#diversity? absolutely but at least they don’t want me for my personality !!!!

[miserye]

At least I know I’d never be a personality hire

[creatingblackcharacters]

“The Ambiguously Brown Character™”- The Attachment to Eurocentric Beauty Standards

“maybe im petty but i wish people knew how to draw like different nose shapes. Sometimes I’ll see a character I like but im like that is not what their nose would look like.” @the-eldritch-it-gay

You’ve seen them before. The one character that has brown skin… And everything else about them is… an enigma. They’re not supposed to be white! You know that much… right? You can see what the designated white characters look like, so at least it’s not that. You could claim them as Black, if you want, and sometimes creators even demand that this character is Black. Depending on the quality, you’re either like “no, what the fuck is this” or you’re like “okay they’re cool, we’ll take them”. Representation is important. But… There’s a pit in your stomach that wonders… Are they really? Are they really supposed to be Black, is this really representation, or did the creators just toss a brown person in so all the Brown™ people could “have something”, so that they would look like they cared about “diversity” on their art resume?

Examples

Theseus, in my opinion, looks like a white man with a tan. Dionysus looks a little better with the similar skin tone, due to his purple hair coloration. Apparently people do think that at least Dionysus is a man of color. What’s interesting about both of these characters, is that they’re only about two desaturated browns lighter than Patroclus, a character in the game that we’re supposed to believe is Black (whom, in my opinion, also looks like a brown bucket tool character. I’m still claiming him, he’s my guy. But his design should have been more explicitly Black). Theseus and Patroclus are the two darkest-skinned dead humans in the first game. So… what was I supposed to think about these two? Was I supposed to think they are really dark white people, due to the thin textures of their hair? Are they men of color? Are Theseus and Patroclus supposed to be ashy because they’re dead, is Dionysus ashy because he’s dehydrated from wine? Why don’t the white dead people look off color? Hades was entirely too striking a game in use of color for the browns to look like… this.

Noe and Hibana are interesting. It was complete coincidence, the purple hair and eyes thing btw. Hibana is interesting because Ogun is an unambiguously Black character in Fire Force, and there are at least three other unambiguously Black characters in Soul Eater as well. So we know the mangaka knows how to draw Black people in their style! So… was this on purpose? Is this another of those ‘tanned anime girls with titties’ meant for shounen fan service? I’ve claimed Noe (Case Study of Vanitas) because Black French people exist and France has stolen so much from us already, but it is never actually specified what Noe is. He’s just the One Singular Brown Guy in this show, with regular, untextured anime hair. Are there more brown people in the manga? Is this explained? Because we know who is supposed to be white! If anyone else wants to claim Noe, they absolutely can, because we have no idea what he’s supposed to be. Hot Chocolate thinks he’s Indian, and I’m not going to argue that because… who knows! He very well could be!

My very first lesson addressed this, albeit lightly! There’s a reason that I said that if you gained nothing else from me, that’s what I want you to walk away with. Now that I’m on stronger footing with this blog, I can really get into the nitty gritty of what that really means.

Obligatory disclaimer: we are not a monolith!* As of 2015, it has been researched that African populations have the highest genetic variation on Earth*, with a lot of that genetic diversity in sub-Saharan Africa alone. This means that YES, there very well can and will be Black people with naturally thinner textures of hair, blonde, light brown, and red hair, straight, narrow noses, monotone lips, and lighter skin that comes more often with white people. There are enough genetic combinations within African peoples and of the African diaspora that I’m sure there are plenty of people that look the way people seem to want Black people in art to look, if those genes so express within them.

*as a scientist, I will say: while these papers seem fairly legit and I looked at many related articles and their sources, take Nature with a grain of salt. Though their vetting process has become much better, you can and should always do further reading on your own!

Here’s the thing: the possibility is not the issue here!

The first issue: I don’t have to teach anyone how to draw those features on Black people! It is evident, from the professional and fan art I’ve seen, y’all already know how to draw the features deemed highly by Eurocentric beauty standards. Those features are excessively focused on and promoted as part of “good art”.

The second issue here is that the average artist drawing a poorly done Black person is not considering things like genetic diversity when they draw them (and if they are, it’s usually as an excuse post-confrontation. Yes, I have seen it.) These creators are not designing these characters with the intent of them being Black with those features, they are designing “Black” people with features that they deem most aesthetic and are most comfortable with drawing.

And why do they deem those features most aesthetic? We’ve circled back to the point of this lesson!

Eurocentric Beauty Standards

Definition: beauty standards as defined through a white, western cultural lens, including but not limited to: straight, blonde hair, light eyes, pale skin, high cheekbones, narrow noses, thinness. It’s a way that white western people want other white western people to look to be considered classically attractive… and then enforced that on everyone else.

It affects people of color worldwide. Anyone that has ever had to deal with European colonization or imperialism has to deal with the interjection of Eurocentric beauty standards.

Examples

-Black women, standing at the intersection of Blackness and womanhood, especially deal with the constant pressure of Eurocentric beauty standards, being consistently told to hate ourselves due to our own ethnic features. It’s incredibly damaging to your self-esteem growing up; my mom told me that until I went natural at 17, I was determined to look ‘like a white girl’ because I thought it would make me beautiful, and it hurt her. And as for me, it was a stunning realization that at 17 that I had never really seen my own natural curl pattern before. My hair was in ponytails and such as a child, but as a teenager, growing into my identity, I had always wanted straight hair. I was in love with my coily texture, I couldn’t believe that I’d never seen it. An entire part of my own body, gone unknown, because I wanted to fit a beauty standard I would never reach.

-Kenneth and Mamie Clark: The “Doll” Studies: Black children- age 3-7 were shown white and Black doll babies, and were asked a series of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ identification questions. Even by that young an age, most of the Black children associated things like beauty, kindness, and positivity… with the white dolls.

-“The Golden Ratio”: a survey was done in Britain (oh boy, here we go) to determine what people felt was the ‘most beautiful’ face, and apparently it all came down to “symmetry”. “International blueprints of beauty” they claimed, were applied, as humans “naturally seek symmetry”. In 2015, according to ye olde Daily Mail, this was the most beautiful woman. You'll never guess:

(It’s not even her natural hair color!)

-Another “research study” using E-FIT (Electronic Facial Identification Technique -- a facial recognition software used to create criminal profiles based on eyewitness descriptions; no WAY that THAT could get problematic!!) to determine what 100 people thought was the “most archetypal face of beauty”.

They came up with a figure similar to Kendall Jenner as the female option.

(Guys, we’re never getting out of here at this rate.)

-We’ve spoken about discrimination against Black hair before, and how natural hairstyles will be deemed less professional or appropriate for school, regardless of the brilliant mind that sits underneath it, and even the history of Black women having to cover their hair so as to “not steal the desire of white men” and ruin the status of white women.

Appropriation:

I try to have nuance on the Kardashians, but I have never liked Kylie, and it’s not because she’s not allowed to do what she wants with her body. I watched the world claim that she was so beautiful, that her kits were why her lips looked “so good”. Everyone wanted to have “full, plump lips” like the ones Kylie BOUGHT. But Black women’s full lips have been treated horrifically since racism was invented. In 2016 I watched racists dogpile and mock Ugandan model Aamito Lagum for her naturally full lips in her MAC campaign, after saying in just 2015 that Kylie’s lips were “top fashion and everyone wants them”. And she lied (not that we didn’t all know that)! She appropriated a look, and she lied about it to move product. And people who had no right to forgive her did so, and everyone moved on to make her a billionaire. Because full lips looked good… as long as they weren’t on a Black woman. I can’t even have my own lips, but she was rewarded with an industry for appropriation. No, I’m not getting over that.

I could go on, but I won’t. So what are some ways to address the existence of Eurocentric beauty standards potentially biasing our creation?

First thing: LET’S TRASH THE IDEA THAT BROWN SKIN AUTOMATICALLY MEANS BLACK.

Black people are not stupid, and we do have expectations. Splashing brown paint on your otherwise white character does not mean I’ll automatically think they’re Black. I’m going to look. When I see brown people in real life, I can usually tell when they don’t look like me. I don’t look at a South Asian similar to or darker than my shade and say “they’re Black”. Blackness is not just skin color, it’s an entire identity and sociological construct. Yes, you can tell us apart.

Acknowledge when you’re holding a bias:

For example: “Tall, dark, and handsome.” What did you picture? You must understand that different people had different ideas of what this meant, versus who it was actually meant to be. Because on its surface, that description includes tall Black men with dark brown eyes and dark hair! We’ve talked about this in lesson 3! Whoever came up with this phrase didn’t mean skin though, they meant hair and eyes- they meant white brunettes. Even in this, it was only meant to include whiteness. And we were all supposed to assume that, be damned anything else.

Part of that is knowing what things do and don’t fall under the category. They were listed off earlier: straight and wavy hair, blonde hair, colorful eyes, thin noses, high cheekbones, double eyelid with round eyes that “show youth and innocence”. People have been going the “aquiline nose” route lately to claim more diversity in nose shape but like… even that isn’t always going to be the case. Every Black person is not going to have an aquiline nose. It is not the “middle ground” of diversity. Draw us with some round noses. We look fine.

Often ignored (in depictions of Black people): afro/coily hair and natural styles, large, round noses, full faces, brown eyes, full figures that aren’t oversexualized, body fat. One of the characters from Craig of the Creek that makes me so happy is Nicole, Craig’s mother. When I look at her design, I see my own mother. I see a Black woman that… actually looks like Black mothers I know. It made me happy and comfortable.

White folk, you even do it to yourselves! I mentioned to a friend once that a good chunk of stories in our fandom with the blonde/brunette white character dynamic read like an Aryan fantasy: the blonde character will be treated like a god on high, the most beautiful of humanity, and then you’ll get to the brunette and it’s “my meek, mousy brown hair, my dull, brown eyes like dirt, and my tanned skin with freckles; no one would ever notice someone plain, nerdy, and unimportant like me until him” lmao like excuse me? Author, you okay there pal? Do you need a hug, lmao? I can’t take it seriously anymore. If y'all are being this mean to each OTHER about not hitting Eurocentric beauty standards, y'all are certainly not being nice or respectful about people of color- who never can- in your content! (and no, exoticizing Blackness is not respectful.) You should look out for how often this happens, and catch yourself when you’re doing it.

