#Tension Narrative

[lesparaversdemillina]

La danse du soleil et de la lune T6 de Daruma Matsuura

Le tome 6 de Daruma Matsuura ravit avec son intrigue captivante et ses dessins magiques, promettant des révélations sur Tsuki.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Really digging the subtle little arc that Paul goes on from when he and Jessica arrive at Sietch Tabr and he says "I must sway the non-believers" (I don't think he means convert them to the prophecy; I think he means convince them to follow his lead politically; but still seeing the Fremen as a tool to be used in his personal revenge quest), to when they're talking before Jessica leaves for the south and he says he's staying in the north to fight but that "they deserve to be led by one of their own" (ie. I'm in this fight because I believe in it but I don't expect to gain anything for myself and actually I probably shouldn't).

The fact that Paul is only becoming more convinced that he is nothing special at the same time that people are starting to worship him. The fact that his own mother is doing everything possible to accelerate that process and the two of them keep moving further and further apart (literally, he is going north and she is going south). The fact that people keep telling him he should just reach out and take the power that's available to him (Jessica with the prophecy, Gurney with the nukes), it's so simple, look, it's right there waiting for you, it's your birthright, wouldn't this makes things easier? The fact that he resists all of these arguments right up until the attack on Sietch Tabr, and that it's his best, most human impulses (grief over watching his home be destroyed again and guilt that he should have seen it coming; if he'd just seen more clearly or understood the visions better--) that make him finally decide to step onto the path that dooms him and everyone else.

[iwasbored777]

Glinda looking Elphaba in the eyes but when Elphaba got closer Glinda was looking at her lips 😭😭😭😭 she wants that cookie so bad 😭😭😭😭

[quillver]

Micro-tip: How to make emotional scenes hit harder

Don’t put the emotional payoff in the confrontation itself.

Put it two scenes later. Quiet. Off-guard. Uncontrolled.

Let your character hold it together when it matters.

Then let it fall apart in the silence that follows.

Not when they’re being watched.

When the door sticks.

When someone looks away.

When they forget the wine.

When they ask if anyone’s hungry just to fill the space.

Readers don’t cry when the character explodes.

They cry when the damage surfaces — quiet, and far too late.

[rookamell]

Wait...uogh... hold on... performances about the house war bankrolled by Caterina... the death of her favourite daughter starting the coup... her always wanting the writer to show her daughter in a good light and these being the only memories Lucanis has of her I'm... going to throw up...

[tathrin]

Hey, so do you ever stop to think about how the premise of Lord of the Rings being an in-universe book written by some of the characters who lived through that story means that they decided what parts and perspectives to use to tell that story...?

And when our authors weren't there to experience the events themselves, they have to rely on what they're told about them by the characters who were there, right...?

Okay so stop and think about the Glittering Caves.

We never actually go to the caves in the narrative. Tolkien LOVES describing nature and natural beauty, but we don't actually see the caves described "by him" the way we do other places. Obviously Gimli's words are Tolkien's, yes; but we only see the caves filtered through his words about them, after the fact.

When Gimli and Éomer and the other Rohirrim take refuge there, the narrative doesn't follow them. Obviously from a narrative standpoint this is to keep the focus narrow, and not to interrupt the battle-sequence with a long ode to the beauty of the caves, and to create tension in the reader who doesn't know if these characters are okay or not. Which all makes sense!

But think about it in terms of the book that was written in Middle-earth by the folk living there. Why DON'T we get to have a direct experience of those caves? Gimli obviously related several other parts of the story that none of the Hobbits were there to witness to them, and which were written into the books as Direct Events Happening In The Narrative (think of the Paths of the Dead scene, for one of the more visceral moments!). So why not the Glittering Caves?

Was it because they wanted to keep that narrative focus and tension, and so they didn't include his perspective on that part of the battle? Perhaps, that's certainly a possibility to consider.

But also consider: when we do hear about the Glittering Caves, what we hear is Gimli telling Legolas about the Glittering Caves. THAT is the part of that event that is considered of importance to include in the book: not Gimli's actual experience when he was in them, but rather the part where he relates that experience TO Legolas.

