#how to kill a character
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writergeekrhw · 2 years ago
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HOW TO KILL A CHARACTER
(A Writing Spew)
I'm trying to archive some of my old Twitter writing spews on Tumblr. You know, because of things. So here's a rather big one. HOW TO KILL A CHARACTER.
/BeginSpew
Okay, you’re a writer. You’ve got a mess of characters. You want to move your audience. So, it’s time to take out the old writer’s ax and chop chop chop! But how do you do it with maximum impact without your audience turning against you forever?
Pull up a chair and Uncle Robert will explain it to you!
(Warning, there may be spoilers ahead for stuff that if you haven't seen it by now it's your own damn fault.)
Luckily, there are a lot of reliable tricks to kill that character. Any of them can work for both media writing and novels. WARNING: Some of them can backfire. But here are some proven approaches:
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Death #1: The Intro Death!
Want to set the stakes for your world? Introduce a character or characters and fool the audience into thinking they will be a big part of the story. Then… CHOP! OMG THEY’RE DEAD! SHIT JUST GOT REAL! AKA “The Hello-Die.”
The Hello-Die pretty much always works because the audience hasn’t had time to really get invested, but they’re invested enough to feel the sudden shock.
Examples: Psycho. Buffy (S1E1). GOT Teaser. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pilot. Hill Street Blues (averted).
The Hello-Die is often used by shows to shake up your expectations in what has usually been a fairly safe genre. And yes, I did this in Andromeda. You think this is a nice safe Fantasy / SpaceOpera / CopShow / FamilyDrama? NOPE! Hello-Die! Watch out for the exploding helmsbug.
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Death #2: The Mentor Death
Your character learns cool stuff from the smart old person. Then the smart old person dies! OMG! “But I had so much more to learn!” “True, but don’t you see? This was the real lesson.” AKA “The Obi-wan.”
The Mentor Death is pretty safe, too. We all know the old people we learn from are going to kick it soon, right? But that’s okay, because WE GOT THIS! Circle of Life, ya’ll!
Examples: Star Wars. Star Wars again. Star Wars that other time too. Harry Potter.
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Death #3: The Hero’s First Kill.
Your hero lives in a violent world, but they’re a good person. They don’t want to be a killer. Alas, the world needs them to kill. And you want to portray how that impacts your hero. And so that minor villain must die!
The HFK can be tricky. For best results, the victim should need killin’. Because you want the audience to still like your hero. Plus it’s your hero’s first kill, so you need to overcome their reluctance. Or maybe it’s an accident? (OR IS IT?)
Either way, now your hero is transformed and all it took was offing a minor character. WARNING: Often involves hero puke!
An excellent example of the HFK is the Stable Boy in A Game of Thrones. Arya asked him to let her go. He wouldn’t. She insisted. He said the Queen would pay handsomely for her. She lashes out with Needle and… OOOPS! Or was it an oops? Well now he’s dead and Arya’s on her way.
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Death #4: The Villain’s First Kill
The opposite of the HFK. The villain is bad, but he hasn’t killed… yet. Then he takes his first victim (usually someone either plucky or gross), and he just can’t help himself! Afterward, unlike the hero, the villain feels good.
He’s got a taste for this now. It’s going to happen again. Cue dramatic (or ironic) music!
The VFK can also sometimes be the Intro Death. Maybe it’s not the villain’s first kill, but it’s the first we see. Either way, the VFK is relatively safe, though there's a risk that if the victim is too likable, the audience won’t just hate the villain, they’ll hate the author.
Which is why the VFK is often someone gross or “disposable” or even theoretically somewhat deserving. In American Psycho, the first kill is a homeless man, the second is a Wall Street asshole.
Another VFK example: In The Bone Collector, the first death is a man no one cares about, and he dies off-screen, but the next is a plucky woman who dies horribly onscreen. The story eases you into it.
Still, the VFK needs to be just bad enough to shock, but not so awful that you completely lose the audience. You can get awful later once you've built up good will.
Now come some of the tougher deaths to pull off, starting with...
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Death #5: The Season One/Book One Death
An important character dies relatively early in your tale. This is usually done because you want to drive home the stakes even more. Also the death launches/twists the story. AKA “The Boromir” AKA “The Ned” AKA “The Sean Bean.”
The Sean Bean is tricky because you’ve spent a fair amount of time getting the audience invested. You may have even tricked them into thinking the Sean Bean is a major hero. The more invested they are in TSB, the higher the risk you might lose your audience.
