#and the ways everyone feels so real and there are so many complex and realistic emotions and relationships

[imastoryteller]

Writing Angry Scenes: Tips to Avoid Melodrama and Make It Real

Anger can be one of the most intense, relatable emotions to read—and one of the trickiest to write. When handled well, an angry scene can pull readers deep into the emotional world of a character, building tension and driving the story forward. But when handled poorly, anger can easily slip into melodrama, making the character’s feelings seem overblown, forced, or even cringe-worthy.

So how can you avoid these pitfalls and write anger that feels real and compelling? Here are some tips to make angry scenes powerful without overdoing it.

1. Understand What Fuels Your Character’s Anger

To write anger authentically, you need to understand its roots. People get angry for complex reasons—fear, frustration, betrayal, grief, and even love. Ask yourself what’s truly driving your character’s anger. Are they afraid of losing control? Do they feel abandoned or misunderstood? Are they hurt by someone they trusted? Anger rarely exists in isolation, so dig into the deeper emotions fueling it.

When you understand the core reasons behind a character’s anger, you can weave those nuances into the scene, making the anger more relatable and layered. Readers will feel the depth of the character's rage, not just the surface heat of it.

2. Show, Don’t Tell—But Don’t Overdo It

“Show, don’t tell” is classic writing advice, but it’s especially crucial in angry scenes. Don’t rely on generic phrases like “She was furious” or “He clenched his fists in anger.” Instead, look for unique ways to convey how this specific character experiences anger. Maybe their voice drops to a deadly calm, or their eyes narrow in a way that makes everyone around them uncomfortable.

That said, showing too much can backfire, especially with exaggerated descriptions. Over-the-top body language, excessive shouting, or too many “flaring nostrils” can tip the scene into melodrama. Use body language and physical cues sparingly and mix them with subtler reactions for a more realistic portrayal.

3. Use Dialogue to Reveal Hidden Layers

People rarely say exactly what they feel, especially when they’re angry. Angry dialogue isn’t just about yelling or throwing out insults; it’s an opportunity to show the character’s deeper thoughts and vulnerabilities.

Consider using controlled, icy responses or unexpected silences. Maybe your character says something hurtful in a low voice rather than screaming. They might express sarcasm, avoidance, or even laugh at the wrong moment. Anger often carries hidden layers, and using these nuances can help your character’s dialogue feel genuine, even haunting, without falling into dramatic clichés.

4. Control the Pacing of the Scene

The pacing of an angry scene can be the difference between a powerful moment and a melodramatic one. In real life, anger doesn’t always erupt instantly; it can simmer, spike, or deflate depending on the situation and the character’s personality. Experiment with different pacing techniques to create tension.

You might build the anger slowly, with small signs that something’s brewing. Or maybe the character explodes suddenly, only to calm down just as quickly, leaving a chill in the air. Controlling the pace helps you control the reader’s emotional engagement, drawing them in without overwhelming them.

5. Avoid Clichéd Expressions and Overused Reactions

When writing anger, avoid falling back on clichés like “seeing red,” “boiling with rage,” or “blood boiling.” These phrases have been overused to the point that they lose their impact. Instead, get creative and think about how your character’s anger might feel specifically to them.

Maybe their skin feels prickly, or their jaw aches from clenching it. Think about details that are unique to the character and to the moment. By focusing on small, unique sensory details, you’ll help readers feel the anger rather than just reading about it.

6. Let the Setting Reflect the Emotion

The setting can be an effective tool to amplify a character’s anger without overstating it. Small details in the environment—such as the hum of a refrigerator, the slow ticking of a clock, or the distant sounds of laughter—can create a sense of contrast or isolation that heightens the character’s rage.

For example, imagine a character seething in a peaceful park or a quiet library. The calm of the surroundings can make their anger feel more potent. Or maybe they’re in a crowded, noisy room where they feel unseen and unheard, which fuels their frustration further. This use of setting can add depth to the scene without the need for dramatic gestures.

7. Let Consequences Speak for Themselves

An effective way to avoid melodrama is to let the consequences of the anger show its intensity. Characters don’t always have to yell or physically react; sometimes, a single choice can convey more than any outburst.

Perhaps your character cuts off a close friend or says something they can’t take back. Maybe they throw away a meaningful object or walk out in silence. By focusing on the consequences of their anger, you can reveal the impact without over-explaining it.

8. Let the Emotion Simmer After the Scene Ends

Anger is rarely resolved in a single moment, and its effects often linger. When writing an angry scene, think about how it will affect your character moving forward. Are they holding onto grudges? Do they feel guilty or exhausted afterward? Does their anger transform into something else, like sadness or regret?

Allowing the anger to simmer in your character’s mind even after the scene ends creates a more authentic and layered portrayal. It shows that anger is complex and doesn’t just disappear the moment the scene is over, adding emotional weight to both the character and the story.

[gingerswagfreckles]

I think people need to understand that when someone says the situation in Israel/Palestine is complicated they are not necessarily saying that the discussion of who the oppressor vs oppressed is complicated. The Israeli government has been oppressing the Palestinians for a very long time, that is clear, and it is not complicated to understand that at least since the 80s they have had dramatically more financial and military power to keep control of the territory in the way they like.

However, it is reductive and dismissive to insist that there is no complexity in the potential ways to move forward to bring peace to the region. Despite what people on tumblr.edu like to believe, "Israel should never have been created" is not a practical solution to an incredibly heated geopolitical situation in the present day. Israel was created and it does exist. 10 million people live there. 74% of the population is native born and the country has existed for 75 years. Hand waving these fact away with the opinion that "they should move back to where they came from" may make you feel good about being a Radical Leftist, but it does not give anyone a road map for how exactly millions of people without dual citizenship are supposed to just up and evaporate. Nor does it acknowledge the reality that 21% of Israelis are Arabs, the very people you are claiming to want to give the land back to.

Insisting that there's nothing complicated about expecting an entire country's population to willingly dissappear with no consequences is not a productive way to think about this conflict. It ignores the many massive superpowers that have an interest in proping up different states in the region, the power dynamics involved in any land back movements, and the inevitably negative consequences of totally dissolving an established state without a plan. It is also completely and almost comically unrealistic, so much so that it makes it hard to believe that anyone who's opinion starts and ends with this idea really gives a shit about anyone who lives in the area as much as they care about their online leftist clout.

There's nothing complicated in understanding that the Israeli government is and has been maintaining an oppressive apartheid state for decades. It is, however, very complicated to come up with a realistic way to resolve some of the most intricately entangled land disputes on the planet without plunging the region into total chaos. Not everyone has to be deeply educated on every geopolitical situation, but it is very hard to take people seriously when they know nothing about the politics or history of a region and yet insist that there is nothing complicated about it at all.

There's a lot of people on this website who are getting dangerously smug about their own ignorance, and are starting to go down Qanon type anti-intellectual paths in the name of being sufficiently radical. Not knowing the details of a very convoluted land dispute isn't something to brag about online as you call for intentionally reductive solutions. You can support the Palestinian cause and be aware of the oppression they have faced while also holding off on calling people trying to do real analysis and de-escalation work bootlickers. We need to get control of the urge to fit every global issue into a simplistic YA novel narrative structure that appeals to Western revolutionary fantasies.

[feathersandblue]

So, full disclosure, I haven't been a Solas fan before.

I am now.

And that's because of Veilguard and the many, many ways in which I felt let down by this game.

The aspect that bothers me most is the reduction of nuance and complexity.

Rook's hero's cakewalk (because “journey” really isn't the right word) is a ready-made path that offers no deviation at all and never challenges the player in any meaningful way.

Sure, you can spend some time pondering the pros and cons of saving Treviso or Minrathous. Ultimately, it makes no difference. Rook does their best, they just can’t be in two places at once.

Same with the companion character arcs. What does it mean if you decide to you turn Emmrich into a lich? For the most part, it's idle musing. Indulgence. He’ll be happy either way, there are no real stakes. Yeah, your actions do have consequences, just not the sort of consequences that make a substantial difference. It’s the illusion of choice – reduced to cosmetics.

The problems with decisions that cost nothing is that they don’t feel like an accomplishment. They also don’t allow for character growth. Rook doesn’t change, they remain static. Even the section in the Fade where Rooks faces their regrets is easy and comparatively lightweight. Varric was killed by Solas, Harding resp. Davrin died in combat and either Bellara or Neve was abducted by Elgar’nan. It’s not like Rook’s decisions actually caused these events, it’s not like Rook actually failed through a choice they had to make that turned out to be the wrong one. Everyone was there willingly and volunteered to fight the good fight. Rook’s regrets are not about real guilt, they are about feeling sad and guilty. And that – it needs to be said – is not the same thing. At all.

At the same time, the story carefully avoids any kind of true ethical dilemma.

It's not even about the lack of mean or edgy dialogue options; that’s just a symptom. The cause is the writers’ unwillingness to let realism intrude in Rook’s fairytale – the lack of anything that would require Rook to compromise on morals, or fight temptation. Rook is never faced with any sort of moral conundrum, or allowed to act out any kind of vice that realistic characters have. In its straight-path simplicity, Rook's story is apparently written for children and people who remain child-like in their yearning for simple, uncontested truths.

Of all the sorts of conflicts that a story can offer, Veilguard carefully avoids the most realistic and (in my opinion) interesting ones: Character vs. self and character vs. society, aka, politics. The game firmly refuses to go there. To the point where it creates a completely unrealistic consensus on all sides that eliminates yet another sort of conflict: character vs. character.

If Rook and their companions would talk politics, they’d all be on the exact same side. In a two party state, they’d all cast the same vote.

I am sure that there are many players who feel comforted and reassured by that fact, who sincerely believe that this is how stories should be written. That stories should reflect the world not as it is but as they think it should be. But for everyone who likes their stories a little more realistic, that lack of meaningful interpersonal conflict, that lack of real diversity which comes not from appearance but from different cultures and opposing viewpoints amounts to a frankly cringe-worthy, artificial and juvenile surface-level interaction between characters. Or, to phrase it differently: the diversity remains skin-deep and doesn’t extend to the philosophical, and even in the few instances where it does, it shies away from the political.

Which means that the only conflicts that remain are the most boring and stereotypical ones: character vs. monsters resp. the supernatural, where all foes are evil in the blandest way (Supremacist Venatori! Fascist renegade qunari! Power-hungry necromancers!). These conflicts are resolved through exploring maps and endless, repetitive combat.

The only thing that brings a bit of nuance to the game is Solas’s story. And there is an element of character vs. character in Rook’s and Solas’s relationship, but the sad truth is that what could have been a fascinating mirrored character journey falls flat for all the reasons already explained – because where Solas is a character as layered and controversial as it gets, Rook is anything but.

Solas’s story shows how even people with the best intentions and the greatest integrity are ultimately broken by what life throws at them, both by the decisions that are forced upon them and the choices they make on their own. It shows how a prolonged war is always a sunk cost fallacy: I’ve gone this far, if I stop now, it was all for nothing.

