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thebeautysurrounds · 3 years ago

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THIS CONTAINS SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR NEVER HAVE I EVER S2 READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

This is quite long I had a lot to unpack.

Since watching the 2nd season of Never Have I Ever a few things have been bothering me about the way people are reacting to Devi, and the show overall but mostly Devi. First of all she’s what a sophomore in high school? and she’s doing this all while being the only brown girl (up until kinda the middle of S2) and still dealing with grief and having absolutely no idea who she is yet. To me outside of being an honor roll student she is not doing things FOR HER she is doing this to appease her mother. Who while she means well pushing Devi to succeed to certain extremes which if Devi shows the slightest behavior of fucking up her mother makes harsh comments instead of understanding Devi is a literal teenager and needs room for fucking up.

Is Devi hella unreasonable at times? YES does she often times act strictly on impulse without a second thought…YES. But as a girl who virtually has no one outside of her friends who also are staring to drift from her and get into their first relationships themselves and have their own activities she essentially is left to navigate the world and her teenage angst alone. While I will give Nalini credit for all the work and time she has put in to not only being a single mother and navigating her own grief but also being a working mother who is a doctor and quite possibly has her own struggles with being a brown women in that filed. My problem lies with her not being able to balance or even let go of a strong arm parenting style that mostly focuses on Devi’s fuck up more than her accomplishments and makes comments on how her fuck ups that haven’t even happened yet. I’m not sure Nalini even realizes Devi is at the very very top of her class because I truly believe (after S1) even though Nalini apologized to Devi Nalini has a ‘hoping for the best but expecting the worst’ attitude when it comes to Devi and that’s in the for front of her mind so much she doesn’t realize Devi goes above and beyond not only for herself but to make her mother proud of her all for her mother to just not acknowledge that.

Now with Devi’s characterization I get where some people are coming from on saying Devi shouldn’t have been “boy crazy” or that they “ruined her character development” but here’s my problem those critiques while valid and your allowed to have those opinions…It’s just not really realistic and let me tell you why like I stated Devi is what a sophomore in high school and she has made it a abundantly clear her parents forbid her to date cause it’s school and extra curriculars only. Which will lead to a good college which thus will turn into a good career. While that’s all well and good. I don’t think y’all realize the FOMO of being in high school and growing up with very strict parents, and wanting to have your first relationship. Wanting to be an actual teenager and not wanting to think about 3-4 years down the line which most teenagers don’t/can’t visualize cause it’s not the right now. Devi wants to have those experiences and there’s nothing wrong with that does she go about it the right way…not exactly but y’all act like YOU have never been a teenager and said and done awful things out of anger or just pure immature stupidity. For the boy crazy part Devi is literally having her first feelings and experiences with boys she has 0 clue what she is doing outside of probably books, tv, movies and what her friends assume they know (even though they mean well) the only person Devi would remotely trusts is gone, and she can’t ask her mother cause her mother would honestly probably shut her down and make her feel guilty for even wanting to start having her first experiences with boys. Y’all have such a warped view of not only real teenagers and high school aged kids but also fictional ones. Y’all are so use to shows having protagonist being awful or starting off kinda okay but then their character turns awful and remains that way. What some of you fail to realize is actual teenagers and “teenagers” in shows can/are VERY morally grey.

Should Devi have been honest and possibly communicated to both Ben and Paxton that she has some sort of feelings for them both..possibly but Devi is a teenager do you think she is having a in depth analysis and talk with herself (outside of a pros and cons list) about what infatuation versus lust versus genuine connection versus romantic attraction looks like probably not. Let’s also analyze how she literally goes from being in her eyes forgettable to being noticed and even though it’s not talked about in the show explicitly she honestly probably struggles with self esteem/self image issues. To go from being a girl who to her no one cares about/notices to one who is getting the attention of two boys who are in Devi’s eyes attractive in their own right. She is so consumed with two guys ACTUALLY being interested in her that she fails to realize she is/and will hurt them both, Do I think Paxton is genuinely attracted to Devi…maybe. But I’m still on the fence about their relationship to me in the beginning I felt Paxton felt Devi is just another meaningless high school fling that he will forget about once he gets to college but to Devi here’s this guy who is “popular” very attractive and he pays attention to her is she looking at the semantics of the situation and how Paxton is more than likely just using her and is only engaging with Devi to get a passing grade and to basically give her the superficial experience of a “high school boyfriend” no she’s not she’s looking at it like here’s this guy who is attractive and he wants to be with someone like me. But do I also believe Devi in S1 was using Paxton and then fell for him DEFINITELY but I will give credit to Paxton for trying at a real relationship with Devi and I hope he will try to be more open and honest.

Do I think Ben likes Devi I honestly do, While the insensitive jokes (exchanged between both) should be discussed I think Ben over time started to see Devi as a girl who finally saw him not the rich, annoying, know it all. But in his view Devi and him are on equal playing fields because they are both overly driven smart individuals and when she said yes to going out with him it was probably the first time he felt like a girl saw the real him. While Ben too more than likely struggles with abandonment issues him dating Devi in a way made him feel like this was the first time he could actual be happy about something cause it was something he actually wanted and not something he just did to earn points in others books and impress people he genuinely got something on his own and that he was actually happy not a front he put on. To me Ben’s abandonment issues come out even more than in S1 when he tells Devi why he’s so hurt and it’s the night of the party when she runs after Paxton (who he sees has it all) and Devi doesn’t “choose him” Do I think Ben and Devi should date cause they share some form of the same trauma no. But again Devi is not use and doesn’t even know what to do with the attention of two people. Again is Devi looking at the semantics of her relationship with Ben…No. I don’t think Devi even realizes she’s quite literally hurting two people cause we could also discuss how Ben and Paxton probably have had other flings and relationships without a second thought while Devi having no relationship experiences and this is territory for her and she has no idea what she is doing or how to properly navigate this situation.

I’m almost done with this long ass rant I promise but it’s two more things I want to make light of/point out I don’t think anyone really gives Devi credit for still going to therapy, loosing a parent is unbearable especially loosing one as young as Devi did, especially when you feel the only parent that truly understood and supported you is gone. Devi doing things that are impulsive and unreasonable because she quite literally has no guidance her mother is only consumed with Devi not making the family “look bad” Devi’s grief is so heavy and she feels she’s going at it alone because her mother doesn’t take genuine time to talk to her. Now was Devi “stalking” her mother extremely inappropriate yes for sure but do Nalini and her need to communicate better for Devi to understand that her mother wasn’t dating sure even if Nalini was on a date their should have been communication there. Devi will probably never stop grieving her father hell he literally came to her in a dream to tell her she deserves better when it came to “dating” Paxton and Nalini will probably never stop grieving her husband but she deserves happiness too and I believe if Devi and Nalini were both honest with each other her slowly dating again wouldn’t have been a problem. Another point I wanna make connecting Devi, Paxton, and Ben is they all have this view that the grass is greener on the other side and that’s just not the case. Ben is jealous of Paxton cause he feels he has the “Perfect life” but in actuality Paxton is extremely flawed and honestly insecure his own family doesn’t believe in him and he knows people only like him because he is attractive, while Paxton looks at Ben like this, while annoying Ben is smart, rich, and no one ever questions Ben’s intelligence but in actuality Ben is very lonely and has spent most of his life alone or being raised by other people which has caused him to put on a huge front to people and often times overcompensate in his social life, and Devi looks at other girls like they have it all and have 0 struggles or problems (I.e her views on Anissa) but Devi fails to realize thy also struggle, are insecure, is struggling with mental illness, and don’t have themselves figured out, and Devi is looking at this man her mom is “dating” as if he’s taking something away but In actuality he is experiencing his own losses. All in all Never Have I Ever gets teenage angst and messy problematic morally grey teenagers right and the fact that y’all beg for more “flawed or problematic” characters and when you get them you don’t like that they are just that it’s odd to me it seems like y’all only want problematic characters if it’s how you see fit.

