#how do you misunderstand the point of a story. of a CHARACTER this badly

[tbartss]

wait wait wait wait wait. GYATSO is the one telling Aang that he's the Avatar?? GYATSO?? Gyatso who pleaded with the airbending elders to let Aang live in ignorance until he was 16 like normal?? Gyatso begging to let Aang have his childhood fully realised? GYATSO WHO FOUGHT TO KEEP AANG BY HIS SIDE TO ENSURE THAT HE HAD FUN AND COULD STILL BE A KID?? THAT GYATSO??? what were they THINKING

[tawked]

I promise I will shut up about disabilities in comics, but I wanna make one last point.

There's a kind of writing where disability, or more often the abuse of someone with a disability, is employed for shock value and South Parkian offensiveness. This isn't really the kind of thing that's going to offend most disabled readers of comics. I think to be a reader of comics you kind of have to be fairly desensitized to violence or the abuse of characters. I mean, shit, Spider-Man's life is basically endless misery and he's considered a bright, optimistic, positive character with bright, optimistic, positive stories most of the time.

Rather, I think what seems to stick in the craw of most disabled readers I know, and especially myself, is when disabled aesthetics are used superficially to invoke disability but the disabled person's actual life as a disabled person isn't really considered beyond that. It's sad that Xavier or Barbara Gordon can't walk, but let's not consider what that means for their actual lives.

So there's this disconnect in the community sometimes, like...

Able-bodied reader (Lawful Good): omg! how evil! how cruel! to do that to a disabled person! this is really crossing the line! this is really beating balls!

Able-bodied reader (Chaotic Evil): lol. haha. lol. yeah charles xavier CAN'T climb stairs. funny observation, mark millar I assume

Disabled reader: how the fuck did he get up to the second floor? seriously there's no elevator or chairlift or anything

I think you can really see a difference in the two approaches in Legion.

The Legion of the comics is played as scary because he's disabled, the aesthetics of mental illness and disability are invoked purely for horror, and we're made to fear what he can inflict on others. There's no consideration of his environment beyond the superficial use of a psychiatric ward uniform and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure hair (a signifier of severe mental illness if ever there was one). He is raised in abusive psychiatric confinement but remains at that level even when removed from it, he does not react to his environment so much as he is produced by it in a near permanent sense.

Meanwhile, David of the Legion FX series (one of the best artistic communications of SCZ I have ever seen) focuses exhaustively on David's environment. On the conditions he has been made to live in and the effect they have such as the often futile and punitive nature of psychiatric confinement, and the people who have affected him in a general sense and particularly in relation to his disability.

Legion FX uses an intentionally anarchronistic combination of disabled aesthetics specifically to avoid the use of disabled imagery for any familiar purpose, be it horror or sympathy, to shift the audience's focus to his environment at basically all times.

David is abused in both narratives, that's sort of the point of Legion as a character - what happens if you abuse someone with Xavier-level powers - but in the former he's often treated as a kind of horror movie monster while in the latter he's treated as a human being first and foremost. The former never lets you doubt that he's mentally ill and being cuhraaazy and mad at Charles is his primary motivator. I want to mention that comic book Legion has a 1990s idea of what we today call dissociative identity disorder, not schizophrenia, but it hardly fucking matters because he's just written as weird, a real weirdo, he doesn't fit in and he doesn't want to fit in, have you ever seen him not raving psychotically? Okay, that's weird.

Meanwhile, the latter version plays with this idea that he might be misunderstanding his psychic powers as schizophrenia and pulls off an incredible plotline where some essential oils self-help guru lady convinces him to desist with his meds and this ends badly for everybody lol. Even once David is unambiguously confirmed to be psychic and schizophrenic at the same time (not a spoiler in comic book world), the narrative makes absolutely clear that his actions are a consequence of treatment and environment, not some inherent fiendishness. We even see a dimension-hopping episode where David's life plays out a range of ways based on key moments changing and while he's schizophrenic in every timeline, the outcome is different each time.

The former seeks to shock and offend as a horror movie would, the latter seeks to empathize and humanize.

The former reads (to me, anyway) as kind of offensive not because it's just an evil crazy person stereotype (if I were offended by this I'd just never consume any American media), but because his character feels impossible within his environment and context. He's just crazy and scary because he's crazy.

The latter is directly a result of his environment at all times and the world is built around his existence, both to accommodate and to create barriers, with the effects of those accommodations and barriers being central to the narrative.

All this is to say,

why doesn't the Xavior mansion have a stupid chairlift on the stairs Wolverine throws Xavier down

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Since you've already talked about ships, what are your thoughts on the whole top/bottom debates here? Tbh I’m over this bottom tom/top harry trend these weeks. It doesn’t make sense for their dynamic and feels like pp are doing it just to be edgy or different. Flipping roles doesn’t make it unique, it just feels like flat ooc discourse. I don't think Tom’s pride and emotional repression fit a submissive role.

Holy shit, this is like a blast from the past since I haven't engaged with top/bottom discourse since 2014 (I had a different blog then) and I hoped I was past these days.

See, fictional characters, when it comes to this sort of stuff, are very flexible. You can write yourself into almost anything and make it realistic. Even if a character is a certain way, circumstances and conditions in a specific story will force the character to change to accommodate. It's how fictional characters work. Yes, they have their set traits, but they can still be pushed to do quite a bit. Especially when it comes to smut.

So personally, I don't have a fixed top/bottom designation for any of my ships. All of them switch depending on the situation, preferences, and the specific story being told with them. Becouse, contrary to what you think, the bottom position isn't always submissive and the top one isn't always dominant, and whatever sex position you prefer doesn't necessarily indicate anything regarding how submissive/dominant you are. These are not the same thing.

But if we talk about Tomarry/Harrymort specifically (I haven't really interacted with this pairing in some time, and I wrote my thoughts about them in general here), I only like them when they switch. "Mark him as his equal" and all that. My preferred Tomarry dynamic (back when I read it) was a constant push and pull, neither of them was ever the person in power/dominance in the relationship because they're equals — that's the point.

Harry isn't a submissive character either. Harry would never submit to Tom. Saying he is more likely to be submissive than Tom is OOC and a misunderstanding of his character. Harry doesn't bow down to others, so even when he is written as a bottom, he wouldn't be submissive about it.

Similarly, Tom can be written as a bottom without submitting control over to Harry. It can be done, and can be done interestingly (which is the most important thing when it comes to fanfiction and storytelling as a whole).