Rook’s victories, on the other hand, come without a cost – both in terms of moral corruption and in accountability. The guilt Solas bears is real. The fight against the titans, followed by his war against the Evanuris, requires compromising his own morals, one day at a time, one century after another, he’s trying to save the world yet doomed to fail. Sacrificing the spirits to win a battle after the war has gone this far? Every single war leader around the globe would make the same decision. In fact, all of them do: They do sacrifice the lives of others if it will help them win, they do send soldies into the trenches to die, whether these soldiers want to or not, and they are rarely, if ever, truthful about the reasons why.

In a certain way, the story of the spirit of wisdom turned flesh is reminiscent of the biblical Fall of Man: the original sin. Solas has fallen, and he’s broken. In trying to heal the world, he’s trying to heal himself. The burden is too heavy, the responsibility to great, the knowledge that he is responsible for all of it too devastating. Solas’s greatest conflict is character vs. self. It has the potential to be great. In a way, it is. It’s the single redeeming quality that, depending on your interpretation of what went on behind the scenes, the writers managed to salvage from the original concept of Dreadwolf or the lone pillar that withstood all their attempts to bring it down.

Only sadly, infuriatingly, in the end, that fallen hero’s ending is put into the hands of a protagonist who judges him from the perspective of someone who has never even stumbled – not because they are wiser, braver, or kinder. No, just because the writers were gracious – or cowardly? – enough to never let them fail.

The game gives Rook a moral high ground which isn’t earned in the slightest because Rook never had to walk even a quarter of a mile in Solas’s shoes. They don’t know what they would have done in his stead, they have no idea what it actually means to see the sorry shape the world is in and know that it was your hands that shaped it. And even where Rook might actually be culpable – the interruption of Solas’s ritual that freed the remaining Evanuris – anyone is quick to assure Rook that it wasn’t their fault.

Whatever regrets Rook carries, they’re born from self-doubt and trauma response. Survivor’s guilt, mostly. When compared to Solas’s immense guilt, Rook’s regrets are, for lack of a better term, insignificant. That Rook manages to face them doesn’t mean that they are more truthful or emotionally mature, it just means that Rook’s story is a tale for children and Solas’s is not.

It’s not that I’m necessarily opposed to the idea that the player decides Solas’s fate through their actions. It’s the injustice of it all that bothers me: The player is led through a game that provides a safe space for their character, one that is devoid of any interpersonal conflict and any ethical quandary. Rooks succeeds through kindness and heroism and taking their companions on team bonding exercises.

As if Solas could have won the war against the Evanuris if he’d taken the time to take his companions on coffee dates.

The juxtaposition – Rook vs. Solas – fails, simply because of this deep divide. Rook’s story is detached from reality and yet Rook gets to be Solas’s judge, jury, and executioner. On what grounds?

As I said, right in the beginning, I haven’t been a Solas fan before. But by the end of Veilguard, I was firmly, irrevocably, Team Solas, just because I was so annoyed that the narrative put Rook in a position of moral superiority. I detested my own character. Jesus, what a goody two-shoes! I was rooting for Solas simply because his story was so much more: a genuine tragedy, a study in complexity. Rook, on the other hand, remains bland, snotty, unchanged. Untried.

The thing is, I don’t believe that my reaction was one the writers had intended. I strongly feel that they didn’t mean for me to pick up on their double standard, that they expected me to walk away fully satisfied, convinced that Rook and The Team were the Good Guys because they went on picnics and petted the griffon, their final victory well-earned and just. If only Solas had had a Team and taken care of their emotional needs – he could have taken down the Evanuris with nary a scratch!

It’s all so very disingenuous.

Rook and, by extension, the player exist in a bubble of sanitized content. That is clearly deliberate. The player is meant to like it there. (In that sense, it’s only logical that they changed the title from Dreadwolf to Veilguard.) And clearly, it does resonate with a certain kind of their player base: mostly with people, I think, who would like their real life to be a bubble too and whose only experience with moral corruption is when they find it in others.

[when-jaguars-are-sick]

okay, so first off, I just have to say that I picked up on Isaac / Oliver vibes, but I thought it was just them being besties, but if they ever get together in a romantic way, just know that I will SQUEAL in happiness

look at the whole group being together 🥰

I swear, I just wrote an f-ing novel here🥲. I hope y'all cry enjoy!

!TW! Harassment, violence, heavy angst and trauma

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“I want you to meet my friends.”

Aiden looked at Spirit with genuine surprise, staring at her for a second before grabbing the remote and pausing their movie.

It was their first movie night since Spirit’s appendicitis incident. She’d left Isaac's house just two days before, and it was now Friday. And now, out of nowhere, she asked that?!

“Really?” Aiden’s eyes were wide.

Spirit was looking down at her hands, her face slightly pink. “I mean, you already met Isaac and Oliver. You might as well meet the rest of them.” She then looked at him, feeling embarrassed when he didn’t answer right away, so she continued, “We all go to the End of Summer Festival downtown every year. And it’s tomorrow, so. . . I mean, it’s fine if you don’t want to go. But it could be fun, and—”

Aiden’s surprised look melted away and he started chuckling at her, making her freeze. “What?”

“I think I’m rubbing off on you,” he said, smiling. “Normally, I’m the one who rambles when I’m nervous.”

Spirit blushed and frowned. “I’m not nervous. I’m just—”

“Spirit,” he said softly, stopping her from beginning to ramble again, “I’ll go and meet your friends.” He bumped his shoulder against hers, getting a small smile back from her. For a minute, he just looked at her. The red streaks in her hair had faded slightly, and were looking more like rose gold at the tips. And she was wearing an all-black outfit (knee-length black cargo shorts, an oversized black tank top, and silver chains and accessories).

He felt his heart racing.

C’mon, you idiot, he yelled internally.

“Spirit.” He felt his cheeks growing hot, both excited and anxious to simply ask the question he’d wanted to ask her on the day she got appendicitis. They’d know each other for months now. He loved his dates with her. He loved talking to her. He loved being around her.

“Yeah?” she asked, trying to read his face.

He took a deep breath. Part of him wanted to wait, and wanted to ask her at a restaurant, wearing better clothes than just sweatpants and a t-shirt. But another part of him wanted to be introduced to her closest friends as more than just her friend.

Clearly, the latter part was winning.

“I wanted to ask you if. . .” He swallowed anxiously, his face burning and his heart beating.

“Are you okay?” Spirit asked, brows creasing slightly. “You look nauseous.”

He shook his head, chuckling slightly because he did feel a little bit nauseous, but not for the reason she was likely thinking.

“Aiden, are you—”

“I like you, a lot,” he blurted suddenly, blushing all the way to his ears. “And I wanted to take you out and ask you this in a. . . I guess, a more romantic environment than my living room, but I just. . .” He paused, dropping his face into his hands to laugh at himself. “God, I’m rambling. Ironic.”

Spirit felt her face growing hotter. “Aiden. . .”

“I like you,” he said again, dropping his hands and meeting her eyes. “And I want to know. . . will you be my girlfriend?”

— — —

“Everyone’s late,” Keiko grumbled. “How the hell can EVERYONE be late?!”

“Just be patient,” Amberlynn said, munching on some fried Oreos.

Keiko chuckled at her. “Says the girl who bought food cuz she got bored of waiting.”

“Shush.”

They were waiting in the parking lot, looking for their friends’ cars. Keiko perked up when Jordan’s nice silver Honda arrived. She parked near the entrance and came out with a huge smile on her face. Eliana emerged the same expression.

“Heeeeyyyyyy,” Jordan said, grabbing Eliana’s hand and running with her to Kei and Amberlynn. “Are we early?” she asked when she realized no one else was there.

“Actually,” Keiko said, crossing his arms and raising a brow at his sister, “everyone, including you two, is late. You’re just the earliest of the late people.”

“And you are too perfect,” she shrugged, while Eliana smiled and rolled her eyes at her girlfriend.

“It’s Jor’s fault. She spent twenty minutes deciding between grey and white eyeshadow.”

“White won, obviously,” Jor said, batting her eyes at El jokingly.

Oliver arrived next. Then Isaac, just a few minutes later. When Felix and Atticus arrived, Amberlynn waved them over with an excited grin, oblivious of the chocolate on the corner of her mouth.

“Guys, this if Felix and Atticus,” she said happily.

“It’s nice to meet all of you,” Felix said happily.

“Hiya,” Atticus said with a small wave, a bit shyly.

There was only two people left. Birdie arrived with her hair in shin-long-multi-colored braids instead of her little fro she’d been sporting for a while. Felix seemed in awe of her colorful hippie sense of style.

Now, one person left.

“It’s weird for Spirit to be this late,” Amberlynn said, and Eliana agreed.

Birdie looked at her phone. “She’s not answering my texts.”

“So, where are you from?” Jordan asked Felix, already acting like besties with him.

“London,” he said. “Bloody hell, I love your makeup. Do you do tutorials online?”

She raised a brow, looking proud. “Should I?”

He nodded. “I think so. I’d love to know how to do a fade like that.”

Atticus, Isaac, and Keiko were all chatting together. Though everyone—besides Felix and Atticus—was aware of how strange it was for Spirit to be so late.

Isaac pulled out his phone to text her as well when a familiar sky-blue BMW entered the parking lot. His eyes widened and he smiled, elbowing Oliver slightly. Oliver also felt a smile spread on his face when he noticed.

“I’ll call her again,” Eliana was saying. “Maybe—”

“Hey, Spirit!” Isaac called, making all conversations halt. “Hi, Adien.”

Spirit felt her face grow hot as she made her way over to her friends. “S-sorry I’m late,” she said, trying to act normal despite all the eyes on her. The air was filled with tension and confusion. Poor Felix and Atticus had no idea why the mood had changed so much.

Amberlynn spoke first, looking at Aiden. “Who’re you?” Spirit was also bringing someone new??

Spirit swallowed, trying to avoid looking at Isaac and Oliver’s smiling faces. “Guys, um. . . this is. . .” Spirit felt Aiden’s hand brush hers, and she looked at him as he gave her a small smile. She took a deep breath, looking at her friends and saying, “This is Aiden. . . my boyfriend.”

. . .

For a minute, silence.

“WHAT?!” Jordan exclaimed, eyes widening and a huge shocked smile on her face.

“Fucking finally,” Isaac said, and all the shocked girls turned to gawp at him.

“You knew?!” Amberlynn exclaimed, walking over and whacking him in the shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“Jerk,” Eliana scoffed at him, and Jordan nodded in agreement, crossing her arms and glaring at the blonde. Birdie stayed quiet.

Isaac held up his hands sheepishly backing away from the girls. “Woah woah, I’m not the only one who knew! Olive also—”

“You’re on your own here,” Oliver said with a smirk, hands on his hips. “I only found out a little bit ago. Plus, no one gets mad at me.” He did a little hair flip, earning a pouty glare from Isaac.

The bickering continued—Felix whispering into Atticus’s ear, “I wish we had popcorn” while watching the drama—whilst Keiko and Birdie made their way over to Spirit and Aiden.

“I honestly don’t know what to say,” Keiko said with a surprised chuckle, looking from Spirit to Aiden and back to Spirit.

