#character driven story
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I may not be able to write for crap myself, but I AM crazy insane feral about character-driven storytelling and about character consistency and development, so I make for a very annoying beta reader who WILL help you develop your characters and write a more emotionally compelling story
#writing#beta reading#character driven story#i technically can write but i haven't in forever. i have no ideas#what i do have is adhd
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Story and its Character
Or is it a Character and their Story?
Should a story be character driven, or plot driven? And what does it even mean?
I still don’t think I know how to define that distinction. I used to imagine that writing a character driven story means that you start writing it, and it flows, and characters are doing things that result in consequences which prompt further actions and so on and so forth. A character decides where the story goes. A character “drives” the story.
Well, I thought to myself, I can’t write that kind of story. If I let my characters drive the story, they’ll just sit in the corner and wait for a story to happen to them. Because that’s how I roll, IRL. This kind of story isn’t very interesting, though, is it? So I would choose adventures for my characters and put them through a wringer. And I thought that this is a plot-driven story.
It is not necessarily how it works, though.
I have watched a tv show recently, that I shall not name and it was an example, I think, of a plot-driven story, and badly executed at that. They not only bent the characters to serve the plot, they also bent worldbuilding and, actually, the laws of physics (and biology, chemistry, geology, and also common sense). Actually, characterizations made the most sense, but it was in no way a character driven story, despite having interesting characters. One thing that struck me, was a comment from the show producer, regarding symptoms of a (fictional) illness one of the characters suffered from, “The symptoms of the disease are based on several real diseases. We needed certain symptoms for the stories.” And when I watched the show and saw what symptoms they chose, as well how they explained what caused the illness and how it was later treated, it became clear that it was all the depth they were going for – have an illness that would interfere with some adventures, cause another character to do something that was a plot point, and then be cured.
Same as they needed another character to question the MC’s decisions, so the MC would have an adversary, then their rebellion would cause another plot point, and then they would “understand” the wrongness of their actions and would join the MC.
.#
To sum it up – if you let fictional characters make decisions, they can sometimes lead you nowhere, or into a difficult no-win situation. But if you bend and twist everything to serve the plot you set in stone – you create a story with little emotional impact, not engaging, at best, and plain ridiculous at worst.
.#
Frankly speaking, I don’t think there should be a distinction between a character-driven and plot-driven stories. Both, characters and plot, should be equally developed.
That’s what I love so much about the Snowflake Method – it alternates between a step that’s focused on the characters, and a step that focuses on the story. In the first step, you give a hint of who the MC is, and what happens to them. In step two you mention a few things that lead to that most important thing happening – so that’s plot. But then you need to write about what the MC and secondary characters want, need, such things. Then you write a synopsis of the plot, and then a synopsis of a plot as it happens to MC and several secondary characters – separately for each of them. Then you write a detailed plot, and then a detailed character sheet.
Knowing where your story goes fuels you knowledge about what makes those characters tick. And knowing what makes them tick, gives you ideas about making the plot more detailed.
Then, while writing actual scenes, you have to remember about your characterization, that’s what really matters. You can’t have a character who is levelheaded making irrational decisions, just to create a plot twist. But you can still have that plot twist, you just need to get to it another way. Does it mean the story is plot-driven, because it’s important to have that plot twist? Or is it character driven, because you respect that character’s temperament and goals, and things they do still have consequences that shape your plot?
Well. Maybe it’s both?
That’s my take from this conundrum – that a writer needs to respect both, characters and the story they are telling. And also… laws of physics... ;)
#original writing#writeblr#writing advice#characterization#plotting#character driven story#plot driven story#tes talks about writing
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You ever start writing and just go completely the wrong place? I’m trying to write a comfy slice of life about a mage running an item shop, and the guide - who’s just meant to introduce the town and show him around - keeps trying to convince him to run away with her and go on adventures.