And I kind of just THOUGHT about that today.

And went HUH.

[sagaduwyrm]

The reason I refuse to acknowledge any other batfam death other than Jason is because, narratively, none of the others mattered.

Jason's death shaped everything that came after it in how the batfam responded to his death and handled it, and completely shaped his character.

I don't even know about most of the other "deaths" because they were so comparatively unimportant.

[windwenn]

Stuff i've been thinking about a lot recently (not unrelated to my feelings about star trek)

[marichild]

the thing about bungo stray dogs is that it's a seinen and there are clear genre norms I expect from it; this means that I know what I'm going to be getting in terms of women, yet I will be the first to step forward and say that they're very well written. gestures in insane about gaiden & tsujimura mizuki forever. she's one of the examples where asagiri really proves he's good at what he does; tsujimura is a well written woman with a deep layered character and a partnership that is. insane trust + antagonism + trust fall + balancing each other out in a very narratively important way. (stream gaiden forever btw it is. so insane. always and forever gaiden promotion on this blog.)

however. I don't think it's a disservice or whatever to say that similar relationships between women as peers are pretty much nonexistent; the closest we get are age gaps and power imbalances, such as kouyou-kyouka, tsujimura and her mother, which is very different. it's not necessarily a bad thing; it's one of those things where I desperately wish were different in relation to f/f relationships; and hence the various ways I like to play around with fandom. I do think it's super fair to point that out, despite bungo stray dogs being a seinen manga where, again, I do have pretty clear expectations of what the norm will be.

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

realised. dean is the perfect viewer avatar for a horror show. he gets to be both the action hero and the quippy, self-aware wiseguy who knows he's in a horror show. he provides a safe point; a comfortable power fantasy for you to experience a story through. he's ash in the evil dead. he's a gunslinging tough guy, and you get to see those moments where heroism sits on his shoulders like an ill-fitting leather jacket. and even when he gets his turn at being captured and victimised by the narrative, it's filtered through this mythic lens first. he's the tormented hero; tortured by villains, tortured by the constraints of his role. yeah he gets bruised, beaten bloody to a pulp, torn to shreds and killed, but his perception of reality never gets thrown into serious doubt (unless it's played out as a gag). the narrative valorises his sense of right and wrong, because that's what heroic stories do. their heroes provide moral center, regardless of how we might judge them. the lines dividing hero, anti-hero, and villian are paper thin, and dean isn't truly ever allowed to be ambiguous. and the hero always wins in the end, even when he dies.

meanwhile sam is the abject object of the horror show, a character who gets trussed up, chased, tied up, ripped apart, cut into, possessed, exploited, manipulated and psychologically hounded. he's carrie covered in pig's blood. he's the marginal person people are cheering on either to die - or to live past it all. he gets his turn at playing both movie monster and victim, always occupying the liminal space between both. abject horror lives within him. he's violated with demon blood, he consumes demon blood. he hates halloween because he vomited his guts up in front of a room of normal children. he will never get to be normal, he's designated the freak on multiple levels, but most significantly, by the way his narrative frames him. he's living inside a world that is at its core, fundamentally frightening and horrifying - full control over himself and his surroundings is always slipping away, just beyond his reach. his grip on reality and the world around him gets thrown into question by the story consistently. what's right? what's wrong? what's real? what isnt? the narrative punishes him - because that's what happens to you when you're living in a horror. he can never run away from his nightmare reality, it catches up to him like a curse nipping at his heels. the only way out for him is through the punishing fire. in order to survive, he's required to be pushed to the absolute brink of instability; emotionally, physically and mentally. he emerges out the other end, barely holding it together but somehow alive - like the bloody final girl, changed irrevocably by what she's experienced.

[eviltoxicmosssauce]

btw i know i'm mainly a romance writer but can i just say i really do adore how the 14bs are written as a group. lancaster and love's dynamic is one of my favorite platonic friendships i've seen and i love how fua doesn't sideline the importance of non-romantic love in favor of focusing on shipping and fan service

[fuckyeahisawthat]

No but Ed and Stede are dealing with a fundamental tension in their relationship that’s been there since the beginning, which is that for Stede piracy is a fantasy space of freedom and self-actualization and for Ed it’s a world he’s desperately trying to escape because he doesn’t like who he has to be in order to survive there, and that contradiction finally reached a breaking point.

