#i actually don't know where this characterisation is coming from btw

[wonderlandsakura]

Wonder's Tale, Day 27: Foundation, part 1

So it's Day 27 of writing my Tale (actual name pending) and today we're going to jump into the next section.

If you read the 26th's update, you will know that this section will have a lot of short bits, so I've decided I'm going to string them all together as reblogs of this post.

Anyway the required cut:

Charles was overwhelmed.

The lady, Alice, he'd met after being thrown out of his job (literally) seemed to be some sort of big shot??

He followed her around as the town liaison (the town liaison!!) showed her around town, talking about tax returns and productivity on a town-wide scale. It mostly flew over his head honestly.

At least the lady's attendants (attendants??!!?) we're nice. Or at least Marcus was, he was quick to explain things when Charles didn't know what to do. As for Martha, well he didn't know if she found his situation hilarious or if she just thought everything was hilarious, it was probably both though.

And now the house, no Mansion they had returned to??

Charles was going to trip over his shoes and never be seen again wasn't he? He hadn't made a deal with the devil had he? Yes, Alice was kind, but why would an Angel come to help him of all people? Also wasn't there something about devils disguising themselves as angels??

What had Charles gotten himself into???

Charles was very calmly looking around for a nice little corner to have a quick little freak out session, where he hopefully would not to be found and made a commotion of, cause that sounded like a sure-fire way to be disappeared, when he was very sadly interrupted from his searching by Martha, clearly very amused, relaying a summons from the lady.

Right it seemed his misery would end sooner than he thought! Wonderful!

Only it didn't and now he has a much too big, much too extravagant set of rooms, as well as a way too well equipped personal (Personal!1!1!) workshop and smithy and equipment and materials that are way too expensive for someone like him that he's honestly afraid to exist in the same room with. Everything was going great!

Charles was just about to take the opportunity to spiral in a nice room for probably the one and only time in his sorry existence when he sadly prevented once again.

This time it was a rumpled, bespectacled boy with messy dark bangs covering his eyes. He was confusing, too casual to be a servant, but too messy to be one of the guests the lady mentioned, surely? Unless this was a test. Yes that was probably it, it was a test and no doubt Charles was already fail-

A loud sigh interrupted his thoughts. Ah he'd been spiralling again hadn't he. Perfect. He was going to die.

"You're not going to die. Unless you continue hyperventilating," says the boy at the door of the room that surely can't be his. Could he read minds? Fuck.

The boy's eyes are searching as they stare at his face for a moment. Looking for something. There is a test isn't there? The boy sighs again. Charles is failing it isn't he??

"Don't worry, there isn't any test that'll determine whether you get to stay. At least not one that judges you on whether you 'stay in your place' or whatever," the boy says, cutting quickly to the quick of the matter, "If there was, all of us other guests probably wouldn't be here anymore."

Seeing the confusion on Charles's face, he continues, scuffing his foot on the carpeted floor as he began to rub the back of his neck, "Alice is just... Philanthropic. She sees someone in need and just helps. She doesn't really think too much about being repaid... I mean she probably said something about you being useful, but it's probably more to keep face and let her get away with it than anything," he ends in a rush.

"So I'm just saying..." He glances back at Charles face and sighs, looking away, "Don't worry to much ok? Alice means well, she won't kick you out for stepping out of line or something..."

He finally looks up and shrugs, saying, "She's nice."

Charles is. Not sure how to feel about the confession. But he does feel a bit lighter. Maybe. So he thanks the boy, who leaves, introducing himself as Arnold.

Charles watches him go before closing the door and flopping on the much too comfy bed. Well maybe it won't be so bad after all. If it's inevitable that he's going to be thrown out (he's not quite sure he believes the other boy, guest or not) he might as well make the most of it while he's here.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

Andor and character writing

First off: This is a plot-driven show, and that's a good thing. Especially with how Gilroy and Co. reimagined the character, this is not a subject that was made for a several-episode-long character study (and frankly, probably nothing in Star Wars really is). Gilroy and his team's writing really shines in parts of the show - the parallels between characters in different arcs, the political and logistical nitty-gritty are all really interesting.

But I do think the character-writing on the show takes a backseat in a way it didn't have to, and occasionally gets handwavy in ways that are in confusing contrast to the precision of the writing elsewhere - mostly, but not exclusively where Cassian is concerned.

1. Coherence

The Rogue One script has its flaws (user ruby-red-inky-blue admits through gritted teeth), but one thing it did incredibly well was give you characters that just immediately made sense. From the first, even with the sparse information you were given, you could immediately picture how their lives up to this point had gone, and their characterisation made sense for the life they had led. For Jyn, we were given a lot of quickly rattled-off exposition (which, yes, some might have found clunky), but it immediately made sense for the way she interacted with people and the actions she took: why she was so eager to get out of dodge, thinking she was about to be conscripted into the next pointless rebellion clusterfluck after Saw's rebels; why she was so irreverent and hostile to everyone - because she'd been around people like that, been one of them, and they had all let her down and hadn't even reached their goals doing it... I could go on. For others, like Bodhi or Baze, we got much less context, but it immediately made sense for them to be where they were: Bodhi, a young man from Jedha who'd gone into Imperial duty probably for the money or for an opportunity to become a pilot and see the universe, slowly but surely driven to a breaking point and immediately getting in way over his head when he went to Saw, because he had no idea what he was getting himself into. (This was also a clever characterisation beat for Galen, btw: He'd been an Imp or posing as one most of his life, and miscalculated, hard, on how reasonable his old buddy Saw would be, because he had no way of knowing how batshit insane the fight had driven him since they last met). Long story short: Everyone's mindset, behaviour, age and position in society was perfectly reasonable in relation to each other. Baze and Chirrut would have seemed weird if they had been really young; if someone like Bodhi had been played by an actor in his fifties, his behaviour would have seemed less intuitive. Same thing for Krennic: He was old enough to make his position in the Empire seem reasonable (he was ambitious, and worked his way up the ranks, but probably not smart enough to work his way up the ranks noticeably quickly, so he had to be middle-aged), but also just old enough to start getting that torschlusspanik going - if the big break in his career doesn't come soon, he'll be too old for it. He just makes sense.

Andor has characters like that, too, and I don't think it's a surprise that they're among the most popular standouts of the first season. Mon Mothma is very coherent like that, but she might be a special case since we knew so much about her position going in. But Luthen, Syril, Dedra, Maarva and Brasso also have this going for them. For example, Luthen is older than most of the characters, so he, like Maarva, actually remembers what the world was like before the Empire. He's also old enough to suggest that maybe he has lost someone or something and that loss has been allowed to fester into that rage and resolve he clearly has when we meet him. He's old enough to have made mistakes and learned from them, and also old enough to have built up his shop front to the point where we catch up with him, without that needing any extra explanation. And Brasso is a great example of a character who just makes sense even though we know next to nothing about him. He's from Ferrix, he works there, he seems community-minded and knows Cassian and Maarva well. That's all we get. And yet, it makes so much sense. He's that solid friend with a stable job, quiet and generous. He's old enough to have earned his position in the community. He never behaves in a way that would make it strange how universally beloved he seems to be on Ferrix. We also see how savvy he is with social complications when he makes up the alibi for Cassian - this is a man who gets people, and who will be able to defuse any beef someone else has with him. Everything about him makes sense.

Cassian, though... I don't know. So he was abducted from his home planet aged nine or so - old enough to remember it - and had to learn a whole new language and culture. This... doesn't seem to inform his actions much, short of maybe earning him a reputation for being a quick study. He took action against the Empire when Clem died - possibly also influenced by the loss of his home planet and first family - went to jail, left at sixteen to fight on Mimban for six months, then got out of dodge, disillusioned. Okay. So why do we meet him ten years later, apparently completely inexperienced with how to go about looking for his sister? What has he been doing those ten years? Why would he not start looking for her sooner? Did Maarva forbid it? The Cassian we meet in Andor doesn't seem like a guy who would listen to that. The womanising trait is also a little weird to me - I guess it could be a thing of wanting to belong, or commitment issues, which would make sense, but the show doesn't tell us why he's doing it, only that he's doing it (see below on that issue). I guess we're just saying if you look like that, you'd make the most of it. He is a beautiful man, I guess that checks out. But it's not very meaty, characterisation-wise, and it gives us nothing re: his background. The only thing that seems coherent to me in Cassian's early characterisation is that he seems on the outskirts of the community by his own doing - it makes sense that he would self-sabotage a little, maybe harbouring a lingering doubt that he belongs or fits in. But the chronic unreliability they saddle him with, while making a lot of sense for his backstory, is really confusing to square with where he's going - that's not a trait you can just choose to let go off whenever, but he seemingly does (see below for more on that). I also feel like his piloting skills are really a lot better than they should be considering his background, but one could argue maybe most ships really are pretty easy to fly or at least all very similar (and they did hilariously refute that point in Season 2 so I will shut up about that a little more). And maybe most prominently, I feel like they gave him no reason to be as much of a smooth-talker as he is. What about living with this very quiet man and this very terse, upfront woman in this sleepy scrapping town made him so incredibly good at manipulation - and yet, why has this not resulted in him getting himself in a little better position somewhere, or at least keeping him out of trouble more? I get him being a good liar, to some extent, since Maarva had him hide his origin his entire life, and because that feels like something that can just be natural aptitude. But keeping him so perfectly separate from any spy experience for this much of his life makes his skill at charming people somewhat confusing. Because being able to talk someone into giving you a two-day extension on the debt you owe them is one thing, but suddenly giving speeches and talking guys into a prison break is a very different beast.