TL;DR: Y’all need to stop acting like y’all weren’t gross annoying and had fuck ups as teenagers y’all should really stop pretending like teenagers in real and some of us as teens didn’t have/engage in relationships that weren’t good but we learned from it while this show isn’t real it shows y’all will scream let people fuck up and let them grow but you don’t actually mean it. Devi is a teenager and requires room to grow she even admits she acts out and is impulsive but y’all act like she’s supposed to have the self awareness of a 60 year old.

#netflix never have i ever #never have i ever season 2 #tv show #never have i ever #devi vishwakumar #paxton hall yoshida #ben gross #nalini vishwakumar #maitreyi ramakrishnan #darren barnet #Poorna Jagannathan #jaren lewison #rant #analysis #spoilers #never have I ever spoilers #I wrote this at like 2am so if it doesn’t make much sense 🤷🏾‍♀️#I just had to get these thoughts out there cause it’s been on my mind

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thatweeboverthereisthirsty · 4 years ago

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hello Luna! I wanted to ask you if you think twisted wonderland will end with chapter 7, and if there will be a sequel?

Hmmm.... I think that there will be seven chapters dedicated to student overblots. Malleus obviously being the last one. I also think that there will be some sort of 8th chapter to cover whatever happens to Grim and how the MC gets home. The build up with Mickey and Grim and all the sketchy stuff surrounding Crowley is definitely going to need to be explained before TWST ends as well.

I think the best way to explain how I feel TWST will close up is through examples.

Foreshadowing:

I am a very proud fantasy reader so I tend to notice quite a few patterns in these types of storylines. The amount of foreshadowing is enormous and usually only makes sense after the climax of the story.

The prologue is often overlooked in most books and stories but it is likely one of the most important parts in a fiction story. The prologue for TWST has several lines and imagery that key us into the foreshadowing.

For example: Crowley says that we are all running out of time and when you pay attention to the intro when he asks you to take his hand a clock strikes a specific amount of times.

Relationship development and closure:

Another important example of foreshadowing is when Crowley is crying about how the MC got Ace and Deuce to work together. Throughout the story lines it’s been obvious that the students were unused to teamwork and incapable of holding healthy relationships. The climax will likely include quite a bit of teamwork with all of the dorms working together to reach a common goal.

Although many of the students improved after their overblots, very few relationship matters where addressed afterwards unless absolutely necessary (scarabia’s brief explanation). It is highly likely that any strained relationships will be directed in a positive direction through circumstances that are TBA.

That said it is also highly unlikely that these relationships will be directly and vocally addressed. Open ended relationships are key in making a good story line because it leaves the reader to their own conclusions. When a reader comes to their own conclusions it is likely that they will create a future image that allows them to be pleased with how the story ended. It is a very effective way to let each individual reader become pleased with the story as a whole despite the fact that everyone has different tastes in stories.

Character development:

It will be the same way with individual character development as well. A lack of vocal and direct development will be replaced by character choices, hidden changes in word choices, and emotional expression to display how a character is acting differently than in the beginning of the story.

Even with no specific closure on whether or not a character really has changed. The reader will perceive the outlook of that character in a way that caters to their own tastes.

Overblot development is a given but something else we should keep an eye out for is character development in characters that didn’t overblot themselves. Hidden character arcs and development is another commonly used writing tip that adds the necessary layers that makes a story interesting.

There will be certain characters that will very obviously be different when interacting with themselves and others, but the truth behind that is that depending on how complicated a characters personality is makes the development necessarily more or less obvious in order to incite the proper emotions within the reader.

Happy/Sad ending:

Speaking of emotions, it is going to be a coin toss about how the ending affects the readers. Since the company we are dealing with is Disney it is entirely possible that everything ends on an almost eerily happy note. However, based on the plot and how popular story lines originated in Japan usually end, it is equally likely that there will be some sort of loss, betrayal, plot twist, etc. that will leave the reader with a few negative emotions as well.

If this is the case then it will likely involve a character or goal present from the prologue. Crowley, Grim, and the Aduece duo are likely subjects of this negative event. A situational disaster could also turn things. The MC has been trying to get home from the beginning of the story so a plot twist along the lines of MC’s death, the way home is made clear and then some how it is permanently inaccessible, none of the story was real from the start, are all ways that TWST could end using the MC themselves as the negative event.

It is nearly impossible to predict exactly what the ending will be, but it is likely that what we think is going to happen is the exact opposite of what will happen.

What we can predict is that all of the questions based on events (overblots, mickey, grim, etc.) will be answered in some way with an explanation that connects all of the events together.

Sequel???:

Whether or not a sequel is made depends entirely on the conclusion that we receive. Since most storylines have an ending planned before they even start writing, it is unlikely that the producers will change too much about it. If it was originally planned to simply end then it’s likely that the last chapter will be the end of TWST.

However, due to the popularity of TWST and how open ended some of the side character arcs will likely be left. It can be assumed that TWST will likely continue to produce content, even if it isn’t direct story stuff. Side stories about characters during the school year and after the end of TWST are not entirely out of the question. More events set in the timeline where MC is at TWST is also highly probable.

If an english version is made, these probabilities rise considerably. Not only rerun events, but new ones will be essential to the popularity of the game when(if) it is released in other languages.

Anime:

Another question that has been brought up frequently is whether or not TWST will be made into an anime. I would say that it isn’t impossible. The fact that TWST isn’t an otome game and that there aren’t different routes available based on the players choices makes it very easy to be turned into a different form of media. Depending on how popular it gets will also affect this.

Disney certainly has the money to fund the producers enough to create an anime. So financially it isn’t a problem. The only thing that would stand in the way would be demand. TWST is already hugely popular in Japan. To the point where cafe’s themed after it are being created. This popularity brings in a lot of money and possibility for TWST. If americans and others bring TWST’s popularity up this way as well then it will be extremely likely that the creators take advantage of this possibility and expand TWST’s media.

Another reason that Disney might push for the producers to create more is that they are currently struggling with new content. Disney’s most recent productions and a large quantity of their future productions are and have been set as remakes and sequels. It is fairly obvious that they have been at a block for a while now considering the lack of new content being put out.

TWST is still fairly new and can be exploited because of that. The fact that it is catered towards teens and older makes it even more likely since stories that people won’t grow out of tend to stay popular much longer than productions with simpler plot lines directed at children.

