where they are funneled into having certain political beliefs without the resources needed to form their own opinion, OR you have kids that just want to reap financial benefits because living is too damn expensive. (And of course there are people who fit into BOTH or neither of the categories; I’m generalizing a little bit for the sake of keeping this post shorter than it could be) (This is a very nuanced subject and I know that, I just don't want to make you all read an entire essay)

The issue comes when these misinformed children grow into adults, and those adults become dangerous. 

BACK TO STAR WARS

So there’s not really a whole lot of extensive canon lore (at least that I’ve seen) about how the Coruscant economic system works, but I think it's fairly obvious that it is operating on a capitalistic system not unlike the united states, where the richest of the rich own most of the wealth, and the rest of the population are left living paycheck to paycheck; it’s just that some paychecks are bigger than others. 

It is this system that allows for the lower levels to fall into complete poverty. None of the wealth from the top is trickling down (literally) and the people in the lower levels are left fighting for scraps. 

Most areas in the lower levels are controlled by money hungry gangs, and corrupt law enforcement does what these gangs want just because they’re paid to. The further down you go the less control The Republic has; at some point you reach a depth where the Republic has zero influence. And even if they did, at this point in history, most of the senate no longer represents the people.

THIS IS WHERE KALLUS COMES IN 

I want you to imagine being a kid in the lower levels. You’re fighting for your next paycheck so that you can help pay rent, you’re shoplifting and picking pockets just so that you can eat. You cannot afford to live. And not only that; you’re suffering from intense vitamin deficiencies, the air is undoubtedly toxic, the water probably isn’t good to drink. You are exhausted. Physically, mentally, even subconsciously, you are a kind of bone-deep tired that nobody– ESPECIALLY A KID– should ever have to feel. If you can even afford to go to school you’re not leaving with a better understanding of the galaxy, because all you’re worried about is finding something to eat and going the fuck to sleep. But that's your normal, you’ve never known anything different. 

You’re not thinking of ways to question the system, you’re too tired to. 

And you don’t care about The Republic because The Republic doesn’t care about you. 

But then The Empire rolls around. And the Republic didn’t give a fuck about you, but maybe the Empire will– besides you don’t really care about the politics of it all, because you see that they offer free room and board to those who enlist, and that is your one way ticket out of the fucking hell hole that you’ve had to endure for your entire life. 

And so you enlist. And even if you didn’t care about politics before, the people around you do, and they are telling you exactly what to think without giving you the resources to form an opinion of your own. 

If Kallus grew up in the lower levels, that would have been his reality. He would have been the perfect person to indoctrinate because he came from a system that wouldn’t have allowed him to know any better.

This is especially palpable when we think about why he became Fulcrum in the first place;

He educated himself in ways that the empire did not allow him to be educated before. He asked questions and he did not like the answers that he got. 

He realizes that he’s been fed lies and propaganda that have made him complacent in a system that had done immeasurable evil, and he HATES that. He realizes that he does NOT believe what the empire believes and that he has to align his actions with HIS opinions, not the empires.

He realizes that harm that his ignorance has done and he takes it upon himself to lock THE FUCK IN in an attempt to help and rebalance the scales. 

(And this bit is kind of a side note, but idk where else to put this:if Kallus comes from a background like the one listed above where he is constantly fighting for survival, he becomes a narrative foil of EZRA!!! They become two sides of the same coin; a kid whos impoverished because of the Empires cruelty, only looking out for himself until his worldview is changed for the better by the kindness of the people around him VERSUS a kid whos impoverished because of the Republics failures, only looking out for himself and CONTINUing TO DO SO as his worldview is changed for the worse by the greed of the people around him.) (DO YALL GET WHAT IM SAYING??? I FEEL LIKE IM ONTO SOMETHING THERE??)(I MIGHT BE CRAZY BUT LIKE I FEEL LIKE THATS ⁉️⁉️)

All of this is really just to say that Kallus is the perfect example of the dangers of complacency. He is the bystander effect at its worst. He admits that he “never asked questions,” simply because the empire told him not to, and he becomes dangerous because of it. He does evil shit just ‘cause he’s told to. The empire says that a certain number of civilian deaths fall within an “acceptable margin” and he just shrugs his shoulders and goes “yeah, okay, if you say so.” 

