#how does it feel to know that you contributed to this?

[signanothername]

Hi Anó! Do you have any advice for writing characters like killer? How do you achive that nuance? I love your comics and would love to learn about your artistic process a bit!

Hi Gal!! A delight to see you in my inbox! <3

Omg thank you sm hcchhcchch (have you seen your own comics???? *shakes you* /pos)

Ok but I say this genuinely, I think your ideas and comics are such a beautiful and refreshing take on these blorbos, you’re doing such an amazing job both writing and art wise (your 2 Killers idea is so fucking good eeeeee) <3333

Ok to the question xgzggxzg

Killer is definitely.. complicated to write, I struggle with him sometimes ngl shshhdh

I honestly went and reread his entire comics, lore and answered asks to get a deeper look into him to be able to write him

But when it comes to writing him, I generally try to keep 6 things in mind at all times

1-trauma: how does the resets, working for Chara, having his code get manipulated and killing over and over again till what was new became something old affect him? (the whole idea of Killer killing people started as an offer of trying something new, so he kept killing till he got bored and killing became something stagnant)

This can easily be portrayed in Killer’s canon inability to till what’s real or not, as well as his hallucinations and the guilt he’s ridden with, always running from his past yet never outrunning it, as it always catches up to him

2- conditioning: his conditioning started from the days of Chara, then continued into his days with Nightmare, how does his conditioning affect him in his daily life?

How was he conditioned specifically? And how does that contribute to Killer’s perception of self, autonomy, self worth, and life in general? How does it change his body and mind?

Does it make him believe he’s just a machine meant to please others even when it hurts him, does it make Killer perceive vulnerability as a death sentence

How does he feel about his masters? Does he hate them down to every bone, or does he not care?

3-personality: Killer’s personality always change depending on the stage, but what are the main traits that you know Killer will always have regardless of the stage? Being quiet is one thing, he keeps to himself (as much as the fandom loves to portray him as extremely hyperactive, he’s not at all the loud, talkative, hyperactive skelle the fandom makes him out to be)

He’s also extremely secretive, seems to have knowledge that others don’t, and seems to always be up for a social interaction regardless of who’s with him

He’s also actually extremely patient (another thing the fandom stripped away from Killer’s character), and is very docile (isn’t aggressive unless pushed and never is an attack on sight kinda person) yet holds a grudge big time

He seems to see himself as superior over others, he’s extremely fucking intelligent it’s actually scary

These traits are something I try to keep consistent within my writing for Killer

4- relationships: what are his relationships with other characters like, and why?

Taking the 3 points before into consideration, how does Killer’s trauma, conditioning, and personality make him perceive others and others perceive him?

Are his relationships healthy? Toxic? Are they one sided or mutual? Does he care about the person in his vicinity or are they just another nobody? If he cares why? If he doesn’t what would he do to them?

Would he take advantage of his relationship with someone or is it a relationship he wishes for it to vanish?

5-stages: I think this is truly what makes Killer extremely complicated, cause see all of the 4 points above? how does each stage differ from each other?

How does stage 1 deal with his guilt/truama and conditioning? How does stage 2, 3, and 4 deal with them?

Depending on each stage Killer’s outward perception, personality, attitude, thoughts, and actions change

But how do they change exactly?

This is something that you need to understand each stage for to be able to integrate into writing

Stage 1 is the stage where he’s most sans like, yet never sans enough, stage 2 is when he’s apathetic to everyone and everything and perceives killing as “fun” because he’s painfully understimulated , stage 3 is when he’d attack whoever is in front of him, and stage 4 is when killer is no longer present mentally

How does each stage deal with his environment, with the people around him, how does he deal with the dissociation and how does he perceive himself in each stage?

6-environments: how does the environment Killer lives in affect him?

Killer starts in an environment of time loops, how does that affect his perception of time and reality? He then becomes Nightmare’s subordinate, a dangerous environment with constant threats to his life from every angle, how does Killer feel about it? How does he deal with it?

Will he get to try his luck and escape, or has he given up on himself and the idea of freedom? Does he even believe he has a chance for a better life in a safer environment? Will he go for a safer environment or will he cling to the comfort of what he knows?

