#he’s THEE main character

[strawberrybyers]

i think it’s going to be really funny when byler becomes canon and everyone who called us “delusional” and said we are watching the show way too deeply will have to admit that they were wrong. they’ll have to admit that everyone that worked on stranger things actually cared about every detail and that will byers is the main character and that his love story with mike has been the driving force for everything all along.

[astral-herald]

laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, thinking about viktor’s potential to be a major player in season 2. what if. what if.

[starliteonearth]

TFOne Takes the Todd Phillips' Joker Approach to Megatron's Turn

Ever since I watched this film, something has been bothering me about D-16's arc. It didn't click with me like I had expected and I believe I finally put my finger on why.

Whereas I was expecting a slower, more methodical, philosophically/intellectually-driven descent, what we got was more akin to Phoenix's hot-blooded, maniac, emotionally-reactive unravelling. The lid on a pressure cooker finally blowing. Perfectly fine narrative choice, however, due Megatron not being the singular focus of this film, and its shorter runtime, it ends up feeling a bit rushed and undercooked.

Personally, one thing I believe could've facilitated his turn a bit smoother would've been to instead start him off as a gladiator, with the miner experience being in his very recent past. This way, violence is already a huge part of who he is and him brutally ripping Sentinel apart in front of thousands without blinking has a better, more believable leadup.

Basically, I think it might better to start not at zero but at like twenty-five percent into a character's arc when doing a corruption narrative in a shorter runtime, specifically in which our character becomes a ruthless murder machine. Or at the very least, becomes unconcerned with taking life. Firmly establish right from the start, their capacity for physical violence and its logical escalation into cold-blooded, brutal killing and/or rage-driven, wanton destruction.

[atopvisenyashill]

i was tagged by @allyriadayne. i will tag @transdimensional-void @maegorsbignaturals @hello--jaime @chena-h @whitegownsandflowercrowns @g0lightly

books you want to read in the new year. three categories here

non fiction i an interested in reading & have been for awhile but haven’t gotten around too. p sure there’s been second editions published since i put them on my lists 🤧

stuff i’m reading bc it has to do with my areas of interest re: writing. i’ve been interested in horror & building suspense, who Doesn’t turn to ursula le guin when they’re trying to write fantasy, 2-3 of the main characters are inuit in my own writing so i just read (and watch) random shit so i don’t sound like im talking out of my ass.

stuff i want to read but it’s been hard to find them. i’ve checked every legal channel i know to not have to pay for we shall be no more & it is Nawt available for less than $50. im like 70% sure i’ll be able to get a request filled for the other two but it’s a lil hit or miss sometimes when you’re requesting from a university library.

[cosmicrhetoric]

i don't know if fishman island era sanji is genuine flanderization or im somehow giving him too much and too little credit at the same time. and maybe i was just frustrated that he regressed so bad after two years on Gender Island when i erroneously assumed (after watching iva + co at impel down express that queerness is as close to the ultimate ideal of freedom that one piece is about as you can get) that he would be better for the experience. and i know im going to turn around on him by the time i get to whole cake island but literally brother can we cut this shit out lmao

[trashbinbackyard]

10-15 for emil n odesa

Two blorbos with terrible main character energy

10) How does your OC handle their mental health? Do they take care of themselves?

Somehow, despite his near crippling guilt and the horror of being in early 20s, his mental health is ok taking in the variables. It’s more of a struggle of identity than any mental affliction. Sif and Arvid are there to help him navigate it all, and he has his faith to turn to (even though its at odds with  his lived experience). He does get a grip of his identity once all the shackles of normalcy and polite society are thrown off

She’s depressed and an insomniac so she makes herself useful. Takes time to herself very rarely and is nearing burnout most of the time, but having Kerim with similar issues they look after each other. She also has Samalan and Naveen to remind her that she doesn’t need to do everything all by herself. So she has people to lean on.

11) What was your inspiration for your OC?

