#bc it didn’t happen

[sparkles-and-trash]

Can’t wait for everyone to stop posting sad todofam shit so I can go back to ignoring canon in peace

[tangents-within-tangents]

Came up in this discussion of analysis/media literacy the other day, so thought I'd expand on this idea a bit since this has been on my mind/in my drafts for awhile.

Characters aren't people.

They don't actually make choices, the writers do. Good writers try to make those choices make sense for the character as a real person, but they aren't. Good writers also strive to make it appear as though they have a life outside of the story, but they don’t actually. When the "character's write themselves" or "surprise us" or derail our planned plot with choices we "didn't expect," that is the mark of good character development and writing practice. It doesn't mean we've like actually been possessed by a living entity or something lol. Everything characters do and say is crafted by a writer, and the writer must consider how the depiction will come across.

Fanon/headcanon often extrapolates on characters as if they are real people. Speculating and considering logical conclusions and explanations beyond what is presented in the text. Which is fine if it's for yourself/fun headcanons or whatever, but it makes discussion and critique counter productive when we can’t separate these things. Sometimes it becomes almost parasocial, like you can't critique a character without a bunch of caveats and provisional language because people will legit take it as an insult and get offended on behalf of their precious blorbo. The idea you've built of them in your head isn't relevant to my analysis, okay? There are so many times I feel the need to say "I don't dislike the character, I'm just critiquing the writing and how it portrayed them!" But that's silly. It's the same thing! The character does not exist outside of the writing, they are that portrayal.

The reverse too, when people say stuff like “the bad writing makes them seem like this” and sometimes that is definitely true, if the writing is going against basic human logic or is inconsistent with what has already been established as in-character. But other than that, if the writing portrays a character a certain way, then that just IS the character! They aren't a historical figure, this isn't a based-on-a-true-story or a retelling that has inaccuracies; the writer made them, they are the writing, that’s just them. You can still have opinions about that writing choice, you can debate if it was a good choice for the story or not. And maybe you can come up with reasons for why the character acted a certain way, but if that is never voiced or shown in the text itself then its irrelevant to discussion of the writing.

If it's an adaptation, or a new writing team or something and there is legitimate character assassination going on, yes criticize that. But otherwise, saying stuff like "they just don't understand the character as well as I do" about the person who literally created that character in their brain is ridiculous! Everything you know about that character is through what that creator put on a page/screen to show you!

Similar thing I see sometimes is when people mention deleted scenes or first drafts as if it's this 'Snyder Cut' situation giving new insight into the ‘full’ story. But that's not how it works! Studio interference and limitations are a thing, sure, but for the most part the final cut is the ‘director's cut’. Some things are cut for time but there is still an active decision being made for what to prioritize that time with. And the rest of the time things get scrapped in the first draft not because there's no room but because they did not work.

Han Solo isn’t secretly actually a womanizer because they deleted a scene of him with a stripper, he’s not a womanizer BECAUSE they deleted it. You see what I mean? I see people talk about the ‘original drafts’ of Dracula as if it's some long lost sacred text with the ‘true’ story/characterizations/lore, but an earlier draft is not the original. Comparing could give us insight to changes Stoker made, and maybe we can guess why he chose those things, but a manuscript found in a barn in Pennsylvania after he died is not the secret key to his true intentions. He showed us his true intentions, in the book he wrote and published for the world to see. Anything he wanted us to interpret is IN that book!

Let me just tell you, as a writer, that first drafts are there for you to make mistakes and throw ideas around. Revision is a crucial and active part of the writing process. Sometimes every word that is included or changed or cut is intentional. There's a reason Terry Pratchett had his unfinished works crushed by a steamroller after he died.

Fiction isn't just "not real," it's craft. Writing is a process, and storytellers are making choices at every step. And the beauty of analysis is acknowledging those decisions and the work that was put in to make a story successful and meaningful.

[bigmack2go]

Lsoh diary.

Today was supposed to he our first open rehearsal but the audience is taking our stage💀🤙🏼

Yup. Thats right. That was supposed to be the stage right there. BITCH U GOT THE WRONG TREBUNE

[pentapoxie]

(They are forcibly removed from the pool party)

[labradorite-princess]

🥺🥺🥺

[doctorsiren]

Thinking about how (a humanoid) Bill would see Ford be older after those 30 years (because that’s how people work), and so to try and appeal to him again, he makes himself look older too (I mean, he’s WAYYYY older than Ford actually, but I just mean visually)

But then after he’s killed and sent to the Theraprism, he goes back to his original twink look, and I say this because I already did a drawing of my humanoid Bill in prison and I like how that design worked with his pathetic traumatized orange jumpsuit look more than I think I would like it with an older looking version 😁 plus uhh I don’t wanna deem that drawing “not canon” to my brain so yeah

[anothersuperstition]

will you welcome your extinction in the morning rays?

[nanihirunkits]

WE ARE | EP16

[thehargreevesfam]

is it just me but it feels like five got dumbed down and nerfed the most in terms of his powers? Five didn’t see Ben steal the marigold, he didn’t figure out the CIA was part of the keepers but Luther did? What? No hate to Luther at all, I love that oaf but it doesn’t feel like FIVE!