Creating with Intent (and the lack thereof!)

(This is so important I made the header larger)

You have to actually consider and reference REAL Black people when you’re drawing Black people. That seems like such an obvious thing, and yet it must not be, because these sorts of arts/the techniques used in them still happen.

For example:

credit to my friend @devilatelier; I asked for the worst Black art ever and he heeded the call!

I abhor art like this, and art that does varying versions of this. To the pit of my soul, hatred. I will not share your work if I catch even a whiff of it. Why? Because people know that this isn’t what we look like! If you get on the computer and type in “Black man with short hair”, option A is not even remotely on the first page. You’ll get nonblack men that show up, thanks to Google’s algorithm (another conversation), but the Black men don’t look like A. If you get on the computer and type “Black man with long hair”, you’ll even get Black men with all textures and styles of hair, including straight! And they still don’t look like B. Go ahead, I’ll pause- go type it in and see what you get. Have you ever seen a Black person that looks like these images? Be honest with yourself. Why do you let them slide, if you haven’t?

Why This Matters

So it’s not about the actual Black people in their lives that they’ve seen, that makes artists draw characters like this, nor a dedication to accuracy. Because if you were looking at us at all, you wouldn’t draw this. And yet, people draw it, and post it proudly. So there must not be any shame behind it, or they at least are comfortable enough with their target audience to think it’s presentable! That begs the question- who is your target audience, and do you include Black people in it?

It’s how people like Jen Zee can have a successful career at Supergiant despite drawing dark skinned people the way she does. It’s because studios recognize when their target audiences are not perturbed by, and therefore will still buy, their product. If poorly drawn Black people does not perturb audiences enough to affect the almighty dollar- or, in fanart situations, the value of popularity- then there’s no motivation to stop doing it! Who cares about the value and the demeaning of Black fans, right?

Think about it like this. You remember how everyone bullied the Sonic studio and they scrapped their entire reel? People do not get that much up in arms in solidarity about the antiblack treatment and depiction of Black characters. It’s how you end up with Wyll Ravengard on the drop of BG3. Because Larian could have stood on business, had some integrity, and said “this is a character we are going to develop, because there will be fans that look like Wyll, and deserve to receive our best efforts at inclusion.”

But instead, Larian said “this is what our majority fanbase wants, and apparently it is not a well-developed Black character” and released that game as it was. To rousing success. That was a choice. The antiblackness of both the fans and the studio, via their lack of concern about Black gamers, was involved in making that decision. We have to let go of the idea that antiblack racism is incidental, and not a part of the process- and that includes in character design.

I cannot tell you how much it shrivels my heart inside when I see a “Black” character with wavy hair. One, because I know the artist’s first thought was not to have a Black character with wavy hair, but because they draw white people with that hair and thought it was transferrable. Two, because if you wanted the aesthetic of hair down to the back… Locs could have worked! The same shape would be there! You can style locs in any way, and it would be fine! Even if you wanted them to have thinner hair, fine, but… I can see where the intent (and the lack thereof) is. We can see when you aren’t even trying for us!

I asked Angel how he felt about creating the “white man with the brown bucket” images, curious about how he felt given that he is more than capable of drawing Black people. His response was noteworthy, and consistent with my hypothesis:

“Thinking about it, these two drawings have been the most difficult thing I’ve had to draw, period. And it’s the first time I’ve actually felt nauseous during the drawing process from start to finish. I constantly felt like I was fighting off the part of myself that knew better, telling me that this is wrong. It felt like a betrayal, knowing what Black people actually look like and still choosing to be disrespectful. Especially because I worked on the first two and immersed myself in references and also Black youtubers, researching Black hairstyles. It felt like a betrayal to all of that to call these two (deliberately poorly drawn) characters Black, because they’re not. None of the Black people I found during my research (both photo references and videos) looked like these. at all. It felt cheap, it felt lazy. Creatively lazy in the way that you just take a white person and paint-bucket them brown and call it a day. In the way it makes you feel no pull to change what you do, or learn something new. Kinda like a thought terminating cliche. Unlike the first two, I used no references for them, but I mostly based them off of actual designs I’ve seen in fandoms, both fanmade and not.”

Conclusion

So what I want us to consider for now is: if we know that’s not what Black people look like, but so many people are willing to do and/or accept it without any mental dissonance… how much do they care? Why is this allowed to ‘pass’, if we recognize that it is not accurate, unless we think what we are being presented with is acceptable? Or at least, not worth fighting over? Why not? Why do you not think that this Black character deserves to be unambiguously Black? And why does that ‘better’ way to exist always come back to whiteness?

We’re going to get into this, as well as more into the other, more overt and equally harmful manifestation of these beliefs in the next lesson on Whitewashing! But I want you to simmer on this part, first.

When you draw a character that you want to be Black, not only should you keep in mind your intent of how you’re going to draw them, but it also means putting in the work to make sure you’re doing so. You do not put pen to paper and “accidentally” draw a white man lol, it came from somewhere- let’s shatter that connection that views white features as superior, as 'ideal for attention grabbing', so we can create better. Because remember, it is the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!

[broomsick]

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore deity depictions made by artists online. However, it sometimes gets unsettling when deities whose aspects are centered around entirely nonviolent concepts are drawn as hyperviolent, warrior-type of characters. This is especially common in depictions of Norse deities. I can understand why this tendency would be, considering some of these depictions are made for promoting video games, and such. It’s plenty more surprising, however, when such drawings can be traced back to pagan sources. Now, this highlights a larger, more concerning issue: the general perception of Norse deities by pagan informational websites. It gets easy to distinguish between the pagan sources I want to look into and those I want to avoid, based on the general image of some deities that they choose to present. I know I’ve talked about this in the past, but if you spread information on Norse deities but depict them all as “warrior Gods”—by only relying on hyperviolent representations even in the case of more “peace-oriented” deities for example, it shows you don’t care to go deeper than your surface-level understanding of a mythological pantheon that’s filled with diverse figures and nuance. And it’s especially concerning when this type of perception is spread by websites that advertise themselves as being 100% factual and unbiased. These types of sources generally reduce deities to a fixed list of aspects (“This or that deity is the god of this, period”) and it doesn’t help new pagans at all to explore the pantheon and their own perception of it. (This tendency is especially common on New Age websites, as they also tend to put up lists of unmovable correspondences while reducing the importance of UPG and personal belief in deity associations.) It doesn’t spark skepticism, reflection or curiosity.

Let me illustrate: if someone who’s questioning their spiritual path and considering becoming pagan sees a super intimidating and ferocious depiction of Óðinn, accompanied by the caption “He is the god of death and war” (implied: he is the god of mostly that), they will likely not consider right away other important aspects of Óðinn as a deity, such as his association with wisdom, poetry, the afterlife and other, vastly more nuanced elements of his myth. Websites who present hyperviolent depictions of pretty much all Norse deities, even in the case of Frø or Njörðr, more often than not have some sort of ties with the far right or even sometimes with white supremacy. At the top of my head, I could even name at least two folkish pagan websites I stumbled upon simply because I was baffled by the images they put up online and sought to see who’d commission such pictures. These sorts of website also tend to reduce deities to a handful of personality traits and this can lead new pagans to view them as entirely two-dimensional. It’s a dead giveaway for sources to avoid, in my opinion. If you are a new pagan who seeks to better understand a deity’s areas of influence and general personality, I would advise you to double-check sources, to keep researching and researching until you’ve consciously made your own opinion of them. Don’t right away believe the very first source you stumble upon. This is all a personal thought I’m trying to express as clearly as possible, and if any of you guys have anything to add, don’t hesitate to share your own thoughts and experiences! I would be delighted to hear about them.

[precious-little-scoundrel]

Ugh this blog has been bursting with content lately which I love love love love. I haven’t sent many asks but trust me when I say I follow them religiously. But amidst all this controversy about Maureen and the resurfacing of the fight between her and Ida, I do just want to say that, all that stuff and discourse is so fun and special and it’s amazing that you’ve created all of it, but in addition to that, there’s so much other stuff about ur blog that’s incredible as well. The biggest thing that I think is, I know this sudden surge of asks about Tallulah Smith that started at the start of summer and just has continued on since, might have surprised you and certain readers. And I feel like it might be easy to boil that all down to “oh well she’s not as controversial as some of the other characters so she’s easy to like”, and while that might be true to some extent, if I can offer a bit of context to all that, I have been a part of SO many fandoms over the course of so many years and this is actually pretty common. A lot of the time, with historical shows especially, where a lot of the characters and therefore the OCs that are created are white, people in the fandom who are NOT white will find one creator or one blog who is doing gods work in representing history in a more diverse way. And they will absolutely rally around the OC/ OCs created by that individual because hello?? Where else am I gonna get this sort of representation?? And like I know, I know, people might think oh but this is just fanfic, it’s not that deep, but the thing is, it absolutely is that deep. I mean think about all the people that have Indigenous family members who fought in world war two and didn’t get recognition or respect. Or all the people who might have family members that experienced racism and discrimination in the army. OF COURSE those people would be so intrigued by what you’ve created here and OF COURSE they’d be so excited by Tallulah. And I just don’t want you to think that she’s comparatively flat or boring compared to the other girls. You’ve really created something thats so incredibly special for so many people by writing her character. I mean even just her backstory aside from her identity, I was so thrilled and amazed to see this brave and incredible young girl who’s in a male dominated field and who’s going through it but is still SO gracious and tender hearted. Like even ONE of those qualities of hers is enough to absolutely adore her and of course I love her for her strength and bravery and ambition AS WELL AS her identity. And I know you said a few things about being surprised that everyone was up in arms for her and Sanchez so early on, again, I personally was not the least bit surprised at that just because of the fact that this fandom is sort of limited in what it explores. And I know that it might not have been your intention to have ur blog and this universe be THE haven for a lot of BIPOC members of this fandom, and I hope it’s not an insane amount of pressure to insinuate that it is?? Cause part of why what you do is so special is how it’s folded in so seamlessly, you acknowledge the identities of these women while also not making it the only thing about them. But I just want you to know that what you’ve done in writing Sanchez and Lu and now Tilly as well is SO beyond special and incredible and I hope you are so appreciated and loved for it because you deserve it.

