#and that means if people want to write him off as irreedemable

[panlight]

what are your thoughts on jasper? when i was super into twilight he was one of my comfort characters. bc i liked his power & how different he was from the other cullens. but i know ppl on here really dislike him (for valid reasons). i was curious what you thought of him in general?

I think it was @volturialice who had a post about this, but basically if you’re going to make an immortal character explicitly part of a historical movement that oppressed people, you have to DEAL with it. SM didn’t, she just treated Jasper being part of the Confederacy as this throwaway historical detail that wasn’t relevant to the story. She could have placed him on any side in any war; there was no reason it had to be the Confederacy, or the Civil War at all. He just had to be a military officer, as that was why Maria picked him. If you just want a Fun Historical Detail then pick one that doesn’t come with fighting on the side that sought to preserve slavery; if you do go with a confederate backstory, then you HAVE to address it. There could be a challenging, valid story in there about an immortal vampire coming to terms with the racist beliefs and actions of his past, doing the work to grow and change, making amends, etc, but we don’t get that. We don’t get anything. It’s just treated like a little throwaway factoid. I don’t think SM thought this through at all, and if you asked her why she put Jasper on this side of this war, she’d just say something like “oh I loved Gone With the Wind!” 

I’ve seen fanfic that has dealt with this in really visceral, meaningful ways (sorry, I can’t name any off the top of my head). It wasn’t in canon. And because it wasn’t, it’s valid if some people don’t want to engage with that character. 

As Jasper functions in the present day, I find him most interesting as “the vampire-y one” of the Cullens rather than as like “oh the poor thing!” angle I see sometimes. That is, I just never read him as guilt-ridden and angsty as Edward, despite him having the much darker past. Edward is Jasper lite. Jasper’s past is much more bloody and violent and horrific, with a century of brutal vampire warfare under his belt, but it’s Edward who is all “oh I’m a monster” whereas the vibe I personally got from Jasper was more that he was frustrated by how HARD it was for him to do the vegetarian thing. He didn’t like being the weak link, but it wasn’t rooted in the kind of existential angst that Edward (and to a certain degree Carlisle) has/had. I don’t think Jasper sees being a vampire as a great moral evil, it just is, like a lion or a shark or any other predator. And with the vampire wars stuff, well, he did what he had to to survive. 

For this reason I think he’s more interesting when he is just legitimately struggling with the Cullen lifestyle vs having the excuse of “oh he has to feel everyone’s thirst and that’s why he’s bad at it.” That doesn’t work in my head. Because surely that means he also felt the thirsts of the ravenous newborns in Maria’s army, and how could he be an effective lieutenant to her if he was distracted by that thirst? He said HATE was his constant companion, not thirst. He also still struggled with abstaining from human blood when he left Peter and Charlotte and wandered alone--he wasn’t feeling any thirst but his own then. I also just don’t see ‘thirst’ or ‘bloodlust’ in this sense as an emotion, so I don’t think he literally feels it or can inflict it on someone else. Thirst is a physical sensation like cold or heat or hunger. I think he DOES feel the emotions associated with thirst, so for example at the New Moon birthday, when all the Cullens get a whiff of Bella’s blood, he might have gotten a wave of shame that distracted him or something, but not, IMO, literal thirst. Likewise I think he doesn’t quite get the whole “playing house as a human family” thing, but it means a lot to Alice, so he goes along with it and indulges her, and he genuinely has grown to care about the other Cullens, but he’d be just as content living forever with just Alice. He doesn’t need the family thing the way she does, IMO.

[kareofbears]

How could I give Akechi a redemption arc in my fanfic?

whoa this is such a fun question I'm going to be sitting on my floor for awhile ok OK LETS GO 

sweeping this under the cut since, wow, it’s long

first off, thanks for asking me! I'm surprised, since I'm not really an akechi blog but by god do i have a lot to say about him. second thing to note--obviously this is all my opinion, etc

so, to me, akechi is an irredeemable character, but there’s a little asterisk to that because he’s an irredeemable character in what canon presented to us. this is due to three things: 

No redemption arc 

He didn’t want a redemption arc AKA no guilt and no desire to change who he is or even just regretting his actions

The people who were affected by his horrible actions are still in the process of grieving and are still being affected by it every day

In order to give akechi goro a full redemption arc, we need to solve these three aspects of what made/makes him a bad person. 

