#but can also tell it's been stretched for good ol' fantasy originality

[pheonix-inside]

Girl help I'm getting ambitious ideas for my book series that'll make book one probably take like twice as long to be ready to publish :(

[there-must-be-a-lock]

3k followers = time for a threesome-themed writing contest!

Aside from bragging rights, winners get a graphic of their choosing. I will make you something new and shiny. Banner, header, lyric edit request, what-fucking-ever. Cool, right?

You do not need to write something new for this. You can submit something that’s already been posted! I do ask that you keep it to one already-posted fic per author. 

Fics need to center on some sort of threesome, but please note that they do not have to be smutty! Poly relationship fluff? Morning-after-a-threeway angst? Love triangle feels? All welcome!

The awards to be handed out are as follows:

Nobel Niche Prize for the most unexpected or unusual character combo. Crossovers, rare pairs, and OCs welcome.

The Golden Chicken Award for excellence in crossing over. Ha. Get it!?

The Lucifer Morningstar Award for best use of a prop. As in, “He did this thing with...” (We can stretch the definition of prop here. Anything aside from bodies that features prominently in the action, basically.)

The Chuck Shurley “Because I Said So” Prize for whatever the judge damn well pleases, because I’m making this up as I go. Subject to cruel capricious whims of yours truly.

The Dentures Award for excellence in extreme tooth-rotting. Give me the sweet, swoony fluff.

The Ben Shapiro Memorial W.A.P. Award for steamiest smut. Bring a bucket and a mop.

The Lizzo Prize for body positivity. Idgaf what form that takes to you: plus-size character representation, good ol-fashioned body worship, a focus on scars/stretch marks and the like... whatever, just make it real. No narrative retouching required.

The Carrie Fisher Prize for feminism, sass, and kicking ass. The snarky, fresh, witty, honest, Organa-style originality and badassery that our princess would love.

The One Bed Award for best version (or subversion) of a classic fanfic trope.

The Glass Case of Emotions, for a fic that makes me feel some feelings. Sad feels? Angst feels? Self-loathing a la Winchester feels? Dealer’s choice! Just... feels.

More info and guidelines under the cut!

Let’s aim for like... 300-6000 words? Probably?

All fandoms welcome! And I love a good crossover, so don’t be shy. (Someone write me Sam Winchester/Spencer Reid/Will Graham, please? Please!?)

I do not read rape or incest. Unless it’s a very explicitly pre-negotiated fantasy scenario, I will not read anything that feels even a little bit less than consensual.

I also draw the line at Lucifer/anyone. (SPN Lucifer, that is. Tom Ellis can get it.)

Deadline: February 1

If you’d like to participate, please reblog this and send me an ask! If you’re writing something new, you don’t need to tell me who or what you’re planning to write, but I’d like to know who I should be expecting fics from. 

Please message me a link to your fic once you post! Tags have been crazy unreliable lately and I want to be sure I see ‘em. 

I’ll reblog everything with lots of feedback, and will announce winners on January 15.

@amanda-teaches @winchesterprincessbride @ultimatecin73 @mrswhozeewhatsis @mogaruke @babypieandwhiskey @hannahindie @fandom-princess-forevermore @just-a-touch-of-sass-and-fandoms @maddiepants @fangirlxwritesx67 @waywardbaby @covered-byroses @thoughtslikeaminefield @dean-winchesters-bacon @atc74 @onethirstyunicorn @tumbler-tidbits @67-chevy-baby @wayward-and-worn @geekgirl1213 @notyourtypicalrose @calaofnoldor @indecisive20something @carryonmyswansong @sycochick @michellethetvaddict @jotink78 @boondoctorwho @itmighthavebeenintentional @mskathywriteswords @cracksinthewalls @rockhoochie @67midnightwriter @deanwanddamons @idreamofplaid @cherry3point14 @lastactiontricia @littlegreenplasticsoldier @fookinghelljensensthighs​

[hippriestess]

Part 2: Cherry-picking

Cherry Red had been releasing The Fall's new music since 2011's “Ersatz GB” and we already knew that Smith had signed a further deal with them to look after what portion of the group's catalogue he owned. They had already made a start with the handsome seven disc “Singles 1978 - 2016” box set they had released late in 2017 (alongside a cut-down three disc “A Sides” collection). The set had originally been scheduled for release in 2016 but the production deadline for the all-important Christmas market was missed and the set was held back until after “New Facts Emerge” - from which no singles were taken - had been released. Following Smith's passing, the seven-disc edition sold out and was unavailable for a short time before Cherry Red did the decent thing and made a few more.

A reissue of  1997's “Levitate” had been in the works for a while; Smith had signed off the tracklisting and there had been a trailer of sorts with a Record Store Day-only 7” of “Masquerade” in 2017. Given that the album had been in contractual limbo for quite some time with original vinyl copies fetching 3 figures on the open market, Cherry Red's first posthumous release felt like a public service,  doing the right thing both by Smith and by the fans. Released towards the end of May 2018, the new 2CD/3LP edition was justly well received and some kindly reviews appeared with mostly positive re-evaluations of one of their most awkward albums. Hindsight benefits the record; if it sounds like they were falling to bits, it's because they were and now that we know not just what happened next but how the whole story of The Fall continued for another 20 years, it has context. For the record (Portugal), yr present author is no more fond of the album than she was 7 or 8 years ago but “Ol' Gang” has clicked into focus and the second disc puts those great b-sides from the “Masquerade” CD singles back onto the shelves so it would have to be considered necessary.