Oh my goodness, this was so very sweet.

I had not registered it as a haven necessarily but I knew I was spoiled with interaction and affirmation and I massively appreciate your perspective on it. It’s not a crushing pressure at all to be that, it’s an honor and maybe a bit of a daunting one but the sheer amount of contributions my beloved anons such as yourself has brought to the plot and the BIPOC characters gives me a lotta surety I might not otherwise have.

I wanted these characters for all the reasons you mentioned and to simulate my own friend group in some ways. Glad to hear it’s gone above and beyond even that intention. Glad? Thrilled

And this last compliment?? Literally soothed my soul as it’s exactly what I wanted to come across and yet I never know if I’m managing it, thank you thank you thank you:

“Cause part of why what you do is so special is how it's folded in so seamlessly, you acknowledge the identities of these women while also not making it the only thing about them.”

[saphira-approves]

Alright buckle up y’all, I’ve got a book series recommendation and propaganda under the cut for any fans of the Inheritance Cycle.

If you read our beloved farmboy-turned-dragon-rider books and had a particular fondness for: the idea of an order of individuals chosen to be both partner and rider to powerful and beautiful magical creatures; Snowfire; an immortal evil that resurfaces in disguised and unexpected forms (specifically referencing the Draumar cult which we now know had influence in Galbatorix’s rise to power); and/or the juicy juicy drama of complicated parent-child relationships, then oh boy do I have a recommendation for you.

Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series, comprising of many, MANY individuals novels, trilogies, and short story anthologies. I don’t currently have a count for the exact total of published books, as I’ve been getting most of these from my local secondhand bookstore, but she’s been publishing these books since 1987 and is still writing them today in 2024.

Since this is such a huge collection, it can be hard to know where to start, so first of all I’d like to assure you that you can start pretty much anywhere, with any of the individual novels or series, so long as you make sure to find the first installment of that series. Personally I started with The Black Gryphon, which seems to be one of the chronologically earliest books; Arrows of the Queen of the Heralds of Valdemar trilogy would also be a good place to start, being the first published Valdemar book, though I haven’t actually read it yet—I only just got my copy today, actually!

At any rate, wherever you start, there’s a lot to look forward to. Lackey has a knack for writing characters with depth and complexity, giving them flaws that are so well balanced by endearments that even at their worst, you can still understand and empathize with them; she absolutely refuses to write idiot-plots, allowing her characters not only to remain consistent with their established characterizations, but also to communicate with each other and allow their relationships to evolve as the characters do. Characters are allowed to make mistakes, be vain and stubborn and prideful, get angry, get jealous, get scared, and yet afterward still be received with love and forgiveness when they apologize. The magic is beautifully described and, at least for me, easy to understand; the schemes are clever, diabolical, and exciting to watch unfold. There is true, pure evil in the villains, and satisfaction in their endings.

There’s also a decent amount of diversity, which may or may not be surprising, depending on what you’ve read of 80s/90s SFF. Of the handful of books I’ve read so far, here are my observations: Lackey writes fantastic and complex women full of depth, emotion, and ingenuity, each as different from each other as their backgrounds would demand. There are several canonically queer characters across the timeline, including a main protagonist. Lackey’s worldbuilding establishes several unique and disparate cultures, drawing clear influence from many non-European real life sources, with featured characters of those cultures given, in my opinion, respectful and appreciative spotlights. There are characters with disabilities, respected both by the narrative and the characters around them. There are also non-human cultures, characters, and protagonists!

As fantastic as I have been finding these books, it would be remiss of me not to add that these books will not be for everyone. They are firmly adult fantasy, and Lackey does not pull her punches when she wants her characters to suffer. There is torture, sexual assault, suicide. Not all of this is graphically described, but some certainly is; most of the graphic stuff I have so far read is of about the same intensity as the torture scenes of Inheritance, but some of the abstractions are much more intense, and I get the sense that some of what I haven’t yet read may be both graphic and visceral. That being said, if you could handle Game of Thrones’ graphic violence and assault but disliked the persistent pessimism of that series, this one might be right up your alley!

Anyway. That’s all from me for now. I’m off to go read about characters bonding with magical creatures somewhat beyond mortal ken and going on fantastic and harrowing magical adventures. :)

[yandere-isopod]

Making a new pinned post and I still have no eye for design so it is still not formatted all sexy. :(

Boring shit about myself first:

I’m Haru, (they/them) I don’t have a set theme here I just throw my impulsive thoughts out to make them everyone’s problem. I am delusional and obsessive with friends and my spouse so I post obsessive and sometimes toxic rants a lot. If you’re uncomfortable with yandere content you will be uncomfortable with this page. Everything I post about people is completely consensual. Somehow I ended up around people who are very insecure so my “I’ll kill you if you ever leave me” is usually met with blushing and a heartfelt thanks. But that’s just to say that anyone I’m talking about is fully aware of my behavior and feelings and actively encourages me being feral for some reason.

I don’t really have solid rules on asks except don’t sexualize me. You can sexualize any OCs or game characters, you can even send platonic yandere asks, I just absolutely do not want to be sexualized. Compliment me like you would a really neat piece of furniture and you wouldn’t fuck the furniture… right?

I’m making a game

And I’ll put that in big fucking letters cause I’m very excited about it. It’s called Nozomi and anything about it is tagged under that. I would describe it as a farming survival rpg. But most of the people following it are here cause they saw “yandere love interests” and are starved for content.

Nozomi is a love letter to my darling who loves yanderes so every marriageable character has the potential to be yandere. (There are also a couple platonic yanderes as well and at least one who is aromantic.) You have the power to either help them get help, or encourage their deranged behavior and enjoy the consequences of your actions.

You start the game taking over as the deity of an island that is loosely based off the town my grandma grew up in Japan. The island and its inhabitants are in a pretty bad way when you start and where you go from there depends entirely on what you want to do with it. Not just with the islanders, but with each quest there’s several ways you can complete it and things change in the world based on what you decide to do.

Nozomi is built to be diverse. There are different body types, races, disabilities, sexualities and gender identities. I’m not making this game to make money, I’m making it because I wanna make my spouse’s perfect game and I feel like I have a fun idea that a lot of people will enjoy. If you are homophobic, racist, fatphobic or transphobic: I DO NOT WANT YOU TO BUY MY GAME. You aren’t welcome here. I don’t care if there’s only one person who ever buys the game, I’m very loud about those opinions and while I can’t outright ban someone from purchasing something on Steam I can certainly make it impossible to miss my feelings on the subject.

By the end of the year (ideally by fall but definitely by December) I’ll have a steam page which I will post here, and I’ll be having people bug test it. Most of game development is when everything is “finished” so even though I’m pretty far in, I don’t expect to actually release it for another year and maybe two. A lot of it now is just writing and art but I have a much bigger team now, so I’m hoping that goes pretty quickly.

Current artists who have worked on the project are:

NaniWasabi - https://www.fiverr.com/naniwasabi/design-assets-or-sprites-for-any-digital-need

IncognitoAnkh - https://www.fiverr.com/ankhasmodeus

Piyan Apriyanto - https://www.fiverr.com/piyanapriyanto

Maia - @lacrymoria

Robin - @nepeta

Current writers who have worked on the project are:

Almond - @miodaisgay

Drops - @sleepingbirch

Beelzebutt

Drama Lama of the Alpaca Lips

I will add links and artist names as they join the project or give me their links.

[justzawe]

interview | zawe ashton

Actor, director and writer Zawe Ashton has no interest in being perfect. Drawn to the messiness of being a villain, Ashton uncovers the heartbreak behind the anti-hero as she takes on the role of the formidable, Dar-Benn, in Nia DaCosta’s The Marvels. Relishing the chance to make “her-story”, Ashton and DaCosta bonded over literature and their joint vision for an empowered, all-female, ethnically diverse ensemble. The lack of diversity on screen wasn’t lost on Ashton growing up as an aspiring actress – the ability to rectify that and heal her inner child is a mission Ashton is grabbing with both hands.

The vastness of the Marvel realm means most actors in Hollywood have their Marvel audition story. For Ashton, there had been previous close encounters, narrowly missing out in the latter stages. But with DaCosta, it was different. Ashton recalls, “We bonded over literature. Nia wanted to make a very small movie based on a Jane Austen novel and I was absolutely into this so we talked for a good couple of hours. But instead, what ended up happening was her asking me to play a villain in this movie… The process was so natural, I didn’t have to think so it made my goal really clear to serve Nia’s vision. Being part of this piece of “her-story” with the youngest black woman to direct a Marvel film felt extremely important as a moment in my career.”

A departure from her traumatic high school physical education lessons, Ashton felt empowered by the experience of getting into physical shape for the role, all while transitioning into motherhood. “It ended up being transformative. The entire stunt team I worked with touched my heart in such a deep way… They helped me realise a physical world so far removed from botched PE classes that had made me think that I couldn’t be a physically strong person. It was very powerful.”

It was also the opportunity to set her inner child free on set that made the transformation into Dar-Benn so liberating. She enthuses, “Having the inner child run wild was the best – and scariest – part of this film… I had to play which most of us haven’t done since the sandpit. So indulging in that was a very unique experience to have in front of thousands of people. But it was so fun – I honestly loved every second of it.”

But it was her character’s vulnerability that Ashton sought to capture. “Anti-heroes have always been attractive to me. As a child, I was drawn to the reasons for why they did what they did. So I was always really satisfied when we got to see their vulnerabilities that helped us to understand them.” And while egos often get in the way, Ashton had no qualms playing the villain. “I honestly feel like the responsibility to be the hero would be too much on my shoulders. I’m very comfortable in a space where I don’t have to present as perfect, where I get to be a bit messy or a bit frightening or a bit off centre… I always find that a very interesting journey to see why someone on the outside wants to carry out what they want to carry out.”