When he does finally go to a safer environment, how would that affect him? Both positively and negatively? Would he feel like something is missing? Would his mind constantly tell him that this safe environment isn’t really safe?

Then of course, beyond these main 6 things, there’s the in between, what are Killer’s likes? His dislikes? How does he feel about sleep, food?

Generally when writing characters, it’s important to keep in mind interpersonal factors, intrapersonal factors and environmental factors that ends up affecting the character’s behavior, or in this specific situation, Killer’s behavior (god I’m realizing how much my uni major affects my writing of characters rn chchc)

But I say the biggest life saving advice I have that helps with writing characters in general (and especially complicated ones like Killer) is having the question “why” as your closest friend

When you make a statement about a character, in this instance Killer, always attach the question “why” at the end till you can’t attach it anymore, until you reach a point where asking “why” becomes unnecessary and annoying

For example:

“Killer loves golden flower tea”

Why?

It reminds him of the bed of golden flowers he passed out on

Why does that matter?

Because it was the point of no return from a change that will always dictate who he is

Why is it a point of no return?

Because his soul had deformed beyond recognition and it can never be brought back to how it used to be

Why would it dictate who he is? Why can’t he just choose to be someone else?

Because he was conditioned to be this killer by a higher power out of his control

At this point, there are no more “why”s that would make something as simple as a golden flower tea statement more nuanced than it already is, so when you ask why again, you find that you’re unable to continue giving an answer, that’s the point of where you stop

In fact, allow me to test you by giving you a quick question about your own interpretation of the characters, why does your Nightmare admire Error? What is in Error that Nightmare admires specifically?

Of course, you don’t really need to answer me, but I’m just giving you an example of how asking “why” can help you make so many simple things more nuanced

Ok but what if you know there should be an answer to a “why” but you don’t know it yet? Then you keep it in mind for later, you won’t always have the answers to everything on the get go, sometimes, you need a bit of time to figure things out and write characters the way you feel satisfy you, until then, you can work on other things about the characters

*Cough* anyway, this is honestly everything I can think of off the top of my head? Hopefully I didn’t miss anything ydfhgchchchc

Do let me know if you’d like any more help or need clarification on anything, I’d be happy to help where I can <33333

Now have a sketch of your 2 Killers cause I love them dearly, they have a special place in my heart (genuinely adore how you write Killer already btw)

[sir-adamus]

Feel free to ignore this bc i know the topic is annoying but i was wondering about hbomberguy’s video criticizing rwby… did he admit that he made shit up for that or just flat out didn’t even watch rwby? I feel like I’ve seen that said before but never knew if it was true or if maybe I’m misremembering

Honestly i feel hypocritical for never having watched that video myself but also i try not to engage with shit i know will piss me off. The same can’t be said for 99% of the people who won’t shut up about how much they think rwby sucks 🙄

i don't think he's ever admitted to anything - the level of ego it takes to prostrate yourself as a media critic when all he does is make character attacks against the creators that he knows he can get away with (the weird parasocial dogging on Miles and Kerry, implicating them as paedophiles at one point if i recall correctly. an early version of the video having him shitting on Barbara for a tweet she made telling people not to watch the show if they don't like it that was only removed when viewers pointed out that she'd tweeted that in a specific context - that she and Arryn had been tagged in a fucked up edit of their characters stabbing each other by an asshat in the hatedom - which showcases either his poor research abilities that he didn't look further into that or that he knew and didn't care as it was an opportunity to attack someone else until he found out that the context was known and he couldn't get away with it) doesn't leave much room for self-reflection

i'm in the same boat - i don't watch shit that pisses me off because outrage bait rots your brain and i have better things to do with my life than watch that pretentious turnip lie about shit he doesn't like

from what i do know he misrepresents certain aspects of the show (calls Sun white at one point), makes clear he doesn't pay attention in other parts (claims the 'dust robbery plotline' was dropped and left unresolved when it wasn't). oh and he lies. a lot.