Tom is also weird and contradictory as a character. He's a control freak, so whatever position he's in, he'd have demands on how exactly things should go (he can do so both as a top or a bottom). But he's also so thirsty for validation and praise. I'm an advocate of Voldemrot having a praise kink, like, when I was writing my giant Voldemort psychoanalysis essays series from about a year ago the way I summarized it to my irl friends was "Voldemort has a praise kink" since his desire for praise is at the core of a lot of his important decisions.

Tom isn't some super dom who could never be vulnerable and doesn't have insecurities about anything — the guy literally tore his soul apart, what can be more self-hating than that!

Writing him as incapable of vulnerability and trust (eventually) feels like a boring and hollow character that is more cardboard than a person. Like, I have no interest in this sort of Voldemort because there is no spice to a character like that. No meat to chew on. And Voldemort in the books doesn't appear that way at all. He likes silly puns, and he forces others into his proximity when it seems he is vulnerable to make them uncomfortable; he doesn't like being vulnerable, but he's aware he has these vulnerabilities (imperfections he despises about himself). He talks at length about his muggle father because he's a sentimental loser who likes to monolog. He, somehow, still loves his mom. He wants to have a real human connection so badly that he completely missed what friendship means. He is a lonely nerd. He is impulsive and emotional. He likes to gossip about other people's relationships (yes, he does this in the books). He is a complex character you can have fun with, why limit yourself?

I used to like Tomarrymort becouse of the changes Tom's character would have to go through to be in a relationship with Harry. I read it because I love the idea of a character who got so used to hate and distrust, learning to be vulnerable. That was a huge part of what I found fun in these stories.

And Harry learned just as much from Tom in turn. He learned to like himself more, be confident in his abilities and cabalities. Learned that he has strengths beyond just Quidditch.

The fun is in this arc for both of them. Where they both become better (or, sometimes worse, depending on the story, but I usually preferred the ones where they got better) through their very explosive dynamic. They are foils and narrative mirrors, and pushing them together forces growth. And sex scenes in Tommarymort stories are an opportunity to explore that vulnerability, for both Tom and Harry. That's part of the appeal (at least for me).

For that kind of explosive dynamic that is inherently vulnerable for both of them, in my preferred Tomarrymort dynamic, they switch. (But so do all my ships. I'm against fixed top/bottom dynamics since the answer is it would be what serves the story/scene/themes/character arcs best)

[ultfreakme]

I can't believe I'm saying this. It burns me to say this. But holy fuck the people were right Sakura is annoying. It takes very little to convince me to like a female character and far too much to make me get anywhere near dislike. I don't think I've ever.....actively hated a female character. Ever. I've watched a lot of shonen anime and often, the female characters are not treated well but I've never once looked at a character and gone "you're hopeless". (I watched Fairy Tail for a solid 3 years and read the manga, and all my faves were the girls).

Every one of them had something.

I thought I'd walk away from Naruto liking Sakura and seeing her potential but she just. Sucks. This is not the first time I've engaged with a story with badly written female characters. I used to watch Supernatural and Teen Wolf for god's sake.

Usually, sexist writing leads to underdeveloped female characters for whom obvious plots go unaddressed. This frustration and general lack of involvement in plot + audience misogyny often leads to female characters being hated. But personally, none of these have ever made me hate them because when writers write them, regardless of future exploration, they are written to be likeable.

They don't WANT you to hate the character, so they are given base-level compelling motives and personality traits, shallow as they may be.

Sakura through and through is written like we're supposed to hate her. Naruto as a show is so focused on empathy. Talk No Jutsu might be boring and often misses the point, but it exists to emphasize Naruto's ability to reach out. The show's all about friendship, camaraderie, and loyalty to one another. Sakura is none of those things.

I truly began hating her when Five Kage Summit happened because of two things:

Her confession to Naruto

The way she talks about her feelings towards Sasuke

In both these cases, she seems to think she has both of them all figured out and centers herself, start to finish. She makes that fake confession to Naruto because she took Sai's word for why Naruto was doing it. Shizune said Naruto was doing it for Sasuke and not because of her, Sai doesn't KNOW any of them on a deeper level, and Naruto's her teammate who she's known for a while.

Yet she went with "oh he's just doing it for me". And okay fine I can sorta forgive it. But the confession itself was so shallow. She sounded like she was trying to be sincere but all she could talk about was how Naruto was a hero worthy of acknowledgement now that he had proven himself through achieving an impossible feat. She's confirming all of Naruto's worst fears and the source of his anger while thinking she understands him. She was spinning her actual thoughts regarding him into a love confession- and her actual thoughts are she thought he was a fool who knew nothing but is cool now because he's gained status.

Then with Sasuke, she gets a whole episode dedicated to thinking about him as she chased him down. I thought we might finally know why she was so dedicated to him.

The answer, in canon, as Sakura herself says is because she thought he was hot and cool. When she looked past it, all she saw was "darkness" that disgusted her. She thinks Naruto is trying to beat the darkness out of him. The only thing she sees in Sasuke is his physical appearance, which she likes, and this nebulous "darkness" which does not even want to try to understand.

She doesn't remember his kindness, his smile, his empathy, his willingness to put his life on the line for those he treasures. None of it, even though she was there to witness most of this.

She so hilariously and embarrassingly misunderstands both of her teammates who she apparently cherishes with such blind confidence it's hilarious. She's WRITTEN, INTENTIONALLY, to be shallow as fuck and uncaring for either of her teammates true feelings. She makes an assumption and runs with it, with zero urges to examine it.

She doesn't ask about Itachi when Naruto said the name in front of her during the bridge scene, she's not curious about him, she never initiates in trying to discern the situation. The person she evolves into in the future is also disgusting to me. Like she's such a nothing-burger of a character who exists to highlight Naruto & Sasuke's bond by showing how distant she is to either of them.

And this is not because of combat strength. Sasuke has openly expressed his dislike towards her because she has no spine. She says she'll kill whoever as a 12 year old on Sasuke's request. And she's exactly the fucking same when she hits 16. He hates liars and people with no conviction. Sasuke values strength but he also values integrity, intellect and tenacity. Karin is objectively far weaker than Sakura and he respects her. Same for Cat Baa-Chan and a lot of other characters. It genuinely doesn't take much to gain, at the very least, Sasuke's fundamental respect. Just believe in something and don't fucking breach his boundaries.

Sakura is so dismissive of his trauma and is wet noodle of a person with no ideology or goal beyond him, of fucking course he's annoyed by her.

idk her character is so fucking annoying after a point

[yoroshiu]

Thinking about Kingdom Hearts' narrative with communication.

As with a lot of conflicts in story and real life, much of the most heart wrenching stuff in this series stems from a lack of communication or a severe misunderstanding between characters.