“I remember you,” Birdie said with a small smile. “You’re Spirit’s ‘friendly acquaintance’ from that day at the mall.”

“Yeah,” Aiden said, adjusting his glasses nervously. “It’s nice to see you again.” Then he looked at Keiko. “And it’s nice to meet you.”

“Same,” Keiko said. He then looked at Spirit. “But you have a shit-ton of explaining to do.”

Spirit nodded, rolling her eyes. She smiled a bit, feeling more relaxed.

The bickering ended and everyone else came over.

Jordan came first, grinning from ear to ear as she said out of nowhere, “You are the chosen one, and my fucking hero.”

Spirit felt her whole face burn and she glared at Jordan, and Jordan ignored the look while watching Aiden blush and get flustered and confused by her random comment.

“I, um. . . th-thanks?”

Spirit let out an exasperated sigh and pinched Jordan’s arm, making the girl yelp and pout. “I thought you’d deny yourself romance your whole life, girlie. Let me have my fun.”

“Your ‘fun’ is annoying,” Spirit stated, and Jordan rolled her eyes and smiled.

“I’m Jordan,” she said to Aiden. “Call me Jor.”

Keiko then introduced himself. Then Amberlynn.

Everyone introduced themselves, and Amberlynn then introduced Spirit to Felix and Atticus, who were genuinely entertained by the whole situation.

“I repeat,” Isaac said to Spirit when everyone began to calm down, “fucking finally. It took you two long enough.”

“Whatever,” she said to him, but she couldn’t stop smiling.

— — —

The festival took place downtown, and that meant not only the streets with rows of restaurants and shops and buildings, but also the downtown park which had much more. The festival was crowded and buzzing by the time all of them finally left the parking lot. Along with the regular popular downtown stores and restaurants, there was small shops, games, food, live music, and even small rides in the park.

“Okay, guys,” Keiko said to all of them. “We’ll meet at the Royal Scoop ice cream shop at 12:30 to get lunch together and see the magic show.”

“Got it!” Jordan said as she left following Eliana while El all but bounced on her feet saying, “I’ve gotta go to the art contest!”

“Wanna go see the beauty pageant?” Amberlynn asked Felix excitedly, and the two of them left together, abandoning their boyfriends.

“And then there was six,” Isaac said.

“Five,” Keiko corrected. “I’mma find that astrology lady who makes all of that cool crystal jewelry that Amber loves. She’s been wanting a black crystal.”

“I’ll go with you,” Atticus said. “Felix loves jewelry.” And then those two left as well.

Isaac, Oliver, Birdie, Spirit, and Aiden were the only ones left.

“Aiden,” Oliver said. “Anything you wanna do?”

“Oh.” Aiden ran a hand through his hair as he shook his head. “I’ve never been to this festival before, so I’ll do whatever you all do.”

“Tell me,” Isaac said with a competitive smirk, “What’s your opinion on Harry Potter trivia?”

While the boys all discussed the different competitions and games, Birdie pinched the sleeve Spirit’s baggy shirt, signaling for Spirit to bend down. Spirit bent a little, and Birdie whispered in her ear, “Why didn’t you tell me? Why Isaac and Oliver, but not me?”

Spirit froze, hearing the hurt in Birdie’s voice.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just. . . I didn’t. . .”

Birdie sighed. “You didn’t trust me to keep my mouth shut,” Birdie stated, letting go of Spirit’s shirt. “I understand. I’m not the best at keeping your secrets. I just wish I’d know my best friend was dating someone.”

“Bird, I—”

Birdie put on a smile, taking a step away from Spirit and saying to the others, “I’m gonna go see if they have the succulent shop again this year. See ya.” And she left, and Spirit watched her go with guilt twisting her stomach.

“Bye midget,” Isaac called after her while Oliver said, “Spirit, anywhere you wanna go?”

Spirit watched Birdie walk away for a second longer before putting on a neutral look and shrugging. “Wherever you guys wanna go is fine.”

“Alrighty then,” Isaac said with a smile. “Let’s go get dunked!”

— — —

Spirit dunked Isaac into the dunking tank on her first try. He barely got to taunt her.

After the blonde came out, soaking wet and laughing, Oliver went.

“Good aim,” Aiden told her, impressed and smiling. Spirit tried her best to smile back, but she still couldn’t shake the guilt that Birdie’s words brought her. Aiden noticed that her smile was off, but didn’t say anything since Isaac was walking back over.

Some little kid managed to suddenly dunk Oliver, and his squeaky yelp make Isaac—and almost everyone else around—laugh hysterically. Spirit only chuckled a bit.

“Heeeeeyyyy,” Isaac said, hooking a wet arm around Spirit and making her yelp and try to shove him off.

“Oh my God, you’re soaked! Don’t touch me!”

Aiden laughed at the two. When Spirit managed to push Isaac off, he ran over to where Oliver was laughing and trembling like a puppy after getting out of the cold water, and she looked over to a food stand she’d already looked at a few times.

Following her gaze, Aiden realized it was a Korean Corndog stand. He smiled at Spirit. “Wanna go grab a snack?” he asked her.

She didn’t look at him, shaking her head. “I only have enough cash for lunch and a few games. I don’t wanna waste it.”

Aiden’s brows creased slightly at the way Spirit’s voice sounded. Sad? Why?

“I’ll pay,” he told her, grabbing her hand and making her look at him. He smiled as he squeezed her hand, and she couldn’t help but smile back and squeeze his hand as well.

Isaac and Oliver went to play a dart game while Spirit and Aiden walked to the Korean Corndog stand, hand in hand. Spirit— to no surprise—got the hot Cheeto corndog, and Aiden got a potato one. They just began to walk around the festival while eating.

“I like all your friends,” Aiden said, smiling. “They’re all so. . . unique. You’re part of a very interesting friend group.”

Spirit smiled at that, a bit of Cheeto powder on the corner of her mouth. “Thanks. They all like you too—I can tell. Sorry if they were weird at first though.”

Aiden chuckled. “I think it just showed how close you all are.” The corndogs weren’t all that big, and Aiden finished his after five minutes. After walking around for ten more—and winding up in the part of the festival in the downtown streets—he was aware that the combination of cheese, potatoes, sugar and a deep fryer was gonna cost him.

“I-I’ll be right back,” he said sheepishly, his ears red with embarrassment. “I saw a store with a bathroom. Could you wait here for a minute?”

Spirit nodded, squeezing his hand before letting go, and he left while Spirit walked to a closed building and leaned against the wall, pulling out her phone and checking her messages. She wanted to text Birdie, but had no idea what she’d say.

“Damn,” she muttered to herself, leaving her messages to scroll on TikTok. She was about to open the app when suddenly:

“We need to talk.”

Spirit froze at the voice, not having to look up to know exactly who it was.

“Go away, Zeke.”

She felt his arm creep around her shoulders, and she wanted to kick him in the gut, but didn’t want to cause a scene. She told him again, “Go away. Now.”

“Come with me, just for a minute, hot stuff,” he said, leaning close to her ear. She could smell weed on him. She knew better than to make Zeke upset when he was high.

“Fine. But stop touching me.”

Zeke backed up and Spirit finally looked at him. He had faded scars of his own from their last fight, and his hair had been dyed a mix of yellow and orange. Spirit scowled as she followed him. “Keep it quick. I’m supposed to meet somebody.”

“Chill, hot stuff.”

Spirit didn’t like this. She followed Zeke around the corner of a building and into the alley there. Her heart began to beat faster as memories from her middle and high school years came back. The alley was quieter and dark enough that Spirit knew no one could see them just by passing by.

“What do you want?”

“Just to talk to you,” he said, getting closer. Spirit backed away. “Y’know, I think we should be friends again. Let’s just forget that ugly little incident, baby.” He reached out to touch her shoulder, and she slapped his hand away.

“Fuck off. If this is all you wanted to talk about, I’m leaving.” She turned to leave, but Zeke roughly shoved her hard enough to slam her against the side of the building and scrape her face a bit. Before she could turn to punch him, he slammed himself against her, pressing her front against the building and holding her hands behind her back.

She started to scream, but he used his other hand to cover her mouth. “Annoying bitch,” he swore, kissing the back of her neck and making her scream more, but she knew no one could hear her. In her pocket, her phone began ringing.

She struggled harder, managing to free one arm and elbow Zeke, making him groan and back away a little. She turned and swung a punch at him, but only got his shoulder before he punched her jaw, knocking her to the ground. She groaned, dizzy from the hit. She felt tears in her eyes as Zeke bent down, grabbing her wrists and forcing his lips on hers, and she felt as helpless as a 13-year-old again.

Zeke stopped, shoving her hard one last time before standing. “I miss you, hot stuff,” he chuckled. “Call me.” He kicked her leg before running a hand through his hair and walking out of the alley.

Spirit stayed exactly where she was, frozen. Eyes wide. Holding her breath without realizing it as her heart raced. She felt sick. She was dizzy and wanted the world to swallow her whole.

She had tears streaming down her face.

Her phone rang, and she snapped out of her panic enough to take a small, shaky breath and pull out her phone. She had a couple texts from Isaac and Oliver, and the calls were all from Aiden. More texts were coming in from her other friends, and she saw that it was past the time they had to meet up.

Her hands shook and she could hardly breathe as she shared her location in their group chat. That’s all she sent before putting her phone away and curling up where she was, feeling disgusted by the feeling of Zeke’s lips on her neck and mouth. She hated him so much. Memories flooded her head, and she again held her breath without thinking, falling into the clutches of a silent panic attack.

Minutes? Hours? Spirit had no idea how long she was there with her thoughts racing.

Stop, she yelled in her mind, cursing at the unwelcome memories. The memories of every time Zeke called her baby. The memories of him forcing her to take a puff of his vape, or of him pulling her hair or laughing at her for crying over her dad. . .

Memories of the times when she wasn’t strong enough to fight back. Like just moments ago.

Black spots were appearing in her vision, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t even feel the burning in her chest. The memories were too overwhelming.

Stop.

Stop!

STOP!!

“Spirit? You in here?”

Spirit didn’t hear those words. There was only the awful memories. . .

“Oh my God.”

Spirit felt hands on her, and felt her heart beat a little faster. Zeke, she thought.

“Spirit, breathe! Look at me, you’re okay!”

“What happened?!”

“I don’t know!”

Spirit felt like she was being shaken. She felt dizzier than she did before.

“Spirit, you have to breathe!”

That was not Zeke’s voice.

“Look at us, Spirit,” another voice—also not Zeke’s—said. Spirit blinked, reacting slightly. Birdie.

“Spirit, you’re okay. Okay? You’re okay.” Spirit felt arms wrap around her. More than one person was hugging her tightly, and Spirit snapped out of her panic enough to feel the burning agony in her chest. She gasped, choking on air as the memories faded and she found herself back in the alley.

She sobbed as she swallowed air greedily, shaking and crying while Birdie and Isaac held her. Aiden was also there, his eyes wide, confused, and terrified by what he just saw.

“You’re alright,” Birdie whispered to Spirit hugging her tightly.

Spirit took in breaths, and let them out for a long time until they slowly went from frantic to calm but shaky.

