#i just think there are some flaws that irk me a bit

[theamazingannie]

Finished the first two episodes of PJO. Got thoughts (if anyone cares). Putting under a read more cuz it’s a bit lengthy

Before I go into the cons (cuz I got some unfortunately), the pros:

Aryan is so cute I adore him

I love the main trio in general. I think some of the acting isn’t always great but their chemistry and adorableness make up for it

I especially love the percabeth relationship. Walker and Leah did a great job showing that doofus Percy and irritated Annabeth relationship. Especially their early on “Annabeth looking down on Percy while he understandably flounders around.” I cannot wait to see more of them!!!

Saw someone on Twitter talk about the armor adjustment scene and how it could be a parallel to them later on as their relationship progresses and I hope so badly that they do that

Love Clarisse. Does a great balance between being unlikeable and being unenjoyable

LOVE Mr. D. Had absolutely no doubt that Jason Mantzoukas would crush this role and am glad to see it. Perfect level of unhinged and unnervingness. Literally the perfect person to play the role

It has a decent script. Not perfect, but I like how witty Percy is and there’s a lot of good written chemistry between characters and I found myself chuckling a lot, which is great as an adult with a show targeted towards younger audiences

The scenery is GREAT. I always have a hard time visualizing camp in my mind while reading and I think the show perfectly balances a normal summer camp with fantasy. Would’ve liked to see more of it, like a proper tour, but I know there’s not a lot of time. Hopefully we get to see more of it in later episodes

Great fight choreography. Wish there was a little more of it. Again, maybe they were cut for time but the fight scenes just seemed very rushed. But what we did see was so good. Especially loved Percy’s little duck and roll thing he did

Which brings us to the negatives. I wish I didn’t have any, but unfortunately I have a lot. I base these both as a fan of the books and as a show as a whole:

First things first, the pacing. It’s awful. It felt like a bunch of random scenes clipped together. There’s almost zero flow between scenes. It reminds me of watching the deleted scenes in the DVD bonus features and the weirdly long pauses between some scenes added to that. Nothing felt connected

To add to pacing, everything felt really rushed. As I said before, I get that timing is an issue, but I felt sped through everything. Considering it’s a tv show and we were promised more than was in the book, I didn’t expect so much to be left out. Nothing too important, but as I said before, it could’ve used better transitioning between scenes. I was left kind of disappointed and I can’t imagine not reading the books and being expected to follow this

On that note, explanations were iffy. It felt like they wanted to rush through explaining stuff to get to other parts which is fine for us readers but I think new audiences might struggle to follow. There’s a lot of information that the audience needs to know and I don’t think they properly addressed everything

One thing that comes to mind as I’m typing this is the wheelchair. They never show what it’s for. They introduce Chiron at camp as a centaur and have him be one for the entire time and so to an unknowing audience there’s just a random empty wheelchair during a scene. If they weren’t going to use it, they should’ve cut that out

The scene with the Cloven Elders felt unnecessary. I get they want to explore other POVs outside Percy’s but nothing that happened in that scene felt necessary to the plot. Barely anything happens and most of what happens is explained verbally through Grover later. I wonder if the scene was cut for time but it probably should’ve been cut altogether. It didn’t add anything except a tiny bit of worldbuilding and having them go INSIDE the tree was weird and not even from the books. There’s like a whole forest inside the forest which gives me Dodona vibes which it shouldn’t

As I said before, the acting isn’t great at times. That’s fine considering I was a House of Anubis stan once (hence the icon). Acting is honestly not the most important part of a show as long as they have interesting characters with good chemistry (which they do!) but still pulled me out of it a bit. Some of the delivery was kind of dry

There were multiple times when I thought the direction could’ve been better. It wasn’t necessarily the acting (although that was part of it). For example, which Annabeth says “you drool in your sleep”. She says it very monotonously and matter of fact and just stared at him unmoving which is fine cuz I think that’s how it worked in the book but I think it might’ve worked better if she said it more petulantly and hurried away. This is very nitpicky tho and is mostly just opinion

Speaking of Annabeth, though: I wanted to see her more! I get we will see her plenty throughout the season but I love her and would’ve liked her to be introduced sooner. She meets Percy earlier in the books so she could’ve been introduced sooner. I also want to see her and Chiron interact (which we will hopefully get ep 3) so we can see that father daughter relationship. (I did like the way she was introduced though. They did that really well. I just want to see her more🥰)

A note for the next ep promo: WHY did it spoil that they were gonna be meeting Medusa??! That was supposed to be a surprise and they just gave it away in the PROMO????

One last thing cuz I’m mad. I already made a separate post about it but THALL-EE-UH???? That’s literally how I pronounced it when I first read it and was repeatedly told it was wrong and it was TALL-ee-uh so I switched my brain over and NOW you tell me I was right??? I knew some pronounciations were gonna be wrong but I was PRETTY SURE about that one

I definitely had more thoughts while watching (some that are extremely nitpicky that I’m going to force myself to ignore) but I didn’t take notes while watching and am already starting to forget details. Overall, I did love it, but I think a lot of the love came from my existing love of the series. I first read PJO 13 years ago and it was the first book series I truly fell in love with and remains my favorite to this day. A lot of feelings are my love biasing me both positively and negatively, and it makes me wonder if I would have chosen to continue watching the show if I hadn’t already had that love. Honestly, I don’t think I would. However, I do plan on continuing to watch and support and hopefully the rest of the season goes well!

[shuichi-sama]

scoring a date

volleyball captain! sunghoon! x manager! reader!

description: if someone had told you that after becoming your high school's volleyball team manager, you would capture the attention of it’s captain, park sunghoon, you wouldn’t have believe them. but as he charm’s his way to your heart, you just might.

or in which, sunghoon attempts to woo-you, seem to be working in his favor.

warnings: fluff! overuse of the word cute! (i swear i wrote it like 6 times)

note: inspired after watching en o’clock episode 87! i couldn’t help but picture all of them as a volleyball team!!!! LOWER CASE INTENDED!!!

___________

honestly? if someone had told you, that you would have volleyball captain, park sunghoon wrapped around your finger you would laugh at their face and certainly not the cute and giggly kind.

but as you watch him come up to you for like the nth time today, similar to every other day, you would be the fool not to believe them at that point.

“hi, y/n.” he says a smile gracing his face.

“sunghoon, you do know this like the fifth time you’ve come up to me during practice just to say hi right? and that’s not counting the four other hand waves you’ve given me.”

sunghoon, cheeks burns pink, it was a force of habit at this point. no matter how much he tried to avoid you, not like he wanted to anyways, if it wasn’t his eyes, the boy would physically gravitate towards you every single time without even noticing.

“well, i have an excuse this time. i actually came up here to ask you something.” If the blushing of his cheeks weren’t a quick give away of his nervousness, the cute tremor in his voice surely was.

“oh, what is it then?” without looking up from your clipboard, sunghoon take it as an opportunity to ask you what’s he’s been dying to ask you for a couple of weeks now, if you looked him in the eye at that moment he wasn’t so sure he would be able to go through with it, no matter how confident he was.

“go on a date with me.”

what? you were not death so you were sure you heard him correctly, but still.

“uh, you want me to go on a date with you? but why?”

confusion and hurt etches on his face at your question, as you prance on realizing just how bad your words had sounded. “i mean, why me?” the tilt of his head encourages you to elaborate.