Less impressive was “58 Golden Greats”, released at the end of 2018. A 3CD set in a clamshell box, this was, in essence, an extended version of the classic “50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong” collection from 2004, extending the tracklist to cover the remainder(er) of the group's career. It actually expands on the original in other ways, adding several songs from the era covered in the original version; the puzzling omission of “Big New Prinz” is corrected for one thing and other singles are added such as  “Oh! Brother” and “Dead Beat Descendent”. Perhaps Beggars Banquet were more co-operative this time. Whilst one could always quibble with any attempt at a Fall “best of”, yr present author was not taken with this one and my purse remained closed. 58 was an unwieldy number (why not a round 60?), the cover artwork – a spoof of a different Elvis Presley sleeve – was far from appealing and the entry-point value of “50,000...” was lost, a 3 disc set at £17 being too big a serving at too high a price for the merely curious. However, it looks as if I'm just flat-out in the wrong. As we'll continually see, Cherry Red aren't just experienced, they are also smart and do not lack savvy. I'm sat here keyboard-griping while “58 Golden Greats” is sold out. Enough said.

In 2019, Cherry Red announced the beginning of the Fall Sound Archive, the title of which gave the air of a mission to preserve The Fall's work for future generations. Inevitably, they were starting with 40th Anniversary editions of “Live At The Witch Trials” and “Dragnet”. There was early disappointment. The 3CD edition of “Live At The Witch Trials” contained the exact same music as the 2CD edition from 2004 but spread over three discs. Any thoughts that the decision at least preserved the sanctity of the original 11 song album were hampered by the 3CD edition of “Dragnet” containing, as disc 1, the exact same running order – with single and outtakes – as the 2004 CD edition. The other two discs were 2 of the little-loved “Live From The Vaults” series (of which, more later, sort of..). The archive was perhaps, not so deep.

However, the plus points were the vinyl editions, which had been hatched with obvious care. Using the rare US edition of “LATWT” with an alternate sleeve and revised running order was a clever touch and one that acknowledged that the Fall's audience would need something more than just a nice colour of vinyl before they indulged the album yet again. Similarly, “Dragnet” came with a reproduction 7” of “Rowche Rumble”, a record which originally came with the thinnest paper sleeve in the history of music. That's not to say that we didn't get coloured vinyl, oh we did - “LATWT” came of red vinyl to match the US sleeve and “Dragnet” on black and white “splatter” vinyl. These both sold well, sold quickly and sold out, now being tricky to score except on the Discogs etc market. But perhaps more to the point, they suggested that Cherry Red's experience and nouse would, at minimum, keep things interesting.

Later in 2019, the Kamera catalogue came under Cherry Red's microscope and it was another mixed set of releases. For CD buyers, a 6 disc set called “(1982)” was developed. This contained “Hex Enduction Hour”, “Room To Live” “Fall In A Hole” various single and live tracks and the “Live To Air In Melbourne” album which had previously snuck out in the late 90's when MES was broke. There was no new music to be had here at all – everything had previously been released. As such £40 was too rich a price tag for many and the edition is still easily available. The new vinyl edition of “Hex” was well particularly well presented. For the first time, the 60 minute LP was cut onto 4 sides of vinyl – a long overdue move, this did the album real justice on the format and would have to be considered an essential for those who insist on twelve-inch slabs of wax for their music. A pleasing, sturdy fold-out sleeve showed that corners were not being cut, the vinyl again matched the colour scheme of the artwork and it also came with an excellent reproduction of the sterling “Look, Know/I'm Into C.B.” 45. What spoiled it a little bit was the inclusion of a third LP with Peel Session #5 on one side and some of the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary 2CD on the other. All this really did was drive up the price – a double LP with the 7” would have been perfect and would have been less heavy on the purse *NB – this didn't stop me buying it – that's my copy in the picture...). “Room To Live” was given a vinyl reissue too, this time as a double LP with sides 3 and 4 being the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary edition. Again, this didn't quite feel like the right choice – an alternative idea would have been a single LP with a 7”. Given that the classic “Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul/Fantastic Life” single had been added to the popular, widely owned German pressing, why not add a repro of that instead? It would have cost less and added more value to the package.

Despite these whinges “(1982)” would have to be considered an elegant, practical solution to a latter-day problem and demonstrates why Cherry Red remain a market leader in catalogue reissues. Can you really sell compact discs of these albums yet again? How else do you present the music in this format? The answer to parcel the whole lot together and present it as a “year-in-the-life” was a smart one that was only hampered by an optimistic £40 price tag (which translated to as much as £58 in stores) and the artwork being based on “Hex” which could have given a more casual customer the notion that the set was Hex and 5 discs of “other” material. The bottom line here is that there is nothing else in the cupboard; as with the IAKO ballet and the Hey! Luciani play, fantasies about things like the unedited “Winter” and the full 20+ minute “And This Day” ever appearing are exactly that – fantasies. Were they ever preserved, they're gone and anything that did turn up, almost 40 years hence would likely be in such a state of degeneration as to be unlistenable. From now on, all that can be done is to keep this material out there and try to present it with a fresh angle. That's precisely what Cherry Red have done here.