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

See, I think Charles’ annoyance and frustration with the Cat King really was just pure protectiveness and not any kind of jealousy - it’s understandable, because Edwin is not telling him what happened even though something clearly did, which is not typical for them. Edwin doesn’t usually hide things like this! Of course he’s worried!

Charles’ reaction to Monty, on the other hand, is difficult to explain in a way that isn’t jealousy. You could say he’s being protective again, but Charles shows no sign of distrust in Monty, and had no idea of who Monty was or that he might betray them - he was actually very chill with him, except in a select few specific scenes. You could say he just doesn’t like him because he got brushed off during their first meeting, but not only does that not seem like Charles at all, it also doesn’t make sense, since, again, in most instances, Charles is genuinely friendly and is happy when Monty compliments him and seems to have come around to liking him (it completely flies over his head that this is a petty jab at Edwin on Monty’s part but oh well hahaha). You could say it changes up their status quo a bit and that bothers Charles. I do think this bothers him a bit, but I think, unlike Edwin, Charles’ fear and frustration here is directed more at situations (the Cat King whisking him away for several hours, as an example) than others. He’s sociable and likes being able to talk to new people. There’s absolutely no way he’d begrudge Edwin doing the same - and he doesn’t… with Niko. Edwin and Niko hit it off and become very close and that never bothers Charles at all. He’s incredibly endeared to her, just like the rest, and for the most part, he’s chill with Monty too, and smiles pretty knowingly when Edwin confesses to him having awakened some feelings. The only exceptions, where he shows definite annoyance, are when Monty first shows up and gets really in Edwin’s personal space to show him the astrology chart he made, and when Edwin is so sucked into the book Monty gave him that he doesn’t hear that Charles is talking to him, to which he annoyedly says that they seem to have been “spending a lot of time together”.

You could say he’s unused to having anyone get in Edwin’s personal space like that, but, again, Niko. She’s very tactile with him and he doesn’t seem to mind all that much; they spend time together watching things. If it was just someone getting close with Edwin in general, not only would that be weirdly possessive for the character, but it would also mean he would show discomfort with anyone getting close, I think. Does Charles see Monty as more of a potential threat than Niko, seeing as he knows her and her personality and doesn’t know Monty? Well, maybe, but again, Charles shows no sign of distrusting Monty at all.

Monty is a boy. Okay. So something about seeing Edwin so close to a boy that is not him, getting lost in thought over something this boy gave him, really rubs Charles the wrong way. Charles appears to catch on just as quickly as anyone else that there is something (or it looks like something) between Edwin and Monty. He is not surprised when Edwin comes out to him in episode 6, and in fact, seems to have just been waiting for him to verbalize it. He smiles and is not bothered at all by Edwin showing (what he thinks is) a romantic interest in Monty - he just doesn’t like it when Monty clearly shows a romantic interest in Edwin. Um. Well. Well.

Charles is jealous. I really don’t know what else to say.

Look, when I first watched this show, I actually didn’t want them to end up together romantically - I love the idea of one having fallen in love with another who does not reciprocate and the two of them still loving each other just as much. That Edwin’s confession made them closer instead of making things awkward is such a beautiful outcome to this build up and I absolutely love it. However. On my two rewatches, I caught a lot more little details, and I think it would be very strange if the show did not follow up on this. That, plus the deliberate quality of these “jealousy” moments where the camera focuses on him, Charles’ Orpheus coding throughout the show, the fact that Edwin’s arc was far more about realizing his feelings for Charles specifically than just coming to terms with his sexuality, and that even the actors admit that Charles’ response to the confession kind of left things open, it really seems to me like the path leads to a romantic endgame for them, or at the very least, that this possibility will be explored in more depth.

**This is just my reading of it. Please do not use this post as a gotcha for anyone who loves them as a platonic duo or people who really love Crystal and Charles together (because let’s face it, they’re super cute too). I’m just doing my rambles. As per usual.