about Monty specifically - because he presents himself as having been a fan of Monty, disappointed that the show was dragged down by Miles and Kerry specifically (and makes it clear he thinks everyone else who works on the show is too talented to be wasting their time on it). and dedicated the video in Monty's memory

except he fucking hated Monty when he was alive, and we know this because of posts he'd made on the somethingawful forums about six months before Monty's death where he shits on Monty, shows blatant contempt for everything Monty had ever done, seems to just not respect anyone who engages in fandom (weird distaste for people who write fanfic, make fanart, cosplay) and throwing everything he says in that video into doubt because he's blatantly lying about having been a fan of the man

and you know why? it's the same reason his Sherlock video primarily focuses on shitting on Moffat and doesn't call much attention to Mark Gatiss's contributions. because it's bad for Hbomb's image to attack a dead man or a gay man - regardless of why he's criticising them

[kbookblurbs]

Wind and Truth - Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight Archive #5)

4/5 - midseason-finale ass book; he needs to scrap this editor; this book simply never ends

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW!! LIKE FIRST LINE!!!

We finally come to the end of the first arc of the Stormlight Archives and they are going to need a new name. Before we dive in, I want to clarify that I did enjoy this book! I think it tackled a series of very hard-to-conclude plotlines in a relatively good way, and I think it sets Sanderson up for success in the latter half of this series. With that said, I'll be splitting this review into four parts:

Kaladin, Szeth, & therapy speak

The Spiritual Realm plot

Azir

Book mechanics

Kaladin, Szeth, & Therapy Speak

Now first of all, anyone who's read anything I've written knows I love Kaladin - he's one of my favorite characters of all time and his journey through depression is one of my favorite parts of this series. That said. I find the whole timeline of this healing to be highly suspect, and his attempts at therapizing embarrassing at best and deeply annoying at worst. What context is there for him to go from literally attempting suicide in the last book to semi-competent therapist in no time at all? Need I remind Sanderson myself that there is no time skip between the end of RoW and WaT?

The language is also just bafflingly modern in a way that nothing in this series has been before, but we'll get to more on that later.

The flip side of this criticism is that Szeth's plotline was easily my favorite of the book. His completed arc might rise to rivaling Kaladin's (thus far) in terms of how much I enjoyed it. His backstory is so tragic (slay for the almost successful military coup though?) and I truly believed he wasn't going to make it through the book until the very last page. His moments with his father, in the past and present, brought me to tears more than once.

The Spiritual Realm Plot

This whole plotline took too long and frankly, it was boring. Watching Shallan slay her demons for the umpteenth time and deal with Formless again and kill her mother again was, and this may be controversial, not a very interesting plot point to me. She's done all this before. I feel that this book, as a whole, gave diminishing returns on her pagetime to character development ratio. I also don't feel that Shallan, with all her everything else, needed a Herald as a mother as another twist, but maybe that will be more relevant in the future. For that reason, and that reason only, I'll bite my tongue on criticizing it unnecessarily

While it was nice to see Renarin and Rlain get together, I have to admit that Renarin's POV didn't add much for me. I think Sanderson could have written the entire plotline for these two from Rlain's perspective and it would've been far more interesting since he is, in my opinion, the more interesting character between the two of them. Renarin's POV does not reveal anything that isn't already clear from other POVs.

I also just wanted more of Ba-Ado-Mishram. She was haunting the story but not present. I understand that's likely for later plot reasons, but it did make this section drag. Dalinar contributed to that but  we don't have time to get into that right now. I was happy he died though (long overdue, in my opinion).

Azir

Adolin #1 character of all time? The only one to save their assigned city and did it with 0 Radiants and the power of friendships? Nobody is doing it like him.

I loved the founding of the Unoathed and, particularly, Yanagawn's development. I'm really hoping that Yanagawn becomes a more important character in next major arc, since he was so sweet here.

I did not love that we spent probably 25% of the book in Azir fighting battles. Contrary to the opinion of Sanderson many fantasy authors, there is an upper limit on how many battles you can include before I get tired of reading them. There's only so many ways you can swing a sword or block a pike etc etc before I'm bored.

