#I'm trying to flesh out their universe in case I actually want to do something with it

[aziraphales-library]

hello, i've been on the aziraphale-centric fics kick because he is one of my favorite characters ever :( <33 i wondered if you all have any azi centric fics to recommend? i really like hurt/comfort and hurt aziraphale :-) thank u <3

Hi. We have some Aziraphale-centric fics here, so check those out (it includes that one you're thinking of, so you don't need to add it in the notes). Here are some more...

A Gradual Acceleration by PunJedi (G)

Aziraphale has to deal with 6000 years worth of pent-up feelings and what happens when the world doesn't end on schedule. It's a tricky thing, love; his modus operandi has been to ignore it. But there reaches a point at which it simply cannot be ignored. Crowley is willing to wait, though.

It's Not The End Of The World by mellohirust (T)

“I think I'm still worried about… our old sides.” This is where he expects said bomb to explode. This is his fatal flaw, that he hasn't actually moved on, that things aren't actually as over as he wants them to be. It's all they've ever wanted, and they didn't truly have it. Not in his mind. Not somewhere deep within him, like a disease, like something he couldn't pry out of him. How selfish would he be, to drag the other down with him just for reassurance, force him to relive it all? Crowley stays quiet. Aziraphale feels as if he's confessed to something awful, like a part of him was fundamentally incompatible with the other. Aziraphale suspects both of these things could be the case and Crowley would love him anyway. He has it written down, somewhere in his mind, what Crowley ought to say. It’s not what he actually winds up saying. “Yeah,” the other finally mumbled, after what felt like eternity. He draws a breath. “Yeah, me too.” - Aziraphale hasn't been able to let himself rest in six thousand years. Crowley's determined to help him change that, even if addressing the root of the problem is more unpleasant and complicated than either would've hoped for.

So Still I Wait by HotCrossPigeon (T)

Aziraphale asks one too many questions. What is Heaven to do with their wayward Principality? Crowley picks up the pieces. (Solitary confinement warning)

A Hard World for Little Things by GiggleSnortBangDead (E)

When the Almighty Lord created the universe and decided that desire would exist within it, They hadn’t exactly said: “This shall go on top, and this on bottom.” But there was an ordering of things and a hierarchy of desire. That’s how it was explained to Aziraphale. All of us serve, he had been taught, and some of us are happy to serve a little more.

Night and Day by wyrmy (E)

Aziraphale Engel, black sheep of his strictly religious family, lives a quiet and monkish existence in the middle of London, trying to avoid the many temptations of the flesh and do his bit for the church that his father founded. But his quiet, untroubled, and unhappily narrow existence is about to come to an end, and he will be faced with the choice to give up even more of who he is or to survive in the real world.

Smitten at First Fright by Oopsynini (M)

Aziraphale has problems. No one needs to tell him so, he's well aware that his issues are many and in-between. He's an agoraphobic shut-in with a bad back and a sad past. It's a rule that, to most, he isn't much worth the effort of getting to know. Crowley doesn't seem to abide by any of that. He's an enigmatic gardener with a green thumb and a smile a thousand miles wide. It's something like love at first sight; if that included a panic attack and a minor foray into bird watching. Aziraphale is smitten, now if only he could get past his fears and admit it.

- Mod D

[theinstagrahame]

One of the best things about Crowdfunding is, stuff arrives even when you're cutting way back on spending. A *ton* of stuff arrived in the last month and a bit. Got a bunch of really neat projects in, and it's time to get hype about it!

Why these games rule, under the cut

The Revenant Society: Banana Chan is one of those names that immediately catches my attention when she's on a project. Actually, looking at the list again, the team for this game was stacked, it was a real All-Star Cast. But like, even without the powerhouse designers on the case, this just gets all the things I want in a game: Time loops, murder mysteries, trapped on the Underground. A PbtA game where you solve your own murder is, y'know, a pitch that'll attract my attention.

Hellwhalers: I saw this game coming up through design phases in the Plus One Exp Discord, and it sounded incredible. Using tokens and an old ship betting game, you're part of a whaling crew chasing Moby Dick into actual hell. Maybe Ahab wasn't crazy after all, and maybe we won't survive.

Xenolanguage: I might own everything Thorny Games makes now, because they make games about language. Folks who may not know me might not know that I *love* linquistics. Honestly, if I could repeat college, I'd put more of my time into Linguistics. But due to the linear nature of time, I'll settle for playing games about decoding alien language in a first contact situation. Sorta like that movie Contact. Which, I loved.

Mothership and Desert Moons of Karth: I read through the original version of Mothership a couple of years ago, and it's one I wanted to get more into. When I saw that there was a chance to pick up the full 1e boxset on KS, I jumped. I've also seen tons of people talk about Karth as a really awesome sandbox module for the system, so when I had a little cash on DTRPG from selling books, it was an easy pickup.

Inscrutable Cities: Possum Creek Games told me to back this, so I did (this is a joke, but I do love PCG a whole lot). In reality, I saw Inscrutable Cities on Itch a while ago, and the pitch grabbed me. I love reading solo journaling games (I still haven't found a way I like to play them, if I'm completely honest, but they're really neat reads). Walking through an impossible city is something I'd love to do, so, I have the book for it now.

Reap: Spencer Cambell makes bangers, and bangers only. I'm not *not* on a mission to collect all of his work, but Necromancers? Solo tactical board games, built on Rune? Sure. I'm in.

Luna: Spencer Campbell makes bangers, and bangers only. I also picked up another of his books this month. The Nova universe? Moon cultists trying to destroy the sun? Sure, I'm in.

3 Moonlight on Roseville Beach zines: I played Moonlight on Roseville Beach on my now-defunct podcast, and it's a game that I honestly think about a lot. The dice system was complicated, but in a really neat way that gave the players a ton of really interesting decisions with every roll. What part of my action succeeds? What kinds of complications am I opening myself to?

Anyway, R. Rook put together some characters, mysteries, and monsters for the game, and I really wanted to explore more.

Hiria, In the Margins, A Visit to San Sibilia: I mentioned earlier that I like the notion of exploring weird cities, right? Well, here's two games about that, and a cool bookmark RPG for reading. I listened to San Sibilia played in an episode of Friends at the Table, and it really captured my attention. The questions were fascinating, and they let the players flesh out a city we'd only heard of, but not seen prior to that game. It was a cool coda on a really fantastic and weird season, Sangfielle.

Grandmothership: The title alone had me, but Armanda Haller is a creator I keep an eye on, because she makes really rad stuff. This caught my attention because solving mysteries in a weird, Mothership-esque sci-fi setting, as nosy grandmothers, really just, gets me. I want to do that. I want to live that.

Holdfast Station: I've been watching Stonetop develop through its email updates. It's another PbtA game, but with a robust city-building and city development core loop that, is 100% my jam. (Low-key, one of my favorite games is Dragon Quest Builders 2.) This game takes that concept to space, which is 1000% my jam, in fact.

Spectres of Brocken: Aaron Lim is a designer I got into early on in my foray into games, and I do love Mech Anime. I am eager to see his take on Mech Anime, and I am really intrigued by the way this game handles playsets and worldbuilding as part of the game itself. Really can't wait to dive into this.