Despite history being made with The Marvels, Ashton isn’t shying away from debates around wider representation across the film and TV industry. She considers, “Being part of a completely female driven cast is really important – bringing different ethnicities to the screen heals the inner child within me. I think back to myself as a young girl looking to film and entertainment and not seeing a broad spectrum of representation, and how that was more damaging than I could have realised or vocalised at that age. So being part of something that makes another little girl not have to experience that is very moving.”

And while she’s hopeful for the future, Ashton knows there’s still a long way to go. “I think the scale is tipping. But there is still a huge amount to do to truly, holistically balance out the things that need to be balanced out to have a healthier industry. I feel very grateful to at least be on that road and be part of the conversation… There are so many voiceless people out there, who should probably have the mic instead. But this industry is extremely powerful in terms of how we interact with it. So I’m really aware that I have this platform because of the work that I do.”

Not content with shaping conversations on screen, Ashton is also changing the narrative through her work as a writer and director. She muses, “There are a lot of stories that are brewing inside of me that I’m desperate to get out… You get to a certain point in life where you have this incredible vantage point over a huge portion of your lived experience that you can’t really access while you’re still living it. One of the benefits of aging is that your creativity really can deepen. You have even more life experience to draw from and more creative ways of looking at that life experience. It’s another way for me to process life.”

With so many stories to tell, one character that remains a cherished favourite is the enigmatic, if not slightly deluded, Vod from Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s, Fresh Meat. Ashton enthuses, “I cherish her as a character so deeply. I cherish the team that helped bring her to life – all the amazing production and design team who were all part of bringing her weird and wonderful world to life. Often as an actor you can be known for a role that has a small trauma attached to it, so the character becomes an avatar that you feel slightly trapped in because how you view the character isn’t how the audience see the avatar, so I was lucky. It’s one of the biggest achievements in my career so far!”

As Ashton continues to find her voice both on and off screen, she’s discovering new realms of possibilities.

[trojanteapot]

The writing blindspots in Infinity Train with respect to race

To get this out of the way, I love Infinity Train! It’s one of my favourite shows! I started writing fanfiction because of this show, and it still inspires me every day. 

I really do think that Infinity Train as a whole is a very thought provoking children’s show and I applaud it for exploring darker themes relevant to psychology and psychological well-being, which are topics often overlooked not just in children’s media but for adult media as well. However, I do want people to acknowledge some of its shortcomings, especially because it is a show that is dealing with such heavy and complex topics, and also positions its human characters as coming from a world which is pretty much a stand-in for our own.

Now I know that the storyboard artists for Infinity Train were quite diverse, but I don’t really know if it’s the same for the writer's room. The reason why is that as a POC viewer, it really does seem obvious to me from the way that the POC characters were written pre-season 4, that their race was mostly an afterthought.

Okay and to be perfectly clear, this is NOT A BAD THING. This is just a neutral thing. Obviously we don’t need every single story with POC characters to have to be about their experience as a specific racialized person. There are experiences that are shared among everybody no matter what race they are. I am not saying that you need to do super in-depth research into every single cultural nuance of every ethnic minority before writing them. It depends on if you really want to delve into how their heritage or traditions or specific life experiences inform their character arc. Not every character arc is about that. And it shouldn’t be!

With that being said, I do think that perhaps the writers should have tried to consider asking themselves very basic surface level questions on how being non-white would inform the problems and conflicts their characters would face. They don't need to know the ins and outs of each culture for each of their characters, but they could have just asked “How would I feel/react to others if people made weird assumptions about me based on my race? How differently would my parents raise me if they were afraid of prejudice or discrimination?” I think they should have reflected on that before setting in stone the backstories for their POC characters, especially with respect to Grace.

Part 1: GRACE'S PARENTS

So I am not Black myself, but I have had many conversations about Grace with one of my friends in fandom who is Black, and we both do get the sense that Grace’s race was very much just an afterthought to her characterization. To be clear, this is NOT because she has very wealthy parents. I am well aware that there are Black Americans with generational wealth. However, knowing what we know about affluent Black people in the real world, how Grace’s parents treated her makes absolutely no sense.

For example, among extremely wealthy people of any race, networking and knowing the right people is of the utmost importance. This is why so many rich people send their kids to prestigious private schools so their kids can get a heads start on knowing the progeny of other one-percenters. If you look up famous people with famous kids, chances are you’ll see a list of all of the very exclusive private academies that they all went to (looking at you, The Strokes). This is the case for wealthy people of all backgrounds, not just white people. And honestly, I imagine that the pressure is at least double for the kids of wealthy POC parents to get to know the right people as early as possible to be able to open as many doors as possible, in order to mitigate the inherent disadvantage of being a racialized person.

But what did Grace’s parents do? According to her, they never sent her to school of any kind, only having private tutors teach her, and her ballet instructor only made her join the other kids in her class once for a recital or something? This is, for lack of a better term... buck wild.

In addition, her parents are American diplomats. Diplomacy is an extremely people-oriented position. If anything, her parents would want her to not only be in the best private school, but to be the best student in school, to know the best people, to join the school clubs that all the other diplomats’ kids are in, and train her from a young age to be a social butterfly. Yes I know that diplomats will often leave their home country and be stationed somewhere else for long durations, and yes their kids could be taken out of school then, but some diplomats just enroll them in a different institution in the visiting country, or not take them out of school at all. This is what the IB Program was invented for, actually. Her parents being diplomats does not justify never enrolling Grace in school. In fact, it makes it less justifiable. 

The fact that they did the extreme opposite of that is so illogical to me that I wonder if perhaps the writers just cobbled together a whole bunch of tropes that they think apply to rich people without actually checking if any of it makes sense, doubly so for rich people who are non-white.

I think the reason why is because they wanted Grace’s parents to stifle her growth and her natural social skills, but on the Train, she can be who she truly is. I definitely agree that Grace finding herself and being able to truly blossom into the girlboss she is on the Train is a great plot point from a characterization perspective. However, I do not think that it should be because she was being stifled by her parents. The solution is staring the writers right in their face, but they can’t see it because it’s a blindspot for them.

What they should have gone with is: Grace's inability to become a social butterfly and a queen bee in her daily life is because she is a dark-skinned Black girl!!!

Her parents have extremely high expectations for her socially. They could have pushed her to make friends with kids she didn’t like just because they wanted to be on better terms with their parents for networking or diplomacy purposes – which they could have shown with that one girl from her ballet class. Missed opportunity! But no matter how hard Grace tries, she will never be seen as the perfect girl because of other people’s assumptions about her just based on her race. 

Once she’s on the Train, Grace then uses her people skills and finds that they’re a lot more effective there, because it’s no longer Earth’s society, it’s a different world, literally! Plus this even allows her to be a little bit more mean, a little bit more honest, something she wouldn’t be able to get away with in the real world without being punished for it harder than her white peers. We already see hints of this with how she interacts with Simon, a white guy who is the same age as her. 

CAVEAT: The dialogue where Grace reveals that she never went to school was something that she told Hazel in a private conversation. So it could be that she did go to school, but lied about it to seem more relatable to Hazel, who had never been around other kids before. Lying is in character for Grace because she would pretty much do anything to get on somebody’s good side. But the way that they had her voice actress deliver those lines, and the way that her expression changes when she talks about how lonely she was indicates that she was telling the truth. To be charitable, I suppose we can land on the reading that Grace told Hazel a half-truth. She did go to school, but she was frequently taken out of class or skipped semesters because of her parents’ jobs as diplomats. So her loneliness in that instant is at the very least truthful. Your mileage is going to vary on this interpretation of course.

This points to a weakness that I can sort of see in Infinity Train in general, where they push societal problems into purely the realm of personal failings. “It’s not because of society that Grace couldn’t succeed, it was solely due to her abusive parents” being just one example. 

Never forget this monologue from a Black father to his daughter in Scandal:

Part 2: JESSE'S ARC WAS PRETTY GOOD THOUGH

The thing is they actually did write a POC character having to deal with a problem that was society-oriented quite well, at least in my view. Although, I am still pretty sure it was still coming from a race-blind method of writing the characters. Otherwise I feel like Jesse’s status as an Indigenous American would have come up more than a grand total of one time. That they could do this well for Jesse makes the fact that they didn’t do the same for Grace quite disappointing. 

Jesse’s main issue that he had to overcome was he kept caving to peer pressure and had trouble saying no to others for fear of disappointment. Now, this problem is universal, and it’s not solely something that is specific to Jesse’s race or ethnicity or cultural background. In fact, I am quite certain that they wrote Jesse as a character without even considering that this problem he faces is relatable to POC experiences. But I definitely know a lot of POC in my life who do take on more responsibilities than they can manage, or feel a higher pressure to fit in with their peers. Hell, I’m that POC in many cases! It’s kind of like background radiation to us as minorities that we just have to do more emotional labour in order to be seen as equals. That’s just the reality of the situation. You can understand and relate to Jesse’s problem without being Indigenous/Native American, but at the same time it feels like a natural problem for him to have, because he is non-white!

I will admit that a personal blind spot of mine is I don't know and haven't had the chance to speak to too many Indigenous people, so there could be aspects of Jesse's arc that don't really make sense. If you are somebody who knows more than me, please feel free to correct me! I would love to hear how you felt about Jesse's characterization and arc as an Indigenous person!

Part 3: SEASON 4, THE ASIANS 

Alright now it's time to tackle stuff that I actually could have any ounce of authority talking about? Which is how they wrote Ryan and Min-Gi in Book 4. I myself am Asian-Canadian. Specifically, I am a first generation Chinese-Canadian but I've been in Canada since I was six so I find a lot of the experiences of second generation Asian-Canadians more relatable to me. In addition, my partner is fourth generation Japanese-Canadian, so his dad would be the same generation as Ryan's dad. (I also am really really into rock music, but that's besides the point.)

What they got right:

So first off, I could tell that they really did consult Asian people in writing this season, so good on them! The difference in how Ryan’s parents raised him in contrast to Min-Gi’s parents felt very natural and realistic to me. Ryan’s family is more westernized and has assimilated more into broader Canadian culture. 