The Foretellers fall apart due to mistrust that was bred in between them, as according to the Master of Master's plan, and a lot of their interactions are full of deceit and witholding information. In an effort for most of them to do what MoM says while simultaneously realizing that they could go against his word to save the world, it inevitably leads to war.

Baldr, in his grief, is kept separate from his friends, alone until the darkness overtakes him and he ends up being consumed by it. As a result, everyone is taken by surprise and there's already too many bodies piled up by the time he's dealt with. Even when Hoder appears before him, they are unable to meet in the middle and turn on each other. He ends up killing many friends and plants a seed into what Xehanort becomes.

The basis of the Wayfinders and Eraqus is that they constantly don't talk to each other properly, pushing each other away until their tragedy becomes inescapable. Eraqus not telling his students about anything Xehanort has done, for instilling such an unforgiving view of Light and Darkness, for not telling Ventus the truth until it was too late. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus not being able to talk or clear things up until Xehanort is already beyond knees deep into his plans, and despite having their love for each other go beyond any possible discord, it is not enough to prevent unfortunate fates that befall them.

The Destiny Trio, especially Riku earlier on, suffers from a lack of communication. While not as turbulent as the other trios, it's Riku's tendency to hide away and lash out that builds the conflict between him and Sora. For one reason or another, a quite literal and physical reason for Kairi, they were unable to talk which goes on and on until RIku gets possessed. And it his shame that pushes him to hide for such a long time in the second game as well. Sora has also picked up on not saying anything, deciding to perish without letting anyone know beforehand, and the full-on effects of that have yet to be explored.

The Sea Salt Trio was built on miscommunication. Secrets, unknowns, caring so much that you believe that it'd be much better to fade away without a word than to burden someone with the pain of truth and knowledge. It drives a wedge between Roxas, Axel, and Xion at multiple points. Axel, who was stuck between loyalties, kept information to himself and ended up driving Roxas and Xion away at one point and another. Xion, who found out the truth and also made big decisions without fully explaining to the other two, also inevitably leaves a grief that digs into them even when they don't remember her. And Roxas, who was the probably the biggest victim of not being told anything, ends up barrelling forward, trust broken up until the pieces finally fell in place and he had to accept his fate in tired resignation.

But it's when love overcomes the lies, clearing them away that these groups of friends can come together and start again.

A lot of the emotional turmoil that Kingdom Hearts displays often comes from the very human act of communication with others and how often we fail to do so. The fragility that comes with one kept secret, or one mispoken phrase. How badly people get torn apart when no one says anything. Yet, it also shows how it can potentially be overcome with enough love and determination to recover what was lost, and even if it's not the same as before, there's potential to make things better.

TLDR; Connections are the basis of Kingdom Hearts. Communication is a foundation of connection. The highs and lows of communication is something that Kingdom Hearts explores extensively in the stories of its characters, and that has resonated with me so heavily that I stay up thinking about it.

[maxdibert]

Sev's fandom is so vast that it’s incredibly rewarding to feed my obsessive hyperfocus on him. I discovered that he has many ships, which was surprising but not unpleasant. Snulciber, Snegulus, and Snetunia were the ones that caught my attention the most as a newcomer, especially Snegulus and Snulciber. I love the idea of chaotic Slytherins starting a relationship based on mutual misunderstandings and actually gaining something meaningful from it, but unfortunately, I’ve never found anything along those lines.

What do you think about Severus and Regulus or Severus and Mulciber? Do you think there’s good potential there or not?

I also came across Severus ships with the Marauders, and although I don’t personally like them, I still find them unsatisfying. I hate how, in long fanfics, Severus’s trauma is never properly explored. It feels like he always has to swallow everything that happened to him in favor of the couple’s development. I wish there were more angst, self-hatred, and revulsion, both from Severus and his chosen partner. It feels unrealistic when they don’t allow his character to carry his trauma and deal with it at his own pace. Not to mention the half-hearted apologies I’ve seen from the Marauders in some stories. What do you think about that?

I also came across fem!Severus tags, and I must admit I’m hooked. It’s a shame I haven’t found any good fanfics about it. What’s your opinion on that?

As I said, the fandom and the ideas people have surrounding him are so fascinating to me. There’s so much potential to explore.

The Severus/Mulciber ship is as old as the creation of the continents hahaha. Look, I’ve always been fine with bisexual Severus, especially with that line Rowling mentioned about Severus wanting Lily but also wanting Mulciber. It has potential, and canonically, they got along, and Severus saw something in Mulciber that he desired — however you choose to interpret that. So, honestly, I don’t think it’s a crack ship at all!

I find it curious that people in the new Marauders fandom assume Regulus would have gotten along badly with Severus, when it’s far more likely they had a cordial relationship. Maybe Regulus was even nice to him just to spite his brother. Honestly, I can totally see a scenario where, after Sirius ran away from home, Regulus confronted him at some point when he was bothering Severus — just for the sheer pleasure of annoying him. I’m pretty sure nobody could handle Sirius Black, but if his brother stepped in, Sirius might think twice, simply because Regulus would know all his weaknesses.

It’s not a pairing I’ve thought much about, but hey, why not? It makes a hundred times more sense than Jegulus, and in the end, they were only a year apart, shared the same house, and probably had mutual friends. And Sirius would have had an aneurysm if he ever found out they were or had been involved — which is a bonus for shipping them, hahahahaha.

Severus pairings with any of the Marauders seem problematic to me for obvious reasons, since shipping a victim with their bully isn’t something I’m particularly fond of. That said, I understand Snirius because they have a lot in common while having diametrically opposed personalities. They love in very similar ways, and both have explosive tempers in their own ways, so the dynamic could be really interesting if handled well. My issue with Snirius is that the fics I’ve read don’t really explore Severus’s trauma or the consequences it would have on a relationship. If I were to write about that pairing, it would be a long fic where 60% of the plot is pure drama about how Sirius’s past as Severus’s bully is the main problem in the relationship — because it should be. The few fics I’ve read have left me pretty unsatisfied in that regard because Sirius repents way too quickly, and everything is resolved as if nothing happened, or the issue isn’t even properly addressed. Sorry, but that’s just not realistic.

I can’t see Snupin, though — I have something personal against Lupin, ironically, because he’s the one people have been headcanoning as queer since the dawn of time. But to me, he’s the most straightforwardly, absolutely, and completely heterosexual character because there’s nothing more straight for a man than leaving a pregnant woman and running off. For that reason alone, I can’t see him with anyone but a woman. Sorry, he’s the Ted Mosby of the wizarding world.

And with James, it’s just a no. Like, absolutely not. If you want an enemies-to-lovers dynamic, you already have Sirius, who’s at least mentally unwell and deeply depressed. James and Severus have nothing in common personality-wise — they’re completely incompatible.

