#i love how each iteration focuses on a different aspect of their characters | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kimnjss · 4 years ago

Text

plot twist!namjoon | a-z

⤑ series: plot twist

⤑ pairing: rapper!namjoon x rich girl!reader

⤑ genre: just smut talk.

⤑ rating: explicit. // unedited.

⤑ warnings: smut talk... (mentions of) shower sex, cum shots, brat taming, doggy style, reverse cowgirl... sex positions, hair pulling, masturbation, semi-public sex, roleplaying, oral sex (f/m. receiving), rough sex, use of toys, teasing...

⤑ A/N: literally not even a full day and i already miss them :( they were such a mess but sooo much fun ., ugh.

A = Aftercare (what's he like after sex):

While he enjoyed cuddling with you before going to bed, after sex was a whole different story. The act would have both of you all sticky and hot and Joon wouldn't be a fan in laying in that, he'd be suggesting sharing a bath before snuggling under the covers... which would most likely result in another round.

B = Body Part (his favorite body part of his and also yours):

It was no secret that Joon had an interest fascination with your back, especially when he was fucking you. But, what he liked most were the dimples at the end of the back, he'd often times find himself pressing his thumbs into them as he held you steady.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum basically...):

The two of you were not really a big fan of condoms and while you were great about taking your birth control, the pull out method had worked itself into your routine. Joon was either spilling out on your back or thighs and on special occasions, you'd let him finish on your face.

D = Dirty Secret (pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of his):

Despite the excessive amount of eye rolls he gives you, Joon is secretly very into the spoiled brat act you put on. There was just something about the annoyed pout and scrunch of your nose that he found cute, more so when he was denying you.

E = Experience (how experienced is he? does he know what he's doing?):

You both were pretty equally matched when it came to the bedroom, although, you were a lot more adventurous than him. Always coming up with new things for the two of you to try, but it never took much convincing to get him to experiment.

F = Favorite Position (this goes without saying...):

Doggy style. Reverse cowgirl. Anything back to chest. Even if you were starting off facing each other, you'd soon be shifting into the spooning position, his face nuzzled in the crook of your neck and his arms wrapped around your waist.

G = Goofy (is he more serious in the moment, or is he humorous, etc.):

Joon was pretty serious, but not so much that it made sleeping with him boring. He'd just get real concentrated on making you feel good and his entire focus would be on getting you to cum. Like in any other aspect of your relationship, you balanced each other out. You were playful and goofy enough for the both of you.

H = Hair (how well-groomed is he, does the carpet match the drapes? how does he like you?):

He didn't really care how you kept yourself, however you were deciding to look down there was however he preferred you to look. It didn't make that much of a difference to him in the slightest bit. The same went for himself, he'd trim up from time to time but it never really was at the forefront of his mind.

I = Intimacy (how is he in the moment, romantic aspect...):

Very, very, extremely romantic. Joon was very into the emotional part of sex even if he didn't really vocalize it. Loved holding onto your hand and looking into your eyes while he was inside of you. And if it's been a while since the two of you have been together, he'd be putting together a special night complete with candles, bubble baths and flowers to make up for it.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon):

Not really his thing. Even before the two of you were getting together, he wasn't really into masturbation. Found it boring, actually. He'd much rather be with someone and experience that connection, rather than just getting himself off.

K = Kink (one or more of his kinks):

He's got an extremely subtle brat tamer kink. Unrealized, but definitely present whenever you were pulling your tantrums and he had something to say about it. Sometimes, without thinking he'd do things that he knew would get a reaction out of you, just so he could do something about it.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do):

Anywhere the two of you could be alone without interruptions. He had given you shit about it before, but Namjoon wasn't opposed to fooling around in his studio with the door locked or even in your office when you weren't busy. Surprise blowjobs were his absolute favorite, especially if they were taking place underneath his desk while he was working.

M = Motivation (what turns him on, gets him going):

You're always very direct and vocal about what you want. Whether it being what you wanted him to do with you or what you wanted to do with him, there would always be a stiffness in his pants following your words. Paired with the need to be alone with you. He liked knowing that you wanted him the most.

N = NO (something he wouldn't do, turn offs):

There aren't many things that are off limits for Namjoon, but something he couldn't really seem to wrap his mind around would be roleplaying. Not like the two of you have ever tried it, but he knew that if you had it would end up being more awkward than anything. He'd have trouble staying in character and most likely would ditch the entire story-line and fuck you without the mention of it.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.):

Receiving. While he was not selfish when it came to oral, he liked it a lot when you were below him. You knew what you were doing and you did it so well, never failed to have his toes curling. He'd always return the favor, but was always perking up when you were offering to go down on him.

P = Pace (is he fast and rough? slow and sensual? Etc.):

Rough and sensual. It was no secret that he enjoyed all the romantic parts of having sex with you, but he was often mixing that with a bit of roughness. Hair pulling, tossing you around, hard thrusts, and sometimes biting were to be expected when he was losing himself in the moment.

Q = Quickie (his opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often... etc.):

Nope. Not a fan. They just annoyed him. Didn't see the point of speeding through things when you could very much take your time with each other. If you were suggesting a quickie, he'd be eliminating whatever reason it was you couldn't go and have proper sex. Then going to do that.

R = Risk (is he game to experiment, does he take risks):

Joon never really came up with new things for the two of you to try in bed, that was more something that you were into. He'd always be down to give anything that you were bringing to him a chance, at least once. While extremely different, the two of you happened to be into the same type of things... so there wasn't much to worry about there.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can he go for, how long does he last...):

He's pretty good at keeping it together, insuring that he lasts a bit longer than you so you're getting everything out of it. Pretty spent after two rounds, but after one quick nap or something to eat, he'd be ready to go again.

T = Toy (does he own toys? does he use them? on a partner or himself?):

No toys. Not that he was against them, he's just never really thought about adding them in to your sex lives. Just like everything else, though, if you were curious about it, or wanted him to use something on you, he wouldn't hesitate.

U = Unfair (how much does he like to tease?):

He likes to tease just enough so he's bringing out your bratty attitude. Simple things like denying you kisses or acting as if he wasn't interested, so he can see that pout take over your features. Sometimes, he'd keep you from cumming... but that never lasted long because he liked watching you cum a lot more than not.

V = Volume (how loud is he, what sounds does he make?):

Not that loud or vocal. He'd talk dirty to you from time to time or ask if something felt good, but other than that low grunts were the extent of his vocalization. He's usually a bit too focused to keep up with dirty talk, but you didn't mind either way.

W = Wild Card

He found it attractive when you were working hard. Especially if you were doing something that he knew you enjoyed, he liked the look of accomplishment on your face whenever you've completed something. And was never hesitating to reward you for your hard work.

X = X-Ray (let's see what's going on in those pants, pictures or words):

The guy wasn't tall just for show, that's a fact. Joon was an all around big guy and that translated down south as well. Not only that, he was thick too. And he knew it, took pride in the little gasp you'd let out whenever he was bottoming out for the first time that night.

Y = Yearning (how high is his sex drive?):

He was very good at matching your energy, so he wanted you just as much and as often as you wanted him. But, if you were dressed a certain way or paying a bit more attention to him, it would make him want you in some type of way. He'd be thinking of ways to shift things to the bedroom.

Z = Zzz... (how quickly does he fall asleep afterwards?):

Joon was hardly falling asleep right after sex, he'd want to get up and shower with you before getting comfortable underneath the covers again. There have been times he's fallen right asleep, but each times he's woken up in the middle of the night to clean off before going to bed.

taglist: @agustdef @smoljams @jaiuneamesolitaiire @hehehehahahohohuhu @houseofarmanto @preciouschimine @chocobetterknot @kookiesjoonies @ashleyjoyx @thia-aep @jinhitwhore @silentlyimpractical @acc3ssdenied @triviasjms @joonies-babyy @bangtansonyeondayyyum @bangtan-noona @mipetronella @lilacdreams-00 @strawberryforever25 @tae165 @jikooksgirl19 @dee-ehn @butterflylion @alterlovess @joontopia @my-odd-mix @yeontanie21 @sw33tnight @kookiesdoe @daydreambrliever @purplellie @hellotherehoneybee @bangtansbun @taefect94 @tricethecharm @pjmcth @0xmysticx0 @samros95 @codeinebelle @vmin-soulmate @bluewhale52 @thecityrain @rageyoudamnednerd @kookoo-kachoo @diminieshoe @kelitt @soulstaes @ayyyocee @betysotelo18

taglist: @elephantdoors @amour-quinn @gemad08 @yoooonie @bloomtilweache @ambersaesthetics @peachy-tata @moonlitmyg @trinityxsope @jellyeater @miagracegrande @tom-hollands-wife @loveyoongles @seokjinslittledumpling @kerikaaria @ggukkieland @gwsyoongi @salty-for-suga @beeeb05 @dionysusrage @jungkookspromise @princecalpal @agustneeds @neverthefirstchoice @agustdakasuga @veronawrites @omot7 @agirlintheparkjimin @wildly-lost-lantern @goldenkookietae @ephyraaaa @take-u-2-an0ther-w0r1d @sungieshines @embrace-themagic @aqtkookie @kim-ji-hyeons-world @mrksmrks @hyunjinhasmyheart @paddingtonrue @itsrapmonstanotdancemonsta @veryuniquenamegoeshere @niieceyy @lowlifeoeuvre @lee-karliah @angiexyoung @marifujioka @softlyjins @mochibabycakes @producerjk @hqtetsurou

taglist: @heyitsbreeeeee @munkey888 @bbyjoonies @prdshobi @myworldisgone11 @kthvol6 @soloikeadates @illwritetomorrow @mysugarkoo @parkjammys @mypurplelamp @hansolsrightnut @vanillabrightlightning @huhuehuey @jiminshibaby @rjsmochii @certifiedcrazycatlady @jayyayyy17 @my-current-mood-is @btsbed @definitely-not-tina @jeonsbae01 @metaethically @kb-bangtanenthusiast @ardenlovesyou @simplymemyself @jin-from-the-block @janieooo @xxstrangegirlxxx @pastelbleuet @pxjiminsi @ruinsofangels @ladyarmanto @bloopkook @hopiebabie @bigimpression @xinyourdreamsx @hisunshiine @uxwi @yayo-kittty @taejinminsu @miss-jupiter @btsbangtanbois @sugalou @pjminmin @yoongiofmine @kim-jias-den @imezz @itookallthejamsbruh @kimsouthjoon

taglist: @ephyra1230 @awhnamjoon @jkismyasmr @eyereen @gldnrecs @jiminddaeng @morndas @daebakrex @getmemyfries @v3nti @drippingguk @iridescentstories @cheesecakes-randomshitz @jakiki94 @tatiquichi @tatajoonie @weasleyswizarding-wheezes @shadowhale @kuggnuj @cynicalitys @saymynamewithluv @kooafraid @milkteade @revehosh @gguksfilter @jai-namu @btsheartu @xxsunny-side-upxx @jeonkookiebangtan @scorpiostunner1027 @strwberry-jam @ssyubb @paolandotcom @marvelous-capsicle @letmebreathepls @rlynotme @bunny-meowmeow @bbybubbles @chxcolxtemilk @hobiheavenly @cyb3rbab3 @hobiismyhopeu @h3llbunni @namjoonrkive @avipshamitra @seolarsyj @bitterly-sweet @knjkitten @taescckookies @frompeaches

taglist: @redluvletmain @onlythehobi @napalmskiez @catpersona @moonagii @bunny-on-crack @yukiehyukie @tinyworldsblog @xiaokoo @cynicalpluto

#namjoon #kim namjoon #namjoon smut #namjoon x reader #bts x reader #namjoon sm au #bts smut #🌬️ sm au #namjoon a-z

182 notes · View notes

imreallyhereforkataang · 4 years ago

Text

I'm unsure about how's the best way to articulate this, but I'm kind of surprised there's not more fan content highlighting the otherworldly aspects of Kataang, and a part of me wishes we could see a bit more of that.