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anyway, Elden Ring is about love and hope
Marika burns everything she has build out of sorrow
Ranni banishes the Outer Gods and also fucks off the Lands, giving agency back to the normal beings of the Lands
Fortissax endlessly fights Death for his friend/lover
Melina burns herself and Erdtree in hopes of a better world in the hands of the Tarnished
Blaidd fights against the very reason he was created out of love for his sister
Ranni and Rykard always keep an eye on their mother, protecting her
Radahn evokes so much love from his troops that they organise a whole festival to give him a honorable death even in his madness
Radahn learns an entire new school of magic in order to still ride his favourite horse
Boc's love for his mother, his mother's love for him
How all but two endings are build on the hope that this new era (whatever it might be) will be good
Miquella attempting to create an whole new world-tree to host the forsaken and the damned
Miquella turning on the faith he was raised and even believed in to an extent, when it was unable to cure his sister's curse
The Cleanrot's loyalty to Malenia and their endurance of the Rot, only to stay in her service
Malenia marching through the entire continent in search of her brother
Finlay traveling all the way back on her own, carrying the incapacitated demigod on her back
Tanith's love for Rya
Dialos' entire questline
Edgar being driven mad after his daughter dies
Vyke embracing, to a point, the Frenzied Flame in order to save his finger maiden
or you know, that's just how I see it
#elden ring#i'm simplifying a lot in this#but that's the story#to me#it follows the pattern of the ds series too#where the world was miserable and depressing#yet the main theme was hope and perseverance#with elden ring we got so many more characters and as such love began playing a bigger part too#and you can't really have interesting characters without their actions being driven by love and hope#or lack thereof#even power-hungry characters are driven by the hope of reaching the power “level” they want#and hateful ones are driven by lack of love#or so i think
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My brain gaslit me into believing that Valerie got her outfit upgrade in D-Stabilized because she was the only remotely acceptable thing about that episode, so imagine my surprise upon watching Flirting With Disaster again and Technus, Lord of Drip and Shipping Gray Ghost, shoots her with the drip-upgrade beam and she (and everyone else standing around her) doesn't even question it.
#danny phantom#text#there's also the fact that she literally has no major appearances between those two episodes so it's no wonder I forgot tbh#it's always been a close contest of “Which DP character got Done Dirty the Most” for me but at least the other characters had SCREENTIME#like what is worse?#Being a good character and then by season 3 turning into a generic caricature of yourself?#or being a good character and then being MIA from the story for no sensical reason?#or being the character whose sole purpose for existing is 'let's character assassinate the family-driven antagonist by being his victim#TWICE and just f-ing off into the void afterward because WHO CARES ABOUT ANYTHING MATTERING OR BEING NUANCED & FUN'?#I love Danny Phantom and I'm not being ironic when I say that. I'll be thinking about this show and characters FOREVER
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It's looking like there's a growing divide between Campaign watchers and Tlovm watchers in terms of like. We're here for the characters. 12-episode seasons aren't. They can't be. I'm already making peace with everything we'll lose in the Mighty Nein show, and I know I will enjoy it for what it is but I also know that almost nothing that made the story so special will translate to the screen, because turning it into a show automatically means (in this day and age) that plot must be the number one priority. They've already come out and told us it's going to be different, the characters we know and love but new stories.
Because that's how this has to work. And I feel bad for campaign one lovers, because while it is certainly the easier of the two to translate to a big, overarching story, even though it's a more "traditional" high fantasy story with easier archetypal characters, the archetypes and the plot aren't what cemented most people's love for the campaign. So much of the love for critical role is stored in the interpersonal dynamics and the payoff that comes from hundreds of hours of tiny interactions that one day become cornerstones of development and even affect or dictate the plot.
There's no room for that. There's no room for Bard's Lament in a story that cannot afford to remove and replace a main character. A lot of tlovm is for people who have been here for all of campaign one. Most of it, however, isn't. It's for a new crowd. While CR may have creative control, you can bet your ass that there were months and years devoted to figuring out how to map a character-focused love of the show into a plot that hits the right beats to be viable in the show market.
And it worked. Tlovm has consistently high viewing numbers, and its popularity has brought and will continue to bring new people into the universe who have never interacted with CR previously. That's not a bad thing - imagine finishing your favorite show and discovering it has another FIVE HUNDRED HOURS of the equivalent of behind the scenes content. That's incredible for these newcomers. But man, it is in many ways a loss for us.