Isaac pulled away and looked her in the eye. “You okay?” he asked softly, but Spirit didn’t answer the question. At least, not with a yes or no.

Instead, she sobbed one more time and said quietly, “Zeke.”

Isaac’s eyes widened, and Birdie also pulled back with a look of shock.

“Shit,” Isaac cursed, standing. He ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“What’s going on?” Aiden asked, starting to really freak out. Spirit was finally calm enough to actually notice he was there, and she wanted nothing more than to hug him.

Isaac looked at Aiden, frowning deeply, looking both sad and pissed. “A situation that I’m sick of,” Isaac answered, pulling out his phone. “I’m texting the others.”

— — —

Spirit had Birdie’s arm around her, and she held Aiden’s hand tightly. Isaac walked behind them as they made their way to the parking lot where most of the others were.

“I told Felix and Atticus to keep enjoying the fair,” Amberlynn said, brows creased with worry.

“And Jordan and El are telling some officers we found about what happened,” Oliver said.

Keiko noticed the bruise on Spirit’s cheek and the scrapes on her face, and he looked pissed. All of them were.

Aiden was still confused, but he was more concerned. He felt Spirit squeeze his hand suddenly, and he looked at her. She was looking at the ground, a sad and empty look on her face. He hated seeing her like this. He hated that someone had clearly hurt her in the short time he left her alone. And the way her friends were acting told him this wasn’t a new or strange situation for them.

“I want to go home,” Spirit suddenly said in a small voice, very different from the usual strength in her tone.

“Let’s go,” Birdie said to her softly.

“Wait.” Spirit turned to Aiden and leaned against him, and he instantly understood and let go of her hand to hug her tightly. She wanted to stay there, held by him, engulfed by his warmth, and he didn’t want to let go of her. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” she said quietly to him, barely loud enough for him to hear.

He nodded, and she stepped away, letting Birdie put an arm around her again and guide her away.

Aiden watched her go before turning to her friends, still freaking out. He looked at Isaac. “What’s happening?!”

Isaac shared looks with the others before sighing and saying, “There’s a guy named Zeke who used to harass and hurt Spirit a lot. She saw him again a few months ago, and he hurt her again today. But that’s all I can say. If Spirit wants you to know, she’ll tell you more. Okay?”

Aiden felt almost sick. But there was something familiar about the name Zeke.

“We’re all heading home,” Keiko said to Aiden. “I’m glad we got to meet you.”

“Yeah,” Aiden nodded, still processing. “Same. It was nice meeting you all.”

Everyone else went to their cars, and so did Aiden, but he didn’t even turn his car on. He just sat there, thinking. He wanted to be with Spirit right now. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to strangle whoever had hurt her.

And he felt a heavy guilt in his stomach because he left her alone. His vision blurred as tears stung in his eyes.

He eventually managed to make the drive to his apartment, but the memory of seeing Spirit curled up in that alley still burned in his head. Not even 24 hours ago, he’d asked her to be his girlfriend. And now, this happened.

With a pained sigh, Aiden decided that all he could do was wait for Spirit to talk to him. He wanted to apologize for leaving her alone, and he wanted to be there for her, but he just made sure his ringer was on and waited.

It’s really all he could do right now.

[moonagedaydreamsofrhiannon]

IN DEFENSE OF TRAVIS MARTINEZ:

Because I’m sick and tired of seeing travis hate everywhere I go.

“Travis was sexist.”

Did he spout some sexist rhetoric in the beginning of the show? Sure. But it’s important to recognize that: A) he changed, and by season 2 he completely stopped, B) he was a teenage boy in the 1990s, and that kind of rhetoric was normal at the time, C) most of his sexist macho tough guy attitude was a complete act that he likely put on to compensate for his insecurity about his own masculinity, and internalized homophobia. (More on that later.)

(Also let’s be real, Travis is basically one of the girls anyway and I’m tired of pretending he’s not.)

2. “Travis didn’t care about Javi.”

Did we watch the same show??? Granted Travis may have had trouble expressing his feelings (also related to his insecurities about masculinity, likely learned from his father, as well as growing up in a patriarchal and homophobic society), but he cared deeply about Javi. In S1E4, Travis literally DUG UP HIS DAD’S GRAVE, through horror, tears, and vomit, in order to retrieve his ring to give to Javi. When Javi disappeared, Travis kept looking for him every day for months, and never gave up, even when logically it would have seemed impossible for him to still be alive. He comforted and reassured Javi when neither of them drew the card. He cradled Javi’s dead body and ate a bite of his raw heart (which was a metaphor for how much he loved him, and a parallel to Shauna eating Jackie’s raw ear.) Maybe Travis wasn’t always there for Javi in the way he needed, but he absolutely loved him, and it’s important to remember that Travis was also a traumatized, grieving, kid who just lost his dad.

3. “Travis slut-shamed Nat.”

As we are literally shown in the show, Travis was not trying to slut shame her, he asked how many times she had done it because he was embarrassed about the fact that he was a virgin, and worried that she would judge him, or that he wouldn’t measure up because he was more inexperienced than her. When she told him she hooked up with Bobby Farleigh, he did not get mad at her because she slept with another guy (he already knew about that, and was fine with it), he got mad because she hooked up with his bully, and then lied to him about it. I don’t blame Nat for this, she didn’t know about it at the time, and didn’t want him to get mad once she found out, but I also don’t blame Travis for being hurt and embarrassed and upset with her for lying about it.

4. “Travis was just kind of a dick.”

Sure, but so were all of them. He acted like kind of a jerk in the first season. So what? Shauna had an affair with her best friend’s boyfriend, lied to her about it for months, and refused to apologize. Misty tried to drug Coach Ben. Nat faked his brother’s death to him (yeah, she was trying to help him move on, but still not cool). All of them called him “Flex” (y’know, the nickname that was used to bully him for years). None of them are perfect or nice or likable all the time, and that’s ok; that’s the whole point. They’re realistic, complex, flawed, morally gray and sometimes unlikable people. They’ve all done bad things, but nothing Travis did is worse than what anyone else on that show has done. He was a traumatized teen whose dad literally just died. Also, me personally, if everyone around me was constantly calling me the mean nickname that was used to bully me since middle school, I would also probably act like a little bit of a dick.

5. “Travis is a straight man.”

Wrong. (Also not really a valid reason to hate someone… But most importantly, just wrong.)

Travis Martinez is clearly a bisexual.

So many of his issues: the insecurity, the bullying, the macho tough guy act, the whole weird complex about his masculinity, all of it stems (at least partly) from the fact that he’s bisexual and has internalized homophobia. The whole “Flex” thing is just thinly veiled homophobia. The main reason why he got bullied is because Bobby Farleigh spread a rumor about him getting back surgery to better suck his own dick. The unsaid implication there is that he’s a man who sucks dick, which is inherently queer, even if it is his own. If you look even slightly past the most surface level interpretation, it’s pretty obvious that Travis was bullied because of homophobia. His performance of stereotypical toxic masculinity was clearly over compensation for the fact that he doesn’t fit into the box of traditional straight masculinity, and was a reaction to the bullying from his peers, abuse from his dad, and internalized homophobia from growing up in a homophobic and patriarchal society. As the show progresses he starts to unlearn that toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia, and he allows himself to be more vulnerable, emotional, and feminine, and as a result, he becomes stronger, more confident, and more respectful of the people around him.

As for Travis being a man… Is he though???

In season 1, Travis is a man (narratively speaking); there is a clear distinction between Travis/Coach Ben and the girls. However, in season 2, we see a stark shift in how Travis is depicted. The separation between Travis and the girls pretty much ceases to exist. Narratively speaking, there is no distinction made between Travis and the other girls; they are one entity—one hive mind. Instead, the emphasis is now placed on the distinction between Coach Ben and the girls/Travis. When Coach Ben watches the Yellowjackets eat Jackie in horror and disbelief, Travis is right there with them, dressed in ancient greek robes along with the rest of them. In season 2, Coach Ben is the only real Man of the group (Travis has narratively become one of the girls, and Javi is just a boy, not a man) and he is shown staying separate from the rest of the group, and growing more and more uncomfortable with the cultish dynamics, while Travis, on the other hand, becomes more and more integrated with the group, as he falls deeper and deeper into cult beliefs, until he is a full-blown devout Lottie worshipper. Of the three males on the show, he is the only one who actually participates in cannibalism with the other Yellowjackets. Also he lost his virginity to a lesbian.

Whether or not you choose to believe that Travis is transfem (I do) you cannot deny that, at least narratively speaking, Travis is literally just a girl.

6. Travis is a victim.

I don’t know why nobody in this fandom seems to acknowledge this, but Travis is a sexual assault victim and I’m tired of people constantly overlooking and ignoring that fact. In Doomcoming, the girls (excluding Jackie, Nat, Tai, and Van) chased him down, sexually assaulted him, and then tried to kill him. That’s not something that’s up for debate or denial, that is literally canon. Stop pretending it didn’t happen. Stop pretending it wasn’t assault. Stop shaming him and making fun of him for struggling with sex, or not always being able to get it up. That’s a normal trauma response after being assaulted/raped. You guys are literally proving the point. This kind of treatment from society towards masculinity and male victims is just playing into the patriarchy and toxic masculinity, and is exactly what made him act the way he did in season 1 in the first place!

[twopoppies]

hi gina :) i was thinking about this and i wanted to share it with you. i was talking to my friend the other day about larry, and how larry is not meant for everyone. years ago when i entered the fandom, i was sooo obsessed with harry and i knew absolutely nothing about larry. i didn’t even know that larry was a thing. inevitably, when i did find out about it, i was definitely taken aback by it. but i still kept an open mind about everything. i did my research and four years later, i am still a larrie and my opinions have only grown stronger. i feel like some of these solo stans want to see themselves in harry’s ‘gfs’ so they ignore larry and the possibility of him being gay/queer. i will admit that at first i did get pulled into the delusion of harry getting with fans (townes) and i liked that i felt like that could happen to me. though that delusion was VERY short lived and i came to my senses after i found out about larry (and realistically, this is real life and not a wattpad fan fiction). the music industry and closeting is a very complex thing and some people just can’t seem to grasp how cruel the world can actually be. for a while, i actually believed louis was a father because i never looked into it due to people deeming it ‘disrespectful.’ once i actually looked into it, i saw immediately right through it and my opinion has not changed since then. the reason i am a larrie, even through all of the denials and stunts is because i did my research and i have a full and complete understanding of closeting, the stunts, babygate, etc. even if they for some unknown reason decide to split in the future, that will not change the fact that they were at least together at some point and that louis is not a father. he could blab about the kid allll he wants and there will not be a single moment where i believe a word he says. the people that get it, get it, and the people that don’t, don’t.

Yes, I agree with you. I really think there are so many fans who look at things the way you once did and don't want to dig into the facts and have their fantasies ruined. It's really sad to me, but I'm just done fighting about it.