To minimize audience hate, make sure they understand it’s kind of Sean Bean’s fault. Or a noble sacrifice. Or if the character is minor enough (Hi Tasha Yar), it's a way to show the random awfulness of the universe. The important part is your real heroes will learn from this.
There will be crying and anger and thirst for revenge (or Data will struggle to understand death and we’ll all love him for it.)
The Purpose of the Ceremony - YouTube
Now part of why the Sean Bean works is its earliness. The later in a story a character is killed, the more their death needs to have meaning. You can kill Tasha randomly in Season One but you would never do that in Season Six.
In Season Six, if a regular dies, it better not be random or the audience will feel angry and… Oh. Yeah. Her. I wasn’t on staff then. IT’S NOT MY FAULT!
Anyway, the later you get, the more meaning a death needs to have, ideally.
Now we’re getting into the Big Earned Deaths. So let’s talk about them.
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Death #6: The Big Bad Death
This is pretty easy, honestly. The easiest. The audience has been waiting for this bastard to die for years! They will cheer. Even if you’ve run this asshole through the Face/Heel Revolving Door a few times (Hi Gul Dukat), by now, they’re past redemption.
The Big Bad needs killing. KILLING THEM IS KINDA THE POINT. Go for it. Make it as horrific and painful as you’d like. Make them fall a LOOOOOOONG way before they hit something. Make them bounce a bit. The audience will love you for it.
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Death #7: The Sacrificial Hero Death
Solid option. You might want to foreshadow the heck out of this. Maybe even near-death your hero a few times. But still, the audience usually gets this one. After all, messiahs die. It is known.
There will be tears, but we all know sometimes the only way to save the world is to die. If the good done by the hero’s death outweighs the sadness the audience feels, this can even be uplifting. Bittersweet chocolate is the best, right?
The SHD is a perfect way to kill a beloved character late in a novel or show. They died for our sins! If not for them, we’d be toast. Very satisfying when done correctly. I mean, there are entire religions based on this. Do it right and it packs an immortal punch.
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Death #8: The Shakespearean Tragedy
Your hero isn’t really a hero. They might’ve started that way and/or had good intentions, but they’ve slippery-sloped themselves into full blown villainy… and they know it.
They’ve had their moment of tragic awareness. They realize theirs is a tale told by an idiot. Time to go out in the blaze of glory/late Heel-Face-Turn sacrifice/by their own hand. My kingdom for a horse! Lay on Macduff! Good night sweet prince!
The classic ST is incredibly satisfying for the audience. They’ve enjoyed watching a good person descend into villainy, living vicariously through his/her badassery. They felt bad when the badassery turned to madness. SO MUCH METH!
Now the villain realizes how wrong it all was, and how flawed they are, they deliver a final moral lesson, then CHOP! And... cue Baby Blue, maybe some passing prince gives speech... then... curtain.
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Death #9: The Final Wrong
Remember how bad that bad guy is? Gee, when’s the last time they were really, really bad? Time for them to shockingly kill a beloved character right before the final confrontation with the hero! I know you traveled a long way to help that poor psychic kid, but die Scatman Crothers!
Now there’s no going back. Now the villain can’t be redeemed. They must die. Cue the final chapter/episode/season/third act.
This one is risky as hell, and maybe don't kill one of your few/only female POC protagonists this way, but hey, you be you.
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Death #10: The Sidekick Sacrifice.
Your hero can’t just win clean, right? That’s boring. There has to be a cost. And sometimes that cost is Robin’s life. Often this is a minor Heroic Sacrifice in its own right, but by someone other than the hero.
The sidekick takes the bullet, goes into the warp core, etc. Can be combined with the Final Wrong. Either way, "I have been... and always shall be... your friend." Cue tears.
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Death #11: The War is Hell
A variation on the Sidekick Sacrifice. Beloved character dies randomly in a final great battle because War is Hell.
Sometimes the WIH is just A Bad Break. The bullet came from nowhere. WTF?!? Sometimes this happens in the Fog of War. No one saw it. The hero finds the body afterwards and feels the cost of victory. It’s high, man. So very high.
I confess, I used this one in The Goblin Crown. War is Hell even in YA fantasy novels.
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Death #13: I Couldn’t Save Her
The riskiest variation on the late character death. The kid your hero has been protecting all along dies. The hero tries to save her/him but fails. Generally, only done in the Darkest Timelines. Or at the start of Alien 3. Fuck Alien 3.
The ICSH tells your audience this is not a hero’s story. This is a brutal examination of the inherent unfairness of life. Surprise!