So I discovered Insomnium earlier this year and their concept album Anno 1696 and there’s several characters that were a jumping off point for the forest gang in general. For Emil it’s the witch hunter and the witch’s husband (songs White christ and The rapids). I made Emil younger and more pathetic. And also those tumblr posts about christianity can't find them right now but “i am the priests favorite sacrificial lamb” and “you were born wretched and it took killing a god to make you redeemable” is what i can remember

Odesa literally started as, and is, an Odysseus ripoff, cringe is dead and I feel zero shame. I got into the iliad again last summer and went, huh, I really want a rat bastard professional liar and horse guy as a blorbo, with a terrible haircut, and lo and behold! She! And then i projected my own insecurities to her and shipped her off with a short king, she's the complete package

12) Does your OC interact with other people's OC? If so, who's their best OC friend?

Oo this is a tough one, no crossovers as of now. On the surface he’d fit with the fuckerwoods fellas and hunters, the werewolves specifically. I’m having a hard time with this but someone a bit freaky, spiritual and family oriented

Again no crossover but tossing her into the spymaster mix could be in a “this will end up horribly for multiple people involved” way

13) Does your OC have a rival? How did it start?

Just the concept of organized religion once the puzzle pieces click together. No particular person bc he believes in the innate good in people, and those who have crossed swords with him are dead so, yeah

She plays a little cat and mouse game with the silver court, she has nothing personal against them, but their interests are just clashing, her best rival is Queen Rosanna. They’re both very smart and subtle in their dealings and Odesa finds her visits to Hirien Zilarr entertaining because of the queen

14) Who's a character your OC cannot stand! It's on sight when they see them!

The Cardinal in charge of the convent he was raised at. Once again, if he ever met them again he wouldn’t jump at them but he would grit his teeth and turn heel. (hasn’t seen them in years and years)

It has to be the templar commander, he doesnt even have a name yet but his place in the silver court in my notes is “leads the templars, everyone hates him, is competent unfortunately”

15) Will your OC ever retire? Do you see them making it?

Lol nope, he got roasted to a severe degree and then comes back as revenant to haunt Eha (his fate was sealed at the very beginning bc i do like contained stories, it’s a about the journey)

She has better odds of making it, but after the war will either be won or in an eternal stalemate, she’ll go back to sailing, a very perilous life she leads. Might make it to 50, most likely goes out in a shipwreck under the stars in a very poetic manner. Or she retires and become an island lord, dunno, still figuring out the whole area so we’ll see

[selffagellation]

I AM WRITING TEEN WOLF FANFICTION IN THIS YEAR OF OUR LORD 2023, THIS IS MY LIFE LMAOOOO

[andyling]

Y’know after I heard everyone hyping up how bonkers session three was, I was very confused because to me everything seemed pretty chill

And then I remembered that I was watching Tango “spent most of the fucking episode building” Tek and realized that the reason why that session didn’t seem crazy was because Tango-

1) has not died yet (somehow)

2) was on the team causing a lot of the chaos (team ties my beloved maniacs) 

3) LITERALLY SPENT HALF HIS SESSION BUILDING (AND THEN HIS HARD WORK GOT FUCKING DESTROYED IN A MATTER OF MINUTES) 

See the most drama in Tango’s video was how absolutely devastated he was that he build the tower a block off, like I think he was more upset over that then when it actually got destroyed it was hilarious

Then I watched Grian’s AFK video and suddenly everything made sense and yeah that session was pretty crazy wasn’t it lmao

[arinmoss]

Mortimer Hughes (he/him)

[poebrey]

Rayner is growing on me and I like him as a character and know him being XO is as much a tactical cost saving move for sets as anything else but I don’t like that we have yet another XO to Michael that is a captain in their own right

[cherrymagik]

also i finally read the catcher in the rye and i have to say

[jjs-other-other-blog]

The ship war in the 911 fandom is so much worse than anything I ever experienced on spnblr. Didn't expect to see the day.

[hotniatheron]

bleach was all about the beautiful gowns and the depression metaphors. don’t go looking for a plot, you won’t find it

[bitchthefuck1]

Kaladin really is The Most main character. Like he's hitting all the bases

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Someone asked me to expand a little on a topic that was buried down in a big chain of reblogs, so I'm doing that here--it's about the use of the archaic "thee", "thou", "thy", etc. in LOTR and what it tells you about characters’ feelings for one another. (I am NOT an expert on this, so it's just what I've picked up over time!)

