#It's 'Oh his flaw is that he only loves an idealized version of the princess' which couldn't be farther from the truth

[dappy-dappernette]

I keep on hearing people go all "The voice of the Smitten is such a creep. All he wants in the princess is someone to control and keep as a pretty object. He'd drop the princess if she wasn't the perfect petite maiden like in the damsel route." and I will not stand for the Smitten slander.

Like- He's been in love with her as a burning corpse ghost lady:

A terrifying ghost woman who wants to bring fear and chaos to the world:

And even a murderous blade monster woman who would kill you and enjoy every second of it:

Like, he ALWAYS loves the princess no matter what she looks like or how she acts, he loves her for being herself no matter what or who she is. That's the point of his character and I'm tired of people slandering my boy.

[fontasticcrablettes]

What are your favorite things about FlynnxEstelle/what got you into them? They’re such an underrated pair 😔

Incredibly underrated!!!

So here's the story: Once upon a time, almost ten years ago (!!) I did a replay of Vesperia with my friend which kicked off my obsession with it, and we both came out of it shipping Ristelle. I didn't ship Flynn/Estelle at the time, and even commented that it was very refreshing that Estelle didn't have a romantic relationship with Yuri or Flynn when a possible love triangle plotline was right there.

But then... but then. Over the course of the next year, I started writing lots of fanfic. A lot of it was either explicitly Ristelle, or mildly suggestive of Ristelle. And while writing these fics, I started writing scenes between Flynn and Estelle. They get very little chance to interact in the game, especially in the OG version, so until I started writing fanfic, I never really thought much about their interactions.

But then I realized I really liked the way they bounced off each other when I wrote them! And I started to think more about the canon of them we do get, about how Flynn was her very first friend, about how the timeline tells us that Flynn met Estelle very soon after Yuri left the Knights and how lost he must have been without Yuri at his side for the first time since he was a kid. The potential of those three years of them being each others' only friends was so tantalizing, and my friend suggested the headcanon that they dated pre-game before Estelle realized she was a lesbian because she confused friendship for romance, having never felt either before.

It was all downhill from there. I started to think about that pre-game relationship more and more until I realized I didn't want it to only be in the past. And that brought me here, shipping them 100%, and no longer being interested in Ristelle, where it all started.

As for what I like about them, I touched on that already but here's more:

The way Flynn is conflicted between his duty to protect her and keep her from harm, vs his affection for her and wanting her to be happy by travelling the world

How Flynn and Estelle both have idealized perspectives of each other, as a "perfect knight" or a "princess that needs protecting," that get challenged and changed over the course of the journey, until they see all the rough edges and flaws in each other

The guilt Flynn feels when his actions supporting and helping Alexei lead to Estelle being kidnapped and tortured - OH THE DRAMA

My interpretation is that Estelle thrives on making decisions and loves taking charge after being held back all her life, while Flynn has such a demanding and stressful job that he just wants a break from that in his private life, which gels well together

Nerds

The way Flynn smiles at her................ :)

Flynn makes Estelle feel safe, and appreciated, and listens to her, and grounds her

Estelle makes Flynn laugh, and feel relaxed, and reminds him to have fun, and makes him think

I Just Think They're Cute :)

Thank you for giving me an excuse to gush about them, anon, and please feel free to send me any and all thoughts you have about them.

[lightdancer1]

One entirely intended benefit of making Ursa a more complex person with that common backstory across all my Avatar AUs

Is that it gives her relationships with all of her children, though it is neither all of her life nor its singular driving force, specific dynamics that become much more nuanced. Outside the Canon Continuation-verse there is no equivalent of the Bastard Letter because she does love her son, and allows him to be a fully rounded human being. Ursa and Zuko is Ursa at her best because she not only raises her son, but allows him full expression of humanity *including flaws and bad days.* This is as much because Ursa's own ambitions lead her to want to raise a model prince and then when Zuko isn't one, quite, to accept that *his* imperfections are what makes him a person. And in treating him *as* a person to not so quietly flout Azulon's intent for her children.

Her second child, to whom she is invariably an antagonist (though only in the Azula Heresy AU a villain and that because she's the Fire Lord and the person who handles the 'how do I not create a chain reaction of one usurpation after another' by re-establishing a lot of old theocratic traditions) is a case of her projecting her own not always deeply hidden resentment of her life and her own fear that her slice and dice firebending makes her innately monstrous. At no point is Azula as a child different to any other child, and since children are capable at times of tremendous cruelty and still being otherwise normal *without* in-built fire powers and adding them to the mix makes it more complicated, she is given an inability to be flawed, to have bad days, or to simply be fully human from *Ursa just as much as Ozai.* To Ozai her less savory traits he tries to build up are a sign that she's like him and he's less alone (except that she doesn't develop APD because she has just enough good things in life to avoid having her negative traits be the only ones reinforced like Ozai did). To Ursa anything less than a ceramic doll of an ideal princess with her Firebending 'normal' was a sign of the monster waiting to happen.

Why? Because Ursa knows exactly how her own unique Firebending and grand heritage ended up for her and in her view she's trying to stop history repeating itself.....and ends up woefully mistreating her daughter and showing why 'the road to Hell is paved with good intentions' is a saying.