2. Consistency

This all kind of dovetails into my second gripe: The character progressions on the show can feel inorganic. People will suddenly change a thing about themselves in a very short time or for a seemingly small reason, and the show doesn't address it. I've gone on at length about how strange I find Cassian going from a fuck-you-don't-tell-me-what-to-do attitude to the incredibly patient, obedient soldier we meet at the end of his life in only a few short years. And right off the bat, the skip from 1.12 to 2.01 felt bigger than it should have been, one year on.

First of all – we get no context on Dedra suddenly not only deigning to regard Syril as a person worth two minutes of her attention, but to actually be in a relationship with him? Sharing her home with him? Meeting his mother? I really hope there is some big dramatic endgame she’s running here, because if not, that feels like a massive leap to me.

Similarly, looking at how he talks to the woman at the test facility and later the guys on Yavin, Cassian has gone lightyears closer to the man we meet on Kafrene in one year. And, again, knowing exactly what to say to any given person to get them to do what you want takes a lot of experience, and I don’t really think one year would do the trick. So yeah, he seems like a wildly advanced spy – and yet, at the same time, everything he does in 2.03 is so stupid. It’s human! But it wildly undermines that incredibly well-written scene at the end of last season. “Kill me, or take me in” is not the statement of a man who’s still planning to go home to his family at the end of the week! It implies that he will live or die for this rebellion from this point forward. And yet, three episodes later, Cassian, devoted spy and public enemy n° 4, not only seems to be making regular visits to Bix, Brasso and Co., but they’re using his real name in front of outsiders. And when he hears that the Imps are bearing down on the planet for an inspection, he takes the invaluable ship he just stole for the rebels that they risked multiple lives trying to obtain, and rushes in with that flashy flashy ship to rescue his buddies?? If they hadn’t already been in trouble, they would have immediately been the target of a fully-fledged manhunt the moment anyone saw that ship in the sky. Like, my guy, not only are you making shit worse for your friends, you are risking the ship your rebellion needs and your own capture in the process – which would not only risk handing them a year’s worth of spy information, but also a huge propaganda win and a massive blow to Luthen’s operation. Why would you do that. Why would you not at least land somewhere and steal a slightly less conspicuous ship.

And the annoying thing is, this could be fascinating characterisation – but because of the structure of the season, we are not going to sit with this! We won’t be able to explore this as the espionage clusterfuck that it is, and the ramification for Cassian’s journey to become the Rebellion’s model spy boy. I don’t think we’re even meant to see it as a mistake on his part! The narrative excuses him – he was already almost too late, any extra second might have killed Bix and Wilmon – but it runs so counter to where we last left him, and now we’ll swan off from this again, and he’ll probably be back to hypercompetent spy mode. His competence was a great trait for Rogue One-Cassian, and watching him fuck up on the way there would be interesting. But as beautifully consistent as the overall plot is, Gilroy is clearly not as bothered making his main character equally internally consistent. Cassian oscillates between competence and incompetence whenever the plot needs it – and yes, people fuck up, but this is a story. It would be nice to feel like we’re watching a character being formed, instead of individual traits of a character randomly blinking in and out of existence like this.

3. Motivation

The Andor writers in Season 1 were great at showing you what drives people to stand up to injustice, in all its nuances on the spectrum of selflessness to selfishness and greater good to individual freedom.

But at very few points does Andor seem invested in giving that same justification to most of the interpersonal relationships, though. A few examples: We learn that Cassian and Bix were an item once, and that she broke up with him but they’re still fond of each other. Great, we love a non-toxic exes relationship! But… why did they like each other? Did Bix like that Cassian was a bit of a scoundrel? Could make sense, her rebound with the very down-to-earth Timm might imply as much. But the show doesn’t really show us any concrete reasons. We get allusions to their shared past, their comfortable bickering, the joke about Cassian climbing her dad’s fence. But we don’t really learn why he liked her. His relationship to Brasso is also a little underexplored: Brasso is very warm and very lenient with Cassian, like a caring older brother in many ways, and Cassian seems to lean on him in a way that seems like he’s done that many times. But that’s really all we get. Why is Brasso cutting Cassian so much slack? How come he feels so responsible for Maarva, seemingly even more than Bix?

Maarva and Cassian is much more intuitive, because Cassian was a child in need (at least in Maarva’s eyes, and then in fact when she took him away from home) – it’s understandable how they’d sort of imprint on each other, and yet also understandable that Cassian might harbour some resentment, which we see in the way he seems to idolise Clem over her sometimes. Theirs is maybe the most fleshed-out relationship Cassian has, and it stands on its own in ways that his other relationships really don’t – and yet, there’s still a lot of telling instead of showing, because the plot overtakes them. That’s fine, it’s even making a point of how the struggle is taking things away even before people die! But when this keeps happening, it makes the characters lack depth in a way that is a bit of a shame.

Vel and Cinta live in an in-between point, because we do get some very salient points about what Vel might see in Cinta when Cinta snipes at her about sort of play-acting as a rebel: Vel admires Cinta; she’s who she would like to be, clearly ashamed of her privilege and alienated by her culture. But we never really learn what Cinta sees in her, although I have some hope this might come up this season.

With Mothma and Luthen, it’s less noticeable – Mothma’s family is a central plot point, and Luthen is so compulsively secretive that it would feel weird for him to have any obvious, deeply explored relationships. He and Kleya are also underexplored, but here it feels deliberate. You can see how they meant to juxtapose Cassian, initially from a tightly-knit community with a lot of strings still attached (friends, mother, ex-girlfriend), and Mr. “I burn my future for a sunrise I will never see” – rebels at different stages, and Luthen’s isolation foreshadowing Cassian’s own. But that would have worked so much better if we were given a little more depth in the relationships! Rogue One took a hard show, don’t tell approach to relationships, and it went over a lot people’s heads, but I think they did a much better job in that script making the relationships feel real. Cassian saw himself in Jyn – his own doubts in the cause, the toll it took on them both, the resentment, the fight. He looked clearly struck by her refusal of the call in the first half, and you could tell how seeing her devote herself to the cause fully reinvigorated him, too. It was also very briefly but deftly implied how he related to Bodhi: he admired the bravery of this very overwhelmed young man who took all the guilt about his past actions and did something with it (Bodhi’s comment about how Galen said he could make it right if he was brave now is later mirrored in Cassian’s hangar speech). Even Draven and Cassian had implied depth although we were never told anything about what or who they were to each other short of commanding officer and soldier – their face journeys when Draven relayed the order about Galen (implying a very deep mutual understanding and some guilt on both their parts), later Draven doing the strategically idiotic move of trying to delay their one chance of taking out Galen from the air just to try and get Cassian to safety first. The movie took more care to show why people felt connected to each other than to define what that connection really was. This wouldn’t work for a show, because of the longer runtime, but it would have been nice to get a little more why.

(This can work for spy shows, too, even characters you want to keep more ambiguous. This post is already way too long so I won’t go into detail, but The Americans was great at making very believable relationships between very shady people.)

Also, I don't know where this goes, but I also think it's a real shame that the connections between the remaining Ferrix guys weren't fleshed out at all. And while I think it's good that they went for absolute unflinching realness with the farm planet storyline, I would love to learn more about Bix that isn't "fixes stuff" and "massive trauma", please?

.

Tl;dr: I’m really hyped for more intricate spy on spy shenanigans, big themes and political intrigue, but I’m seeing all my gripes on how Gilroy writes characters overall and Cassian in particular staying pretty consistent. This season will feel very rushed to me. That’s probably a me problem; it always annoys me when narratives are so plot-driven that the characterisation actively suffers for it, and I really think there were ways around it in a script like this. But hey, we’ll see. Maybe they’ll surprise me.