Lay on Hands: This is another of those games I've heard about, but never actually checked out. I know Alfred Valley better by reputation than by direct experience, but this is one of those games I hear people constantly telling people to check out. So, I'm gonna!

Penumbra City: Maybe 5 years ago, I read a novella by Margaret Killjoy about anarchists living in an abandoned city, and beset by assholes within their community, and supernatural horrors from without. The world kinda stuck with me, so when I saw she was working on an RPG not in the same world), I was curious to see what that would look like. I haven't cracked Penumbra City open yet, but I'm jazzed to do so.

These two fell off the pile for the big photo, so I forgot:

Deathmatch Island: I enjoyed the Hunger Games and Battle Royale movies a pretty moderate amount, but what really caught my attention here was the promise that players could also break the Reality TV Parody. The use of the Paragon system also caught my attention. After hearing one AP of Agon, I really wanted to see how that would translate into this, and it didn't take me too long reading it to go "Oh, okay, this rules."

Our God is Dead: What if you were a paladin or priest of a faith, and you found out your god was dead? What if you also had like, a bunch of people who really needed that god not to be dead, like this weekend? This sounds hilarious, and I am going to insert it into conversation often to see if people want to play it. Apologies to people who know me.

Eagle eyed viewers may have noticed a second Mothership box. What's that about?

It's a storage box for all my Mothership Zines so far... Except the two that are just slightly too big!

And, some fun comics/graphic novels:

Good Boy Paws: A friend of mine in comics put this together, and it looked extremely cute. A sweet tale of a good boi.

Wine Ghost Goes to Hell: Picked this up because the creator had contributed to Bugsnax, which is a game I enjoyed, and the concept seemed fun. Will have to check it out and report back!

[writingquestionsanswered]

Character is Believed to Be Fae (But Are They?

Anonymous asked: I'm writing about a french man from the past with albinism, as well as autism, who is treated like a fae by the people in his village. I based this on a hypothesis that a lot of "fae folk" were just people with obvious outlying conditions. The villagers think he deals in "healing magic" when he's merely a herbalist, though he also believes in some fae lore, such as avoiding iron or salt, since all his life he was told he was fae. I want it to be up to reader's interpretation whether he's actually fae or not, with a few moments where he seems to perform real magic but could be explained as a trick or coincidence. How should I go about doing this?

[Ask edited for length]

This is an interesting idea! Here are some things to keep in mind before you start writing:

1 - Research will be essential... Not only will it be important for you to research the period and location of your setting, but also autism and albinism. It would be a good idea to focus some of your research on how things like albinism were regarded in Europe during that era. You'll also need to do some research on herbalism and healers of the period so that you'll know what treatments would be common.

2 - Consider and plan your themes carefully... Part of how you'll tell this story is through the exploration of themes related to how people treat others based on their misconceptions, superstitions, etc. So, you'll want to be very careful about those themes and how you explore them so as not to do anything potentially offensive or harmful to autistic people and people with albinism.

3 - Planning and Plotting - You will need to figure out a conflict, either internal, external, or both, to serve as a framework for this story. This conflict will relate to the question of whether or not this man is actually fae, and could be anything from him trying to get to the bottom of his own truth (internal conflict), to some antagonist causing trouble for him or a quest to find some herb or heal some person (external), or some combination of those (both internal and external). This is going to help you figure out who this character will be treating (whereas the research will help you with the specific treatment), at which point you can think about things like how this treatment might appear to be magic to others, or how it could even appear to be magic to the reader thanks to some trick or coincidence. In which case, you would want to hint at the alternative (did he cure this person due to fae magic, or was it because some explainable thing actually caused them to be healed?) Ultimately, by understanding the conflict, and fleshing out the plot, you'll give yourself a better understanding of what needs to happen and where you can fit these moments in.

4 - Figure Out Your Message - Finally, it's important to think about what you're trying to say with this story. We know the topic you want to explore and how you want to explore it, but what truth or feeling do you want the reader to come away with? Do you want them to come away understanding the importance of seeking science over superstition? Or being open to the magic of the universe even when it seems to go against science? Or something about how we treat people we perceive as being different from us? Or something else? Knowing exactly what you're trying to say, and/or what you want the reader to take away from the story is going to help you fine tune what needs to happen in the story.

Happy writing!

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I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[dogtoling]

how would you go about designing a sona-adjacent character for splatoon? I know I’m going with octoling bc I play as them exclusively and this is more a character made from my ingame avatar, but everything else has me indecisive.. sorry I know this is a vague question but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts

this is a cool question! I struggled with this for a really long time and have had MANY sona designs (which either got trashed or became separate characters over time). Really i think how you approach a sona is different for every person. sorry if this is incoherent as i'm typing at 6am from bed

So basically first thing is what are you planning on using the character for? For example in my case when I used to try making splatoon sonas I made them *too much* like me to the point where i didn't like them and they didn't really fit in the world or were interesting at all. But that's just talking personality-wise. I could make an extremely bland octopus guy who doesnt play Turf War or ever go anywhere but it's also like, what is even the point of having a Splatoon sona at that point. What you want to use your sona for kind of affects how they would ideally be in my opinion.

So the way I ended up designing my sona (Koira) was to have us share traits but not have them specifically BE me, which is an approach that I find works really well in creating a connection to a character while still letting them be a character of their own. I would refer to it as more like making a self-insert character to control in a setting rather than physically being there and feeling confined to being yourself if that makes sense? it probably doesnt. But the self-insert player character is kinda what you already do in Splatoon anyway.

I find it a good approach to go with a mix of aspects that are accurate to you but combined with things that are kind of out there. Then you can have a character that's still interesting and appealing to you and might seem similar enough at face value to be relatable, while not being like, super boring. I don't remember my exact design process with Koira, I wanted the design to be silly and stand out and be relatable to how I play the game and approach the series, while at the same time not being confined to what I would realistically do or be like. Like I do not own a labcoat in real life, or mismatched boots, or round shades.

But I DO own a pair of broken shades i found from a trash can, and in the context of being an avid squid researcher online I felt it would be very fitting to make my in-universe guy an actual squid scientist, and i WISH i had shoes like that because theyre pretty cool. And he has split ends because I DO have split ends (there are so many), but i don't have blonde hair. I picked yellow because it's my favorite color. I would NOT touch turf wars with a ten foot pole if i actually existed in the splatoon world and was the same person there that i am in real life, but like, in the context of Splatoon i might as well have my Splatoon guy represent some aspect of my gameplay experience, hence they own like every weapon but don't really play. Et cetera.

So really again people have different preferences with how to approach making a sona, or sona-adjacent characters like you said, personally the Player Character approach tends to work pretty well for me. I try to reflect my real physical in-the-flesh self less, because that's kind of boring (i literally already exist), and go for the more exaggerated version where some aspects represent me but it's not Literally Me. Like, I'm trying to make What If I Was An Octoling, and not What If An Octoling Looked Like Me The Human. The process of how to get there is a little patchy and again, probably different for everybody, and bear in mind that you might make a sona and not like it and start from scratch. That might happen 5 times. That might happen 10 times. You still learn something more about the process every time.

