#all used as examples

[plantsandpies]

Today, with my non expert advice, I’m talking about characters!

So in my ship post I talk about how Uraraka and deku weren’t the top ship in mha because (not the only reason) she wasn’t a developed character. And there are a lot out there because characters aren’t considered first. The story is. This is fine, but it can make characters a little flat and more like puppets than dolls.

Now this is how I view things, and I’m not a published author except for one fic on Ao3. But I look at characters, plots, and a ton of author related stuff (their beliefs, writing style, etc.) a lot, so I create tools I use when I write. Puppets vs. dolls is one of those.

To me, a puppet is much more controlled. In a story, a puppet is a character used for plot. They’re like plot devices with a bit more spice. It’s a nice sock puppet, but it bends and can change form slightly.

Dolls are characters who are characters. A character obviously follows the plot, but a doll is an established character. It’s made of plastic and less likely to break or squish. It’s a solid character instead of the sock puppet, which can be molded to fit the situation. You can fold a sock, but not a doll.

In the case of Uraraka, despite the backstory she was given, she used to achieve plot a. The decisions she makes are ‘hers’ but they are hers because the plot says so. Not because the character says so. Her actions are molded to fit the plot. This is often hidden because of the personality she was given, which is sort of a helper type. But the way you can see the puppet hands is through the use of her backstory. Making money for her family is supposedly what drives her. But we don’t see that in most of any of her decisions. Even if you can’t show that in a fighting scene, you could have her in the background worrying about the money a ripped suit would cause or possibly thinking about building damages (and she would know this because her dad works in construction, which could have been an added element in fighting, as she could use building knowledge for strategies. Don’t tell me she wouldn’t know anything because she wanted to take over for her parents).

An example of a doll, is Marinette from lb. She’s established to be a character who cares about her friends and stands up for what she believes in. So, her lying for a situation that would make her friend feel better in the moment is a choice she makes because of her character. Her confronting someone for doing something wrong, like stealing, if she thinks they stole makes sense. Yes, it’s still for the plot, but she’s still who she is.

Now, this isn’t to say miraculous ladybug is better written than mha. But, they have solid characters to fall onto. Mha does too, you can figure out what Deku or Todoroki would do in a situation and you can see their backstory driving them. However, Uraraka wasn’t given that same treatment.

Personally, I think that miraculous has a few writing problems with where the story goes and dealing with the actual gravity of situations they put their characters in. But miraculous does have a nice doll character in almost every character they have. Some of those traits, I would change, but they aren’t puppets.

I will say though that bad writing can make a character, who, when looking at everything established should be a doll, into a puppet.

An unfortunate example is Mal from descendants. She has an interesting character and took action based on her beliefs. But then d3 happened. Lying to her friends could maybe be in character, but after d2, it seems like that is a trait of the past. Another thing is closing the barrier. That doesn’t align with mal’s character. Despite the “danger” from Hades, I don’t think Mal would be afraid of her father or of his abilities. She’s mad at him, yes, but she isn’t afraid of him. So closing the barrier because she believes he’s a threat wouldn’t make sense. Also, Mal wants the kids out. And as someone who loves their friends and wants them to be happy and as someone who experienced an isle childhood, with the change she’s gone through, she’d realize she’s doing more harm than good. That leaving those kids there is worse and her friends will be hurt on behalf of those kids and the life they’re leaving them in. Especially since hades isn’t a threat to mal, and she knows that. She dared to steal from her dad because she’s not afraid of him. Someone who was afraid, wouldn’t have tried that. So the isle lockdown decision didn’t track. I also think that d3 was a weaker movie than the other two. Even if the other characters were following their motives and characters, they didn’t seem to fit into the story well.

Obviously each character was written by a different person who was fueled by different motives. Uraraka was probably not designed to be a doll character like bakugo or dabi. She was probably designed as a love interest (which is a different problem in character development and design). Marinette and the rest of the lb cast are part of a kids show, so they need a personality that they can stick to and that’s obviously them so as not confuse kids and to hit every kid’s relatability box. Mal was written by Disney and d3 was probably a heavily producer influenced movie where money was more important.

These characters were written differently and that influenced how strong they stood. Miraculous doesn’t do well with any of Adrian’s trauma or Marinette’s obsessive behaviors (in Mari’s case, getting rid of it because it was weird and as a growth thing, though I don’t believe she ever really saw her actions as wrong and just grew out of that phase). But they created strong characters that you can easily write, because you know their character and the decisions they will make. Uraraka could make any kind-hearted decision and it’d be in character because she doesn’t really have one. She’s used for the plot and to hit the right buttons for the plot to go down.

Are there any good puppets?