[rosemarymoodboards]

Critique Isn’t Hate: How to Spot Manipulative Arguments in Fandom (and Shut Them Down)

There’s a growing pattern in fandom discourse where people confuse critique with hate, and emotional projection with canon. And when they can’t win the argument? They start throwing around buzzwords like “misogyny,” “anti-feminism,” or accuse you of “not understanding character arcs” not because they care about those things, but because they ran out of points.

Let’s break down the playbook and why you shouldn’t fall for it.

“You’re just trying to control how people ship!”

False.

Shipping is free. Ship what you want. Literally no one can stop you.

But if you enter the conversation saying “Zutara makes sense” or “Aang x Katara was forced,” that’s a claim about the story, and claims can be critiqued.

Critique is not control.

Critique is not hate.

Critique is the bare minimum of discussion in a media space.

“Saying Katara didn’t need a relationship is misogynistic!”

Nope.

Saying a female character doesn’t need a love interest to be complete is not misogyny it’s literally textbook feminist media analysis.

What is misogyny? Acting like a woman’s arc is only satisfying if it ends in a romance.

What’s also misogyny? Guilt-tripping women into silence by slapping the feminist label on your OTP.

Let’s be clear:

Critiquing romantic tropes =/= hating romance.

Wanting female characters to be centered in their own arc =/= “talking down to women.”

“Zutara was about emotional closeness, not just trauma!”

Let’s talk structure.

Zuko and Katara:

-Had one major emotional arc together (The Southern Raiders)

-Shared limited one-on-one scenes outside of that

-Had no romantic build-up: no confession, no longing, no soft moments of mutual desire

They ended the show as allies, not lovers.

Yes, they respected each other. Yes, they grew. But respect and shared pain =/= emotional intimacy or compatibility.

You can imagine a romance from that foundation. But don’t pretend it was ever in the text.

“You clearly don’t understand the story or character arcs.”

Ah yes, the final fallback of every cornered fan: condescension.

Translation: “I don’t like that you made a solid point, so I’ll insult your intelligence instead.”

This is a cheap trick meant to shut you up and frame the other person as “objective” and “logical.” But ask yourself:

Did they actually address your point?

Or did they just try to emotionally intimidate you into backing down?

You don’t have to be a professional analyst to read a show critically. Your perspective is valid, and if they’re trying this hard to twist your words or discredit you, it’s because your critique hit something real.

So... how do you shut it down?

You don’t have to match their tone.

Just make it clear:

-You’re allowed to critique romanticization of imbalance, trauma, or rewritten canon.

-Saying “this relationship wasn’t earned” isn’t the same as “this character doesn’t deserve love.”

-You’re not being hateful. They’re being defensive.

And if they go full meltdown and delete their comments after you reply?

Congrats. You didn’t just win the argument. You showed them they couldn’t bully you into silence.

You can ship what you want.

I can critique what was written.

That’s balance.

[quatregats]

Thinking a lot of thoughts about Hornblower's relationships with Barbara and Maria as a metaphor for his larger relationship to social mobility and ambition, and I think there's actually a lot there - not sure if it was intentional, but I do think that whether intentionally or inadvertently, Forester did an interesting job with the parallels.

Quick note beforehand that some of this is based on my constant brief paging through C. Northcote Parkinson's Hornblower "biography", which, while I absolutely abhor his interpretation of Hornblower, gives even more food for thought on this point. I'm also leaning more into his interpretation of Hornblower's background and childhood, as opposed to the TV show's, so it might not work if you're coming from the TV show's perspective.

Parkinson takes Forester's comment that Hornblower was a "doctor's son" to mean that he was the son of an apothecary, rather than a physician like in the show. I'm not a historian of the period, so I would be hard-pressed to actually try to fit Hornblower's father within the 18th-century framework of medical practice, but either way, given his awkwardness around upper-class life and that he seems to have grown up in rural Kent, I think that Parkinson's claim that he was the son of an apothecary, rather than a physician, does have some reasonable foundation, or is at least equally plausible (to me) as the show's.