Here's some questions I can present to help with sona designing...

1. What are some traits that I think reflect myself? How can I include those in the character design?

2. In tandem with the previous question; what species should I pick? (You already picked Octoling, so this one is a bit obsolete - but it's worth thinking about for people who struggle to pick.)

3. If I existed in the Splatoon world, what would I probably, somewhat realistically be doing with my life? What kind of job or hobbies would I have? Can that be reflected in the design?

4. Do I care about any of the above stuff or do I just want to come up with something original? Could I use some of my answers to work with and fill in the blanks with other things that are just cool?

5. How would the ways I play Splatoon be reflected if translated to an in-universe character? (For example, based on how I play, my game-realistic Splatsona would just be a full-time Salmon Runner...)

6. Do I want to use in-game gearsets, or reference the kind of style I prefer in real life, or maybe come up with something unique?

7. Can my main weapon or playstyle be directly equated to my character's personality or appearance? Do I want their personality to be game-accurate, real life accurate or somewhere in between?

8. Finding inspiration through your player character's Badges, Banner and Title that you currently have; what do those say about the player? Or what about the locker?

9. What are some things I love about the setting of Splatoon that I could reflect in a sona or self insert? (For example I made mine an in-universe Inkling researcher to reflect my own obsessiveness about Inkling biology. And squid suckers. I have a dried squid in a minigrip bag on my shelf)

10. The obligatory step in any character design: Can i do something to make it fun or appealing to myself? Adding some flavor.

Aside from all that and I definitely forgot SOMETHING, my general character design tip is do not expect the first draft to be the final perfect result. I watched a video once that said to draw every character design Three Times before 'finalizing' it and it works EXTREMELY well when youre whipping up a character basically from scratch and have an idea in your head, but on paper, you just need some kind of first draft to see if that idea works. The second and third iterations usually help trim out whatever didnt work in the earlier designs and when you keep making more, the parts that DO work are solidified and refined over time.

Rule number 2: if you make a sona design and don't like it, ask yourself why. Then change it! It's not the time to start some kind of self reflecting journey, maybe you just want a more interesting haircut than what you have in real life and you can totally do that if you're bold (my hair is brown, I didn't want the splatoon to have brown hair when like half the point of the game is Neon Color). Maybe you want bright pink eyes. Maybe you want a ridiculous job that you could never do in real life but that would make your character way more interesting. Maybe you want to give them a pet slug because you would LOVE ONE in real life but dont have one, and that would complete the character.

i forgot my point but hopefully this helped and was useful even a little bit? yay

[hood-ex]

How did you like mutant mayhem? who was your fav

Loved it!! I had SO much fun watching it!!

The turtles getting their groceries from shipping containers/trucks?? Brilliant! Love that take!

I was pressed when I read that Leo was going to have a crush on April, but I actually didn't mind it in this case. (Even though I 100% prefer for them to just be best friend's/family and would never want to see April with any of them). Like Leo being such a nerd made it work plus April didn't show any interest in him, so it didn't bug me like I thought it would. Now if they try to turn that into something in the future then we're gonna have a problem, but it being a one-sided thing that Leo will hopefully grow out of (quickly!) is fine.

Speaking of April, I LOVE this version of April, and I love how they switched up the reporter thing a bit with her being super anxious to be on air bc it made way for some character progression. I do tend to prefer her being quite a bit older than the turtles, but I feel like her being a teen like them works in this universe.

Also, I love it when Leo is characterized as a nerd who says cringey/nerdy things sometimes and they delivered on that beautifully here with his speeches. It's veryyy 2k12 Leo vibes. Fucking loved it. Especially loved it when Leo actually had an amazing rousing speech during the Superfly fight scene and then after Raph complimented him on it, Leo started geeking out about how cool he sounded LOL. Obsessed.

"GO NINJA, GO NINJA, GO!" I started screaming when this started playing!! Secret of the Ooze reference let's gooo!

The milking... THE MILKING... the nipples and the milking!! Mikey and Raph got milked!! That running joke killed me. Also, since Mikey got milked first, I couldn't help but compare that to 2k3 when Bishop was going to use a saw to cut into Mikey's carapace while all the other bros had to watch. Althouuugh... ngl, I kinda wish Raph had gone a little more berserk over Mikey getting milked since he's so protective, but I understand they were trying to keep the mood light even though... it was... a torture scene... so uhhh... anyway.

"6 N' THE MORNIN' POLICE AT MY DOOR!!" 😂

"He's molly-whopping me!" LMFAO I was wheezing

All the bros singing BTS for Donnie's sake, and Donnie being like, "You guys don't even know the words..." HAAA

I love it in every iteration when Splinter gets involved to save his boys and this time was no different. Hell yeah feral rat dad!!

Mikey and Mondo Gecko, hell yes!! Bro, when the explosion rocked all the turtles and Mikey was disoriented?? The way his eyes looked after that?? Yeees!

THEIR SHELLS CRACKED 😱😱😱!! That "I'm gonna crack you like pistachios" joke killed me though

WHEN THE NEW YORKERS STARTED HELPING THEM TAKE DOWN SUPERFLY YESSSS LET'S GOOOO!!

Mikey or whoever telling Raph he needed therapy ALSKDJA

All the mutants living in the sewers with the turtles?? Full House vibes!! With Bebop and Rocksteady there idk kinda weird but I guess it works for this version of them.

I could not with their high school fits like 😭 April please take them shopping 😭

All in all, I thought it was super fun and I couldn't stop laughing the entire time. There was still kiiinda more of a Leo focus this time around, but it wasn't nearly as much as the Rise movie, so I'm glad it felt more balanced between each brother (and thank god we didn't have to sit through another Leo vs. Raph type of beef thing).

I think in terms of characterization, Leo was definitely characterized the best and felt IC. I feel like there could've been a bit more development for Donnie, Raph, and Mikey. Donnie had his anime/kpop thing, Raph had his love for violence, and then Mikey... there wasn't anything super defining about him other than maybe the fact that he signed up for the improv team try outs. But honestly, I'm not that mad at it because I'm sure they'll get more fleshed out in the TV show that's coming in the future. Now that they're attending school, I do kinda hope that Donnie takes some kinda robotics/woodworking/science classes because I'd love to see him develop the skills he's always depicted with.

As for my fav, I mean, it should be noted that Mikey is always my guy and that I'm usually going to focus on him the most in every scene, but other than him, I'd say Leo. I also really enjoyed April, Splinter, and Superfly though.

[queen-erika-the-songful]

What are your thoughts on the characters in the Dreamhouse Adventures/Vlogs/TOM/BCBG universe? I'd love to hear them.

My faves are probably Malibu, Brooklyn, Daisy, Renee, and Rocki.

Also, apperantly the next movie will be about Teresa from something I saw on the wiki. I'm really hyped for a movie to focus on Teresa, who I feel like her and Nikki deserve better because outside of a few vlogs and scenes they are often just "barbie's friends" . Also shame Road Trip isn't canon! I thought it took place between bcbg's s2 and tom's s1.