These days, I'm here for the music, my friends, the fics/writing, and to know tour info so I can get tickets. Once upon a time, in addition to all of that, proving that Larry was real, fighting for Harry and Louis to know they were supported, and hoping a coming out was around the corner were all major reasons I was in this fandom. Things change. Fandom is very different now. I'm not interested in stubbornly holding on to something that doesn't exist anymore.

None of that means Harry and Louis aren't together or never were. It just means that their love story isn't the main focus for me these days. And that's because they no longer seem to want it to be.

[agronzky]

⠀⠀⠀𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐏.

⠀⠀⠀Anyone who knows me or has rp with me knows how much I love building ambiguous — or grey, if you prefer — characters or villains. The drama, the chaos, the complex plot… It all makes everything more interesting, especially once you get bored of characters who are exclusively nice, naive and suchlike. Even so, it's a construction that needs to take several factors into account and be very delicately written so it doesn't become a trigger rather than a character.

⠀⠀⠀For this reason, below I've provided some tips on how to create villainous characters for rp, taking into account various traits, setting and also demystifying the fact that not every villain is a soulless monster. Anyway, on to the guide.

Deep and personal motivations.

⠀⠀⠀Convincing villains usually have compelling and understandable motivations, even if their actions are highly questionable. It's the premise of them being right in their quest, but using the wrong means to achieve it and ultimately losing their reason. This brings a sense of humanity and it's even possible to feel connected to what led this person to become a villain. You can truly see how they lost the way.

⠀⠀⠀Another point is the fact that not everyone wants to conquer the world, nor do they have the ambition to have a lot of money or power. Think of plots about revenge, twisted love, the quest for justice or fear. Generally, a character's deepest motivations give them more determination to fulfill their goals because it comes from something much more internal and traumatic. Give them a proper reason and make them lose the way, this is gonna make everything feel real, convincing and interesting to developed.

Moral complexity.

⠀⠀⠀The simple truth is the days of people liking completely cartoonish characters are long gone, and nowadays many people don't like those who are evil simply for the sake of being evil. This is because it's too out of touch with reality. Obviously there are people who are like that in real life, but the vast majority is more complex than this. Humans, in the end, are very complicated and, probably, will never truly understand why we are the way we are.

⠀⠀⠀To get away of this cliché and cartoonish form when creating your character, try to develop moral nuances and internal dilemmas which can explain their actions. Put a small fragment of morality in the character, make them question themselves a few times as to whether they're on the right path… Remember yin yang: there's a little tiny good inside the evil. This tip can be used for any character, when you think about it, but it's very important for those who want to create villains.

Human traits, personality and vulnerabilities.

⠀⠀⠀Like any human being, provide your character with traits unmistakably human, such as fears, insecurities or personal relationships that will impact them, to make them more realistic. Just because someone is doing something morally wrong doesn't mean they've lost all touch with their humanity, especially since not every villain is a psychopath who has no empathy for anyone. It's always very interesting when a character believes they're doing what's right or good for someone else, and this is their motivation. 

⠀⠀⠀Also bring some weaknesses to the character, whether physical, emotional or psychological. This provides room for development and also ways for other characters to access them in a more specific way, either to get to know them better or to retaliate against them at some point.

⠀⠀⠀You know that line "Do you like my personality? I created it especially for you!"? Well, consider how the character behaves and bring in more layers when making the personality. Take into account how they behave in different situations and with different people.

Charisma and a magnetic nature.

⠀⠀⠀The fact is that bad guys aren't unbearable one hundred per cent of the time, they need to know how to live in society and captivate people. So define unique and appealing traits for the character, whether they're genuine or merely a façade. It's always interesting when, within the plot, most people don't know about the evil or wrong side of a character because it gives them more room for development. Maybe make them ashamed of what they're doing and try to hide it as best they can. And just think about real life: do we truly know the people around us?

Connection with other characters.

⠀⠀⠀Nobody lives completely alone since we're in a society and this makes us having connections, for more simple they can be. Thinking about that, create connections with other characters to bring more motivation and drama to your muse, such as an old rivalry, a complicated personal relationship or a surprising connection which generates tension. You can also create connections that actually bring their good side to light, you know? It's also always good to add a certain complexity, to have troubled moments, wounds that haven't healed fully, secrets being revelead, etc.

Questions for creating villains.

What are the character's main motivations?

What is the character's origin story? What led them to become what they are today?

What are the past traumas or events that have shaped their worldview?

How does the character justify their actions morally? Does they believe they are doing the right thing?

What are their weaknesses and vulnerabilities?

How does the character present themselves to the world? Are they masked, manipulative or showy?

What do they want to achieve through their actions?

What are their emotional reactions to obstacles and challenges?

How do they justify their actions to themselves? Is there any sense of internal validation?

How do they relate to the authorities or the law?

How do they see themselves? Do they see themselves as the hero of their own story?

How do they react when their plans fail?

What do they feel when faced with the possibility of redemption or change?

Other small (and important) advice!

Corruption arcs are also super interesting, leading a good character to become bad over time and through traumatic situations. Redemption arcs are also sensational. The point is: nobody was born a villain and nobody has to die a villain.

Leave clues indicating your character before fully revealing your motivations. Also try to leave some motivations completely secret, using them when the plot calls for a surprise. In the best "surprise, bitch!" style.

Think about how environment and culture can influence beliefs and actions.

A villain doesn't have to be a psychopath or murderer. There are arcs of revenge and corruption which can be created without going to such extremes.

It's obvious, but always respect other players and the limits they impose. As I said, a villain isn't always doing evil and being a complete asshole, so make sure you know what kind of approach the other person will prefer.

Always be careful when approaching topics which are triggers and avoid them as much as possible. As I said, it's not necessary to go down this route, but if you do, always keep a firm grounding when writing, because triggers are complex real-life situations that always need to be handled delicately.

The end, for now.

( Be with Morgana, my good girl gone bad ♡ )

[yuikomorii]

Why do so many people love Ayato?

I like him too but I just don’t see what makes him so worshipped by the fandom (no hate)

// Other than his incredible visuals, a lot of people love Ayato because he got a particular charm that makes him stand out.

To put it mildly, he's truly a good character. What makes him distinctive is that he strikes as the perfect mix between generic and unique. Ayato is recognized in Japan as the orthodox Diaboy, and Karlheinz has confirmed that he is the most human-like of his brothers BUT this doesn’t mean his personality is not complex.

Rather than being forced to be likeable, his emotions are expressed in such way that makes him feel realistic. If things don’t go his way, he gets angry and starts acting impulsively. He’s also an arrogant brat when someone irritates him, yet… you can’t really bring yourself to hate him for that. Why? Because that’s how people are in real life too. Whether they were aware of it or not, everyone has behaved like that at some point since, in certain circumstances, such actions or thoughts are unavoidable.

The thing about Ayato is that he assumes his wrongdoings and ends up trying to fix his mistakes, instead of facing no consequences, being pushed by others to take responsibility or still being portrayed positively after doing something bad.

He needs to put in a lot of effort to reach his goals; sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails. He’s also canonically really brave, upright, mentally strong, pure-hearted, a good boyfriend & brother, which of course, are ideal traits and a bunch of people will respect him for that. Such a flawed person having such admirable qualities creates a good balance and it’ll be very easy to see yourself in him.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Throughout the Trainee, I’ve been waiting for the shoe to drop—for some big reveal about an ultimate problem at the company or for someone to be fired who had gone too far—but the show is too mature, it has to much compassion towards all of its characters (and towards people’s humanity in general) to do that.

I saw so many instances of mistakes happening, some more obvious, some subtle, some key to the plot, some seemingly background fodder, some addressed by the characters explicitly, and some that the characters or the show just seemed to observe without commenting on. Some of these mistakes didn’t amount to anything, like the broken hard drive, and some of them caused real physical harm to people in the show, like the cosmetic mix-up during testing. I presumed there was a kind of accumulation happening. I thought that the mistakes were adding up to something, a bigger conclusion about this work environment, or a commentary on work environments and society at large. The Trainee, however, refuses to construct a larger theory about work and life’s problems. It refuses to condemn anyone or any one thing to that extent. Each mistake is its own problem. And each person is capable of contributing to it and finding a way to move past it.

You see, what Jane says here is the core theme of the show:

(GIF by @ryansjane )

Don’t assume; ask questions; talk it out with the recognition that everyone is coming to the table with different backgrounds, skills, areas of knowledge, flaws, fears, and hopes. They will not be perfect, and neither do you have to be. The Trainee wants its characters and its audience to find the courage, like Ryan and Jane, Ba Mhee and Tae, or the lovely moments between Pah and all his coworkers this week, to speak up with curiosity and openness.

Then, the next step it shows so wonderfully is how you can appreciate what complexities you contributed to the situation. You can acknowledge and apologize for your role once you understand it—not because you are wrong or right, but because acknowledgement and sorries are ways to show other people that you didn’t find a way to help avoid the problem either that time. It’s important to note, as I see some discourse rising up about who apologizes in the conversations during the show, that Thai and Broader Asian cultures in general have a VERY different culture around apologies, humility, and shame so that those feelings and their related gestures are used to build connection and positive feelings, compared to negative shame in Western culture; book rec if your interested in that topic and more—Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions.

The show doesn’t have some moral argument to say about a systemic HR issue at this office. It also doesn’t depict its office as devoid of deeply troubling systemic issues like sexual harassment. Its recommendation to address the issues, though, is not through stricter enforcement of rules or the perfecting of one’s behavior. It’s to communicate when the time is right on with self-respect and compassion.

There is just so much love and care in every element of the Trainee, and I already know it’s gonna be a comfort show to return to again and again in the future because it’s intricately produced tone and its story just release the tangled knots of perfectionism in me without discouraging me from my desire to grow and improve. You can just tell it’s done by people who love their jobs and their work environment. How rare to see a workplace in media be simultaneously so realistic in its depiction and still so positive about the overall experience 🌻

[ofmdsalt]

(Pasting this from a YouTube comment I made cause I’m lazy)

This is a very unpopular opinion, but one of the biggest things that bothered me about season 2 was Ed. People are always like "Oh you just can't handle a messy gay" or something like that when Ed's arc is criticized in season 2, but I dislike it because I feel it SIMPLIFIES him too much. Ed in season 1 just felt so much like a real person, a complex man capable of multiple contradictions equally within him at once, not one or the other battling for dominance in separate opposition. In season 2, it feels he is bad, or good, poison, or positivity, never both. Gone is the man making mistakes born of insecurity and a confused sense of self that hurts the ones he, in spite of this, deeply and openly loves. Now it feels like, narratively, his flaws and missteps must be pushed away completely for love to flourish within him. He seems so much more immature than season 1 would've ever lead me to believe, even in the episode 10 “kraken” sequence. Putting someone in a potato sack and a cat bell and having the ones he literally traumatized be like "eh alright, he's harmless now" is neither realistic nor satisfying. (Actually it was a misstep in my opinion to have him commit absolutely overboard atrocities in the first place. I don’t care how many people try to convince me he was this cartoonishly violent and scary all along, it does not fit the character I saw the entire damn season.) It's not in anyway engaging in the meaningful reconciliation of a very complex adult man, his wrongdoings, and his desires.

hi anon!

you raise a lot of good points in terms of what season 2 ultimately failed to do. it ultimately failed to live up to its own hype and premise.

the whole Kraken arc at the beginning of the season was a lot. and there's a reason Ed was basically killed for it and brought back to life by the power of looooove. which is all fine and good because this is a show that doesn't take realism all that seriously but in that case i don't think it gives the fallout of the Kraken arc any room to breathe.

i mean Lucius said it best when he was like "So we're all just going to continue on" or something along those lines. like he's purposefully asking, as the man who was shoved off the ship and left for dead, that everyone's just going to move on and... they do! the plot just does move on! and we're supposed to treat Lucius shoving Ed off the boat as like something equal to what Ed did to him? i just don't buy it. it doesn't feel satisfying. there's no emotional catharsis for any of these characters because everyone feels hollow.

it feels really messy. like there's no breathing room for this major story arc of abused people being capable of abuse themselves. which could have been explored well in a show like this but ultimately it gets nerfed by being in the hell era of streaming we're in where you only get 8 episodes a pop so good luck trying to do any of that

but you are right in that this season simplifies Ed. he feels aimless and not in a good way. like did we really have to have the Pop Pop scene? was that really worth the screen time? there were just a lot of missed opportunities in this season

[timmie15]

How would you rank the more major AC6 characters based on how much you like them?

hmmmmm i had to think about this a LOT since I love everyone..