I'd expect that most if not all fandoms frequently have an affinity for glamorizing aesthetics of characters and ships, and content creators who I know often look for ways to convey that sort of thing. I've also witnessed lots of people on this site claim that they first became attracted to a ship for its aesthetic because they saw embellishing artwork that didn't really highlight much about the characters' personalities, but was still gorgeous and impressive to look at.

And yeah, it makes sense that content creators and consumers in fandom engage with works that make epic an idea that may be primarily based off the “what” of the characters, or the situations they find themselves in, rather than the finer details of the “who.” The resulting creation is similar to what happens when the personal elements of a legend get lost over time, while the sensational aspects continue to be retold and glorified. That sort of thing makes for extremely intriguing depictions of the original source material, even if it’s at the expense of some of the subject’s humanity. Though, even when that depiction becomes so far removed from the original that it's totally unrecognizable, I do think it's often still fascinating and creative, and maybe should be its own celebrated thing altogether.

It's just surprising to me, and kind of disappointing if I'm honest, that, based on the relative lack of fan content doing this, many people seem to either not recognize or not act upon how Kataang has that exact aesthetic potential.

If you were to keep the basics of their story intact but tell it through a different lens or genre, maybe dramatize it a bit, it would be so easy to emphasize how Kataang is literally like a demigod and a mortal falling in love. That on its own to me sounds like the premise for the epic love story fandom culture would traditionally find appealing. And it's really not much of a stretch -- that is one legitimate way to look at the pairing if you broke it down to its objective pieces, even if it's not the most focused-on part of their relationship in the original material (though it certainly is alluded to). The source material is much more detailed and personal, like watching a show where Oma and Shu are the main characters versus hearing the major beats of their legend.

For Kataang, we can definitely take it further with drawing out their major beats. The mortal comes into her own and is shown to be a force of comparable measure to the demigod, as she is his self-appointed protectress. She releases him from dormancy, bringing him back into the world to fulfill his grand destiny, and on their quest, she would become his teacher, both in training and in reacquainting himself with the new era. At one point she would even revive him and his line of divinity after watching him be struck down and killed. This mortal is his first devotee, and his personal connection with her makes her his attachment to the world and, in extension, the mortals he protects.

Meanwhile, the demigod is the personification of the mortal's faith, a vessel of the compassion she feels so deeply for others. He takes her places, literally and metaphorically, she never could have gone before, teaching her in turn about lost practices and new perspectives. He can legitimately bring her to the skies with a unique ability that no one else in the entire world possesses -- an ability that also defines much of what he stands for and what her world has been missing in his absence.

Not to mention how the mortal was one of the only people who believed this demigod would resurface, and the only person by his side from the start of meeting him in their warring environment. The two were born nearly 100 years apart, yet their connection and love is shown to transcend both time and space. Their elements and roles to the world and to each other can be represented by synergistic air and water, which are associated in canon with freedom/peace and change/virtue, respectively. And if one were going to dramatize Kataang's relationship and what it stands for, their exchange could reasonably be depicted as the bridge between the heavens and the earth (moon and ocean).

Like, truly, their story is so mythical. The pieces are there. Think about how their theme is called "The Avatar's Love" and segments of that theme are reused for LoK, pointing to Aang's reincarnation cycle and how the love he feels transcends so many lifetimes, but he chooses Katara in this particular one. Think about what Yangchen says to Aang about the reason the Avatar is born a human and not a spirit, that the Avatar must live amongst humans and experience human emotions to recognize how precious the life is that the universe entrusts him with protecting. Think about Aang's chakras in The Guru, and not just the Love and Thought Chakras but nearly all of them, and how truly tied Katara is with his energy, his spirit. That can't be faked -- that's real, genuine influence, her touching his life in ways that highlight his humanity. Think about how Aang has a real-time vision of Katara without even intending to, and the only other being we see Aang do something similar (but intentionally) with is Appa, to whom Pathik says, "You and the Avatar's energies are mixed. You have an unbreakable bond."

Think about the Pietà pose in The Crossroads of Destiny and all that symbolizes about Aang and Katara (honestly that alone should be enough because it speaks volumes), including their world savior/first believer dynamic. How Katara brings Aang back to life and says, "I don't know what I did exactly," thus giving fuel to the idea that saving him didn't just constitute normal healing on her end. Think about the visual parallel between her resurrecting him and her releasing him from stasis in the first episode. Think about Katara's extended opening narration in the pilot and how it evolves to when she meets Aang, with just as much trust in an idea as in what ends up being the real thing.

Think about their relationship when Aang goes into the Avatar State, embodying his most divine form. How Katara is able to speak with and approach him, and how he can hear her and respond to her while in that state, honing all his past lives. Think about when Aang deals the heavy attack at Fong's base that would continue to haunt Aang for so long afterwards, which showcases how out of control he is here, yet his blow from all Avatars completely and deliberately avoids Katara while targeting everyone remotely near her. Think about how Katara is so unafraid of a raging demigod, even when the person underneath hasn't been acting like himself lately, that she doesn't flinch at the output of his anger and just goes to him as everyone else runs. Think about that visual where she grabs onto his arms and pulls him from the air that only he can bend to the ground she's tied to and into her arms. Think about how she always tries to catch him when he falls, because she is adamant about being his cushion to the earth.

Think about how Aang is the reason Katara gets to touch the heavens. Think about how he takes her on an epic journey across the world so she can learn waterbending and make the difference she's always wanted. How being with him, the one person with a divinely granted duty to the world and who will always choose her, puts her right on the foreground for making that difference. Think about how they can still waterbend together even if Katara can't airbend -- no one can besides Aang. Think about their push and pull of the water and how it highlights their equal footing, and that although, as the demigod he is, Aang can master all the elements, Katara is the mortal who teaches him mastery in the one they share between them.

I don't know, to me it's all so cool and awe-inspiring. Obviously the most important part of Kataang's relationship is how their personalities play off each other and how they treat each other, but in terms of this kind of grander depiction, I think of it more like Oma and Shu. We don’t know the details of how Oma and Shu acted towards each other, yet we hear the story about the power of their love and take inspiration from it.

So yes, I unfortunately don’t see this pronounced demigod/mortal iteration of Kataang very often in fan works, but it makes for a pretty dang fascinating legend to contemplate anyhow.

#kataang #kataangtag #aang #katara #atla #avatar the last airbender

91 notes · View notes

abluescarfonwaston · 4 years ago

Note

I agree so much about your tags re: good adaptations! I've read (the first four or five) Witcher books and I've gone into the show saying "I really hope they get rid of X, Y and Z" because just... no. Beat for beat adaptations are 1) very hard to get right and 2) run the risk of being not as relevant or necessary as the source material - or just. Missing the point entirely.

Yeah! Beat by beat adaptations are Brutal! Especially since the Mode of delivery is changing! We don’t need Geralt to monologue for 3 pages because we can See that he’s distressed or annoyed or whatever! We can SEE that he feels despite what people say. Also each major adaptation was almost a decade apart! (Books- 90′s, Polish show - 2001, Games -2007,2011,2015, and Netflix -2020)

The audience, the stories you tell, the themes all change in that amount of time! I think it’s interesting to see what each iteration decided was Important and worth keeping.

Each adaptation has it’s merit and its weaknesses! Each one plays up different aspects of the story!

I love that Netflix has dedicated to the Women that Actually shape this story cause Geralt sure as hell isn’t in control! I love that The Hexer focused on Jaskier and Geralt’s friendship and how love and support and the desire to do right by the ones we love is one of the most powerful forces in the world. I love that the game forces you to make tough decisions that don’t necessarily have Right Answers. That it makes the player feel a fraction of how Hard it is for Geralt who so often plays Judge, Jury and Executioner.

The point of adaptations to me isn’t to capture every line or aspect. Hell I’m happy they don’t capture the characters perfectly either! (Ugh Book Dandelion stop ogling every lady you see. Also Geralt stop also doing that.) Because even if they don’t have some aspect that I loved in another iteration they all still have that base connection to who they were at the start. Mutated by time and all the versions that have come before.

I love each adaptation of this story more than I like the original stories honestly. I like some of the adaptations more than others (The Themes of Hexer really hit me even though it’s not Nearly as well done as Netflix) And each one is untrue to the source material in different ways and each one is lovely.

It’s fanfiction that inspires fanfiction. I think it’s all lovely.

151 notes · View notes

bearholdingashark · 3 years ago

Text

Dear Chocolate Box Creator 2022

Hi! Thank you for creating something for me! I’m excited to see what you create! :D

General info

I adore tropes, the more ridiculous the better, and really what I love about ridiculous tropes is how it gives the creator an opportunity to explore the characters and their dynamics and motivations. Fun plots are great, but the characters and what the plot reveals about them is what I really love.

I also really love AUs (especially modern/historical AUs) or crossover fusions, and love how much changes and how much doesn’t. But straight up canon stuff is really good too. Really, character focused stuff is what I love most. I do also think canon divergence AUs can be really great, so feel free to play around with canon as well.

Please no smut. Romance is great, but nothing more than kissing/fade to black for the physical stuff.

While I’m a big fan of romantic ships, I also love relationships in general, romantic or not. Just characters being there for each other is great. I love fluff, but more serious/angsty/dramatic stuff is just as good too. :D And unless specifically stated otherwise, I have no problem with characters other than I requested in the story, but I want the requested characters to be a main focus.

Aside from the no smut request, my other DNWs (also listed on my sign up) are:

explicit gore

violence and injury are fine, but nothing super graphic, generally I would say canon typical violence/gore or less is a good way to go

permanent character death of requested characters

angst without a happy (or at least hopeful) ending

I do tend to like fluffier stuff, but angst is great too, as long as there’s some hope or happiness there by the end.

I hope this helps! I’m including my general prompts below, but feel free to go where the inspiration takes you. Happy creating! :D (Length of prompts is not an indication of my feelings for a fandom. I steal prompts from my previous letters because I’m lazy and those tend to be shorter than newer prompts as I get better at these letters. :D)

Request 1

Fandom: Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith

Relationships: Meliara Astiar/Vidanric Renselaeus

Prompts: I would love to see something after the end of the story where they’re merging their lives together while also focusing on fixing all the damage done in the kingdom. It would also be cool to see pieces of the story from Vidanric’s POV. But I’m just excited to read whatever you write. :D

Request 2

Fandom: The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Orczy

Relationships: Marguerite Blakeney/Percy Blakeney

Prompts: I would love anything where Marguerite is helping Percy and the League with their stuff and being all around awesome, but domestic, peaceful fluff is good too. I just love them being partners, whether in their marriage or in other aspects. I also love stories where they’re in public post reveal and he has his mask on, and she’s poking fun at him like she used to, but since they’re both in on it, it’s different (if that’s vague enough to work :D) I haven’t read many full on AUs (not just canon divergence) for this ship, but that could be really interesting too.

Request 3

Fandom: DC Extended Universe

Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane

Prompts: I love this ship so much, and especially this version of them. I love how much trust and respect they have for each other from the word go. This version of them is a little quieter and more serious than other iterations and I’m happy with keeping a similar tone to Man of Steel/Batman V Superman, but lighter fare would be great too. We see Clark and Lois investigating stories separately as reporters, but not really together as a team, whether for the Planet or the League or both, and I’d love to see that. I would also love to see them dealing with the aftermath of Justice League and how they come back together after being apart for so long. I have seen all the current movies (although I’m less familiar with 2017 Justice League as it wasn’t my favorite), and am happy to see other characters show up as well if you would like.