In conclusion:

All of the above is purely theoretical and based off of educated guesses from me with all of my background knowledge. The fact is that where TWST goes is entirely left up to how it does when the official plot line ends.

What I can say is that we shouldn’t expect any sort of sequel or anime or further for a while. If any of these things do happen it will likely take place after an english version is released if one is released at all.

TWST is an incredible game with a perfectly capturing plot line and realistic and interesting characters. The amount of potential that it contains is far more than some other games of this type that I have seen. We can’t say for sure what it will become but I know personally that I expect the ending to be just as satisfying as the rest of the story.

(I’m not sure if this is the answer you wanted but this is just my personal view. I hope anyone that reads this is happy with the information and theories that I have provided!)

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst theory #twst thoughts

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scripttorture · 4 years ago

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Hey! My character is made into an experiment by the government due to him having a supernatural ability. The one who handed him over was his partner, who has been a part of that organization all along. He is usually a very confident person, powerful and extroverted. I'm not sure how his mental state is supposed to change? I don't feel like the whole loosing their will to live and becoming incredibly depressed thing would fit him as a person. How could I still show that the torture effects him?

There isn’t a sure fire answer to how any one person will change when they’re tortured. We know the possible symptoms, but most people won’t experience every possible symptom and we don’t have a way to predict who gets what.

There’s a post that talks about the possible symptoms over here.

Here’s the thing though: there is a lot of variety in survivors, in the symptoms they get and the way they personally express those symptoms. Some people do become suicidal. Some people do become depressed. And some people do lose their faith in humanity.

But there is not one universal survivor experience.

This means that there’s a big range in realistic responses. It also means that as a writer you actually have a lot of options. You should be picking 3-5 symptoms from the list of possible options, but the list has 14 things on it and some of those things can manifest in multiple ways.

I think that, since we can’t predict symptoms, the best thing you can do as a writer is pick symptoms based on what you feel fits your character and story best.

Depression and suicidal thoughts don’t do that, so let’s have a look at some of the others.

Memory problems are incredibly common in real survivors and are almost never portrayed accurately in fiction. You can read about the four basic types here.

I’d really encourage you to use one of these if you feel it fits your story. They create a lot of interesting narrative challenges for the character and they can make for really good emotional/introspective moments. If for instance you want to explore self-doubt giving the character memories he later finds out are inaccurate could feed into that, leading to him questioning whether he ‘really’ was betrayed.

General forgetfulness (ie low level difficulty forming memories) can give the character a lasting disadvantage in everyday life, creating a much more traditional injury-recovery arc as he tries to find adaptions to this new normal.

Intrusive memories, when handled well, can help create a deeper connection between the reader and the character. Because it lets you create situations where the character’s mood flips in an instant, the other characters don’t understand why but the readers do.

Memory loss can be trickier, mostly because it’s rarely handled well in fiction. It doesn’t effect older memories, such as childhood memories, the person’s name etc. It almost never effects memories of torture itself. But it does effect other aspects of the time they’re held, the period prior to capture and sometimes a few weeks after release. It’s a distressing and disorientating experience and it’s a good pick if there’s any sort of investigation or prosecution.

Because memory problems (especially memory loss and inaccurate memories) are a big part of why torture trials are really hard to conduct. Having the character find that he doesn’t actually remember the crucial details and watching the process of people trying and failing to help him, that can be a really powerful addition. It’s also a good way to form a rift between him and his friends without depression or having him lose faith in others. It gives a reason for any distance between them, even if it’s an emotional rather then logical reason.

Read through the masterpost and really think about whether any of these memory problems could fit your story.

Narratively speaking memory problems don’t link the character’s personality but they do have a strong impact on plots and sub-plots. Memory loss, inaccurate memories and intrusive memories will all effect the character’s emotional arc and sense of self. They can also throw up barriers for the character.

He might be missing a couple of crucial details about his life before he was snatched. He might have some key details about how and where he was snatched wrong. Think about how those sorts of problems could feed into your plot, because they can add interesting conflicts and challenges.

Chronic pain is also incredibly common in torture survivors and it often doesn’t have a single cause. Back, muscular and joint pain are particularly common.

It can lead to a character seeming angry, unapproachable, anti-social or like they have a hair-trigger temper. It can also make it seem as though they have really bad mood swings or a short temper.

This can lead to interesting character moments as non-survivors struggle to empathise with an ‘asshole’ while the survivor is struggling to express the fact they’re in physical pain. It can also lead in to discussions of disability and the way we treat invisible disabilities in society.

It can also often be improved by, again, life style adjustments and sometime medication.

If you wanted to use addiction as a symptom then chronic pain is a common reason behind addiction in survivors. Essentially they start taking more and more powerful pain medications in order to try and feel ‘normal’.

Chronic pain doesn’t always lead to addiction though. Making good, consistent life style adjustments (using a mobility aid, being able to sit instead of having to stand for long periods and so on) can help keep pain at manageable levels allowing a healthy relationship with pain medication.

Insomnia is another really common symptom in survivors. This basically means the character is always at least slightly sleep deprived. Which has knock on effects on absolutely every part of a person’s life.

You can read about the effects of sleep deprivation here.

I’d suggest thinking carefully about what you need the character to do before using this one. It might sound counter intuitive but a character with disabling chronic pain is probably more capable of the occasional bout of superheroics then a chronically sleep deprived character is.

Insomnia caused by mental illness is also notoriously difficult to treat. Medication for the mental health problems survivors tend to have makes it harder to sleep and reduces the quality of sleep. Medication to ‘make’ people sleep often decreases the quality of sleep, when it works. It does not work for everyone.

Essentially don’t treat insomnia as an ‘easy’ option with less impact on the character. It impacts every part of a person’s life, making them more likely to get sick, slower to react, more emotionally volatile and less able to learn/remember everything.

There are so many things that insomnia effects that- well I find it easiest to think of it as a permanent lowering of ability across all categories. This does not mean that a character automatically becomes incapable of things; it means they are worse at them then they were before.

If they were already really good at something then other people might not notice the difference. But the character himself will. Which can have a knock on effect on self esteem.

Any of the things I’ve mentioned can result in social isolation. Because survivors can come across as aggressive, volatile and inconsiderate which can lead to people… avoiding them. Especially when other characters don’t have a good understanding of mental illness or experience dealing with trauma survivors. (Having said that, remember that a pretty significant proportion of the population experiences mental health problems at some point in their life. Think about how likely experience vs ignorance is, rather then assuming one or the other.)

Isolation exacerbates pre-existing mental health problems.

And any combination of the above symptoms make up the frame work of any long term personality change. For instance you describe this character as confident and capable: if he gets multiple forms of memory problems does that impact his confidence in certain areas? And if it does how does he cope with that? It could be by expressing his self-doubt but it could also be by taking a more passive role within a group, letting others take the lead instead of stepping in.

I have an old ask over here that goes through how I pick symptoms for a character and how I vary them depending on the sort of plot I have in mind.

Wrapping up, I think that we make these symptoms individual when we consider how the symptoms interact and what that means for the character.

Depression does not have to mean someone looks overtly miserable. It can look like nausea, like struggling to eat and sleep, like being quieter in social situations. It can feel like going through life disconnected from the world, not so much the presence of misery as the absence of joy.