The problem with that question is puppets aren’t established characters. They don’t really stand on their own and often times the fandom will make them into dolls. I don’t read Uraraka centered posts or fics, but someone who loves that character, can make her into a doll. If you look at what they did to the deku squad, they made them more chaotic and they gave Uraraka a (admittedly less generous character she was supposed to be (which isn’t a problem because it makes her more interesting)) character obsessed with any kind of money, taking endeavor’s credit card from todoroki because money. Even this simple change makes her more interesting.

I think a puppet filled show could be boring but, they could also be puppets to just be entertaining in an episodic format. Which is what most shows in an episodic format are, but it’s more entertaining to have dolls in a story because you can watch them make the harder decisions and grow. A person never changing is boring and not really fun to watch. But a doll is changing. They are evolving and becoming a different person (good or bad). A story with dolls is more fun to watch because they don’t bend to the plot. The plot, in a way, bends to the character.

However, I think learning cartoons or shows are allowed to have puppets. Think blue’s clues or magic school bus. The focus is episodic, but it’s not about the characters at all, really. It’s about the content it’s teaching. It’s a learning show so they don’t need the characters to change. Dora doesn’t change because she’s a puppet. And in a show like Dora the explorer, you don’t need a doll, because the focus isn’t the character or the plot, but the lesson they are trying to teach.

I do think an example of a fake puppet though, is Aoi from tbhk. Originally, she is the instigator. She’s a plot device used to get nene, the main character, onto the plot. But later it’s revealed she’s a puppet on purpose. She hides who she truly is from everyone, not allowing anyone (besides nene and Akane (who I think only know her favorite animal)) to actually know anything about her. She becomes a character when it’s revealed that she is working with six and that she reacts harshly to perceived acts of betrayal. She was acting as a puppet, but was really a doll.

But, I’m not a professional writer. I’m just someone who watches way too many shows and likes to analyze them and write.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[trans-axolotl]

one of the reasons it's really hard for a lot of intersex people when intersex topics are on the news cycle is because the public's reaction reveals how little anyone knows or cares about intersex people, including people who call themselves our allies. almost every time intersex topics are trending, the discourse surrounding them is filled with misinformation. people who only learned today what the word intersex means jump into conversations and act like an authority. endosex/dyadic/perisex people get tripped up over things that are basically intersex 101, with tons of endosex people incorrectly arguing about the definition of intersex, who "counts," DSD terminology, and so much more. i've seen multiple endosex people say today that they've been "warning intersex people" and that we should have known that transphobia would catch up with us eventually, which is an absolutely absurd thing to say given the fact that consistently over the past ten years, it has often been intersex people sounding the alarm on sex-testing policies and also the fact that many, many intersex people are also trans, and already are facing the impacts of transphobia. there is an absolute failure from the general public to take intersex identity seriously; people seem not even able to fathom that intersex people have a community, history, and our own political resources. instead, endosex people somehow seem to think they're helping by bringing up half-remembered information from their high school biology class which usually isn't even relevant at all.

and this frustrates me so fucking much. not because i want to deny the impacts of transphobic oppression--i'm a trans intersex person, trust me when i say i am intimately aware of transphobia. this frustrates me because there is no way we can achieve collective liberation if our "allies" fail to even engage with basic intersex topics and are seemingly unaware of the many forms of intersex oppression that we are already facing every fucking day. if you are not aware of compulsory dyadism, if you are not aware of interphobia, if you are not aware of the many different ways that intersex people are directly and often violently targeted--how the fuck do you think we're going to dismantle all of these systems of oppression?

if you were truly an intersex ally, you would already KNOW that this is not new, and would not be surprised--interphobia in sports has been going on for decades. you would know that we do have a community, an identity, a history--you would have already read/listened/watched to intersex resources that give you the background information you need for allyship. you would know that although there is a really distinct lack of resources and political education, that intersex people ARE developing a political understanding of ourselves and our oppression--Cripping Intersex by Celeste Orr and their framework of compulsory dyadism is one example of how we're theorizing our oppression. It's absolutely fucking wild to me how few people I've seen actually use words like "interphobia" "intersexism" "compulsory dyadism" or "intersex oppression"--endosex people are seemingly incapable of recognizing that there is already an entrenched system of oppression towards intersex people that violently reshapes our bodies, restricts our autonomy, and attempts to eradicate intersex through a variety of medical and legal means.

you cannot treat intersex people like an afterthought. not just because we're meaningful parts of your community and deserving of solidarity, but also because intersex oppression impacts everyone!!! especially trans community--trans people will not be free until intersex people are free, so much of transphobia is shaped by compulsory dyadism, the mythical sex binary, all these ideas of enforced "biological sex" that are just as fake as the gender binary.

it makes me absolutely fucking livid every time this shit happens because it becomes so abundantly clear to me how little the average endosex person knows about intersex issues and also how little the average endosex person cares about changing that. i don't know what to say to get you to care, to get you to change that, but we fucking need it to happen and i, personally, am tired of constantly being grateful when i meet an endosex person who knows the bare minimum. i think we have a right to expect better and to demand that if you're going to call yourself our ally, you actually fucking listen to us when we tell you what that means.

okay for endosex people to reblog.