Like many (most?) modern English speakers, I grew up thinking of those old forms of 2nd person address as being extra formal. I think that's because my main exposure to them was in the Bible ("thou shall not...") and why wouldn't god, speaking as the ultimate authority, be using the most formal, official voice? But it turns out that for a huge chunk of the history of the English language, "thee," "thou," and "thy" were actually the informal/casual alternatives to the formal "you", “your”, “yours”. Like tú v. usted in Spanish!

With that in mind, Tolkien was very intentional about when he peppered in a "thee" or a "thou" in his dialogue. It only happens a handful of times. Most of those are when a jerk is trying to make clear that someone else is beneath them by treating them informally. Denethor "thou"s Gandalf when he’s pissed at him. The Witch King calls Éowyn "thee" to cut her down verbally before he cuts her down physically. And the Mouth of Sauron calls Aragorn and Gandalf "thou" as a way to show them that he has the upper hand. (Big oops by all 3 of these guys!)

The other times are the opposite--it's when someone starts to use the informal/casual form as a way to show their feeling of affection for someone else. Galadriel goes with the formal "you" all through the company's days in Lórien, but by the time they leave she has really taken them to heart. So when she sends them a message via Gandalf early in the Two Towers, she uses "thee" and "thou" in her words to Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli because now they're valued friends and allies. And--this is the big one, folks, that was already alluded to in my previous post--Éowyn starts aggressively "thou"ing Aragorn when she is begging him to take her along as he prepares to ride out of Dunharrow. She is very intentionally trying to communicate her feelings to him in her choice of pronoun--an "I wouldn't be calling you "thee" if I didn't love you" kind of thing. And he is just as intentionally using "you" in every single one of his responses in order to gently establish a boundary with her without having to state outright that he doesn't reciprocate her feelings. It's not until much later when her engagement to Faramir is announced that Aragorn finally busts out "I have wished thee joy ever since I first saw thee". Because now it is safe to acknowledge a relationship of closeness and familiarity with her without the risk that it will be misinterpreted. He absolutely wants to have that close, familiar relationship, but he saved it for when he knew she could accept it on his terms without getting hurt.

So, you know, like all things language-based...Tolkien made very purposeful decisions in his word choices down to a bonkers level of detail. I didn’t know about this pronoun thing until I was a whole ass adult, but that’s the joy of dealing with Tolkien. I still discover new things like this almost every time I re-read.

[writingwithcolor]

Non-offensive Historical terms for Black people in historical fiction

@pleasespellchimerical asked:

So writing historical fiction, with a white POV character. I'm not sure how to address race in the narration. I do have a Black main character, and I feel like it'd feel out of place to have the narrator refer to her as 'Black', that being a more modern term. Not sure how to do this without dipping into common historical terms that are considered racist today. Thoughts on how to handle this delicately, not pull readers out of the narrative? (fwiw, the POV character has a lot of respect for the Black character. The narration should show this)

There are non-offensive terms you can use, even in historical fiction. We can absolutely refer to Black people without slurs, and if slurs is all one can come up with, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. I cannot say which terms are best for your piece without knowing the time period, but hopefully the list below helps.

Historical terms to use for Black people (non-offensive)

African American documented as early as 1782 (documented in an ad in the Pennsylvania Journal). Note the identity isn’t accurate for non-American Black people.

African could refer to African people or “from 1722 as ‘of or pertaining to black Americans.’”

The place of origin could also be used. For example, “a Nigerian woman”

Africo-American documented as early as 1788.

People of Color documented as early as 1796 (with specific contexts, usually mixed people)

Afro American documented as early as 1817, 1831 (depending on source)

Black American documented as early as 1831 

Black was used in Old English to refer to dark-skinned people. Black was not capitalized until recent years, so “She was a young black woman.” would make sense to say, though “She was a young Black woman.” is the better standard today, although not universally adopted. I personally prefer it capitalized. 

Moor was used as early as the late 1400s for North African people, but had a somewhat flexible use where anyone visibly Black / Of African descent or the Afro Diaspora might be referred to or assumed as a Moor. Note, it has other meanings too, such as referring to Muslim people, but that doesn’t mean the person using it is going by the dictionary definition. Not really the way to go today, but okay in a historical setting (in my opinion).

Biracial (1860s), mixed race (1872), multiracial (1903) and multicultural (1940s) are also terms to refer to people of two or more races.