You’ve listed these characteristics; confidence, power, extroverted and survivors can hold on to all those things. As always the central point is nuance. Because that confidence probably won’t be completely unshaken anymore, that extroversion might not be effortless anymore, his relationship with that power could change.

The character might have developed a lot of self doubt and, though it’s a struggle, continue to make firm ‘confident’ decisions because he feels that’s important either to himself or to everyone else. It could be a way of him showing that he’s still ‘strong’, that he survived, that he can still support the other characters.

The character could still be extroverted and depending on the symptoms you pick socialising might be harder, it could take up more energy. He might be hiding the cost from his friends. Or, another common way it plays out, is that he could just come across as… a lot more inappropriate: making dark ‘jokes’ that non-survivors don’t find funny, having obvious mood swings that make others uncomfortable. You get the idea.

Torture does change people. But those changes are unpredictable and they often don’t look like we expect.

Our fiction often tries to use depression and suicidal ideation as an excuse to turn survivors into passive objects. They are not.

One of the things that stood out to me the more I looked at prominent survivors was anger. Because yes, despair is possible, common even. But so is spite and vitriol and rage. So is determination.

There is more then one way to be powerful. Confidence does not need to be unshakable to be real.

In essence: you are aiming for an understandable change in what is already there, not an excision of the characteristics you’ve already established.

As a final note you might want to take a look at the masterposts I have on medical experiments (which you can find here and also here.) It’s worth deciding whether you want to show unethical but genuine experiments, or torture. You can have a look through the tags on unethical experimentation and pseudo-scientific torture for more information.

I hope that helps. :)

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#writing advice #tw torture #tw medical abuse #writing survivors #writing recovery #tw suicide #effects of torture #torture and memory #chronic pain #insomnia #choosing symptoms #writing symptoms #unethical experimentation #pseudo scientific torture #fantasy ask

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adhd-wifi · 5 years ago

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Jiang Cheng’s Deepest Personal Struggles

I spent more time on the title than I did the actual post.

Note: Wei WuXian is also very present in this meta, because Jiang Cheng’s entire story and development is so heavily tied to him that you literally cannot separate Wei Ying from him. And I thought Lan Zhan was bad.

Personally, I find Jiang Cheng’s traumas and internalized issues so much more interesting than his siblings’. Wei WuXian’s issues were much more dramatic and intense, but not uncommon in fiction, while Jiang YanLi’s issues were not explored in canon. With Jiang Cheng, we see so much of his development and how it is mostly negative in nature. However, even though Jiang Cheng’s development is negative more than positive, it’s very interesting to see how it affected him and how he does maintain his old personality even despite what he’s been through, which makes him the most realistic character out of the three siblings in my opinion.

In other words, I fucking love Jiang Cheng as a character so fucking much even though there are times in which I would gladly throw a book in his face and if you tell me he’s a badly written character I will break into your home at 4am on a Tuesday night and rearrange all your furniture before stealing all your spoons and leave a 27-page essay on why you’re wrong in their place.

(I won’t actually do that. I’m lazy. But not lazy enough to not write this long ass post I guess.)

So Jiang Cheng’s issues are extremely obvious to us, the audience, even more than WWX’s, despite WWX being the POV character. (This is probably due to WWX being a bit of an unreliable narrator, ignoring his own problems for JC’s sake, but we’ll get to that in another WWX post.)

We know the main problem is how he was raised, with JFM and YZY as parents. Between the two, we see that JFM’s neglect and favouritism towards WWX was actually much more impactful and damaging to him than anything from YZY. JC wanted his father’s approval and love, and while YZY berated him for being worse than WWX, JC at least felt like his mother cared about him in some way. YZY’s abuse was still extremely damaging of course, and she definitely contributed to JC’s problems by constantly yelling about how JFM cared more about WWX in front of JC. Still, the main problem was this: JC felt like he wasn’t loved by his own father, and then felt like his mother spent more time being angry at WWX than caring for him.

WWX and JYL also weren’t as there for him as they maybe should’ve. Yes, they actively showed more love and support to JC than their parents did, but the problem between the siblings is that WWX and JYL were unable to give JC what he specifically needed, and also JC lacked the communication skills to tell them what he needed. Of course, this is none of their faults. The three of them were raised under the same abusive parents and all had their own ways of coping with their traumas, as I’ve mentioned in my previous posts (WWX version, JYL version). Something both WWX and JYL had in common despite their difference in character and responses was that they tended to internalize things and smooth out the conflict present in their family, but while JC did also internalize things, this coping response didn’t work for him as it did with his siblings (well, it’s not that great, but they don’t struggle with it the way JC does). When you realize that both WWX and JYL are more reflective of JFM’s nature, but JC is closer to YZY instead, it makes sense. Like his mother, JC is someone who needs to vent and get his emotions out, but he doesn’t get that chance. Or rather, he FEELS like he can’t, because no one else does except YZY, and YZY isn’t exactly a prime example of healthy venting (Pls Madam Yu your children are crying.) It’s hard to talk about JC without bringing up how he compares to others, especially WWX, since that is the core of his problems and insecurities in the first place. So let’s talk about that.

JC’s competitive nature is mostly the result of his abusive home, but also because he’s the youngest sibling. Youngest siblings in general tend to be taken less seriously than their older siblings and thus often end up with the need to prove themselves more. This, combined with his parents’ lousy parenting, just made a recipe for a self-esteem disaster that blames others over himself. In WWX’s case, his self-esteem problems are “I’m the burden, I’m to blame”. In JC’s case, the problems are “They keep comparing me to others, I’m not as good as they are”. So, with JFM seeming like he doesn’t love JC (at least not as much as WWX), and YZY always berating him for not being as good as WWX, it’s really hard to fault JC for having an inherent idea of “WWX is to blame for his suffering”.

Despite this, JC had also actively spent his life fighting this idea of his. He loved WWX and very rarely let his jealously show at all. Even during the time WWX had been recovering from fighting the XuanWu, and JC was angry and frustrated at his parents fighting in front of them all again, and voiced his concerns about how his father didn’t like him or his mother, leading to WWX comforting him and making the promise he would eventually break (along with my heart but it’s okay I didn’t need it anyway ;-;). This is after JC walked from Qishan all the way back to Lotus Pier without stopping, desperate to save WWX as fast as possible. With his inherent idea of blaming WWX for his problems, on top of not being recognized for such a valiant effort for his brother, JC was in the perfect position to take it out on WWX. But he never actually said it was WWX’s fault, even though we knew he believed it at the time. Yes, he blatantly told WWX that he was upset about his efforts being ignored, but JC’s wording at the time didn’t contain a single line of actual blame towards WWX. (WWX probably heard it different, but those are his problems, not JC’s.) Considering JC is someone who doesn’t think about his words when he’s angry or frustrated, it says a lot about just how much he tries NOT to blame WWX, because he still truly, genuinely loved his brother. As children, JYL told WWX that JC was secretly very happy to have a new companion, even though WWX was the reason for his dogs being taken away. And then we see baby JC crying about being unable to find WWX when he tells him to go away. Yes, there’s probably some fear of punishment from JFM, but if that was the only thing he feared, baby JC didn’t have to promise to chase dogs away to protect WWX for the rest of their lives together. JC loved WWX just as much as WWX loved him, he just has a very, very different love language from his brother.