Not to mention he was the ONLY one whose powers weren’t working or he couldn’t use to his advantage? Like what? Five? FIVE??? He should’ve figured out the teleporting thing. He should’ve figured out the subway. One opportunity I think the writers didn’t use is as the seasons progress five gains a deeper understanding of time travel and he’s able to figure it out more and more, so it comes full circle from s1 when he got stuck in the apocalypse because he didn’t understand time travel, but they don’t do that!! Like is this the same five who figured out what the sigil was in the s3 finale?

One reason I loved five was his intelligence but it doesn’t feel like it in s4

[stillwaterinc]

i have nowhere to put my batman thoughts so they’re going here

jason comes back as the red hood, planning to take out his little replacement or at least hurt him bad enough that he drops the suit and lets robin die but suddenly, a month before his plan is to start, robin disappears. and so does the joker.

what? jason looks, he scours security cameras and internet forums, even weasels his was into the gcpd’s files and…

nothing. there’s nothing.

no bodies reported, joker’s not in arkham or black gate or any other prison, he hasn’t finally been given the death penalty he just. disappeared.

he can’t find anything on robin either, or tim drake, for months until he stumbles upon a nearly perfect patient file in some hospital records.

nearly. it’d be perfect to anyone else but jason, even years later, can recognize bruce and barbara’s finger prints all over it. it’s a cover. a cover for what though? he reads through the file, tim drake’s file, presumably and finds… well.

someone clearly tortured the kid, and with the meds he was being prescribed it got to him. it would’ve gotten to anyone.

jason shudders reading the initial injury report. electric burns, lots of them, are what catches his eye the most but there’s all kinds of stuff. what catches his eye the most though is the lacerations that had to be stitched either side of the kid’s mouth. shit.

he doesn’t get the full picture, not yet, but pieces are starting to come together. the joker has been missing for a while, just a little longer than jason’s replacement has been in the hospital for some violent injuries.

the joker is missing.

tim drake is in the hospital.

something happened, clearly. the joker did something to tim, something awful, something bad enough that the joker disappeared and the kid’s been in the hospital for weeks.

bruce didn’t make it in time, only this time robin wasn’t dead, he’d been broken.

someone had gotten to robin, to tim drake, before jason could, had gotten to him so badly that even after he was released he wasn’t robin anymore.

not because he didn’t want to be, a few bugs here and there in the manor let him know that much, but because bruce wouldn’t let him.

it comes out, in one of these arguments, that time killed the joker. shot him dead. and jason almost wants to congratulate the kid for it, or wants to strangle bruce and ask him how the hell he let robin, who’s just a kid, tim, who’s just a fucking kid, get anywhere near a position where he had the means and desire to fatally shoot the joker.

because that’s it, isn’t it? the reason jason’s like this, doing this, is because of the joker. jason knows how to use guns because of the joker. he’ll never go to college like a normal kid because of the joker. and now tim.

tim wants to be robin, asks for it, begs bruce to let him back out in the suit and jason nearly finds himself agreeing with bruce. the joker’s gone sure but what if someone else tries the same thing? what if someone tries worse? being in the suit’s already gotten tim this much pain, why risk more?

it hits jason, one night, that he stopped being angry at tim a while ago. a long while. he can’t be angry at bruce either, because the joker is dead. there’s no one to enact vengeance for his death on anymore.

anyways most of my posts are about incest please don’t follow me for batman content

[idontmindifuforgetme]

It really is so true that you never know what someone’s going through behind closed doors. I’ve made being gentle and kind my default bc I’ve had super put together friends disclose the most harrowing time of their lives to me and it’s like oh?? You were going through that???? I would’ve never guessed

[morganbritton132]

Oh geez this might be a double ask because my phone glitched out when I tried to send previously BUT just wanted to say that I love ur Steve has older siblings au

I also need to say that I shamelessly combined that au with ur post about Tommy knowing Steve the best. Just picturing Steve’s sibs zoning out when his mom lists what he can’t eat because they assume she’s just being difficult. Flash forward a few years and they accidentally poison Steve with like peanut butter cookies and are realllly lucky that Tommy was staying over that weekend and knows he’s allergic.

anyways thx for all ur writing!

I only got this ask once so we’re good! The Steve Has Older Siblings AU has kinda been on hold for a bit because Dustin is either the easiest or the hardest character to write and right now, he’s being difficult for me.

BUT! I love this.

I’m going to change it around a bit because I’m on this kick right now where Steve is allergic to aspirin. Also, with the way that Steve’s mom is written for this AU, she is negligent but protective of her son. I don’t think she’d allow peanut butter in the house if Steve was allergic.

She wouldn’t allow aspirin either but Richard insists that it’s the only thing that cures a migraine (hangover), and Steve’s eight. He doesn’t even like taking his Flintstone vitamins so she’s not concerned about him getting in the medicine cabinet.