“i’m socially awkward, i don’t really get along well with people outside of my friend group, i have a bad attitude, and there is a line of pretty girls who would kill to go on a date with you.”

sunghoon finds your rambling rather cute, it’s not like he didn’t know any of this information already. the both of you coming from very different social status at school, while sunghoon was very social, popular and very much liked at school, girls lining up just to get a glimpse of him throughout the halls, you were quite opposite of him.

you were a loner aside from your two reoccurring friends he would see you at lunch with. you weren’t not like at school but nobody really knew who you were, always keeping to yourself. as for your bad monotonous attitude? he thought it was cute, knowing full well it was only because you weren’t the best at expressing yourself, always giving everybody the wrong impression or idea, which may have lead to some very offended students.

sunghoon likes you just the way you are, so it irks him just a bit to listen to you list all these, qualities you deem flaws, but he wouldn’t tell you that at least not yet, he rather tease you first. “well, i think you would be the prettiest girl in that line.”

even if it wasn’t the first time for sunghoon to call you “pretty,” or even “cute,” you could just never get used to it, he simply has a way of making you dig the sole of your right shoe into the glossy wooden floor of the gymnasium bashfully.

“i-i never said i was in that line.” sunghoon eyebrows quirk at that.

“i would like you to be though.” even as his confidence seems to deter, he presses on, wanting a proper answer from you, hopeful it was one that invoked a late night date, that ends with a stroll at the nearest park while eating ice cream, possibly holding your hand if you allow him to.

“is that a no to the date?” his question, has your down cast eyes shoot up suddenly just for them to look away just as quickly. sunghoon can’t seem to take his eyes off of you making you want to turn into a putty right in front of him.

“o-oh, i never said that either.” every time sunghoon ever held a conversation with you, it always seemed like a push and pull feeling. it left him confused many times but a part of him knew that’s just how you are, and honestly? he found it cute, you were cute, so he would willingly pull you as much as he could and would take as many pushes as you want to give.

“so, is that a yes then?” he grins at your lack of eye contact, cute.

“uh-maybe.” he chuckles at your response, it being so you. as much as he wants to press on for a definite answer, he doesn’t know the full extent of your limit. no matter just how much he would love to tease you to find out he doesn’t, as you pull a strand behind your hair, the red tips of your ear giving away your embarrassment.

he chuckles, reaching for the top of your head, before he could ruffle it into a mess, you flinch not used to the physical contact of a guy.

“oh, i’m sorry. i got a head of myself, i didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” sunghoon retracts his hand to his side. distress with the idea of making you uncomfortable unintentionally, he only wishes he could kick himself for his bad habit of not keeping his cool whenever you were around.

raising your clipboard to cover your tainted cheek, you shake your head, to make him understand he misunderstood your actions. the frown forming on his face, has you clearing your throat, and pulling down the clipboard to speak much more clearer than you have been doing this whole time.

“no, it’s not that-i guess you you can say-that perhaps you just make me just a bit nervous in a good way is all.”

sunghoon’s frown ebbs away, only to switch to a look of widen eyes, and disbelieve at your clear confession. “oh.”

“why are you smiling at me like that?” you ask his looked of disbelieve turns to another of happiness, as if he had hit the jackpot, and in his world he did.

“cause you just told me i make you nervous.” well not that he didn’t know, if he wasn’t so sure he would have thought you were either nervous all the time, or simply emotionless, but you confirming that his presence made you nervous in a “good way” as you said, he was first pumping the air in his head.

“is it that shocking?” you asked out loud, more to yourself really.

he didn’t respond to your question either way. opting out to make a deal with you instead, evident that this conversation would see no end. no matter that he just wants to talk to you for the remainder of the hour, he couldn’t. if coach catches him slacking, sunghoon would be running endless lap around the the school til he saw fit, especially as team captain.

“how about we make a deal? if my team wins the mock game by 5 points difference, you’ll let me take you on a date.”

you didn’t have to consider much, but you firmly believe in his capability to score more as team manager. “if you score a difference of 10 i’ll go on a date with you.”

“you must really not want to go on a date with me, uh?” he jokingly asks.

“no, i just have faith in your abilities to beat them with a 10 point difference.”

“okay, a 10 point difference, and i also get to hold your hand after practice, it’s only fair if we both add something, no?”

sure it was fair, but now you were blushing again. “okay, deal.”

“perfect,” just before he could turns to go back to his team, he speaks again, “just so you know, i’m not going easy on them.”

“well, as team manager i would be upset if you did.”

with a beaming smile he directs at you, he reaches over your head once again unconsciously, still out of bad habit thought this time you don’t flinch away as he ruffles your hair.

you were unsure who was more nervous leaving the gymnasium, but as you walk hand in hand with sunghoon, he blames practice for his sweaty palms even after he had taken his shower. Though truthfully, he thinks it might just be too early to tell you just how nervous you make him feel, he still has to take you on a date first!

SCOREBOARD: 30/15

[showtoonzfan]

Just want to preface this by saying i love ur analysis sm- u put my exact thoughts into words when i cant verbalise whats wrong with a particular writing decision 🥲🥲

Anyway, smth ive noticed is how... little time vivzie actually spends on writing or characterizing or fleshing out her characters.

Which has to be the weirdest thing so far bc every writer and artist ive met agree that its the best part of making an oc! Its so fun to think of backstories and tie that into their current personality and generally just figuring out random details to get to know your characters!

Like, my ocs are my best friends, i know everything abt them from their trauma and childhoods, to their favourite food and music.

But time and time again she proves that her characters are at best acquaintances... the fandom fleshes out the characters so well and with so much love and care and thought that vivzie herself cant do and its just sad.

Not even mentioning the hundreds of retcons and how characters will just change personality randomly or act out of character which results in the work feeling like a fanfic of itself. (Ironic considering some fanfics have better and more consistent characterisation)

It feels like shes making it up as she goes, instead of having an actual plan. Just shoving random ideas she likes or picks up from the much more creative fandom into the 2 shows without actually stopping and thinking abt the consequences or implications.

Theres so many decisions shes made that irk me so bad... the ideas individually have potential but they either dont fit the show or have to make huge retcons and result in the plot not making any sense.

Also, ngl but she has the worst case of tell dont show ive ever seen my god 😭😭 like... you realise you have to show things instead of just fucking singing it or having a character say it??? Or is that another thing that the fandom has to do so they can convince themselves that the show has good characters??

Atp idk how to salvage the show... i keep finding more and more plotholes and unless i literally turn my brain off and only focus on haha funny dick joke or pwetty colors, these questions keep popping into my head making it a painful unenjoyable experience.

Again, if the fandom has to justify your bad nonsensical hypocritical worldbuilding then you failed. Massively.

Anyway im very sleepy rn just wanted to rant a bit bc im a writer and artist myself and it pisses me off how someone gets their show on the air and still doesnt care abt putting in effort into their plot or characters beyond aesthetics and random ideas that dont go well together...

You’re speaking facts! And it’s honestly like..kinda funny too that people who have their own OC’s can flesh them out and deep dive into their arcs/backstories ect, yet a professional showrunner who’s had these characters for YEARS can’t even give the majority of her characters flaws or quirks, or even consistency, same goes for Helluva Boss.

Viv is a really good example at letting inspired writers know what not to do when making a story and characters so at least they have that lol.