And then...the fall of Lotus Pier happened. And all of that came crashing down, burning away along with their home. JC finally blamed WWX for what had happened, years and years of pent-up, painstakingly internalized jealously and blame exploding at once. Because no matter what WWX did before, no matter how much trouble WWX caused before, it never cost them THIS much. WWX coming into their lives had never been any REAL trouble, and JC had been able to forgive everything else, because he loved WWX, and because WWX kept him from being lonely. But now his parents, who he desperately wanted the love from, were gone. His home was gone. WWX kept him from running in and taking revenge. WWX was the only person there when he let his emotions take over, and WWX happened to be someone he could blame. So what else could JC do but blame him?

“If WWX hadn’t saved Lan WangJi, if WWX hadn’t provoked Wen Chao, if WWX hadn’t won the archery competition, if WWX hadn’t come into their lives...”

JC’s default response to grief and trauma is anger fused with bargaining. He finds blame in someone or something and focuses on the “What-Ifs”, because that’s what he was raised on. That’s just what he was used to, because JC could never vent like he needed to. WWX and JYL, his only real sources of comfort, never truly listened when he did actually say something. WWX would tell him “You’re better than you think”, while JYL would tell him “That’s how things are, but don’t worry”. While these were said and done out of good intentions, JC’s needs are never really met or even fully acknowledged. No one addresses or even really listens to what causes the problems, often knowing the cause but almost blatantly refusing to really talk about it. Again, this isn’t their fault. Both older siblings had their own coping mechanisms that clashed with JC’s, and their entire family have CLEARLY never been taught proper communication skills, so no one really knew how to communicate in the way they needed to. However, it’s still true that this affected JC the most, given his character. He NEEDED someone to listen to him, he NEEDED the validation that his feelings and person mattered, but he never got it.

And yet...the sad thing about this was that JC himself clearly gave up on trying ti get it himself after Lotus Pier was gone. He let his emotions rule him, seeking revenge against the Wens with every intention of slaughtering them as they did his family during the Sunshot Campaign. We see his loss of morality and hypocrisy when he shows how he was perfectly willing to let WWX, as the Yiling Patriarch, stay by his side as long as he was the enemy of the Wens despite how much he used to be against WWX using resentful energy. We see the innocent child who had only wanted the love and approval of his family become a vengeful man burdened with trauma and the responsibilities of a Sect Leader at too young an age during a time of war.

JC was clearly traumatized by Lotus Pier, and to me, it seemed that he had manifested a fear of seeing his home fall a second time. We see this especially in his passiveness towards the other sects when he was put on the spot during the times WWX “caused trouble” as the Yiling Patriarch, and how much more reactive and unstable he was when talking to WWX before WWX decided to leave the sect. JC had been desperate to keep things stable, safe, that he was willing to abandon the debt he owed towards Wen Qing and Wen Ning. He didn’t want to make enemies of the other sects, because his family and old home were gone. When WWX brought up JFM’s teachings, JC was obviously really affected by it, and I think that’s why he accepted WWX’s duel right then.

One thing I would like to say is this: At this point in their relationship, WWX absolutely wronged JC. Yes, it’s fully understandable why WWX did so, with his horrible misplaced guilt and unwillingness to drag JC into his choices any longer. But JC didn’t deserve this. He reacted badly to WWX after Lotus Pier, but we know for a fact that he was overwhelmed with grief and pain when he did, but despite how much he’d changed, it’s obvious that JC still loved WWX (still should’ve apologised tho). JC didn’t need to try and protect WWX, but he did. Some might argue that he did it for JYL’s sake or to keep power, but I doubt that. If that was the case, he wouldn’t have argued with WWX the way he did, screaming “I won’t be able to protect you!” if he only wanted WWX around for power or for JYL. JC did try, but WWX didn’t. WWX saw their relationship as a debt he owed to JFM and the Sect, and with the transfer of the golden core, he saw that debt repaid. Not once, however, did WWX truly consider JC’s feelings about it, too caught up in his own guilt and thus deciding what he thought was best for his brother. Again, it’s understandable, given what he’s been through. But after the war, WWX was definitely the main reason they fall apart, not JC. Not the mention the whole golden core transfer itself. WWX made the decision for JC, then refused to tell him and let his little brother abuse him as YZY did until they finally separated, WWX willingly breaking the promise he made to JC himself. WWX didn’t even try to reconnect, using the excuse of “the Wens needing him more”. Can you imagine how that must have felt for JC? He didn’t know what WWX did for him, so to him, he could only see his brother abandoning him for almost no reason. WWX was his closest companion his whole life, as well as the person who shaped him the most throughout his childhood. His life and character were dependant on WWX, both positively and negatively. WWX could live without JC, but JC couldn’t live without WWX, and he knew that.

When JYL died, the trauma of Lotus Pier returned, and once again, JC was consumed by grief. So he did the exact same thing he did back then: Blame WWX. And this time, he no longer had a good reason to give WWX leniency. After all, WWX pushed him away. WWX didn’t care about him. WWX chose the Wens, strangers, over him. WWX neglected him just as his own father did. JC’s complicated feelings towards his beloved brother had finally morphed into hatred, and WWX had let it happen. So WWX died, and JC no longer had a physical target to blame. But he needed something, someone, to blame, because that’s how he copes. It’s unhealthy, it’s damaging, it’s cruel, but it’s his coping mechanism. It’s the only way he knows how to deal with things because he never had a single chance to learn to cope in any other way. Thus, he hunted demonic cultivators and tortured them, but his hatred could never be resolved because he would never be able to receive the closure he desperately needed.

Then WWX came back, and JC learned about the golden core transfer.

If you’ve ever had someone sacrificing their time for you without needing to, for example a friend staying up for three days straight to finish a birthday present on time while on a busy and hectic schedule, you’d probably know the momentary guilt of “OMG you didn’t have to do that!” while being grateful to them. Now imagine that guilt times almost 20 years of hating the person who did something so selfless for you while also knowing you mistreated them for a portion of that time. JC was absolutely devastated to know what WWX did for him, because what the hell, the man he hated and blamed, the man who pushed him away and abandoned him for a bunch of strangers from a sect that destroyed their first home, did something that was essentially cultivator’s suicide? For his sake? Because he actually cared for JC despite everything he did? But also, with WWX’s core instead of his own, didn’t it also mean that he was still Not-As-Good as WWX, because he never truly achieved anything great without WWX’s help in some way? The main, EXACT, cause of his insecurities and problems in the first place? Bruh I can’t blame him for having an existential crisis here. I really can’t.