Come 2020, come the challenge of reselling what is not just one of the most widely-distributed but also one of the worst Fall albums: “Reformation Post TLC”. Cherry Red stuck to type with a double LP pressed into blue and red coloured vinyl, again matching the colour to the sleeve. Undoubtedly a handsome package, this version was snapped up with some enthusiasm although it does seem that sales were likely harmed by coinciding with the early, uncertain, often panic-stricken days of the Covid-19 pandemic reaching the UK. The 4CD edition was daunting: the whole album and 2 CDs worth of outtakes and rough mixes, followed by the “Last Night At The Palais” CD. The “Last Night At The Palais” DVD was not included. Time has passed, time has healed and it is clear that RPTLC is a terrific EP stretched out beyond the energy of the participants. There is even a strong 40 minute single LP to be had within its contents but, hey it was what it was. With almost all of the unreleased mixes having no vocals, interest wears off before we got to the excellent live disc but, on the other paw, Cherry Red have done exactly what we want; it is highly unlikely that there is anything left from the album sessions; this is the whole lot, every scrap. Up to us now what we do with them.

****************************

Now, if you're thinking I've skipped something, you're right but the story of The Fall's posthumous discography is difficult to tell in a linear fashion. So I invite you, friends, to join me in a diversion. Cast your minds back to Record Store Day 2019.  

Cherry Red played a good hand by releasing a new vinyl edition of the superb “Imperial Wax Solvent” album. As with “Levitate”, vinyl copies were going for silly money, Universal having allegedly pressed a mere 500 for the world. It was a shame that Cherry Red therefore added only another 500 copies, this time pressed into yellow vinyl. These were almost entirely snapped up on the day and copies of this edition are routinely offered at £50-60.  “IWS” had, of course, been out of print since 2008, having been deleted less than 6 months after its release. As such the RSD edition of  “IWS” could be said to have undersold the record somewhat. Unless, of course, a properly “available” edition, maybe with that unreleased original mix of the album was to follow at some point...more on that later.

Sadly, we must also wade through the other Fall releases that were curled out for RSD 2019. That will take us into Part 3...

[m-art-i]

Fanfic Question Meme

I was tagged by @rekutopia! Thank you so much, it’s been ages since i’ve done one of these lol also I think i’ve never done one that was writing related, so it’s nice that you remembered me :D i’m very honoured

What’s your favourite genre to write?

Mmh, speking in general terms, I’ll go with fantasy/sci-fi, because I really like the wordlbuilding aspect of it, but for fics I just go with plain ol’ romance, as one should.

Do you pull inspiration from real-life, or do you pull things from other books/fanfiction you’ve read? 

Both? Mainly real life, though, as I tend to do a lot of projecting(TM) on the characters. As for the final result, i think it’s safe to assume i just store information coming from everywhere around me in my little brain and then shake it all out like dice and whatever comes out is what i go with

Do you tend to write one-shots, short stories, or longer things? 

Looong things. I wrote a couple of one-shots, but I like writing longer things better cause i like to just get lost in the story and start planning a lot of details that will appear later and foreshadowing and things like that. As for originals i used to only write short stories once but now i can’t be brief anymore. I just stretch everything out like a ripped dude in a three sizes too small tshirt

Do you prefer to write description or dialogue? 

DIALOGUE. I wish i could make do with dialogue only akjhkdja i should write a podcast or something... but honestly, dialogues are just so much fun? and yeah, sometimes descriptions are fun too, but my writing is HEAVY with dialogues and that’s just how i like it 

Favourite fic/book of all time? 

This is impossible to answer. I won’t even try with favourite fic cause i absolutely cannot chose only one, as for books, I’ll go with “a closed and common orbit” by becky chambers (which is the second of a trilogy that I HIGHLY RECOMMEND cause it’s really amazing).

Favourite trope? 

childhood friends... make me weak everytime. But also enemies to friends to lovers with all the variations, and also that thing where they don’t see eachother for a couple years or something and when they meet again everything is exactly like it used to be?? that is good shit my dudes...

Are you the kind of person to work on more than one WIP?

Oh boy. I have like a thousand wips. I will get random ideas and just open a whole new document just to write a single sentence on it. That doesn’t mean i work on them, though. Once i actually start working on a thing, like really start working, it needs 100% of my brain power and i will not do anything else until it’s either finished or i get bored with it, which sadly also happens sometimes.

How long have you been writing for? 

Uh, I think as soon as I could hold a pencil? lol I know for a fact that i was telling myself stories even in kindergarden (when i could not write or read) but i remember telling myself stories when the teachers tried (and failed) to make me take a nap. But the first story I actually wrote on paper i was around 7 or 8 i think, so... 16 years ago? oof. It was about a blue fox asdfghjkl the first fic i wrote was a shitty selfinsert into the hungergames(TM) when i was... uh 16? i think. It was terrible, and i posted it on fanfic.net or whatever it was called lol it wasn’t very succesful cause it sucked so, while i kept writing bad things, i didn’t post anything. ( i wrote a couple of novels and short stories, tho which were pretty cool). until two years ago, when i got really invested in bnha and it sparked the inspiration for fic back in me, and here i am...

Do you tend to write more during the morning, afternoon, or evening? 

Evenings, but tbh it’s really whenever i have a bit of free time (or just a very strong inspiration, in that case i will write, free time or not) 

Do you prefer to post and update your WIP chapter by chapter, or do you prefer to wait until your WIP is 100% finished before sharing it? 