[true-illusion]

So, I finally got round to watching the new Doctor Who season.

I had lost interest since Clara became the companion and after Peter Capaldi was the Doctor. I only watched two episodes of Jodi Whitaker - the first episode and the one with John Barrowman and Jo Martin. I thought both episodes were rubbish. Plus, it took effort to find and download the show, so I stopped watching. I haven’t gotten round to the Tennant specials cos I thought they were just nostalgia bait.

So, I was very sceptical, going in to Ncuti Gatwa’s era. I worried it would be another snooze fest that was more interested in being PC and box-ticking than telling a good story. But I had nothing else to do, and it was on Disney, so I turned it on.

IT WAS SO GOOD. I binge watched the whole thing in two days.

I could definitely see Russell T. Davis’ hand in it. It felt like the Eccleston and Tennant era episodes. It was exciting and fun and funny, but not too silly. They made a social point without being too preachy. Ncuti Gatwa is growing on me - I think the binge watching format made it harder to sink in that, "yes, he’s the Doctor". But I’m getting there.

But, I think it was Ruby that carried the season. There were quite a few Rose-type moments. But she was different enough to be her own person. I liked Ruby overall. She was sweet, she felt genuine, and she was not forced into that “sassy/arrogant” characterisation. I was invested in her story.

Her mum was not bad - Jackie Tyler was still better, imo, cos though she had a heart of gold, she still had her flaws. Ruby’s mum was just too perfect. Gran was hilarious though. I want more scenes with Gran just waiting for someone to finally give her a cuppa.

[ALERT: SPOILERS AHEAD]

Some episodes were better than others. Episode 2 “The Devil’s Chord” was AMAZING; it is the episode I want to go back and rewatch. They should have incorporated “American Pie” into it at some point. Haha! Jinkx Monsoon as the Maestro was brilliant. It was so larger-than-life and over-the-top, it was fantastic. Only thing I hated was the twist song at the end. Cringe.

Episode 5 “Dot and Bubble” was also amazing because of how disturbing it was. How people cannot function - cannot look at the world, can't even walk - without the devices, how Lindy sacrificed Ricky to save herself, how they refused to let the Doctor save them in the end. It felt like a reflection of our society and the trajectory we could be on.

Episode 1 “Space Babies” was pretty lame. If I had seen that first instead of the Christmas episode, I might have not continued. The babies were just cringe, and the snot monster… ugh. Plus, with the space station and giving Ruby universal roaming which she immediately called her mum with - it was a bit too much like Eccleston’s Doctor and Rose’s first outing.

The Christmas episode itself also wasn’t great, but it introduced the characters and the season's central mystery well, and got me interested in them. The episode reminded me of Labyrinth. “Magic Dance” kept running through my head. The bad-luck goblins were funny. Unfortunately, this Goblin King is no David Bowie. Also, no sinister robot Santas or killer Christmas trees that were a staple of past Christmas specials. It irked me a bit that the entire season’s central mystery might have been solved if the Doctor had just went up to Ruby’s mother then. He knew she was looking for her mother. He knew they couldn’t go back cos he couldn’t cross his own timeline. So why didn’t he go to her?? (Ok, then there wouldn’t be drama for the rest of the season. Lol!)

Episode 3 “Boom” was also weak. It tried to deal with strong themes - war, family, faith. It introduced interesting technology. But the story itself doesn’t hold up too well. The way the war started and continued was just too far fetched. I thought it was cool that majority of the thing took place just in that one crater though.

Meanwhile, other episodes left question marks. Episode 4 “73 Yards” was good (I loved the Welsh landscape), but a bit too much of building up to something and then it’s an anticlimax. Eg the people at the pub building up to some horror movie scenario, and then it was just some delivery person at the door. Roger just running away and giving up politics just like that? Maybe I just wasn’t paying full attention, but it was a bit too timey-wimey and weird. What was it that the woman said to all those people to make them run away screaming? Was she really Ruby all along? Where was the Doctor all that time?

And episode 6 “Rogue”… silly story with the cosplaying aliens, but it was a nice bit of fun after “Dot and Bubble”. It made me laugh the way they kept referencing Bridgerton, and how the characters were all about the Drama, with a capital D. The resolution of Ruby pretending to be the Chuldur was very disappointing bait-and-switch. But I love Rogue. I want to see more of him. Why couldn’t he stay? He could be the new Captain Jack Harkness (not that anyone could replace Capt Jack Harkness). Rogue and the Doctor together was something special (and not just in the sexual way). I want him as another companion. But the way it ended, I don’t think we’d see him again.

I don’t have much to say about the last two finale episodes, “The Legend of Ruby Sunday” and “Empire of Death”. It was a rollercoaster. It was intense. It was a bit too “Bad Wolf”. There was a lot going on but I’m not really sure what was happening. I liked seeing Kate from UNIT and the old companion Mel. Kate’s “sign out” line made me emotional. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay dead in the end. I also never watched the old episodes with Sutekh, so I don’t think I got it. The scale of the destruction was just too big in this story. The Doctor just randomly going down to that planet to get the spoon… why? If Sutekh could track dead skin cells then why couldn’t he get to the Doctor instead of through Mel? And just conveniently, the DNA test law pops up. Did Ruby find her mother in the database or not? The end resolution with the magic rope and thingy felt, again, like more bait-and-switch. I was intrigued about the concept of how Ruby’s mother is not actually important except that they had placed importance on her, thereby imbuing her with more worth. But I don’t get why Sutekh couldn’t see her or why he cared. But again, maybe I wasn’t paying full attention. The end ending was sweet - how the Doctor didn’t think Ruby should go talk to her mother but Ruby did it anyway and it worked out well. And then more questions at the end. Who exactly is that neighbour woman?

I hope Ruby returns next season. Honestly, I watched this season more for her than for the Doctor. I'm glad I gave this season a chance. I’ll watch next season, for sure.

[toscrollperchancetomeme]

I think it could also be about creativity, though? Sam's technique is pretty good, but there are famous singers that go even harder vocally, but lack a little in terms of interpretation imo. And he kept delivering the lines in a different way, adding more attitude to it instead of singing it every verse in the same monotonous way. I think everyone is better at some things than others, and even their qualities can be improved with time and practice, but Sam not having a music career and pulling this off in whatever short time he had to prepare is impressive. And I think in a way it must be more terrifying because it is new territory and he's doing it alone? With acting at least you have scene partners that can help you get to that place. But I always see singers getting self-conscious on recording sessions, even when the producers are praising them, they keep finding flaws where there isn't any because being alone and able to hear themselves like that adds so much to their pressure and perfectionism, while singing live and feeding off from their fans is usually more liberating, fun and relaxing and you're just allowed to feel and not thinking too much. Anyway, I think most people are happily surprised and really enjoying it. I've personally said the same thing about him, I'm not a singer, but I'm passionate about music and follow some vocal coaches on YT... And even among musicians I'm obsessed about, I don't listen to their earliest songs that much because it almost sounds like different people. There's one singer that I basically skip their first four albums because on their fifth record things just reached a divine level (and I loved those albums, but after #THAT the bar was set too high so I only listen to like 1/3 of their discography). And I'm assuming Sam is still recording and he hasn't 'peaked' yet, either vocally or creatively, I believe future stuff will be even better, but we're off to a great start.