I will say, though, that I will send this incredibly overlong essay to anyone who brings up the “Tony Gilroy saved Rogue One” thing to me, because the characterisations in Rogue One were one of my favourite things about the movie and he is clearly not invested in that as a writer, and I really don’t believe he had much of a hand in that. And, even more honestly, even if all these things improve 100 percent in the next arc... that still ain't my boy! But at least do well with the versions you've created, Tony.

[thatstoomanysausages]

My favourite activity to indulge in recently in non-stop binging The Crane Wives' songs, especially the new album, and tallying how many times I can somehow link the lyrics to Desert Duo.

At this point it might be a talent of delusion, and I am winning.

Here is a list of lyrics in the newest album that I am particularly delusional about (it's long. It's 2am)

(btw it's every single new song. I am tired as fuck)

Scars:

"All the love, all the kindness, all your best-laid plans/Couldn't stop me from becoming the way that I am" (3rd Life reference referring to Scar inevitable turning red despite all of Grian's plans to keep him alive and safe)

"A fatal fault at the start/Tell me it's inevitable that I'd end up with scars" (3rd Life, when Scar is quickly killed in the beginning by Grian)

"Nothing could have been done/Is that right?" (3rd Life. Conversation between Grian and Scar after the creeper prank)

"Nothing could have been done" (3rd Life. After Scars falls to red)

"Nothing could have been done/Is that right?" (3rd Life. After Grian kills Scar with his own bare hands)

"End up with scars from falling/Down, down" (3rd Life, Grian's final death via suicide)

"We were always meant to fall apart" (Not even one specific series. Every single one of them actually.)

Bitter Medicine:

"Are you ashamed of me, or did you buy what I'm selling?" (3rd Life reference about Scar's scamming nature and Grian's disappointment that hides the fact that he's charmed by Scar. Every. Single. Time.)

"Made my bed but I'll sleep anywhere, anywhere" (Wild Life reference. I think we all know. Pillows smelling like waffles? Yeah.)

Higher Ground:

"I gave up the truth and now I can't take it back" (3rd Life. Grian telling Scar that he was the one that brought the creeper over. Or. Double Life Grian if he ever told Scar about his Secret Soulmate. OR. Wild Life, Grian telling Scar literally anything about the wildcard)

"I didn't wanna hurt anyone" (Oh.)

"The corvids are calling/Warning the forest a predator is approaching/Am I in danger, or am I the threat" (Grian is often characterised as a corvid if not a parrot. Basically any scenario in Wild Life where Grian is warning Scar about the wildcards despite the fact that he is at fault of making them happen)

Predator:

"What were you thinking?/Shouldn't you know better?/You opened a door for an apex predator" (Any scenario in which Scar welcomes Grian into his home and doesn't think twice about the danger the other could be harbouring. His trust for Grian is unimaginable)

"I keep forgetting the lessons I've learned/So I keep getting hurt" (Before Scar won, he never remembered what had happened with Grian, so he went back to him for safety multiple times, teamed with him, didn't mind his company, not knowing the dangers that Grian represents just by existing)

"Your heart is a nasty place/I'm afraid to say no to you" (...Yeah)

"Keep your lies and your denial/I am fighting for survival/My heart is a changing shape/What if I said no to you?" (DOUBLE LIFE DESERT DUO TAKE ME HOME. The 'changing shape' line implying that their soulmates could change their soulbound partners if they really wanted to, and could adapt to being with another if they desired it)

"You took advantage of another anxious people-pleaser" (I can't keep doing this. Honestly, depending on your point of view, this could go either way for them in varying seasons, they're doomed in every universe)

"I keep forgetting that you wont learn/So I keep getting hurt" (And now it switches to Grian on this paralleling line. He forgets about Scar's undying loyalty and falls into the trap of his safety every time, only to come out hurting him or not protecting him like he swore to in 3rd Life. This line goes so hard)

Say It:

"Say it/If it's over, say it/So I can move forward/Please don't leave me in the dark/Praying for a wayward spark" (This whole chorus screams them. They won't communicate. They never officially separate from one another, always somehow intertwined, but neither will finalise their allyship. I need therapy)

"I'm haunted by your tenderness" (3rd Life Grian traumatised by the half-hearted hits Scar was giving because he was letting Grian win, he never wanted to fight, he felt Grian deserved to win because he had done so so much for him. He was completely smitten)

"And if we meet as strangers again/Would you refuse to meet my eyes?" (Grian internally questioning Scar after he killed him in the 3rd Life finale, harbouring more guilt than he can comprehend, literally)

"You know I'm loyal to a fault" (Scar and Grian interchangeably in 3rd Life...)

"I will sit here waiting/Waiting for the axe to fall" (Scar submitting his life to Grian after they are left the last two alive. And also, if you're insane for Treebark, there is a glaringly obvious implication of Martyn feeling incredible guilt after axing Ren down to red, even if he asked him to.)

Mad Dog:

"Keep looking for the end of the tunnel/Never seems to get any closer" (The two waiting as winners for the games to end and alongside it, their suffering as well. They will never be free from circling around each other, over and over and over again)

"We both know the ship is gonna sink/But I keep reaching for the shore/Never seems to get any closer" (They both keep reaching towards each other, knowing that they will never truly be able to be together, especially after the first time where they did, and it ended horribly for them)

Arcturus Beaming:

"My sanctuary to worship the pain" (References the panda sanctuary that Scar built to help the soulmates heal their bonds, only to never complete its purpose with the two that needed it the most, ironically including the one that built it)

"And I am tired of forming a cliff face/Inside of my chest now" (Grian remembering jumping off of Monopoly Mountain and the weight that it now burdens his heart with. This line is diabolical with the right context)

"I'm grieving all that I gave" (Both of them grieving the sacrifices they made for one another, their sacrifices only making their relationship more strained overtime)

"A mirror image of us here, but they're pointing up at our sun and/Asking themselves/What exists beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond?" (Other versions of themselves in different life series looking at their 3rd Life selves and wondering what it was like to be so tightly allied)

"But there's still time, it's not too late/Nothing will change until I change" (Grian's attempt at teaming with Scar in Limited Life, savouring the time he had with him before killing him. He will never change their bond, he is always destined to kill him one way or another)

Time Will Change You:

"Planting hearts in a grave/Pray they grow after it rains" (Grian burying all his allies, hoping that as he digs their graves, he can heal their broken bonds, the cracks only caused by himself. This can unfortunately apply to a lot of Grian's allies, but Grian and Scar's relationship tries to heal itself each season)

"Someday/Time will change you/You'll leave behind what doesn't move" (Someday Scar will remember and he'll leave Grian behind once he realises that Grian was never able to move on, and that his heart is still stuck neck deep in the sand where both their bodies laid at the end of 3rd Life)

"Give me a chance to get this right/I'm learning how to let go" (They're learning, but they'll always fail, no matter how many chances)

Black Hole Fantasy:

"There's a black hole in the living room floor/I keep trying to ignore, but it's growing" (Their need to team and interact is overwhelming, and the longer they ignore one another, the larger their need will get)

"If love is just a chemical reaction/Is there a pill to take? Something to quell this ache?/ Is this the real thing or a distraction/Is it worth the risk?/My life would detonate" (Mmmmmm I'm losing it here)

"I'm on my way to your house, I can't wait anymore" (Yeah.)

"My knuckles hesitate an inch away from the door/What happens when it opens?" (They've spent so much time apart and away from one another that they feel fear that the moment they reconnect, it won't be the same as it was in the desert)

"And on the other side is another life/A version of me with a spark in her eyes that I don't have" (Looking back to 3rd Life when everything was simpler and happier)

"You pull me in your arms and I feel your heart pounding/I take a step back to catch my breath/And we look at each other and double over/And laugh, and laugh, and laugh" (Yeah. Just yeah. This whole verse makes me sob)

Red Clay:

(Already I want to make a link to 'red' and Scar's existence in 3rd Life being very red)

"Blistering sun, my sweat soaking my clothing" (THE DESERT???)

"We don't have to do this the hard way" (We don't have to battle to the death bare handed. We don't have to.)

River Rushing:

"I know I can't grow with a hand around my throat/Hold yourself steady/Whenever you're ready" (Reference to their fight to the death in 3rd Life)

This entire song is just a narration of their fight honestly and it makes me violent.

[thunderboltfire]

Are Lords of Fortune thieves?