All of them are so well written, even the minor characters imo

But when it comes to major characters.. hm

Not even sure honestly

Though, my opinions contain [spoilers] from the game!!

I'm a dirty Iguazu lover. He's such a great character holy hell. He may be a pathetic pos but he's relatable. He's so fueled with spite and hatred that he doesn't realise how powerful he actually is. He's a great pilot, but his inferiority complex and envy is what takes him down. Something that anyone could experience at one point in life. He's realistic, with flaws and all. He's not perfect and that's why I love him the most. A tragic character, but in his final moments he spills his true feelings of envy towards you, and honestly this made him grow on my heart.

Classically, I love Rusty. He's the total opposite of Iguazu. He seems chill and all. [Spoiler] But hell he's a great spy. In the mission when you had to collect data about him and you find out he's a RLF spy that gets in that situation where he has to eliminate his own people.. It broke my heart, but hell it's respectable. He's doing his best, but I'm sure his heart is heavy, doing these sacrifices for the greater good. He's skeptical of you too, which also is why I love him. He doesn't trust you easily, and thinks that you're still a threat because nobody knows what's your next move. One day you may help someone, while the other day you could backstab only for money. But later, in the Liberation ending.. he finally trusts you, since you have the same goals.. and he remains your buddy. When you have the Fires of Raven route, the fight made me cry. It felt heavy to fight him, even in that moment he doesn't want to kill you, even if he must. It could have ended differently. Somehow he still had trust in you, and probably he feels bad that even you, like the corps, are a threat to Rubicon. He's a true guy and sacrifices to save the many, yet his end is tragic.

I adore Ayre too. She's intelligent and supportive, but I hate how mischaracterized she is by the fandom. I consider her a total girlboss, but so kind and supportive. Someone you can call a friend in this miserable world. Of course, at first she seemed a bit cold to me since, as anyone, she barely made contact with you, yet still helps you in anyway she can later on. She knows about Rubicon, but her flaw is that she's naive. I like that about her. In the Fires of Raven, when you both fight, she still has that hope that you'll change your mind about your choice and the idea to walk together. The feels man..

Walter is also such a great character, though cold and hides a lot of stuff from you, still cares about you, yet hides it. This caring shows a lot when you finally fight him in the Liberation ending, even if brainwashed, he realises that your actions are also driven by your own friend's wishes.. He also hides his own feelings towards others too, like when you accept to kill Michigan. Michigan may be in good terms with him, but doesn't stop you either way, yet has this hidden grief in his words that hides it with "this is just a job". He tries to be cold, but this demeanor slightly cracks in certain situations.

A honorable mention is Snail. I love to HATE him. Like, he's such a corporate scum of a human being that you love to hate him from that. Egoistic bastard that sacrifices for HIS own benefit. It's a typical villain that's just pure evil that's backstabbing his own people. I love it, I love this character type. He doesn't have any good things other than his strategy methods, but he's dirty and uses others. Yet, people like this exists in real life too.

I could yap about all of the characters all day, since I love ALL of them. They are so unique in their own ways and the cherry on top is that they are so realistic personality-wise. I played AC6 for big robots and stayed for these peak characters!

[threecheersforinking]

Review: Boys Over Flowers

*this review will contain spoilers!*

Hi everyone! This is going to be an extremely long, unsolicited recap of all my thoughts about Boys Over Flowers. I don't know a single person in my real life who has watched this, so I'm using this blog as my space to infodump because this show has become my new hyperfixation. If anyone at all ends up reading this, I really appreciate it! But this is mostly entirely for myself lol.

As someone who is pretty deep into the shoujo anime world and just recently getting into kdramas, I have heard of this show in passing many times. Kkotboda Namja is referenced in Korean media a lot and Hana Yori Dango is lauded as a classic shoujo in the manga sphere, so I figured it might be good to watch the show just to be able to get all the references and consume a piece of shoujo history. Originally, I thought it would be a mindless watch that I might have to force myself to finish; I started off concerned about getting through 25 episodes, but in the end, I ended up wishing there were more lol.

I'm gonna be honest, when I first started watching it, I was like uhhh this is... kinda bad. especially in the beginning. But I became endeared to the quirks I originally criticized. The slow motion dramatic replay shots, the shaky camera, the questionable acting skills all are an essential part of the show itself.

In general, the story was more compelling than I was expecting. But the characters were undoubtedly the best part of the show for me. I always find myself getting attached to media where characters are the focus, and I believe that's why I enjoyed this so much. So I am going to go into each character a bit more in depth.

Thoughts on Jandi

As far as shoujo protagonists go, Jandi is pretty quintessential and standard. She is poor, she is hardworking, she is kind. We've all seen this before. But I always liked her, and she grew on me even more as the series went on. She has the ever-present shoujo 'hard working poor girl' trait, but the show took that to a more serious level than I was expecting. The arc where she had to essentially raise her little bother by herself forced her to mature so quickly, which felt very realistic to me.

I also really loved how much of a 'girl's girl' she was; as far as earlier episodes go, the episode that focused on Minji was one of my favorites. I loved how she called out those popular girls on their hypocrisy for criticizing Minji's plastic surgery when they've all had surgery themselves. She also was such a good friend to both Minji and Gaeul and a very strong, assertive person.

As far as her indecisiveness goes, that is kind of a requirement for being a shoujo protagonist in a love triangle, but it did still get on my nerves even though I was fully anticipating it.

Thoughts on F4 (ranked in order of how much I liked them)

Yijung

Yijung was my favorite F4 boy by far. I just thought he had the most interesting and complex backstory. His struggle with his parents was very humanizing and the way he handled it so poorly felt like a realistic response to that kind of trauma. Ultimately, he made bad choices, but in an understanding and forgivable way that made him complex, not unlikeable (unlike someone else... but more on that later).

Jihoo

Jihoo was another character I grew to be very fond of. I was interested in his backstory a lot too, and although we knew from the beginning that he experienced a tragic loss as a child, learning that he carried the guilt of thinking he killed his family for 15 years really gave extra context to his stoicness and sadness. His reunion arc with his grandfather brought me to tears several times, and it really gave his character a lot more depth. My biggest issue with Jihoo is that I felt like he was almost too perfect sometimes; it's why I liked the grandfather reunion arc so much, I thought it gave him some much needed flaws.

Junpyo

Speaking of flaws, look who it is! Obviously, I have a lot of conflicted feelings on Junpyo. As someone who is actually very open minded about redemption arcs, I didn't have too much of an issue with him being a bully at the beginning, but his, truthfully, abusive tendencies were such a turn off and felt completely unnecessary. Unlike Yijung, Junpyo's trauma/bad choices made him extremely unlikable and nearly unforgivable. The constant physical violence against completely innocent people and his unwillingness to listen to Jandi explain herself were hard to watch, knowing that he's one of the romantic leads that we're supposed to be rooting for. I also felt like until the final arc, any character development he had gotten just kept undoing itself every time he found a new thing to get angry about. Despite all this, I enjoyed what his character became towards the end of the story. I just wish it wasn't such a painful and unnecessary journey for him to finally become that way.

Woobin

Woobin was kind of a disappointing character in general; I can only assume that he was a bigger character in the manga and they just didn't have time to really develop him in the show, because that's pretty much the only valid explanation for his lack of substance. At the beginning of the show, Yijung and Woobin got less screentime than Junpyo/Jihoo did, but as Yijung started to get more development, Woobin became even more noticeably lacking. They threw in that one scene where he was stressing over being the son of a mafia boss or something (which felt completely out of left field by the way) but because it was the only scene where he was given any backstory it might as well not have existed at all. Overall, he was nice to Jandi and a good friend and I enjoyed him in all the F4 group scenes, I just wish he was a bit more of a fully developed character.

Other Characters

Before I get into the friend characters, I wanted to say that something I really loved about this show was how genuinely kind all the older female characters were to Jandi. For some reason I was expecting most of them to secretly be evil or mean but they were all extremely kindhearted and helpful people, which just made the viewing experience better. Even Minji, who was literally the only one who actually did turn out mean, was able to reconcile with Jandi and end their friendship on a neutral/positive note.

Gaeul

I loved Gaeul from the start, I thought she was so adorable and the perfect best friend character for a shoujo. I honestly wasn't even expecting her to be a fully fleshed-out secondary character in the show, I thought she would just be Jandi's coworker who she gossiped with on occasion. But the fact that she became such a major player in the story made me very happy. I also really loved her with Yijung and was practically screaming at the screen for them to get together, but more on that later.

Jaekyung

Jaekyung was interesting. She was a little ditzy and out of touch, but extremely kindhearted despite her wealthy background. I think her introduction into the show, which subsequently threw a curveball into the relationship of Jandi x Junpyo, came at a good time. I found it refreshing that she was always nice and friendly to Jandi, but also didn't want to give up on Junpyo just because Jandi liked him. My biggest issue with Jaekyung was that her concession at the end of the wedding felt a little out of left field, considering how adamant she had been previously about her pursuit of Junpyo. But based on the nature of her personality, I can see that being believable. I also wish she made another appearance after the wedding arc was over, but we didn't see her again after that :(

Junhee

Junhee was yet another character that I expected to be kind of bitchy/mean but who turned out to be extremely cool and nice. The literal only thing that bothered me about her was that I couldn't fathom how she and Junpyo were supposedly raised in the same home but turned out so different, lol. I guess it's a testament to how girls vs. boys were treated in their patriarchal household, but still jarring.

The Romance

I want to start off by saying that I'm someone who is ok with love triangles. I think there's a lot of people who are tired of them and don't like them, but I am okay with it so long as it's interesting.