At GuanYin Temple (admittedly I’m basing this off CQL cuz I haven’t gotten there in any other adaption so I don’t know if this scene actually took place there or not), when JC shouted at WWX for everything, JC was finally given a chance to properly vent and finally have someone listen. Yes, WWX being shouted at isn’t favourable, but honestly, I think WWX truly deserved it from JC here. JC was finally able to say things against WWX to WWX’s face, and most importantly, have the last person he grew up with that he used to truly love and treasure tell him his feelings were valid. But even with this, I still find it fully believable and probably even narratively better that JC and WWX never fully resolved their relationship (as much as I want them too, for my heart’s sake) by the end of the story. Because even knowing what WWX did for him, honestly, how on earth could JC trust him again? JC was too hurt for too long, and besides, they were incompatible in the first place. WWX and JC’s personalities and coping mechanisms and all that simply clashed with each other too much for them to go back to being brothers like they used to be. But at least there’s now closure between the two, and Jiang Cheng might be able to finally move on from the past he’s trapped in.

Like I said in the beginning, I find Jiang Cheng the most interesting as a CHARACTER out of the Yunmeng Siblings, and I haven’t even finished what I wanted to talk about with him. Gonna do a post next time about his relationships with others aside from WWX, specifically with Jin Ling probably. Also I don’t actually think Jiang Cheng was neurodivergent to begin with, but that’s also another post all on its own. Anyways I hope y’all survived this long ass post LMAO.

#jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #chen qing ling #cql #my hcs #my posts #my ramblings #my metas #mental health metas

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myaekingheart · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Writing Trauma in [Fan]Fiction

For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about the inclusion of trauma in fiction, namely fanfiction. It’s one of those things that so often pops up in fic but just because it’s done often doesn’t necessarily mean it’s done well. I feel like this is especially true for writing original characters.

Precursory trigger warning for speaking about, you know, trauma (suicide, self harm, eating disorders, death, etc.) in depth. As you can probably already predict from the title. Full text under the cut for brevity’s sake.

Traumatic experiences and backstories are like this rite of passage in fanfiction. Most everyone’s earliest original characters are always given the most heartbreaking, terrible backstories possible because we, as authors, think that that will make our readers more sympathetic to them. I say this as someone who is definitely guilty of this myself. And this is all well and good--some of the most popular mainstream characters come from terrible backstories. It can help explain why characters do what they do and act the way that they act when they are first introduced in a story, and provide space to allow them to grow and evolve throughout the plot (for better or for worse).

I think the issue in giving a character a traumatic backstory, however, lies in the way that this is presented. So often I feel like tragic backstories are used to try and force readers to empathize with and love a character. It’s the almost overbearing sense of “please love me” that I think can cheapen the effect of this developmental tactic. You can’t force an audience to love a character and laying it on thick with why the audience should love your character often seems to do the exact opposite. Readers don’t like to be told what to do or what to think or who to root for. Your character has to prove that they are worth rooting for, or not, based on the way that their past influences their present and the fate of their future. A character who was neglected by their parents as a child is obviously going to be desperate for affection, but think about how it makes them desperate. Do they find themselves constantly in abusive relationships because they are willing to take whatever they can get from whoever will dish out “love” to them, regardless of whether it’s healthy or not? Or because they find comfort in a sense of abuse based on past experiences? Or in contrast, do they push everyone away because they are terrified of letting themselves be loved and opening themselves up to getting hurt again? I know every writing class ever always harps on the “show, don’t tell” but this is one case where I feel like it’s really important. Readers are not stupid. We don’t need to be told straightforward why a character is doing what they’re doing, and sometimes laying everything about a characters past out from the get-go can even dampen the allure of your character. Let the readers learn about the character at the same pace that they would let someone else learn about them. Human beings don’t give away their entire life story in one sitting, and your character shouldn’t, either.

Not only are traumatic backstories so common in fiction, but so are traumatic plotlines. It’s fun to put your characters through hell! It’s fun to break them down and see them at their lowest, when they are left with nothing. After all, conflict is the gasoline which fuels the car of your story and sometimes you never really know what a character is capable of until you break them. I feel like the most symbolic and succinct way to describe this is through that quote “Your characters are like geodes. If you want to see what they're really made of, you have to break them.” However, trauma is a tricky subject. There is a fine line between being authentic and meaningful in dissecting traumatic experiences and laying it on too heavy for the sake of being edgy. I feel like that’s another mistake so many early writers make: feeling as if you have to put your character through ten layers of hell in order for the audience to care about them, too. But this is a dangerous game and trauma is a very personal thing. You don’t want to write insensitively about something very significant at the risk of alienating or even maddening the communities that have personal experience with whatever trauma you’re exploring--if you haven’t experienced it yourself, too, that is. I am a huge supporter of using fiction as catharsis for coping with and processing trauma and anything else troubling that you as a writer may be dealing with, and every situation is different so of course your specific experience will not fit everyone’s narrative of how that trauma may transpire. And if you have been through this sort of thing personally, of course you can be trusted with writing candidly and authentically about it because those are your experiences and no one can steal those from you! You deserve to approach the subject in whatever manner you feel is best for both the story and your own mental wellbeing. For those aiming to write about trauma that they don’t have personal experience with, however, it is so important to write these scenarios with respect. Please do your research, read personal accounts and familiarize yourself with all the ins and outs of what you’re aiming to write. Read up on what it’s like to attempt suicide, what happens after a failed suicide attempt or self harm gone wrong, what to do when you suffer a miscarriage, what grief feels like, what a panic attack feels like, the challenges that chronically ill people face every day and the things that can go wrong when we have flare-ups or are not given the accessibility we need. Don’t trigger yourself, of course, but make sure you are well informed so that you can write trauma in a way that is respectful and authentic.

I am also not going to sit here and tell you not to stack trauma onto a character in a story. I know that life happens and sometimes multiple bad things pile up all at once. Fiction is no different and it’s certainly not uncommon to see a string of bad things befall a character in a story, either. The thing that is important to consider with this, however, is not only respect and authenticity but the way in which these sorts of things would realistically affect someone. The domino effect should feel believable.

For example: character A gets a phone call that character B, their best friend and love of their life, has unexpectedly been killed. This is a traumatic experience enough on it’s own, and the story deserves to explore this character’s consequent grief as they try to navigate their life with this massive hole in their heart now. Perhaps the last thing that character B told character A was something about unwavering support for A in the pursuit of their lifelong dream, something that holds weight and that the grief of losing B can serve as both an obstacle and a motivator for achieving. Familiarize yourself with the after effects and symptoms of mourning in order to write character A’s grief as authentic. Say, for example, they are having trouble sleeping. They are constantly tired but can never fall asleep when they want. They are driving somewhere a few days later and begin dozing off at the wheel. They subsequently get into a nasty car accident. Character A ends up in the hospital with severe but not life-threatening injuries--injuries that completely erase any and all hope of character A ever achieving their dream. What does this loss feel like? How heavy is the betrayal in their chest after having felt so determined to fight against the grief weighing them down in order to accomplish their goals for the sake of character B’s memory? Consider the emotions. Consider the anger and the hopelessness and the depression. Consider what your character decides to do about this. Consider how your character attempts to cope. Perhaps they turn to self harm. Perhaps they feel that the only way that they can manage the pain that they feel is by cutting. Maybe they even think that if they make themselves bleed, it will give an outlet for all of the pain that’s stirred up inside of them. Maybe they even feel as if that pain is deserved, as if everything is their fault (whether it realistically is or not). Maybe they revel in the pain, maybe it becomes the only thing that keeps them sane even if they logically understand that this is unhealthy and dangerous. And maybe their emotions get the better of them and they accidentally take things too far. They accidentally attempt suicide and wake up in the very same hospital they were in when they got into the car accident. The very same hospital where character B was also pronounced dead. Focus on what this means for the character and the story. We as the audience should be able to understand why this character felt like it was necessary to do what they did and what they were feeling in the moment of having made that decision, as well as how having failed will influence and effect them moving forward. That progression should be clear and visible, it should be easy for the audience to track and follow the plot of.