In the one AU where she's the straight up villain she goes beyond this to deciding 'Ozai and Azulon were doing it wrong, I can do it better and more wisely than they can' like Fire Lord Iroh in the Dragon-verse in a very broad sense. But lacking Dai Li technology she tries emotional manipulation that she's ultimately not very good at and manages to destroy things at the most utterly complete level precisely because absolute power and god-complexes smother any lingering elements of 'oh shit now I see what I did wrong.'

Azula Heresy AU Ursa is the one case where she's the outright villain *to Azula* as well as more broadly. The Dragon-verse version *is* a villain but not to Azula personally, neatly subverting one of the big elements of the canon's protagonist-centered morality. After her Damascus Road moment she changes her views and actions to Azula.....and is still an imperialist who ultimately sides with her son's bid for the throne and isn't very concerned about fighting the people fighting against the Fire Nation's war and still in her own eyes a loyal supporter of the bigger goals.

As for Kiyi, she doesn't exist in the Azula Heresy, mostly because the Fire Lord can't marry an actor, not that Ikem considers this that great a loss at a personal level.

[a-little-slice-of-fandom]

A) hi how ya doing? B) I miss you C) can you analyze anything of Aragon? Thank you :)

Hey anon! I’m doing good ❤️❤️❤️ thanks so much for asking! I hope you’re doing well too!

Aragon is really interesting to me, because her song is kind of like the bohemian rhapsody of six. Very few people will say that it’s their favourite, but everyone will instantly sing along because it’s so catchy! Plus, it’s a great song to follow ex-wives with. It keeps the energy up and introduces the audience to the plot of the show.

I will say this until the day I die: while I would love if more songs were as scathing as say AYWD...you could never start with those songs. It’s too much too quickly. You need the more catchy, light-hearted songs of Ex-Wives, No Way and DLUH to start with because it helps get the audience invested in the show and the plot as a whole. Six, first and foremost, will always need to work dramatically. That’s why the old, more openly bitter No Way was changed to something a little more light-hearted.

The first thing that always comes to mind when I think of Aragon is regal. She’s the queen who was married to Henry for 24 years and was a Spanish princess as well. She’s the refined, confident queen who knows her own worth and honestly? I get the vibe she just wants a little bit of respect from the other queens. While some people characterise Aragon as rather cold, I honestly don’t get that? The show portrays Aragon as a very loyal person despite all that Henry put her through, and she clearly cares for Mary and also, to a lesser extent, Parr as her god daughter (remember she calls Howard “the least relevant Katherine”...meaning she does see Parr as relevant.) and she often refers to other queens as “babe” even though she was just arguing with them five seconds earlier (harking on the idea of forgiveness, something I think Aragon is very good at in the show!). Plus, while there’s only one line referring to Mary, Aragon is always so protective of her and warm to her. In the album, Renee’s “aw, hi baby!” is the most adorable and heartwarming part of the song and it’s clear she adores her daughter, while the “oh, you don’t remember?” in the live versions is so protective of her baby. It’s honestly something we don’t discuss enough. Moreover, Aragon’s song is one of the most energetic, but she has her earnest moment of pleading as well, along with her undisputable strength of refusing to back down and accept Henry’s lies. She is also incredibly passionate when talking about something she loves or defending herself when she has to (which make sense! This was the woman who rode with an army wearing armour while pregnant. Aragon was not to be messed with!).

I personally disagree with people who try and claim that Toby and Lucy wrote Aragon as the “angry” queen because she never truly gets to the levels of boleyn or seymour (yes there’s the miscarriage argument where she does raise her voice but like...are we ignoring Seymour’s “boohoo Mary had the chickenpox” or the fact that Boleyn is also shouting in that argument??? And she usually goes louder than Aragon???) and yet she’s so often defined by that trait even though other queens share it and are even more extreme. And yes, Im fully aware of why certain people characterise aragon in this way and I’m so annoyed that even though we continually call out the fact that’s it’s problematic, it continues to happen. However Aragon does have flaws like every good character should. Aragon just won’t try and listen to the other queens. She refuses to accept that Boleyn or Seymour might have had a worse time than her. Now I personally never got the feeling that Aragon blames the other queens for anything. Her feelings are directed at Henry. Notice in now way she talks about how henry is “running around with some pretty young thing” and she refers to him having “one son with someone who don’t own a wedding ring”. Those people? They’re clearly supposed to be Boleyn and Bessie, two people who are actually on stage at the time. But Aragon doesn’t take an easy shot at either of them in her song. She doesn’t say their name or call them out or try and involve them in her song. Contrast this with DLUH where Boleyn grabs Aragon, forces her to be front and centre in this verse and then insults her constantly (“three in the bed” = airing Aragon’s and Henry’s ✨ intimate issues ✨ with the entire world while “Don’t be bitter, cause I’m fitter” and “he doesn’t want to bang you, somebody hang you” are both pretty self explanatory). I think it’s absolutely key that Aragon doesn’t blame Boleyn or Bessie or direct any misplaced feelings towards them in no way or the show. Her (very justified) feelings of anger and betrayal are (generally) directed at Henry. And that’s something so many people ignore! And I personally wish more people would be like Aragon in this regard in the real world. I don’t know if other people agree with me, but it’s your boyfriends/husbands job to not cheat on you, not someone else’s. I do know some people think that Aragon is slighting Boleyn and Bessie in that verse but if we’re sticking to tudor ideals, Aragon not mentioning them by name (in essence keeping their “dignity” and “honour” intact) would be the kinder thing to to. (Note I’m only saying this with Tudor ideals in mind. I also think Aragon fully knows that Bessie was 13 when Henry started making advances on her and again, refuses to blame Bessie for what happened because she knows she’s a victim).