Oh, i started with chapter by chapter, it didn’t work. the two fics (without counting the first terrible hg one) that i started posting chapter by chapter now lay abandoned :( i don’t know why... it’s sad. Now if i can i try to get at least three chapters ready before posting the first one. This way i have a solid base if i lose interest for a while. But i will not wait to have it all finished 100%, because i crave the sweet sweet validation to help me power through actually finishing a project lol feedback sustains me... 

Tagging

 @silentmarco and  i don’t know lol anyone else who wants to do it!! I don’t have many writer friends :\ 

[pass-the-bechdel]

Dollhouse season two full review

How many episodes pass the Bechdel test?

100% (thirteen of thirteen).

What is the average percentage per episode of female characters with names and lines?

44.96%

How many episodes have a cast that is at least 40% female?

Eleven, six of which had a cast of 50%+.

How many episodes have a cast that is less than 20% female?

Zero.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Eighteen. Twelve who appeared in more than one episode, five who appeared in at least half the episodes, and two who appeared in every episode.

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Thirty-three. Twelve who appeared in more than one episode, four who appeared in at least half the episodes, and one who appeared in every episode.

Positive Content Status:

Rubbish. As with the first season, the show suffers seriously for having no moral compass, it indulges in misogynistic violence and voyeuristic sex crimes as a mainstay, and any attempts to critique its own content are marred by hypocrisy and excuses (average rating of 2.76).

General Season Quality:

Also rubbish. While the majority of the cast are doing a fantastic job despite flimsy, problematic material, and there are a bare few episodes that could be considered good, altogether there’s no cohesion to the story, it lurches and fast-tracks and skips over anything that seems like it would have been a good concept to explore, and in the process it manages to lose any semblance of being about something. It’s just an excuse to stretch some acting chops on different kinds of character templates, and even that, it did badly.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) under the cut:

...so. I guess it’s a ‘nevermind, then’ on the exploration of any of the show’s own invoked themes re: personhood et al. I really thought they did more in that arena, but outside of a handful of single scenes sprinkled across the series, they really never did dig in to their existential concepts or anything that could approximate a broader narrative purpose beyond ‘let’s get Eliza Dushku to embody common sexual fantasies’. It’s ok to do some prompting of meta discussions for the audience and then leave them to fill in the blanks with their own musings, but not at the expense of bothering to say anything about your own subject matter. If you don’t have anything to say, then don’t ask people to listen to you. Keep your gross rape fantasies to yourself (or share with your therapist, damn), and leave the storytelling to people with a story to tell.

Everything that was wrong with season one is still entirely intact in season two, they fixed zero of their problems - they’re still fetishising and excusing rape, shamelessly objectifying and brutalising women, steeping the series in misogyny for no discernible reason, failing to achieve a basic moral underpinning to their content, underusing their quality acting assets while over-using their worst ones, and of course - as above - completely ignoring the need for a cohesive purpose to their own story or even just a ground-level sense that they knew what they were doing (or at least what they WANTED to be doing) with the arc of the narrative. Indeed, not only were all of the first season’s flaws intact, but season two even managed to make many of them worse! Off the top of my head, I’m not sure they made a single good character decision in the entire season, but I’m gonna save that conversation for the full series review so that I can properly compare the changes from one season to the next; there are plenty of other sins in season two to keep me busy for now. The lack of a moral anything (compass, backbone, compunction, whatever you want to call it) became a much bigger problem as the show attempted to escalate the scope of conflict with outside forces - largely, the Rossum corporation who runs the Dollhouses in service of their E-vil Plans - despite its own characters having committed all the same atrocities variously and knowingly, and the sketchy characterisation did a poor job of convincing that some magical moral something-or-other had taken hold between the seasons to give these characters new ethical dimensions that aren’t just blind hypocrisy. But, the biggest flaw of the season - relevant to all other issues but most especially to the lack of a central narrative theme or sense of meaning behind it - was the arc of the...’story’ that the season told. It was a Goddamn disaster, kids.

Pro tip: if you happen to, say, make a tv show that performs badly in the ratings in its first season, but you score a second season anyway, and you’re not confident that you’ll ever get a third...don’t try to jam all of the possible plot you imagined for a long-term series down into one season. It’s also probably a good idea to NOT end your first season with an ambitious flash-forward to an apocalyptic future which you are now irrevocably committed to bringing about in your regular narrative in spite of having only thirteen episodes to do it; a problem compounded by the inclusion of ‘flashbacks’ within that flash-forward, depicting events that you have now made canon only to turn around and nullify your own story by changing your mind about how to have it unfold (in the course of insisting on trying to make the whole thing unfold immediately, with plot that should have taken at least half a season to be explicated instead being fast-tracked into the subplot of a single episode). Don’t do that. Especially, don’t do that if you’re gonna ditch any kind of meaningful character arcs or thematic discussions or anything which would give your story a sense of purpose or cohesion or a mission statement of any kind (have I mentioned that yet? It’s mildly important to storytelling). Choosing to roll out a series of rapidly-accelerated plot events with all the nuance removed for streamlining is patently useless - you’ve removed everything that would make those plot events have value. That’s assuming that there were character beats (beats! Not beatings! This show has an excess of the latter; criminally few of the former) or narrative explorations or conceptual deliberations or somesuch in the original plan, anyway, and the first season did not do a great job of suggesting that there were (just...a better job than season two did). At any rate, better that you spend your time well and sadly never get to conclude the story like you wanted, rather than screwing over your own idea trying to just deliver the cliff notes. Cui bono?