And while writing trauma can be fun and interesting, on the same note of authenticity it is also important to ensure that we are not glorifying trauma, either. We should not be presenting these situations as fabulous deaths and drama. Trauma is a very real and very heavy thing that should be handled with care for the sake of respecting both the characters and the readers. Readers who have gone through similar trauma should not feel as if their struggles are being written as a joke or not taken seriously. They should be able to empathize with the character even if the struggles presented in the story do not exactly mirror their own. Like I said before, the trauma should be believable. And readers who do not have experience with these subjects should not feel inspired by the trauma itself. It is one thing to present a character who is perseverant despite their setbacks, who pushes forward even when it would be easier to quit, and even when they want to quit, but it is another thing entirely to present a character who glamourizes these struggles. A character with an eating disorder should not be seen as an aspiration for thinness and a character who self harms should not be seen as “edgy” and “cool” for hurting themselves. If we are going to write about trauma, we should accept the responsibility that comes with writing subjects in a way that is respectful and authentic rather than glamourizing trauma.

We as writers, however, should not accept the responsibility of censoring ourselves for the sake of a reader’s preference, by the way. We can include trigger warnings and tags all we want, and I think we ought to for the sake of being responsible and letting our readers know exactly what kind of story they are getting into, but that’s just the thing. The reader should know what kind of story they are getting into, but if they click on something with explicit warnings/tags that they know are going to trigger them and continue reading anyway then that is on them and not us. We should not have to completely omit trauma and other taboo/sensitive subjects from our writing for the sake of purity culture.

And on one more note in terms of the inclusion of trauma in fiction itself, also consider how a character’s trauma affects the people around them. How does a character’s suicide attempt affect their best friend? Does their mother recognize their disordered eating behavior? Is their mother the reason behind their disordered eating behavior? Does the character’s love interest cock a brow at them wearing a hoodie in summer and grow curious as to what they’re hiding? And even more: how do the people around your character influence or inspire or motivate them to get better? Or not? Are they steadfastly loyal and determined to help your character through their pain? Or do they feel as if it is not their responsibility to shoulder your character’s burdens and they would rather exit from their life completely? Your character does not exist in a vacuum, so it is important to consider not just the way in which they respond to the world around them because of their trauma, but also the way in which the world responds to them because of their trauma. Let your character exist in conversation with their universe and their social circle. Let your character’s trauma barge in and create a big, looming, unwelcome presence. Let your character work through their trauma in a way that feels believable, and let the people in your character’s life respond to that in a way that feels believable, too.

Overall, just approach trauma with respect and authenticity. Create characters that feel real and believable. Don’t try to force your audience to love your character but rather work to create a character that is dimensional and messy like real people. Let your audience learn your character in the same way that we learn about other people in real life. Let their past trauma influence the way they act in the present and the way they exist within their world and among the people in their life. Do your research, be candid and honest, and above all handle with care.

*Note that I am of course not the end all be all and I do not consider myself some sort of wealth of writing knowledge. I am only writing based on my own personal experiences and things I’ve gleaned from both college-level creative writing courses as well as both reading and writing fiction, specifically fanfiction, for years.

#idk man i've just been thinking a lot about this all day #tw: trauma #awesome things to refer to #writing #writing stuff #meta #ramblings

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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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The thing I hate about Qrow's alcoholism is that it's played as a plot point and they do nothing to hide that. The first 5 volumes? It's something played for laughs or to make him edgy. It's only taken serioulsy in vol. 6 when they need to bring Qrow down a peg and even then, the group doesn't ever talk to him about it. And because they no long have use for it in vol. 7, they do away with the whole thing off screen. It seems, I don't know, disrespectful? To give it that little thought.

Yeah, it’s a part of his characterization that wasn’t allowed to develop smoothly or integrate well with the rest of the plot. And when I say “smoothly” I mean from a writing perspective, not a realistic one. When we’re talking about something like alcoholism, realistically a person isn’t necessarily going to develop in a straight line (from Really Struggling to Getting Help to Being Better, etc.) and those setbacks can absolutely appear in a story. They just have to serve some sort of purpose. What’s the purpose of Qrow’s alcoholism? Initially, as you say, it works to make him look “edgy,” or it’s something we’re meant to laugh at which - obviously - isn’t great. Such a heavy topic (like the racism, like Yang’s PTSD post Volume 5) is treated in a shallow manner. Then the story decides to acknowledge that alcoholism is a major limitation for a fighter, but then doesn’t do anything with that new outlook either. Qrow’s drinking is not, for example, used as a reason for why Ozpin didn’t tell him about Salem, complicating the volume’s ethics. It was not, for example, the catalyst for which we finally learn something about Summer. It was not, for example, used as a way for Ruby or Qrow to just grow as family/huntsmen/people. RT seems to think they achieved that, but I personally don’t believe that Ruby’s anti-adult speech and her announcement that Qrow can tag along if he keeps quiet is a particularly good change - and the show doesn’t acknowledge it as a bad change either. Qrow simply breaks down and none of the other characters show him any compassion. They simply grow more indifferent until he’s finally given that ultimatum and then - miraculously! - he’s able to stop drinking because, as you say, the plot was done with this. Qrow is “cured” for the span of Volume 7 before getting into a fight that kills one of his only friends so... what was the point of all that? What did he, or the group, or the audience learn from this uneven journey? What was the purpose of giving him this growth (messy as it is) only to take it away? (Working under the assumption that Clover’s death will drive Qrow back to drink...)

When we talk about the sensitive topics RWBY includes I think it’s important to remember that, while real life can be confusing, contradictory, and just all around unpredictable, your story shouldn’t be. Just because we can come up with an example to prove that these situations are “realistic” doesn’t mean it’s good storytelling. Defenses like:

“Sometimes people with PTSD can face the assaulter that caused it in the first place with no difficulty whatsoever. There’s actually a lot of research showing that these symptoms only manifest when you’re not in danger. So it’s logical that Yang would just kick Adam’s ass.”

“Sometimes people do decide to just stop drinking after decades of alcoholism. I’ve seen it happen. It makes total sense to me that after days of binging Qrow would simply set the bottle aside and have no trouble avoiding it from then on out.”

“Sometimes racism is simplified down to a bully and an evil corporate leader. Why would the faunus’ struggles impact the story more than they already do? I don’t talk about racism that much.”

“Sometimes people do just take a walk, buy some clothes, and then cook dinner after they’ve been assaulted by a friend. Just because it’s an action show doesn’t mean there has to be drama 24/7. Running away? Kidnapping? That seems a bit extreme. Oscar coming to terms with the group’s behavior as well as his own, presumed loss of identity off screen is really fine when you think about it.”