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WORDS OF CAUTION!
WARNING: Beloved character deaths often do not go over well. Use with caution.
The Final Wrong, the Sidekick Sacrifice, the War is Hell, and the I Couldn’t Save Her/Him are all somewhat risky. Sometimes, you kill the very character that the audience most cares about. You know, like Glen. Or Lexa. OMG Lexa!? You can lose big chunks of your audience this way.
Still, all four can be effective ways of turning on the feels late in a story. If you use them, make sure they either feel super well-earned or that they fit your theme so well that the audience will accept it.
But be careful. The biggest danger here is when the audience doesn’t realize you’re going to go this bleak, and then you do, and they feel betrayed. Can be a deal-breaker.
The more innocent the victim, the more horribly they die, and the more pointless the death, the bigger the risk you run for turning off your audience completely. And if it's an underrepresented character that a percentage of your audience deeply identifies with? Oh boy. Run.
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Death #14: The Glorious Last Stand
This character was a prick all along, really. No one liked them. But when the chips were down, when our backs were against the wall, they pulled the pin from their grenade and blew up a crapton of xenomorphs. Hurray!
The GLS can be supercool. The GLSer wasn’t the hero or the villain. Somewhere in the middle really. But we admire the way they went out. Their death redeemed them. If done right, the audience will cheer for their bravery, finally loving them just as they die.
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Death #15: The Everybody Dies
Rare. Tricky. Deeply powerful when done right. The time for characters like these is done. Their world is over. Their final great sacrifice, or noble last stand, or tragic Bolivian gunfight was inevitable. But oh, how brightly they burned in the end.
Look at how badass they were. Look how bravely they faced death. And remember what it meant! Perhaps we would not be alive today (or we’d all be Farsi-speaking Zoroastrians) if not for their transformative deaths. We will never forget them. Remember the Alamo/Pearl Harbor/the 300! Also, their deaths may spur us all to victory/change/redemption.
Or maybe the Western is just over. We're gonna miss you, Butch and Sundance! Cue montage!
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Death #16 (but not really): Apotheosis
Your character dies technically, but really they become one with the Prophets, the God of Light, the Force. Let’s call this “The Sisko.” You can only really pull this off in genre or stuff that pretends not to be genre but really is. Modern variation: Uploaded into the A.I.
If handled poorly, it can feel like a huge cheat, but apotheosis can work extremely well if done right. Star Wars does it a lot, and it works pretty much every time. You get the OOMF of killing a major character, but you reassure the audience that "They will always be with us."
When done well, this can be a very satisfying way to kill off your awesome main character at the end of a long series without totally pissing off your audience. Like I said... The Sisko.
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FINAL WORDS!
There are lots more ways to kill characters, of course. Including the bad ways to kill.
The It Was Supposed to be a Cliffhanger & Then We Got Cancelled and Now They’re All Dead I Guess.
The That Actor Was a Prick So We Offed His Character and Didn’t Care How We Did It or Maybe We Were a Little Vindictive Oops Sorry.
The Oh, I Realized I Didn’t Need That Character (or the Actor Got Another Job) So I Gave Them a Perfunctory Death.
But I think I’ve covered the major and better ways to handle offing a character.
So yeah. Sometimes characters need killing. Just remember, you need to make their deaths satisfying in terms of plot, character, and/or theme or you risk losing your audience.
There are no small deaths. Every character is some off-screen mother’s child. Make it count. Make it matter. Make it worth the pages/screen time.
But think about your favorite movies/books/tv show. I bet they all had memorable deaths. I bet you cried. ADMIT IT, YOU CRIED! Look, I cried when Mike died in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I CRY EVERY TIME I READ IT.
(Mike = War is Hell/Sidekick Sacrifice/Fog of War)
Character Death is one of the most powerful tools in a writer's arsenal. Like all powerful tools, it should be used sparingly, thoughtfully, and for maximum impact. Give them the deaths they deserve!
And with that, I officially pronounce this spew dead. But don't feel bad. This spew will always be with us.
/endspew.
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kensatou · 3 months ago
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(✿◕‿◕) die (ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ✿)
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lazylittledragon · 1 year ago
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the only thing scarier than vampire lords/mind flayers/death cults is meeting the in-laws
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egophiliac · 16 days ago
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I don’t think we’ve ever seen you draw knight of dawn before 🤔 what are your thoughts about him? Or take?