#Tlovm spoilers#In some ways it's like looking into a dark mirror#And this is again with a story that's relatively easy to plot with clear arcs and themes#The mighty Nein was a sandbox that was entirely character driven in terms of where they went and what they did#It has a few loose arcs but even the fact that molly died so early#The fact that he haunts the remainder of the show#That's going to be lost. Its impact on Yasha and on beau who spends the rest of the campaign looking for a chance to do what he did#The fact that his death tied narratively into Caleb getting the spell for their hut - their home - and nearly crying#Knowing he had a way to keep them safe after they lost one#None of that is plottable#I'm losing my thread of thought and I have to work but. I don't even know if sad is the right word#Because CR has gotten so far. So much further than anything of its kind.#There is much joy here and I will adore seeing the Nein#But it's okay to acknowledge that capitalism strips away the ability to focus on the heart of critical role#And that's why the live play media is so special#That's literally what makes it special and what makes the story so impactful#Critical role
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"rhaenys could have ended the war by dracarysing all the greens right there" yes because a distant relation to the throne deciding to barbecue an anointed and publicly positively hailed king and his entire family who is well loved within the city and in multiple other parts of the country for the sake of the succession of a far-away princess no one was ever on board with who hasn't been seen by the populace in literal years, her psycho husband, her three obvious bastards, and two toddlers from the psycho husband would go over super well with westeros and especially in king's landing where scores of the still-cheering population were killed for no reason by that same dragon who would do the barbecuing, because when targaryens act unilaterally without thinking of how the people would react there's never any problem, which is why the storming of the dragonpit and robert's rebellion were actually just collective delusions dreamed up by readers who hate rhaenyra and not key parts of the story and house targaryen's history that directly contributed to their demise and are intrinsic to the plot
truly team black stans are made up of only the most genius and media literate amongst us
#personal#house of the dragon#anti team black#i mean i guess??#like the crowd was cheering for aegon HARD#and they were always on board with aegon#and the hightowers are a powerful house with a lot of allies#and alicent and helaena specifically were well loved by the people in king's landing and the realm at large#and none of them ever liked rhaenyra or daemon who again have been MIA for basically a decade already#and again targaryens overreaching their power and not taking the people into account#is the reason why their house fell into oblivion and now rests entirely on a FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL WHO IS THE ONLY ONE LEFT#if she roasted the dais the mob wouldn't have even let her leave they'd have killed her and meleys both in a heartbeat#storming of the dragonpit but a couple months earlier#the thing to remember is that i think a lot of team black stans are just kinda stupid#and do not care about the story at all or the actual intricacies of the world and its politics that is so important to the dance#(remember the rumors of rhaenyra mistreating helaena and alicent literally led to rhaenyra's death)#(because it led to the mobs and the storming of the dragonpit and the death of joffrey and her being driven out)#(and thus having to go to dragonstone where sunfyre got a little meal out of the whole debacle good for him)#(along with all of her ten million other shitty political decisions)#how do you profess to be pro-targaryen without even knowing targaryen history and where they erred and how that ended them#like *i* like the targaryens you guys have heard me talk about the conquerors all the livelong day#but i am also smart and i understand the world george created and the concept of repercussions#anyway yeah i am Annoyed at that new daemon clip (wow what a shock something annoyed me and had daemon in it)#(my least favorite character who could have foreseen this)
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ALPHABETICAL FAVES ⟹ S is for… Sasha Waybright
#amphibia#amphibiaedit#creations#sasha waybright#alphabetical faves#okay so yall know i love story driven cartoons#but i will say amphibia did not appeal to me right away#UNTIL i saw her#sasha waybright is so insane i could do such a character study on her#love u babe