There's some very valid points in here, thank you! :)

It really does boil down to how one defines "singer" of course, and I get that there is only so much nuance one can put in a live reaction. I'm not a recording artist, I have written one song 10 years ago with the 5 guitar chords I know and it was shit. :D I just had a few years of vocal training and I enjoy interpreting music and do some community level musical theatre stuff. But I define myself as a singer. Maybe what irks me a bit that it's the same vein of dismissive treatment that musical theatre actors get around here (here being Germany): You're not a real singer because you're actually an actor, but you're not a real actor because you're doing musical, etc etc.

So, as is often the case, I'm seeing this through the filter of my own experience, in this case how I've seen really great professionals treated and often gatekept from breaking out of their genre. It's a complicated issue. I genuinely don't think that anyone meant harm or offense to Sam, but I wish people would be a bit considerate before defining for someone else who and what that person is or is not - especially while they are delivering a great performance. I think at this point Sam has proven that he can do it, and is, actually, a singer. But I'm also really curious about where his vocal journey will go and I can't wait to hear more! ;-; <3

Oh and I would absolutely love to see vocal coaches reacting to the song! I hope that happens soon, I'm really curious what they think. :)

(Also thank you so much for sending me an ask about this and being thoughtful and everything? I came back to tumblr for this fandom when S2 started airing and the experience has been nothing short of wonderful, I'm a bit humbled by the increasing engagement some of my posts are getting. ;-; )

[radiation]

Video games talk dont even mind me

Bro video games as a whole are so far behind movies in terms of storytelling and pacing that it’s kind of baffling. Which of course is obvious and makes sense for plenty of reasons but like, just think about it — watching movies a lot can’t help but train a certain muscle that gives you a strong instinct for structure. I find that people who watch movies very casually, without too much artistic consideration, and don’t really know the language associated with it are still very often irked by specific issues with a movie’s pacing, dialogue, etc and are relatively capable of putting it into words. Likewise, for many movies out there, regardless of your opinions on any specific directorial choices, you do feel as if the movie is essentially cohesive and creatives involved reasonably knew what they were doing and were acting very intentionally, and there weren’t any major oversights. This includes independent films as well. Meanwhile I think both players and developers much more commonly lack the instinct for narrative cohesion when it comes to video games. Definitely a fair amount of exceptions to this, but in general I find it’s difficult to find video games that are very narrative heavy & aspire to great artistic heights that don’t suffer from inherent structural problems, pedantic dialogue, tons of dead air, etc in a way that wouldn’t slide as easily in a movie. A lot these flaws certainly have to be due to the presence of gameplay elements and having to balance that with story when the two are almost always, at least in some small respect, inherently at odds. As for the inability for devs and players to pick up on / fix these flaws…is it because gameplay can distract from it and make up for it? With longer games that have runtimes closer to the experience of a television series, is there a similar reaction where if it’s long enough you will sit thru smaller, momentary issues because you enjoy the bigger picture? Yet games are a lot more engaging than a show as a audio, visual, and tactile experience, you can’t multitask and tune the information out as easily as with a boring episode of a show, so you’d think people would be more picky? But maybe because it’s so attention-demanding people are more immersed, and believe in the experience enough to more easily accept the story? Books demand the same kind of active attention to experience though, and the bar for story in books is a lot higher, so what gives? Well a lot of these have kind of obvious answers but still Interesting questions to ask that lead to Damn , That Is Still Crazy How Much This Shit Is In Its Infancy like sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy with how many writing issues are present in games, particularly in indie games that are Trying To Be Good At Writing that feel excessively obvious and yet I often struggle to find my sentiment mirrored by others. IDK. And back to movies the thing is I feel like if the same people trying to write these kind of games had pursued movies instead then they would’ve ended up making well structured movies that avoided all of these pitfalls. WHAT IS IT WITH GAMES? Well we know what it is with games and we could spend all day discussing a million more reasons this is the way it is but no matter what I think we should just be super conscientious of these pitfalls when making narrative focused games and aspire to a greater level of intentionality that is absolutely possible . Build that muscle by really understanding the quality of storytelling long-present in other mediums.Well the other issue with indie devs is that everyone believes they are totally breaking new ground story wise that they don’t take a step back, humble themselves a bit, and cross-reference what they’re doing with the tons of other stories that have already achieved similar things But thats a conversation for another day .

[ave09]

Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I really love your Harvey Dent fanfics (gk). They are really good, and basically, I've read the all! I was wondering if you could write a little something. Maybe the reader is in a relationship with Harvey and is the only one that can snap him out of being Harv? If not, that's totally okay, just wanted to shoot my shot! Thank you!

for sure

gk!harvey sent x wife!reader

note: i have been such a busy bee, and this has been sitting here forever, and i’m so sorry for the delay!

this is a bit rushed-but i kinda like it-also, peep the newsie reference in the end for any fansies reading this, i’m back in my newsie phase lol but enjoy some harvey!

— —

chaos had fallen upon gotham. 

wayne tower had fallen. 

the gotham knights had saved the day.

turner hayes was dead.

harvey dent was unaccounted for. 

you were sick with worry. you’d gone everywhere, and yet there had been no sign of him. did he even survive? you could only hope.

it had been two days since the incident. you continued your search. you were in the city from dawn til dusk in search for your missing husband. 

and yet found nothing.

it was a thursday night. you returned home late, dropping your bags at the door after entering your apartment. 

god how you hated it here. without harvey, everything felt empty, like there was no meaning to it anymore. harvey, despite his own flaws, was the light to your darkness, and you were drowning without him.

you entered the kitchen, ready for a tall glass of wine, but froze at the sight of a shadow lurking in the corner.

“hi doll.”

“harvey?”

the figure chuckled lightly, “not your harvey, but a version of him. it’s nice to meet you in person, it’s been a long time.”

you could only see half of his face, the right side hidden from view. 

but immediately knew something was wrong. mainly by the way he was speaking. sure, this harvey’s voice was already gravelly. but there was something different in how specific words were being pronounced. 

“step into the light.” 

he clicked his tongue. “tsk, tsk, tsk. i don’t think that’s the best idea right now.”

something was most definitely wrong.

“step into the light.” you reiterated, your voice firm. “i thought we could have a little conversation first, sweetheart.” 

sweetheart. that was harvey’s name for you. he used many, but, that was the one. and hearing this version of him say it irked you so much to the point that you exploded.

“godammit, let me see my husband’s face!” 

he seemed surprised by the sudden outburst. you half-expected him to taunt you more. but instead, he hesitatingly took a step forward. 

then another.

a scream tore through your throat at the sight. 

the flesh covering the right side of his face was melted, it could be compared to the wax of a candle. the side of his lip was gone, revealing his pearly whites and burnt gums. the mangled skin continued down to his neck, disappearing beneath his ruined suit. 

and then there was his eyes. those beautiful cerulean eyes used to match. and now, one was a milky white, disguising the beauty underneath.

it was horrific. 

tears sprung to your eyes immediately as your hands flew to cover your mouth, choking back sobs. 

“i told you it wasn’t the best idea..”

you let out shakey breathes, taking a step towards him. you stood before him now. glancing up, as though asking permission, slowly, he nodded, his eye never leaving you.

carefully, you lifted a trembling hand, your fingertips grazing over the mangled skin. the man flinched slightly.