Request 4

Fandom: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)

Relationships: Marguerite Blakeney/Percy Blakeney

Prompt: I would love anything where Marguerite is helping Percy and the League with their stuff and being all around awesome, but domestic, peaceful fluff is good too. I just love them being partners, whether in their marriage or in other aspects. I also love stories where they’re in public post reveal and he has his mask on, and she’s poking fun at him like she used to, but since they’re both in on it, it’s different (if that’s vague enough to work :D) I haven’t read many full on AUs (not just canon divergence) for this ship, but that could be really interesting too. I have read the book, if you want to include details from that, but of course, that is not necessary.

Request 5

Fandom: Knives Out

Relationships: Benoit Blanc/Marta Cabrera

Prompts: If you look at my posted stories, you know I’m a fan of Marta/Benoit. It kind of snuck up on me, and I was obsessed in 2020/early 2021. There’s just something about them that works so well. I love AUs where Harlan lives or the murder attempt never happened and the three of them met some other way. I also like anything post movie where they work through the aftermath of the movie together. I love Marta and Harlan’s dynamic and would love something exploring their friendship. I love Marta/Benoit being partners, romantically, but also professionally if you want to go that direction. I don’t mind having the Thrombey’s involved, but don’t want them to be the focus. (This goes especially for Ransom. I really don’t want any hint of Marta/Ransom.) I do love both Lieutenant Elliott and Trooper Wagner if you go the more case fic route. I have no problem with vomiting if you want to include Marta’s “condition”, although I would request avoiding any really graphic description of vomit/vomiting.

Request 6

Fandom: A Discovery of Witches

Relationships: Diana Bishop/Matthew Clairmont

Prompts: This is for the tv show, but I have read all the books, so if you want to bring in book stuff, I’d love that too. I’m currently caught up on the show, and will be watching the 3rd season when it airs on 1/8. I would love to see more scenes of them at Sarah and Em’s or learning about each other at Sept-Tours. I would love to see things following the end of the series (show or books) with their family and what they might be doing.

Request 7

Fandom: Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane

Prompts: I love anything where Lois and Clark are working together as a team at the Planet or elsewhere, especially with the great banter they can get going, or anything adorable or fluffy. I also love them fighting Tempus, because he’s such a ham. My favorite version of their relationship is post reveal/marriage, but earlier versions of their relationship are great too.

Request 8

Fandom: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries

Relationships: Jack Robinson/Phryne Fisher

Prompts: One of my favorite things about this show is the found family aspect, so even with Phryne/Jack as the focus, I would love to have the other characters in it as well if you want. I love Phryne/Jack’s chemistry and how they are partners and support each other, even when seemingly at odds. I would love something to do with a case, or Phryne being her glorious self and dragging (but really, he’d follow her anywhere) Jack along with her schemes. I have seen Crypt of Tears and I would love to see something set after that where they are figuring out what a relationship between them looks like.

Request 9

Fandom: Shadow and Bone

Relationships: Alina Starkov/Aleksander Morozova, Aleksander Morozova/Alexei/Alina Starkov, Alina Starkov/Luda/Aleksander Morozova, Mal Oretsev/Aleksander Morozova, Jesper Fehey/Mal Oretsev

Prompts: I didn’t request the following pairings because I didn’t want to match on only them, but I like these ships and would be very happy with them being side ships if you want! (Fedyor/Ivan, Genya/David, Nina/Matthias, Kaz/Inej)

I haven’t read the books although I know the broad strokes.

I’m listing the prompts by relationship:

Alina Starkov/Aleksander Morozova

I would like the Darkling to have a redemption arc. This can be handwaved in the past, where you skip to the cute established relationship stuff, but I’d rather have him redeem himself than just handwaving what he’s done. The one exception to this is Dark (or at least morally gray) Darklina Power Couple. I love fluff and happiness, but also this would be really fun.

I love soft!Aleksander either canonverse or a more modern setting. I love them being partners, whether ruling Ravka together or fighting for grisha rights or just having a sweet moment together.

Aleksander Morozova/Alexei/Alina Starkov

Alexei deserved better and this is a ship I would love to see more of! I love the idea of Alexei not leaving the skiff and surviving if you decide to go with canonverse and as much as I love Darklina (and I love them A LOT), Aleksander and Alina are often not the ones holding the braincell so I can see a third person balancing that out.

Alina Starkov/Luda/Aleksander Morozova

Similarly to the braincell comment above, I really think Luda could stop Alina and/or Aleksander from making some maybe not so great decisions. I love how soft Aleksander is in the flashback with Luda. I think it would be fun if Luda survived and somehow was as long lived as Aleksander, so that when Alina is discovered, Luda and Aleksander both take an interest in her. I would also love a story where Alina either time traveled back to before the fold or was born then, or something modern could be fun too!

Mal Oretsev/Aleksander Morozova

I blame Ben Barnes and Archie Renaux’s chemistry for this one. I love the enemies to lovers potential here. I like the idea of Alina dating herself after everything’s resolved which could leave Mal and Aleksander to gradually change how they feel about each other as they’ve had to work together (I would love this to be post redemption arc (especially if it’s Zuko-esque) for Aleksander). I love the idea of Alina being maybe a little surprised at first but supportive of the two.

Jesper Fehey/Mal Oretsev

Someone made a comment somewhere about how different things would be if Jesper slept with Mal instead of Dima and I love that prompt so much. In general, I think they would be such a fun couple, especially since they’re both prone to being rash and impulsive, although not for the same reasons. I would also love Milo to make an appearance. :D

#dear creator letter #chocolate box exchange

4 notes · View notes

seafleece · 5 years ago

Note

Hey, random question, but what do you think are the M9's love languages?

oh, anon, you absolutely did not sign up for this and i am so sorry, but here we are. i had to look up the five types and keep them in the google doc to remind myself what they were, but uhh here’s almost 4000 words of character analysis and discussion of debatable quality

jester:

my initial thought was quality time— an obvious and painful one, as it’s the one her mother wasn’t able to provide. i think the sleeper, though, for jester, is acts of service.

with beau, this especially shows up in reference to healing— jester having a more healing-focused cleric around is a big relief, especially for someone so close to warlock status that she almost was one, but very notably, she very much wants to heal beau. she specifically apologizes for not doing so in the chantry, and attributes that to beau’s absence rather than anything else; more generally, there’s a huge amount of distress on jester’s part when beau is hurt, and that she wants to be the one to heal beau (notably, with the gorgon, she RAN to beau, was immediately upset both times beau started getting petrified, and even dissuaded caduceus or caleb from using their turn to heal beau so she could instead, making sure to be Right There even while nott was applying the oil). she also seems to really value the instances when beau does things for her, especially since there are specific acts that beau reserves for jester (engaging with religion in any capacity, wearing a dress for jester and more broadly allowing jester to pick her clothes, a concept which beau probably has an explicitly negative association with from her mother).

it’s also muddled jester up the worst when it comes to relationships she understands less— the “kiss” with fjord in the temple that was a vehicle for giving jester air, most specifically, comes to mind— and she’s really come to terms with this by realizing that romantic feelings weren’t really what he was expressing, and that it wasn’t necessarily what she was feeling, either. it’s noticeable in how she describes her relationship with the traveler— she feels like her service to him is doing little things for him, and asks, when she’s unsure, when the traveler failed to act on her behalf when they were kidnapped, if she did something wrong to make him angry, and literally desecrates a temple to make up for it as soon as they’re back in town.

and the thing is, quality time isn’t really what was lacking in her relationship with marion— marion probably did have time to spend with jester for at least a little while every day. the problem is that marion simply couldn’t provide jester with things that she needed: access to the outside world and companionship. she had to learn from near-scratch how to navigate relationships of varying intensities, and it shows with her initial zeroing in on fjord as an iteration of the dashing sailor her momma told her about, as well as her more slow-burn come to trust and really invest in and love beau, because she’s never had a relationship like that with a girl, and maybe didn’t even know it was something she could have, or something she could want.

jester’s her proudest when she’s doing things for other people, even if they maybe wouldn’t love her doing it if they knew— threatening beau’s dad because she hates that he hurt her, hearing that beau was thinking about leaving and marching in to modify memory a hag, writing astrid a letter because caleb seems like he liked her, asking essek if he likes caleb because caleb seems to like essek, painting yasha’s room in the xhorhaus, finding outfits for everyone. she struggles with how to rein in showing it and thinking first about the potential consequences, and is unsure how to navigate what it means when she’s shown it in return, but it’s messy and heartfelt and sincere. with her mom, she really clearly appreciates when her mom does do things for her— providing a home for her friend’s family, allowing the m9 to stay in the chateau, coming to the party with them despite her agoraphobia. i’m sort of banking on a scene where jester talks to her about it, apologizes for leaving, and reaffirms that it means a lot to her that marion is stepping out of her comfort zone for her.

beau:

words of affirmation. this is NO DOUBT something her parents didn’t give her, maybe ever. this is baked into her relationship with them— she knew that her father wanted a boy, he probably Told her this, and she wasn’t one. it’s something she could literally never be, an aspect she would be forever resented for, that would tinge everything her father ever said to her. her mother also probably didn’t give her much if any affirmation, as she was trying to police and fix beau’s behavior to avoid thoreau’s anger for both of them, and never properly elaborated to beau that her intention was to keep beau from being punished (not that it would have made it okay, for the record). it’s also why her conversation with her parents in 92 immediately threw her off, because for once they actually told her she’d impressed them, that she’d done good, and it’s rough as hell to see that.

unfortunately, it’s also the thing she’s least likely to get from everyone else unless she’s at her worst, because almost everyone else, including fanon, seems to have profoundly absorbed this idea that beau is rude and abrasive and sarcastic and she’s just. not. she might have been at the start, but she’s always been especially soft with jester, she and caleb are very mutually assured about the sort of affection they show each other, she’s always been either openly flirting with or just sort of tenderly awkward with and trying around yasha, she and caduceus have a fun and pretty peaceful dynamic i always love to see, and we know caduceus, for at least a while, considered beau his favorite.

then, there’s the characters she’s known for butting heads with the most: fjord, with whom she’s developing a sibling dynamic to rival hers with caleb and really obviously is ride or die for; nott, who used to openly insult beau and just about everyone else, and who is now 1/3 of the chaos crew beau is also in; and molly, whose death was a HUGE turning point for beau in terms of a) taking stock of her morals and how she intended to act on them and b) expressing love for someone so you know they know it, before it’s too late.

jester seems to see this the most, no surprise there, and dairon also sees a lot of potential in beau not because she’s strong or fast (she’s from a martially focused monastery), but because she’s smart. dairon talks about and to beau very affectionately compared to other mentor/guardian figures she’s had, and i think it means a lot to her coming from both jester and dairon. she certainly returns the favor for both of them.

fjord:

this one isn’t immediately apparent, so i’m gonna start by talking about the nature of his relationship with caduceus (and see where it gets me).

okay, i lied, i’m starting with molly.

fjord and molly had a thing. it’s clear in retrospect, and i’ve talked about it, but i think it has to do with where fjord was in his quest to reinvent himself. molly was someone who, for all intents and purposes, had flawlessly become a new person— not necessarily because of a concerted effort to change who lucien was, but a different person nonetheless. fjord wanted desperately to believe that that was attainable for him, and thus saw a lot in investing in molly. molly was a silent affirmation that fjord could really pull this off, could really reinvent himself and be fine.

also, molly was hot. enough said.

caduceus, on the other hand, offered something different. caduceus came along right before fjord’s willingness to help uk’otoa was first tested— fjord rose to the occasion, but the whole time there was someone new along, someone whose faith in his deity seemed assured. assured, that’s something fjord never had.