Let’s consider what we got this season: thirteen episodes, and the first three are total Imprint of the Week fodder. A certain amount of episodic adventuring is expected, yes, but it’s a good idea to actually inject some useful plot machinations in there at the same time, and the first three episodes were very weak on both the one-off plot and the inclusion of significant long-term detail. The first two episodes are especially bad for being boring, inconsequential, and failing to capitalise on any interest drummed up by the end of the previous season; both also include teensy extra scenes of Senator Perrin pursuing his investigation into the Dollhouse, though neither creates any tension or interest around it, they literally just amount to ‘here is a guy, he’s gathering evidence’. It’s not exactly a thrilling or detailed introduction to the ‘Dollhouse plant in the government’ plot which comes to a head in a two-parter a few episodes later and then never impacts the story ever again. The story has no chance to build before it’s over: it’s introduced, it escalates, it’s nonsense, and then it’s done (the fact that the entire plot turns out illogical in the extreme really, really steps on any attempt at relevance or use). If you’re not gonna try and make the plot thread at least functional, why waste two whole episodes on it? You’ve only got thirteen, and you already wasted the first three! 

I say they wasted the first three episodes, but arguably, it’s more than that: episode four was ‘Belonging’, with the unfortunate decision to explain how Sierra came to be in the Dollhouse by expanding on the existing rape narrative with her abuser, Nolan, and while the episode in itself mostly works (in spite of itself, really), it’s not of any long-term importance outside of some character building/expansion, which is not a complete waste of time but, also, is not turned to a particular purpose. We didn’t need to lose an entire episode on this; we could have built and expanded upon character while dealing with some meaningful plot content, instead of indulging that ol’ rape obsession some more. Similar flaws exist for most of the other episodes of the season - though not entirely useless, spending an episode on an unfocused and largely meaningless Alpha visit in ‘A Love Supreme’ or fast-tracking through Victor’s backstory with the overly-ambitious and ultimately irrelevant military tech in ‘Stop-Loss’ is not a good use of the limited time the series had left to tell its story. And then there was the terrible ‘Meet Jane Doe’, which gave us a time-skip and a bunch of rushed plot to do with Echo learning to master the many personalities composing her identity while Topher mocked up a doomsday device out of thin air back at the Dollhouse: the single most excessively stupid example of what should have been at least a half-season’s worth of plot, instead crammed down into a ridiculously contrived subplot in a single episode. If you’re gonna try and tell several season’s worth of plot in thirteen episodes, you gotta COMMIT, man: hard plot, every episode is essential, every one of them advances your central narrative in some significant way even when it appears you’ve just done an episodic plot, it’s all vital to the endgame. Don’t think you’re gonna tell a few years of story in three episodes, and spend the rest of the time on fetish fantasies. Don’t be that stupid. 

As I noted when it happened, ‘The Attic’ is the only genuinely good episode of the season, and not least because it’s the only episode that does a passable job of making it seem like the plot has actually been going somewhere, for a reason, and with intention. It’s still very much a too-little-too-late situation, and the episode does all the heavy-lifting on introducing the puzzle pieces to complete the plot at the last minute, rather than having any of those pieces seeded at an earlier point in the series (the way that pre-planned things in a story that is going somewhere for a reason usually are). It gives us a last minute mystery to solve - who is Rossum’s shadowy founder? - though that turns out to be a very ill-advised mystery (for the calibre of the reveal, for the stupid convenience of having a shadowy founder to rail at, and for the obvious pointlessness of pretending that there’s a singular Boss Battle to be had that will magically dissolve the power of the corporation and its various pre-established players (Harding, Ambrose, and now the addition of Clyde 2.0 as well as ‘the founder’)). It also gives us a final mission - to take out Rossum’s mainframe - though that turns out similarly ill-advised in a more low-key way, since ‘we took down their computers’ is a patently idiotic way to ‘win’ (it’s laughable to pretend that any of the characters could be fooled into thinking that blowing up the Tucson facility would be anything more than an inconvenience to a global medical research corporation with thousands of employees and billions of dollars in resources and a trillion opportunities to store information on non-networked computers or on paper or in any of their numerous potential ‘legit’ published scientific proofs, etc, to say nothing of the fact that the physical tech and the people who built and used it are all still there, and yep, so are all those other Rossum higher-ups and probably even the founder himself, waiting on a harddrive to be put back into play). It all makes for an incredibly weak finisher to the ‘main’ plot, and that’s before we pointlessly bounce into the future again to show that, oh yeah, it WAS all meaningless and our characters are fucking morons who made no difference to anything with that explosion-y mainframe bullshit! The potentially-clever game-changer idea of including the flash-forward to the Thoughtpocalypse at the end of season one becomes a mistake now, when it calls for the waste of the finale on concluding a whole wild story development that the show never got a chance to actually develop at all. Eek. This is not how you storytelling, y’all. 