[giantkillerjack]

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

[plain-text version of this post can be found under the cut]

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

Plain-text version:

Today my therapist introduced me to a concept surrounding disability that she called "hLep".

Which is when you - in this case, you are a disabled person - ask someone for help ("I can't drink almond milk so can you get me some whole milk?", or "Please call Donna and ask her to pick up the car for me."), and they say yes, and then they do something that is not what you asked for but is what they think you should have asked for ("I know you said you wanted whole, but I got you skim milk because it's better for you!", "I didn't want to ruin Donna's day by asking her that, so I spent your money on an expensive towing service!") And then if you get annoyed at them for ignoring what you actually asked for - and often it has already happened repeatedly - they get angry because they "were just helping you! You should be grateful!!"

And my therapist pointed out that this is not "help", it's "hLep".

Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hLep.

At its best, it is patronizing and makes a person feel unvalued and un-listened-to. Always, it reinforces the false idea that disabled people can't be trusted with our own care. And at its worst, it results in disabled people losing our freedom and control over our lives, and also being unable to actually access what we need to survive.

So please, when a disabled person asks you for help on something, don't be a hLeper, be a helper! In other words: they know better than you what they need, and the best way you can honor the trust they've put in you is to believe that!

P.S. Also, I want to be very clear that the "getting angry at a disabled person's attempts to point out harmful behavior" part of this makes the whole thing WAY worse. Like it'd be one thing if my roommate bought me some passive-aggressive skim milk, but then they heard what I had to say, and they apologized and did better in the future - our relationship could bounce back from that. But it is very much another thing to have a crying shouting match with someone who is furious at you for saying something they did was ableist. Like, Christ, Jessica, remind me to never ask for your support ever again! You make me feel like if I asked you to call 911, you'd order a pizza because you know I'll feel better once I eat something!!

Edit: crediting my therapist by name with her permission - this term was coined by Nahime Aguirre Mtanous!

Edit again: I made an optional follow-up to this post after seeing the responses. Might help somebody. CW for me frankly talking about how dangerous hLep really is.

[asfodeltide]

for artists against apartheid

[langernameohnebedeutung]

ngl, I'm beginning to take issue with how in conversations about anti-intellectualism almost automatically, the face of girls and women will be slapped on the problem.

[clovreat3r]

The man behind the slaughter..

could they even be considered a man?

edit: i didn’t know there were already so many people rolling around in their beds and curling their toes for Steve raglan

[marciaillust]

I added some colours to her :)

[legally-allowed-to-slime]

there’s something about the life series and laughing.

when etho’s fighting and he’s losing, he laughs. the slow, easy chuckle of a man who knows he’s already dead, with the reassurance that only the moments that precede inevitable death can bring. there’s nothing to lose but your life, and you’ve already lost that.

when gem’s fighting and she’s winning, she laughs. the cheerfully sinister giggle of a warrior whose moves grow sharper and victory grows surer. there’s something about being so confident that you laugh, that terrifies the opponent and rightfully does.

when grian’s fighting, he laughs. whether he’s winning or not, it doesn’t really matter to his slightly crazed, mischievous titters. to him, in the end, it’s all the same anyway. someone’s going to die, and it would be great if it wasn’t him, but incredibly funny if it was.

they fight, and they laugh, because their feelings are only pure when the soul is balancing on the brink between life and death.

[bsideheart]

honestly i am not liking the trend of using “fagdyke boygirl genderfreak” as almost derogatory descriptive terms for a queer person you think is annoying. like has everyone just forgotten that bigender people who actually identify with those terms exist, or are you just trying to think of the labels that you think signify edginess and queerphobia against others in the community? idk something about it doesn’t seem quite right

[anghraine]

I know I've ranted about it a million times, but every time someone brings up Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian inspirations/influences on Gondor in more mainstream Tolkien fandom spaces (not me, because I don't even talk about it off Tumblr/DW), it seems like there's always someone who gets super weird and defensive about it. I've seen so many "well actually there's no need to consider any influences outside of England, mythology for England blah blah" responses.

And it's like! Oh, you want to play the decontextualized Tolkien quotes game? How about this one:

“But this [the setting of LOTR] is not a purely 'Nordic' area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence [in Italy]. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient [Gondorian] city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy [in Turkey]. Auden has asserted that for me 'the North is a sacred direction.' That is not true. The North-west part of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man’s home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not ‘sacred’, nor does it exhaust my affections. I have, for instance, a particular love for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish ... The progress of the tale ends in what is far more like the re-establishment of an effective Holy Roman Empire with its seat in Rome than anything that would be devised by a 'Nordic.'”