afterward, he got to see what it meant to believe in a god like that, and he started to want in. caduceus seems like a very honest person— though really, it’s just because m9 doesn’t know the right questions to ask him— and his god is the god of the sea, too, right? fjord really lost a rock in molly the way i don’t think a lot of people realize, and it’s why his swallowing the summer’s dance felt so meaningful. he was keeping a part of molly with him, and i wonder if he misses that part of his falchion. after he lost his inspiration for recreation, he started to put stock into authenticity as the answer, and caduceus as the vehicle. and the wildmother was very accepting, too, took him in like a lost sheep.

where fjord is now, i think he values the covenant (which i realize i actually define later, so if i forget to reorganize these before i post, then oops) in a similar way to caleb. more specifically, though, he decidedly the word owe in talking to beau about the group’s relationship, which, among other things, speaks to acts of service. fjord has work to do to earn his place as a paladin of the wildmother (and a good amount of work to do indeed, if getting trounced by darrow was any indication), and he feels the need to repay caduceus for his help, companionship, and guidance. fjord also gets hurt and KO’d. a lot. i think he takes it on the chin as his role in the group— that’s his job, and he has faith in caduceus and jester to keep him up. they’re not done yet, they haven’t finished serving one another, so beau leaving is of considerable offense (near-mutinous, to be specific).

caleb:

words MEAN SHIT to caleb, you can tell in the way he talks. everyone remembers the times he’s told nott he loves her, he responds best to beau because i think he really loves the way she talks, he shows his feelings in really passionate speeches to nott, to beauregard, and most recently to essek. there’s absolutely a reason why so many goddamn quotes from campaign 2 are attributed to this dude, and it’s because he monologues like a fucking champ. their group is named after his accent.

as for receiving love, though, i think it’s a little different. we know from talks that he’s placed a lot of value on the things jester has done for him, and moreover to be herself as someone who gives recklessly, but as far as we know he doesn’t intend to do anything with it. with nott, i’m tempted to create a new category that’s something like a covenant? he and nott agreed to travel together and help each other under the worst conditions, and they’ve stuck to this fastidiously. this covenant, this commitment to the group, is something he extends to everyone— he is not willing to walk away from this, and hasn’t been for a long time, he believes in all of them, truly, what they can do— and cherishes the fact that everyone has kept this, except for two very specific moments. beau, when she introduced the threat of her leaving the party, and yasha, when she was taken over by obann. for beau, he actually seemed fairly quiet compared to fjord, and i’m not sure yet on why this is, other that i think he trusted fjord and jester to talk her down. as for yasha, he seems to be really invested in commiserating with yasha as two haunted ones (literally), and sees her as someone who also really values the group but sees her ability to belong as tarnished by what she’s done.

for the purposes of this, i’m gonna refer to it as that, as a covenant (yes i’m a failed church kid, what of it) and as separate from acts of service, because it’s more akin to the promise of one major, permanent act of service to each other. i wonder if it’s this steadfastness in that idea that partially led caduceus to continue and develop the idea of his role, because caleb and the rest of team cockroach, as i call them, were gonna keep that covenant if it killed them, and caduceus could keep them from getting killed, at the very least, if he entered into it.

but anyway, that covenant now extends to essek, if he decides to take it. and if he does, that will mean something infinite to caleb, i think.

caduceus: acts of service.

okay. i wanna talk about caduceus and danger.

caduceus doesn’t heal himself. we know this. he heals everyone else, and not himself.

i’ve been checking critrole stats on this, and if i’m reading correctly, he has taken the most damage (157) in one episode than anyone else. and it’s not a small margin. the closest is yasha (129) and i’m almost certain that’s from the episode where she decided to literally get attacked until she passed out. i was trying to guess which episode this was from, and then it hit me: probably the episode where he fucking died, right? because it really just never came up again.

caduceus has: started to drown at least 3 times in his first month on the job, been killed by nott, been beaten near to death when yasha was charmed, and been very quietly and very badly stabbed in the back by a disappearing assassin. he’s also died at home, as a family tradition.

there’s a million better meta posts about caduceus’s relationship with death, or even about him not healing himself, but I just want to set it as potential precedent for the idea that caduceus, to some degree, sees value in himself as someone who doesn’t mind dying in a fight. for one thing, it’s been a temporary thing almost from day one with m9, as jester immediately invested in diamonds when they got back to town. it’s not his first rodeo, either, and his family has normalized death to an, and i say this more because of how it’s affected him rather than because i dislike the idea of normalizing death, an upsetting degree.

giving healing, that’s his job, but eliminating himself as someone who needs help or healing, well, that’s healing in a way, too, right? if he doesn’t get healed, it’s more for everyone else. worst comes to worst, jester can heal him if need be. or, y’know. not heal him.

caduceus’s relationship with m9 has noticeable transaction rhetoric, and i wonder where that really fits in with his family. obviously, his role in the family was implied as the one who stayed behind, and his parents definitely imparted a need for him to be stable, a role he’s continued to fill for m9 to his quiet detriment but i think he’s also jumped on the opportunity to finally be the older one, the wiser one, of the group. there’s a power caduceus has over the group that’s really understated— they just sort of listen to him, even if what he’s saying doesn’t actually make sense, because he started with nott, beau, and caleb as a wise savior, a protector, and upon finding the others, it’s not like jester, fjord, or yasha were filling that role. molly certainly wasn’t either— it’s funny, how in retrospect caduceus seems inevitable to the group because they really didn’t have anyone like him. the closest thing to a voice of reason they had was fjord and caleb, and early on, caleb was not in great standing because of his and nott’s perceived standoffishness, and fjord threw up ocean water, so like, what’s up with that, right?

at the very least, he definitely believes he owes the mighty nein something, a role to fill, a job to perform. a service to act out, if you will. his job is to heal, and he does less healing if he heals himself. he seems to view him taking a hit as a win, in a way— it’s a hit that someone else doesn’t take.

i have a lot of hope that reconnecting with his family and seeing how he’s grown while they haven’t allows him to revisit his notions of what he needs to be, and i have a lot of hope that moving forward, he’ll be able to invest more in the other motif he’s developed, which is gift-giving: fjord, with the star razor; his sisters, with the hat (which seems small but like. boy’s had it for a while) and the flute; and, most recently, in helping jester pick out everyone’s outfits. it allows him to feel like he’s giving something to the people he cares about without it hurting him.

yasha:

truly everything. it’s hard to get a read because yasha really just soaks in all the love m9 wants to give her. if i had to guess further, i’d say we should look at her and molly’s relationship, because molly’s the only character we’ve seen her unabashedly love, and the thing that stood out most to me was physical touch. that echoes really depressingly with her “fight” in 89— she got something out of being that close to someone, even if it felt like reparation or atonement, and i think the only person in m9 who’s been really unafraid to touch yasha is jester.

i’ll admit i have a soft spot for yashter, but, like, it’s there, right? the obvious trust, the faith jester has in yasha and the fear and turmoil when that was tested? i remember really clearly jester giving yasha a piggyback ride in zadash in an early ep, and like— when’s the last time someone was strong enough to do that? when’s the last time someone wanted to do that for yasha? everyone’s mistrusted yasha to some degree for the entire run of the campaign, and, like, how much did her hopes to get close to everyone else just evaporate after the king’s cage? does she really even believe she can have it again? she was so close— jester trusted her fully, she and beau were in a comfortable mutual place with flirting, she’d talked to caduceus and jester about zuala, she even felt comfortable picking up nott and throwing her around (which, by the way, i love their dynamic).

she seems to have leaned more into the protective, threatening stance since they got her back, which, if she’s comfortable with it, is just fine— maybe she’s shifting more towards acts of service, but i just hope it isn’t her just accepting the idea that everyone will always be afraid of her, that she won’t be close like that again. because molly wasn’t afraid of her. jester wasn’t, and i don’t think she is, now— but fjord showed a lot of distrust, and i think yasha’s scared of the degree to which she hurt beau and how to even broach that discussion, and she attacked them, how could they ever forgive her or trust she wouldn’t do it again?

(i wish i had a happier end to this, so i’ll just say that she did seem comfortable last ep, and that she may or may not have interest in getting a tattoo from jester? interesting stuff.)

veth:

on a person to person level, veth definitely feels she and caleb are acting on the promise they’ve made to help each other— now she’s reached it, things are a bit more nebulous, but it’s obvious she wants to stick around for him. i’ll admit, her words to everyone in 97 were a bit surprising to me— she hasn’t really been good at conveying emotion like that before unless she’s desperate or really upset, and i imagine it was something she started planning in her head to say to everyone as soon as the first ritual didn’t work. that might be, i think, what she felt as relief, just not being able to articulate what she wanted to say to everyone.

as for her family, veth believes she owes her best self to yeza and luc— she kept herself from them not because she couldn’t have gone back, but because she felt like someone else, like someone worse, and the exaggerated tendencies from her previous life only reinforced this— she didn’t believe she deserved to be around them, before now. before caleb, i don’t know if she had any hope for returning to them at all, and he changed that entirely.

i’m also very interested in why veth is able to reconcile her marriage with yeza as veth with her loving caleb as nott, and if she sort of considers herself as two different people. we’ve seen so little of what she feels comfortable expecting from other people— for now, i’d say acts of service seems appropriate? but maybe something closer to just. fulfilling promises.

bonus: for the other two who are considered part of the mighty nein

kiri:

words of affirmation. i’m a HUGE kenku stan, anyone who’s played d&d with me knows this, and i’m especially fascinated with the relationship with words when you can only speak the words you hear/remember. on the most basic level, if you speak to kiri, you are giving her a gift, you’re giving her the ability to speak, too. and if those words are affirming, then she can say them back! and you’re giving them to her, in a sense, to use as she pleases and repeat them to herself, even, and i just love that image— her, to herself, saying “i love you” in other people’s voices. i’m ride or die for kenkus, and kiri started it.

essek:

okay, so almost everyone in the m9 could be read as needing words of affirmation, because it’s so clear that they need more love and knowledge of love than they’ve received, and have found it in each other. essek has quite literally found it in m9 for the first time. he absolutely needs all of these, like, ASAP, but i think it’s what everyone says to him that get him the most. caleb’s speech, obviously, but it’s also them casually referring to him as their friend, it’s jester’s messages, even if he’s busy. it’s important to say, though, that i think it’s a specific type of affirmation: things that have nothing to do with his magic ability (and moreover, any of these gifts that have nothing to do with it). essek’s built his entire life on the idea that he is someone incredibly powerful and smart for his age— m9 are probably the first people to make him feel like he was more than that, because they want to know about the rest of him, and in becoming friends with them, he’s confronting the fact that he doesn’t really believe there is a rest of him. they want to know a part of himself that he at best has neglected and has been neglected by others, and at worst that he believes does not exist. when they talk about him as a friend, it adds to who he can be. he’s seeing, for the first time, that he can exist as someone else than his abilities and his ambition.

i initially started off with words of affirmation and he clearly needs that, but i think he really just needs all of these in a very specific way: he needs to feel love that is not based in merit, that pertains to who he actually is in this life rather than what he can become in the next, that values the life he’s living right now, because he’s not getting that from the dynasty. it seems like a low bar, maybe, to people who only have the one life, as far as we know, but his arc this campaign shows that it really, really isn’t.

372 notes · View notes

hilltopsunset · 4 years ago

Text

4 Ways to Breathe New Life into the Pokémon Franchise

I love the Pokémon franchise. It’s because I love it that I truly want new installments of the game to feel meaningful, to make an impact, and to provide players with something new, different, and worth coming back for without relying on complexities that could turn away new players.