I've seen a lot of talk about LoF being an incredibly sanitized faction, and sure, some of this criticism I can agree with. I rolled my eyes through Taash's banter with Bellara too, but I think it's worth remembering, where exactly does this characterisation come from.

Much of the information on how the Lords handle relics and on their general conduct, comes from Taash. Especially their first dialogue in the Lighthouse gets interesting when You play as a Laidir Rook. In a dialogue branch about the traps, if Rook expresses they'd much rather deal with a trap-ridden maze and stealing ancient idols, they immediately respond that the Lords are not thieves, they don't steal.

To which Rook replies that oh no, they absolutely do steal, and recalls an instance of a daring theft by one of their members.

To which Taash states that it doesn't count as theft, because Starkhaven is full of assholes (presumably, rich assholes). They add that the Lords 'don't take from those, who cannot afford it'.

Which sounds like a very convenient justification by someone who owes a lot to the Lords, looks up to them and is generally biased in their favor, all of which Taash definitely is. Taash is convinced that the Lords are good people - they've helped their mother survive, they appreciate their skills, they're a fun bunch. Taash is also relatively young and rather sheltered, possibly a bit naive due to it. They mention not going on political missions, sticking to raiding trap-riddled dunegons and dragon lairs, which also is pretty far from more controversial high-sea robbery Isabela is known for.

In short, Taash has a perspective of a heavily biased insider. I also think that in the mind of a person raised by incredibly principled Shathann, theft is something very wrong, maybe even dishonorable, and it's not difficult to imagine that the faction which puts such emphasis on glory would have some code of honour. The Qunari world is rather black and white - things are either wrong or right. These aspects of the Lords do not go together in qunari mentality, so one of these has to be more true than the other.

The results are sommersaults of justifications. It isn't really theft, you see, because they only take from the rich (which is BTW a pretty logical course of action if they want big prize that'll earn them fame). They take things from assholes, so it's okay. You don't need to worry about it.

I also believe Taash speaks so much about the Lords' approach to the cultural artifacts, because it's the topic they personally know well - they speak about it like it's a common knowledge among the Lords, but Laidir (who ran with the Lords something around half a year before the events of DA:TV) doesn't recall ever working with an appraiser, they even can mention that they definitely haven't thought of it as deeply when they've sold the relics they've robbed, which earns them a sour comment from Taash.

The thing is, the artifact appraisal allowed Taash and their mother to survive, and Shathann may've been employed specifically by Isabela, who's had a bad experience with certain qunari relics and a dalish historian for a friend, but I don't think a fair treatment of artifacts is as universal of a thing as Taash thinks. Shathann had to have worked for the Lords for almost two decades, since Taash was a small child, and Laidir doesn't know her at all, despite stumbling upon various artifacts in their journeys.

The thing is, we don't get much outside information about the Lords in the game, which is, unfortunately, another development oversight that could be easily fixed by background dialogue or an introduction of a bigger LoF base location, in which we'd be able to do actual quests for them and get a wider perspective on the variety of work they do. They're pirates, scoundrels, loose cannons, they should be a pretty polarizing presence (especially in Antiva, whose trade historically suffered greatly from piracy).

TL;DR: There's some ground to suspect that at least a good part of Lords' 'disneyified' behavior is a matter of Taash's personal bias and - as it often is in DA - an unreliable narration. A non-LoF Rook playthroughs don't get enough information in the game to develop a more nuanced view on the faction.

[snackleggg]

I feel like a big part of Allura's character being done dirty and feeling inconsistent comes from the writers just not really being able to write female characters very well.

What do I mean?

Well, Voltron's cast has always been primarily male (which makes sense since the og show was from the 80s) but vld gives us quite a few "strong female characters". The problem comes when you notice most of those characters are minor like Krolia or Acxa or Veronica. This means the characters can be depicted as strong and badass with any more indepth characters moments being conveniently off screen (like Krolia & Keith's time on the space whale, Veronica's time worrying over Lance's disappearance & trying to protect earth, Acxa's redemption)

But there are still female characters within the main cast and the contrast between how they are written really gives an insight to the struggle the vld writers had. The contrast between how Pidge and Allura are written is alarming.

Pidge, even after her reveal, is still written in an androgynous masc-leaning way. The characters don't even refer to her with any pronouns for seasons after her "reveal", its only in the last few seasons that the writers seemingly remember Pidge is supposed to use she/her pronouns. This is probably a byproduct of the fact that the archetype Pidge fills (the smart guy) is commonly a masc one.

Meanwhile, Allura's characterisation is butchered because as the designated "main female character" the writers just threw every single character trope at her, probably trying to make her feel "deep" and multifaceted but just made her feel inconsistent, busy, and butchered instead.

She's "the leader" initially when the paladins are first starting out but Shiro fills that role quickly so she is put in a more "support" role. She seems to be some type of "chosen one" considering her ability to connect w/ the balmera, negate haggars magic, and her natural talent w/ alchemy (the explanation seems to be that it's because of her lineage, as Alfor was the best alchemist of his time, but we never seem/know enough about Alfor or his own abilities to get a tangible grasp of what Allura's capabilities are. It's just whatever is convenient to the plot like bringing Lance back to life). She falls into the "damsel in distress" trope at the end of season 1. She's made the center of a very disingenuous and forced feeling love triangle. They try to give her a racism arc??? But fail spectacularly bc they never have like a proper heartfelt conversation about her bias, where it comes from, her recognising the damaging affects it has (the conversation she has with Keith abt it at the end of season 2 feels very "You're one of the good ones" coded which is very icky) and then the writers seemingly forget it ever happened (also it lasts like 3 episodes and consists mainly of her just glaring vaguely in Keith's direction instead of any actual confrontation/conflict between them)

Her character is all over the place. One second she is being put in "traditional" female character tropes (which she as a princess trained in combat, diplomacy, and running an entire society of people, should not be put in/have trouble with) like the damsel in distress and the love triangle. The next, she is depicted as unstoppable and a fix-all maggufin like with her alchemy & connection to quintessence. Then they also try to have her work through personal issues/flaws (which I think is what her racism arc was supposed to be???) But they never go into detail & explore said personal issues (which btw were never really alluded to before hand, kind of came out of nowhere)

TLDR: Allura's character was butchered because the writers thought mashing together a bunch of random character tropes without any deeper thought/development = interesting characterisation when really it just made her inconsistent and confusing.

[pinkcarsupremacy]

lmao sophie i'm sharing this with you because i know you'll find my admittedly self-inflicted plight funny!

just now i was typing 'esteban ocon playlist' into tumblr's search function to find songs to add to my ever-growing esteban playlist and i stumbled across a f1 driver!reader x l*ndo fic where the set-up involves ESTEBAN making a misogynistic comment about y/n's abilities

like first of all not to yuck ANYONE'S yum but ___ x reader fics are NOT for me (and tbf it was appropriately tagged i just accidentally clicked on it). and as you know l*ndo is also not for me.

but second of all and far more importantly why the hell is ESTEBAN making the misogynistic comment??? esteban who has consistently advocated for women in motorsport. like don't piss me off!

(especially since lando, carlos, pierre, max, and DANIEL were all mentioned in the fic...and yet you picked ESTEBAN)

god i just had to get that off my chest.

Crying Hannah this is so funny ejshfkfkf

One of my pet peeves with any sort of F1 fanfic actually is exactly this lmao when they have another driver be the rando who says something hateful for no reason like if it's just a one liner rude thing why are you using a driver for that when it could literally be an irrevlant random OC. Then they always be like in the notes 'Sorry [insert driver fans] I just needed to have someone say something mean' USE AN OC FOR THAT THEN 😭😭😭

This is something I'm passionate about btw bcos I come from Marvel/DC comics fandom where some people write fanfics without reading ANY OF THE SOURCE MATERIAL??? So they get characterisation from fanon and tumblr and fanfic which is the most deranged thing ever actually. So you cannot be slandering Este as a misogynist for a one liner in ur reader fanfic bcos I know there's someone out there who will take that as fact 😭😭😭

Oh also btw for Esteban playlist songs check out What a Shame by Beth Crowley, TV Dinner by Sam Fender and Why Not Me by Set it Off

[baejax-the-great]

Hi! I just wanted to combat that anon (fuck them btw) and say I ADORE your fics.

I’ve plagued everyone to tears in my life over broken oaths and water in the dawn. Your premises never fail to go hard asf. And your prose? It absolutely baffles me how you write so fast when the quality is just next level, and your characterisation of patrochilles? Ugh it scratches such an itch in my brain, you just Get Them.

I recently logged into my ao3 to read sweet victory and realised most of your fics have availability set to logged in users only. Omg I was like a kid on christmas. I have so much reading to do!!!