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the more i think about Oppenheimer the more disappointed i get because at its core it’s such an interesting story to tell. like the whole manhattan project catapulted the entire world into a new atomic era that we could never go back from whether we were ready for it or not. and the fallout from the project not only changed and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (including of course the victims in hiroshima and nagasaki + the people living in new mexico where they tested the bomb) and the continued generational trauma of the bombs. also just the general mass panic and fear that the Cold War instilled into every citizen in the states who were literally waiting to one day be just annihilated by a nuclear attack. the whole creation of the atomic bomb had so much impact on the world. so doing a deep character study of both oppenheimer and his colleagues on the moral ambiguity of their work in the project and the outcome of it is such a great movie concept. but the film didn’t feel like that at all. instead Nolan gave us the watered down story that he’s best at and spent almost three hours forcing us to watch whether oppenheimer had to lose his disneyland government fast-pass due to his communist ties or not (spoiler: he does) and how strauss doesn’t like him because he got his feewlings hurt once. all the other scientists and physicists were given one or two minutes of screen time and were really just names to a face. the actual bombs creation was given a sidelong glance and trivial explanation at best. and of course to tie it all off the main female side characters were either naked/having sex for 80% of their screen time or was given the character depth of a piece of tissue paper
#oppenheimer#oppenheimer spoilers#oppenheimer negativity#I’ve had all day to think on this and the more i do the sadder i get#i wanted to like this film so much#i thought we were gonna be given a deep dive into this character and the bomb#but the result felt shallow and contrived#the movie focuses so much on fitting as much info as possible in three hours that the story just couldn’t breathe#scenes between characters lasted all of two minutes before we were launched into another scene to two new characters#and oppenheimers personal motivation/desires just felt ambiguous the entire time#like he busts his ass to build this bomb but then all the sudden develops a moral compass when it’s done?#where’s the character depth?? what makes him so passive about some things then suddenly driven for others?#and Florence and Emily Blunt were ripped off and characters were reduced to common tropes#it’s just so disappointing….i waited all year for this movie too
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"Movie Howl is better than book Ho-" Lie. Slander. Misinformation. Error. Delusion. Objectively wrong.
#idk I'm a really anxious moral-driven person#but sometimes are think ppl are a bit too obsessed with charters being “good” and “unproblematic”#instead of looking at good writing and complexity#Book Howl doesn't have to be “better” for me to like him more#because that's not what his character was ever about#movie Howl is not even bad written he's just... shallow in comparison#he serves his role in the story and has one momental flaw redeemed near the end#but that's all about him#hmc book#howl's moving castle book#howl's moving castle#hmc#howell jenkins#howl pendragon#howls moving castle
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It’s how the kids “raised” by Tony are all affected differently as adults.
Babe, who believes his life is only worthwhile because of his special senses and skills. Who pretends to not need love but is longing for it. Who thinks that he cannot be loved because he is unworthy of love.
Charlie, who believes his life is worth less than other people’s and would rather sacrifice himself than see others suffer. Who thinks he shouldn’t be loved because it will put the people who love him in danger.
Jeff, who believes his life threatens anyone who knows his abilities, so he keeps everyone at an arm’s length away. Who thinks he cannot be loved because it will only lead to hurt and frustration.
Pete, who managed to escape Tony’s grip, but is still entangled in his web. Who saved himself and is now desperate to help others do the same. Who hasn’t given love a chance because he’s still only relying on himself.
Way, who believes he can force love if he tries hard enough. Who never considers life beyond Tony’s influence because he doesn’t think such a future is possible. Who is desperate for love but doesn’t realize that he is already loved and surrounded by a family of his own.
Kenta, who believes that if he does everything Tony asks of him, he will be loved. Who doesn’t understand that a man like Tony does not love but only uses. Who has lived in exile for so long that he’s lost sight of love and only knows loyalty.
It’s how they are all survivors and how they learn through the course of the show what love is and what it isn’t. And that they are capable and deserving of love despite what they were taught as children.
#at work but still thinking about the vroom vroom omegaverse show#oops#it’s because#the characters in pit babe are so good!!#I love a good character-driven story#I’m sad it’s over#pit babe#pit babe the series#pit babe meta#thai bl#babe x charlie#charlie x babe#babecharlie#charliebabe#jeff x alan#alan x jeff#jeffalan#alanjeff#pete x way#pete x kenta#itsybitsybabbles
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Damen's also a victim of gaslighting if you think about it, and it explains so many things about him.