Heavy sigh. Honestly, I really, really thought this show would give me more to talk about, because at first glance it looks complex and stocked with conversation starters and potentially polarising content. Upon analysis, however, the complexity is a sham, the show itself starts no conversations, and the content lacks the nuance necessary to create oppositional interpretations. Ironically, it turns out as empty as the dolls are, simplistic, lacking the self-awareness to reflect on itself and the basic comprehension to fathom morality. It has no personality, no drive, and though at times it shows glimmers of understanding that there could be more to its existence than catering to shallow pleasures, ultimately it never focuses well enough to follow that anywhere. Even its transgressions are bland and predictable, worth calling out - as aggressive misogyny and rape fetishisation always is - but not worth picking apart in detail (because - shock horror - it’s not morally complicated and full of shades of grey, it’s just bad and wrong: it’s very simple and easy to follow, Whedon. Get therapy). If the Dollhouse is all about giving people what they need, well, I think I know what Joss Whedon needs: to shut up, and leave the show-creating to someone who hates women less, and knows how to string an idea into an actual story, more.

[whimsyful-moved]

anyway, mary sues aren’t real and uncle al is gonna tell you all why

this got really fucking long so go under the cut

so let’s get this out of the way: the whole concept is bullshit, and i’m sure i’ll be told i’m reaching on this, but it’s sexist. i know that people bring up gary stus, but like. come the sweet fuck on. how often do you see that? i don’t doubt it happens, because of course it does, but the main brunt of ~criticism~ is thrown at girl characters. i would say it’s thrown at girls AND femmes, but we all know that nonbinary characters get fucking ignored. it happens to them, though, so. keep that in mind.

anyway, back on track. the whole concept is sexist, we’ve got that. it’s also obnoxious and sad to see.

when i was younger, like when i was a little ass kid new to the internet and new to writing publicly, my characters weren’t great. not by any stretch of the imagination. they were filled with idealism, they were representation for a character i didn’t get to see in media often. and by the way, i’d like to remind you that i’m white -- and if i felt underrepresented, kids of color were in a fucking representation drought. i was also a deep-in-the-closet Queer Ass, so that contributed to it, too. to top it off, i was also pretty mentally ill!! which, surprise surprise, led to some loneliness! so, think about that: a lonely ass kid who wanted something to relate to. lots of kids felt exactly like i did, and a lot of them felt worse than i did.

some of us, though, were writers. some of us turned to roleplaying or storytelling, and made our own characters to work out the complex feelings and fantasies we didn’t really know how to deal with at the time. a lot of us made... uh, really bad OCs. like, really bad. really bad. we didn’t really know how to write at the time, and we didn’t know exactly how characterization worked, technically, so we just went with our guts and had fun. we created characters that had better things going on than we did. it was fun!

until we learned the term mary sue, that is.

sidenote: i used to be that kid who hated what i thought were ‘mary sues’. whenever anyone defended them, i would get super pissed because how dare you defend someone just trying to have a good time! looking back on it now, it had a lot to do with jealousy. i was pissed they were having a good time with their writing while i worried about what other people would think of my character, to the point where i made husks who never received development, because i was too scared to develop them into something too ‘perfect.’

the original term is ‘mary sue’ -- defined as “an original character in fan fiction, usually but not always female, who for one reason or another is deemed undesirable by fan critics. A character may be judged Mary Sue if she is competent in too many areas, is physically attractive, and/or is viewed as admirable by other sympathetic characters” by Fanlore. this is the nice definition, by the way.

so, let’s look at this. this is taking a very thesis paper-esque turn but i promise i won’t break out google scholar. maybe. we’ll see. anyway.

PART ONE: TOO TALENTED

competent in too many areas. see, even when i was bitter fifteen-year-old, i kind of didn’t get this one. how many people have you met who were only good at one thing? off the top of my head, i can name, like, zero. even shitty people tend to be good at more than one thing. sometimes, these things can be related -- like if you’re good at guitar, you might be good at another instrument, like piano -- or they can be completely unrelated -- like, someone is amazing at makeup and is also a chemist. people tend to be good at a lot of stuff. i know of a fuckton of people who can sing, draw, write, play an instrument (or multiple instruments), are funny, can dance, and the list goes on. these are real people, by the way. i used to have a friend who was a gymnast, a singer, a piano player, an artist, a painter, amazing with animals, great at making friends... and she was good at all of these things, guys. if a real person can be good at a fuckton of things, why can’t a fictional character?

oh, right. because heaven forbid girls be good at more than one thing at a time.

there are so many multi-talented guys in media. i’m sure you can all name at least one savant male character. there are girl savants, too, but uh... everyone usually hates them. not shocking.

if real people can be filled with talent in multiple areas, so can a fictional character. so can an OC. it’s not unrealistic -- it’s ~unrealistic~ to have someone be good at one fucking thing.

PART TWO: PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE

this one is a fucking riot, because it’s so arbitrary. sorry, what is too physically attractive? like, come the fuck on. this one pisses me off the most because it’s not about how the OC looks, it’s about the fact that other people acknowledge it. if you have more than one character -- god forbid, more than one CANON character! -- acknowledge your OC’s beauty, she’s a mary sue. you’re thrown into the depths of mary sue hell. even if they don’t get together, which is a sin above all other sins, sorry, but you’re already done for. they already had a passing thought of “oh damn, she’s hot.”

now, yes, i will say that reading paragraphs of clothing descriptions and of how gorgeous a character is is boring as fuck. i get it. why do you think i have yet to read the odyssey? 

but i have an idea for you. it may blow your mind.

who fucking cares?

i know. how succinct. who fucking cares that someone is writing some elaborate fantasy? who. cares. out of all the things in the world, that is hurting people the least. let someone write a whole eighteen paragraphs about how much naruto wants to bone their OC or self insert. who is it hurting? absolutely no one. who fucking cares, m8. who actually cares.

also, if you don’t think my gay ass is always gonna call all of my OCs hot, you’re wrong. do you think i pick these faceclaims for your sake? no. it’s because i want to look at a/ubrey p/laza as much as possible. duh.