The fact that Ryan has an English name and not a Japanese name immediately shows that. Min-Gi’s parents not choosing an English name for him is a bit of a surprise; very few Asian immigrants go without an English name back in the 20th century. Even nowadays it’s extremely common for us to go by English or Western names that we, or our parents chose, instead of names in our native language. But there are good reasons to not choose an English name. Perhaps Min-Gi’s parents wanted him to have a closer tie to his Korean roots, or perhaps if they travelled back to Korea to visit family it would be easier for them. 

Also, Min-Gi’s parents not supporting his dream of becoming a musician and want him to get a stable job in… I think it was finance? Definitely true back then as it is today. I’m not entirely sure how Ryan’s parents feel about his life choices, and we’ll get into that later.

The character arcs for Ryan and Min-Gi are excellent. This dichotomy of wanting to do the good, responsible thing that your parents want for you because they want you to have the best chance at a good life, and doing what your heart tells you to do, is an extremely relevant character arc. It’s a life decision that is not just an Asian thing, but something anybody can relate to. However, in East Asian cultures that were generally influenced by Confucianism, which includes both Korean and Japanese culture, upholding your duty as a child to not disappoint your parents in any way is something that Asian cultures are prone to emphasizing to a great degree. We see this in other media centered on the Asian immigrant experience as well, such as Kim’s Convenience, Turning Red, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.

What was a bit puzzling to me:

So I'll start off with the thing that definitely raised many many eyebrows if you were an East Asian or Southeast Asian watching the show: Why were Min-Gi's parents so friendly with Ryan's parents when they're Korean and Ryan's family is Japanese?!

So like, not to bring politics into it but… World War II happened. It affected, you know, the world and stuff. And in the Pacific Theatre (god I hate that term), the Imperial Japanese Army… invaded Korea?? Among many other countries??? And did a bunch of war crimes?????

Like, Japan was invading other countries well before WWII even started… This is common knowledge… for Asian people that is.

Yeah I know what you're gonna say. “But Ryan's family is Japanese-Canadian!! They wouldn't have done those war crimes! They would have been sent to internment camps!” Yeah dude, I know! My partner is Japanese-Canadian, remember?! And even if I didn't know him, we learned about the internment camps in history class. It's pretty common knowledge among progressives in Canada and the US. George Takei did a whole musical about it. 

But that's not how racism works. I can speak from personal experience that the scars of WWII trauma in Chinese and Korean communities run deep. Even my own parents needed a bit of convincing to be okay with me dating my partner, and my parents were born two decades after WWII ended. My partner said that one time when he and his grandmother got into an elevator with an elderly Korean woman, and at first she was friendly, but once she realized they were of Japanese descent, the elevator ride became deathly silent afterwards. 

So when you have Min-Gi’s parents, who were probably born during or slightly after WWII, immigrate to Canada, and then be like… totally okay and hunky dory pals with Ryan’s parents just because their kids were born the same day in the same hospital…? I mean sure, anything can happen. But it definitely speaks to how abnormally accepting, forgiving, and welcoming Min-Gi’s parents are. 

To be clear, this isn’t something that pulled me out of the experience, personally. Yes, it is strange, but it’s not impossible for a Korean family to be super okay and friends with a Japanese family. Maybe it’s because their small town has very few Asians and so they have to stick together due to solidarity or something. Maybe Min-Gi’s parents are the type of Christians that believe in the inherent goodness of everyone and giving everyone a chance. Maybe they are just extremely progressive and see Ryan’s family as Canadian more than Japanese (highly unlikely), or they know about the internment camps and that was enough to get over their biases toward them (also unlikely). I dunno, anything can happen.

The other thing that bugged me was that they really didn’t explore Ryan’s relationship with his family to the same depth as Min-Gi’s relationship with his family. 

They already set up the contrast of like, you have an immigrant who is more connected to their cultural background, and a third generation descendent who is less connected, and more alienated from his cultural background. That kind of stuff can really weigh on you as somebody who is a minority. You feel like you simultaneously aren’t Canadian enough because you aren’t white, and that you’re not enough of your cultural background because you had to assimilate, or were forced to assimilate. 

Yes it makes sense why Ryan would throw himself into his music, and be disconnected from his family. But they didn’t take the time to really explore why he is that way. Ryan barely talks about his family except randomly mentioning that they don’t care what he does with his life. I don’t even know if that really makes sense that they don’t care what he does? Maybe Ryan thinks they don’t care, but his assumption is wrong? Either way they don’t explore this point that much. Even if his parents were more assimilated they would still care if Ryan had a non-standard job, such as being a musician. There is a gap between Ryan and his family/parents that was alluded to, but not explored. Feeling like you come from two worlds but not neatly fitting into either is so quintessential to the immigrant experience of Canadians (and also Americans) it’s a shame they only paid lip service to it. 

I mentioned in a different post that Ryan would be monolingual while Min-Gi would be bilingual, and how this could cause tension between them. I imagine Ryan definitely feels inferior to Min-Gi in that sense of loss and disconnect with his heritage, just as Min-Gi is jealous that he feels he doesn't have the freedom to pursue his musical career in the same way that Ryan can. This is all stuff that can take a psychological toll on people, and is something which the Train as a metaphor for therapy should have been primed to tackle. But unfortunately we didn't really get that.

There is a term among the Chinese Diaspora known as “Hollow Bamboo (竹杠)” or “Rising Bamboo (竹升)” [more info]. It's an insult tossed at kids of Chinese ethnicity from judgemental adults for being unable to read/write Chinese or who cannot speak Mandarin/Cantonese/other Chinese languages fluently because they've been “too westernized”. They say we “look Chinese, but are hollow inside, like bamboo.” I don't know if there are equivalent terms for other Asian diaspora/immigrant communities but there must be. This term is controversial, and in my own opinion very unfair, because it blames the kids for this loss of cultural identity when there are so many different factors at play that makes them lose it, all of them outside of their own control. 

Again, I think this is a blindspot from the writers just not understanding how much this loss of cultural identity is such an integral part of the experience of being an immigrant, and that it's not only felt in first or second generation Asian-Canadians, but also third or fourth generation, and beyond. It's scary to go out there and redefine what your culture means to you, and how to pass it on to the next generation.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it, a summary of the strengths and the weaknesses in Infinity Train as it pertains to writing about racialized characters. Just want to restate that a lot of what I pointed out is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things and I do overall think the writing is solid. I am not going into this to say that I expected the writers to do a good job, because generally my expectations for media and pop culture to portray POCs respectfully is quite low. At least they didn’t fall back on tired stereotypes, which is a low bar to clear, but it is where the bar still is these days.

If on the off chance Infinity Train does get uncancelled and renewed for more seasons, I hope they take these lessons and craft better narratives for their POC characters. Maybe hire some more non-white writers while you’re at it!

[voltronisanobsession]

Platonic Yandere! Voltron x Reader

These are my first headcanons I’ve uploaded so they might be a little all over the place and unorganized💀💀 but anyways hope you guys enjoy?

I don’t know if having all of them obsessed with you is a good thing or a bad thing

On one side, they’d be willing to do anything in order to protect you

But on the other, there’s literally no way you’re ever getting away from them, not with the defenders of the universe being your personal guard dogs

You had to have been friends with at LEAST one of them before finding the blue lion and I’m feeling Pidge was the first one to have been the starting catalyst

So once you’ve met everyone else, something just clicked in their brains

Your whole being was just so comforting and familiar for them that they didn’t even realize their feelings towards you becoming twisted

You wouldn’t be able to go anywhere by yourself

Feel like eating something? Good thing Hunk’s tagging along, maybe he’ll make you a tasty meal

Need to train in the training deck? Well, Keith feels like his fighting skills are getting a little rusty

Want to look over the star chart? Luckily Coran and Pidge are right there to help you understand some of the patterns

Want to get some rest in your room? Allura’s already suggesting you guys should have a slumber party in her room!

You won’t get any time to yourself, not with one of them breathing down your neck

There will always be one of them right next to you wherever you are

Like they’re clinginess is unreal💀 some will make their clingy needs obvious (LANCE, Hunk, Coran) while the others will be a bit more discreet about it (Shiro, Keith, Pidge)

I feel like Allura would be in between

But despite this, none of them are willing to take the risk of you roaming around outside the castle

You could try and run from them, maybe the aliens on the planets they visit will want to keep you for themselves, or the galra might show up and start attacking!

Because of that lingering fear, missions are usually done with you back in the safety of the castle with Coran and Allura (if she hasn’t begun piloting the lion yet)

They’re usually left on babysitting duties with you which they don’t honestly mind…

All of them would be SUPER overprotective of you to the absolute MAX, telling you the castle was the only place that could keep you safe

If they aren’t around that is

Being around them in the castle begins to feel more an obligation, and you feel more like a prisoner

Which is why you prefer Shiro out of all of them because he’s the only one who gives you some amount of freedom

Shiro understands what it’s like to be kept as a prisoner and understands just how restricting your situation is

He definitely tries to work out some negotiation with you

To make up for the others obsessive need to constantly be around you, he forces them to chill out and just let you be

Kind of like a schedule of some sort

With Shiro’s light supervision, you can finally take a moment for yourself without having to worry about the lingering eyes you’ve felt since leaving earth

Just don’t take advantage of Shiro’s kindness because the little privacy he’s given you can easily be taken away and you’d be back at stage one with the group hogging for your attention

Because this group is diverse in personalities, it can be extremely draining having to deal with them all on a daily basis

Lance and Keith fight for your attention, Lance being more loud and open about it

It’s like a tug of war situation with them, constantly having them bicker over who gets to hangout with you and fighting for that right

“Hey y/n, I say we make a break for it. You, me, we’ll make a great pair just saving the universe!”

“You really think they want to spend time with you?? I think y/n was on their way to the training deck right?”