However...Aragon doesn’t ever try and listen to other queens and will insult them if she has to. She (along with the other queens like Boleyn and Seymour) gets more and more defensive and petty as the show continues. However, she never gets to the same levels of hard hitting insults has say Boleyn. But I mean...Aragon was a queen who went through so much in her lifetime and never was able to really talk about it. Yes, she resisted Henry trying to get their marriage annulled, and she was one of the strongest women at the time, but she couldn’t deal with her emotions the same way that we can today. She never got to told Boleyn to go away or leave her alone. She never got to bad mouth Henry because he was the king. She was, first and foremost, a lady, and she was expected to act in a certain way all of her life. And now that she’s reincarnated in modern days, she doesn’t have to do all of those things. She can be annoyed and let it show, she can tell Boleyn all those things she wanted to do back in the day. Some actresses even lean into the idea that it’s sort of cathartic for Aragon to FINALLY just say what she wants to say without having to worry on how it would reflect on her as queen. Mind you, I still think that Aragon considers how her words would reflect on her (much more than any other queen) but she definitely has more wiggle room within the show than she did during her reign.

In addition, while the fandom also like to reduce Aragon to obsessed with her religion, I actually really like how her relationship with Catholicism is portrayed in the show. While I do concede that Aragon’s faith is sometimes reduced to the butt of the joke, that’s not always the case and I personally really enjoy how Aragon seems to gain a lot of strength from her religion, instead of it holding her back or hindering her. While I do understand why so many characters in media struggle with their religion or find it suffocating (my relationship with Catholicism is...fragile at the best of times), but I genuinely love this idea that Aragon’s faith is what guides her and gives her inner strength in times of need. I mean,,,when she’s pleading to Henry during now way, the music slows to something that sounds more like a gospel song, Aragon is kneeling with her hands clasped and there's bright white light around her (i also vaguely remember something that looks like a crucifix behind her as well? But I'm not 100 percent sure on that). At the time where Aragon is most vulnerable and needs to find inner strength and wants guidance...she turns to her religion and that's seen as a very positive thing!!! The same with Aragon's verse in Sox. Moving to a nunnery and finding friends there is something that's now postive and liberating instead of being stuffy and boring and restrictive like nunnery are often portrayed as in media. (yes I know that's also a play on Henry wanting to send Aragon into the nunnery after their divorce but I do think that there’s no malicious religion-basing in Six is a nice touch that’s often overlooked).

Finally, Aragon’s costume is quite important to her character. It is one of the more feminine outlines (especially the updated version on broadway) and I do think it’s an inadvertent issue that the queens with the more stereotypical feminine costumes are more catty whereas the more stereotypical androgynous or masculine outfits (aka Parr and Cleves) are often the voices of reason, but I don’t think that’s intentional or is intended to comment on anything. It’s just a coincidence. However, the gold of Aragon’s outfit obviously symbolises her love, courage and passion, along with indicating her status as a noble. While yes the rest of the queens were all noble in some way before they married Henry, Aragon was a Spanish princess and the daughter of two incredibly powerful monarchs. She was probably the highest standing out of any of the queens, and her costume reflects that. I also think that her wearing gold to flaunt her status could be her trying to make up for the years between her marriages to Arthur and Henry (where she didn’t have many provisions made for her as far as I know) and also the last few years of her life. (I’ve seen differing reports on how Aragon was provided for after Henry divorced her, with her claiming that she was living in poverty while others state she got 3000 pounds. If anyone has any confirmation then let me know). Either way, her wanting to flaunt her status after her reincarnation by wearing lots of bright gold makes total sense. I’ve also seen a few people say that the bust on Aragon’s costume is the most historically accurate but I can’t confirm that, although if it is then that’s a really nice touch.

Well this took ages, but it was fun to finally get to analyse stuff again AND do it on a queen who doesn’t get discussed very much!!! Aragon often gets reduced to “catholic” or “angry” within this fandom, even though she is just as complex as any other character within the show but she just expresses things in very different ways. And that’s okay! This whole show is about how women (and NB folk!) are different and do have different experiences and do express things differently and have different personalities and that’s okay! We should celebrate our differences.

[vulpesvulpesjenna]

Rank-king; Disney Princesses

Inspired by the Try Guys’ Eugene I want to rank the official Disney princesses in my opinion from worst to best! He made a YouTube video ranking them, and since I disagreed with so many of his decisions, I wanted to make my own list. Justice! So, here is my own list of official Disney princesses from least favourite to my favourite. Like Eugene, I will count Elsa, Anna and Moana as official princesses, even though Disney has them separate. 