I honestly feel really bad for all of Barbie's friends, especially Nikki, Renee, and Teresa. As time went on they really got pushed to the side, more Nikki and Renee than Teresa since they gave her a bigger part in the latest series (A Touch of Magic). I definitely agree with you that they are treated more as "Barbie's friends" instead of actually being characters. I feel like Nikki and Renee get this treatment the most. It's most disappointing in Nikki's case because she was probably the most fleshed out in terms of hobbies and personality. Teresa got a bit more in ATOM though so at least there's that. I'm honestly not a big fan of Daisy but I think it's cool that she's canonically LGBT+! Maybe during the next series or movie we'll get confirmation on what she identifies as (but I also know some people are unlabled and that's valid too!)

My favorite character is Ken. He's just so sweet and caring and will do anything for Barbie!! I hate that sometimes he just isn't given much to do. Not all the time, but sometimes. And we don't ever get to see his home life! What are his parents like? What does Ken do when he's not with Barbie?? I want to know!!

I think Brooklyn is a great addition to the lineup, though I wish she got more of her stuff outside of that short-lived web series (Barbie Life in the City). I like how passionate she is about putting on a good show, whether she's performing or behind the scenes! As for Malibu, I love her big heart but sometimes she's got too big a heart. There are times she should've been more assertive for herself like when Trey literally broke into her house. I think it got better I just can't remember right now (aside from ATOM I haven't rewatched any of the series lately).

I'm trying to stay optimistic about Teresa's movie, but after Skipper and Stacie's I am a little worried it's gonna be badly written or boring, maybe both. But I really like Teresa so I've got my fingers crossed it turns out good for her. I can't wait to get more insight into her character.

Yeah I'm still massively disappointed Epic Road Trip ended up not being canon. I thought at least ONE of those endings would tie into something but no, it looks like it was all self-contained. We finally got Karbie but then it all just gets erased and that romance gets dragged out EVEN MORE. Like seriously, why do the writers just refuse to let Barbie and Ken be together? Sure it would change their dynamic a bit, but they would still be Barbie and Ken, just now also a couple. I still headcanon ERT as part of the universe since it had time travel, so it supports my larger headcanon of that whole universe having constant timeline shenanigans. So in a way, Barbie and Ken are finally together in one of the timelines.

[shittygaypornmagazine]

Hi! I recently started making a TMNT iteration and I wanted to pick your brain rq for questions you ask / wish you were asked that help with fleshing out characters, storylines, and the lives behind a characters that really make them come to life? Cause I'm struggling with a lot of bits here💀

Akfkgkxcjdkckz. Oh my god. Uh. Well. Ok.

First of all: just a quick note that I am in no way shape or form an authority on the matter of tmnt iterations and my ways of characterisation might as well be considered wrong by any other person.

So!

I definitely did not think about this response all night ever since receiving the ask, nono. I thought about it a normal amount.

Why?

That I guess is a very broad question, but I think it is really the first and the most important one you want to ask yourself about anything: a situation, a character, a storyline... I'll take my fic Full Lair as an example to make it easier and kind of apply what I'm saying to what I actually did.

So, three months ago, after reading about F!Leo for a while, I decided to make a Peepaw Fic. Why? Because the concept of a hurt adult version of a character coming back to see their carefree self and battling their hate for them felt fascinating. Why? *insert personal reasons here*

That is the "idea" of the fic.

I also wanted to put some romance in there. Why? Because I felt a little tired of reading about sixteen year olds falling in love and getting their happy ever after so soon, so I wanted to write about two middle aged men with their own baggage learning to trust and love all over again. Why? *insert personal reasons here*

That is the secondary "idea" or the reason for the plot itself.

There personal reasons don't have to be present, but I think every once in a while you should circle back to the whatever reasons you had for starting your fic in order to really understand what are you're trying to say or why are you making the fic in the first place, in case you are feeling stuck/don't know what to do next.

"Why" can also flash out a lot of characters and their backgrounds even before they are revealed, because while you, the author, know why a character does something, the readers will probably pick up on that and start getting the clues to whatever it is that you are setting up. And this really is a very fun question to be asked about your work because then you can go full info dumping mode and who doesn't love that?

Where are the background characters?

Personally, I regret not asking this question before starting Full Lair because I lost a lot of opportunities due to genuinely forgetting about certain parts/characters from the actual canon and bringing them back now would be a little awkward, so I prefer to simply reference them as not to erase their existence completely.

So, think about the background characters beforehand.

Doesn't matter what's your base: 2003, rise, 1987, or whatever and whoever you write about, it really helps to know where you're characters are at. You don't have to think all to hard or write about all of them, of course, but in case there is an opportunity for a little reference or a reader asks you something along the lines of "hey where's this dude" you have a quick and in-universe response to this.

So what about the jokes?

Now if you're not sure in your own sense of humour a trusted person who's opinion on it and the characters you are writing about seems to fit your fic would be a great help.

Yes, even if it's just for them to boost your confidence a little.

The jokes are a small part, but if you're writing about the turtle brothers, sometimes you gotta sprinkle in some bickering and teasing so it's better to have a Humour Tester by your side. And in general, jokes and their placement can really help to describe and understand a character (hence Leo from Rise) and their attitude towards the world and the people around them.

I have no idea if that was of any help at all, because I kinda went for the very few vague questions that I could think about at the moment, but you're always welcomed to ask for more specific ones!

[go-to-the-mirror]

right, it's reflection tma time!! like the level in celeste! uh gosh i can't think of anything silly and goofy

@a-mag-a-day

y'all know the drill, rambling, maybe good words, enjoy

wow, i said a lot less than i was expecting to

Before we start: fear soup.

I guess I technically have the power to make it not quiet, to, to talk to people, but like- you know, I, I also have the power to clean out the fridge, and it’s still a mess. It’s not that I don’t want to clean the fridge, it’s just- Some things are just hard.

Analogy for depression!! It really is, like. I dunno, it's a lot easier to self isolate, especially when you haven't been talking to people for a while. Not talking to your friends for months and then having none because it's easier to just... not talk to anyone! Can relate.

It's hard, you know, because people are tiring and there's the anxiety from not talking to them in months and it's just... yeah. Some things are just hard. I want to give him a hug. I want him to have nice things.

How much do I actually care, and how much is just feeling that I should care?

HE'S JUST LIKE ME FR!!

I just think that Martin's transition from person who does care, to person who doesn't care like he's supposed to and wants to - really wants to - but it all feels like a lie. People are hard.

Gertrude. I wanted your opinion on an encounter I’ve had described to me, and given your recent dealing with Viscera, I would very much value your input. Good job on that, by the way. I’m sure the gnostic temple was a great loss culturally speaking, but I can’t help but admire your directness when it comes to this sort of thing.

Interesting. Adelard Dekkar calls it (The Flesh) Viscera. I really like the alternate names for them, and you know what, I'm going to go out on a limb and say maybe the different names can mean slightly different aspects.