Already in canon, he is an example of what people can become if they refuse to question the systems in power, but when you take into account the possibility that he’s from the lower levels, he also becomes an example of how people end up in a system where they are set up for failure so that they don’t end up questioning those systems in the first place. He’s an example of how the Empire benefits from systematic suffering because the people who suffer without even realizing it are the people most easily shaped into pawns. 

End of rant

[loviestar58]

🐶~New Pet~🐶

Little blurb I had sitting for a bit I thought people would like!💖

"Ekks-"

"No"

"Ekks..we have to keep him"

"Firefly, we just went over this. What about the kids? And then we have to find the supplies for it and-"

"We can get all those. I'll get them! And the kids can help, oh come oonnnnnnn"

"Firefly, please-"

"But Eeekkkkssss look at hiiiimmm!"

You two were standing in a dark alleyway of Zaun near the Lanes, not too far from the entrance to the hideout, having just got done with a patrol. Upon coming back, you had noticed something moving some trash near the alley, becoming alert and notifying Ekko before stepping towards the movement cautiously. Barely a few steps were taken towards the sound before the thing causing the movement jumped out at you, knocking you down, a big white fluffy dog, a Husky that looked no older than a year old. And that led them to this situation, you desperately trying to convince Ekko to keep it.

"If we leave him out here, he could starve or be killed! You know damn well animals don't live long here!" You argued, gesturing to the world around you. Ekko had to admit you had a point, you didn't see many animals here, they'd either be dead or very unhealthy. But his thinking didn't last long, groaning in a bit of frustration, gesturing a hand towards the animal.

"Yeah, that's true. I know that, but-"

"And think of the possibilities! Like, he could grow to be a sort of guard dog! And the kids would have an animal to play with all the time, maybe it could even be an emotional support animal! And-and he could carry supplies, or be a messenger dog to warn people of dangers or the groups on patrols-!"

You rambled on and on with each and every possibility you could think of, any reason that popped in that head of yours to convince Ekko to being the dog into the Hideout. Ekko cut you off with a stern yet soft tone, trying not to let his growing annoyance and frustration show too much, even if you mean well

"What if it's a Pilties dog? What if they try to come find him and then find us? They'll accuse us of theft and then try to arrest us, or just shoot on sight, I wouldn't put it past them"

You looked downcast for a moment, that was another good point. It would be risky if the dog did belong to someone in Piltover. But you didn't care, you couldn't just leave the poor, adorable thing here, the thing in question panting and wagging it's tail up at you two. You swore you felt your heart ache at the adorable sight, cuteness aggression threatening to take over you

"There's no collar, and he looks like he's been here a while. Maybe he ran away or the owner didn't want him anymore? I think we'll be fine. Please, Ekks?" You beg, clasping your hands together, and pouting out your lip in a comically dramatic fashion, like a cartoon character

Oh no. Not the puppy dog eyes. It's ok, he can resist those. He's dealt with many of the firelight kids hitting him with that, and it rarely works and-

Oh dammit

Is the dog doing it too?!

Ekko froze, glancing between the two and groaning with a mix of frustration and reluctance, unable to deny you, knowing how stubborn you were. Recalling many instances of you refusing to back down when wanting something or in an argument with him about patrol grouping and routes.

He knew he was losing this battle, lest he faces your wrath. And so, he rolls his eyes and shakes his head, another groan, and then a soft defeated chuckle leaving his lips as he pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks up at you and he can't help now but to smile

"Ugh, fine! But we are making sure he doesn't have any diseases before going near the kids!"

You lit up, fist pumping in a quiet "Yes!". Both of you walked the rest of the way back, dog in tow.

A very happy you

And a slightly annoyed, yet content, Ekko

Bonus:

Ekko was found hours later asleep on the spare cot in his lab, the puppy laying on top of him as he snored softly

Hope y'all enjoyed this cute little blurb. Might do more of these than longer one shots and headcanons if y'all like them😊💖