[themousefromfantasyland]

Was Star really supposed to be Asha's love interest in the beginning of the development of Disney's Wish?

I keep seeing this being brought up everywhere, appearing even on Trivia TikTok videos about the movie, but as far as I know this is coming from a deeply misunderstanding of the development process.

The main idea is that Star-boy was supposed to be Asha's love interest and that At All Costs was supposed to be their love song.

Seeing the concept arts of Star-boy I can see where most people are coming from. I'm also think that Asha and him are definitely shippable.

However, in the Art of Wish, Star-boy was just the third stage of the character development, and on that stage he was meant to be Asha's deceased grandfather reborn. On the first stage he was supposed to be a shapeshifter and on the final stage a ball of pure energy.

You can say they missed the opportunity of having Star stay as a magical boy like Peter Pan, but it's clear that on that stage his relationship with Asha was probably going to be platonic. No romance here.

Then why do At All Costs sound so much like a love song?

Luckily for us, Jennifer Lee, one of the writers for the film and chief creative officer of the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Julia Michaels, the songwriter for the movie, gave an interview to Variety explaining their reasons.

The song “At All Costs,” sung by Asha and King Magnifico, was important to Lee. The song navigates the importance of the wishes to each of them, and the two are emotionally aligned here. Lee pushed for a song expressing this. “You had to understand what it felt like to hold someone’s wish in your hand. How do we viscerally understand that when you’re with them, you feel like you’re holding someone’s raison d’être?” she says. “You can’t do this in any other way but song.

Since there was no love song in the film, Michaels wanted to write a song that as a standalone sounded like a love song that could be played at weddings. Yet in the context of the film, it’s about the heroine and villain. Says Michaels, “How cool would it be if we wrote a song that if you listened to on its own, it sounds like a love song, it could be something you could play at your wedding, or be a lullaby to your kids, just something really beautiful, but when you watch the film, it’s the heroine and it’s the villain.” She continues, “You realize they’re coming about this both from various points, one from a very selfless standpoint and one from a selfish standpoint.”

Basically Jennifer Lee wanted a song about the importance of the the wishes for both Asha and Magnifico, but Julia Michaels wanted to write a love song. As there were no opportunities to write a love song, Michaels wrote At All Costs to sound like one.

But in the demo, they sing "Love you, as one does", instead of "Promise, as one does"?

Probably Julia Michaels wanted to write a love song, but had to tone it down so as to not confuse the audience. Clearly, it didn't work that well.

Disney is lying!

Why would Disney lie about the development of Wish? As far as I know, there's nothing to hide, no scandals, no controversies.

Jenifer Lee is literally the chief creative officer, the highest ranking position of the creative team within the Walt Disney Animation Studios. She along Allison Moore WROTE the screenplay and she is part of the team that came up with that story. Wish was her brainchild. Why would she need to lie?

Maybe higher ups like Bob Iger and Bob Chapek screwed with the project. That's completely possible. Maybe we learn later some big and super shady controversy in the development of the movie.

But, by the time being, with all the evidences available, Wish seems to be the story she and others of the studio wanted to tell, even if general audiences reacted badly.

And so far, no evidence of romance.

Unless someone comes out with some legitimate evidence of the contrary, Star was never supposed to be Asha's love interest, and everything else is consequence of fans being dissatisfied with the end product and wanting for something more Disney-like.

[alicentsgf]

why are people so pressed about how Alicent ends up this season??? Like hotd hasn’t been good since s1 people also criticized everything back then but tbh Alicent from s1 was always headed to where she ends up?? I thought it was common knowledge that her last choice would always going to be duty vs love and s1 stated very well that Rhaenyra is that freedom for Alicent???? I absolutely hated the things they put Alicent through (alicole sex and for what? All of her sons being a dick to her??) her arc this season was badly executed but to blame and think that the writers are catering to rhaenicents? seems a bit stretch when the ship is hated by the majority of the show. We can argue in the journey of how Alicent get to the point she is now but it was clear for the beginning that the head of TG?? She would never be, sometimes I think that thanks to most of the general viewers didn’t understand Alicent as a character the writers thought if we put her in these humiliating scenes the viewers would understand that she is a victim of the patriarchy and the men who surround her, but I guess not even with that the GA and fandom as whole could ever understand her character and honestly im good with it, she’s a walking contradiction and i have read her character like that since the beginning, good riddance tho to the obnoxious people that kept bad talking Olivia for only doing her job (this is not a dig to you but the extended fandom that are attacking Olivia again for her character)

Why are we upset now? Because we dared to hope lmao. And now we're realising theres absolutely no coming back from this (it was already mostly ruined i know).

I think the issue is the choice between duty and love should have been made when she chose her children and grandchildren over viserys wish for rhaenyra to rule. Choosing love didnt have to and shouldnt have meant choosing rhaenyra. Like finally FINALLY she lets herself cast duty aside, because "what is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms", "you never love anything in the world the way you love your first child", "you imbecile (affectionate)", etc etc. That is what works in line with the original story AND the sympathetic sides of alicent we saw with in season 1. Sure motherhood shouldn't define women but this is a story abt a fucking lineage !! What do people expect. Of course its going to be about parents and children.

F&B might have been bare bones, but it at least had a strong political backbone to it thats been completely removed this season. That direction would have offered more oppertunities for alicent to be explored as a multifacted character. The problem is that because they angled this as a story primarily about misogyny rather than a story about the inevitability of the targaryen line imploding, they maybe thought they couldnt do that without making alicent look like an unsympathetic agent of patriarchy. (Most of the audience read her that way anyway so they did a pretty crappy job avoiding it). Rhaenyra represented a certain freedom for alicent in the story, sure, im not against that at all, but for the writers to suggest literally being with Rhaenyra is what alicent needs to do to achieve freedom from duty? To free herself from the shackles or patriarchy?? (🙄) Its so laughable. Alicents little grandson had to have his head sown back on for his funeral and Rhaenyras faction sent the assassin. Her daughter was traumatised. You dont just fucking come back from that. Really we should have known when viserys died how this was gonna go and I think in some ways we did because a big number of us were upset with the misunderstanding then, we just didnt want to believe what this signaled about where they were taking alicent. People are upset now because alicents character has become totally unrectifiable. We just never believed they'd diverge so much from the known plot points of fire and blood.

As for this bit you said:

" I think that thanks to most of the general viewers didn’t understand Alicent as a character the writers thought if we put her in these humiliating scenes the viewers would understand that she is a victim of the patriarchy and the men who surround her, but I guess not even with that the GA and fandom as whole could ever understand her character and honestly im good with it, she’s a walking contradiction and i have read her character like that since the beginning."