Occupation + description. Throughout history, many people have been referred to as their occupation. For example, the Carpenter, The Baker, the Blacksmith. Here’s an example of how you might go about using occupation and traits to identify a Black character in history. Here’s an example I came up with on the fly.

“You should go by Jerry’s. He’s the best blacksmith this town’s ever seen. Ya know, the real tall, dark-skinned, curly haired fellow. Family’s come here from Liberia.”

Offensive and less-sensitive terms for Black people 

Blacks was used in plural more, but this is generally offensive today (Even writing it gives me **Thee ick*)

Colored was mostly used post-civil war until the mid 20th century, when it became unacceptable. This is not to be conflated with the South African Coloured ethnic group.

Negro/Negroes were also used as early as the 1550s. Capitalization became common in the early 20th century. I'm sure you know it is offensive today, though, admittedly, was not generally seen as such until around the 1960s, when Black replaced it. It does have its contexts, such as the trope “The Magical Negro” but going around using the term or calling someone that today is a lot different. 

Mulatto referred to mixed people, generally Black and white, and is offensive today. 

The N-word, in all its forms, is explicitly a slur, and there is absolutely no need to use it, especially in a casual manner, in your story. We’ve written about handling the N-word and alluding to it “if need be” but there are other ways to show racism and tension without dropping the word willy-nilly.

Deciding what to use, a modern perspective

I’m in favor of authors relying on the less offensive, more acceptable terms. Particularly, authors outside of the race. Seldom use the offensive terms except from actual direct quotes.

You do not have to use those offensive terms or could at least avoid using them in excess. I know quite famous stories do, but that doesn’t mean we have to so eagerly go that route today. Honestly, from teachers to school, and fellow non-Black students, it’s the modern day glee that people seem to get when they “get a chance to say it” that makes it worse and also makes me not want to give people the chance. 

It goes back to historical accuracy only counting the most for an “authentic experience” when it means being able to use offensive terms or exclude BIPOC from stories. We’ve got to ask ourselves why we want to plaster certain words everywhere for the sake of accuracy when there are other just as accurate, acceptable words to use that hurt less people. 

Disclaimer: Opinions may vary on these matters. But just because someone from the group cosigns something by stating they’re not offended by it, doesn’t mean a whole lot of others are okay with it and their perspectives are now invalid! Also, of course, how one handles the use of these words as a Black person has a different connotation and freedom on how they use them.

~Mod Colette

The colonial context

Since no country was mentioned, I’m going to add a bit about the vocabulary surrounding Black people during slavery, especially in the Caribbean. Although, Colette adds, if your Black characters are slaves, this begs the question why we always gotta be slaves.

At the time, there were words used to describe people based on the percentage of Black blood they had. Those are words you may find during your searches but I advise you not to use them. As you will realize if you dive a bit into this system, it looks like a classifying table. At the time, people were trying to lighten their descent and those words were used for some as a sort of rank. Louisiana being French for a time, those expressions were also seen there until the end of the 19th century.

The fractions I use were the number of Black ancestors someone had to have to be called accordingly.

Short-list here :

½ : mûlatre or mulatto

¼ or ⅛ : quarteron or métis (depending on the island, I’m thinking about Saint-Domingue, Martinique and Guadeloupe)

1/16 : mamelouk

¾ : griffe or capre

⅞ : sacatra

In Saint-Domingue, it could go down to 1/64, where people were considered sang-mêlé (mixed blood for literal translation, but “HP and the Half-Blood Prince” is translated “HP et le Prince de Sang-Mêlé” in French, so I guess this is another translation possibility).

-Lydie

Use the 3rd person narrative to your advantage

If you are intent on illustrating historical changes in terminology consider something as simple as showing the contrast between using “black” for first person character narration, but “Black” for 3rd person narrator omniscient.

-Marika

Add a disclaimer

I liked how this was addressed in the new American Girl books it’s set in Harlem in the 1920’s and there’s a paragraph at the beginning that says “this book uses the common language of the time period and it’s not appropriate to use now”

-SK

More reading:

NYT: Use of ‘African-American’ Dates to Nation’s Early Days

The Etymology dictionary - great resource for historical fiction

Wikipedia: Person of Color