Hornblower struggles with poverty through most of the series, especially the first half, but even when he is barely scraping by, such as at the start of Lieutenant, this does not seem to be an abnormal state; and when he finally arrives at wealth and success, he constantly wishes to go back to the days when he was a penniless lieutenant, so from this we might also surmise that he did not come from wealth. (I'm also comparing especially to Jack Aubrey, who, while he admittedly makes a hash of coming into large amounts of money, and who also lives perfectly happily on very little, is clearly quite comfortable being the "lord of the manor" by comparison.)

One of the biggest changes in the second half of the series (from The Happy Return/Beat to Quarters onward) is that Hornblower's career comes into fruition; he becomes a decorated Captain, a member of the landed gentry, a Knight of Bath, a Peer, and finally an admiral, and marries into an enormously influential family. He's constantly in conflict about this, until he isn't: he wants to become someone powerful and important, except that he doesn't like the role once he gets it, and constantly wishes about the old days, then feels guilty for wishing for them. Most importantly, he seems to become less and less himself, his mental narrative getting more and more distorted as he tries to mold himself into the person he thinks he wants to be.

I don't think this is a particular novel interpretation, but I think that in light of this, the contrast between his marriage to Maria and his marriage to Barbara is very interesting. If he was an apothecary's son, his and Maria's marriage would make a decent amount of sense - they'd be from similar social backgrounds, and probably a reasonable match, if Hornblower's career had continued as expected. Hornblower feels comfortable around Maria at the start of their friendship and the very beginning of their marriage in a way that mirrors his comfort with the life he's living at that point - which is to say that he clearly knows and understands what's expected of him and how to interact, in clear contrast with later books. But on the other hand, for all that he originally does love Maria, Hornblower comes to find her to be coarse, unrefined, and boring, and feel that she is not good enough for the person he wants to become. It's at the point when he starts to feel that he's moved passed Maria that he begins to take on his new, ambitious, performative persona.

On the other hand, Hornblower feels stiff and uncomfortable around Barbara from the beginning of their relationship, notably for reasons of class, and even in later books, consistently sounds intimidated by her poise and upper-class untouchability. With Maria he doesn't feel enough for her; with Barbara he feels too much, an almost uncouth sentimentality. He craves Barbara's status like a man drowning, but can't hold up under the weight of what it would mean. They have very strong intellectual chemistry, but socially they are a disaster of a couple, and yet nonetheless, Hornblower continues with the marriage because it feels to him like the thing he ought to do, just as he ought to become squire of Smallbridge. He's so viscerally uncomfortable with his position in the later books in a way he wasn't even at the height of his earlier miseries, but he refuses to let himself admit that his ambitions might have led him astray.

I think it's also interesting that the relationship which Hornblower arguably finds the most fulfilling (or rather, it was written very poorly if Forester wanted to make it feel fulfilling for the reader, but nonetheless it was clearly meant to be the most fulfilling for Hornblower) is his relationship with Marie, who sits at a similar odd juncture to him. In the text, Forester says outright that Marie fulfills Hornblower's interest in upper-class women (ambition) while not intimidating him, yet still being a satisfying intellectual partner. Nonetheless, just as Marie and Hornblower can never actually end up together, Hornblower can never actually be comfortable with his position, and no matter how many times he tries to find solace in her, he is eventually forced to continue down the path that he began, making up with Barbara and fully taking up the mantle of Admiral and Peer of the Realm.

In short, I think that watching the way in which Hornblower's relationship with Maria evolves over the course of the early books and the way in which his relationship with Barbara takes up after that ends up being a very neat parallel to his own ambitions and class identity. With Maria he is at home, but bored and restless; with Barbara he gets everything that he wants, but feels like a fish out of water. I think that particular parallel is part of the particular tragedy of Hornblower - he can't ever be satisfied with the person he was, or the person he's become. But I think that adding in aspects of extreme class difference - even more class difference than the general trends of social mobility during this period - also helps to elucidate the fundamental tension which drives Hornblower forward as a character. The world he came from was too small for him; the world in which he moves now is far too big; but there's no in-between option. He has to choose what he wants to be, and sacrifice some part of himself in order to do that, and in light of this reading of him, I think that there's a lot of interesting dilemmas to be raised.

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.