It Knows You feels more like something watching, something knowing, rather than you watching and knowing, it feels more sentient. There is an it, rather than just the Ceaseless Watcher, watching without seeing, without comprehension. The Mother of Puppets feels like it has more agency than just The Web, like characterising it as a someone, made it so it could be a someone.

It's like that thing in Discworld, where a god's power depends on people believing in them - and in this case fearing them. The form of the fears is what people believe to be the form of the fears.

It’s a little too out-of-the-way to be a common destination for teenage delinquency, but has become, I’m told, quite popular with what can be described as ’rural urban exploration groups.’

You should absolutely under no circumstance become an urban explorer if you live in the TMA universe. You will die or have a supernatural encounter. That's literally- that's going to happen.

He was very interested in the Hall of Mirrors. According to him, if it was still in good shape, it would have been an amazing place to put on a light show, and have his guests dance their way through the maze. Sounds like a good way to get injured to me, but apparently I used the word ’rave’ wrong, so what do I know?

Aszjdfxsahfhja I love Adelard Dekkar

As she knocked one from its perch, her face contorted into a grimace of joy, and the wizened carnie hobbled over to one of the buckets and handed her a tiny bone. Without hesitation, she snapped it cleanly in half and started desperately gnawing at the broken end, trying to reach whatever scant marrow might have remained inside. Our lost young friend felt his stomach turn. He told me he was a good fifteen feet away, but could still hear the sounds of her desperate hunger over the rides all around.

Oh, right, The Extinction is also... this. Every one of the people starving to death.

I don't think The Extinction is that new, but every time I try to explain it, I worry I'm going to say something wrong, but yeah.

My first assumption would have been the Flesh, based on the cannibalism and strangeness of the bodies involved, but- something about this idea of some sort of famine world, its location within a man-made ruin, the whole… societal aspect of it- I’d be inclined to chalk this up as a genuine Extinction manifestation.

I feel like it's got to be the Extinction. I mean, soup, but it doesn't... feel like Flesh. Flesh feels more... I don't know. It feels different. There isn't enough body horror for it to be flesh /hj

No but it just... what is the fear here? Of being eaten? Of the hunger in their eyes? Of that place? Of the thing following him? I feel like it's just... case by case basis, what is this, you know?

A lot of these really don't fit in neatly to little categorisations, you know. They're intrinsically linked. What is the fear of being trapped under infinite amounts of dirt, with that fear of the infinite amount of dirt? You can't have a colour wheel with only red. They spread out in all directions, overlap so you can never get something pure and distilled. They are only separate because people believe it's separate, and then they're not... what is the fear of someone or something manipulating you without the fear that they know you, they know exactly how to push your buttons.

PETER How does that make you feel? [The static in the background adopts a bit more bass than usual, and the high-pitched scream-like tones increase in volume as well.] MARTIN Nothing. (Short laugh) Nothing at all. PETER Excellent. I’m so proud of you, Martin. MARTIN I really don’t care.

Oh, Martin...

I just... :( sad

[hattiestgal]

what’s your character design process (if you have one?)

which of your characters has changed the most in terms of design? and the least?

Oh, this is a super fun one!

To answer your first question, I haven't done a whole lot of character design super recently, but I usually go into it with either an animal, an idea, or both!

When it comes to going into something with just an animal, usually I have a vibe I wanna capture that I think the animal captures well, and sorta elaborate on that vibe as I go. For example, when I was designing Allison, I knew I wanted a woman shaped like a fridge. That was pretty much all I knew. So, I started with figuring out how to translate the animal into my style (which usually starts with figuring out the head)

Usually, I try to draw something more accurate to the animal I'm after first. Even here, you can see me experimenting with how I wanted Allison to act. Most of the time, this leads into an initial concept sketch where I do the most elaboration on the initial vibe.

So suddenly, the fridge shaped woman is a goofball (shown in the head sketches), but she's also confident and handles a weapon that can punch through a LOT. Also, see her gloved hand? That wasn't initially a prosthetic arm. I just didn't want to draw individual fingers to add claws there, thus birthing her asymmetric design. Sometimes laziness breeds creativity!

Much of the process from here is adding on ideas until you've got a solid base for your character!

She's in the same universe as Lucy? Awesome! She's a cool badass who sometimes wears a shoulder cape? Neat!

From here, you reach the point where the character carves their spot into whatever world you place them in. You establish their relationships, their feats, their past, and you carve the world out for their role appropriately!

The big thing to keep in mind is that you're never gonna nail everything down just right the first time.

Now, for your second question!

I'm sorta torn on who's changed the most. Riley has certainly seen the biggest evolution through my art style, but their design has mostly stayed the same, and theres a few others who have a similar case, but honestly, I think Violette takes the cake for most changed design.

I already made a post about just how much her prosthetic has changed over the years, but she's also gotten a new hairstyle, and honestly, just a new vibe in general. For example, here, she was a lot more... Indifferent? Even mean to a degree. She's a goth/cyberpunk gal who's not gonna take shit from anybody. She was the mean dom-y type, y'know?

And while a lot of that has stayed with her in later versions of her design, she's a lot more prone to being soft and flirty, and only letting Riley see her more dominant nature, though even that is a lot less mean now.

She's a lot more of a fully realized person than she was before. Part of that plays into her story, while another part of that was me realizing how desperately her character needed to be fleshed out. She's still goth, though that never really changed. I think I mighta leaned into a little more recently, actually.

As far as my least changed character, it's gotta be Harlow. I went in with a plan and pretty much never strayed from it.

Like apart from filling out their story more, they've pretty much always been the whole "black cats are voids with eyes" trope that I wanted to make them, the whole void thing playing into their interest in being as gender ambiguous as I could make 'em.

[los-ninos-tortugas]

Your posts about Donnie continuing his training in Set A Course For Home has me SUPER curious what the crew of the Voyager think about his ninpo! So I'd love to hear your thoughts about it if you dont think it's spoilers!

Believe me I have also been Thinking some Thoughts about this! Cuz obviously Donnie's physical training is one thing, but his ninpo? A whole different ballpark and becasue because BECAUSE!!! In theory ninpo sounds very similar to Vulcan Katra. Like just the description on paper and the more spiritual side to ninpo would make it seem similar to Katra and if Donnie were just explaining it probably the crew (and more specifically, Tuvok) would think it was something akin to that. Functionally speaking however? Incredibly different.