I've drawn him a couple of times, just really little/in the background. but I should draw him more, I love this guy a lot! I have many, many thoughts about him and the way he parallels Silver...and also I think it is extremely funny that his ghost is stuck in a ring. especially considering where that ring has been for the last 16-ish years.
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bananonbinary · 1 year ago
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jfc i just saw a "morally grey girlboss" poll and mabel pines was one of the contenders. she's not morally grey she's not a girlboss she's 12 and never makes a single moral decision that's worse than "you have stuff going on but i'm focused on my own problems" what are you fucking talking about
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spitedemon · 3 months ago
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i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.
i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.
#dragon age#yes i’ve seen john epler’s explanation on only wanting to carry forward choices that they could ‘really do something with.’#and i understand what he’s saying and i’m curious to see how those 3 choices they brought forward will impact the story!!#but i’m still disappointed. and i think telling people why they shouldn’t be disappointed is just gonna make them More disappointed.#also don’t really appreciate dev comments like ‘careful what you wish for with cameos. it just gives us an excuse to find new and horrific#ways to kill your faves teehee 🤭🤭’ like okay???????? what???#alistair came back twice & could be fine both times. loghain’s inquisition cameo was so meaningful because who the hell expected to see him#again? leliana can straight up die in origins and yall brought her back anyways. like what are we doing out here.#also when i think of ‘typical’ nonsense for this fandom it’s people doxxing each other over fictional character opinions. or what#fictional side your fictional inquistor took in the fictional mage-templar war. or just plain old racism.#NOT ‘damn it’s fucking upsetting that this excited replay i’ve been doing of the previous games and all the recommending i’ve been doing#for new fans to play the other games before veilguard has turned out to be pretty fucking pointless.’#might as well tell someone to watch a let’s play of trespasser and that’s it.#11/26 in a hater mood so i’m turning rbs back on lol. go forth & be petty
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words-writ-in-starlight · 2 years ago
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listen I expected literally Nothing from the D&D movie okay, like I can't make it clear enough that I expected the most soulless money grab with a good cgi budget imaginable, I went in having already gone through every stage of grief and landed on acceptance and LISTEN
I fucking CRIED during this dumb RPG movie. it wasn't just "not terrible" it was objectively good with a clever plot and compelling characters and sincere emotional beats. this movie loves D&D so fucking much and it NAILS the "a bunch of goobers try to be cool and accidentally discover The Power Of Friendship And Also Great Violence" classic D&D party vibe. their barbarian's last name is fucking Kilgore and my entire family cried in the theater.
I hope they make twelve of these motherfuckers.
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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 7 months ago
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Heartfelt Reunion.
[First] Prev <–-> Next
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idolomantises · 7 months ago
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Rewatching Adventure Time, I can't help but think so much Princess Bubblegum discourse would be non-existent if people actually watched the show to completion instead of randomly hyperfocusing on some of PB's bad deeds.
There's a very bizarre and commonly held belief that Princess Bubblegum did terrible things and got away with it, that nobody held her accountable. When the show makes a point, repeatedly, that Princess Bubblegum is well meaning but deeply flawed, and to some characters, straight up evil.
I see fans point to "The Cooler" a lot as proof that PB is an irredeemable character, and while it is her worst act in the entire show.... I think people forgot that that was the point. Near the end of the episode she stops spying on people in Ooo because it was an invasion of privacy. In another episode she's called out for exploiting some aliens and lets them go. She feels ashamed that her own people are terrified of her. She loses her entire kingdom, and realizes she needs to get her shit together.
I'm pretty critical of shows that are way too lenient on flawed female characters but Princess Bubblegum isn't one of them. She's awesome, and heavily misunderstood.