It’s exhausting to say the least

Having Pidge run on and on about programs she’s working on can be draining and you often find yourself dozing off until she wakes you up, forcing you to listen to her rants and programs she’s currently working on again

(Definitely has some sort of tracker on you, everybody knows about it except you)

I feel like Hunk wouldn’t be as bad as the others but he does force you to cook with him in the kitchen, constantly wanting your inputs and needing compliments, not allowing you to leave until you’ve taste tested all of his new dishes

Manipulates you into staying with him by saying no one appreciates his cooking💀 makes you feel bad so you reluctantly stay in your seat

Allura and Coran…

They have never felt such intense feelings for a person before, so it really throws them off once they’ve developed their twisted version of affection for you

Their planet was destroyed and now that they finally found a home in you, they’re both willing to do anything in order to keep you in the safety of their arms

“Y/n just the person I was looking for! I need your help in running some tests for me”

“Ah y/n there you are! I was starting to get worried when I didn’t find you with the others,,”

Shiro plans on keeping and protecting the innocence he saw in you when you guys first met

Definitely gives overprotective dad vibes

He’ll be forceful with you if you try and do anything dangerous, like trying to go out on missions or even trying to escape them

I don’t think escaping is even possible tbh, they all kinda desperate ngl💔

Overall, this group is dead set on keeping you with them

It doesn’t really matter what you want because you don’t really understand the true dangers the universe can throw at you

They just want to keep you safe and happy

As long as you follow along with their rules and requests, living in the castle with this group won’t be as terrible as compared to you constantly fighting against them

That won’t be well received by either of them, especially Allura and Shiro

[beanghostprincess]

Why is shanks/buggy so underrated in this side of fandom? It’s much more loved in Japanese one, one of the most popular for shanks. I feel like this one prefers other mlm options for him and I don’t get it. It got better after OPLA I think but still. Sorry for my English!

Oh! This is actually such an interesting question. I was talking about this the other day and I came to a conclusion with my friend about this. Basically, there are a lot of things to take into consideration here. The screentime, the age of the characters, the chemistry, how they're perceived by the fandom and canonically, etc etc etc.

The first thing I thought about was the screentime, honestly. Shanks and Buggy grew up together and they have a deep bond, however, we've only seen that through flashbacks (one in quite literally episode 8 of the anime, another one in Wano that isn't even about them and they're just side characters in this flashback, and in chapter 1082 of the manga. But it's not even a proper flashback because we already saw that when Shanks talks to Whitebeard about Buggy, it's just Buggy's interpretation of it) and we only have like one scene of them together that isn't even two minutes long. So, quite obviously you'd think "well, the ship isn't as popular as other ships because they barely have any screentime" and I think it's correct but also not quite. And also, this would also have to apply to the Japanese fandom at the end of the day. Fandoms don't give a single fuck about screen time if the chemistry is right, really, but there's always this factor, y'know. Lawlu has less screentime than Zolu and yet it's more popular somehow because people absolutely love their dynamic. Then, if you stop to think about it, both Satosugu (Jjk) and Soukoku (Bsd) have the same dynamic and concept as Shuggy, but they're by far the most popular ships in their fandoms. They're basically the same ships but Jjk and Bsd give them proper development and story because they're shorter series. One Piece is a long show and we still have many things to see, even if we know it's gonna end soon, so I guess that we'll still have to wait to see more of Shuggy. Once we do, I'm sure it'll become more popular. Also, Shanks' personality is very diverse because he's all mysterious and all, so I kind of understand why people don't want to make content because they still don't have him figured out.

But then again, screen time isn't really the problem. It's just one of the factors. If they had more screen time, they'd be more popular for sure, yes, but it's not exactly what makes them less popular in this side of the fandom. Otherwise, it'd be equally as popular on the other sides too. The Japanese side of fandoms is different from this one and tbh they often don't take into consideration things like cancel culture and proship discourse or the standard beauty regarding age because they just post whatever they want and scroll past what they don't like (god I fucking wish we were like that because I am so done with these things). Besides, isn't Buggy like a very beloved character over there, aside from Oda's favorite? At least from what I've seen, they take his character way more seriously than this side of the fandom does, honestly. And it bothers me because he's such a complex and great character, and people never see it because they use him either for memes or to keep saying "omggg turns out the clown is hot!! Can you believe I want to fuck a clow-" yes, Samantha, we know you want to fuck the clown. It's not weird. It's not new. Do you even like the character, at least, or you're just using him to say how kinky and quirky you are? (And I don't even care about the sexualization of characters because, again, fictional characters are fictional characters and you don't have to take everything so seriously. I have tons of characters I don't like that much but only stan because I find them hot and that's alright. But damn, it bothers me sometimes).

Anyway, with this, I wanna say that there are other things to have in mind when talking about this.

Recently (I know it's not exactly new but in fandom years? Recently) there has been a huge thing surrounding the term "old men yaoi". People are so down bad for middle-aged men and they see two of them together and they instantly go "omg they're soo married" but that's- That's it? That's just it. They don't even ship them, they just find the concept of older men hot because "omg he's such a dilf" and they want to fuck both of them. But they never end up doing anything with it. They try to be so groundbreaking like "ohh I am SO woke by shipping these two old men! See? Breaking stereotypes!" because both irl and online, age has always been a very stigmatized thing. Apparently you can't be in a fandom if you're older than 25 because then you're weird, and if there's an actress older than 50 she's instantly useless for the industry.

What I want to say with this is that most people in the fandom are young. They're young and they like attractive, young, hot people and they don't want old, unconventionally attractive men. They don't want them unless it's to give a "hot take" and to be super progressive and woke. Do you know what they like? They like Dilfs. They like Shanks because he's conventionally attractive and good with kids and he's the standard for a Dilf. Because he's hot and mysterious but also silly and quirky and "he's almost forty that is so hot something something daddy kink". And they don't want to see him fucking someone his age because God forbid this man has a personality outside being a Dilf. Younger people in the fandom constantly read y/n fics regarding Shanks because they want him to fuck them and not Buggy. And they can't project in these old men, so they publicly say "oh, Shanks and Buggy are so married" because it's just a fact the fandom made clear, but they don't really like the content. Because liking Buggy sexually, apparently, is just so weird. Or as a character. Nobody wants to say their favorite character is the failguy clown. It's a hot take when you say that Buggy is hot because people keep being all weird about it when... Uh... He's- He's just a clown. Guys. It's not weird. Or bad. Who raised you to think that? God, I find Monet extremely hot and she's half-bird. Could we please normalize these things? They're fictional characters. And also, stop reducing Buggy to his jokes or the fact that he's a clown because his character is GREAT and complex and it just bothers me so much.

This makes me think about this whole "background couple" thing. Which are basically couples that are canon or that are so popular and obvious that people, instead of making content for them (because why would you make content for a canon couple?) just place them in the background instead. There are so many fanfics in which Shuggy is a background couple. Or studies in which, instead of analyzing them, they're used only for parallelisms. This happens with, idk, Saboala? Frobin? Yamace? People don't like couples that everybody agrees on. They don't like m/f ships because they can't be woke!!!!! And queer!!!! (when they easily could but whatever). They don't like ships that everybody likes because!!!!!! They're canon already and why would you write about them???? And so, Shuggy stays a bit more as a side couple instead. For being old and unconventionally unattractive and not having much screentime, but being extremely popular. Not in a "content" way, but in a "knowledge" way. Even the general audience thinks their bond is crucial to the story, c'mon.

One of the differences that this side of the fandom has with the Japanese one, as I mentioned before, is the cancel culture and proship discourse thing. They just don't have that concept. And that's perfect, honestly, I wish we could just scroll past what we don't like too and live peacefully because the discourse is getting tiring. And also you have to admit that, because of the anti propaganda going around, now fandoms have turned into the most puritan thing in the world. Beware! Sex! Age difference between fictional characters that have a consensual and healthy and mature relationship! Oh! God forbid teenagers have sex with people their age! Ohmygodjustshutup. And so, Shuggy isn't a problematic ship. Not even close. But inside the OP world, people do say they are brothers. They keep talking about each other like that, too. And I don't even think it's the typical "we say they're like brothers so you don't think they're gay because they're both guys and guys can't kiss" (I am having flashbacks from the IT fandom). They do have the same parents. Like- We all agree Shanks and Buggy were both raised by Roger and Rayleigh and they consider them, if not their dads, parental figures at least. Right? And you're aware that doesn't make it incest, right? Both things can coexist. Foster families are a thing. Lots of people who grew up together and consider the same people their parental figures end up dating because they don't see each other as siblings. Well, most people don't see it this way and hear the word "brother" and run from it like it's a fucking virus. The Japanese side of the fandom doesn't give a fuck because they're fictional and because they're y'know, not brothers? And even if they were, cancel culture and proship discourse is so fucking stupid to them because they follow the "don't like don't look" thing. But on this side of the fandom, a lot of people see them as brothers and the other half sees them as a divorced couple and apparently nobody knows how to fucking read this manga and have a proper fandom experience without jumping to each other's throats at the minimum disagreement.

So, to summarize: People on this side of the fandom don't like Shuggy THAT much and it isn't such a popular ship in comparison to the Japanese side, because young people don't like older men together, they don't focus on unconventionally attractive characters, are afraid of any little possibility of cancelation, and also, well, Shuggy doesn't have much screentime anyway so there's not much we can do with that.

[wuahae]

hey cat!! i've been good~ i binged all the chapters of the spyxfamily manga in a day and it was wonderful 😌 i would love to see hoshi + meeting for the first time in college! shy hoshi meeting strangers 🤭 hope you've been well too!! sending lots of love~ -prom anon

I LOVE SPY X FAMILY....i haven't read it in a really long time but i'm waiting for my animanga phase to come back before i catch up to it again haha

hoshi + meet cute

soonyoung thinks he's been sitting on this couch for an hour. or maybe it's only been half an hour. or... he knits his brows. to be honest, he really doesn't know. time passes strangely when he's drunk.

he knows a few things though—they've played at least three more rounds of beer pong since he first sat down on this couch, the cheap frozen pizza mingyu barely managed to make edible has started to taste less like cardboard the more drinks soonyoung's gotten in him, and he knows if he gets up to pee he might not make it out of that bathroom in one piece. or at all.

there's a loud cheer as joshua and vernon win another round of beer pong on the table behind him, a dip in the couch as someone sits next to him.