14. Snow White Snow White, the first Disney princess from 1937 reflects her time’s ideal woman; she’s cheerful, innocent and loves housework. Which is exactly why I dislike her. Her character is built on being cute and virginal, cleaning up the dwarves’ house just because... why does she like cleaning up the filthy home of strangers so much? I don’t know, I just find she lacks personality. She’s simply the embodiment of the “perfect female” of her time, and that irks me more than anything. Blah, she doesn’t have a personality, so she’s my least favourite.

13. Aurora Very much like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty is just a pretty, innocent and virtuous girl. She’s almost an extra in her own movie (I mean, she *is* asleep almost half of the time). I like her design and the fact that she walks around the woods barefooted and is a countryside girl; otherwise she doesn’t have a lot of personality. Her finding her prince is a tad better than Snow White: at least Aurora meets Philip once before he comes along and kisses her while she’s sleeping. 

12. Cinderella CInderella’s supposed to be amazingly kind, patient and understanding, and sure, that she is. To the point of being a mat that everyone is welcome to walk over. I think she tries to change her own life a bit more than Snow White or Aurora, but in the end, Cinderella is still dependent on her prince saving her. Otherwise she’s, again, this perfect, virginal woman of her time at the cost of having a personality of her own. At least she has a dream and cute little mouse sidekicks.

11. Ariel I think this is my first truly controversial pick; Ariel is loved by the masses, and people will surely be appalled by my choice. But to be honest, even though I love mermaids and red-haired princesses as much as the next girl, I find Ariel to be a bit of a... brat. I mean, she sees prince Eric from afar once and decides she wants to be with him. She’s even willing to abandon her family for him. Seriously? Not to mention acting very childishly and making some very stupid and outright dangerous life decisions by signing Ursula’s contract. And it very nearly ends in her complete demise! She put her whole family and people in danger just because she felt she was not like the other girls. I know people love her, and I do too, but I can’t fool myself into thinking she’s very smart or mature. Gotta give her props for 1) having a personality and dreams of her own and 2) being imperfect, which is what earlier princesses lack. 

10. Jasmine Princess Jasmine is painted to be this rebel in Aladdin. But to be honest, I don’t know if she really is. I like her and I understand her, but again, I wish she was a bit more level-headed. Yes, it is charming how out-of-touch she is having lived in the Palace her whole life, and I do admire her will to explore. I also like how she says what she thinks and doesn’t try to sugarcoat things just because she’s a princess. She has a fighting spirit, which I like. I am a bit bothered by the fact that her most effective weapon against Jafar is her sexuality (nnnggghh), which is one of the reasons she’s this low on my list.

9. Tiana I love Tiana; she’s exemplary in her drive and hard work. But I can’t help feeling like... that’s it? I don’t know, I guess I hope she had something more going on for her. Because at the end of the day I find her to be a little boring. Or I guess she does have personality, but I think it could have been brought up in more interesting ways. It could also be that I’ve only seen The Princess and The Frog like twice. But anyway; she’s great but I kinda wanted something more.

8. Pocahontas I *loved* Pocahontas when I was a kid. She was so graceful, but wild (yeah, yikes...). These days I see the aboriginal-glorifying (also known as racist) undertones in her depiction, and can only cringe. Anyway, she really is a wonderful character none the less; she has wanderlust but also enough maturity to reign it in. She’s curious and non-judgemental. She has a close relationship with nature, which is something that resonates with me personally. She’s wise. She also has flaws; overly independent, reckless etc. I always thought she was a lot older than the character is supposed to be. But yeah, the racism and sexualization can only be escaped so far, which is one of the reasons she’s my number 8.

7. Moana Okay so I’ve only seen Moana once (I know, don’t eat me). From what I remember Moana was a great character; driven, imperfect, brave with a big heart. Anything one can hope for from a Disney princess, really. She really is great. But tbh, her movie just didn’t do it for me. Maui was great, but for example the (other) sidekicks were kinda meh. The music was a bit boring too, IMO. I know I’m alone with my opinion, but this is my list so here we are.

6. Elsa I know she’s really a queen and not a princess, but following Eugene I’ll put her as one of the princesses for the sake of ranking. Elsa is amazing and I relate to her a lot. Comparing her hiding her powers to depression really hit me as someone who’s been struggling with depression for more than 10 years. I get her. She’s very, very imperfect, but also very powerful. I’m pretty sure she’s more powerful than any of the Disney princesses, which is cool as heck. I know she was supposed to be the villain of her movie at first, and honestly I kinda love the sass and confidence and the IDGAF attitude she has at the end of her Let It Go number. She’s also responsible and sensible, which are rare characteristics in a Disney princess (queen).