PART THREE: WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN

“viewed as admirable by other sympathetic characters.”

what in the sweet fuck does that even mean. okay, i know what it means, but abstractly: what does it mean?

oh wait. i know.

it means that if ANY OTHER CHARACTERS LIKE YOUR CHARACTER YOU CAN EAT GARBAGE

sorry fucko, does good ol uh. does good ol johnny bravo have a poster of your OC on his wall? is your OC in any way remarkable? does your OC have a storied history that would lead other characters to know about your OC? sorry, but it’s just not realistic.

the first rule of OC making is to be miserable. remember kids, if your character isn’t acknowledged by a publishing firm or animated on your favorite cable channel, your character is basically not real. keep this in mind, because it’s the reason why CANON CHARACTERS CAN NEVER EVER EVER KNOW YOUR OC.

EVER.

EVER.

for some reason, this is the crime people hate the most. in roleplay, you shouldn’t assume your character knows another character unless you and the other mun have talked before. you also shouldn’t push relationships onto other characters.

but OCs are the only ones who people assume will do this, because why would a canon ever do something so silly? they won’t they it, but it’s because people view canons as artistically superior to OCs. obviously. it’s really funny, because in the past, it hasn’t been OCs who pushed shit onto me. i know, right? i, a lowly OC maker, has been treated badly by a canon writer -- it’s kind of like saying that i, a peasant, was pursued by a king.

in fanfiction, though, this whole rule is extra silly. there’s only one writer, usually, so no one is getting treated badly. but if an author writes that their OC is perhaps more famous than the main canon character, that’s basically the worst, because no one can be BETTER than the canon main character. people will throw a fit about this. i’ve seen it happen. you probably have, too.

oh, and it doesn’t have to be so major. even if your OC is tangentially related to a canon character, it’s still bad writing. OCs are, like children, meant to be seen, not heard. except they’re not meant to be seen, either, they’re meant to appear briefly and leave as soon as possible. that’s a good OC.

it’s really funny -- it’s not considered bad to have harr/y p/otter and d/raco m/alfoy be secret lovers for the entirety of the series in your fanfiction, but throw in an OC better than h/arry (or h/erminone) and suddenly we need to start being realistic, guys.

PART FOUR: THE CONCLUSION

mary sues aren’t real. stop calling things mary sues, stop targeting OCs all the time, and if you care so much about bad writing, why not be consistent with it? some of your (and my) shows have fucking garbage writing and character development, but people are still able to love them, somehow. it’s transparent as fuck when you only target small creators and not huge businesses who are making money off of your so-called “dedication to good literature.”

to the OC creators reading this, you don’t have to be scared of making a character who is ‘too perfect.’ have fun. if you want to make a self-insert, do it. if you want to make a character who is completely fantastical, do it. you’re allowed, and it’s okay to just have fun with writing. you’re allowed to love your characters. your creations are just as worthy as published creations.

anyway. i’m tired of writing this, and i’m gonna just. slam that post button. this got uh. really long. anyway bye

[freykugel]

Just been reading a shit ton of random mangos and webtoons and they range from pretty interesting to chuunibyou bullshit. I run into the latter way too often, but what can you do.

A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special

I’m actually surprised at this one? Like, it could have been the same ol’ time travel OP MC bullshit but it’s like a found family with interesting shenanigans. It’s not perfect by any means but I actually like MC, Romantica, Pram, and Adjest. No harem trope (though Pram your crush on Desir is obvious, lmao) and Desir’s abilities mostly come from analysis. I recommend it for a good time.

Dimensional Mercenary

Like this one is............... it has interesting world building. I do like the idea of people in hopeless situations selling their souls to find out if there had been a way out. I just... hate MC? He’s not the worst character I’ve seen but definitely not very compelling. And I have no idea WHY he’s competent enough to get perfect runs in scenarios, but I like the concept itself so I stick around.

Survival Story of a Sword King in a Fantasy World

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SURPRISES. I was ready for some chuunibyou bullshit and what I got is some One Punch Man-esque dumbass humor I live for it. Those gonk faces really breathe life into me. It has the stupid OP MC trope but it punishes him for it (like the refrigerator has a minimum level requirement). No harem here (the cutest character is a male dragon wow). Of course as always not perfect but it’s like a greasy cheeseburger like it hits the stomach so good I know it’s bad for you but damn I’m right at home. The story is a pretty unique take too, considering how all the isekai victims are actively being hunted down in the fantasy world.

Solo Leveling

So so disappointed with this one. The first arc was great! I loved it! The oppressive atmosphere and hopelessness really was eye popping. The art is beautiful and fully colored. I was hooked! And then MC got his cheat powers and it became dull as hell. Over and over he just utilizes the big damn heroes trope and saves everyone via deus ex machina. I actually read the light novel and boy howdy did that piss me off to the point that I didn’t sleep very well. Super chuunibyou (or choding in this case). I’m just sad because THE ART IS SO NICE. I tell myself I keep up with it because of the art. The only time you level grind enough to be god is when you actually play a real vidya gaem. (It’s how I roll, lmao.) Interesting world building though, I cry.