I have thought this myself and unfortunately I think you're right. In an effort to make alicent sympathetic they have created the most convoluted character i've ever laid my eyes on. Towards the end of season 1 we were already saying her being so forgiving after driftmark made no sense, but i was compelled enough by her because of olivias performance of that scene with the knife to be willing to wait to see where they took her this season. And its been an exercise in more of the same stupid shit. The issues in season 1 have just been amplified by the realisation that season 2 is just the same thing again and again and again for alicent. Shes just a punching bag and im sure thats in an attempt to get the audience to feel bad for her, because i cant see any other reason for it, but its just so badly written that shes no longer compelling or interesting or likeable really at all. Theres nothing to root for when you dont know who someone is. I have so little to say about her this season and that hurts honestly. Olivias performances deserved much better writing.

[rosyandraw]

Hey Holly, going anon because I’m scared this is a weird ask…

Since you’re so good at writing angst I was wondering if you’ve ever considered writing bdsm gone wrong in any of your stories? Like both characters not really knowing what they’re doing and someone ends up hurt mentally or even physically. Lots of overthinking, misunderstandings, etc. Or maybe you hate that and it’s just too much? Feel free to say if so.

I really do love observant Damen so maybe it’s hard to make it work with Damen/Laurent but I find myself hunting for this trope a lot. Ik there’s not really any bdsm in canon but I think there’s a lot of moments in the trilogy where we could sense Laurent had certain thoughts or fears about sex and didn’t say anything (maybe that’s just my interpretation). Also maybe I relate to wanting to please someone at my own detriment so I wanna read about my fav characters doing it and cry.

I like the angst that it brings and watching it all get pulled slowly back together. I think it just makes the happy ending that much better. And there does HAVE to be a happy ending lol.

I hope this ask makes sense 😅 I guess I’m really just wondering if you like that trope (is that the word for it?) If you’ve ever held yourself back from writing it because you didn’t know how it would be received?

I’m sorry this ask is so long and random lol.

Hey my love, don't apologise, I love this kind of ask, don't be scared, I'm so balls out you can literally ask me anything, I promise my head and real life is weirder haha. There's no such thing as too much here!

And I could talk about BDSM all day long. Especially with Damen/Laurent.

To answer your question bluntly: yes.

Yes, I have considered it. Like a hundred times. BDSM takes place in the mind first and foremost, the sex is a small part of it and for a lot of people not a part of it at all. So BDSM "going wrong" -or safewording out, pushing too far, it not hitting for one or both/all- is kind of inevitable at some point, especially if those involved are misinformed or new to the scene or aren't communicating properly. Plus there are different issues that come with different dynamics. Is it strictly a BDSM relationship? Do they play with other people? Do they have romantic partners? Is it a 24/7 dynamic? If it's monogamous and committed how do they work it into their real life (esp if set in canon)

So yes, big fat yes I love this idea.

I love observant Damen too but I would only write something this intensive for Damen/Laurent so unfortunately if you're thinking of a different pairing I probably won't be writing that lmao

I do think it could work with Damen/Laurent though tbf, i'm thinking about Damen in the baths in book 1 where Laurent manipulates him and he doesn't recognise Laurent isn't flirting (because Laurent did want Damen to think it was sexy but he was also not into it, you know?) That Damen could make some mistakes.

So could a Damen who trusts Laurent to be honest with him... only to be gutted when Laurent wasn't and ended up getting hurt because of it.... you know?

And tbh no matter how observant or in-tune with someone you are shit happens. You can get carried away, Dom-space isn't talked about nearly enough tbh. There's so much I want to write about it, like, weaving in and bastardising my own experiences, to give it a sprinkle of reality haha

But yes I agree about Laurent, pretty sure I wrote a whole lengthy canon-sub-Laurent-meta on here some time ago lmao so I definitely read him that way too and definitely have 10000 thoughts on what Laurent is thinking. I'm not projecting... lmao

But yes, I am a HEA girly, and yes, this does make a lot of sense and it's crazy because I've been thinking about it a lot.

I have NO idea how it would be received, but then I thought ATKH would be badly received and people have been very kind, so I am a terrible judge and I don't let perception stop me from writing what I want to write.

My only thing I keep getting stuck on is canon or modern?

Like, terminology/apparatus/acts and stuff would be so much better in a modern verse but there is something so enticing from a character study POV about canon verse haha

Do you have a preference?

Also thank you for thinking I write angst well, I appreciate it 💕💕

[sparklingmusicofstars]

i wish we know more about the Hamefura Character in Fortune lover counterpart 😫 do you have any thought about it? Like their personality and story more.

Hello,

I honestly think we know quite a lot of things since Catarina often compare her friends with their game version. And for what we know about them :

To make it shorter Geordo was your typical perfect prince who can do anything with ease but with a sly, twisted and short-tempered personality hidden behind an angelic smile (he was also quite emotionless) He was using people to get what he wants including his fiancée Catarina who he was finding very boring and was just polite with her because of their status. Alan was the selfish, spoiled, arrogant and tsundere character, he loved his fiancée Mary as nothing more than a cute little sister so he was only kind to her and he hated Geordo. Keith was a frivolous and lonely playboy, son of a prostitute who had an affair with his father, a nobleman. and Nicol was the calm, taciturn and impudent character, he also has a "sister complex".

Catarina, Geordo's fiancée was spoiled and arrogant (much like Alan). She was very proud of her status as a noble. She was very selfish and considered Geordo as her property (quite ironic) Her parents had a cold relationship during her childhood because of a misunderstanding that worsen after her adoptive brother arrived. Her father was very doting towards her. Though it wasn't explicitely mentionned it seems that, like Mary she was the very image of a noble lady because she was aware of her status as a noble lady. She is closer to her mother in the game.

Mary became the very example of a noble lady to become worthy of Alan whom she fell in love with as a child. She is a kind and dignified woman. Though she has a strong personality in the game it's nowhere as much as now. She care a lot about her fiancé's happiness to the point of even breaking their engagement for him to be with the one he loves and bless their union. Sophia was a bookworm and a shut-in in the game because of her appearance that a lot of people considered scary and because of that she thinks badly of herself. She was a very shy and reserved child but she was quite possessive toward her brother because of how much she loved him. And Maria was the perfect heroine, she was smart and hardworking and knows how to cook. Though she is a lonely and is a bit a bit of an attention seeker.

Sora, in Fortune Lover II, is a laid-back man with a seductive aura. He has a very dark past that he isn't very proud of, which he would then reveal to the heroine after they become close. His past makes him act like quite the playboy, as he is used to women that cling to him.