Your work is incredible, and brings me so much joy. Have a great day!

Hey, thank you! (but also don't worry about that anon. Pretty sure I know who that is and they have a very weak understanding of appropriate behavior (or how to get under my skin for that matter))

Patrochilles crawled into my brain and sleeps there. Prior to them, I can't say I had much interest in Greek myth. I played Hades, someone suggested I read tsoa, I read the Iliad, became obsessed with Ajax somewhere in the middle of that, and two years later, here we are (366k words on the archive???). I like to joke that the muses still wake up every few years and target a random person with "Okay, it's your turn to make sure his glory is eternal like we promised" and then go back to sleep. And possibly the one I got was confused and hit me with the Ajax beam, too.

I also think when Troy (2004) came out, the muses had to work overtime to fix that egregious error

I'm mostly joking. I tend to think of these Greek heroes as the OG comic book characters. Over the years, so many authors have taken a crack at them with their own biases, preferences, and interpretations. Some shit gets retconned. Some new stuff gets canonized. People debate over it. Except those debates end up on jstor instead of reddit or twitter or whatever.

Obviously, though, as one of the current people writing about these guys, I'm right and my cultural biases have no role in influencing my perfect understanding of their characters (/s).

It was interesting going from Hades game, where Patroclus is so snarky and dry, to the Iliad, where when he finally speaks, it's to literally cry with tears streaming down his face to Achilles. I was thinking to myself, well, I'm fine with Supergiant inventing this part of him and I'll keep it for myself. And then he had the best trash talk of all the Achaeans. I had actually put my book down to text a friend "the trash talk in this book absolutely sucks; humans clearly didn't have that down yet" and then the next line was Patroclus telling everyone to shut the fuck up because he was with me on that one. And then he wrecks Hector's shit verbal-style while blind and dying. Love that guy.

Anyway this is all to say many interpretations are good! Except for Troy (2004) and the one where Achilles considered Patroclus his mommy. It's cool to see how people take small details from a 3k yo book and turn it into full characterizations. Less cool to learn just how badly Ajax's original story got warped. I'm super happy these guys inspired me to write so much in the past couple years and that the fandom has honestly been one of the most interesting and engaged that I've come across.

As for the archive-lock, I tend to keep my active WIPs open to guest readers and then lock them after they've been finished for a little while. It's probably not terribly effective, but my hope is this limits some of the constant scraping being done of the archive.

[eastwindmlk]

😨- The fanfiction that made you leave your comfort zone

Okay, so this one rally made me think because I do try to push myself into trying new things and am therefore pretty flexible when it comes to my comfort zone.

Now, I can mention Per Aspera again because it was a culmination of things.

1. i was pinch hitting and had a month less than the other authors. In addition to being a reverse bang where I am not just responsible for making myself happy but also the amazing artist I was paired with. (@bullets-from-another-dimension btw, go and look at their stuff!)

2. It is an AU that I never tried before for a period of history that isn't as close to my heart as others.

3. I don't usually do m/m ships

But lets also talk about some others. Which are both smut actually, something I have grown quite comfortable writing over the past year but these two stood out.

Uncloaked, which is my first and only Tedromeda so far. I still don't know if i got their characterisation down. The whole mood of the fic was also a thing. Just this whole thing IDK about, still, actually.

Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?, is another! This is the first time I've really done Jilypad in this way and I tried a thing. I generally like how it came out but it really was a challenge.

That was a lot of yapping! But yeah, three fics that definitely made me leave my comfort zone. There are a few more of those still in fest jail that I might talk about when they get revealed!

Want me to yap a little more about my fics. Ask me a question!

[goodbyenorthernlights]

I'm curious to know if you've pulled some of Rezo's vibes into your characterisation of Saejid or did you perhaps already intend to draw some inspo from him when coming up with Saejid's premise. :3

Not at all, honestly! I didn't even know Rezo existed when I was developing Saejid- I was vaguely aware of Slayers as an anime I had tried watching as a teenager and only seen the first episode of before going "Ehhh this isn't my thing."

Saejid was originally based on a character I came up with as a teenager for a Gaia Online RP where the antagonists were themed around the idea of childhood fears- the monster under the closet, that sort of thing- and proto!Saejid (his name has been lost to the sands of time/my memory, alas) was meant to be the anthropomorphic personification of Iatrophobia (the fear of doctors) because finding doctors scary struck me as something kids do a lot. So I had this concept of a sadistic doctor archetype already just lying around.

(Proto!Saejid also was based off of a random drawing I'd found online, probably via searching something like "anime doctor" on photobucket and using what I found as a FC, because that was what you did on Gaia Online. Art theft was unfortunately widespread and not recognized as theft. This is actually one of the reasons I eventually stopped using the website for RP entirely tbh, once I learned more about art theft and why it's a problem I wasn't able to strike a comfortable balance between "most RPs expect you to provide a picture of your character" and. Not committing art theft about it. Anyway, tangent!

And proto!Saejid's FC wasn't of Rezo btw, it was... Some white haired anime dude in a labcoat with a :| expression that I think came from a yaoi manga originally.)

Anywho I had this concept lying around and I remember we wound up discussing the concept of Dragonsbayne as a farming sim with the characters as marriage candidates, because I was playing a lot of Rune Factory 4, and for a protag I made up this gender-neutral design I called Luka...

don't ask me how the pattern on their scarf works And Luka I had the concept that it would turn out they would be an amnesiac homunculus, and so I figured I'd make up a character who would have been Luka's creator.

I remembered this vague concept I had still floating in my brain and, never one to turn down the opportunity to draw a bishonen, wound up designing Saejid.

I didn't get into Slayers, and Rezo, until late 2021- digging thru my files, it looks like Saejid's original concept art was drawn sometime in February 2020.

isn't the ms paint glorious

Anyway, Rezo and Saejid do have some noticeable similarities- both of them are "mad scientist" archetypes with kind of a "usually cool-headed intellectual" thing going on, and both of them are very manipulative characters. And also they're both anime pretty boys. So it's likely that there's going to be some more overlap in characterization when I write either of them.

That said they are actually still very different characters in my head! I think the key is in their storylines/motivations. Saejid is a character who starts out in a very good and secure place for him, personally, where he has power over other people and everything he needs and wants. When his world starts changing and the fae community starts opening up to other people, he panics and schemes and conspires to keep his position from potentially changing- even though his behaviour ultimately puts him in a worse place than he'd have probably wound up if he'd just gone with the flow.

Basically he's like a billionaire who's mad that he might have to start paying more taxes and giving his employees health insurance.

Rezo on the other hand... My personal take is admittedly controversial in the fandom but I see him as someone who has spent his entire life struggling in the literal and metaphorical dark under the manipulations of an outside force, fruitlessly pursuing something he thinks will release him from his own misery. He's someone stuck in a genuinely bad situation and trying ruthlessly to get out of it.

If I had to compare Saejid to a Slayers character... Rezo would be in there in terms of demeanor and methodology, but so would Halcyform and a touch of Hellmaster. But in terms of motivation Saejid's, I think, actually closer to being the Supreme Elder from Slayers TRY. He wants to keep a "safe" status quo and doesn't care who suffers because of it, as long as they aren't someone he sees as "his people." (And by the end maybe not even that.)

[limoncats]

hey, remember the tag on this post?

you know what? i'm gonna explain.

quick apology if the post sounds weird, it is currently 1 minute away from 11 pm as i'm typing this sentence.

ig this is a vent? anyway long post up ahead so !!

also apologies if this sounds stupid.

btw this post is not a self-diagnosis post

TWs for: mentions of self-h@rm, discussion of trauma

if these trigger you, don't read this! or do, but just be warned.

okay, so,

am i disabled?

alright, so am i physically disabled? no, not to my knowledge.

am i mentally disabled? i have no official diagnosis, but i am speculating. the speculation in question? this whole post

i have speculations that i have Asperger's Syndrome and possible selective mutism

Asperger's Syndrome

okay so. let me show you the symptoms and i'll explain

according to nationwidechildrens.org, the symptoms for Asperger's are:

i'll go over each one and tell you my experiences with each

now uh. i don't actually know what this means ;; but if this counts, i'll put it here: whenever i'm supposed to say basic things like "good morning," or "thank you," i can't seem to verbally? like the words don't seem to be able to come out of my mouth. it actually is more like that i don't even think to say them, so i don't. i remember this whole thing resulted in a fucking argument i had with my mother and her friend JUST because i didn't say good morning to him. as you can imagine, it was pretty traumatic. i think this may actually be more of "struggling to understand social cues," but eh.