“i-“

“it’s fine-“ 

but it wasn’t fine. nothing was fine.

you let out a shaky breath, letting your hand fall. 

“let me talk to him.”

the imposter harvey smirked a monstrous smirk, which was hardly even a smirk at all.

“no can do dearest,” 

“why not?”

“because,” he took a step closer, “i’m in control now. ya see, harv was in some serious shit, and now here i am. i saved his life—your welcome—“

“i want to talk to him-“

“nope-“

“goddammit—you’re going to ruin his life-“

“ruin? sweetheart, i’ve been saving him for years! jane tried to kill him—and our daughter—she’s been handled already-“

the blood on his coat—jane’s blood.

your head was spinning. all you wanted was to talk to your husband. “let me talk to him.” you repeated.

“yeah—how ‘bout no? ya see, that husband of yours kept me locked up for years. i ain’t doin’ that again.” 

you let out a shaky sigh. there has to be some way to get to him, the real him. 

“2007. a beach.” 

“what?”

“you wore a tux. and a stupid pink tie that i ended up loving so much.”

“what are you doing?”

“it was small, but cute,” 

“stop that.” 

he knew what you were doing now. you were trying to coax your harvey back into the light. he couldn’t allow it. 

“we danced, we laughed, it was the best day of my life.” 

harvey took a step back, engulfing himself in the darkness again, “goddammit woman, shut up-!”

“i have never been happier! then when i am with you!”

“i said shut up-“

“i promised that day that i’d be by your side and that i’d-“

“never leave.”

his voice was soft. fragile. broken.

tears stung your eyes. “harvey?” you murmured, unsure now of who she was truly speaking too. 

“it’s me.”

“oh my god-“ you took a step forward, engulfing him in a hug. but he pushed away, “no-no-stop-“

“harvey-“

“look at me-at this monster i’ve become-this-this thing in my head-its killin’ me-“

“listen to me-“

“i can’t stay here. i can’t.”

“then we leave.” 

he was taken aback. “what?” 

“we leave,” you repeated, “we leave gotham-we run-i don’t know where-but we just go-“

“i can’t ask that of you. you have a whole life here.”

“you are my life, harvey. and anywhere you go, i’ll be there by your side.”

he was silent for a moment—before smiling—as much as he could.

“for sure?”

“for sure.”

[beevean]

While I like Steven Universe and all of it's misgivings (even though I feel some parts of it could be written a bit more realistically, like Kevin and Steven's weird animosity angle), I always felt that the Movie adding Spinel was kind of a lazy and thoughtless decision just to make Pink Diamond more cruddy than she really is. I get that as part of the regime that considered castes wouldn't treat their lower halves with such kindess as they would the parts they belonged to, but it just seemed rather out of character for Pink to discard Spinel and make her stay in her garden for so damn long, if we were to assume Pink actually did shatter her Pearl accidentally. If there was more instances of Pink Diamond being that volatile in the show and not a lot of heresay (The Crystal Gems talking about Pink like she's an spoilt brat, for example), I'd probably would buy it more. As it stands, there's too little information thanks to the nature of the show, and it really just feels like after the revelation of Pink and Rose Quartz being one and the same, they forgot to give more humanizing qualities to Rose, especially sinc she's such a trigger for Steven in Future.

Spinel, to me, only exists to make Pink Diamond more cruel than she actually is, and I don't actually like Spinel because of that.

I agree with you in part. I don't think Spinel exists only to make Pink look more cruel, but I think the show started villainizing her a little too much in general, culminating in Future.

The idea is sound on paper. Present a character as a paragon of unreachable goodness, to the point that Steven feels like everyone expects him to measure up to his dead mom, and then start showing the cracks in her shining armor: she looked down on the same humans she swore to protect, she bubbled Bismuth, she shattered Pink Diamond and is the reason Homeworld hates everything to do with Earth, she was Pink Diamond and lied to all of the CGs and forced Pearl to keep her secret. We see her at her best, and slowly we go backwards to see at her worst. The idea is that we're supposed to put together the events in reverse order and appreciate her character development... but in practice, it means that Steven just starts to resent Rose and have an attitude of "yes mom sucks, must be a day ending in Y"

Future is what irked me the most. The last time Rose is plot relevant, we discover that she literally traumatized Pink Pearl through a temper tantrum. The last time we see Rose, it's her painting stuffed inside Lion's mane, out of sight and out of mind. The last time we hear her name, Steven is angrily comparing Greg to her. Everyone has moved on from her, but not in a healthy way, but in an almost... cancelled way? The narrative put too much focus on her bad actions, and seemingly forgot that Pink did a massive work on herself to do the closest thing a Gem can to grow up.

Spinel is just one of those examples. As an antagonist, she works, she's out of her mind with emotional pain, Pink and not Rose hurt her (so Steven can't just tell her the truth, like she did with Jasper and the Diamonds), and her inner conflict is abandonment issues, which how in the hell is Steven supposed to solve? He doesn't, the Diamonds do. But... yeah. Since Rose isn't around to defend herself, a recurring theme in SU, we never learn why she never came back for Spinel. Maybe because the portals were broken! But the narrative just leaves us with "Pink was a jerk and abandoned her friend because she was annoying" (or because she was meant to replace Pink Pearl in a shallow, insulting way, but still).

This is a big flaw of trying to paint the complexities of a dead character. We have to rely on hearsay, different opinions, and so does the titular character. Steven decided that Rose was a liar, and that's where the show stopped. It sucks, because Rose is my favorite character in the show and back in the day I swear that she was more hated than the Diamonds :<

[meenawrites]

Neteyam and Spider

Guys it's SO important to me that Neteyam cared about Spider. 

In my own personal mind, at first, Neteyam went to meet Spider because both Kiri and Lo'ak were obsessed with the human boy at the lab. He knew his mom disliked the kid though so he mainly went to keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't hurt his siblings. But it becomes clear pretty quickly that the kid is harmless. He's just quick and curious and frankly kind of entertaining. 

I think Neteyam would remain semi-wary because for him, especially at a young age, his parents can do no wrong so he has a hard time reconciling what's he's seeing and how his mom feels about the kid. 

In my mind I think the final straw for him, kind of the deciding factor on his personal view of Spider would be an incident that I'm going to write in my Spider Chronicles, but it involves Spider saving Tuk when she was a baby during that dangerous moment when everyone's backs are turned for a split second. Spider gets injured in the process and that's when he realizes two things: Spider's human body makes him way more fragile than he thought and that his parents are not gods, they're flawed. I think that realization comes early to all the kids except Tuk because of Neytiri especially's treatment of Spider (like earlier than other kids have the realization that like my parents are people not perfect). 

And I think he takes it upon himself to try to make up for some of the pain his parents have caused the boy, so he helps him carve his first bow or maybe gives him his old one. I can see him replicating the fishing experience he had with Jake but in private with Spider instead or looking after him more closely after the incident. 

I think Neteyam actually has a tight ball of protectiveness reserved for Spider but he's careful about when and where he shows it because he doesn't want Neytiri to hate Spider more if he overtly shows how much he cares about the boy. The other kids already do and he can see how much it irks his mom so in front of her and Jake he takes a bit more of a neutral stance to kind of keep the peace, which his parents don't pick up on right? Just more of him having this burden of being the eldest and feeling like he kind of has to take care of everyone's feelings. 