Book Mechanics

Overall, I find this concluding book to be much weaker than the other 4 in the series. Whereas it had seemed that the pacing was improving in Oathbreaker and Rhythm of War, here we were back to all over the place. While I liked that he split the plot into each day leading up to the contest, the timeline genuinely made no sense.

Beyond that, this entire book was filled with oddly YA-style prose that has never appeared in the Stormlight Archive until now. I think whoever edited this book must be different from the other four because, in my opinion, it was much too modern, not as tight, and frankly, not as good. And I know this might be controversial, but I did not think Maya calling Adolin a slut was funny. Why would she even use that word? Whore or prostitute would've been acceptable because they've been referenced here before but I found that example and others like it to be jarring.

Conclusion

I liked this book, but it's by a longshot my least favorite in the series. It was too long and frankly, some of the characters didn't even sound like themselves. I know that Sanderson can do better than this, but it leaves me a little wary for the next arc.

There's lots here I didn't cover (Jasnah my beloved, Sigzil! I'm in mourning) but this was already quite long. DMs / ask box are always open if you'd like to chat more.

[shit-talk-turner]

So what reason do you think he is still in a relationship with her if it isn’t happiness and love. // It’s convenient, no commitment she also does what he says. //

A'ight, bare with me but I'm going to play armchair psychologist for a sec. People say some version of this a lot and I don't think that's it at all. I think Alex is a deeply insecure person and Louise makes him feel better about himself than any of his previous girlfriends did. I would wager she doesn't really criticize him much and hypes him up a lot and is unwaveringly supportive because, let's face it, why wouldn't she be? He's massively changed her life for the better, at least according to the metrics she seems to value.

I think this is probably the relationship he has felt the most secure in precisely because it doesn't seem like he's concerned with making a big show of it like he did with other girlfriends. To me, he was clearly very insecure about his relationship with Alexa if the lyrics are anything to go by, and he was certainly very show-y about her. He clearly got insecure again when he got with Arielle (see: totally changing his appearance/persona, kind of making a spectacle of himself while still obssessively writing songs about his ex, etc), and so he made a big show of that relationship as well. He was also clearly going through some big insecure phase while with Taylor (more personal/professional insecurities than romantic ones, by the sounds of it, what with feeling lost after the success of AM, turning to a lot of drugs and partying, and then eventually going into introspective hermit mode) and so poured a lot of that into some big performative happiness which... well, we all know what that amounted to. I don't think any of that was conscious, but I think he's always sort of put on an act to convince himself more than anyone that things were ok, similar to how he seems to deal with his work by putting on characters. He needs that distance, and I think in his relationships, engaging in performative exaggerated displays of affection does that and gives him some control over the narrative. IMO he has lyrics that support this as his general approach to life as well as his work (see: Bourne Identity, a lot of TBHC, Mr. Schwartz, etc).

I know this fandom seems to interpret his relative silence about Louise as him not caring for her but I kind of always interpreted the fact that he doesn't feel the need to engage in that behaviour with her as him likely feeling pretty secure about the relationship, and where he is in life. And she probably contributes to that security a lot... which makes sense. She adores him and isn't really self-possessed enough by the looks of it for him to see her as wild, unpredictable, or in any way uncertain. Now, whether that translates into him loving her I don't know, but I think there is probably a lot of comfort having that sort of security in one's life, and that most likely does lead to a fair amount of affection for the person who caused it. That doesn't equate to happiness of course, and I agree he looks kind of glum in most photos with her, but I do think he must care for her a great deal, if only because her loyalty/reliability is a stabilizing presence in his life. If he has gone without that for most of his adult life, it makes sense that he'd put up with a lot of indifference (because I really don't think there's a world where he hates her) to not lose it.