Kastor seems to have taken care of him a lot while he was growing up (based on the amount of childhood memories that Damen has with him) and Kastor also fucking hated him. A child in that situation will sort of self-gaslight, they'll convince themselves that they don't see what they do so they can maintain a fundamental sense of safety despite their objectively unsafe environment. The end result is exactly what Damen is - someone who's pretty bad at telling apart those who love him from those who mean him harm.
If Kastor treats him like shit - Kastor fucking stabbed the barely teen-aged heir to the throne in the guts, mind - that's because Kastor is treating him like a man, he's giving him tough love and not coddling him because a prince doesn't need coddling, he needs tempering and seasoning instead. Damen is lucky to have a brother who'll stab him in the guts so he can become a better man and ruler, unlike those arrogant, spoiled other princes who get *checks notes* affectionate relatives.
And if Kastor is treating him like a man that's because Damen's earned it - Damen has a particular fixation about "earning it", whatever "it" is in a particular situation, because the main issue of contention between him and Kastor is that Damen gets the throne by default, regardless of who deserves it more, and therefore (in Kastor's view) Damen is a Bad Person who's screwing him over by his very existence. Damen's answer to this is to make sure that he works hard and is the best at everything (and working hard for things is actually a genuinely good value to have, mind), because this way he DID earn it, he DOES deserve it more, the better man has the throne, so peace on planet Earth, right? But he doesn't understand how this just further humiliates and angers Kastor, who then vengefully retaliates, the truth of which Damen, who loves Kastor and seeks his approval, can't handle emotionally, necessitating the "this is tough love, because I'm a strong man" mental defense.
I think this is interesting because it really spills over into Damen's incorrect conclusions about Laurent, sometimes in kinda embarrassingly stupid ways - because Veretians are Bad and being a spoiled cunt who's never had to work hard for anything is also Bad (in a very visceral way, because it's what Damen is desperately trying to avoid being), the Veretian prince must be both, concludes Damen after a 0.5 second glance at Laurent's resting bitch face. "A prince doesn't need to be coddled, he needs to be seasoned," says Damen to Paschal about Laurent, even though he's only in the position to have this conversation in the first place because Laurent's entire family died by the time he was 13 and he is currently being hunted down like a dog by his only remaining relative.
I also think that this is the foundation on which Damen's attitudes about slavery are able to change and develop - if his idea of someone deserving something is based in whether he's earned it (as opposed to birthright), becoming a slave is an easy way to disprove his current worldview about how much "earning it" matters in a fundamentally unjust society: first of all, Damen can't earn anything if Laurent doesn't allow him the opportunity to. Once Laurent does allow it, no matter how competent Damen shows himself to be, no matter how much Laurent treats him as an equal, no matter how much Damen earns Laurent's respect, this is all still happening at Laurent's whim and Laurent can turn around and treat Damen like a servant again, praise his military prowess with one breath and threaten him with a whipping with the next, and there's very little Damen can do about it. Damen goes from a privileged man's idea of meritocracy (I worked hard for it so I deserve it) to a more 360 degree one (some people can never have what I have no matter how hard they work, because I am fundamentally privileged).
Finally, it's really obvious that Damen also loves working for it in his romantic relationships, which probably stems from the same roots as all of the above, but it's a particularly interesting framework for drawing parallels between Laurent and the rest of Damen's life. Not only is Laurent the undisputed champion of Being Hard to Get, Laurent also hates Damen because Damen unthinkingly took something precious away from him (just like someone else!), and Laurent is also very punishing towards Damen over it (just like someone else!). But this time, Damen is actually capable of earning Laurent's respect (because facts will always take precedence over pettiness for hyperrational Laurent), and then his love, because Laurent is willing to see Damen as a person with feelings- as a man who loves him and cares about pleasing him - and not just as his role in the tragedy of Laurent's life.
I just think it's interesting to think about, is all, because I feel like the knee-jerk instinct is to analyze Laurent's more overt fuckedupness while not thinking about how Damen needs to also be kinda fucked up to find the thornbush pleasing to the extent that he does.