i– yeah i can understand emotions usually (if i can clearly see it/tell based off of a person's facial expression what emotion they're feeling.) and i think my expressiveness is fine? idfk however kill me.

i can understand gestures just fine, unless i don't clearly understand what the person means? it's like if my mum points to something but i don't know where she's pointing to because i can't tell (and then she gets mad at me ;;). it might just be a thing on my mum's part but honestly i don't fucking know.

yes! irl the only thing i talk about with my school friends is CoAD since they like it too, and it's usually super awkward when i try to talk to an irl friend who doesn't know/enjoy CoAD so ;; and if they don't, sometimes i tell them about it and keep rambling on and on about it. now regarding the "convos revolving around them," part, i'm also pretty sure that's a yeah too? like yk when i ask a question like "guys what (insert thing here) am i"? i feel that i do that pretty frequent and i think it counts so ?

nah i think my speech is fine

mfw CoAD

auhhh???? i don't know i don't have memory of it so i think no

uh. if getting mad at my mum for making me do chores while i'm having fun either watching a video, talking to friends or drawing counts then uh. yeah

oh ofc. like i memorised how tall Wadanohara's familiars (Memoca, Dolphi, Fukami and Samekichi) are and when Yonaka's birthday is instead of memorising what the word "verbatim" means (it took me some time to memorise)

i don't think i'm that clumsy + my handwriting is fine and it's easy to write so

ohhhh Hm. so i can hold emotions pretty fine (it does sorta hurt to hold in so much anger) but sometimes they do come out a little and i end up like punching my thighs or something. it's happened at school before (yes, i've actually punched my thighs out of anger before)

uhhhhhhh??????? i feel like i'd have to get reeeeally specific for this one and i'm not feeling it right now

now to lights and touch i'm fine, but sound? lemme explain. so i can listen to like a video at (somewhat) loud volume while at home, but if i overhear like loud music coming from a club i get uncomfortable and i sometimes cry

so that's that for the Asperger's part, now let's move on to:

Selective mutism

i'll format it basically the same as the previous section so.

according to NHS, symptoms of selective mutism are:

"characterised by a sudden stillness and frozen facial expression when they're expected to talk to someone outside of their comfort zone" is so real ngl

anyway

yeah i do get nervous. i assume i look so too

my mum tells me i come off as rude, she says like, "hey you can't just stay silent! that's really rude!" wow mum i feel so much better! (<- lie) also i'm pretty sure i come off as sulky because whenever i frown around my mum's friends, once we're separated for something, my mum always says "suratına asma," which basically means "stop frowning." you have no idea how angry i get when i hear that my god.

nah i'm like. 99.9% sure that i come off as the opposite of clingy

yeah i sometimes describe myself as shy (sometimes is emphasised because i usually don't like calling myself "shy" because it makes me feel cringe.)

i. don't know lol. i guess so yeah? yeah i think so actually

i'm not aggressive (at least not physically or verbally), but i do get pissed when my mum asks me. ofc i don't let it out because i don't want to fucking assault mother

now i didn't include this because i don't think it's a disorder, but whenever i go through something traumatic (or the aftermath of something traumatic), i question if i'm real? like i think i sorta put myself in this sort of delusion that i'm living in a nightmare i can't wake up from whenever i go through something traumatic

also i hate looking in a mirror due to questioning who i'm looking at

i still question who i was looking at in the mirror that one day to this day.

i'm not sure if this is dissociation because i don't understand the definition of dissociation, or if it's part of a disorder. i did suspect DPDR, but i don't know i don't think so ? i'm also not sure if this is just puberty with the whole "questioning who you are" thing (though i think that's in terms of identity, not fucking questioning your REALITY 💀)

have i tried getting a diagnosis?

yes, i have, actually, so let me explain:

i wrote a text document to my dad about my speculations on having Asperger's, but he just laughed it off and said "i've met people with autism and you're NOTHING like them haha!!!" which was just. okay dad.

he suggested i tell my mother and i agreed

now this is when things go downhill 😭😭

so i told my mum when i went back to hers and she also basically had a similar response but she agreed to get it diagnosed one day.

then some time later she tells me that i might have to wait 2 years to get my diagnosis so 💀💀💀

and then one day i start telling her that one of my school classmates recommend talking therapy and all of a sudden she gets all hostile like "why do you need to label yourself? what difference does it make? it's unnecessary" which is VERY funny considering this woman is a FUCKING SOCIOLOGY LECTURER WITH A PHD.

we've had a couple arguments about it and it still pisses me off. she even practically made fun of me to her friend's husband when i went to The Netherlands last week and she was like, "yeah i think her generation has a weird obsession with needing to label themselves?" mum do you hear yourself. oh i'm sorry i want to improve my mental health by knowing what's up with me and attempting to get support.

SPEAKING of trying to get support once diagnosed, during one of our arguments over if diagnosis really does anything at all, in response to her saying, "what do you do with it?", i said, "i can well. try and get support ??" and then HER ASS responds with, "THERE IS NO SUPPORT."

FUCK YOU MEAN THERE IS NO SUPPORT???? YOU'RE A SOCIOLOGIST YOU KNOW DAMN WELL THERE IS.

i haven't told either of my parents of my speculations for having selective mutism, though i feel it'll just go the same as what happened with the Asperger's shit so

i think my parents just have stereotypes of autism that i don't fall into so thErEfoRE YoU'Re noT aUtistiC!!!!11!1!!

anyway so that's practically it. thanks for reading what absolute insanity i've gotten myself into, and also what state my mental health is in!!! (ofc this isn't the entirety of my mental health lol.)

have a good day/afternoon/evening/night ♡

— limoncats

[kpchrs]

What's your favorite characterisation decision in LiS?

Do I even have one

Hello, Anon! ... Whoever you are 😏 I don't really have the energy to compose very detailed and organised writing right now but I hope you can still enjoy it. Btw, people might not know this but I actually... never played beyond S1 LOL I want to, but buying games is not my priority right now. So, Sean? Alex? Who? xD

Well, what I thought of first is Chloe, as a whole. The fact that she is so... flawed. She's hardly my favourite character, but I will always defend her characterisation. (But her biggest fans do it faster than me so I'm never needed. And, also they are better than me at that anyway lol)

It's okay that people don't like her, but I still want people to understand her and know where she comes from. That her attitude comes from the place of trauma. People want other people to process trauma perfectly, but that's not a realistic expectation of ALL individuals with trauma. People who love and hate Chloe are people who understand that and dismiss that respectively.

My favourite characterisation of Chloe - people may be surprised - is when she says this: "I gotta blame somebody. Otherwise it’s all my fault. Fuck that."

Yes, yes, it's an awful thing to say. Some people hate her for that and that's valid.

But I just nodded along when I first encountered that in my first gameplay. Well, it's partly because I was in a very head-empty state when I first played. I only realised it wasn't okay to say when I searched for people's opinions. But I also nodded along because I understand her somewhat (but I won't elaborate on why because I don't really understand the reason much either, but it's related to her immaturity and brattiness lol)

In her context though, it's more that she's so angry and hurt by life; she directs it outwards, not inwards, so it will suck less. Piling it up inside is heavy and stuffy and painful. Everyone needs catharsis. It's easier to let out your anger at something concrete, something you can see, something clear. Which is why she blames everyone. I think that's very realistic.

One of my two top favourite characters in LiS is Victoria. She's a total Queen Bitch archetype, you know the drill. The first thing I thought of was when Max found her anime figurine, it made me laugh so hard until now. I love Nerd Victoria. But that's the silly fav.

My ACTUAL favourite is in the alternate universe and she said this to Max:

"You're not pissed at me, right? Right?" and "Max, if you’re mad, just tell me, k?"

As we know, Victoria really "hates" Max. She is also very insecure. Makes you wonder, hm, what makes her scared + reverent of AU Max that way? It gives you the other side of Victoria that is really fun to think about. The root, I'm sure, is still her insecurity.

I have a belief that that's not how Victoria acts around Nathan, her closest best friend. With Nathan, Victoria gets to be her real self. That Victoria is Victoria who half kisses ass and half wants to be liked by this... AU Max. Kinda similar to her attitude towards Jefferson, I guess.

She seems like a lot less opportunistic and manipulative with Max though. I think this is because Jefferson is the road to her ambition and Victoria did everything she can to achieve that.