That’s an interesting perspective

[candyskiez]

@ prev no you make sense and also I am nodding aggressively. We see a few times where Jon is aware that on some level, Elias does rely on him. "If you want my help, I'm gonna need that crutch." He doesn't fully realize it at the time, but that's one hell of a threat. If Jon just decides, no I'm not gonna help with the unknowing, that's making the mark a lot more difficult. If he hadn't been the kind of person to care about the perceived world ending threat, Elias suddenly is going to have a lot more difficulty with giving him marks! Everyone knows that Elias has a massive amount of power over Jon, and I feel like that also contributes to how little other avatars respect him. But Jon also...doesn't have a lot of agency, yeah, but Melanie had the right idea with stopping doing her work. If Jon had learned about the rituals not working, Elias would've been fucked. Like, completely fucked. He probably could've figured something out but like, holy shit is that taking away a huge amount of his options.

Tldr. "Your Elias" is just as important to me in their weirdass dynamic. Elias is the one doing the manipulation but Jon fights him every step of the way, and at the end of the day Elias was relying on him more than either will admit. It goes both ways, just in very different directions. Sorry for the ramble I just have a normal amount of thoughts about jonelias and the weird dynamics they have going on.

One of my favorite jonelias Things™️ is when all the yk, big avatars refer to them as "your archivist" or sometimes even "your elias." That shit makes me eat nails. I need everyone to know they have something going on and it to be something that they know they should absolutely not get involved in because there is no way it ends well. I think they should be intertwined in a way that isn't quite human. I think they need to be so weird about each other nobody who knows Elias has any doubts about what's going on. I just think it's neat!

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Barbie and the Secret Door!DPxDC AU

I've always wanted to see a Barbie AU so I'm gonna make one. If you've never seen BatSD, you can find the plot here. (Btw, at the very end there's a clip where Malucia's parents come back from a trip and laughingly ask her if she attempted to take over the kingdom again. I recommend watching or listening to the songs because they perfectly describe how delusional almost every single character is. I love you grandma and little fairy girl for being two of the most grounded characters in this movie.)

First, the roles:

The Grandmother played by Alfred.

Princess Alexa played by newly picked up Jason.

Nori and Romy played by Sam and Johnny.

Queen Unicorn played by Dan.

Unicorns played by Danny, Dani, and Vlad.

Princess Malucia played by Youngblood.

The Main Attendant played by Aragon.

Sniffers played by Walker and Skulker.

The Little Fairy Girl played by Star.

Second, tweaking the story:

Instead of fairies/mermaids/unicorns, it's vampires (amity parkers), nagas (ghosts), and banshees (halfas). trogs (the attendants) and sniffers (idk they're like bloodhounds) are nagas as well.

All animals are mostly normal w/just enough magic that they glow.

Vampires have purple or red eyes, sharper-than-normal teeth and nails, pointed ears, and the ability to turn into bats.

Nagas have green or red eyes, sharp teeth and nails, a tail, and the ability to turn into a snake.

Banshees have neon green or red eyes, sharper-than-normal nails, and the ability to tell when someone's close to death.

Stealing their magic turns them into humans.

Youngblood is a naga who doesn't have an ability (therefore is the most human looking of the nagas) and has decided to steal everyone's magic because he deserves it. (via Malucia's scepter) He hasn't stolen the castle servants' magic because it would make things harder for him.

Skulker and Walker don't "sniff out magic".

They've yet to realize that humans need to eat and drink water on a regular basis.

Jason's 11 years old, Youngblood's 6(?), Danny's 10, Dani's 8, Star's 11, Johnny's 12, Sam's 11. The rest (on the list) are adults.

Something I'm not gonna tweak: the fact that the palace servants don't try to revolt or usurp Princess Malucia. They seem extremely tired.

Now, onto the actual idea:

Jason is very nervous and untrusting of his new surroundings. His favorite activities are sneaking books from the library into his room and going to school. He's very resistant to interacting with Bruce because if he is like how the rumors say he is, how is he supposed to fight him off? Alfred notices and gives him a fairy tale book written by one of Bruce's ancestors about the house.

The book leads him to a door in one of the rooms he's never been in. This door leads to a fantasy world. There are tons of bright colors and weird plants. He spots a glowing, green puppy and starts following it. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and was confronted by Johnny and Sam. (Johnny trips because he isn't used to having legs.) However, they notice the clothes he's wearing and realize that he's not from there and probably has no idea what's going on.