As I will talk about in a later blog post, Game Freak seems afraid to stretch Pokémon’s creative muscles any further; meaningful innovation has been petering out since the end of Generation IV in lieu of minigames like Pokémon Contests and Super Training alongside inconsequential time sinks like Secret Bases and Poké Pelago. While I do enjoy the inclusion of things to do outside the main storyline, these additional events and sidequests should not be the only significant additions to new generations of main-series Pokémon games.

The main attractions of recent generations have provided slight twists to gameplay with the addition of mega evolution and Z-moves, but these changes don’t fundamentally change or challenge the way players experience the game on a moment-to-moment basis. And despite the graphical and processing power of recent gaming devices, and even the long-awaited shift of the franchise to a main console, we are still getting the same low-effort and outdated battle animations we’ve been seeing since X and Y. We are continually denied a more genuine battle experience with Pokémon physically interacting with each other through animations that more appropriately suit each Pokémon’s unique identity.

So what can be done? Here’s a short but detailed list of 4 things I would like to see in a new Pokémon game, in no particular order of importance.

1. Let the Player Character Be an Active Part of the Story

When has the player character ever been a consequential part of a Pokémon game? They never speak; they never have any personality whatsoever. They never experience any growth, regardless of NPC’s trying desperately to iterate how much the trainer has grown over the course of their journey. Certainly the Pokémon carried by the player character have some impact on the story, but the trainer?

Let them speak! Let the player character actually interact with NPCs in meaningful ways rather than just listening at all times. Give the trainer a personality of some sort. Don’t just slap a never-changing pleasant face onto the model regardless of tense, frightening, or sinister scenarios (I’m looking at you, Sun and Moon).

Giving the player character a more active role in the story provides intrigue—as a player, it doesn’t feel compelling being pulled from one place to another; it’s not interesting when the only thing pushing me forward is NPCs telling me I need to get the gym badges, or stop Team Rocket. It would be much more interesting if the Player Character had some imperative reason to pursue these endeavors, rather than get involved simply because “it’s the right thing to do” or, worse, “it’s the ONLY thing to do.” I want to watch the character I’m controlling grow as a person and make choices that have positive or negative consequences on people they care about and the places they visit, rather than be a perpetual observer of events with no real stake in the game.

2. Trainer Levels

Speaking of the player character, create a leveling system for them. There are so many possibilities for a system where the trainer more actively impacts gameplay. For instance, there could be a class system and each class can have unique skill trees that provide access to passive and/or active abilities that improve how the trainer interacts with the world throughout the game. It could be required to choose your path at the beginning of the game, or perhaps you can access them all throughout the game, but can only have one active at a time.

Here’s a list of example possibilities:

Explorer: The explorer class specializes in travel, as well as tracking and catching new Pokémon—this tree can be subdivided into those paths: Travel, Tracking, and Catching. This tree provides skills that assist them in accessing otherwise inaccessible locations, increasing encounter rates with rare Pokémon, and specializing in different types of Poké balls to improve catch chances. Experience for this class is gained through catching Pokémon, encountering rare Pokémon, and exploring (walking in new places, finding treasure, accessing hidden areas, etc.).

Combatant: The combatant class excels at offensive battle prowess through its three branches: Type Affinity, Commands, and Reputation. This tree allows a trainer to specialize in certain Pokémon types (up to 2) to improve their STAB damage. Eventually, you can get a skill that provides STAB for your specialized types even for Pokémon not of those types! You gain access to in-battle shout commands that provide momentary buffs to your party, like improving damage, resisting a big attack, or improving critical hit ratio. A strong reputation will allow you to avoid battle even with trainers who have caught your eye; and in battle, an enemy Pokémon may flinch due to your intimidating presence. Experience is gained by knocking out Pokémon, winning battles, using moves of your type specialization, and issuing commands.

Breeder: The breeder focuses on developing deep relationships with their Pokémon. Skills of this class can be divided into the Breeding, Bonding, and Healing branches. Through this tree, trainers can hatch eggs more quickly, improve high IV chance from newborn Pokémon, develop friendship levels more quickly, etc. Bonding provides Pokémon with beneficial defensive capabilities during battle, like providing a chance to survive an attack that would otherwise bring HP to 0, and having a strong will to resist abnormal status effects like paralysis and confusion. A Breeder’s knowledge of caretaking allows for healing outside of battle, and can even teach Pokémon how to slowly recover in-battle. Experience is gained through hatching eggs, developing friendships with your Pokémon (through feeding/petting, etc.), participating in Contests/minigames, and having Pokémon in your party with whom you have developed a close relationship.

The establishment of a class system like this, where experience is gained through different means relevant to each class, incentivizes players to participate in those aspects of the game, and provides extra rewards for players who already want to get involved. It makes the trainer feel like a relevant and impactful part of the team, rather than a hollow vehicle strictly used to lug the real heroes—your team of Pokémon—from battle to battle.

And for those who think the inclusion of such a mechanic would trivialize the content, I have several suggestions: first, they could easily make the game content more difficult to compensate. Second, they could mitigate the strength of these class skills during key battles like Gym Leaders, the Elite Four, the Enemy Team (Rocket, Galaxy, etc.). Third, NPCs (especially the aforementioned key NPCs) could have access to these skills as well. Remember, I’m asking for significant changes, and this would provide something new, interesting, and impactful.

3. Battle Animations

Update them. It’s that simple. Let Blastoise shoot water out of his water cannons rather than out of his face. Let Scorbunny run up to its opponent and give it a nice kick! Get rid of the old, outdated animations of a drawn foot—we now have well-rendered 3D monsters on gaming systems capable of handling the graphical processing necessary for this to happen. Give each Pokémon a more unique identity with their animations; make them feel like they’re actually in a battle with one another. It’s time.

I acknowledge that providing significant animation updates for the 800+ models is an enormous undertaking that would require a massive amount of time and manpower to make possible. To this I say: spend the time doing that rather than developing Dynamax or whatever. Spend the time on more significant animation development instead of wasting that time on another gimmick that isn’t going to significantly impact gameplay anyway.

To be honest, this point alone would be enough to convince me to buy a new Pokémon game.

4. Populate the World with Pokémon

I know that the Let’s Go series and Sword/Shield did this a little bit, and while it certainly wasn’t executed perfectly, it was fun running around and actually seeing all the Pokémon that inhabit it. Spawn rates in both games were often a bit too high, resulting in cluttered areas. Adding aggressive Pokémon would further enhance the immersive experience—being required to sneak around certain stronger Pokémon could be a really fun mechanic and provide tension; it was a bit too easy to avoid Pokémon in Let’s Go and in the Wild Area. While it was nice to get through Mt. Moon without encountering a single Zubat, imagine instead running through a section of the cave with a trail of 15 Zubats on your tail? Make me work for it a little!

Ultimately, I want to see Pokémon behaving more naturally in their habitats, and not just in sections of the world that I can’t get to. I want to run into a Caterpie hanging from a tree, or a Fearow fishing for Goldeen, or a Pikachu grooming itself. I want to interrupt Pokémon from their lives, not run into a giant gaggle of automatons circling tiny areas for no reason.

So there it is: a look at just a few things Pokémon games could include to make things more interesting and breathe new life into an aging franchise. These changes would require work, but any new game should—I would hate to see Pokémon continue the troubling trend of easy and/or insignificant content when there is so much potential to do so much with what they have.

With all that said, I do want to offer a bit of praise—Sirfetch’d and Galarian Ponyta are pretty awesome, and Galarian Weezing is perfectly ridiculous. But I ask that you keep in mind what your money is telling Game Freak when you purchase their games: it tells them that you don’t mind the severe lack of innovation and improvement. It tells them you don’t mind Scorbunny hopping in place as a giant, orange, human foot strikes its opponent. It tells them that you’re willing to fund their copy/paste animations from 6 years ago, their uninspired gameplay updates, and their ever-increasing focus on gimmicks and minigames.

As for me, I will continue holding Pokémon to a higher standard and hoping that, eventually, Blastoise will fire water from his cannons.

#pokemon #game review #game freak #hilltop sunset #suggestions

4 notes · View notes

deltaengineering · 4 years ago

Text

What remains of Fall Anime 2020

You might have noticed that I haven’t been keeping up with my season impressions, mostly (but not exclusively) because it’s really boring to come up with new ways to say “it’s isekai, which means it’s garbage for stupids”. So here’s what I ended up finishing, in ascending order of goodinosity.

Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima

Ostentatious rap battles in an insanely stupid universe are very fun. The thing is that this doesn’t want to be a good anime, it wants to sell us on these characters, and the characters are pretty terrible on account of all of them being one-word gimmicks. So, let’s give them three rounds of introductions and have them solve lame, generic crimes for 8 episodes instead of setting up the rivalries that everyone suddenly has later, when the show gets good - because it does start delivering towards the end, and becomes really all I wanted. So I can’t even say I’m disappointed, but the first half of the show is almost entirely worthless. 4/10

Assault Lily Bouquet

I don’t want to be the guy that’s all “I’m mad at this show not catering to what I want”, but I do have to say that Salt Bucket is much better at being a goofy, lighthearted yuri comedy than it is at action (though there are a few choice cuts) and at having an engaging storyline. This is again just an ad for some game or other, so it’s no surprise it has about two dozen characters too many, but it also has quite a lot of superfluous plot - so much so that I suspect it was initially planned to be twice as long. Apart from that, it’s cool and all that some Gainax old hand got to make his own Gunbuster-like, but it’s just not very good at that and all I wanted was Kaede antics and bath scenes, of which 1 per episode is clearly too few. 5/10

The King's Avatar 2

King’s Avatar got a sequel and overall I have to say, I kinda like it more than the first season even though it looks much less ambitious and even the character designs were changed towards the bland. But I honestly don’t care much about the esports aspect of this and much of S2, especially in the back half, is more about schemes and social engineering - as close to an Eve Online anime as we’re ever going to get, I guess. It’s still very chinajank (why the hell does every episode come with a redundant chibi summary of itself, etc), and while I can’t call that “good” it does remind me of a time when I wasn’t filled with useless knowledge of anime tropes and was just enjoying the weirdness. Also, Ye God’s antics is as close to “looking for anime with OP MC” as I’m comfortable with getting. 6/10

Heaven Official's Blessing

Now how about some Chinimation that isn’t very janky? I only became aware of Heaven Official’s Blessing when it suddenly rocketed to the top of the MAL charts, so I gave it a looksie and oh boy. The first few episodes of this show are flat out gorgeous, quite funny and very very gay. So I was ready to agree with MAL for once, except it then launches into an arc that mostly consists of our dudes sitting in a dark pit telling each other stories that aren’t very interesting and seem barely related to the setup. Yeah, the back half of this just isn’t very good at all. And the subs are hot garbage. Still, the beginning is so impressive that I would recommend this show despite the middling rating it’s about to get. 6/10

Ochikobore Fruit Tart

You know the problem that these 5girls4koma stories have, where one of the characters is an annoying pervert, yeah? Well, in Fruit Tart every character is that character, and they’re rather cultured as well. Yes, it’s often of questionable taste and it has a terminal case of 4koma storytelling but dammit if I didn’t enjoy it. It certainly helps that this show’s greatest asset by far is Broko and it seems to be aware of this, because there’s a lot of Broko material. It would have probably have gotten a 6 but the last episode is just so... maximum Fruit Tart. I’m down for some trash if it’s as well made as this, and I do like my kiraralikes spicy, so thumbs up over here. YMM definitely V on this one. 7/10