That being said, when it comes to love triangles I think a lot of people conflate the character they like better with the character the protagonist very clearly wants more. To me (and to most people I'd assume) Jihoo was just overwhelmingly the better choice. I'd go as far as to say he's the objectively better choice. He was always a million times more kind and thoughtful than Junpyo and truly loved Jandi for almost the entire show. However, I could never fully see him being endgame because Jandi was simply more focused on Junpyo and had more history with him.

I know this is a hot take, but I actually really enjoy the 'bickering couple' trope. I think a little back and forth roasting of each other is fun and entertaining! But bickering is not the same thing as genuine cruelty and one sided bullying. Which is pretty much what was happening at the beginning of the story. However, by the time Junpyo finally mellowed out, I really grew to love his dynamic with Jandi. The teasing was just that; teasing, and not bullying anymore. I just wish there was about 200% more of that dynamic and 100% less of whatever the hell they were doing in the first 2/3rds of the show.

As for couples outside of the main trio, I was the BIGGEST Gaeul/Yijung shipper from the minute they first interacted. I cared way more about them than the main love triangle and was on the edge of my seat whenever they showed up. My biggest criticism of them though is that it took WAY too long. And believe me, I can handle a slow burn, but at a certain point it felt so dragged out that I almost stopped caring (it wasn't confirmed canon until the literal last 10 minutes of the whole show lol). Of course, I was still pleased, but man! Give me a break.

The Show In General

I think it became obvious to me early on that this is like, the mother of all shoujos. Most of the common shoujo tropes I mentioned in this review probably either originated or were popularized by both this show and the original manga. It really set a standard and became iconic, despite its many flaws.

(Side note, I hope I'm not in the wrong for still calling this kdrama a shoujo, I think it being based on a shoujo manga makes it a fair enough label but correct me if I'm wrong)

I also just started reading the manga and wow, they uh... toned some stuff down for the show didn't they? I do like it though, it's different. But I can definitely see why some changes were made from the manga to the show. So far out of all the characters, Jihoo and Junpyo's manga versions feel the most different from their kdrama equivalents, which is a bit surprising as they are the main characters. But we'll have to see if that changes as I get further in.

I also am aware of the several other adaptations of Hana Yori Dango such as the Japanese drama and Meteor Garden (although I am put off by the fact that it's 50+ episodes?? are they an hour long too? if so... I'm not sure about that one) but I knew Boys Over Flowers/Kkotboda Namja was the one I wanted to start with due to its popularity, and I think that was a good choice.

This is a 15 year old show but I know there is still somewhat of an active fanbase for it on here so if you're a hardcore Hana Yori Dango stan please go easy on me! These are just my opinions so take them with a grain of salt.

Anyway, if anyone ended up reading this to the end thank you for reading. I'm going to be posting more kdrama reviews on this blog that I promise will be way shorter. Bye!

-threecheersforinking

[chainofclovers]

Keeley made out with a woman on TV last night and the show tag is full of some of the most mean-spirited bad faith intra-fandom reactions to reactions and it’s so fucking disappointing to me.

Multiple things can be true at the same time?!?!

For the people who are annoyed that the “Keeley’s been bi this whole time” crowd is sad that people are taking the events of 3x5 as the only confirmation of her queerness…consider where that sadness might be coming from. Of course seeing Keeley making out with a woman is something to celebrate! Of course it’s a relief to see Keeley not only talk about attraction to women but actually pursue said attraction before our very eyes! But to say any of the previous textual references to her queerness weren’t good enough is to perpetuate the very same bi erasure that makes it so challenging for many queer people—of many orientations, and especially bi/pan orientations—to be taken seriously. It’s an understandable sadness, being reminded over and over that many fans of a TV show reflect a lot of the “real life” dynamics that make people feel less-than-queer when they’re single, or if they haven’t had same-gender experiences, or if they’re currently dating someone who isn’t same-gender.

For the people who are annoyed that the “Keeley is finally a confirmed queer character with a queer storyline” crowd are erasing the jokes and textual and subtextual queer references that came before…consider where that relief might be coming from. Of course the jokes and references were real and realistic! Of course they were valid parts of Keeley’s story, and would be valid even if she never kissed a woman onscreen! But queer people have been burned so many times by “representation” that never pans out, or feels totally flat and inauthentic, or is performed by people who are suddenly wooden actors who lack chemistry with their same-gender counterpart. It’s an understandable relief to see Keeley unequivocally experiencing real-time attraction to a woman who is available for her to explore that with.

You’re all correct. It’s true that Keeley’s bisexuality is a part of her one hundred percent of the time, including moments when she is literally in the middle of having sex with Roy, and she will always be the first character on Ted Lasso to express overt queer attraction. It’s also true that in a TV landscape in which queer stories are under-delivered and frequently disappoint queer audiences, the events of 3x5 are powerful and significant and add a very important new level to Keeley’s characterization.

I am so grossed out and sad that instead of celebrating a queer character’s decision to pursue a queer hookup (that is ethically complex! and takes place at an emotionally tangled time in her life! and is hot! and fun! and might end badly! and reflects real life in its messiness and hungriness!) for the many, many reasons fans might want to celebrate it, this storyline has become an opportunity for fans to ridicule each other about being fans in the “wrong” way, doing queerness in the “wrong” way, etc. For me personally, I’ve felt like Keeley was canonically bi this entire time and it did my heart good to see her pursue a hookup with another woman. Not everyone will feel the same way about it, and that’s okay.

[bonew3s]

a short ink sans character essay—

a short ink sans character essay (? can i even call it that i barely scratched the surface)

( Ink is made by @comyet, here is the faq i will be referencing often; https://comyet.tumblr.com/post/132998265968/i-n-k-t-a-l-e — and here is this whole thing crossposted on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49854430 )

His soulessness—

hes soulless yes and he uses his vials to feel, comyet had mentioned he pretended to have a soul— not to have feelings. He feels things even if he needs his vials to do so they're still his emotions. Ink vomits when he feels too much, that doesnt sound very emotionless does it? Ink technically isn't emotionless. He cant understand emotions, yes, but he feels them. He cant go off his vials without kind of, dying/ going comatose. Comyet said he became a lifeless husk without them— not emotionless.

Ink is a bit of a jerk, that will obviously happen if someone doesnt have a good grasp on feelings or social ques— yes im bringing up social ques now.

Social ques, are usually hand in hand with emotions, they're connected. Okay, expanding on this— lets say, someone is sad the thing someone would do is comfort them, judge the situation yes? but its so much more complicated than that, you have to read ques wether they want to talk about it, you cant ask " do you want to talk about it?" because they might not want you to point it out— or maybe they want you to point it out and end up getting mad when you dont, youre trapped all because you cant read what that person wants with their body langauge becaus people are so unpredictable.

I got a little carried away there but you get the point yeah?

I mean, ink's gonna be a jerk, purposefully or not either way cause he doesnt have a good grasp on emotions thats how his character is, him being soulless or insensitive doesnt make him an evil character, hes complex thats how people in real life are.

I just hate when people automatically think soulless= evil, cause thats not true, maybe in canon undertale it is— but undertale aus arent canon thats why that doesnt apply, also ink is different from flowey because of his vials, flowey is alive because of determination that landed on his dust and the flowers near it, there wasnt any dt in inks case (that we know of) — and flowey pretends to have feelings, ink doesnt.

In inks faq, comyet mentions ink being emotional more than once, when mentioning his rainbow freckles he has when hes positivly emotional, and vomiting ink when hes emotionly shaken.

point being—Ink isnt emotionless he feels too much, hes not evil hes not exactly well behaved but he isnt downright evil. Everyone is morally grey, real life and fiction thats what makes it realistic and intresting, everyone has different perspectivs, opinons etc and that makes people morally grey.

"He is an insecure, self-centered character with abandonment issues who has a hard time trusting his emotions." again the word emotions pop up, and not just emotions his emotions. Those are inks flaws, and that gives perspective on his worldview, it makes sense, that he views other aus as just characters, he sees so many of them its better to disconnect himself right? The thing with abandonment issues is that it causes a feeling that everyone will leave you so its better you leave them— or disconnect youself from them, before they leave you.

Okay, lets talk about his past now, he was stuck in an abandoned au, he hated it so much and it was so blank that he didnt see any other way out than killing himself. He ripped his soul apart. He felt such great despair and hopelessness that he took his very being in tore into it, dusting instantly— and smiled as he dusted. It was worded as he "broke free", in a sense he did, but Ink didnt know he would be granted another chance, i dont think thats what it meant by broke free, because right after that it says he was given another chance. Ink didn't know what would happen after he died, in his mind death was better than being alone, being forgotten. I have a feeling that Ink not remembering his past, isnt just his regular spotty memory, i have a feeling it was a repressed memory— because some of it still carries over to him, like his fear of blank spaces, and being forgotten. Its somewhat similar to anniversary reactions, where someone doesnt even have to remember it, their subconcoius and body remember enough for feelings to peak through. Its not exactly aniversary reactions for Ink because there was no time in his au— point is his feeling still carry over even if he doesnt remember his actions. Ink is traumatized. Its so clear in his personality, quirks — everything. I hate when people completly brush over his past even if he doesnt remember it because in real life people block out traumatic events too!!! it still happend!!

his abandonment issues, insecurities, fears and overall flaws reflect that.

Ink isnt evil, comyet literally said he was a chaotic neutral.

basically im sick of people overlooking Ink— esp when people overlook is faq and past.

(i might add more to this later/someday idk cuz it is a little on the short side [alot on the short side] and i only coverd a quarter of what i wanted.)

update (9/13/23); okay, when i wrote this my thoughts were kinda everywhere despite how much i tried to organize this, its messy and i did not cover alot.

here i am coming to drop more info onto this, ok.

basically on ao3, someone had mentioned that the better wording for inks memory regarding the negatives of his past can be described better with dissociative amnesia, which supports my claim about ink being traumatized. (I assume that it would be nearly impossible for an emotionless person to have trauma, once again proving he does have emotions) But of course, if someone wants to write/portray ink as an evil character i am not the boss of you, i just hate when people think ink being an emotionless evil guy is canon when its not, he is traumatized. Trauma and abandonment issues can make people seem rude, act rude and we see that in inks character, and personally i think thats what makes him awesome. Ink is relatable and realistic, trauma does not carve a perfect angel of a person, trauma is ugly and rough, though i am not saying that every person with trauma is going to be rude of course, but no one is perfect.

[givepie]

Hm! I feel a rant coming on! Everyone duck!

MY THOUGHTS ON THE HYPERIA STORY AND ITS THEMING. ALSO A GENERAL RANT ON COASTER THEMING.

Let start with a general question: what counts as theming?

To me, theming is the set pieces, pre-show, and anything laid out in a rides area to help develop a story. Most of the time this helps world-building more than anything. To me, even music can be a piece of theming because it helps to set a tone. For example, when riding Smiler, the laughter sounds almost manic and it makes you realise straight away that something is off, before you even step foot into X-sector.

Anything that DOESN'T fall into this classification such as website and app pages, falls into "storytelling". In a theme park, it is almost impossible to tell the entire story from one repeated instance inside of said story. To tell a complicated story like that of the Smiler, it would take so much exposition, which is very much not the point and would take away from the experience as a whole.