"hey, you okay?" a cold water bottle pressed to his cheek. a slow blink and turn of the head.

oh, here's another thing soonyoung is certain about. the person that just sat down next to him is really, really, really cute.

“uh.”

“soonyoung, right?”

"...uh huh."

"great!" you give him a cheery smile, handing him the water bottle. "jihoon said to give this to you. said you'd need it."

"thanks," soonyoung responds, just a little dumbly. you are just so cute. he can't feel his face.

“so you’re jun’s friend?” you ask, taking a chip from the big bag on the coffee table. “from college?”

soonyoung nods, sipping on the water. “we took psych 211 together freshman year.”

“the sex class?”

“yup!” as loose-lipped as he is, soonyoung is not about to admit he almost failed psych 211: diversity of human sexuality. “best easy A ever.”

“but i don’t think i’ve seen you here before?” soonyoung asks. he might be an absolute mess drunk, but he doesn’t think he could have missed you if you were at one of these parties earlier this year.

you nod enthusiastically. "i don't go here, actually!"

"oh really?"

"yeah!" your flannel slips a little from your shoulder as you reach for another chip. your knee brushes against his. soonyoung's pretty sure his mouth is gaping. "we're actually friends from high school," you explain, eyes bright and wide from what he hopes is the alcohol. he really hopes he isn't making a fool of himself to someone completely sober.

and under normal circumstances, soonyoung would ask for how long? does that mean you were friends with jihoon and wonwoo since high school too? not to mention the dirt he'd try to fish out of you regarding the three to use later.

but right now, soonyoung is still recovering from the three lost rounds of rage cage, his tongue can't seem to work right with the blur in his head and the ringing in his ears and fuck, he wants to make a cool first impression on you and maybe show off that he's a key part of the university dance team but all he can really think of is how he still really, really needs to pee.

"cool," he utters, more than a little dumbly this time.

your eyes crinkle as you laugh a little, leaning over. "you're cute, soonyoung. talk to me later when you're more sober, okay?"

soonyoung blinks. what?

someone—he thinks it's jun, that damn cockblock—calls your name and announces a declaration of war against the new reigning champions of beer pong.

"oh look at that," you tease lightly. "duty calls." nudging soonyoung before you get up, you gesture vaguely at him. "can i have a sip, by the way?"

soonyoung nods before he even follows your gaze to see what you're gesturing to, but before he realizes it, you take the water in his hands and screw open the cap, tipping back the bottle to drink.

"thanks! see you later!" you say cheerily, handing it back to him before turning around to join jun in defeating seungcheol and jeonghan (who is most definitely cheating).

and between the increasingly raucous noise of the new beer pong game starting up and the pounding in his head that threatens to send soonyoung into the bathroom to do more than just pee, he has a single, striking thought.

holy shit... soonyoung is definitely in love.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina! I hope your weekend is going well!

I have been a lurker in this fandom for a couple of years now. I am too old and have zero interest in the discourse regarding entertainers personal lives within this fandom and just wish to support entertainers I happen to like.

If it’s ok, could I share my review of Louis’ concert in Atlanta last night with your readers?

I am 59 and have been a concert goer for different types of music, for most of my life.

The Crowd

I was really impressed by a few things. The crowd was diverse. Age, socioeconomic, race, queer and straight. There were a group of people organizing the fan project and it was something to witness the vast majority of people wanting and asking to help and participate.

Kindness prevailed throughout, which I believe is a testament to how Louis’ curates his public image. There was a consistent atmosphere of simple joy.

The Music

The first act, Andrew Cushin, is remarkable. His song, 4.5%. Powerful. The new song he played, Love Is For Everyone, I hope he releases it soon. If you haven’t yet, give him a listen!

The second act, The Snuts, are a powerhouse, live. I don’t really listen to their music personally, , but will definitely go see them live again!

Now to Louis.

Vocally, Louis has a limited vocal range. This is not new news. He has struggled and continues to do so in live performances whenever he steps out of his comfort zone. The overall strength of his voice has definitely improved with his personal confidence and he he gives 110%.

Musically, his band is a fun live band. Like the Snuts, Faith in the Future, is not necessarily my personal musical style, but as Louis has previously stated about this album, it was made to be played live, and he and his band absolutely smash it!

Lyrically, the man surrounds himself with other great songwriters, and together as a team, they write profound and emotional music. Even if a style of music is not my first choice, you can still own me lyrically.

Fan interaction. Though like any artist, giving the same speeches every night, you might think he is simply providing lip service, I really felt his sincerity. He is incredibly grateful for everything he achieves.

Final thoughts.

This is a man who is very aware of his privilege in the music business and is very aware that at least part of his current tour success is based on the support from 1D fans. With that said, he is slowly building a personal fan base, with his live performances, music and lyrics.

I don’t kid myself. Louis obviously wants to increase the marketability of his personal brand first and foremost. With that said, he happily uses his established fan base to lift unknown musicians up and provide them the opportunities and stages to have their music heard. Guess what? That benefits all of us! I like to believe at the end of the day, that will turn out to be, his real legacy.

Thank you for your time!

Hi darling. So glad you enjoyed yourself. This is so interesting to read and I’m so glad you shared it. I especially loved your last point about his legacy… I tend to agree with you there. 🩷

[lindszeppelin]

Lady in Hollywood who is very progressive and has a murky sexuality writing here to say I’m not offended at your posts about Kaia. You’re not punching down but bringing nuance and observation to a topic. You’re not saying she has to pick a gender or that bisexuality does not exist. You’re singling out one person who has decided to live a public life in front of the paparazzi but never gets too deep into anything, including her book club which explores queer topics. I’m not saying anyone, including Kaia, has to explain everything but the way she moves in the world publicly makes it hard not to be curious about seeming incongruences.

I out myself as someone in the industry who is liberal bc I have a unique lived experience with this. Almost all of my peers and friends in Hollywood have liberal view points, especially socially, but we find ourselves at a few moments questioning some people’s motives. Hollywood is a diverse (but sadly and too often) in a performative way at this moment and is looking to check boxes. If not enough people of color are in a movie, it’s a bad look. Same with story lines regarding only heterosexual plot lines. There’s also dialogues about who should play or not play gay characters. I’m all for things moving in this direction, but the execution is really messy at times. It’s hard to get roles under any circumstances, and a lot of people on subconscious levels feel threatened that they may not be special if they’re white/cis/straight. I know a lot of people out their sexualities or gender who are sincere and use it to their advantage business wise, and good for them. Like this is the moment and go and get it! I’m not erasing them. I cheerlead them. But then there’s a few others out there where my friends and I heavily question. For instance, I knew a guy in comedy who said he was a bisexual and constantly uses his bisexuality in his comedy act. The thing is, nobody has seen him date anyone but beautiful brunette women. It’s not that he can’t also be into men and just happens to luck out more with women, but he really doesn’t seem into men so it’s given a few of us pause. He’s also not a great dude (manipulative and self serving to say the least) so that does shade why we question him, but there’s countless other examples of people who do this regarding being queer and/or nonbinary. My most liberal friends who are not necessarily straight or cis question people on occasion bc they aren’t lemmings who blindly support weird energies. But it has to happen behind closed doors bc you look like a dick if you question it. Hell, you could get canceled. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t absolutely happen (people faking or exaggerating their sexuality for profession gain). Everyone wants to be chosen so they have to put their most unique self out there to stand out. Some people 100% run with false stories to get ahead.

I have a murky sexuality as I mentioned. I identify as straight, but I’m not the straightest straight girl to walk the earth. There is a fluidity to me. I’ve rarely acted on it bc it is not that deep for me. Maybe one day that will change- I’m not afraid of it. But it’s not something I put out there because as I said, it is not that deep. It feels slimy to exploit it based on how I live my life. I like dudes. I date dudes. I prefer dudes across the board. I COULD claim queerness or fluidity bc I probably *technically* am, but I don’t live my life that way (and haven’t for YEARS) despite that it is in me to be into women. It just almost never happens and hasn’t for a while, so it’s genuinely not a big part of my life. Why would I run with that? Maybe if I was insecure I would, but I’m cool standing out for other reasons that are more relevant to my day to day life.

Everyone’s sexuality is their own. Everyone has nuance. I think when we’re young we’re figuring it out. We’re polishing what works for us, what’s a permanent fixture for us, if there are patterns etc. I’m glad I wasn’t famous at 20 bc I would have likely put myself in all types of categories and vibes that don’t represent my fully cooked self. I have no idea what Kaia’s deal is, but there’s something off. At times it seems painfully obvious she’s more into women, so the fact that she only dates men (and not like, undiscovered working actors or an entertainment lawyer nobody in the public knows by name but only men the tabloids 🙄) is certainly a confounding choice. That said, I have also mentally put her in the queerbaiting category too. I waffle with those two options to be frank. It’s not my business and I hope she’s living her best life and all, but there’s smoke and I can’t figure out where the fire is. And again, I’m a straight lady who’s played with some boobies so of all people I understand confusing sexualities! I get mad when ppl act like bisexuality or fluidity can’t be a thing. But humans are observant and it’s okay to question the reality of something. Hollywood actors constantly lie/hide/deflect about their real life. Every single one of them! It’s not even always nefarious bc many have valid reasons to play the smoke in mirrors game, so it’s dumb to assume everything is at face value. Kaia comes from a media savvy family and has an unusual amount of contracts with different management and PR firms (from what I understand). Her whole brand is orchestrated, 50% of it being styled like her more famous mom. I don’t know what her personal life is like and to be frank, I largely don’t care. But I have clocked inconsistencies of things not adding up bc I have a brain and have learned in therapy to trust that my instincts are good. I don’t know what is what but if my alarm bells are going off something is off, even if I can’t guess accurately what it is.

Dialogues are healthy. They provide nuance. They let people blow off steam instead of bottling it in. They encourage critical thinking. Yes, it’s dicey to do that about an individual but also…she chose to live a very high profile life. You didn’t name call. You didn’t make a comment that was meant for all bisexuals. You were talking about one self proclaimed queer woman who has an energy in general that doesn’t match her public image (not just limited to her sexuality). Just because you don’t automatically fall in uniform with popular mindsets by questioning who she really is doesn’t make you bigoted- it makes you a curious human.