Majo no Tabitabi

Speaking of things that are hard to recommend despite me liking them a lot, Elaina here challenges the very notion of what a TV show even is supposed to be. I assume most people tune in every week expecting to get something roughly similar. Not so with this one, you could get everything from slice of life antics to Higurashi-style gore, or reasonably deep character study to pervert comedy. I would say that the only unifying thread is the presence of Elaina, who is a very fun character, but there’s an episode she’s not in, so there you go. But I’m a connoisseur of the weird and I also have to say that I enjoyed every episode in its own way. Also, each episode stays remarkably consistent by itself, and in the end it wraps it all up with a sort of neat “life is like a box of chocolates” thematic bow, which isn’t earthshatteringly profound but hey, it’s there. Just don’t go in with expectations, especially not expectations based on the first episode. 7/10

Love Live! Nijigasaki

It’s Love Live. Good old reliable Love Live. Really not much to say about this one, any discussion of what makes this different from previous iterations is going to end up in minutiae only people who already watched this could possibly care about. I do have to say that while the musical numbers are as good as Sunshine’s were towards the end and there’s also a lot more of them, “looking budget deficient outside the CG” is the one thing I didn’t expect from something that’s ostensibly a Sunrise premium product. So boo on that one, apart from that it’s idols (an anagram of solid). 7/10

Garupa Pico Oomori

The chibi SD shorts based off Bang Dream are still better than the main show. Even if S3 was actually quite good, this is just the best thing you can do with 30+ characters that aren’t that deep. Garupa Pico specializes in absurd humor setpieces that at points is better at being Pop Team Epic than Pop Team Epic itself was. Take that, memelords. 7/10

Fire Force S2

Fire Force is just weird, man, and it’s sort of great. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a property of this magnitude show this much of the ol idgaf spirit. How about an episode where the A plot is the most evenhanded exploration of religion i’ve seen in anime, and the B plot is about blowing up a tryhard edgelord by exposing him to panties? How about a subplot where Batman and Thor infiltrate the vatican to kill the pope, only for that to lead into a gay rape backstory, only for that to be resolved by dank weed and dismemberment? It really is quite a thing, as they say. Now, Fire Force certainly delivers hard at points, but it’s also very scattershot, even if S2 is somewhat more consistent than S1. The weakest parts are unsurprisingly still the ones where it’s remembering its fighting shounen template, and that’s not only because I don’t like that, it’s also because it’s particularly and consistently bad at scheduling these huge, simultaneous multifight setpieces it often crescendoes with. But hey, at least these tend to look super cool. In short, Fire Force is a land of contrasts and still the only fighting shounen I give a damn about. 7/10

IDOLiSH7 Second Beat

Did you know that I think Idolshi7 is the best one of all of these huge-ass commercial idol franchises? Yeah, I think it’s better than Love Live, and as of Fall 2020 also the better looking one because Troyca still delivers where Sunrise apparently can’t. I guess still don’t like the music much, thankfully there isn’t a lot of that. It also still specializes in gigantic drama, and to its credit S2 is now much better at either getting to the point or at least making it silly and fun. You show that door who’s boss, Sou. Still fantastic Tsumugis all over the place as well, in fact I think I like all the characters now. Even Banri gets his big moment in this season! Yeah, this stuff is pretty cool. 8/10

Adachi and Shimamura

So here’s the AOTS, and it’s the lovechild of Bloom Into You and Tsuki ga Kirei. While it definitely isn’t as good as either of these two, because it lacks the “about more than just teenagers being hyperbolic about a crush” part from Bloom and the part where it has an actual ending from TgK, it carves out its own niche with its loopy, almost stoned tone that’s full of side weirdos and yuri hyperspace. It’s also uniquely focused, with a tiny core cast and even Shimamura doesn’t really matter all that much. This is all about Adachi, and thankfully Adachi is amazing. Amazingly awkward, that is. It’s very cute. So yeah, this is a bit too lacking in substance to aspire to classic status, but it’s a great time nonetheless. 8/10

#anime #review #fall2020 #Hypnosis Mic -Division Rap Battle- Rhyme Anima #Assault Lily Bouquet #The King's Avatar #Heaven Official's Blessing #Ochikobore Fruit Tart #Majo no Tabitabi #Love Live! Nijigasaki #Garupa Pico Oomori #Fire Force S2 #IDOLiSH7 #Adachi to Shimamura

14 notes · View notes

nomadicism · 5 years ago

Note

In that one Voltron post about Keith in Voltron Force, you mentioned that "I don’t think that many western writers would ‘get’ that archetype". What do you mean by that exactly?

Hi! Great question, thank you for the Ask!

I’ll start this off by stating that when I say something like “western” or “American”, I don’t mean to conflate the two. The latter is a part of the former, and the cultural context is relevant to why I said “I don’t think that many western writers would ‘get’ that archetype.”

Not “getting it” comes down to DotU Keith’s original archetype is that of the super sentai team leader, and that’s not a thing that exists in the western popular media culture (we have something different in place of that). And, kind of like how westerners frequently misinterpret ronin and samurai, if you don’t grow up with it—both the culture that created it, and as a common story type within popular media—then you probably won’t ‘get’ it, at least not without a lot of study and work and awareness of what super sentai is about (and that’s true of anyone’s perception or experience of another culture’s media). It takes time to ‘get it’, and in some case one might not ever fully get it (and that’s okay).

The more I try to figure out super sentai—and the +40 years of popular Japanese culture around it—the more I realize that I have more to learn. Just like with super robot stories—while it’s really about selling toys and entertaining people—there’s something else to it, like the why of how its entertaining. That something else is the cultural time-and-place conditions that gave rise to super sentai and super robot in the first place. Those conditions did/do not exist in the west. Different cultures have different kinds of heroes, kind of like how Superman was borne out of the time-and-place conditions of his creators.

Super sentai team leaders (and for this, I’m including anime with super robot combining mecha team leaders that are based on the super sentai formula) are similar to pre-80s American super hero team leaders in comics, and thus some of the difficulties in writing them also happens in super hero comics too. This is how DotU Keith becomes Voltron Force Keith-with-all-the-toys, even though the story is supposed to be about the next generation of Voltron pilots or whatever (I never got the feeling that they made up their mind about that). It’s an awkward merging of two similar but different types of stories that come from different cultures. I don’t say that to imply that such a merge can’t be done, it’s just easy to do awkwardly (or worse).

What follows is some breaking that down a bit more:

VF Keith (and later iterations of Keith to a certain extent) is an example of the American tendency to de-emphasize the team-aspect of leadership, as well as the leader’s soft skills, while emphasizing solo action hero skills and lone wolf traits, and adding Marks of Specialness. I’m not sure if other western cultures have the same kind of Individuality vs Collectivism dynamic that we do in the U.S., but that’s something I see at play in how Americans write team leaders. It’s not a problem in the “Action hero has a backup team” story (and I think that type of story comes from the placement of the Individual over the Collective), but it doesn’t work well in a super sentai story where the Collective is structurally more important than the Individual, and the Leader is important b/c of his innate personality-based traits or virtues that inspire and bring together the Collective to save the day.

Technically, a super sentai leader doesn’t have to be a great leader, or the most qualified. He just has to inspire through personality and by being a virtuous paragon. It can be hard to quantify what a virtuous paragon is, but it is not the same thing as a moral paragon in the western sense, even though the virtuous paragon occupies an analogous place in a story. One could say that I’m splitting hairs there, but there is a distinction between “virtue” and “moral”.

So at first, DotU Keith had the super sentai team leader feel as he wasn’t changed too much from his counterpart in Golion. The most noticeable change to Akira’s character as Keith in 80s Voltron were that his spiritual traits were de-emphasized due to broadcasting/syndication rules at the time. Those spiritual traits are not a requirement for a super sentai team leader, but within the context of a Japanese story, they help define the leader’s soft skills and shape the kind of virtuous paragon he’s supposed to be. (that’s a tangent into some heavy cultural analysis though).

By the time we get to Voltron Force (nearly 30 years later), we run into the 90s Superman problem with DotU Keith (e.g. how do we make the boy scout relatable? plus edgy characters are en vogue). Voltron Force’s solution to that problem was to keep adding new traits/skills/marks of specialness to Keith in order to make him “more interesting” (in some cases, those traits/skills/marks of specialness were already present in other characters). The assumption is that “more interesting”, is how to get people (in this case boys aged 7-9 or 9-12) to pay attention to and relate to a character that was never meant to stand out in that way to begin with.

In the context of super sentai, of course Red Leader is the bestest Japanese Everyman and will lead his team to victory, but he doesn’t get all the toys, and he needs the team to come together to form the giant robot at the last minute. And since he doesn’t get all the toys, then that means that he doesn’t get all of the traits/skills/marks of specialness that are associated with having all the toys, nor does he get into conflict situations where resolution is completely dependent upon his ability to be the solo action hero or lone wolf with lots of toys. This is where Voltron Force goes wrong with Keith…and VLD S6-S8. (Arguably that could be S3, but a lone wolf/solo action star temporarily stepping into the moral-or-virtuous paragon’s leadership role can totally work as part of a growth arc.)

The problem here is the conflation of leadership with being “the most interesting” or being the solo action star, or that to be “the most interesting”, one needs to be edgy lone wolf. That’s literally not the point of a team-focused story, and that is not the place of a super sentai team leader.

In DotU, Keith doesn’t need to be the martial arts master brawler, that’s Hunk. Keith doesn’t need to be the tricksy-ninja, that’s Pidge (DotU de-emphasized that from Golion where Hiroshi had a ninja lineage). Keith doesn’t need to be cynical one that sees through the enemy’s tricks, that’s Lance. Keith doesn’t even need to be the heart, that’s Allura (in some cases the super sentai team leader takes on a larger heart role, but the real heart will always be the female character). Part of the super sentai team leader’s archetype is that he’s got a few things he’s great at (usually one combat skill set + driving/piloting + tactics), and he has flaws that are made up for by the rest of the team, as each member embodies the other archetypes that make up a super sentai team.

One of those flaws is a certain kind of naiveté, for example, Lance wouldn’t have gotten hit by a rock from behind by Lotor during a duel, as he never would have agreed to the dual in the first place, as Honor™ is not an innate part of Lance’s being. Honor is a virtue, and as the virtuous paragon, Keith’s sense of honor plays into his naiveté. Duals are honorable! Lotor gave his word, he must have honor! HAH. No. Honor in this context is an innate quality, and that’s very important for a super sentai team leader, even in an odd-duck combining mecha show like Voltron.

Not to be that weeb with a “the Japanese prize Honor” take, but they kind of really do when it comes to how to define villains and heroes within certain types of stories. Virtuous, noble, and honorable villains (or antagonists) exist, and they get a completely different kind of death (arc resolution, sometimes in an eastern tragedy this leads to the hero’s catharsis) than a villain who is dishonorable, or without honor (those are not always the same thing). The western concept of honor is different (that’s not a value judgement, and of course variations exist b/c not all western cultures are the same).

In the US—when we’re not appropriating samurais for cowboy westerns—we tend to make honor into more of an aristocratic thing (thanks England), and that’s exactly what Voltron Force does to Keith when they slap on a secret Arusian lineage and special parental legacy of an Arusian Honor Guard. That completely undermines Keith as a virtuous paragon. He doesn’t need any of those things…and again, wasn’t the story supposed to be about Daniel, Vince, and Larmina anyway?

A secret lineage would be the kind of thing you’d give to one of those three, in which case, that would be Daniel or Vince, since Larmina is already related to Allura, even though Allura told everyone that her entire family was killed by Zarkon when Keith et al first met her and Coran. Being Arusian and royalty were Allura’s toys, Keith didn’t need them, he already had enough toys. This is a way in which the writers didn’t ‘get’ the archetype, and tried too hard to make it into something else.

The DDP and Dynamite iterations of Voltron still “give other characters’ toys” to Keith, but it’s not a problem b/c those iterations are separate continuities that begin (or reboot) in a way that is not super sentai. A few of the super sentai trappings remain, but they are much more like American super hero comics, and that’s fine.