So storytelling isn't a bad thing, it's how they handle it.

To me, there are three behemoths of theme park theming and storytelling worldwide. That I know of.

Baron 1898, X-Sector post-Smiler, And Forbidden Valley post-Reborn.

Baron 1898 is pretty easy to grasp while you're there, even as a non-speaker of the language. You're going on a mine tour and 3 ghost ladies are PISSED that you're going down there. The actual theming is downright impressive ans I would love to see it in real life. You can then look up the story to find out who the ghosts are, who the Baron is, and how the mine came to be. Really good treat for people who decide to look.

Forbidden Valley has a story that has remained relatively consistent throughout the years. It has wondering actors that establish the world in a realistic yet entertaining way rather quickly. There are an official operation; there are people opposing the operation so there is something sneaky going on; there is a tour group taking advantage of the centrepiece so the Alien is a tourist attraction in this universe, too. Just little things that help put together a bigger picture.

Of course this starts coming apart a little bit when the audio starts explicitly telling you what is happening, but it still holds. You see someone's office, a crashed helicopter, weapons for warding off the alien. All things to help build up this universe you are now ankle-deep in. And then there's the 3 pages on the Internet that break down the story for you, which can also be seen in the shop.

Finally, of course, there's X-sector. It doesn't usually have roaming actors, and the theme suits better that way. Without the roaming actors, you see that the Ministry are secretive. Trying to stay out of the limelight, except for the skeleton crew they send out to keep the coaster safe and operational. It shows a tone.

However, people casually wondering what this is about can never get an easy answer. Cause the answer is spread out across what remains of a decade-old marketing campaign. Fun for people who want a deep dive, not so fun for people who are just lightly curious. The website barely tells you anything either.

But, on a positive light, the story is so complex it keeps a fandom. Not many coasters have that. It's an insane accomplishment.

And I have a theory as to why. Now, stay with me here I think I'm about to upset some people:

It has aspects of social and political commentary. "Not everything is political" ALL GOOD ART IS A COMMENTARY ON THE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WERE RAISED IN SIT YOUR ARSE BACK DOWN.

RIGHT, so, Smiler is a story about the government dedicating an organisation to keeping people artificially content to keep people compliant. What are Brits notorious for doing, in comparison to the French?

Doing fuck all. This wasn't always the case. We would riot, we would strike. Now we strike but while the other half of the country complains and just tells the strikers to sit back down and take the mistreatment. We are miserable, we complain, and we go about our day. And that's the joke. Its funny. So why bother changing it?

And if we can't be bothered changing something cause it's funny, what happens if they make everything purposefully funny? They'd never have to deal with the strikes in the first place.

The government functions off of our social compliance, which can come from making jokes at our own expense. We even see it now with our drowned-rat-faced PM as he continues to make a fool out of himself so he's funny. If he's funny, we want to see him more. That's a valid strategy nowadays.

Smiler. Is about how Keep Calm And Carry On is a stand against progress.

Smiler. Is a political and social commentary on the people of Britain. You're welcome.

Anyway!

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE NEW WORLD-STAGE COASTER IN STAINES?

The problem is: it doesn't. Instead of taking inspiration from its sister park, Alton, Thorpe decided to take inspiration from Icon and its shoebox station.

Where is Fearless Valley taking place? When is Fearless Valley taking place? What point in the story are we looking at here? The issue [only issue, really] with Hyperia, is it entirely relies on storytelling and a few bits and bobs in the queue.

Remember the shortcoming in Nemesis? Where you can get a good grasp of the story without it being blasted in your ear? Yeah here they straight up tell you the story, too. The theming has BECOME the storytelling.

Next question: what is Hyperia, the coaster, supposed to be? Yes, we know the story is that a goddess called hyperia overcame her fear of the sea by building wings and escaping the island she was trapped on [for some unspecified reason. Is hyperia evil?], but what IS the coaster supposed to be?

Smiler is the Marmaliser, the machine that transforms you into a smiling advocate. Nemesis is the tentacles of the monster overtaking the metal that pins it down. Baron is the track the drill takes to get into the mine.

What is Hyperia? Are we following Her as she soars, were we stuck with Her; the Icarus to her Daedalus? Are we following in her footsteps as part of a ceremony Her followers reenact for her blessing? Are we supposed to be Her? It's never really specified.

The station is chocked full of a last-ditch attempt of theming, which in comparison with the whole lotta nothing you get from the queueline? It feels cramped. It feels cheap. It barely feels like it belongs on a stage alongside Taron, Velocicoaster and Voltron Nevera. If they didn't have the budget to do the storytelling and the theme, they should've gone for theme.

Any story with no theme feels cheap and artificial. Any theme with no story still stands out and has breathtaking scenes. If they focused more on the white-gold colour palate and maybe had a few statues around and about they could pass it as some sort of pantheon, like climbing Olympus.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm disappointed in all aspects of the Hyperia theming. It feels lazy, tacky and underwhelming when you consider Swarm is a 5 minute walk away. I'm hoping it improves at some point.

I geniunely think the stone head of Collosus is much better than anything in Fearless Valley and its inconsistencies. The Black and gold buildings feel very sleek and out of place for a story ultimately about a goddess who forged. She forged her own wings. She forged her own bravery. Shouldnt the building look a little home made? Where are the bolts? The soldering? I want to see her anvil and hammer pride-of-place, not shoved in the corner of the station.

Cmon thorpe. Get your arse in gear.

[topazadine]

Good Motivations for Continuing to Write

I think it's so important that we be realistic about what we are aiming to achieve when we write. This motivation is what makes it possible to continue when things get hard and we're feeling stuck, and it needs to be something that deeply, instinctively drives you or it won't stick.

But I need to put a huge, important red flag warning here.

Fame and fortune cannot be your primary motivator.

Yes, it's possible to make six figures a year with writing, even if you self-publish.

You really shouldn't listen to someone who says this never happens and that all writers are broke pathetic losers. Rather than being "brutally honest," it's more likely that said advice-giver has not been able to achieve any success and is bitter about their lack of sales, so they project and insist no one can succeed. Crab in bucket mentality.

However, making a steady income from creative writing takes a certain kind of person.

Rich authors have skills that are completely outside of writing. This includes marketing and promotion, networking, and consumer research; ie, a lot of business skills.

Yes, even tradpub authors need to do a lot of their own marketing; getting with a publishing house isn't an excuse to coast. From speaking to tradpub authors, I have learned that marketing teams don't do anywhere near as much as you think they do to help you.

It is of course possible to learn all of these skills. There are tons of excellent free resources out there, as well as books and manuals by successful writers. You can also take courses at your local community college in marketing or business. This is both way more affordable than a four-year university, and they are often more accommodating. Plus, you're supporting your community with your tuition!

But you have to have the desire to learn that, which takes a lot of work. You have to be the special kind of author who enjoys both the business side and the writing side.

In some cases, you have to be willing to shell out a ton of money to contract ghostwriters. (Which I think is lazy tbh.) Quantity is the name of the game in writing, so you have to keep pushing yourself to produce more. Most of us do not have ghostwriting money. And you'd still need all the other skills or you're just throwing money away.

So, if you are not willing to do some or all of these ...

Develop and pay a marketing team

Teach yourself those skills

Take business classes

Network with everyone

Get a degree in publishing

... then yes, you are likely not going to make a lot of money from your writing. You need to decide if you are okay with that.

Personally, I look at it this way: it's wonderful if I do make a ton of money from my writing or get famous or whatever. Of course I'd never turn down cash.

BUT if those things did not happen, and I was a nobody forever, I'd still be happy with my work, because I am proud of it and enjoyed the process. I am motivated by a few different things, which I will explain after I share a list of motivators.

Now that we understand that, here are some of the most positive reasons to motivate you to keep going when you feel trapped by the narrative.

Hold them close and don't let them go!

Improving your skills

Building community

Meeting like-minded people

Expressing your innermost thoughts

Satisfying the human urge to create

Learning and growing as a person

Trying out new things (for the research!)

Working through your own problems

Escaping from the real world for a while

Examining real-world issues through art

Looking at yourself and others in a new way

Understanding complex problems

Teaching others what you've learned

Creating imaginary friends

Making others happy

Many writers are motivated by multiple of these, or even all of them to different degrees. Sometimes, it's not clear what your primary motivator, and that's okay; as long as something is pushing you to keep going, it's not always necessary to psychoanalyze it.

For me, I'm motivated primarily by these factors:

Improving my skills

Satisfying my urge to create

Examining real-world issues through art

Working through my own problems

Applying my education by teaching others

Making others happy

Honestly, even one person enjoying my work makes it worthwhile. I was especially proud that my mom liked my book because she's my favorite person, and getting her approval is very important to me.

Knowing that I gave someone a few hours of relief from their problems is incredibly gratifying. I have spent a large portion of my life escaping into other worlds through books; they've gotten me through difficult times and given me comfort. Being able to pay it forward by doing that for someone else makes me feel like I've made the world a better place, if only in the most miniscule way.

It's nice to get royalties, and one day, I hope to break even on the money I've spent on self-publishing (yes, you do have to invest funds in self-pub if you want to do it right). But ultimately, selling just one or two books is great, as long as the consumer enjoyed it and felt they got their money's worth.

Also, as I've mentioned in previous posts, writing has helped to break me out of my shell because I'm one of those writers who craves verisimilitude. Wrong details can really break immersion, and I don't want that.

In a fantasy world, I get to bullshit a lot, but any time there is anything analogous to reality, I need it to pass the sniff test. That has led me to take up new hobbies and research things I'd never cared about otherwise. Like, did you know that there are 128 grasshopper species in Mongolia?! Holy shit! There are over 10,000 different grasshopper species worldwide! That's insane!

Anyway, maybe you don't really know why you write, just that you do.

These questions might help you find your motivator.

What kinds of reactions give you the most pleasure? Someone liking the plot, or the characters, or the worldbuilding? What are the best compliments you've received about your work? If you died and people were talking about your writing, what would you want them to say? When you're really struggling with writer's block, what gets you out of it? What is your favorite part of writing? Is it the research, the wordplay, the character building? Would you be okay if no one ever read your writing? Why or why not? What's your worst-case scenario for writing (other than never selling anything)? Is it someone saying that your writing is unrealistic, or that it's melodramatic, or that the characters feel undeveloped and flat? Why did you begin writing in the first place? Was it to express yourself, share stories for other people, work through personal issues, get attention? What would be the greatest award you could achieve for your writing? Don't just think about literary awards but anything. What if your book won the Nobel Peace Prize? Or got you an honorary degree from a university you like? Or recognition from an organization you admire, like NASA? If you think about it carefully, that can give you an understanding of what you really care about deep down. If you were interviewed about your work, what would you want the interviewer to ask?

It's so important to have something to drive you, and I hope you find it.

If you enjoyed this, consider picking up a copy of my debut book, 9 Years Yearning.

9 Years Yearning is a gay coming-of-age story set in a realistic fantasy world with poetry magic, featuring fistfights, horses, and a battle scene at the end!

It'd be the greatest honor to me if you were able to pass a few happy hours reading about dumb oblivious gay men.