Because Donnie's ability to create constructs and projections is quite unlike anything ever seen in the Star Trek universe. Yes there's been plenty of examples of telepathy, empathic abilities, perhaps even the odd case of psychokinesis. But the sort of rapid conjuration that Donnie does is something that's really only been done by a machine such as a replicator, and even a replicator pales immensely in comparison to what it is that Donnie does with his ninpo. (The closest example in other media I can think of is the way in which Jon Stewart uses his Green Lantern ring to create highly complex constructs, because he's also an engineer) I think the crew would be somewhat at a loss as to how to even begin categorizing Donnie's abilities since they are inherently mystic, and lets be real there's a whole lot of unexplainable BS that happens in Star Trek that borders on being magical/mystical but they never want to acknowledge that so.... and Donnie himself still being relatively new to mystical abilities (and someone who still deeply prefers science overall) would probably have a hard time trying to help them wrap their heads around it too, since he's still trying to wrap his head around it... though maybe some meditation sessions with Tuvok and the comparison to Katra actually might be more helpful in this regard. (In the absence of Kes Tuvok needs a new apprentice lol)

I'm gonna kinda just spitball a sort of "What-If?" scenario here because I do sort of have a plan for how the crew finds out just the true extent of Donnie's ninpo and how it works. But I think at Donnie's core he really really loves to be helpful and his abilities are sort of really well-suited to being helpful on Voyager, not that any of the crew would pressure him into using his abilities in that way, he's a kid after all, not a crew member, it's not necessarily his job to have to contribute to the ship. But nonetheless Donnie would want to do it. But I think there would be a limit before using his ninpo would take a lot out of him. In the movie Donnie does create a giant jetpack for Raph's giant projection, I'm gonna guess that Raph's projection is somewhere in the realm of about 4 stories tall, or roughly 43 feet tall, which sounds like a lot, but Voyager is 345 meters long or roughly 1,132 feet long. 43 feet suddenly seems pretty small. If Donnie were to try and create some sort of construct on the outside of the ship... even just enhancing the warp nacelles is a significantly bigger deal.

There's a lot of room to play here with this concept and it's something that I'm gonna keep plugging away at because it's something I really wanna take the time to flesh out and explore. I think it would be really interesting if Donnie inadvertently gets more mystical training in one of the most unlikely of places and he could very well leave Voyager being far more mystically adept than when he arrived.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Even in games like HIB do mention buddha like its as simple as that

Hell if they don’t want to literally names dropped him, they could have alluded d to him by saying his tittle like “the enlightened one.”

Its the dissonance that makes lmk stands out more so than the others jttw adaptations. Especially when we the audience doesn’t know IF swk is a buddha here. (He might be a bodhisavtta but since they have yet to name dropped guanyin, i dont think they will)

Jttw as whole does balance these two religions and able to showcased them as is. The refusal to allude other religions besides daoism just raised eyes on lmk n their decisions in this aspect. (Esp when swk IS the victorious fighting buddha and great sage equal to heaven. The way that characters goes out their way to avoid saying his actual name or his better well known tittles is bit weird. Esp when it very important to his character moreso than being the monkey king ever was)

like imagine building up to this title that you ever accomplished in life only to never be refer to that bc they see your first job ever first and the rest never to be acknowledged.

Like hell buddha and swk does have a connection here that in lmk seem to be nonexistent to uphold the narrative of JE is bad!! (When that just a poor dude in head management of a corporation.) it a questionable decision esp it seem like recon (bc lmk did mention buddha in like s1 and the usual narrative of how havoc on heaven goes. Like swk being trap in the furnace.)

His lmk character feels like hes just another flanderized goku. Hes just a messed of a character once you look past his goofiness and compare him to others swk. He does not uphold well—for this to be known as westerners first introduction to xiyouji (apart from OSP) it just sad that he could not be as complex as he should have been.(he can be something other than goofy-other than traumatized mess but he can do so good as much he had harmed)

Its kinda sad for being a protector of children, he had ended up being portrayed as irresponsible n a threat(bc of his various blunders)

Rip swk pissing in buddha fingers scene. You shall be missed

I think they could have done a lot with Lego Monkie Kid Wukong if they have given him the time he needed. They have a strong foundation of a plot to show Wukong has a mentor role but it looked like they rather a sacrifice character building for drama and shock value...

I’m not sure if he does have his other titles but considering I saw someone say that the “Great Sage” title was a reference to Xiyouji rather than that being his name… insane really. Like... just now knowing that is his NAME!

I'm not trying to bank on LMK on teaching people about Xiyouji like it's not meant for that... but at the same point, it's crazy to me to think that a Xiyouji piece of media is making 'references' to the original media despite it being in the same universe where everything happened like... of course it's going to reference the original source material. It is literally canon in the story that it happened.

And yeah them brushing off Wukong is also a monk and a Buddha... it's more strange than anything cause he is immortal... and the rest of the pilgrims should have also been immortal so I hope they touch why THAT isn't the case but... I feel like there are just going to be a lot of plotholes left unanswered for 'the reader's interpretation.' Like why did Wukong go on the journey if it wasn't his redemption arc for him to finally see that he had gone too far? Or why have the Jade Emperor defeat him when it just shows that it was about strength and not about ideologies? Again I've seen bad guy Jade Emperorbefore and here it looks like they are trying for a 'there is more going on' angle but... idk... just so many things that are not being played out or being far too rushed to be really fleshed out.

Which I feel like is the show's biggest weakness with Wukong. They are so busy rushing the plot they never give time to flesh him or even other characters out. He isn't the one that suffers from that which is a shame cause the show does have a lot of charming characters too!

I don’t know… I like the show but I think I'm going to just enjoy that I can and hopefully... things might get better this time... but maybe I just got to accept that they are never going to give their own characters the development or time they need.

A real shame.

[hari-monroe]

i have always been consumed with my ideal. the person i want to be. i think of her every single day, conjuring up fanciful stories of how she lives her life, her mesmerized lovers, how she leaves the world breathless. one would assume that the incessant energy i pour into dreaming of her would correlate to consistent efforts to actualize her. but that is not the case at all.

i dream and i plan and i set resolutions but despite all my best efforts i always land in the same place: on my knees asking God to make me more disciplined, to take the laziness from my bones, to not let me go to waste. but that's on the days i believe in God. other days i surrender to the universe, floating into a marijuana induced haze of acceptance and i tell myself that everything will go my way. other days, still, i am realistic. i tell myself i'm being too hard on myself. after all, i'm only eighteen. surely there's more to life than worrying that i'm not reaching my full potential? surely there's more to life than this ideal that i am chasing? surely there are other things that matter like the butterfly outside my window and my friends calling and the crunch of the pizza crust? surely?

what am i trying to say here? in all honesty, i don't know. i have always said that i feel as though i am ten people stuffed into this flesh. what i do know is this: my vision of who i want to be remains in all my discordance and that has got to count for something. it is the one thing that all my selves agree on. that person i want to be. and it is for this reason that i will not give up on moulding myself into my dream self.

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK (13/04/23 to 20/04/23)

i have been absolutely cruel to myself these past few months. cruel. i want to change that. i want to stop shrinking myself in shame and stop feeling so fucking guilty for just being. that is one goal i have. the other one is to spend more time with myself. alone. without my phone. i haunt the house with my phone permanently attached to my hand, a soul sucking appendage and i hate it i hate it i hate it and i hate myself for not being able to put it down. it's like i'm locked in a small corner of my mind and someone else is in control of my hands. the third goal i have is to be more active, some pilates or something because i'm not into hardcore shit.

in summary + how i will achieve:

1. be kinder to myself > say "i am a good person and i am deserving of good things"

2. reduce soul sucking effects of this damned to hell phone > turn it off for at LEAST an hour everyday

3. be more active > 10 min stretch everyday for a week.

these are the only 3 habits i am going to implement this week. if i am successful, i will set more. if i am not, i will abandon myself to my worst tendencies and eventually shoot my fucking brains out.