It’s not common that Tommy stays over at Steve’s when they’re sick.

Typically his mom watches them at their house but she had to go wake up his grandma (“That doesn’t make any sense. Why can’t she set an alarm clock?”/”I dunno, Steve. That’s what Mommy said. She had to go to Granny’s wake.”) so Mrs. Harrington was babysitting them.

Mrs. Harrington isn’t very good at taking care of them. Tommy wouldn’t tell Steve that because it’ll make him sad, but his mom kinda sucks at this. She doesn’t even give them popsicles for their sore throats or kiss their foreheads to check their temperature. She just disappears for long periods of time to yell into the phone.

Tommy’s kinda happy when she has to go into the office because he thinks Claire might look after them, but she’s apparently studying in her room so Steve’s brothers are doing it.

Tommy secretly likes this better because Jason and Richie are very nice to him, and they tell him that he’s cooler than Steve. No one has ever said that before! Not even Carol and they got married under the jungle gym.

Tommy likes hanging out with them even if he feels icky today.

He is standing in the kitchen next to Steve, watching Richie cut a little orange pill in half with a knife. Richie keeps muttering under his breath about running out of the ‘liquid S H I T.’ Tommy thinks it’s funny that he said a bad word, but can’t laugh about it because he can see the bottle that the pill came out of and –

“I don’t think we take that,” He voices but Richie brushes him off. He says it’s like candy. Tommy has brothers too, so he knows that sometimes you gotta give in or they’ll rub your face into the carpet until you get rugburn, but, “I know but… but what if only I take it?”

“You take half,” Richie tells him. “Stevie over here takes the other half and then we’re right as rain. It reduces fever.”

“Yeah,” Jason adds from behind them. “So your brain doesn’t leak out your ears.”

Tommy looks over at Steve but he isn’t fully awake so there’s not much of a reaction there. Plus, he’s not a very good reader so Tommy’s not sure if he even knows what the bottle says. He tries again, ignoring Jason, “That’s not what Mrs. Harrington gave us earlier.”

“Yeah, I know. This is better.”

“Steve can’t take that,” Tommy tries again after he crunches the medicine between his teeth. He sticks out his tongue so Richie can see that it’s gone, and then adds, “Mommy gave that to him once and it made him really sick.”

“It did?” Steve croaks, snatching his hand back when Richie tries to hand him the pill. Richie tries to force the pill into his mouth but Steve presses his lips together. It makes his brother swear and gesture to Jason, and then Steve is snatched off his feet with a hand pinching his nose shut.

He struggles and Tommy wants to help but he – he also wants Richie and Jason to like him so, he doesn’t help. Steve gasps for breath and the pill goes in…and Steve is fine. He’s angry and out of breath, and his nose is still stuffy so he still kinda sounds like a frog but he’s not.. he’s not blue like last time.

Tommy thinks, oh. He thinks, cool.

Everything is fine for fifteen minutes and then Tommy is yelling out the door of Steve’s bedroom that they need help. Steve is breathing weird and – “and, I – I think he’s going to die!”

A lot of stuff happens at once. Claire leaves her room, Jason and Richie come up the stairs, and they all start yelling and blaming each other. No one really jumps into action until Tommy bursts into tears. Then it’s movement and car rides, and Tommy is sitting in the waiting room at the hospital without shoes on.

He doesn’t know how long they’ve been sitting there when Mr. and Mrs. Harrington rush into the room. The only thing he does know is that he’s never seen anybody look as angry as Mrs. Harrington did when she sees them.

She looks like she’s going to yell at them but Mr. Harrington grabs her by the arm and drags her to the reception desk. They disappear behind the white double doors that Steve went through.

It only makes Tommy cry harder.

[gothsuguru]

thinking abt how satoru is one of the only adults in the jjk universe who can separate the child from the situation/cards they are dealt with… yuji took in sukuna as a host and he’s the only adult who sees yuji as a child/his own human being while other adults see him simply as “sukuna’s host” who needs to die. thinking abt how satoru was also one of the only adults who stepped up for yuuta and that’s one of the reasons yuuta appreciates him so much… same with when he took in megumi. at the end of the day gojo satoru is the only one in the universe that knows what it’s like to be used/seen as a weapon or Entity rather than a person and he won’t let his kids feel the same way/he’ll do everything in his power to make them feel better & actually LET them be children!

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

[bisexualgorgeous]

having been a swiftie™️ for years and a grammy’s watcher since red era I have made and confirmed the observation that the public opinion shift is like clockwork hinged on the grammy’s and despite taylor acting the same every year the difference between “she’s so annoying and extra” and “she’s so funny and relatable” is always whether or not she gets an aoty that year we know the gp hates seeing her succeed and loves her when she’s on a downward slope (in terms of awards, girlie is happier than ever and i love this) but that aoty is always the difference and I guarantee if she’d won anything for ttpd the gp would be tearing apart everything she did and said but now she’s gonna be on an upward trend in public opinion where liking her becomes acceptable again until ts12 starts to get Grammy consideration

[vitrificvitriol]

Entertaining himself