while it’s completely possible to fix smaller aspects of his character in a short fic if that’s what you were looking for, i think that a full-fledged fic is what you need if you want to fully redeem akechi. like, I'm talking a fairly chonky word count. it would take a lot to solve those three issues, so you do need to devote a lot of words to do that.

and before i actually start suggesting some solutions, i want to make it clear: i think that you should stick to akechi’s canon personality as close as possible while you’re writing redemption arc. i say that because often times I've seen fic authors make akechi toothless, and nicer, but the thing is if you want to make a redemption arc for this ireedemable character you have to keep the aspects that made him ireedemable in the first place. obviously, fic authors should do whatever the fuck they want, but for a redemption arc, i think you should stick very close to akechi’s personality in p5/r

okay lets actually get to it. to make things easier to digest, I have made *jenny Nicholson voice* a numbered list!

part one: no redemption arc

you’re already nailing problem number 1, but let’s talk about the format of a redemption arc! while there are endless exceptions, you’re PROBABLY doing akechi’s arc in one of three ways: 

he’s forced to work with them/be around them/etc and he finds something in himself: the desire to be redeemed. 

this is a tough one and i assume this is the one you’re writing but i could be wrong! the reason this is tough is because you have to write akechi wanting to be redeemed. and this is hard because he’s a fucking bastard! but the very nature of his bastard-ness is what makes a redemption arc so so compelling. 

a redemption arc is almost like an enemies to lovers trope where you have to force the Bad Person to be around the one that they want to be redeemed by (Let’s say the Phantom Thieves, even though i don't know the premise of your fic). 

For formatting, you have to establish why he’s a bad person (but you don’t really need to put that much effort into it since the audience already knows why), force them to work together so they can all get to know each other better, create an environment/insert a scene that forces them all to work together so that the PTs understand that “wow akechi’s really wanting to change! I thought he was lying”, have some more scenes together where they bond without realizing it, have a climactic scene where they’re all realizing their worth and they work together like a team for real, and happy ending (i hope.)

but remember! somewhere in the beginning, akechi must have the realization that he actually wants to be better, and the PTs must have see him being better or at least trying to. 

AND, i don’t know how huge or grandiose your fic is going to be in terms of plot, but plot is super useful in redemption arcs because it forces the PTs to focus on something that isn’t akechi’s horribleness. the plot is supposed what drives the redemption arc, it’s what makes them keep akechi rather than just kick them out. if you’re doing a more “set in reality” fic, you can have one of the phantom thieves to want to keep akechi around and that can be the plot--if you want. that’s only a suggestion as to why they would want to keep akechi around despite hating him. 

he is feeling guilty/had a bit of a change of heart so now he’s working to gain their forgiveness

easy peasy! you already got the biggest hurdle over with, which is find a reason why akechi would even want to be redeemed. everything else is the same, except now it’s probably a little easier on you! go you!

he gets redeemed by accident

now this is kinda funny, but it’s still the same formatting as my first point: he’s there with the PTs, accidentally gets to know them and be known in return, they work together and see each others values, he learns what he did is wrong but this time it matters because he cares about them, he unintentionally tries to make it up to them, the climax comes around and they work together, and happy ending. 

formats don't really matter, but they personally help me think of the grand scope of things without needing the smaller details :)

part two: he didn’t want a redemption arc

i kinda already talked about that in part one, but really this is a driving factor. if we’re sticking to canon, why does he want to be redeemed? what changed? because there has to be a change, no matter how close we want to stick to canon. you have to justify the reasonings behind this because if you forget the motivation of akechi’s journey, it might end up being hollow and incomprehensible 

in nearly every action that akechi takes, it must be towards redemption (unless these are the early stages). but hey, as per usual, there’s an exception: akechi can have a withdrawal of some sort. 

this would be great actually, because it’s more realistic than just having a perfect line to redemption that’s unwavering. this is called the third act slump--the plan failed, everyone is sad, etc. this is to raise the stakes of the story, remind the audience what would happen if everything “went back to normal”, and also show the characters are not perfect and they can actually fail. 

but, and this is just me, i hate the third act slump. hate it!! it makes me sad!!! so it’s really up to you whether or not you want to do it. 