Or this one:

we come [in ROTK] to the half-ruinous Byzantine City of Minas Tirith

Or:

In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.

Or:

The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ - the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. […] I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle. The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt.

Or:

Thank you very much for your letter. … It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom

Middle-earth is not equivalent to England, or northern Europe in general, and Gondor especially is not northern at all!

[lycandrophile]

at this point i don’t even have any commentary to add to this. i’m just tired.

[proselles]

What I don't get is why news outlets and Netflix are trying to convince us that arcane was expensive to make. 250 million usd for both seasons they said, and obviously that's a lot of money, but they make the mistake of comparing it to big budget movies like Tangled. So you're telling me that I got an animated masterpiece that combines multiple different art styles fantastic voice acting and creative and passionate writing, that's 6-7 hours LONGER than major animated movies, and its the same fucking price?? And you're expecting me to agree with the corporations outlook, that it's too expensive? Yes, tangled is considered one of the most expensive animated movies, but arcane is like FOUR Tangleds. Many other 3D animated movies fall within the 160 million mark, but again, they're hours shorter than arcane was. I think the prices are comparable. I believe in saw someone (on reddit maybe?) divide the cost down to minutes of screen time for each show or movie and it becomes really obvious. I'm also pretty sure that many of these movie budgets do not include marketing in their overall expenses; arcane does.

This isnt even bringing live action tv shows into the equation; i dont think arcane even touches like the top thirty of those. And yet it's framed as such an expense!! Bitch its an incredibly successful tv show!! Ik Netflix is cheap as shit and has its own reputation to grapple with, but is the disdain for animation so much? Is it disdain for female lead action, for poc representation, for LGBT rep on screen? For the animation medium as a whole? I know the answer of course. But it's still very upsetting to acknowledge and think about.

Separately, arcane is absolutely crushing it. Ik act three is going to knock it out of the ballpark. Keep crushing corporate execs expectations please.

[kirkwallguy]

extremely funny coming from writers whose characters return and play major roles in more than one game. yeah sorry guys we couldnt do anything interesting with the game because we had to protect our fans from the conflict we would write if we did <3

[naamahdarling]

You know what? You know what I think?

I think that if we lived as we were meant to, in larger intimate ("extended family") groups and with more shared labor and time to do it (UBI NOW) people like me would not feel so useless and burdensome because there would be people around to help and to do what neurodivergent people can't while making valuable space for the neurodivergent to do what they ARE good at.

The way we live right now, all right, the way we live right now forces units of two adults to be able to do EVERYTHING or PAY to have someone come do it for them. I have to do the housework. I have to do it! But I am having to do a million different things and most of them I am not good at. I suck at them.

I wouldn't feel like shit, okay, if I had more than one other person around who was not a child and who could do the things I can't, like do the yard and cook and do repairs and basic maintenance; and someone else to split everything else that I like but is too much for me. It would free me to do what I am good at and enjoy. Cleaning, as in the sink and toilet, the windows, the blinds. Taking out trash. Folding, hanging, and sorting laundry.

But because all the shit I can do often relies on other shit being done first, and I can't do or have trouble doing those things, the shit I can do often can't be done. And even the shit I can do, I can't do ALL of it. So I can't keep up, and things get very bad.

We aren't meant to live like this. We are not meant to live like this.

That thought hurts so much because being able to flee the birth family is integral to survival for so many people. I'm so afraid that living in larger family groups would create more opportunities for, say, queer kids to be isolated, rejected, bullied, and abused. But if we gave people enough money to survive, and stopped considering children the property of their parents with no system in place to help them escape bad situations except a system that is often just as bad, just different.

I'm aware that communes and collectives aren't all that successful and are kind of a joke. I don't mean that. I mean a fundamental shift to multigenerational families where taking in "strays" (which my family did) is also normalized so people escaping abuse into existing households was accepted, with these families centered in maybe a couple of different larger residences so not everyone has to buy and maintain their own fucking washing machine and vacuum cleaner, and so people can benefit from large group meals that yield leftovers, and so child and elder care can also be centralized.

Then disabled people and the neurodivergent and sick and injured people, and pregnant people, and grieving people, would not have to either labor through all those stressors or consign themselves to living off an unlivable pittance or being put under legal guardianship.

I'm not saying anything new. People live like this in other parts of the world and maybe it sucks and I am wrong. But I'm just really mad right now because I can either do laundry or clean the sink but not both, and I really think we could improve society somewhat by making it so I did not have to choose one without sacrificing the other.

[corviiids]

i think L should've tried harder to piss light off. provoking light into slipping up would not only be hilarious i also think it would be extremely easy and effective. not saying you could get light to actually confess this way, but he would definitely make more dumb mistakes if, for example, L kept interrupting their homoerotic brain chess matches to insist that kira is actually matsuda because the butts match