They tell him that the Evil Prince Youngblood has been stealing everyone's magic. Since Jason doesn't have any he might be able to help them. When Jason asks why they can't do anything, they reply with something along the lines of "how would we sneak past the guards or win a fight against them? we don't know how human bodies work."

Eventually, they start leading Jason back to their base when they nearly get caught by Walker and Skulker. Thankfully, the two get distracted by a rock thrown by Star and they get to the base quickly. (Unbeknownst to them, Star gets caught.)

Jason sees that a good portion of the camp has been stripped of their magic and made human. They seem to be rather disheartened at their situation. This makes him want to help (especially when he meets Danny, Dani, and Vlad and learn they're being hunted more religiously than anyone else.)

POV changes to Star's. She's being led into a large reception hall where a tall, shadowy figure is sitting on a throne on a raised platform. Then the lights come on and she sees that it's just a child sitting on a raised throne. (if you don't want to look at the image: the platform is eight half steps high, the throne is 9 steps high)

Youngblood ignores Ember, Walker, and Skulker in favor of Aragon and his plans to throw a celebration after becoming the most magical prince ever. Walker and Skulker gain their attention and announce that they've caught another naga child. Youngblood gets upset with them for not finding the much-more-magical banshees, but quickly turns his attention to Star and demands she gives him her magic. Then, he forces her to play games with him, Aragon, and his two guards.

Switch to Youngblood's POV. Walker and Skulker come back into the room to announce that they are certain that they know where the Banshee King is. Star starts to ask how they found him before snapping her mouth shut, which Youngblood decides means that she probably knows something. He goes to talk to Walker and Skulker and finds they know the general location (a forest) that he's in, not the exact location.

While he isn't happy, he does have an idea. He tells Aragon to prepare to go get the Banshee King. He then looks overly surprised that Star's there and tells her that she can leave since she's not of use to him. Once she's out of the room, he orders Skulker and Walker to follow her.

Back to Jason. He's figuring out a plan to sneak into Youngblood's castle and get everyone's magic back. Then Star bursts into the hideout and tells everyone that Youngblood took her magic and has the location of the Banshee King. Jason was going to ignore that when Danny and Dani started crying about their big brother being in danger. Now he's got a plan to go with Sam and Johnny to retrieve Dan.

When they get back to the base with Dan, they find everyone captured and depowered (with the three banshees missing.) He tries to fight Youngblood, but loses because of not knowing how to deal with magic. (also there's like 4 guards surrounding Youngblood.)

Youngblood says something about how powerless Jason is as he and his lackeys are leaving that almost causes him to give up and go back to the manor. Sam convinces him to stay and help because they'd not have gotten to Dan in such a short amount of time without his planning.

So, he plans.

He gets a small group into the castle and they watch as Youngblood takes the last of Dan's magic from him. The group is convinced they were too late and that they can't do anything now. (Youngblood has used his scepter to turn the reception room into a party room filled with all types of sweets.) But Jason noticed that there was a small crack in Youngblood's scepter, meaning if he hit it just right with enough force he could break it.

It was a gamble, but it worked. He broke the scepter and everyone got their magic back. Youngblood got clean up duty (because there's still candy and cake everywhere.) And Jason was more confident in being able to handle himself.

After Jason leaves back to the mansion, Youngblood's parents come back (he's still cleaning up his mess) and ask him if he tried to take over the kingdom again. His punishment is going to need to wait until after they give him his presents. (much to Aragon's disapproval)

Jason (in the mansion) probably puts the book in his room and decides to get training from Bruce. (and become robin)

[uncanny-tranny]

Another bonus to learning a fiber art is being able to speak to others in a Lovecraftian language that nobody else understands...

...and also being able to read things like THIS:

[thethiefandtheairbender]

Had a good chat with my partner about it today that maybe let me put a finger on what's always bugged me about "we're here to fix canon" attitudes being so prevalent in fandom (especially in the past 10ish years) throughout my life. This is not to say there's never a time or place for that (I've written fix its myself, or the occasional meta on how something could be fixed/improved) or that people are wrong to (we're anti fandom policing). It's also not an issue to me on the basis of "I love my blorbo in canon and fandom mischaracterizes them in the name of 'fixing' them" etc as it is just... coming from a fundamentally different perspective for story analysis / interaction than most (not all) people in fandom, I think.