In DDP Voltron, Hunk’s martial arts prowess is given to Keith, but Hunk gains a different archetype in return (that I really love and wish I could have seen more of). Hunk still has combat skills, but his archetype is not the big dude kung fu brawler. Even though DDP Keith has gained DotU Hunk’s toy, he’s still well balanced between solo action star and team leader, since he is only team leader b/c that’s what he was assigned to do. He’s not there to inspire his comrades through innate virtuous qualities. He’s there to lead a hail Mary mission for the most powerful weapon in the universe that everything thinks is a space fairy tale.

Dynamite Voltron Keith is okay, but he kind of falls into the solo action star trap in parts of Vol 2. VLD started off strong with a different archetype for Keith, but ended up giving him all the toys as was done with VF Keith.

Any continuity can do what they want, and use different archetypes for the characters, but if part of the goal is to start off with that DotU feeling (or like actually continue the DotU story), then those writing should try to get a better understanding of why all the characters (not just Keith) are the way that they are in DotU (and Golion). And also question why there is this inclination to single out Keith as a solo action star, rather than one part of a five person whole. The inclination isn’t right or wrong, it just is, and it has consequences for characterization.

#voltron #voltron force #vf keith #character analysis #ask me anything #aquaburst3

79 notes · View notes

sbooksbowm · 4 years ago

Text

The ‘Does this make sense?’ check: Chapter 2, Part 1, writer function

Turns out that this chapter was way too long for one post, so I broke it into three parts, one for each section. Hooray! Also, because this was originally written for an audience with 1) little knowledge of fandom and 2) little knowledge of Harry Potter, I edited out the explanatory asides about fandom-specific terms, assuming that if you are reading this here, you are more familiar with either/both.

Introduction: the multiple jobs of a fic writer

This chapter focuses on the function of the fic writer: what does the fic writer do to distinguish herself from the author of the source text (so she is not simply replicating the source text but transforming it), articulating a new interpretation of the work (so making difference that is interesting to read), while maintaining the integrity of the universe in which she writes (so not deviating so much so that her characters/premise are unrecognizable to the reader)? It’s a tricky balance to strike!

Part 1 looks at how writers balance the source text and fannish discourse in crafting their fic.

Part 2 looks at how writers signal the ‘writerliness’ (or, open to interpretation-ness) of their fics to their readers by using Author Notes.

Part 3 looks at what fannish contexts are necessary to read fic, particularly knowledge of fandom tropes to make works legible.

This section looks at the writer as function of the text, or, to quote Kristina Busse, how fic is ‘the collection of the choices made’ by the fic writer in selecting which parts of the source text she will foreground [1].

This writer function also demonstrates how fic makes source texts ‘writerly’, or ‘constructed with every reading process’, as opposed to readerly texts, which are ‘closed and only need to be interpreted by readers’, to use Roland Barthes’s concepts [2]. The source text’s ‘writerliness’ allows fic writers to simultaneously assert themselves apart from the source text author in order to establish their vision while they necessarily rely on accepted understandings and interpretations of the source text within the fan community in order for their work to be legible. In each of the works I examine—Annerb’s ‘The Changeling’ (Parts 1-3), gedsparrowhawk’s ‘Hogwarts, to welcome you home’ (Parts 1&2), and waspabi’s ‘Hermione Granger’s Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run’ (Parts 2&3)—the writer selects different elements of the source text and fandom conventions to make their work legible while holding themselves apart from the source text author.

Part 1: the fic writer as function of text

Busse writes that ‘the fan fiction writer is constantly engaged in creating her own individualized version of canon: she foregrounds certain facts and scenes and overlooks others; she makes some aspects of the story more central to her reading than they may be in the source text’ [3]. In practice, the writer balances transformation with obfuscation, drawing on a fannish framework while articulating her own interpretation, lest an interpretative community reject a characterization that veers too wildly from the known, accepted, and loved.

Alternative Universe fics play on the resonances of the original work such that they are recognizable to reader by adopting the structure of the original stories, replicating those events, and then twisting them slightly, inheriting the author’s intended meaning so that it contributes to the aggregation of the fannish interpretation. Writerly intent is a multi-faceted force that draws from source text, interpretive functions, and fan frameworks to produce a recognizable yet distinct work.

‘The Changeling’ by Annerb exemplifies this balance: ‘The Changeling’ retells the Harry Potter series from the perspective of Ginny Weasley, who is sorted into Slytherin House rather than Gryffindor House. Annerb plays with the reader’s knowledge of the canonical events of Harry Potter and subverts the expectations around characteristics of Slytherin members, writing redemptive arcs for many of the characters who were otherwise villainized or ignored and creating a fully realized student body. She executes on a favored fan interpretation of redeeming Slytherin members who are invested in House unity but spurned by prejudice, and she complicates the characteristics of other houses, highlighting their fallacies. Annerb centralizes an oft-discussed fanon of Harry Potter: what is the Slytherin perspective and how are they a part of the school? Ginny becomes the point of view for observing and catalyzing this transformation.

Annerb plays on the known conceptions of Ginny, refracting her strength, resilience, and humor through new circumstances of isolation from her family in a different house and commitment to an anti-hero status. She shifts Ginny’s context and writes out the personal and emotional repercussions of that change. The draw at the start of the fic, as the reader cannot know how different the story will be when they first read it, is asking ‘what if Ginny were in Slytherin?’, foregrounding the reader’s expectations of both who Ginny is and what Slytherin is, then slowly unraveling and reimagining both.

Another example, ‘Hogwarts, to welcome you home’, by gedsparrowhawk, demonstrates the tension between avowal of authorship (e.g. ‘JK Rowling wrote this’) and disavowal of authorial rights (e.g. ‘JK Rowling’s version is wrong’).

‘Hogwarts, to welcome you home’ is a Post-Series Alternative Universe that disregards the epilogue in Deathly Hallows and makes Harry Potter a professor at Hogwarts. In this, gedsparrowhawk overlooks the epilogue (which was criticized by many fans for many reasons) and centralizes Harry’s skill in teaching and his relationship with his godson, drawing on a popular fanon that rejects the notion that Harry would become an Auror. It also addresses a major criticism of the epilogue, which fails to acknowledge Harry’s post-war trauma; gedsparrowhawk rectifies that with an explanation of what Harry did immediately after the war, a confrontation with the portrait of Albus Dumbledore, and McGonagall’s own observations of Harry’s changed behavior. As such, ‘Hogwarts, to welcome you home’ offers one interpretation that does ‘not necessarily align with expected intended readings yet are shared by a sizeable number of readers’ [4].

In this case, the expected intended readings were written by JK Rowling in her epilogue, which pictures a peach-pie middle aged Harry in a stable relationship with his wife, Ginny, father of three children, seeing off his sons to Hogwarts with his best friends, Hermione and Ron, who are also in a happy marriage with two children. The idyllic conclusion to the series frustrated many readers, who wanted a deeper look at how the aftermath of the war affected Harry. A scroll through the comments section of ‘Hogwarts, to welcome you home’ suggests as much, with many readers commenting some iteration of ‘this is the epilogue now’. gedsparrowhawk successfully manages the tension of disavowing Rowling’s authorial rights in rewriting the epilogue and reinterpreting apparent themes in the source text.

Both Annerb and gedsparrowhawk use different perspectives (a common trope), and both make changes that resonate with popular fanons (Slytherin redemption and Professor!Harry). In these cases, the changes place both writers in opposition to the source text author, rather than in conflict with particular fannish factions; by situating their works with popular tropes, they signal their awareness of the fannish discourse and the reliability of their interpretations.

Citations

Busse, Framing fan fiction, p.107.

Busse, p.25.

Busse, p.108.

Busse, p.109.

#does this make sense check #dissertation #research #chapter 2 #writer function #fandom communication circuit #annerb #gedsparrowhawk #The Changeling #Hogwarts to welcome you home #Kristina Busse #Roland Barthes

26 notes · View notes

just-honey-dewd · 5 years ago

Text

What medium best expresses Sonic’s character?

Right, so this is a bit of a detour from the typical Hazbin Hotel posts I’ve been making, but I really did a heck-ton of work to come up with this. Then again, I type overly long paragraphs as a hobby, so jokes on anyone who thinks I don’t do this for fun... but then again... jokes on me for making the time to type Hamilton-esque essays on fictional characters ._.

Okay enough with tangents, this is an essay dedicated to answering what medium -- songs, scenes, cartoons, maybe even a comic issue -- best encompasses Sonic’s character. Take in mind, throughout the 29-almost-30 years of Sonic, there have been many iterations and takes on the character that either differentiate on a minor level, or to the point that some Sonics when compared seem to be starkly different characters altogether, so this is purely what I feel is the best take on Sonic’s character. For my sake, I’ve sworn off including material that require a long-winding read through some mediocre storylines -- nothing personal, Archie Comics. I won’t be covering Archie Comics because I’ve yet to finish reading all 200+ comic issues because that’s not humanly possible for me. If I ever manage to though, I might make a post about Archie Comics in some way. For now, here’s my personal essay on “What medium best expresses Sonic’s character”

Starting off with shows...

Sonic SatAM (1993) and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) are products of their time, and I never got to watch them when I was young, so I hold no sentimental nostalgia. Sonic SatAM seems in-line with Archie Comics, with the Freedom Fighters plotline and the infamous Sonic mohawk with lasted for a significant amount of issues. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was pretty comical and lighthearted in comparison. Both were voiced by Jaleel White, had the same artstyle, and established Sonic’s character in vastly different tones. It’s rather outdated as Sonic has lived past the 90s for 20 years, where he got revised and reinvented to suit the decades. So both characterizations are simply inapplicable to Sonic’s character.

2003′s Sonic X worked off of the newly reinvented Sonic and paved way for Sonic’s personality for the following years, but I do have critique over the show, and their execution of Sonic’s character. Though they did provide Sonic's "constant desire to run", he lacked soul and the over-the- top nature of his character. Sonic throughout this show displayed a rather hollow connection with his relationships, was as distant and aloof as Knuckles for seemingly no reason, lacked much depth and barely developed, and was overall, very poor with communicating his thoughts and actions -- which ultimately led to a number of plot lines where his friends and/or authorities saw his intentions as malicious or even evil. Sonic is hyperactive and free-spirited -- something this show doesn't fail to display -- but Sonic lacked his heart. Where was that desire to hang out with his friends? Where was the underlying love and compassion he'd constantly display in and out of battle? Where were his cheesy yet well-meaning impromptu speeches? These aspects of Sonic were sorely lacking and missed when I watched through this series which is why I believe this anime didn’t really express Sonic's character.

Sonic Boom...

...is a lighthearted, slapstick sitcom-based comedy. Very episodic, which is aight, but the the show’s execution as a whole was mediocre-borderline-bad. It doesn't have much elements inherently Sonic-esque -- it's a product of the Modern era, which at this point, doesn’t seem to have good connotations. No worthwhile soundtrack, stunted animation and movement, embarrassingly heavy reliance on overused archetypes/stereotypes at the expense of the characters, repetitive plots that get the THICC layer of frosted sarcasm and self-awareness. Sonic had attitude sure, there was a clear level of disinterest and cynicism to this portrayal -- it was as though protecting people felt like a burden and chore to him. It doesn’t help that this feeling is justified as Eggman’s been reduced to a pathetic Saturday Morning villain with lesser competency in being a world threat, and much rather a constant nuisance to Sonic’s town than anything else. Subjectively speaking, this show's clearly not for me -- even when I was in the supposed age range at the time. Objectively, this Saturday morning cartoon should've been branded as it is, rather than a Sonic cartoon because the identity of Sonic the Hedgehog definitely got skewed and misconstrued by the eyes of newcomers whose first exposure to Sonic the Hedgehog character was this. Ironically, due to this show, I subsequently furthered my distance from the franchise at that age, and got into it much, much later in life.