#captive prince#damianos of akielos#these books had such a visceral grasp on me that for a while I didn't trust myself to engage with other people's opinions on them#but now I am slowly easing into it and sometimes I see the usual reaction that you typically get in competence-porn-driven stories#where a character acting in stupid ways because of emotional hangups is#Bad Characterization#and I just felt like writing this I dunno hope someone finds it useful
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20/10 stars little guy
#me (scrounging undetected autist whose ideal fashion sense is ''if i have to be seen at all: shrouded'') seeing encanto the other month.....#and on top of it all i LOVE slice of life. encanto being so focused on What It's About that there's so much of that + character / dynamic#also part of what i loved abt pixar luca. ppl like ''simple story but not a problem :)'' like YEAH thank god it's Also so slice of lifey#2021 what a year lol. though again i only Just saw encanto....tfw Studio Creative Control backs off a bit more than usual: Joy & Wonders#anyway i knew going in bruno wasn't an antagonist (fine if he was though b/c slay & b/c scapegoats can do whatever they want)#knew i'd love him b/c again Scapegoat shows up & i'm the Amazing Showstopping Totally Unique Never The Same gif on loop#but what a delight even beyond those expectations lol. love again how Focused the movie is on What It's About & Thee Points it makes#the Characters / Dynamics & the Metaphor & the plot stays right with all of that. the focus & importance re: thee scapegoats....#& bruno being disabled like whole layer of Yay Yay Yay spamming. that even when He's Back we're reminded he's not ''normal now'' or w/e#(i.e. presenting that as The Good Ending for the disabled outcast. vs just being embraced as part of the group again & accepted As He Is)#meanwhile was like hmm chat is there queercoding do we think? like is he queer: Yes. but is there coding? hmm#sure isn't cishet coded though. but i was also having the thought like fellas is it gay to [higher tenor tessitura or w/e] lol#made me go ''do i know this voice? ok do i know this name / face / actor? (i have never seen anything ever / bad w/names/faces/voices)''#indeed was like yeah haven't seen this; heard of this; seen it once ages ago no way i remember more than like 0.6 details#then from ''ohh haha I'm A Mammal That Cares....yeah i hear that'' to ''omg CHI-CHI RODRIGUEZ???? ;;0;;'' waaah fantastic revelation lmao#also the way Literal Future Seer ability was externalized to make it more wrangleable for plot is so impressive & fun & excellent#got a lot of [i like this thing i saw a lot] i got to say....guess i can do that w/the sideblog i made for one drawing i made last night#encanto 2021#bruno madrigal#also the way bruno is so Nervous + Hiding / Bold + Big Personality like yes ha ha ha Yes....tamped down as ''too much'' experience#also the [stuttering stumbling muttering mumbling] line: i fr nigh wept upon going back over a moment like what am i hearing here?#& realizing the answer was: it's bruno quietly stuttering a moment during this one line (& then (& then (& then)) i saw you) ;;;mm;;;#hang onnn....the first scapegoat who's driven off being Disabled is so real so ;m; that again they're like so he got Weirder; Okay ;;m;;#that we get jorge thumbs up nobody having an Aside to be like [ugh; this guy] or Anything. augh always have too much to say for 30 tags#fabric drape there sure not accurate but i was like okay if i try to really reference that i'm not getting this done tonight
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Wake up everybody
Another reason to live just dropped
#anything by her is always so good#but this especially sounds so so good!!??#a standalone!!!#she said this is the most character driven story she has ever written#and I already know this is gonna break me#leigh bardugo#six of crows#soc#hell bent#ninth house#the familiar#my post
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There are two types of writers
1. The ones that use their characters to drive the plot
2. The ones who let their characters tell them what they do in the plot.
And the difference in writing of these two shows.
#writing#it’s called character driven#people that use their characters like tools#they fail to see the true potential of their stories
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You know it occurs to me that Helluva Boss is basically "Trolls! The Sitcom." But like, in a good way, though
#makes me nostalgic for the original act 5 troll stuff in hs#('trolls! the sitcom' is a phrase andrew hussie used a few times on his old formspring)#(to refer to the more character-driven and fanfic-esque story that some fans seemed to want - which homestuck was never going to become)#homestalgebra
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