5. Merida Oh, Merida! Bow-and-arrow wielding, horse-riding, apple-stealing princess with a charming accent! I can’t not love her. She has a lot of the same themes that Jasmine does, but I think they were handled better with Merida. And again, I just love these outdoorsy type princesses. Shes’ capable and determined. She also makes mistakes, even if her mistakes were very frustrating watching the movie. People say Brave didn’t have a real plot or conflict and complain about the Mother Bear thing (yes I’m looking at you Keith of Try Guys), but I disagree. I liked that the movie for once focused on the relationship between a princess and her mom. I’d like to be friends with Merida.

4. Anna Anna is just delightful! Helps a lot that her voiceactor is Kristen Bell, whom I adore. But anyway, I really like Anna; she loves her sister more than anything, she’s brave and willing to face the freezing wilderness to bring Elsa back. SHe’s weird and quirky (though to be completely honest the quirkyness is sometmes a bit forced). Just all around a great gal.

3. Mulan These last three are just arbitrarely in some order; I pretty much love all of them equally. Mulan is like the best female character from Disney ever, period. She’s willing to do anything to save her dad and her country. She’s strong and smart and daring but also sweet and understanding and kind. They succeeded in making her a woman character who possesses a lot of masculine traits without losing her heart, and still being very relatable. Also Mulan is cool as hell. She also has the best sidekick, Mushu.

2. Belle I always get the result of being most like Belle from online quizzes. Because yes, I do have brown eyes and hair (naturally), love books and knowledge, and dream of a brighter future in the great wild somewhere. I related to her ever since I was a child; one of my dreams has always been having a library like Beast’s. Her whole movie is amazingly pretty and has the best music. Also Belle’s Finnish voice (which is the one I heard as a child and still know best) is perfect. Yes, all of this comes down to my personal taste, and I’m not sorry. I love how Belle is a strong female character without being a bad-ass fighter. She does her best for her father, she’s independent, she doesn’t let gossip bother her, she stands up to Beast even though she’s scared, she stands up to Gaston, she stays truthful. These days people like to claim she’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome; to those believing that, please watch Lindsay Ellis’s video on YouTube on the matter. Also, Emma Watson is not my Belle and I try to pretend the whole live action version never happened.

1. Rapunzel Rapunzel is my idol. She’s crafty and independent and joyful and a dreamer. She’s really imperfect and in my opinion most like a real person out of all the princesses. She’s genuine and wears her heart on her sleeve. She’s amazingly brave, witty and kind of a bad-ass. She breaks out of her narcissistic kidnapper’s grasp. Her romance feels real and organic.  I just really think Rapunzel and Tangled as a whole movie are very underrated. Go watch it.

Honorable mentions to non-princesses - Megara from Hercules, one of my favourite films. Meg is great, and rare with her cynicism and world-weary attitude. She’s so cool and I love her. - Kida, who weirdly is the princess of Atlantis but not included in the DIsney princess line? I’ve never understood that. She’s amazing and beautiful and ugh. - other women of Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Helga Sinclair, Audrey Ramirez, love them. It’s seriously such a good, underrated movie - Esmeralda from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, another one of my childhood idols. Rare a Disney woman in that she’s not ashamed of her sexuality, but not dependent on it, either. She kicks ass. - Jane from Tarzan, she’s silly and cute, and so stylish!

I’m right, you’re wrong, shut up!

[sometimesdragons]

Character Analysis—Akatsuki no Yona

I decided I want to try out NaNoWriMo this year, so in preparation I’ve started studying how to develop characters. My sister, who is a writer/editor, recommended The Positive Trait Thesaurus and The Negative Trait Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi and they have been AWESOME in helping me start building the characters that I want to write about. As an exercise, I decided that I would try to see if I could characterize the MCs in AkaYona. These are just my opinions, so if you agree/disagree let me know why! I’d like to know what other people see in these characters, and it will help me know where my characterization fell short.

List of things that I included for each character and what they are:

Primary positive trait: the character’s strongest positive trait that informs their decisions

Secondary positive traits: the character’s other positive traits that still inform their decisions but less than the primary

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: the character’s strongest negative trait that informs their decisions. Also what the protagonist needs to overcome as part of the story. Note—in a tragedy, the protagonist is overcome by their negative trait. Also, villains are usually people that rely too much on their negative traits—they see them as positive. Another note—negative traits are emotional and internal, so something like being weak or ugly is not included. Those kinds of things influence the Wound/Backstory, and thus they help develop both positive and negative traits, but are not included in the traits themselves.

Secondary negative traits: the character’s other negative traits that still inform their decisions but less than the primary

Wound: the defining emotional experience from a character’s past

THE LIE: an untruth the character believes about themselves (stems from the Wound)

Also some thoughts I had as I was doing this for each character.

Things I didn’t include for this that are also important to characterization:

I also didn’t include every single positive or negative trait, just the ones that I thought were the most significant. I tried to keep it to 2-3 per character.

Neutral traits: traits that could be either good or bad. These were too hard to figure out. :P

Backstory: what happened to the character in the past that defined their primary traits. I assume most of us know this already. But just in case some people don’t,

[SPOILER WARNING!!!]

Yona

Primary positive trait: Resilient

Secondary positive traits: Perseverant, Courageous

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Confrontational

Secondary negative traits: Ignorant, Irresponsible

Wound: Inability to protect those she loved (father/Min-soo).