Dewey, Cyrus, Raphael and Cezar are the same as in the game.

As far as I am concerned I think that we know quite a lot of things about the original versions of the first main characters in the game but not much about charcters that came after. Though most of the time it's because it didn't change.

If you want to know more you can read the side story "Verge of doom" where everyone has their original personality of the game.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Scrappy Doo (Scooby Doo Franchise) vs. Jane Crocker (Homestuck)

Y'all Hate Kids: Screwed By The Writers

Propaganda below the cut

-

Scrappy Doo (Scooby Doo Franchise)

Cw: cults

Scabby doo is a young energetic child that was overused within the writing of the series he’s in, to the point that he gets massive hatred by the fandom to this very day.

And in the live action Scooby-Doo 2 movie, they made this literal -child- the main villain of the series that created a cult and a bunch of monsters because he was ditched and literally thrown out of the van by the Mystery gang.

“But he’s so obnoxious and annoying!”

He is a literal child. A hyperactive and energetic one at that. Some - heck, a lot - of kids of are just like that. Let an alone for a PUPPY; that’s regular behavior for them. What did you expect lol-

Jane Crocker (Homestuck)

Cw: assault

The fandom blames her for the melodrama and problems in Act 6 and shit even though it was ALL the alpha kids who were terrible communicators and having relationship drama. She encouraged Jake to try having a relationship with Dirk even though she liked him too, she wants her friends to be happy even if she isn't. The fandom basically makes her the Stupid Bitch Who Gets In The Way Of Yaoi even though she quite literally made the yaoi happen. She's a victim of Act 6 being messy and written badly. Then we get to the epilogues/sequel. While she's an adult there, it's clear the writers just kinda hate her. She could definitely be a villain but they completely misunderstand her character in order to make her flat and completely in the wrong- even though some of the things she's saying in regards to Troll and Human society intertwining. It isn't looked at with nuance, Jane is just wrong and everyone else has to kill her. Like... hello??? If you're going to make her a villain do it right. Misogyny my nemesis. 

-

"Jane Crocker is initially introduced when, in order to win the game they have been sucked into, the original four kids travel to a universe where their grand/parents have been swapped with them and selected to play it instead.  She is the grandmother, now granddaughter of John Egbert, the first introduced character, and her hobbies include detective fiction, baking, wondering how to tell one of her best friends that she's in love with him, and avoiding frequent attempts on her life.

To explain that last one, she is the heiress to the Betty Crocker company and national monopoly, aka. Crockercorp, and has big plans about the good she can do when she finally takes power.  As she finds out in the game, the company is a front ruled by the Condesce, an alien queen from another universe who was gathering power on Earth so that she could leap into the game and thus take over the world it would create.  And she's happy to let Jane rule with her, so long as she puts on this computer and OBEYs.

After she is mind-controlled by the Condesce, Jane has little role in the rest of the story -- she is put to sleep and cured offscreen, and only shows up as a bit player in the final fight with no dialogue whatsoever to resolve her arc.  However, she does have one scene with her crush, Jake, while she is not herself that colours a lot of the audience reaction to her.  

Some context: During the game, she had chickened out during her confession to Jake, and he then proceeded to use her for relationship advice when their other friend, Dirk, succeeded in becoming his boyfriend.  After one of these chats where Jake reveals he forgot her birthday, she blows up at him for using her, which is the last normal conversation they have in the comic.

By the time she is being controlled, Jake is being held prisoner, and so with her inhibitions removed and priorities redirected towards Crockercorp, she tells him all about the future he'll have as her consort and repeatedly harasses and threatens him.  Because there is never any closure for this moment as both characters are shoved to the background, this is the fandom's last impression of Jane, which is used as evidence of her true nature whenever anyone needs to justify their hate for or demonization of her.

Although Jane has plenty of casual conversations with her friends early on that demonstrate her true character -- she is supportive of her friends to a fault, and is initially given the role of team leader but ultimately is too passive to fill it, one of the many reasons for her friends' frayed unity.  However, absolutely none of her traits and decisions are important to the plot, and her arc is dropped with her potential left unfulfilled, leaving it easy for her to be overshadowed by a single dramatic moment she had while explicitly out of character.

And that should be the end of the story, but it gets worse.  In 2019, Hussie released the Homestuck Epilogues, an explicitly ""dubiously canonical"" prose novel with two routes that many fans found so damaging and distasteful that they left the fandom entirely.  Between the book itself and the ensuing flame wars, the fandom was reduced to merely a fraction of its size, and most of the people now remaining belong to the camp that liked the Epilogues, or at least saw it as part of canon.

In both routes of the Epilogue, Jane, now an adult, becomes the authoritarian president of Earth C and coerces Jake into an abusive relationship.  This is worse in the Candy Route, where she is described as a fascist, declares a policy of genocide against trolls, regularly drugs Jake to have sex with him, and uses their kid to blackmail him into staying with her.  All of this ultimately causes her to be cast as a central antagonist in the HS team's ongoing comic ""Homestuck^2"" that continues off of the Epilogues.

All of this follows from an extrapolation of her behaviour while mind-controlled, which is somehow still applicable to her character once she is back to normal.   Now, the popular excuse for her mischaracterization is the backbone of current official Homestuck content.  And because her being an antagonist is key to the story, most fans of the sequel (which is now the majority of online Homestuck fans) have to buy into the justification for her actions in order to properly suspend disbelief and keep reading.  Thus, it is nigh impossible to find anyone who will engage with the canon -- and I mean /actually/ canon, not postcanon -- version of Jane.

Addendum: Although canon Jane is a teenager, I have to discuss how her adult postcanon self affects her perception and basically erases the original character.  Nonetheless, since postcanon Jane can hardly be called the same character, I don't think this affects Jane's eligibility."

[kiisaes]

yes THANK YOU for saying it i hate those specific fanon nicknames as well. my other pet peeve are the terms 'bakusquad' and 'dekusquad' used in fanfic because i feel like those are okay to use in fandom discussion but the actual characters would NOT come up with those names much less use them unironically c'monn

SAMEEE these terms used in fics make my eyes roll fr. and I think the longer I've enjoyed mha the less bakusquad and dekusquad make sense to me anymore, even in fandom discussion

in the early days of mha fandom it was pretty normal to split up deku and bakugou bc 1.) not a super cool awesome amazing relationship at the moment and 2.) both of them were becoming friends with other members of the class (thank you season 2!!!). so if they were befriending different ppl then making two fanon friend groups seemed like the right fandom thing to do.

but fandom has always flanderized relationships pretty badly and mha, imo, is one of the most egregious examples. the loud majority of early fandomgoers were too scared of bkdk being connected in any possible way. they were abusive, toxic, evil, etc.etc.etc. and if you liked them then you fetishized bully/victim relationships. hence, in order to be a Good Fan, you had to separate them.