part three: the people affected

now, this is the part where you have to bust ass as a writer, because this is the real reason why akechi’s irreedemable--he did a lot of bad fucking shit. he killed two of the thieves’ parents, loads of other people, actually very nearly killed akira. like. no. that's horrible. it’s iredeemably horrible. i hate him actually. and so does everyone else in the thieves.

this is the part of the ask where i can’t really help you. it’s up to you how you want to fix it, because there’s so many ways you can do this. you can have them forgive him, not forgive him. they can punch him and not feel better, they can give him the cold shoulder.

that’s why i think sumire works so well with akechi--she doesn’t have any of the baggage that the thieves have towards akechi. 

but hey, just cause it’s hard doesn’t mean its impossible! it really depends on what you want to do and how to do it. it depends on your characterization of who akechi is, who akira is, who futaba is, and who haru is since those are the people affected the most. 

but i think I'm finally done here. that was super long, but i hope you found that helpful in some way! :)

[pyoniumyankee]

NAME:  Ramona NICKNAME:  Mona, Mon, Razor Ramona, Schoolgirl Q, Rammy, Bonbon, Bob -- I got plenty. FACECLAIM:  Man, I don’t even know anymore. It used to be Honey from Space Dandy. Then for a cheap laugh, it was Hans Moleman from The Simpsons. Now, it’s pretty much the first non-Dandy icon I can find in my folders. PRONOUNS:  She/Her HEIGHT:  5′4′‘ BIRTHDAY:  October 13th AESTHETIC:  Spaaaaaaaaaace! LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO:  “We Can Roll” - Bad Rabbits [click] FAVORITE  MUSE (S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN: Griffith from Berserk, Yoshikage Kira from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,  Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura, Scanty & Kneesocks from PSG, Professor Tomoe from Sailor Moon, Julie Powers from Scott Pilgrim, Batwoman from DC Comics, and Daniella from Haunting Ground/Demento.

* GETTING  TO  KNOW  THE  ACCOUNT:

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE:  I have a huge affinity for the yankii subculture in Japan. No idea why, but I’ve always gravitated towards the delinquent types in anime. Gimme a bad boy with a pompadour or sukeban, shower them with flaws, bless them with a heart of gold, and I’m sold. When Space Dandy’s promos began airing on Toonami, it was kind of a no-brainer to my circle of friends and I that he was someone who I’d play eventually, and thankfully, he checked off every box for muse material in the early episodes. Needless to say, I was already playing him right after the third episode aired.

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVORITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE: God, I just love imperfect muses. Listen, you can take your too perfect, too good, too pure for this world cinnamon rolls -- but that doesn’t do anything for me. Likewise, I’m on the fence of how some muses can be seen as “irreedemable” in the eyes of the beholder. I feel with someone like Dandy, he gives me a chance to have a good balance with both. He’s brash, he’s callous, and he’s lecherous... but he’s also sweet, considerate, and selfless. He’s conceited, he’s delusional, and superficial... but he’s also genuine, warmhearted, and generally means well. When your muse has their initial interaction with Dandy, I go out of my way to ensure that every first impression is a negative one, simply because I love how someone can grow from hating him to realizing he’s actually a great guy once you take the time to know him. I LIVE for it.

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING:  Music definitely helps a bit, but I can't say whatever I play in the background when I write is what would fit someone like Dandy.

FAVORITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS: Comedy is my bread and butter. I love making my writing partners laugh, I love it when my writing partners make me laugh, so that’s generally the type of interactions I tend to seek. However, I don’t discriminate with genres. You want to warm my heart with fluff? Go for it. You want me to break my heart with angst? Hell yeah. You want to shatter my psyche with darker themed threads? Yes, please. You want to make things steamy on my dash? Let’s get weird. I’m versatile, so it’s whatever to me.

BIGGEST  STRUGGLE  IN  REGARDS  TO  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE: Mainly, I find it difficult to get followers or maintain interest with other people when it comes to Dandy simply because of the misconceptions his character seems to have. The biggest one I’ve gotten is people seem to think he’s an one-track mind pervert which is... I suppose FAIR if you’re unfamiliar with the series, and you’re looking from an outside perspective, but that’s far from the truth. Another thing I struggle with a lot is impulsive shippers -- specifically, ones who aren’t seeking chemistry and development, and just want to get right into smuttin’. I mean, hey... you do you, but I think it’s more special when we work for it, ya’know?

TAGGED BY: @rollingsnowsmasher <33333

TAGGING: steal it from me, friends!