THE LIE: I am weak and useless. (Related: If only I had more power)

My thoughts:

Being resilient means that you’re able to adapt to pretty much any situation. As an example, Yona is very quickly able to see what she needs to do in order to get what she wants. If she wants to protect Hak, then she tries to get stronger. If a play goes awry, she is able to figure out what to do to keep things at bay until help arrives.

As Yona is the protagonist, her primary negative trait is extremely important. Part of the story should be her being able to overcome this trait or to work with it and use it. To control it instead of letting it control her. The confrontational character usually will avoid having close relationships with others because they tend to drive them away. (Example: when Yona first meets Lili.) They won’t shy away from an argument, even if they should. (Example: Get away from Lili—said to Soo-won. Also: I can convince Soo-won to meet with Kouren!) They struggle seeing another person’s point of view. (Example: I’m going to go tell my father that I can’t give up on Soo-won. Also: This is MY wound, Hak!)

As part of her continued development, I hope to see Yona make significant connections with people. Her relationship with the dragons is close, but she has yet to think of the HHB as her family. They help her. They are her body guards. They are there because she asked them to be, but she still feels like she’s forcing them to be there and wants to give them their freedom. There is still a significant gap between Yona and her boys, and I hope to see that gap close. At this point in the story I think the character that’s closest to Yona is Lili. She’s the only one that really knows what Yona is thinking/feeling. I also want something to go horribly wrong because Yona didn’t give up on an argument. I want to see her figure out that Hak loves her without him telling her. There is still so much that she needs to do to develop as a character, and I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what she can be.

Seriously, though, as I was doing this exercise I realized that even though Yona HAS developed quite a bit as a character, it was not as much as I originally thought. She is relying on her confrontational trait a bit too much at the moment. She needs to figure out different ways of doing things than just getting angry and getting in to arguments. I’m curious to see where she goes from here. I REEEEEEALLY want her to fail miserably at something.

Hak

Primary positive trait: Idealistic

Secondary positive traits: Loyal, Emotional

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Dishonest

Secondary negative traits: Impulsive

Wound: Betrayal by a close friend that shattered his dreams for the future.

THE LIE: My judgement cannot be trusted. (Related: I must rely on others to know what is right and wrong)

My thoughts:

Hak saw the best in Soo-won. He saw him as someone who could give Yona the best possible future The betrayal is so significant because it shattered Hak’s dreams. The moment when he ‘felt his heart breaking’ was when Soo-won was ready to kill Yona. It brought Soo-won crashing down from the pedestal Hak had put him on and Hak had to take an honest look at the situation, and all his dreams for the future were lost.

The reason why Soo-won’s betrayal is such a big deal for Hak is because Hak is an idealist. This is actually the reason why the betrayal is the part that Hak focusses on and her inability to save others is what Yona focusses on, and why Yona has been able to get past the betrayal faster than Hak has. (As an aside, this is why I think the hairpin is more significant for Hak than it is for Yona. Yona looks at it and sees what WAS and Hak sees what COULD HAVE BEEN.) Hak only saw the best in Soo-won. Hak only saw the best in Yona when she was kind of a spoiled brat and he was crushing on her in the castle. He sees the ideal in every situation (If Yona promises she’ll come back safely, then she’ll come back safely.)

Another interesting thing that I noticed is that because Hak’s idealistic views of the future were so shattered at the beginning of the story, he started to rely more on his negative traits than his positive ones and was much more dishonest at the beginning of the story. (Example: leaving Yona when the fire tribe was attacking and saying he’d be back; deciding to leave the wind tribe without Yona)

It seems like I’m just talking about bad things, but Hak’s idealism is what allows him to trust the dragons even after Soo-won’s betrayal. It’s what allows him to get excited when he sees Yona succeeding. He sees the best people can be. Just sometimes he can’t see what they actually ARE because of it.

Also, Hak’s dishonesty is super obvious at the beginning of the story, and the most telling example I can think of is that everyone in the wind tribe thinks all he cares about is money. Hak didn’t want anyone to know the REAL reasons he protected the princess (respect for Il, in love with Yona) so he basically lied to himself and to everyone else that he was doing it for the money. He was so adept at lying that he actually ended up changing his attitude because of it. HE believed that he all he was interested in was money. Once he made the decision just to follow Yona, he had to stop lying to himself about why he was following her. This is especially apparent in the fact that since they left the wind tribe, Hak has not mentioned being concerned about money ONCE. He even gambled. That is not the behavior of someone who is as concerned about money as Hak pretended to be.

Soo-won

Primary positive trait: Disciplined

Secondary positive traits: Ambitious, Cautious, Charismatic

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Inflexible

Secondary negative traits: Manipulative, Vindictive

Wound: King Il killed his father, which led to a complete break down of his beliefs. (I thought he was a good king, and I was wrong. I must have been wrong about everything about him.)

THE LIE: Everything King Il believed is wrong, and I am the only one that can fix it.