I don't think Neteyam and Spider aren't close, I think their dynamic just has more layers to it than Spider's relationship with the other siblings do. Lo'ak and Spider are equals to each other, partners in crime, both always down for an adventure. Kiri is his best friend and has always seen him as himself, not human, not like he doesn't belong, just him. Tuk views him no differently either and is kind of blind or at least kept in the dark for the most part about the issues surrounding Spider. But Neteyam is painfully aware of how human Spider is, not in a way of we're fundamentally different, but in the way of he's different, he's treated differently, he's smaller than us, not as fast, and the mere air could kill him. He's just painfully aware of how much of a risk being human in this environment puts Spider in so he always has an eye out for him. 

I think Spider would have a bit of a love hate relationship with how Neteyam views/treats him because of that. Like Spider has worked so hard to make up for his disadvantages in the environment and to keep up with them, and he hates Neteyam reminding him how different they are even if he is looking out for him. The other part of him loves that Neteyam cares and craves his attention. I think there's also the dissonance of Spider being older than Neteyam but Neteyam treating him like the younger one of the two. Part of Spider hates it because he's learned he's not allowed to be weak or vulnerable because there's been no one to take care of him or put his well being first, so it feels weird that someone younger than him is. But the part that craves care and attention also loves it. I imagine their relationship being very laden with that kind of dichotomy of Spider's fear of being vulnerable and his need to be cared for. 

I think the only reason we don't see Neteyam and Spider be as close in the movie as he is with Kiri and Lo'ak for example is precisely for the reasons I listed above, just that the connotation of their relationship is different. 

As he grows up, Neteyam finds himself having to keep a weird balance between being the responsible child, trying to give Spider as much attention as possible but not letting Neytiri really see that, and his duties as a taronyu and son of the Olo'eyktan. 

It's overwhelming frankly, but Neteyam's disposition makes him keep quiet. I think he actually is able to relax on the rare occasions he gets some snippets of alone time with Spider because they actually spend time quietly together. Like Spider can be hyper and a handful but he's also able to tone it down and just exist for a while, and he knows Neteyam kind of needs that. So sometimes they just spend like 20 minutes laying on the forest floor next to each other during Neteyam's free time or kind of talk quietly about random things, maybe some human books Spider read recently. I imagine Neteyam would be quite into human literature so he gets it secondhand from Spider cause he doesn't have time to indulge in it himself. 

When his parents leave Spider behind to the RDA, it kills him. He'd still had faith in his parents enough that they wouldn't at least, and no matter how he tried to rationalize it in the months following, it still felt wrong to him. 

Then the RDA have found them and attack, and Lo'ak is like we can't leave Spider. I don't think Neteyam follows simply because it's Lo'ak asking because we know he does have some authority as the eldest and could have been more insistent about not going back. I think he realized that if they went back to their parents right then and asked them to help get Spider back, they wouldn't consider him a priority AGAIN, so Lo'ak and Neteyam going back for him now are really the only chance he has of escaping the RDA's clutches. So of course he turns back with Lo'ak. He already felt like he'd failed Spider a first time, he wouldn't let it happen again, not to someone he considered his responsibility and he cared for so much. 

So yeah... they make me sad and I need more of them just talking or bonding like please.

[weirdwriter69]

Does it bother anyone else that Comte and other characters never try to explain why Vlad is wrong or try to argue with him on his foundation? It irks me to no end when they just go "No, that's bad" without any reasoning. I do not like Vlad's morals, but I can understand them. It is unfair to amuse that all the residents have the same morals, so how do they reason that Vlad's overall plan is wrong? Like no one tells him that if he controls all human thought that he could be taking a key factor away of what makes someone human or how much of a husk of a life everyone would lead. I wish they explored this more because every time I think MC or Comte will try to explain how his reasoning is flawed, they just go "that's messed up", and Vlad magically changes his mind a little bit. He has been chasing this ideal since he was little and has likely had it for hundreds of years, and just being told "yooo, that's bad. put the knife down" stops him??? What the fuck, Vlad? Cybird, you could have an interesting conversation about morality and how it isn't always clear what is good or bad. It would add more depth to a lot of the characters too to see how they rationalize their behavior or highlight how they don't. Side Note: It also bothers me that Faust's experiments are never clear unless you're playing Sebastian's route. Even then, his motivations are vague, but he makes interesting points. I just... he can be so much more complex outside of "evil scientist does fucked up things". His route touches on his past and some religious stuff, but when he goes "ahaha, you would be an interesting test subject", I just don't feel like he is more that an archetype. This is me ranting from memory, so if anyone knows where stuff is that disproves my memory of these claims, please show me. I want to have hope. I could out of the depths of road trip recovery with these thoughts lol.

[bitethedevil]

What is bad writing for you

That’s a great question, thank you! These are all just my own personal opinions. It really boils down to what I personally like and don’t like lol. I’m not making any objective claims here.

There are things that can ‘objectively’ make writing ‘bad’ such as just not being great at putting together text or having a limited vocabulary, though I don’t think personally that always makes it bad. I mean, English isn’t my first language, and my own vocabulary is a bit limited when I write for that reason (as you might have noticed from my great love of adverbs lol), so I would fall into that category myself.

Although I think plots are a hundred times more important than phrasing and the actual text. I can live with someone who writes a bit messily if I feel like the plot is well thought out and interesting to read. I would honestly rather have that than read long paragraphs of beautiful flowery language that leads nowhere.

There are times when I feel as a reader that someone has sat down and put together a bunch on beautiful phrases but without any planning for plot. That’s not always a bad thing though. I’ve written a bunch of stuff myself where there has gone no planning into anything, and I just start writing. However, I don’t want my reader to feel like that has been the case.

I also have a strong hate for certain cliches and tropes. I’m not one of those people who claim that writing has to be ‘original’ or whatever. No writing ever is. We get inspired by others and that’s completely alright. I just also feel like there are some things that have been written to death and it takes a lot more to make it interesting. Like the “this girl who was bullied for being normal is actually the most special person in the world and only she can save us” trope and the ones like it (you see it in YA novels a lot). I just can’t do it. Give me protagonists that are just painfully boring, normal people who gets put into weird situations.

It also irks me when characters are made to be imperfect and flawed, but they are kind of “pretty” flaws, if that makes sense? I see it sometimes with some depictions of trauma for example. I hate when it gets represented as this sort of romanticized ‘big sad’ mental state. Like give me someone who gets angry to an irrational degree over seemingly nothing because of their trauma. Someone who does ‘evil’ things because they can’t cope with the loss of control that they feel all the time. Let’s see some self-destructive behavior or something. Make it uglier.

And my biggest pet peeve: the idea of good/evil in literature. It does have its place, sure, but 8/10 pieces of literature would be more interesting if that wasn’t such a prevalent thing in the narrative. I want to be confused about who to root for. Please, let me think for myself. I can’t stand it when writers spell it out for me who is the good one we should root for, and who is the bad, bad villain (*cough cough* House of the Dragon *cough* loved the book, which by the way is a great example of the opposite of what I just described but I am starting to really dislike the series.).

(Thank you for the ask <3)

[moonchild-in-blue]

I finished Fleabag s1 and omg.

Trying to control myself and not go through the show's tag to avoid spoilers but !!!! It was so good!!! I have so many thoughts but geez. The sisters relationship dynamics are really messing with me. And Boo!! I love her. What a beautiful person.