Now moving onto the songs...

Initially, I considered “Escape from the City”, “Live and Learn", "His World" and "Fist Bump" as good contenders in defining who Sonic is. But through some vigorous looping of those songs, I've pinpointed what they've to offer in showing Sonic's character, and due to my consistent nature of typing overly long arguments about anything I find interesting, I'll be putting each song into its own paragraph -- picking out any significant verses, and explaining why I think each song subconsciously contributed to my thought process that they would be the best take on his character. Afterwards, I’ll finish with my conclusion. (I personally suggest you go listen to each song as you read each paragraph)

"Escape from the City" is a timeless bop, and I will play it in the car whenever I'm actively escaping from authorities in my city. What this song does is use rhythmic beats and repetitive bass line to emulate the constant adrenaline and excitement Sonic feels when he's moving around, it embodies his carefree nature and spontaneity to a T. It succeeds in portraying the energetic, upbeat aspect of his personality as the song itself contrasts the very dangerous implication of being chased down by the government for a crime you didn't commit. Sonic doesn't get enough credit for the amount of cheerful optimism he has -- always moving with a spring in his step, or steps considering the speed part. He brushes off the most life-threatening dangers he has to face and takes it all in with that well known Sonic™ grin. It also shares a constant message of "Live and Learn" (which the song of the same title) -- this is a rather succinct version of Sonic's mantra. The song is very Sonic, but only manages to show his surface level personality. Kinda like Sonic X's theme song "Gotta Go Fast" but it's much less in your face about Sonic's whole shtick. Another thing to note is the element of "escape" is a constant in both "Escape from the City" and "Endless Possibility", which I'll get further into later. Given that this song was more focused on the primary objective of ‘City Escape’ the game level rather than exploring Sonic’s fundamental character, it's very cool how it just so happened to tie in well with him...

"Live and Learn" was more of a Sonic and Shadow song, so I already kinda figured it wouldn't manage to explore Sonic's character much. The first verse and chorus offers as much for Sonic's character as Shadow's oh-so few lines of verse 2 does. Again, the song only manages to provide Sonic's surface level personality. Reason it came up in my mind was because of the words 'Live and Learn'. It's a very motivational and inspiring line -- what got me thinking about Sonic’s character in the first place. It's an unspoken rule for him to take life headfirst and live in the moment, and legit the second issue of the IDW's comics reiterates this by Amy expressing that this free-spirited approach to life is what essentially makes her love him.

"Fist Bump" was like my first exposure to Sonic main theme songs -- and I'm still into listening to the song. I realize the lyrics are pretty generic, but it does reflect the general focus of Sonic character very well -- which may further explain why Modern Sonic is much less... developed, to say the least. What the lyrics essentially hone in on are Sonic's loyalty to his friends and his.... unyielding determination? Honestly, a very generic take for a main theme, and it reflects on the quality of the game if even the music lacked much personality compared to any heroic video game character theme song. Sonic had more personality to offer in his silent protagonist games, compared to this. This issue with Sonic's character barrels down to Modern Sonic retaining his previous counterpart's cheesy insistence to spout improvised speeches and embrace the power of friendship -- though it's definitely gotten out of hand in this case. We need balance.

Making Sonic more family-friendly ≠ Dumbing down what nuance or individuality there was to his character and making him every other generic hero protagonist who quips for 90% of his dialogues.

Finally, "His World", but I'll do Crush 40 and Zebrahead's separately, sort of. Crush 40 explicitly tells Sonic's character how it is -- his strict moral code, good intuition, confidence in himself, "seize the day" mentality, straightforward disposition, stubborn determination, love for his friends, and fearless risk-taking -- it's pretty lengthy but it does a good job as Sonic's theme and manages to state what it's like in his world. However, the song faces eerily similar issues to "Fist Bump" with it's lack of creative interpretation with its lyrics, and compared to "Escape from the City", it seems more formal and serious in tone which is reflective of their portrayal of Sonic.

I interpret Sonic as a multifaceted character, but when listing out all those traits in the verses and chorus in the song’s tone and format melody-and-lyric-wise, the song makes it appear as though Sonic is strictly a pillar of justice and represents the strong, untouchable hero persona -- which I find to be a detrimental writing aspect for his character. It writes off his personality as second priority to the reputation that would have receded him through the years of defeating Eggman and saving the world -- and subsequently, paints his character in a rather dulled and overly no-nonsense light. Not saying I don't want Sonic to be serious at certain points, but I think with this song, and this game as a whole, there was some truth to the issue of Sonic '06 being a little too serious. While these characters were well-written in this game e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶r̶d̶ ̶p̶o̶i̶n̶t, I've had personal issues tied to em:

Shadow coming back was quite risky and foolhardy for his character journey and I believe if it weren't for the great execution for his storyline in '06, his appearance would've been viewed as fanservice -- which is what he's sadly been reduced to now

Silver's character concept as a whole was pretty dark and serious, which again isn’t a bad thing, but with the plot resulting in him seeing Sonic as the Iblis Trigger, it limited Sonic's ability to play up his easy-going, carefree nature since he couldn’t just brush off that accusation with offhanded remarks as that would’ve risked Sonic coming off as insensitive and unsympathetic at that moment. Which is not what the writers want their characters to go.

Elise. There, I said it.

On top of it all, "His World" is pretty slow-going for Sonic’s theme, which I could try justifying by saying it might’ve been a representation of significant growth to Sonic's character -- perhaps the journey managed to shape him into a man (hedgehog) who could spare a bit of time to contemplate his next course of action -- as this game definitely explored a major deviation from typical Sonic game story lines. But, even with that, I still really prefer Zebrahead's version.

Zebrahead's is vastly the same when telling Sonic's character how it is, but the instrumentals, pacing and speed is increased significantly that it definitely sounds more reminiscent of Sonic's musical style -- fast-paced rock and roll. But, I’ve yet to figure out the significance of the lyrics:

Especially when it follows right after "Never fear the fall" -- so you take the leap of faith, but also don't let yourself fall in the process? Pretty weird flow of words there, but maybe I’m just not getting it at all. Point is, what both songs hone in on is Sonic's intuitive sense of justice and a bit of his carefree nature -- since the lyrics from Zebrahead's specifically highlight on Sonic's "leap before looking" nature. What Zebrahead further hones in on is his adventurous and hyperactive qualities as verse 1 and the bridge show. It's a timeless song of anticipation and build-up with good execution, but it doesn't cover the main essentials in what makes Sonic Sonic.

Finally, reaching the song I've found best covers the basics and essentials to Sonic's character is...

Believe it or not, “Gotta go fast” encompasses the defining characteristics of a well-written Sonic -- the title itself is a testament to the his motto and is all things Sonic stands for.

While this refers directly to the plot of the show itself, it manages to familiarize us with the speed and urgency crucial to Sonic’s character and--

Okay, clown time’s over, here’s the real winner.

Unleashed's main theme: "Endless Possibility"

From the get-go, intro already separates itself from the other songs by being freeing and exciting, without being too carefree like "Escape from the City", too orchestral or urgent like "His World", and definitely more compelling lyric-wise compared to "Fist Bump". This tone is a constant throughout the song, and makes it seem like Sonic's the one directly singing -- the singer nailed it with the level of obnoxious and genuine tone to his voice.

This song, like the rest of the other main themes, reflect the game itself. Unleashed is a race against time for Sonic to fight Dark Gaia before the Earth gets torn apart. But similar to the gameplay and form of story, the music is very fast-paced yet unburdening, with hints of inner contemplation, and darkness (or how I like to put it, edge). The first verse already succeeds in getting into the bare bones of Sonic's character -- he runs, he can never stay still out because he knows that's not who he is, he's free-spirited and will run around the world out of his own volition, it's a form of escape and liberty to him -- and this is what ties into "Escape from the City”. This verse sums up the essential traits to Sonic better than any of the previous songs without letting one attribute overpower it. It refers to his three fundamental traits: that he's fast, adventurous and carefree.

The pre-chorus further expands from verse 1's establishments, by showing the deeper, inner turmoil that pass through Sonic's mind -- “How will I know when I get there? And how will I know when to leave?” -- these are the rare instances where Sonic is found in inner conflict with himself which came out of his simplistic philosophy rather than an external conflict or influence, and it's more of unspoken and nuanced as Sonic never usually calls himself into question for the way he lives. This showcases that he's capable of processing the long-term effects of living and moving around aimlessly -- constant adventure and freedom might eventually feel mundane, so he might eventually find the destination his heart feels is right for him, so what will he do when that period of his life unfolds, and will this period end the days of adventure and freedom? The possibilities are never-ending, so as always, he'll take everything in stride, and prepare for whatever hits him.

This is what the song's main theme is. Endless possibility. Potential and growth -- which reflects back to Sonic: mentally, physically and emotionally. Mentally, he's acknowledged that he's always growing and developing throughout his adventures -- as there's one thing that no one, not even Sonic can outrun, and that's change. "Endless Possibility" opens us up to the concept of ever-changing development for Sonic, and the possibility that he might eventually reach his unknown destination and end this long-running journey, while also implying that every journey that he goes through and ends -- whether it directly ties into the games or off-screen adventures -- will always lead with a new one. Unleashed encompasses this youthful feeling of change and vigor. Sonic is in his element and is going through a personal journey to save the world once again, but as always, he'll do it with enthusiasm and unbridled drive.

Interestingly, Unleashed feels reminiscent of Sonic X's Sonic but done right. Both have the character mostly isolated from his friends for the majority of their respective stories, but where Sonic X forces Sonic to clean up on Isle Eggbot each episode, Unleashed puts him through a singular adventure that requires he takes care of the major issue at stake while the others are doing their respective jobs or living their own lives. Unleashed's Sonic even has a temporary companion which he clearly warms up to and befriends throughout the whole journey, whereas Sonic X shows Sonic actively dismissing his previous friends to sleep, travel, and adventure for the heck of it -- while they spent a majority of the first season trying to find the chaos emeralds without him.

Sonic being isolated is usually due to situational happenstance rather than conscious preference. Sonic isn't inherently solitary or aloof, it's just due to his ability to move from place to place with ease that he subsequently has to leave his friends behind to confront the source of the problem. It's not a part of his character that he plays lone wolf like those archetypal "cool characters", the nature of what he does and excels at leads him to fight front and center, even if it means doing it alone. Despite this, he still is the sentimental, over-the-top dork that believes in the power of friendship and will go to the ends of the Earth to protect his friends. Which is exactly what he does in Unleashed.

The bridge provides the hints of edge where Eggman and Sonic exchange dialogue in the song, very much referring to the events of Unleashed's intro battle between the two. Eggman essentially tells Sonic to give up as he's actually beaten him -- which Sonic replies that it's not over, that this is just another start to another journey. The lyrics aren't very subtle about what they're saying, but it does a good job in encompassing two key traits when Sonic responds to any threats -- his cheerful optimism and unyielding determination. He doesn't respond to danger with simply quips, he responds to it with a campy but genuine declaration of strength and courage. The cheesiness in his words are very prominent, but he says them with a straight face like he's announcing his battle cry and promise to do what it takes to save the world and protect the ones he love.

In short, "Endless Possibilty" manages to fully encompass the best iteration of Sonic, and humanizes him to the point that I can only really see this as the current best sum up of his character without any needed dialogue, animation, or prior context. This song could just be tied directly to Sonic's overall character outside of the game's plot, and I'd be fine.

#my posts #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #sonic character essay #my character essays #small spoilers for idw #another session of overly long essays from yours truly

18 notes · View notes