My thoughts:

The thing that is particularly interesting about villains is that sometimes when they face opposition, instead of building up their positive traits they will see their negative traits as strengths and use those to overcome the problem instead of the positive traits. I believe that’s what Soo-won has done, and that is what makes him such an interesting character. An inflexible character sees the world in black and white. Not good and evil, mind you. Villains like this tend to build their own moral systems and base right and wrong on their skewed version of the truth. In Soo-won’s case, one truth he will always stand by is that King Il was wrong. Killed my father? Il was in the wrong. Yona saw me kill him? She’ll take his side, which is wrong, so I must kill her, too. King Il cared about the gods? Then I don’t care about them. King Il cared about Yona? Then I will have to throw her away. That is why when Yona challenged what Soo-won believed with her ‘Oh, so that’s why your dad didn’t become king’ comment Soo-won looked so shaken. She directly challenged one of his inflexible truths. Soo-won developed his standards and morals while he was young and has stuck by them completely. His development has been FASCINATING the past few chapters because this is the first time his inflexible beliefs have been challenged and proved wrong. (Example: Yona is weak, and Hak is strong, so Yona cannot do anything by herself.)

Soo-won is a grey-area villain because not all of his morals are completely wrong. This is also why he is able to be so disciplined when planning and exacting his revenge and why some people follow him. He is not completely wrong. In fact, he is mostly right. The problem is that he sees himself as ALL right and will not change that point of view.

I also picked Inflexible as Soo-won’s primary negative trait because it is exactly opposite of Yona’s primary positive trait, resiliency. Soo-won relies on his inflexibility and Yona relies on her resilience, which leads to their very interesting character dynamics. Yona changes easily. Soo-won does not.

Yoon

Primary positive trait: Generous

Secondary positive traits: Intelligent, Responsible

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Worrywart

Secondary negative traits: Cynical

Wound: Fight for survival, loneliness.

THE LIE: Everything that I have will be taken from me. (Related: I must do everything I can not to lose those I care about; Those I care about cannot survive without me)

My thoughts:

There is a theory called Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that breaks down our needs as humans to different categories and levels. The base level is physiological, or the things we need in order to survive. In the books that I’ve been reading, the closer your needs get to the base level, the more your primary traits will take over. Some people will rely on their positive traits and some their negative. This is the level that Yoon was at when he met Ik-Soo. I think sometimes we forget that Yoon was willing to kill Ik-soo to eat. However, when the time came that Yoon could have killed Ik-soo, he didn’t. Even though he was at his limit, his generosity took over and he took care of Ik-soo instead. Out of all the characters in AkaYona, Yoon is the ONLY one that knows how bad it can get, and how bad he got. Even Shin-ha, who arguably had the worst childhood, never got to the point where he would kill the villagers. Shin-ha had someone to teach him to protect others. Yoon didn’t have that, at least not until he found Ik-soo.

Because of his situation growing up and the major change in his life when he met Ik-soo, Yoon developed a fear that all of the things that he loved would be lost, that every little thing that went wrong could have major consequences. So he worries. He worries about EVERYTHING. He worries so much that he almost didn’t go with Yona and Hak when they met him the first time. His worrying sometimes combines with his generosity, however, and gives him the courage to act to protect those he cares about. (Example: demanding food/medicine when the dragons are hurt and in prison) Sometimes this becomes a little too self-sacrificial, however. (Example: getting the mercenaries away from Yona when they’re trying to set off the firework)

Kija

Primary positive trait: Honest

Secondary positive traits: Loyal, Courageous, Competitive

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Reckless

Secondary negative traits: Confrontational, Defensive

Wound: Watching a loved one die and being kept from them because of his power.

THE LIE: I owe those who have given me power. (Related: My life has no value; I must fulfill the wishes of my predecessors; My desires mean nothing; I can never have what I want)

My thoughts:

Kija is the honesty to Hak’s dishonesty, and I think it’s one of the reasons they bicker so much. If Kija sees Hak spouting some BS, he’ll call him out on it. But Kija, unlike Jae-ha, is extremely un-perceptive, so he doesn’t notice it very much. If Kija and Jae-ha were combined in to one character, Hak would be in trouble.

If Kija hadn’t been the first dragon they met, would Hak have trusted any of the dragons as absolutely as he does?

Kija’s honesty also allows him to the see the truth of a situation. Kija is able to separate his father’s actions when he was first born with who his father actually was. It also makes him a little blunt and unable to deceive others. (Example: Telling Soo-won that they are the four dragons and that they serve Yona. This probably would have been better to keep a secret, but Kija doesn’t lie.)

Kija’s lie directly influences his primary negative trait. He doesn’t care if he lives or dies. He just cares that he gives others what they need/want, with no regard for his own personal safety. He is quick to jump in to  fight, and this makes him a powerful warrior. 

Throughout the story Kija’s lie has extended to include his dragon brothers. They had such horrible experiences growing up in contrast to his own that he feels obligated to make it up to them in some way. For Kija’s further development as a character, I want him to be incredibly selfish once. I want him to save himself at the expense of others. I want him to value his life.

Shin-ha

Primary positive trait: Sentimental

Secondary positive traits: Curious, Resourceful

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Oversensitive

Secondary negative traits: Childish

Wound: Losing his caregiver when he was very young and then directly disobeying him by using his power to kill.