Max doesn't/can't give her that so why does she kiss ass? I think in this alternate universe, Victoria likes her genuinely, not just because Max is the new Queen Bee or something so she bows to her. AU Max is distant and seems to be a master of push and pull (unconsciously?), that's why Victoria looks like she's walking on eggshells lol

Honorary mention is Maxine. Max is the most realistic character in LiS, in my opinion. Other characters are such archetypes that some people thought Max was just a self-insert character. If you dig deep into her character you will realise that... Max is just a normal girl. Do you know how hard it is to write someone like her?

Max is not an extreme character, she's in the middle, but she still has a distinct voice. She's grey and realistic. I don't have the energy to elaborate more though lmao

Some people hate it, but I really LOVE that in the AU, Max is so different, but somewhat the same. She's only more blunt, doesn't take bullshit from anyone, and more bitchy too. And this should be because of her self-confidence or when it becomes negative, it becomes borderline arrogance. This is the Max who is not dampened by guilt and grief. How very interesting.

Now everyone knows that I'm obsessed with the alternate universe. I don't really make it a secret though.

And wait, what's up with me and bitchy characters? lol

(Nathan's characterisation is the shittiest decision the devs ever did.)

Thank you for the ask!

Kris

[on-a-carousel]

Feel free to argue or converse with me about this in the comments btw! As long as we keep things civil. I know some of the stuff I've said can be a bit of a hot take.

I feel like Batman is actually a pretty bad example of this because of the amount of history and writers... like this actually is in character for him it's just that he has many different characterisations. So like it may not be true to *your* preferred characterisation and interpretation of the character but that doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.

It's also important to understand the context of his actions, the time period and the writer, as well as the writer's biases and how they shine through.

For example Jason Todd's rampant mischaracterisation since his death is to an extent that it can be considered a retcon, but because it comes from a place of classism and wishes to manipulate readers into being less upset about his death and the way DC handled it + being more receptive to the new Robin, it isn't well accepted or liked, not do I think it should be.

And then you have stuff like Dick cheating on Kori with Babs which is done because the writer + editorial wanted to push Dickbabs, prevent the marriage and keep Dick in more bat-adjacent comics.

Then there's the mischaracterisation where writers clearly don't understand or care for the characters they are writing, which happens more often with female characters and big-name adjacent characters. A lot of character assassination tends to come from a place of misogyny. Examples are Talia (her character as a whole pretty much, she's been mischaracterised and made into her father for decades), Steph(which DC editorial tried to have killed off during War games), and Cass (the whole villain arc bs).

Anyways I've been ranting for so long now that I have forgotten where I started. Woops.

I haven't even touched on the epic highs and lows of the never-ending character arcs of comics, or the narrative of power that is often pushed onto Batman + the influence of the cinematic and animated universes on the comics and vice-versa.

“He would not fucking say that” except its the badly written source material so he did, in fact, say that

[zedif-y]

hi!! hope you're having a good day! :D

as a zedaph Expert, i wanted to ask for your opinion on how you would characterise him? i feel like i have a vague idea on what he's like but putting it into words is hard...

it's okay if you don't answer btw!!

Hello! took me a bit to get to this ask, my bad! honestly, I struggle with writing his character as well, but I've accumulated some random notes over time that I think might be helpful :]

Notes under the cut, because it's long NDNDND

-his jokes tend to be very witty. his humor isn't sarcastic, he just Says stuff and then moves on. Scar said once that zed's the kind of person where you'll just think huh, yeah, that Is pretty funny! so sometimes his jokes are the kind where it takes a second for you to process it. they're also pretty Out There DKDNDKD

-noises. so many Noises.

-he likes to make jokes at his expense (ex: not having friends, wetting himself, i'm an idiot, etc etc)

(SIDE SHIPPY/CHARACTER RELATIONSHIP NOTE: between him and tango, tango would be the more openly "sentimental" one, in the sense that zed is more likely to make jokes about them not Actually being friends (one example is "we've been friends for too long" + the tango bit in the blockumentary video) despite the fact that Yes, Obviously they are close. I MEAN TANGO HAD AN ANSWER FOR THE "HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN FRIENDS" QUESTION)

(EXTRA EXTRA NOTE: he and tango have a very similar sense of humor. (kind of obvious but . still!) they also like to make fun of each other)

-zed's voice goes Down an octave after laughing too much + he gets teary-eyed from laughing pretty easily.

-not a character voice note, but! zed isnt a very confrontational fighter . he prefers using potions to weaken his opponent before attacking with his sword. that being said, if he knows he's screwed, he just straight up Runs.

-zed is able to remain more level-headed than tango when it comes to puzzles. where tango is very goal-focused and gets frustrated/confused when things don't work out the way he expects, zed tries to work through them step by step instead of trying to solve it in one go. (tango is better at logic puzzles and zed is better at more Visual ones, he needs a good mental image of things)

-he makes connections you really don't think of, most times. he also doesn't like doing things the Normal, Boring way, though if you watch at least one of his videos that becomes apparent Fast.

-despite his silliness, he's actually pretty damn smart!

-he's a pretty affectionate, touchy guy! (based off of when he met skizz for the first time irl<3)

[obiwan]

Hi it's been a while since i had anytime to read fanfics mainly because i was sick and busy with school lol but now i'm doing much better and want to read some obikin. I already know and read and love all the popular ones so i was just wondering if you know some new good ones that u wanna spread love for? say like from the last 3 months? thank you either way! and i wanna say that i love love love your writing!

I've been holding off on this, but combined with *a lot* of other similar messages I've received, I guess I'll bite. (also do you confuse me with someone else because the only writing I do currently is crying about EM in my tags), but anyway without further ado.

Now I don't know what you're looking for, so I have kept it to my personal favourites, some of which are WIPs. You've said you've read all the classics so I won't include those, and I have kept it to mostly the last three months as per your request. Here we go.

✰ (Explicit, WIP, Omega!Obiwan) this land is mine, but i'll let you rule by @travellingcircus

Anakin buys himself an omega-slave to help him run the moisture farm left to him by Cliegg Lars, but Ben is a little more than what he appears to be.

GORGEOUS FIC. I do love EVERYTHING by the author btw - just as a disclaimer, I love their style, I love their characterisation, and this fic is no exception. Give it a try if a/b/o does not squick you out.

✰ (Teen, Completed) a vacationer's guide to being unexpectedly married by @treescape

“A vacation, you need,” Master Yoda had insisted firmly beneath their incredulous stares when they’d first received their instructions. “On a beach, perhaps, hmmm?”

“It is imperative that you restore yourselves,” Master Ti had said gently. “You’ve undertaken so much work in the aftermath of the war that we fear you will only burn yourselves out.”

“Treat it like any other mission,” Master Windu had told them kindly but unflinchingly when both Anakin and Obi-Wan had tried to protest. "You both have your orders.”

Or, Anakin and Obi-Wan go on a Council mandated vacation. While there, they encounter a few surprises.

I adore it when these two idiots can not communicate to save their lives. Although Obi-Wan is holding custody of the shared braincell in this one.

✰ (Explicit, Complete) just like the days we'd burn by @travellingcircus

Modern AU: After an accident derails his racing career, Anakin comes back home to Tatooine.

I'm very much obsessed with slice of life (can this actually be considered slice of life? idk) fics, where it's slightly domestic and suburban, and there's a an air of depression but it's fine because they have each other, like, these fics make me think of Gummo and it's like. I really get transported to another universe - I love this fic so much.

✰ (Explicit, Complete) then she lit up a candle (and she showed me the way) by skywaIker

Alright, so maybe it’s a little weird that Anakin’s favorite part of the month is always when he gets to meet up with his favorite, definitely-not-the-enemy Sith, Darth Sophos.

I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS ONE SHOT, god please, whoever u are, write more. MORE. write 90k of this.

✰ (Explicit, Complete) Igneous by @zimriya

“Are you my birth father?” Leia asks. 

Something caves open where Obi-Wan’s heart used to be. “No, I’m not,” he says. “I wish I could say I were.” 

One truth; one lie.

STUPIDLY GOOD. Warning: it's not a fix it. But it's really stupidly good, I'm truly obsessed.

✰ (Explicit, Completed) stay til the dawn, i'll give you the sun by @tennessoui

Jedi Anakin Skywalker crashes in a field on the planet Stewjon. Out of respect for the Jedi Order, King Kenobi takes a personal interest in his recovery...especially when they accidentally form a Force bond, scant hours after Kenobi alerts the Jedi Council to Skywalker's presence so they can come retrieve their Jedi.

But if Anakin can't remember who he is, is he really still their Jedi? What's stopping him from being Obi-Wan's?

Especially when, if the amnesiac himself can be believed, it's all he wants.

Just do me a favour and read all of their stuff - like, I can easily rec everything they've ever written, including their tumblr aus. Read it! Read their other fics, a gift to the fandom.