Nuance is important. Not all who question are haters.

Sincerely,

A Very Liberal Straight Lady Who Has Definitely Kissed A Lot of Women

holy shit anon, whoever you are, this was beautiful. i appologize for my very late response, i spent the entire day with my family and i just now was able to get back on and check my inbox. i am extremely happy to hear your thoughts on this subject matter. and your voice and your story matter just as much

honestly im not going to add anything more, your post needs to be the centerpiece.

love you lots and have a wonderful day

[kcarkwright]

How to Make Those Characters 3Dimentional

So this is also probably the hardest part of your book: making convincing characters. And not just any characters, but dynamic, diverse ones. Ones you don’t just write as, because if you form every character to your own personality, you’ll have a book of Mary/Gary Sues with no good conflict. Unless you’re insufferable. But then again, that’d make the book a bad soap opera then, wouldn’t it?

So you’ve basically gotta create new humans, from scratch.

No pressure.

But I’ve found a good system to flesh these 3Dimensional Characters out to at least have an idea of the person they would be, and from there, you’ll learn your own character well enough to know what they would and wouldn’t do as the story progresses and they become their own human.

PAGE ONE: The Overview

So I say “page,” but that’s because I’m one of those psycho writers that handwrite their work first. I’m into the torture aspect of it. You can use excel or paper or a word doc or whatever your vice is. The idea here, though, is you’re not gonna wanna go further than, say, a page and a half of formatted info.

When you first make your character, you’re gonna want to have an “overview” of the person they are, by — oddly enough — stereotyping them as hard as you absolutely can.

This also isn’t going to be a personal page, full of date of births and physical features; that’ll come later. This page is solely for giving you the bare bone foundation, the skeletal support beams and cement of your character so you can reference it both as you build them, and later on as you’re writing them. This is all you will want to put in The Overview.

Character Full Name

Simple enough, no explanation needed. This is so you can find the reference.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Type

Hear me out. Some swear by this system, some call it a farce; no matter how you personally feel about the MBTI, I think it’s a great way to get a base idea of your Character’s traits. Diplomatic Vs Analytic, throw in their intro/extrovertness and strengths and weaknesses, and you have a good base idea of how your Character will react to those plotlines. I personally suggest the website 16Personalities for this, as it’s a good, simplistic yet informative overview of these personality types. Find your favorite strengths and weakness and list them.

Myers-Briggs Personality Subtype

Oooooooh yeah, subtype. My big issue with MBTI is…it’s a box. Not everyone is a direct shadow of an outlined personality type determined by someone in *checks notes* 1962. People are more nuanced than that. Which is why, if you wish to, you can add a subtype, to further develop all the possible ways of your Character reacting to a situation, and who they are as a whole. Find your favorite strengths and weakness and embellish the information from your main type with it.

3 Strongest Qualities

Yeah, we’re going that route. It’s boring and you may roll your eyes while writing it, but hey — it’s effective. These are going to be 3 of 6 core basis of your Character. All other personality traits pale to these 3 strengths

3 Weakest Qualities

For the love of all gods above and demons below, take this point seriously. Your Character needs to have weaknesses. And not the mundane stuff like ‘ooooo they’re bad at math,’ no. Make them flawed. You can tear this straight from the 16Personality page on your MBTI of choice, or reference this for a good idea of how every positive strength can also lead to their downfall. I also suggest Nathan Bransford for the crafting section of your story. Go check out his writing advice, it’s immaculate.

Cognitive Bias Type

As your Character is confronted with the drama of your plotlines, it helps to know how they’d react to information that totally fucks their world view. Here is a good explanation of 20 different cognitive bias types that you can use. Keep your Character’s personality loosely in mind: while their cognitive bias doesn’t have to be an exact reflection of them, it hurts the storyline if your open-minded Character suffers from the Ostrich Effect and refuses to acknowledge information they see as bad.

The Seven Deadly Sins

Not in a religious sense — or an anime one — but the Catholics got a point: we all suffer from our vices. Your Character needs to as well. From most to least likely, list the order of these vices your Character would suffer from: Pride, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Sloth, Wrath and Envy.

Guilty Character Trope

Look, character tropes get a bad wrap. And I think it’s because there’s so many instances where people forget to make a character more than their trope. So here, instead of going “oh haha he’s the big older brother!” or something of the sort, you’re going to combine two Character tropes for your character. Not only will it force you to think outside of the box/not limit yourself to thinking within the trope — but it’s kind of fun. It helps you utilize the character trope in the way it’s actually supposed to be used. For example, some of my character’s tropes are:

Hotshot Damsel: reckless dumbass who very often needs saving

Sacrificial Sacrifice: heals all — but who can heal them?

Reluctant Comedic Relief: fine I’ll save the day, but I’m gonna complain about it the whole time.

The idea is to assign them their place in the story — and also what kind of grief they’ll be giving it. You don’t have to do this, but like I said, it’s kinda fun, so.

The Inserts — Author’s Choice

Nothing is wrong with using other media to figure out where yours would fit. This is where I want you to look at those things that inspire you, and shove your little OC in there, see where’d they fit. What cabin would they be in at Camp Half-Blood? What morals align with them if they were a Jedi? There’s Hogwarts houses, the Factions from Divergent — you can even throw in video games! I’ve even messed around and thrown all my characters into DnD classes. The point of this play around area is to compare your work to those of media you’ve already consumed; the sense of familiarity is a safety net you can always fall back on when you feel confused.

PAGE TWO: The Interview

You’re going to have to know your Character beyond these stereotypes, though. A book full of them is either going to come out flat or prejudiced, and we don’t want either of those. That leads to The Interview, where you’ll figure out more about their personal self. This will be a tiring creative writing exercise, so make sure you’re prepared.

These will be split up into 7 sections: The Basics, Growing Up, Past Influences, Beliefs and Opinions, Relationships with Others, Likes and Dislikes, and Self Image. And these uh…well, I’m not gonna lie to you. The system I use has 100 questions. But I came out of this in the 8 times I’ve done it feeling like I know these Characters like the back of my hand. Not as OC’s, or literary devices — but friends.

Here is a link to the 100 questions I use in my “Character Interview" — and if you have any issues accessing the link, you can also find the subject here posted on my own tumblr for easy access.

[vaspider]

Okay I tried to do this from a sideblog to hide my screenname but I can’t, so if this isn’t something you’re willing/able to do, please delete this instead? (I promise this is not a weird scammy shady thing.)

SO BASICALLY I’m trying to surprise a friend who drew me an amazing Chanukkah card last year. I’m sending one back this year, and their native language is Cantonese so I want to incorporate a bit of it into the image, but I absolutely do not trust online translators (I’m sure we’ve all heard the “bite the wax tadpole” coca-cola story), AND I can’t ask on my own blog “ayo can anyone translate something into Cantonese for me” because said friend will pop up like “what do you need?”

So ONLY IF YOU’RE WILLING, could I ask you to make a post without my screenname on it asking for a translation of “burn brightly” and “your passion will create miracles” into Cantonese? Or I could make a post on the sideblog that I made for this, and send you the link to it? I don’t want to accidentally say something horrible or nonsensical by trying an auto-translator and I don’t know anyone else who speaks Cantonese, and I feel like you’re probably the person I follow who has the most diverse reach.

Either way thank you for reading to the end and if I manage to pull this off I will share pictures if you like ❤️

I publish all asks. Always. It's on my header and in my pinned post. It really, really bothers me when people ask me to not publish things at this point, because this has been my stance for at least five years.

[childofaura]

So I’ve read your post on the latest FEH chapter and wow…. It still gets mind screwy as always.

Well, we are at least one month left until this whole story was over cause man, from what I’ve heard, this is the most glaringly inconsistent story.

Tho, I wonder if we’ll get to see Njoror despite him being killed off by Gullveig in this month's Legendary/Mythic banner…

I do hope that the New Years banner for next year will at least give the Vaneheimr characters proportionate designs….

I’m really baffled as to how they’re gonna wrap this up in ONE more chapter. I just realized that the story mentions that Kvasir was sent back in time after the Summoner is killed but they’ve… never shown that? They showed Heidr being sent back but that’s it. So there’s the Kvasir mystery and the unaddressed child we STILL haven’t seen confirmed (whether it’s supposed to be Kvasir or Heidr). I don’t know if I’m missing anything else…

Something tells me they won’t release Njoror, they’ll probably pull a Freyr with him a few years down the line. But I could be wrong on that. We’ll probably just get a dual Kvasir/Gullveig banner in November.

Now see, my problem with the designs isn’t so much the proportions themselves, but rather a bunch of other factors that I have gripes with. A character can have some absolutely huge knockers but that’s not a bad thing. Characters like Cornelia, Malice, Loki and Thorr, Camilla (yes Camilla),and even Freyja either have reasons that tie in to their designs, a good solid character design overall, or they’re part of a cast with diverse body proportions. My biggest issue with the character designs of Book 7 is how imbalanced they are. It’s just:

-Big tits and thighs

-Big tits and thighs but gold

-Big tits and thighs on a goat

-Big tits and thighs on a Miku Hatsune ripoff.

And additionally, I mentioned it earlier this year but… How are these designs any different from those hentai ads on Youtube that manage to skirt the ban on suggestive content? It’s kind of just trashy.

Finally, the story suffered because they wanted to be horny. Nerthuz is a shitty, useless character, Heidr has no significance to her personality or compelling character and only exists to be emotional fodder for Seidr, Kvasir shows up ONCE for some forced emotional bond with the Summoner, and Gullveig has no real motivation for doing the shit she does. Not even like “This world was so unkind to me, everything I loved was ripped from my grasp, so I will erase everything in vengeance”, it’s just “Prophecy and timeline demands this, it can’t be stopped blah blah blah”. Njoror was the only character who had potential and his motives were revealed last minute right before he died, creating absolutely no lasting impact.

I just really hope the next book isn’t also another horny-fest. IS unfortunately might be looking at the success of Gullveig being thirsted for in her CYL vote, and just keep cranking out bad designs and bad stories suffering for the sake of smut.