Phoebe you beautiful, beautiful writer.

(A cut here so you don't have to hear me Going Through It. Feel free to ignore it, I just need to let this all out and it got a bit long.)

Claire and Fleabag's relationship reminds ne a lot of me and my sister. We barely hug each other and say "I love you", but I know that she does and I know that she know that I do too.

That moment when Claire admits she'll leave Martin and go to Finland and help with the café was so incredibly emotional to me. And the stolen statue!! I understand why Claire would be scared to leave her alone - I'm the eldest of us two and in many ways I look at her as if she's my daughter too. It's a strange feeling.

To see her then go back to Martin and throw Fleabag's mistake to her face in such a cruel way broke my heart. I don't think I could ever be as cruel to my sister as she was - and yet I know I must've been already.

Fleabag's final admission that feeling worthless and "unfuckable" was the hardest part was... Something else. And yet, isn't that how it is? We all crave validation and wanting to be desired, in some way or another, and when you go through a cycle of cheap, easy, makeshift connections, and even those end, what do you do?

The Banker's speech on ep4 about wanting to wash his cups at home and seeing his wife drink from them in the morning?? Yeah. I cried. It was such a lovely moment.

Anyways. I'm not gonna touch on Boo's death and Fleabag's role in it because I'm really not in the right mindset to do it. But yeah. Oof.

I do gotta hand it to her for putting up with the Evil Stepmom for so long. I'm the farthest thing from a people pleaser (which is its own flaw but we're not talking about that rn), so the second she would lay her hands on me, I'd cut her ofd immediately. The exhibition thing really really irked me. The finger snap??? What a bitch.

Their father has his moments, but to see him constantly choosing his new wife and not taking his own daughter's side??? Yeah, no. Absolutely not.

I love Harry. He's so precious. Hugh Skinner my beloved.

[venbetta]

I took some time and actually watched Hazbin Hotel... I watched the pilot 6(?) years ago, and seeing the hellfire commentary from Twitter made me reluctant (rightfully so I guess).

But I say it was pretty alright. I feel like I have some complaints. I'm not a diehard fan at all, nor do I see myself in the fan base, but I feel like I can add my own input, I guess. These are my opinions and personal reasons, please be nice.

Spoilers/commentary beneath the cut (16+)

For starters, I think the concept is good, I like some of the designs for the characters, especially since they improved from the pilot.

I think I have at least 3-4 favorite characters, ranking them from my most fave:

Lucifer, Alastor, Vox, and Nifty.

... I didn't like anyone else. I'll probably explain that.

The only reason why I liked these four was mostly cuz they had some funny bits to them. I told my friend that Lucifer reminds me of Hunter from TOH??? And I said "Maybe it's cuz their both blonde and depressed." Lucifer just has that appeal for me. Vox didn't have much screentime, but I like his niche design and voice. Alastor is also cool. Nifty is just a cute gremlin that I fuck with honestly. Good for her. Everyone else I either didn't care much for or straight up didn't like...

Charlie annoyed me a lot, I know she's the MC, but I didn't like her. I get that she's supposed to be good, but her behavior in some scenes bothered me. Like in Ep4, I understand she was coming from a good place, but I couldn't help but feel agitated. I can't explain it. She has a savior complex which is her flaw, and maybe I just don't exactly understand it.

Of course, she's not the worst character (looks at Valentino and Adam), but she could improve. There were a few characters that I feel should've been written better, but the pacing made it hard.

I feel like the pacing was something I didn't like, but I can't blame it since it only has 8 episodes. The writer in me deflated seeing how fast things moved along, but I get why they sped it up towards the end. I wanna ramble about how the show could have gone if it had 24 episodes- but that feels like another post. Also, another thing that irked me were characters word vomiting.

Again if this show had more time to explore each individual character, it wouldn't have happened. I thought ep 4 with Angel Dust pouring his heart had good intentions to tell the audience that he's fucked up, it could've been built up more (if there were more episodes) until he finally blew up, similar with Husk. It's different because it's an animation, but you can still show and not tell visually about someone struggling. That's just me.

The excessive swearing isn't funny, I didn't find myself laughing that much except for Ep 8: Adam telling Lute to chill the fuck out, Alastor's mic breaking, and Lucifer saying "I'm gonna fuck you!" are the only bits I found funny. I've laughed at dumber things (my sense of humor is garbage, I'll laugh at a waffle falling over), but I didn't find most of the jokes funny.

I knew it was a musical, and I love musicals, but there weren't many songs I vibed with. Maybe a few, but not a lot. I'm a music person, and the songs just didn't feel right? Like the lyrics either felt awkward or general direction of the song didn't feel cohesive. I think I only like 4 songs in total.

The VAs were great, I recognized a lot of them, and I enjoyed their performances. They all fit their characters.

The animation was good for what was originally an indie project, and I hope the animators/artists were properly compensated. I know there was a lot of shit going on about Vivi allegedly not paying them but regardless, they did amazing.

I'm gonna be serious and say I feel like I didn't want to give HH a chance because I just didn't exactly care about it. My friends watched it. I saw Twitter's scolding opinions and hottakes on it, and I didn't want to hate watch it. But I was still curious. While I wasn't laughing through most of it, I think it's good. There's a lot that I'm trying not to say or get into because that would derail my commentary and make it about other discussions I'm not fully knowledgeable about...

I sailed the seven seas to watch this show, and I say it was sort of worth it. Again, I'm not a crazy fan, but anyone that likes it, good for you.

[alphabetboyluvr]

I read your work on Wattpad and I totally love you, but what I don’t like is the way you focus on read to vote ratios. You are literally the only author I know (and I follow hundreds of authors, some that could rival you) and you are the only one that cares about read to vote ratios.

I think it’s something you shouldn’t worry about because the read count isn’t even accurate because it also includes when the author reads the chapter themselves even while editing.

I know votes are important to authors, but to most readers (because I’ve asked some friends I’ve made on Wattpad) we don’t even look at how many votes a book has to make us want to read the story. We look at the description and how many views it’s gotten, not the votes, because we know votes aren’t a good representation of how good a book is because people can forget to vote or just don’t give out votes no matter how good the story is.

Your books have millions of views (regardless if some are proper views or not) and your books are always out there and they get discovered, and I think you’re a bit greedy with asking for votes- especially when you do those god awful vote goals in order to get a chapter out.

I’ve seen other authors do vote goals, and it makes me want to do the total opposite and not vote because you should be writing and releasing chapters for the fun of it because you like writing and want to update, not for the votes.