I fell for this belief back in 2019-2020 so I get it but like. it's crazy now. thinking about it. because horikoshi has Never meaningfully separated bkdk. they have always been joined at the hip regardless of how bad their dynamic was at any point in the narrative. in fact, this has been a core reason why bkg hated dk at the start. it's bc they literally could not distance themselves from each other 😭 idk. do you ever just think about how dissonant the popular fandom bible was to the Legitimate Canon Word Of Mouth.

there is no "dekusquad". there is no "bakusquad". it was a fundamental misunderstanding of the story to assume there are. bakugou has always been a part of deku's "squad" he just refused to admit it until recently. (he is also conveniently drawn in a lot of group illustrations with characters that are stereotypically a part of the dekusquad.) likewise some characters in these groups straight up don't interact anymore. anyway as of late mha has been prioritizing the Entire Class Of 1A as a singular entity instead of splitting it up into distinct factions.

I don't think the dekusquad and the bakusquad should be abolished, after all they're just typical fandom creations that get widely adopted because they're digestible and charming. if you like them then you like them! I don't dictate how you digest mha. but if you think bakusquad and dekusquad are still established friend groups that mean anything to the narrative and you navigate fandom discourse with this particular mindset I WILL look at you funny

ANYWAY THANK U ANON U GET MEEE

[timeclipsed]

🔥🔥🔥 BLEASE I want to hear your hot takes

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion. (status — accepting!)

The amount of attention Shadow The Hedgehog gets both by SEGA and by the fandom is fucking obnoxious and I am not kidding. He has slowly become my least favorite character because of how overwhelming the content for him is in comparison to other characters in the fandom. On top of that, multiple people have managed to sour him so badly for me.

Don't misunderstand, he is a compelling character and the fact that the writers managed to keep his development fairly clear-cut over the years is impressive, but there's literally only so much ground people can retread with him before it becomes annoying and tiresome. I feel like Sonic x Shadow Generations rounded his character out fairly well, it's a great stopping point for his story, but we all know that is probably not gonna happen.

Like, you search for any one character or topic for the series on here, and the tag is absolutely littered with post after post about Shadow, Shadow, Shadow. Girl, I do not give half a FUCK about Shadow. There's no flavor in a wide majority many of these fanworks, because it's just like "omg but what if SHADOW was in this character's place instead what if SHADOW was in this game/show". Omg, in a series with HUNDREDS of characters, you'd think there'd be more variety. Where's the content for Rouge, or Cream, or hell, even SILVER? Not even Amy, Knuckles and Tails get this much attention and they're literally 3/4ths of the fucking main four!

Like, he just got a game AND a movie dedicated to him. Can we focus on some other characters now PLEASE?

[coralhoneyrose]

I'd personally love to hear more about your internal logic, like with the journal. Sounds super interesting!

Oh, yay!! Thank you for being interested <3 As far as the journal in particular goes, I’m happy to elaborate more here (though it truly did wind up being SO long, so brace yourself accordingly lol)

So—the initial intention with the inclusion of the journal was two-fold (though both reasons fall under the same umbrella). As a general rule, my goal with my fics isn’t to write a story that could happen between any two hypothetical love interests—I’m here to write a love story between Chrom and Robin. I want the story to feel as rooted in their Chrom and Robin-ness as possible, and that means that one of the guiding questions I return to a lot is “how can I individualize the story so it’s more specific to these particular characters’ personalities and history together?”.

For Robin, the journal was meant to serve as a small way of doing that. She’s a strategist, after all, and she likes to plan everything out and takes comfort in feeling in control. That last point is especially important, because while the reader may not know it at this stage, Robin is already in love with Chrom and is worried about her feelings getting the better of her. Having a clearly outlined plan developed outside of the heat of the moment can help give her guidance on how to behave when she doesn’t trust herself to fall back on her instincts. It’s a way of depersonalizing the fake dating too—of framing a situation that she has a lot of intense feelings tied up in more systematically and returning that sense of control to her that she craves so badly.

Chrom, on the other hand, sees Robin approaching the fake dating that way and views it in the context of his OWN much more heart-guided way of handling things. He’s seeing it through the lens of “my feelings for her are so strong that I can’t even imagine being able to approach this fake relationship so clinically”—even if part of him really wishes that he could for the sake of professionalism and keeping his love a secret. Already this sets up an unspoken misunderstanding between them: by him viewing Robin’s reactions through the lens of his own experiences managing strong emotions, he’s failing to recognize that this is how she deals with her own unruly feelings. He takes it as a small form of confirmation for what he already believes: that she does not love him the way he does her.

So that’s what I initially was trying to do with it. The idea to make it so much more central to the plot actually sprung up while I was reflecting on how the heck I could tie the fake dating plot line back into the political intrigue. I was thinking a lot about this one specific guiding principal that I’d read about in a book on the brain science of story telling: that being that we as humans tend to get much more satisfaction out of a narrative where things are happening BECAUSE of the character’s actions, rather than the story’s major events just happening passively *to* them.

Despite Chrom being our protagonist, a lot of Robin’s characters flaws wind up being what drives events of the story (although his certainly play a role too lol). In this case, Robin’s need to control and suppress her emotions was what led her to writing everything down in the journal in the first place, so when it came time to decide upon what was going to be at the core of the council conflict, it occurred to me that her need to be the master of her feelings could be a great way of making her own actions the catalyst for the eventual abduction / assassination attempt. Specifically, a well intentioned council member could misinterpret her very dry, calculated notes on faking a relationship as proof that she DOESN’T really love Chrom. In that way, Cecily actually makes the exact same assumption Chrom does about the journal in chapter two—it just gets taken waaay further because she’s operating on the assumption that Chrom is a pawn rather than a co-conspirator.

I still needed a way for Cecily to get that information from the journal though, and Robin being as meticulous as she is, that initially posed a problem. She’s not the type of person who would just carelessly leave something like that with important information in it lying around…unless of course there were extenuating circumstances at play. Like for instance, if she was exhausted to the point of near collapse and distracted from just having had a fight with Chrom.

The exhaustion in particular became a great way to loop back around to Robin’s need for control getting her into trouble. She pushed herself way too hard completing all that work for the council and making the back up copies of the forms, and it was those workaholic tendencies that lead her to making the mistake of leaving the journal behind in that meeting. Robin also has a problem with not seeing value in herself outside of her intelligence, but being quite prideful where that is concerned. She wanted to prove (both to herself and to the council) that she was smart enough to do this work and capable enough to be Chrom’s life partner—even while still mentally insisting to herself that being with him isn’t actually an option for her. All of that combined led her to push herself into the exhausted state that ultimately led to her mistakenly leaving the journal behind, making her a more active inciter of the subsequent story events.