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p1xzels · 6 months ago
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i never realized light holds L’s hand but not misa’s ohhhhhh I’m sick. I’m sick
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humming-fly · 2 months ago
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Delighted to discover that the way shadow unlocks new abilities in sxsg is a perfect parallel of the pringles iron maiden
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umblrspectrum · 9 months ago
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hi heres art so you pay attention to me now go read the tags
#ive been rewatching episode 7 like its the only thing on youtube and made note of many things#first off. the solver can only have one host. nori mentions skyn wants to kill off all the other solver hosts (with the dds) and disregards#the idea of both uzi and doll being its current host when they get chased#plus the main solver possessions only occur when skyn is out of the picture (the fightt in ep 7 is only after n decapitates “tessa”)#solver uzi is possible too but i dont count her cause she doesn't have the yellow#personal theory is that its more an instinctual response to overheating or something and not full on possession#second off nori calls the solver cyn. how does she know that name#cyn was on earth and only showed up to copper 9 recently and i presume nori's been here her whole life#it probably wasn't the other dds cause none of them made it down and they're all more savage beasts#since cyn specifies n's team retained their personalities and that makes me think the other teams didnt#also also we should've immediately questioned tessa arriving in the same type of pod as the mds when they were revealed to not be sent by j#im running out of characters also the people who dont like when i use tags like this can bite me#murder drones#murder drones nori#artori? that sounds cool#ill probably just stick with nori though#i have so many solver heart refs now#art#episode 7#murder drones episode 7#murder drones episode 7 spoilers#using the same black for shadows as my lineart doesn't work when i have to draw thin things over it#murder drones spoilers
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marciaillust · 28 days ago
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I added some colours to her :)
#digital art#character art#character design#marcia#discworld#discworld fanart#angua von uberwald#bro i need to get weirder i need my art to be weirder i need the shapes i need the colurs i need to not play safe i need to be a freak#2025 goal become an even bigger freak i can never stop#i really like how she turned out#i never used such muted colours before i kinda like how murky she looks#a true ankhmorporkian#still making my way through men at arms they just found the clown#i am fascinated with the river that is running through that city#it makes me think of Bristol uk <3#going back to angua i like to think the armour they gave her was already all beaten up#hello and welcome to the nightwatch. have the nastiest underfunded gear we could find this side of the city#also i like to think that the official colours of ankh morpork are greenred#two colours on the opposing sides of the colour wheel but they are forced together to coexist#ankh would be green morpork would be red#and now everyone and their patrician just gotta cope#worldbuilding through colour would be fun : )#ohhh the inside of the palace could look quite cool because it would have to utilize both to celebrate the union#but then you go into the city and across the river you can sorta see the divide#not that all the houses would be one colour or whatever thats a bit predictable#but through fashion statements or exported goods or family insignia#and then you could incorporate it further for example vimes the guy of the city would want to take on the whooole thang. thats his city#some criss cross apple sauce checkers quilted mismatched mumbo jumbo#and then in contrast to that you would have his wife-elected suit and tie getup that distances him from his duty and kills him#so many options i tell you
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egophiliac · 2 months ago
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do skully have pokemon?
Pumpkaboo is the obvious one, but y'know, sometimes the obvious one is the right one! (we'll say SUPER SIZE Pumpkaboo, just for fun. big pumpkin for big skeleton boy.) and another person actually also suggested Greavard, which I somehow hadn't considered, but feels so perfect that I feel like I should have. dangit.
(they can also have little Nightmare Suit costumes :D)
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#art#twisted wonderland#pokemon#poketwst#twisted wonderland spoilers#lost in the book with nightmare before christmas#hajimari no halloween#(sorry for leaving anon off for a while! i've gotten a rash of spam and i'm gonna wait it out a couple days before turning it back on)#also apologies for the rest of this not really being pokemon related#i don't have anything right now for part 4 of the event so i'm gonna use this space to go off about it#because. oh man.#a sad lack of the scullsman but a FEAST of everyone else#gotta love malleus and leona uniting in the common goal of hunting trey down for trying to game their whiny pettiness#(trey doesn't know what to do with someone he can't easily distract with cake)#also further confirmation that malleus WILL kill a small child and leona WILL point and laugh the whole time#also sebek's plans revolving around what he knows he's good at: screaming extremely loudly and hoisting nerds#and let us not forget what i consider to be the crowning jewel#which is jamil figuring out IMMEDIATELY where scully has taken his prisoners#only for everyone else to just. literally refuse to do anything about it.#jamil just standing there and going 'WE KNOW WHERE THEY ARE! WE CAN JUST! GO GET THEM!!!! WHYYY AREN'T WE GOING'#visibly losing his entire mind and it's beautiful#top 10 twst event moments honestly#also some delightful character consistency from jade being all#'actually my dicking around is a sign of my immense trust in your abilities to get things done :)'#'but also consider: there are currently two housewardens chasing a child'#'alternately angrily screaming poetry and begging them not to sue'#'and if you will pardon my city of flowers...there is no fucking way i'm missing that'#lock shock and barrel did not sign up for this. how did these idiots turn out to be somehow weirder than the three of them.#twisted wonderland must be a frightening place indeed
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cryptidmickle · 3 months ago
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tfw when ur friend wants to arrest ur emotional support war criminal
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sweetlullabyebye · 11 months ago
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Characters that are absolute lovesick disasters but also brutal killers are... definitely something
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