THE LIE: I am not worthy of love. (Related: I am a monster; It is my fault that everyone leaves me. I am defective)

My thoughts:

With sentimentality as his strength, Shin-ha is transparent and honest with his feelings. He is also thoughtful and generous. He feels emotions strongly. This is wonderful and amazing when he meets Yona and gives himself to loving his new family completely. However, because he feels emotions so strongly he is unable to separate his emotions with who he is as a person. He tried his whole life to love others with everything he had, and no one returned the love he was willing to give. This is especially exacerbated by his fatal flaw. If he had a thick skin, he would be able to control his emotions better. But he never learned how to do that, so he is raw to whatever outside influences mess with his emotions.

Shin-ha is one case where his wound really defined who he was when he grew up. I was doing some research for an unrelated project and found a list about how children deal with grief. Between the ages of 3-6 (which is how old I think Shin-ha was?) children don’t really understand death. They can think that a person is just sleeping, that they’ll wake up soon. (Example: Shin-ha trying to get Ao to keep talking to him after Ao is gone. Also Shin-ha’s reliance on having the bells.) They can also be caught in ‘magical thinking’ where they believe that they did something to cause the death. (Example: my eyes stole Ao’s strength and then he died. Or Ao didn’t come back because I used the power in my eyes when I wasn’t supposed to.) Because of this trauma and a lack of parental support, Shin-ha was never taught to think differently. He is basically just a small child in a man’s body. So he has the emotional capacity of a child as well. He feels things strongly. Too strongly. And when he loves, he loves completely. So even though the people in his village treated him so poorly, his sentimentality allowed him to keep loving them and protecting them. When he hates, he hates strongly as well, which is generally when he uses his power. Then, when he comes back to himself, he berates himself for being so weak because he sees what he has done and doesn’t understand how he could have made such a big switch in emotion.

Jae-ha

Primary positive trait: Perceptive

Secondary positive traits:  Independent, Flirtatious

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Mischievous

Secondary negative traits: Evasive, Vain

Wound: Having to completely rely on someone who hated him. Child abuse.

THE LIE: I don’t need anyone. (Related: I am a monster; I am ugly; I will leave whenever I want to)

My thoughts:

Jae-ha is able to read pretty much any situation. He could tell that Hak was in love with Yona after just barely meeting them. And while IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT got the dragons to stop fighting the Xing warriors because he realized that this would cause more problems. Being able to read situations is sometimes a trait of children who were abused. They learn to read the moods of their abusers to see if they are going to have to protect themselves.

This trait isn’t infallible, however. Jae-ha is human (well, mostly) and makes mistakes. Jae-ha had the hardest time with Kija. He assumed Kija’s motivations and didn’t get all of the information until they went to the hot spring. Jae-ha spent the whole time trying to guess what was bothering Kija because he assumed Kija would want to hide his scars. He went a little over-perceptive in this case and assumed things based on his own experiences. However, once he understood Kija’s past he was able to see that he had been wrong and apologized.

Jae-ha is perceptive not only with others but with himself as well. He is extraordinarily self-aware. (Example:

Mischievous people can be fun and always look for a laugh, but it is difficult for them to take things seriously or be taken seriously. They are constantly trying to mess with people and situations. Jae-ha always makes jokes even when the situation doesn’t call for it, and that is one of the reasons we love him, but it is also a coping mechanism that can cause an emotional build up and explosion later. (Example: yelling at Yona when she wants to investigate the Nadai) Playing pranks is also a way to keep people at a distance, reinforcing his lie. (Example: when the pirates tell him he’s a good fighter and super encouraging in battle, he tells them he’d rather be depended on by cute girls, which causes them to yell at him, which reinforces the lie ‘I can leave whenever and no one will care.’)

Zeno

Primary positive trait: Perseverant

Secondary positive traits: Supportive, Cheerful, Wise

Primary negative trait/fatal flaw: Insecure

Secondary negative traits: Reckless, Self-destructive

Wound: Losing everyone he ever cared about, and knowing that he will always lose those he cares about.

THE LIE: I will never belong anywhere. (Related: I am a monster; I can never truly save those I care about)

My thoughts:

I think the yellow dragon chose him because of his perseverance, but Zeno accepted because of his insecurity. (If I do this, can I make people happy? Can I make them accept me?) And even after he was chosen he was still so insecure. (I’m the dragon without any powers. I get in the way in the battlefield. The one I’m supposed to protect has to protect me. I’m useless as a dragon warrior.) And then when he was with Kaya he never told her about his powers, which he repeated even when he met his own brother dragons again. He consistently says that he is the odd one out, that he is a monster. He tries to destroy himself. All marks of insecurity.

But even though the entire history of his character is rooted in insecurity, Zeno perseveres and develops other positive traits. The fact that he is able to keep going even though he hates most everything about himself is so impressive.

I was thinking about putting ‘patient’ under Zeno’s positive traits, but I don’t think he actually is. He thinks he is, but he’s really not. Perseverant works better, because even though he has had a hard time getting used to his power, he was still able to continue and find some sort of meaning in his immortality. He never gives up. (Example: kept visiting the dragons; keeps trying to die)