[jimmycarterghostland]

The Flaws of VE Schwab's novel "Vicious"

Before I begin, I need to say that I loved Vicious. But I hated the sequel book, Vengeful. And as much as I like Vicious, nothing is without flaws, and I want to bring up my dislikes about Vicious. Maybe some of my opinions about it haven't been discussed by anyone else before.

What I didn't like about Vicious:

1 The overly comedic tone. I'm not a fan of comedies. I prefer more serious works. Comedy can be great, but sometimes, it can make a piece of fiction suffer. It's hard to take something something that should be serious seriously when there's a noticable comedic tone, which Vicious has.

In Vicious, there's humor in pretty much every chapter. And all of the characters are funny and witty in a way. It makes the quality of the novel suffer, because the characters are too similar. Plus, the dark tone in Vicious would've been darker if there was little to no humor. It would've made the novel better. The series is called Villains. But the Marvel's Cinematic Universe type of tone in this series ruins it a bit for me. You never want to make all of your main characters be funny.

One comic relief character is fine, but the excessive amount of humor in Vicious is very "try-hard". It's forcibly witty. Which makes it annoying. In my opinion, Schwab should've given all the jokes and humor to the character Mitch. Everyone else should've been more serious, especially Sydney, who should've been more depressed, considering she got shot by her sister's boyfriend. Her own sister tried getting her killed. Sydney should've been more sad throughout this novel.

Basically, Vicious has a Joss Whedon sort of tone. And I'm not a fan of that kind of humor.

If I had written Vicious and wanted to insert some comedy, but not too much of it, I would've made one comic relief character. I can tell Mitch is the main CRC. So, I would've given him all the jokes in his dialogue and his narration. Only his chapters would've had the humor, though. This is actually how I tend to insert humor in my creative writing these days. I only make the designated comic relief characters say jokes and have humor in their POV chapters. The characters who aren't CRCs rarely joke around. With my method, you get humor, but never too much of it.

I wish Vicious were more of a grim novel. I would've enjoyed it more if the characters weren't cracking jokes like too many fictional characters do these days. Especially because of the influence of the humor found in the MCU. Vicious had too much humor in it. It reminded me of a Reddit post I read once, where the original poster was clearly trying too hard to be funny. There was a lame "joke" in just about every other paragraph. It was irritating.

2 Sydney and Serena's parents. It bugs me how they're rarely mentioned and don't matter to the plot at all. Apparently, they were those emotionally neglectful sort of parents.

Regardless, I hate that this book didn't include them or explain why they're neglectful to their daughters. It's not so bad that Victor's doesn't get fleshed out or anything, because he's an adult. Sydney is a child. Her parents not being concerned about her is "hand waved" away. They think she's still with Serena. So, no need to check on her.

This whole thing just feels weird. Schwab could've done something with this. It gets worse in Vengeful, because the parents are absent in that book too. I don't remember them looking for her or anything. The absent parents trope is heavy in this series. For everyone. It's like nobody in this duology even has parents. Bizarre.

Sydney and Serena having neglectful parents was a cop-out. It was also a case of bad writing, because it presents some issues.

3 Victor's plan to kill Eli. Victor had no actual plan to kill his immortal, self-regenerating former friend. He wanted to kill him, but he had no real method of doing so. What exactly was Victor's plan in that final battle between them? He knows he can't kill Eli. But he wants to. The whole thing is ridiculous, because Victor pointlessly tries to kill Eli. He never has a real plan to do it, either. When Batman wanted to kill Superman, he used kryptonite. As far as Victor knows, Eli doesn't even have a weakness. His ultimate goal was always to kill Eli, though.

The quality of the book goes down because of this. You would think Victor is smart enough to not fight Eli without a plan, but that's exactly what he does anyway. And it gets him killed. Another instance of bad writing. Victor trying to kill Eli when he knows he'll just heal is something that doesn't make sense when you think about it.

4 Are ExtraOrdinaries all over the world or just the area Eli is in? The way the book makes it seem, people with superpowers(EOs) only live within driving distance from Eli. He's clearly not murdering the ones who should be in China, Alaska, Mexico, etc. Like Victor, Eli has an unrealistic plan, and the author tries to hide it from the reader by not mentioning how the plan is unrealistic. More bad writing.

5 Serena's jarring change of mind. In one flashback chapter, Eli wants to kill Serena's sister, Sydney. She doesn't want him to kill Sydney. We are never shown Serena deciding that maybe Sydney should die. It's jarring, and the fact it wasn't expanded upon is terrible writing. We get the reasons why Serena believed Sydney needed to die, but we don't see the transition from her wanting to protect her to her being okay with Eli killing her. This should've been expanded upon. Sadly, it wasn't.

6 Serena controls people's minds, but when she tells Eli to "wait", he shoots Sydney anyway. There's no excuse for this one. What Serena tells people, they will do it. Eli should've waited. This is an annoying plot error. Schwab broke the rule of her own superpower system.

7 Detective Stell is hesitant about believing Eli is a hero, even though Serena tells him to believe it. This is another instance of Schwab being inconsistent with Serena's power. Stell shouldn't have been able to delay his agreement that Eli is a hero. He should've nodded right away.

8 Sydney should've been more depressed that her older sister tried to have her killed. Sydney doesn't seem all that bummed out that her sister's BF put a bullet in her arm during an attempted murder attempt. It's weird. I understand fiction can suffer when a character is being overemotional, but there's such thing as being underemotional. Sydney treats the murder attempt like it was a minor inconvenience. Strange.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Okay so I'm writing a sci-fi story that takes place near the end of the universe. Like legit stars dying-most-planets-are-inhabitable end and Im trying to make a society that functions well under a lot of stress, moves around a lot and has very limited resources. Problem is I don't know where to look for research on how to create a working culture and society like that :(( any advice??

Researching End of Universe Society

Any time you need to create an imaginary situation, place, or group of people, since you can't research the actual thing (since it's imaginary) the best thing to do is look for an approximation. In other words, find something real that's as close as possible to the imaginary thing you want to depict and research that.

In this case, I'd think a good place to be start would be to look for cultural groups who have become nomadic refugees as they flee conflicted areas due to war, famine, natural disaster, or other instability. This can give you some idea of the challenges they face in daily life and how their culture helps them through difficult times. Everything else will be up to you to flesh out from imagination and what works best in the story world you create.

Have fun with your story!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[time-to-write-and-suffer]

Wanted to say I totally agree with your arguments on TWC book 3. Gosh it's so infuriating to watch a game with a good universe and characters being a trainwreck as it progresses... I really hope Mishka get her shit together and do better. The serie doesn't deserve that.

I think part of the problem is the fandom? Not the people in the fandom, but the fact that there was a fandom so early on for her to interact with, and that she interacted with it so heavily.

Book 1 was very popular back in the day, and the release of book 2 actually trended on tumblr if I remember correctly. And just based on how the first book was relatively fleshed out and actually had substance, with the latter books getting somehow more and more fanfic-y of themselves, I think she just has askbox brainrot at this point.