Ranker Who Lives a Second Time

These webtoons sure love them revenge stories. Pretty nice art, but really dull MC. If you remotely like revenge fantasies pick this up, but nothing particularly unique happens. The dwarf blacksmith is a funny tsundere... That’s it. Disappointed that the female... rival I guess? gets a crush on MC. 

Tomb Raider King

Time travel MC, not necessarily OP but does have a lot of knowledge to back him up. A revenge fantasy in which he tries to fuck over a rich asshole. I’m down with that. Please fuck over more rich assholes. If I like anything about this it’s the poor side characters that get wrangled into his bullshit.

Hero? I Quit A Long Time Ago

Please don’t read this one. It’s One Punch Man but with an infinitely more unlikeable MC. And I have no idea if it’s the translators or if they’re actually saying it, but referring to little girls as lolis is disgusting. It lacks all the charm OPM has.

Chainsaw Man

Full on no. Had an interesting concept but the MC is such a disgusting unlikeable piece of shit. What the fuck ass kind of horny kid is this. His dearest wish is to grab some breasts. Wow. Unbelievable.

Marimashita! Iruma-kun

It’s alright! Just a standard shounen schlock, but I’m entertained. I’m super fond of Asmodeus because he’s like a demon version of Gokudera and I’m always here for my boy. Demon grandpa is always doting and bragging about his grandson and I’m having fun. MC becomes more and more childlike though and I have no idea why. Deku in the demon world I guess. I love that everyone’s an idiot at the end of the day.

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

SUPER SURPRISED AT THIS. I really like it. It’s like a medical mystery drama set in ancient China.  Maomao is such a good protagonist. I like her a lot. She is hyper focused onto medicine and doesn’t even care for the local love interest who is crying into his bowl of cocoa puffs. The only thing that was a cop-out was that her freckles were drawn on and fake. THEY MADE HER CUTE FUCK YOU. 

Kemono Jihen

It’s an ayakashi manga and is pretty fun. And then the writer made Aya act adult and crush on Kabane. Big freaking NO. An entertaining read though, but there are some horrifying things happening in the later arcs, so read at your own discretion.

This Time I Will Definitely Be Happy

So yeah, sometimes I read shoujo. I started to read this because it seemed like a subversion. Reincarnated MC always falls in love with the hero and yet the hero runs off with another woman and she dies miserably. So this time she’s gonna live her own life! I had fun and then it turned the plot back on straight by making it so that the hero loved her the entire time and she was a priestess who was originally isekai’d from Japan. The ending is largely meh and cliche. I largely still think about the beginning though.

Endo and Kobayashi’s Live Commentary on the Villainess

I... Okay? Just the MCs revealing how much of a tsundere Liselotte is is fun, but it’s just alright. Fun read if you’re bored, once again.

Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi

Stock Isekai manga but with a cooking twist. I like it. It’s just MC, a giant wolf, and a slime baby going around eating good food. The giant wolf is your standard OP monster but he’s sticking with MC because GOD DAMN he cooks like a champ.

Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shite shimatta...

Isekai shoujo version but I’m so fond of it because of how much of a dumbass MC is. Like at points it’s TOO much of a stretch of how idiotic she is, but it’s a jolly good time. And this is a harem series but all the girls love her too so I’m super forgiving. The drugstore candy bar that you love.

Somali to Mori no Kami-sama

Art is super beautiful and detailed. And how could you not love a series about a golem becoming a dad to a small tiny human daughter. I hear there’s an animu airing this year but I’ve been too lazy to check it out. Plus I dunno how limited budgets would affect the art.

Seijo no Maryoku wa Bannou Desu

Another standard isekai shoujo style (so many of these out there) but this time around MC just wants to live her life making potions. Good on her. This is a secret but sometimes my heart still goes a flutter for handsome men who are devoted. Huhu, that heart clogging granny’s old macaroni and cheese. Delicious but old.

Kono Sekai ga Game da to Ore dake ga Shitteiru

Isekai videogame version (PLEASE SO MANY OF THESE) but the unique aspect of it is that the videogame is glitchy as fuck and unforgiving. MC purposefully played a shitty game to the point of knowing most of the tips and tricks so when he gets shunted into it it’s hilarious how he went about it. Like step-cancels, abusing code-glitches, increasing skills by smashing his face inside the confessional, etc. Female characters are annoying and  one-note, but I appreciate the funny concept of being in a badly coded world.

Kami-sama no Ekohiiki

I... really enjoyed this? All gender-talk aside, I’m super sad that Torii’s love for Kagura (Yashiro) is unrequited, but at least she gets some hastily put together romance in the end. I really liked her. Kenta’s visit in the world where Yashiro doesn’t fall in love with him... right in the heart. 

Sorry For My Familiar

Small demon girl has a human as her familiar. Wacky hijinks ensue. It’s hilarious and light-hearted so read if you want to have a good time. I like me some good ol’ comedy.

Senyuu.

I’m like... going back and forth on reading this. On the one hand, I live for RPG parodies and dumb hijinks. On the other hand, FUCK THAT PEDOPHILE GRANDPA INTO THE DEEPEST PORTION OF HELL AND BACK. So many stupid loli jokes and yet I come back because Alba and Ros and literally everyone else. I dunno. I hear shit gets real, but hnngh. I guess this hinges on how much you can ignore the parts you hate.

I’m sure there are others but these are the ones that showed up in my reading history. Hope you enjoyed me rambling with no substance. Also really shows how much bad taste I have. ;-9