I love you and your writing, but I’d say the whole voting ratio thing is a flawed concern and does leave a few readers bitter with you. I know you probably don’t care, but I just had to say it as I saw your insta where you mentioned the vote ratio and it irked me coz like I said, you’re the only author that cares about it when you shouldn’t worry about it considering your thousands of followers and your millions of views

okay, a lot to discuss with this one!

so, firstly thank you for sharing your thoughts - discussion is always welcome, even if we have different views on the subject! and thank you for the kind words about my work, too!!

i will just say that pretty much all the fic writers i know on a personal level do, to some extent, care about the engagement on their stories. whether it be wattpad, tumblr or ao3, engagement is hugely appreciated for a number of reasons.

i know of a good handful of writers, large and small, who use vote goals - even if they don't outwardly state it, they care about the ratio. they wouldn't do the goal if not. that's what it's for.

i think it's also important to note that i don't do vote goals anymore and haven't done for quite some time. i tried them for a while, didn't like them, no longer do them - because i agree that they felt insincere and icky.

i don't hold my chapters to ransom - i think there's one instance in my 11 (!!) years on wattpad, and 5 years of writing for the tannies that I've delayed an update because a vote goal hadn't been met.

but like you say, views aren't an accurate way of measuring engagement. votes are.

to me, a vote is a considered effort that readers will make to say 'yeah, i liked this', without needing to comment or interact on a big level. asking for people who read hours worth of your hard work for free to simply press a little star at the end of a chapter isn't a greedy ask, in my opinion.

so why do i care about the ratio?

because when i used to look for stories as a reader, it was something i glanced at to see if the views aligned with the quality. a good ratio indicates good writing. it's as simple as that.

on a personal level - i don't actually care. it's not like i sit up at night thinking about it, or obsessively check my stats. i post chapters, read the comments, and that's about it. the vote ratio can be seen at a glance, and even though I'm bad at maths, it's an easy thing to compute lol.

this is the back end of bad decisions. none of the numbers make any sense, really. i'd go mad if i tried to figure it all out. so please don't think I'm sitting here obsessing over the numbers, because I'm not. i wouldn't be able to write if i was.

what i do care about is what you guys think of me. of course i care. i like to think i have a pretty good relationship with my readers, and so it does suck to know that something like this, which you agree is trivial, is enough to make you bitter with me.

i consider myself very lucky when it comes to my readers, but I've also worked damn hard to cultivate my readership. those millions of reads didn't come about just by chance.

it's kind of insulting when you see how much work i put in and know how much i love writing these stories to then be told that i only care about votes. bd alone is the length of 4 standard-sized novels, published for free, written on my own time. you don't do that if you don't write for enjoyment.

so if you think I'm being greedy - when we both know in the grand scheme of things votes mean nothing and will earn me nothing more than a metaphorical pat on the back - then fine, but it's not like you aren't getting fed, either.

vote, or don't vote. it's all just pixels on a screen, at the end of the day.

but please don't insinuate i don't care about my stories.

[ma1dita]

if you had to rank pjo/hoo characters how would you rank them and why?

i have not fully ventured into hoo im gonna be real w you so lets do a semi analysis, and since im kinda type a and scared that i dont get directions ill do favorite and least favorite

i have big main character syndrome and i think its my fatal flaw (/j) but mcs always get me... so fucking emotional--- watching the show and in comparison to the books AFTER the fact, i think its crazy but ---percy would have to be first i would cradle that boy into my arms and fight the gods for him. he needs a BREAK. ALL OF THEM DO HONESTLY.

the whole dumbification of him as a character irks me sometimes because its so obvious that he has little to no self esteem but is an intelligent guy in his own right. imo viewers were critiquing that bit in the show a lil too hard, walker ate that shit up. percy is The Himbo though. also idk if this is unpopular but i also loved rachel as a character bc she is The Girlboss. i wish i was as cool and as smooth as her as a teenager

least favorite?? i didnt feel any specific hatred towards any of the kids maybe bc i read the series for the first time as an adult (if yall didnt know from my older works i grew up a potterhead) and i cant be mad at kids acting like kids, but i would say uncle rick found more of his rhythm as the series progressed if that makes sense??? but it felt like a lot of push and pull on some tropes and like for example i felt like chris and clarisse getting together were random... thats just my stronger opinion at this moment in time lol

but what can i say coming from a fandom where the author is a transphobe and cant worldbuild for shit? name reveal why do yall think i go by jo 😭😭😭 its bc its actually joanne and when we yell at jk rowling i feel like we're yelling at me too 😭😭😭 are my opinions even valid

that was a ramble and none of it makes sense hope that helps

[wondereads]

Weekly Reading Update (06/23/24)

Reviews and thoughts under the cut

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (8/10)

This was my first ever Octavia E. Butler book, and it didn't disappoint! The way this story used Anyanwu and Doro's relationship to comment on power dynamics and issues in the world at large blew my mind; I found the discussion of eugenics particularly interesting. They were both such intensely flawed yet compelling characters. This book skirts the line between fantasy and sci-fi (something I'm looking into for my thesis as a peripheral issue), and it definitely made me wonder about the world. I wasn't aware going in that this was a prequel situation, but even then I do think I was a bit dissatisfied with how things left off. That's just my personal taste though.

Haikyuu!! Vol. 41 and 42 by Haruichi Furudate (10/10)

It usually takes me around half an hour or so to get through a volume of manga, but these took me a couple of hours. Why? Because I had to keep putting it down because I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe. As someone who has read a plethora of books ever since I was young, it takes a lot to get me to cry, especially that hard. I was sobbing. Furudate has created such wonderful characters and then puts them through so many struggles that I can't even be mad about because it's highly realistic that someone pursuing a sport would run into this! Seeing Hinata break down followed instantly by the third years graduating and the Brazil arc had me miserable in the best way possible. I usually never rate manga or graphic novels five stars because they're usually super fast-paced and so much relies on writing style for me when I read novels, but this just broke me.

Better Than the Movies by Lynn Painter (46%)

This is a very cute book so far. I could probably tell you exactly what's going to happen from this point onward, but it's a genre convention for romcoms to be predictable. Liz is a fun protagonist; she's quirky in a way that has a reason and isn't annoying. There's good chemistry between the leads with some great banter, and you really can't ask for more than that. However, I will say the constant song references are starting to irk me, especially with the lyrics included in the writing --I don't know, it just reminds me too strongly of my early fanfiction years.

Moon Rising by Tui T. Sutherland (45%)

If there's one thing about me, I love a mind-reading protagonist. Moonwatcher is probably my favorite perspective of the Wings of Fire series, even if I wish she'd speak up sometimes. Sutherland did a great job making her similar to Starflight, since they're the same tribe, without being a carbon copy, and while mind reading might seem a little too omniscient, her inexperience and general social ineptitude keep it from becoming overpowered. I'm thrilled to see the return of Peril, whose story is left open from the previous arc, and I'm excited to learn more about the other new characters (Winter, Qibli, and I believe Turtle) who have their own interesting introductions.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien (43%)

Despite my fantasy obsession, this is my first time reading The Lord of the Rings (though I have read The Hobbit). While it is definitely much slower-paced than the average modern fantasy, I'm enjoying myself so much. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know I'm a worldbuilding nut, so this is like my dream book. There are so many tangents to tell stories about the history of Middle Earth and all the goings-on of the world, and I keep noticing little details and wishing they'd talk about those too. Tolkien is also a rather funny writer; Bilbo's passive aggression in particular made me giggle. While this a bit of a dense story, it's definitely living up to its reputation so far.

Boys With Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell (42%)

This is a project for my part-time job, so I'm not sure how much I can actually divulge, but let me just say this: this book is compared to The Raven Boys in its summary, and it's living up to that.

Her Wolves by G. Bailey (7%)

I won't lie, the writing of this book so far does not give me hope. However, it could still be a fun read even if the grammar and syntax aren't the best. Also, funny thing, this book is set in the future on Earth. I did not know this. I thought it was a high fantasy. So imagine my surprise to see a landmass labeled "America Court" on the map. My misunderstanding was cleared up soon, but it still made me laugh.