✰ (Explicit, Completed) The way he smiles at you by @himboskywalker

The end of the Clone Wars drags on at a limp with the Chancellor dead,though there are still battles to be won.But with the near end of the war the HoloNet has turned its sights on juicier news and traded rumors,like the supposed torrid and elicit romance between the galaxy's most famous Jedi Knights.

Where Anakin is plagued by galactic tabloids and gossiping clones,Sidious choked on a bagel during the battle of Coruscant,Obi-Wan hasn't had cell service,Order 66 never happens,and nearly everyone gets a happy ending.

I'm obsessed with this fic. There's no other explanation, other than I'm so obsessed with it. So you get it recced.

✰(Explicit, WIP) Blood in the Water by Rwumper

Obi-wan loses the duel against Darth Vader and is captured instead.

OWK Show Episode 6, Canon-Divergence.

Honestly what it says on the tin. Vaderwan, but I really love it.

✰ (Explicit, WIP) My love, are you the devil? by NFx

You didn’t know? 

A bead of sweat rolled down his temples, eyebrows knitted together in a grimace. Flashes of another life burst behind his closed eyelids, the sins of his past a smoldering flame that gradually increased into an undying inferno.  

He’s alive, Obi-Wan.

Golden eyes pulsating with bitter resentment appeared in his mind’s eye. A serpent that will slowly emerge from the shadows and stalk its prey, its penetrating eyes always on him. 

Anakin Skywalker is alive.

Can you tell I'm a bit obsessed with the Vaderwan capture fics. Well. I am who I am ig, I do love a good canon divergence!

✰ (Explicit, Completed) Satellite Mind by @theseptemberist and @intermundia

Some doors, once opened, can never be closed, and some secrets, once learned, can never be forgotten.

or, Five times Obi-Wan heard Anakin’s thoughts, and one time Anakin heard Obi-Wan’s.

I'll die if I don't include this in a fic rec I make. I know there are a lot, a LOT of great fics out there, but this one, speaks to me on such personal levels, I will truly perish if I don't include this in any fic rec post I have. It would feel like betrayal yk?

SO, there you go, I kept it really limited tbh, I read a lot more than this but given that you asked for stuff from the last three months, this is all I have atm! Granted I have been going ~through stuff so I haven't been able read as much as I like, but I hope this satisfies u somewhat. Also genuinely deathly curious about what you mean about my writing bc... do you follow me on twitter or do you have me confused for someone with actual talent sjhgfg. Anyway enjoyyyy ✨✨✨

[revive-the-fandom]

Genuine question. Why do think jack frost doesn't like pranks?

sorry for leaving this so long, i was originally just gonna link this post and be done with it but i kinda want a second go at explaining it??? if not for anyone else then for my own sake lol

tbh that first post kinda reads as juvenile and defensive now that i re-read it...

i'll link @rotg-goc-headcanons idk if you were the anon or not but i figure you might be interested in a... more coherent explanation..

in the original post i got a bit side-tracked trying to prove one thing over the other. but i don't think this is a black/white situation in actuality. people are full of contradictions and i think in trying to prove that jack 100% at all times did not like pranks was working against me rather than for me.

so, i want to change my statement:

i disagree with the popular opinion (present in most fics and a lot of other fanworks) that jack is the prankster archetype.

i see a lot of people claiming that jack would be the type to set up pranks just for the fun of it. the kind of stuff you'll find on old school youtube where people run into clingfilm or replace icing with toothpaste etc. personally i find that doesn't match up with the canon version of events.

in canon, jack's pranks are very specific - they are a reaction to a specific person, and as such are tailored for that situation and individual.

jack has been seen to use pranks for the following:

to play with other kids and entice them into a game

to encourage the side-lined kid to join the game (and to overcome stereotypes and implied bullying)

as a defence in verbal fights

to deflect attention away from himself

as a distraction strategy in a literal fight

to calm down/cheer up/distract others in stressful situations

to bond with those around him

i think it's important to his character that he's not extreme in his use of pranks as some fanworks might suggest.

jack never seems to use pranks to draw attention to himself, or to make another person uncomfortable. i saw a few responses to my original response that mentioned that jack only really uses his pranks as a way to bring joy to others not to himself (i think it was @giantgirl253 but the tagging doesn't seem to work).

if you think about it, him being the prankster archetype that he's constantly characterised as doesn't mesh with him being good with kids or having the 'fun' centre. he would just come off as annoying (which i suppose is the most likely reason for why he gets written like this - to explain why bunny and north have a somewhat negative first impression of him.

ACTUALLY i think i may have stumbled onto the main problem with how jack is characterised.

a lot of people, in universe and in audience, tend to believe what they're told about jack rather than how we see him behave.)

i'd argue that jacks use of pranks is more in line with this dumb meme:

i'm also gonna reiterate that jack goes through a major character development (ofc he does he's the mc) i bring this up for two reasons:

firstly, bc a lot of people cite that first scene in moscow as a major reason as to why he should be characterised as a prankster when its showing him at his most immature, insecure and selfish point

secondly, bc the scene in moscow is a situation in which jack is still stuck in a neglectful and harmful environment which is eroding his ability to see things clearly (mostly affecting his ability to accept responsibility, something he was capable of in the prologue and the flashback, but not in the first half of the movie). his pranks are as much a (subconscious) cry for help as they are a coping mechanism for his lack of corporeality.

(btw i'm sticking with my original claim that north and sandy are the pranksters of the group. jack just gets carried along bc he's a good sport like that, and bunny... is competitive and insecure lol)

tldr: its not that i think jack dislikes pranks per se, but that jack has specific terms for how, when and who he uses his pranks on. he's not a cluster of personality traits that go full throttle at all times, he knows when to stop, when and where his actions change from playful to cruel.

[myrskytuuli]

ASK QUESTIONS!! If you actually want to help the author become a better writer, you don't try to make them write text that you like, you will try to help them better communicate the story they have envisioned in their head to the readers. A list of pros and cons is a list of what you liked and disliked in a fic, and its actually worthless for an author who wants to develop their own voice. BUT. Simply asking questions will make the author think and rotate their own writing in their head AND it will make the author know when something didn't come across to the readers the way the author wanted to communicate it. Also, sometimes a thing that you, the reader, think is a bug might actually just be a feature.

For example: If I, the biggest fan in the Bible fandom, see a new multichapter fic uploaded by username John_Milton, and I think it's really bad, I have two choices. I can either leave a "constructive criticism":

Hey, I liked how your fic was formated like an epic poem, but you made Satan super OC. He's not capable of feeling love in canon, so shipping him with Eve just doesn't really fit his character. Also, the random angel sex scene didn't add anything to the plot.

OR, I can leave a question: Hey, I liked the format of your fic a lot. I was a bit confused by how you characterised satan though, why did you decide to make him feel love for Eve? I've never seen that before. Also fandom has always depicted angels as fully asexual, I'm wondering what made you decide to make your angels sexual creatures?

Now, for the first review username Milton is probably not going to engage with, because he feels attacked. BUT. For the questions he can answer something like:

Thank you so much! I intentionally wanted to write a Satan centric fic that is exact opposite to fandom's popular headcanons (mostly popularised by Dante btw, not from the source material). The point of my fic was to examine Satan not as a primordial force incapable of being good, but as a person whose choices make him evil. I wanted to play with the irony that he rebelled because he valued free will so much, and that his free will is also that makes him choose to make hell what it is. In order to show that, I needed to also show situations where Satan could make different choices: which is why he almost abandons his goals for the love of Eve. But the the tragedy is that he still chooses Hell and misery for himself. The angel sex scene was also there to show that in my fic angels by nature are not incabable of feeling love and attraction, so Satan being attracted to Eve isn't actually an aberration from his nature as an angel. (also I just really like angel smut lol) Thank you so much for letting me ramble, they are all writing choices I made to hammer in the point that this is a story about a person destroying his own life, not a story about a primordial evil.

And I, the biggest Bible fan, can still think that the fic is bad and that all Milton's writing choices are bullshit, but I know that he has communicated exactly the stroy he wanted to tell, and got a positive interaction out of it too.

I just saw a Tik Tok that said writers on AO3 are not looking for constructive criticism in their reviews. I have no audience on this platform so I have to know if this is true? I've always left my pros and cons when reading a fic and now I'm concerned that the authors didn't like that.

Yeah writers are Not looking for criticism, constructive or otherwise. Unless they specifically ask for it, it’s considered rude and honestly a bit hurtful. In the least bitchy way possible, don’t do that. It’s unwanted.