One of the reasons I enjoyed getting my English degree was because I was finally being encouraged to and taught in alignment with what my brain had always be inclined to do: you always assume that there's a reason, and a good reason, for the story to do whatever it's doing. It assumes that the story is already exactly what it is supposed to be as it is supposed to be, and it's up to you to find the reasons Why.

The story was boring, or made you feel uncomfortable/bad, or you couldn't root for a character or relationship? All of that, at least at the beginning, doesn't really Matter. You assume that the story is paced fine, you assume the discomfort was intentional or part of something broader (historical shit that hasn't aged well) or that the dichotomy of "I feel invested or not invested" isn't useful. And in doing so, you replace all that with asking why.

An example I'll use is 1984 by George Orwell. I read that book in high school and I fucking hated it. Normally, I like the protagonist the most in anything I watch/read, but in that book, I loathed both the two leads and were actively rooting for them to be captured and tortured so the book could end faster; it was an actively miserable affair. I don't think that was necessarily the author's intention (certain amount of death of the author is baked in, but for a lot of the texts I was reading, we didn't even know the author or anything substantial about them, i.e. Beowulf) but, more importantly, I don't think any of those things are Flaws or downsides in the text.

Part of this is because 1984 is a dystopian novel (if a romcom book breaks genre convention that badly where you're miserable reading it, yeah, maybe something went wrong, but more on that in a minute) but even then it doesn't really matter on the basis of genre; I'm sure some people read 1984 and felt fascinated/excited while reading.

Rather, the focus becomes: what do I find so unlikeable about the protagonists? Why would they be written that way (on purpose)? What does it say about the society they live in? What does it say about their characterization, social stratification, etc etc? If a character does something that I think is non-sensical, why? Have I missed something? Should I watch retrospectively for clues? Is there another way to engage and to understand? Is what I label as confusion potentially a, or the, Point?

It is only after finding the reasons, and/or finding them unsuitable, that I let my subjective feelings into play. While a story can have great merit on the basis of relatability, relatability or "this aligns with my worldview / expectations / desires / etc." is not the be-all end-all of discerning quality

For example, I'm never going to be a fan of Jane and Rochester (she's 18, he's her 40 year old employer who routinely lies to her) but there are reasons, Good reasons, they get together in Jane Eyre (a book so subjectively boring I struggled through it twice) in response to both when the book was written and with the book's themes / symbols / their characterization. If they didn't end up together, it would be a fundamentally different story; it would not be Jane Eyre. So objectively, it's fine and an understandably massive influence on the western literary canon; subjectively, it's so fucking bad and I'm so glad I never have to read it again. But if I stopped there with my lack of interest or dislike of the main romance, I'd be missing out on what the text has to offer as well, the text.

This applies to more modern day stuff as well. I don't like Double Trouble from SheRa as nonbinary representation, and I'm nonbinary myself; however, I can acknowledge that the things I don't like about them were probably simultaneously empowering and exactly what the author (who is also nonbinary) wanted to be per his own experience of gender. Having a "I assume the text is right" mindset means that I can hold space for my own feelings/analysis (i.e. I also did not like Catra's arc, as I think she needed to learn other things / be written under a different lens) while holding space for the text as is (under the canonical lens of Catra learning it's never too late to be saved, I think her arc is conclusive and well done). And these two viewpoints aren't fundamentally opposed, but can coexist as analytical soup, being equally true / having equal value under the subjective (my view) and more 'objective' (the canon text's construction, or what I / the scholarly consensus, if it exists, believes it to be, anyway) at the same time.

Again, none of this is to say that you can't take issue with a canon text, or want to change something. I remember one time I was watching a show where their refusal to explore a romantic relationship between the female lead and her guy best friend was actively making the show worse; I understood their reasonings of wanting to put them with other people to explore their relationships, and wanting to emphasize a male-female friendship at the core of the story, and I still wanted them to put the two together as a Ship instead for various reasons. But that doesn't mean my line of thinking would've been Objectively Better—assuming if they had been paired together would've been executed in the manner I'd enjoy, or that them being paired with other people couldn't have been executed in ways I would've enjoyed more—merely that I likely would've enjoyed the series more per my own subjective preferences.