That was my thinking at least! Despite the brain science guidelines, people will ultimately still vary in terms of whether they find a particular story-beat satisfying or not, but that’s a pretty comprehensive run down of what my thought process was surrounding it. I hope the behind the scenes glimpse made for an interesting read and thank you again for the chance to talk more about it!

[iamadequate1]

DJenks updated his Bsky story again this morning (link to last post). It is more angsty than expected for a Christmas story (but the actual content of the story so far doesn't feel like an episode's worth of material, let alone a giveaway of S3). I made a stupid post about retail and customer service destroying the joy of their lives, and the responses got me thinking. I'm just writing out some rambles on working out what I think so far of this...

I made a post before, long ago, about how the point of the inn wasn't the inn, but Ed and Stede's relationship. The inn going badly isn't the point of the story, just an instigating incident, and "What about the inn?!" isn't a story or even support tension for an entire season. I've never believed that the inn is Ed and Stede's ultimate endgame. It's just a stepping stone (or resting spot, if you prefer) and a place for them to develop a more mature relationship. A few days ago, I put up a long rambly post (long and rambly much like this post and all I do) about what I think is a mass misunderstanding of the tone of OFMD. It's a comedy, yes, and it leans heavily into absurdity, but it comes to real and human and serious elements naturally, though it may feel jarring if you're expecting something else. The inn was not going to be smooth sailing and taking beginning steps in a relationship doesn't mean the story is over, though from tropes from lesser stories, some expect a fade to black happily ever after where Ed and Stede are forever in a honeymoon phase and never have conflicts or growing pains like a real couple would.

Running a business or doing customer service sucks. They were always going to have less freedom (and free time) in their lives by doing that, and they were going to have a lot of stress put on them. I mean, Ed just said they had fun before the customers showed up! Customers ruin everything. On paper (and in a less substantial sitcom world), running an inn sounds nice, something that is fluffy and cozy, something that will look like a nice alternative to a violent and dangerous profession, but the actual reality is still soul destroying. On the Bsky post, I made a comment that I think DJenks (or at least some of his frequent collaborators) has had some traumatic experience with customer service or low level corporate jobs. For example, People of Earth's second season's main antagonist is an evil corporate cube, and in OFMD, Lucius telling off middle manager Izzy without any consequence, using his own abusive tactics against him, feels like wish fulfillment, something that would get an "...and then everyone clapped!" on a Reddit retelling. OFMD is not going to end with customer service consuming the main couple's lives as the happy ending; they need to do something else, or they need an alteration of the plan for a better work-life balance... but only a secondary goal after solidifying their relationship.

With the story so far, we have the friction: guests are demanding, Ed and Stede don't have a division of labor that makes them both feeling happy and appreciated, running a business together -- a business that is likely taking up most of their waking hours -- has them feeling like coworkers instead of a couple, they don't particularly like the work but they want to succeed together, they're both having nostalgic feelings about their pirate times. These are all perfectly reasonable and expected outcomes, and if you as a reader are a bit saddened by it, the characters in story are even less happy about it. I mean, we had a fandom spiral on a throwaway line about an attractive, drunken chambermaid, asking "Who's this Applejack then?!", when it's just another unexpected point of tension that by itself is only worse in our imaginations, likely to mean nothing.

What's a stand out here that's missing, though, something that would make me incredibly worried that this is actually an S3 outline (you know, unless he's updating for months), is the lack of marriage or marriage talk. Enough foreshadowing is there that makes it a near guarantee that included in the S3 plan was/is to have an Ed and Stede wedding. On proposals, there is a leaning belief that Ed and Stede will propose simultaneously. Personally, I still think Ed is going to try proposing too early, possibly as a "fix" to their current situation.

I know this isn't a polished story or one that has been run through the writer's room, but Ed knowing about Chauncey, but we not knowing yet if they've talked about what Chauncey said and talking through why that affected Stede so much, nor do we know if they've talked about Stede's feelings on his marriage and whether he'd want to do it again. They certainly haven't worked through what happened with Ed if he's busting out "unconditional love." Ricky's still around. There is some foreshadowing of them being discovered (maybe Applejack is a drunken spy!!). Lots of untouched material to fill out an S3, especially with finding out what's up with my Revenge favorites (Frenchie as Captain, Lupete, Auntie, lol).

In the end, I'm enjoying his little story, though I hope it doesn't keep going into an actual S3 treatment! The only thing I'm not enjoying is the usual rancid takes from the usual people who never understood the story in the first place.

[iviarelleblr]

Genuinely fascinated at the showrunners of live-action ATLA misunderstanding the purpose of a character arc so badly. Like, I don't live in that fandom, I'm not super emotionally invested, but it feels rather on the same level as the guys who made Game of Thrones saying "themes are for 8th grade book reports" and Disney trying to shoehorn extra modern feminism into the Beauty and the Beast live action adaptation. In this case, characters need arcs, and sometimes that means a good character does bad things at first so they can learn to do better, because it's REALLY IMPORTANT ACTUALLY that kids get to internalize that doing bad things now doesn't mean you're bad forever.

Meanwhile we've got the Wheel of Time adaptation over here saying "The first books were written with only a loose outline of the series arc and for an audience more than a generation removed from today's sensibilities. We're going to tighten up the story structure, avoid repeating some character beats to death the way the books did, and generally make this a smoother journey than the books are, as well as shorter, but still with all the satisfaction of an arc trajectory well executed. Also make it queerer." Like, legitimately, I'm in Discords with people who Know Their Shit, and even the costume department read the brief and had a professional costumer predicting book 14 plot points just from embroidery on an outfit and a certain camera-cut in episode 1x02. In season 2, some other authors were analyzing the story beats and showing us in full-spoiler channels exactly how the changes being made are setting up the endgame in some ways better than the original author was equipped to when he thought the story was going slightly different places.

Good adaptations are possible, but you need someone at the helm who understands why a story is doing what it's doing. Rafe Judkins's team is doing incredible work on WOT but he also hired a book consultant, who read the series dozens of times, and can help balance the needs of the original story against the needs of the television medium. You can't adapt a story unless you understand the story, and it seems like the ATLA people are doing a lot of the same things that Disney's live action adaptations of their former animated hits have been doing: adapting the superficial layer of the story without understanding its underpinnings and why those resonated so much with audiences.