Most of the dev blog is her answering asinine questions about the ROs that I personally would've left up for people to headcanon. I think that, after getting so much outside input on your characters, you end up losing your own vision for them and they become less defined and more like charicatures of themselves? Especially in an interactive game like this, when you're already keeping a lot of things open for player input, having so many people telling you their headcanons and forcing you to come up with situations to answer pointed questions … I dunno.

It's not the fandom's fault, and it's really not her fault either, because you need a decently sized fandom to get your IF anywhere near "making money" levels, but at some point I feel like maybe she lost her own artistic vision and just started either believing her own hype and realized that she could write whatever nonsense she felt like and people would eat it up (which I doubt is the case, purely becuse she seems to care about the project even if it's coming out a bit ass), or she's feeling some sort of pressure to conform to fandom expectations in writing (putting in a bunch of worthless but twee nonsense that's pure fanfic fodder), and coding (adding superficial variation to please the largest amount of people possible).

Again, this isn't like, me cancelling or trying to psychoanalyze or anything, but based on the product, these are my theories for why it looks the way it does now.

I also, and this will sound mean, think that the IF market has become a lot more saturated since TWC 1 came out, and there are a LOT of really good ones out there that are self-contained and complete and very good. Back in the day, the big players on the scene were basically just TWC and Fallen Hero. Now there's a gajillion other things, many of them finished and free, so waiting around for 7 books to come out for years when you could play something now that's done and if not better, then at least probably fits your specific tastes even more? People will drop off naturally already, and if you want to keep up with other creators, you can't rest on your laurels. (Which is also partly why I'm not in a hurry to write my own tbh. There's just a lot of stuff already out there and I don't feel like I'll be contributing much to the scene.)

[thevindicativevordan]

Why do you think DC wanted to boot PKJ off Action Comics ?

Anonymous asked: Expectations for Aaron writing Action?

Well I was working on a NYCC 2023 post, and unfortunately the damn thing suddenly deleted itself. Left me totally drained seeing all that hard work gone, so I'm going to keep it short this go around.

Aaron is a very similar writer to PKJ in both tone and style. If he were taking over for the long term I'd be cautiously optimistic - but he's only doing three issues. Doesn't matter if he sucks or is great, he'll be gone in a blink of the eye. Leaves me with no strong feelings regarding him.

Pitch sounds cool, it's the Multiverse Bizarro that Tomasi used. It will be darker in tone and Bizarro has a new power seemingly. Waid consulted and Aaron says he "passed the Waid test". Shows how influential that Waid has become that he's being brought in to help the other Superman writers. Once an editor always an editor. Timms on art is fine, he's not an artist I have strong feelings for but I liked his work on Son of Kal-El and his brief Superman run with PKJ. Given Bizarro was on the cover of Williamson's first issue but is showing up here, I wonder if this is just Williamson farming out a story to Aaron that he didn't have time for himself anymore.

After Aaron, Williamson takes over for "House of Brainiac" which is the big Superman crossover story. Brainiac wants to find his Queen and is unleashing his Bottled City of Czarnia to get her. Supes, the Superfamily, Lex, and Lobo team up to stop him. Great pitch - but Williamson writing another event by himself is a huge red flag. He's 0/2 on events thus far and my concerns had previously been soothed by the assumption that PKJ would help him this time, which sadly is not the case. If it's shit at least we get to see Sandoval draw the hell out of the fight scenes.

Next we will get at least two more creative teams, one of whom is almost certainly Waid and Henry doing the Phantom Zone/Aethyr storyline. Not happy to see Waid claim that story, his Silver Age sensibilities are not going to live up to what PKJ was building to. Huge disappointment at this chance to let PKJ flesh out the Phantom Zone like he did Warworld pass by. After Waid we have one more team, and if Tom King isn't shooting his shot by now he will never get on a Superbook. Turning Action into an anthology book feels like a last minute decision made to buy time while they try and get a permanent creative team, which I do think has a chance of being King.

As mentioned in other posts, PKJ claims he will still be writing Superman and I believe that means he's been tapped to write the Justice League relaunch. He was saying on Twitter that we would get to see his Warworld plot threads such as Kryl-Ux unfold elsewhere, and also he would touch on the backstory of the events we saw in the FS House of El one shot. Sounds exciting to me, the kind of story actually worth bringing JL back.

Oh and starting with issue 10, Williamson is doing a Superman arc that is a Western, expands on Moonlight's backstory, and brings in Terra-Man. Sign me the hell up for that! Redondo seems to have permanently moved to Superman from Nightwing which means I'm probably dropping Nightwing soon.

For other DC news I am ecstatic to see Spurrier and Campbell reunite for more Hellblazer, but otherwise it was a fairly muted showing from DC aside from one huge rumor that I'll cover in a separate post. Oh and I guess there was the Elseworlds announcement but since that was mostly Batbooks I’m not interested.

Apologies to all the Asks about the new Ultimate Universe, I did get them but they were deleted.

Ultimate Spider-Man - Pitch is perfect, a mid-life Peter inspired by Spiderverse Peter B. Parker is exactly what I want. Ideally this Peter will be married to MJ and a father to Mayday but we can't rule out Hickman throwing a curveball and having him be divorced or dating Liz Allen or something. Seeing DoomReed hold the spider in the vial that Maker had, plus the transition scenes of 6160 Peter wearing all the suits makes me guess that DoomReed will time travel back and give Peter his powers similar to how he and Tony used time travel to save Cap. Thus this Peter will have been Spider-Man for a while, in secret. Or it's setting up a bunch of variant covers and instead we will see what happens when Peter gets his powers much later than usual. Either way I am excited about reading Spider-Man comics again, no mean feat.

Ultimate Black Panther - Great choice for writer, Hill's run on Blade rules and his name dropping Dune as an influence has me hyped since I love the book too and it's influence is all over the work of Hickman and PKJ. Great artist in Caselli. Moss is the editor and that is not great. He edited the main BP book and his tenure has been a disaster. Hickman needs to be involved to protect Hill from Moss. Costume design is not great either, feels 90s in a bad way. Of all the new Ultimate books, this is the one I hope is most like the old UU in terms of updating T'Challa, his supporting cast, and Rogues Gallery for a modern era. Fine to start off with "Ultimate Moon Knight", but let's not wait too long to bring in traditional Panther foes like Achebe who need the spotlight and revamps.

Ultimate X-Men - Not interested. Momoko is a talented artist but I only care about the A-List X-Men. A bunch of OC mutants does not intrigue me. Easy skip.

No Ultimates is surprising but my suspicion is that Black Panther will tell the story of T'Challa housing the Ultimates in Wakanda and Hickman wants to push people towards Hill's book. Eventually the Ultimates will spin out of UBP I reckon.

Expect the same level of quality here as Orlando showed on the previous SW book. That said if this is not setting up the restoration of the twins being mutants, I find more Magneto drama tedious. Either pull the trigger and make them mutants again or keep them away from Magneto and the X-Line.

And that was basically it for Marvel announcements that I care about. Might check out the vampire event since McKay is writing, haven't decided yet.