What I see in fandom sometimes is that people, understandably, aren't approaching at the start from a "the story always has a good reason" as much as they are speed-running from a "this didn't make sense to me or felt bad/off" and maybe examining why (which is supremely useful!) but not going back to examine the other side of the coin as to why the story would do it anyway.

Because sometimes the story—or a part of a story—is still 'bad' to us. It's just worthwhile to look at why it's 'good,' too.

[incesthemes]

my hot fandom take is that discouraging authentic interaction with fanworks through arbitrary "rules" and increasingly limited and prescriptive scripts of "acceptable" interactions damages fandom as a community perhaps just as much as passive, entitled consumers who demand free labor from fan creators without offering interaction in return

[shalom-iamcominghome]

So, I've been a bit open about my mental health on here since it affects how I experience and interact with judaism, but I'm wondering how you all balance it? I've found that antisemitism does not specifically cause the recent episode/s I have been having, but it makes them worse, and I find that it makes it even harder to engage with judaism, so I'm currently in a Sisyphean spiral. I guess for me, my brain has been so high-alert about this stuff that it completely shuts down, but not engaging with my jewish community is just as detrimental to my health as antisemitism is. Plus, I'm just angry at the thought that something like antisemitism would prevent me from being with my community.

[sinful-karateka]

let me be a bit serious for a sec: i've been observing a couple of sentiments here about how there's a lack of binary boyfriends art in circulation with season 6 upon us and the show's foreseeable end. while i agree on that front, and as one of the fellow artists who started making art for the ship in the early aughts of the show (sketches, full rendered pieces, gifs -- you name it), i would like to emphasize that fanart is not meant to be a one-time piece of "content" that passes by our dashboards. they take time. they take energy. the next person you follow has a life you may not know anything about, and working on these pieces are labor of love.

if you find something that makes you feel a certain and positive way, let the creators know! again: fanart is not fleeting content. they can be evergreen content, but never seasonal. and most often than not, you'd see an artist share these pieces as a love letter to the ship itself first, then everyfan second.

i hope we think twice about this before calling out a recession or drought, because the last thing creators need is to feel like what we make is subjected to scrutinizing numbers until it gets lost in the muddied waters, when it's really meant to be discovered if people mean to look hard enough. they're pieces of history that deserve to exist for as long as this hellhole is still alive. these are products of their time today, and hopefully for the next groups over who will love the boys as much as we do now.

scroll through the main ship tag. travel to different ones, to different places. commission your artists and maybe find an honest middle ground if you can't compensate! or better yet, make one yourself you know you'd be proud of anyway!

and look, not every piece of art is for everyone, but if any piece isn't your drift, that's understandable -- you can silently that's very cool, like, reblog if you're even more generous, leave a few encouraging words, then move on.

i don't want this to come across as a sermon, but take it from a concerned fan to another who also wants to create and see stuff for these babies. you can't win them all, but your acknowledgement helps keep the ship and our craft alive.

[sskk-manifesto]

!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[oliwrightofficial]

Didn’t Oli say he was going to go back to school for music management or something like that?

I mean that does ring a bell, but Oli has certainly never said anything about anything publicly so where did we hear that? Now that you've said it, it does sound right though; I'm thinking maybe pre pandemic when they were talking about tour and Oli studying to do tour management maybe one of the other tour worker people said that somewhere? If anyone can remember or source this info it's Oli investigating hours lads, what we got??

[not-another-robin]

My opinion does not hold any weight bc I am literally delusional about these fuckers

[collgeruledzebra]

could-be-nothing realization of the day that i came to while listening to 99% Invisible: kane and feels is sound designed like a documentary

[chirpsythismorning]

📝 💐 🛼 💔⏪️💭🧊🌄❤️‍🩹

More Than Words by Extreme

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