“Sometimes people do have the exact same reaction to a situation. Why does the group need to respond differently to Ozpin’s choices? I know that my friends would all agree about this, so it’s more than plausible that RWBYJNR would too.”

“Sometimes people can’t handle talking about traumatic things. I know I don’t want to talk about my mother’s death, therefore that must be why Ruby doesn’t talk about her mother either. Same with her silver eyes. If I had that scary power I’d fall straight into ignoring it too.”

Just because we have a personal experience (I know someone who set the bottle down one random day and never went back) or consider the situation semi-plausible (teenage heroes wouldn’t bother to try and help their adult companion because they’ve got other things on their mind) doesn’t mean that’s what’s best for the story. RWBY introduces a lot of sensitive subjects and then does very little to integrate them into the work in a manner that demonstrates an appropriate amount of respect. The question isn’t whether we can imagine Qrow’s journey happening to someone in the real world. The question is whether that journey has been given weight and meaning in this fictional tale. In real life things just happen, but in a story where they’re taking up time and money? They’d better serve a good purpose. The moves from “Qrow’s alcoholism is a funny character trait” to “Qrow is suddenly incapable of functioning” back to “Never mind he’s fine now but let’s see what happens after the murder of his friend” is neither respectful nor beneficial to the rest of the story. Being beneficial is respectful, but honestly you could remove Qrow’s alcoholism and nothing would change, simply because the show hasn’t allowed it to have any kind of impact on him, the cast, or the overarching plot.

#rwby #rwde #mymetas #Anonymous

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booknerdteen · 4 years ago

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★★★★★ 5/5

"Just remember: the choices you make today will be felt by who you have yet to become."

Plot

Clara is a seventeen-year-old who is special. She is an Everwitch. Which means her magic is tied to all four seasons. She is the first Everwitch to appear in almost 200 years so it's a relief when she arrives. But being an Everwitch has its struggles. She has to go through each season while changing and becoming a different person. So she has a personality type for each season. She is forced to evolve and change and move forward but she still remembers her past traumas, with the death of her parents and her best friend Nicki, Clara can't afford to get close to anyone emotionally. So she is moved to a Cabin in the Woods where she can't hurt anyone.

As an Ecological disaster starts to get out of hand, Clara is forced to get out of her comfort zone and use her powers, but she needs training if she's going to be able to save the world.

So she is paired with botanist Sang who is a spring witch and can soothe her worries while training her. But Clara finds herself starting to get attached to Sang, and the last time she had done that - she had killed 3 people.

While still grieving and suffering the loss of her loved ones, Clara can not let this Ecological disaster kill anymore witches so she trains with Sang and develops her magic to the fullest. She starts to let her guard down and trust Sang but getting emotionally attached with him will end bad + she has been planing on stripping herself of magic when the Eclipse arrives. So Clara is left with the ultimate decision. Will she forever live without magic and never have to hurt anyone again while letting other witches die? Or will she take up the duty that has caused her so much pain and loss while risking the people she loves to save the entire world from the ecological situation?

Yeah... theirs a lot going on.

Clara

Surprisingly enough, not annoying. I thought she would be an annoying Character to follow but that honestly wasn't the case. Clara was so realistic. The way she tries to isolate herself so she wouldn't hurt anyone and the way she's so honest with herself. It's beautiful! What's also beautiful is seeing her struggle but still be herself. While changing through the seasons she was still true to herself.

Sang

Sang is a really warm and sweet Character that I adore and can't wait to see more of! (Will we?) I loved how protective he is of Clara! Also, the way he can be both careful and careless at the same time!!!! His love for Plants and Nature really brought out that environmentalist in me to protect what we have because we never realize how much we have until it's gone ;)

Paige

Yessss! This gurl is puuurfect. She's badass, loyal and SO FREAKING hot. I just love her. That's all I'm gonna say.

The Seasons

This book makes me appreciate each and every season even though I'm not a big fan of Summer. ☀️ This book brought out both the good and the bad in all the seasons and that was really nice to see. Also, I loved seeing how they were all connected and had a part to play in keeping the world sane and orderly.

Writing

The writing wasn't my favorite part of the book. In fact, it was the worst BUT the book did make up for that with the plot and great characters so... I'm not complaining.

Confusing things...(bear with me cause these are quite a few)

What is the connection between humans and witches? / What's up with the humans?

So in this world witches rely on humans and humans rely on witches. But what is their CONNECTION. We get that they need each other but do they like each other? And since when do ALL the humans know about witches? Ok...I get that this is a fictional world and the author can do whatever but it at least has to be realistic. I don't understand how everyone could just be ok with the Witches...I don't mean to break the fun but humans are ✨ complicated ✨. There would be some dumb people who are against the witches even though they are literally saving their lives every day.

If Clara's behavior is supposed to be changing every season, isn't it supposed to

be more obvious?

We're in Clara's head but it doesn't feel like she's changing and becoming a different person every season. Other people that know Clara point out that's she's so different from last season's Clara but I don't see any difference.

I was also really confused with the little Epigraph we got at the beginning of each chapter because they were so beautiful and I kept searching "A Season for Everything" on Google and I didn't get where the author got the quotes!! But all those quotes tied up for a precious surprise at the end which is always lovely.

Overall

Overall this book made me CRY. It is a beautiful addition to my nature books and will always hold a place in my heart.

"Women are discouraged from being direct and saying what we think. That's why I love winter: It taught me to stand up for myself when the rest of the world is happy to walk over me."

Thank you Sourcebooksfire and Netgalley for an Advance Readers Copy in exchange for an honest review.

#nature #nature books #Environment #books & libraries #ya books #book review #arc review

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wordsnstuff · 6 years ago

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Guide To Writing Faded Love

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-- This is a thorough guide to writing love that has faded, either quickly or over time, and hopefully you romance writers will find it useful. There’s some general tips outlined, some common questions answered, and some resources linked at the bottom. Happy writing!

You can also find this article (and more) at wordsnstuffblog.com

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The Slow Reveal

It’s important to slowly reveal why the love faded, and the manner in which it did. Was it a slow, slippery fall into a routine of just.. not trying? Was it a quick burst of passion that lead to quick commitment and then ended up being extremely short? Reveal that to the reader, and do it carefully. Tug at their heartstrings, and make them feel it. Don’t reveal it too quick either. Show them the good days, and then show them rotting. It’s that much more bitter sweet that way.

Bring The Characters To Unpack The Big Issue

It’s important to remember that your story will actually read by real people, and whether or not you mean for it to, the story will send a message. It’s vital to keep in mind that no matter the ending to your lovers’ story, they need to be the ones to propel it. No exterior factor can fix or break a relationship. Financial struggle, infidelity, distance, difference, and betrayal are not the causes of a failed relationship, or a faded love. A good rule of thumb is to think “if this factor couldn’t bring the love back, then it couldn’t drive it away either”, and that will always bring you to the conclusion that the only thing that can resolve an issue is the lovers themselves.

Let The Characters Grow, Even If Apart

Not all faded love comes back. Not all faded love stays dull forever. What’s more important than the love returning, is the fate of those who felt it in the first place. Both characters should learn something important, and both characters should be on the path to where they’re meant to be by the end, even if that isn’t with each other.

Love Is A Choice, Not A Chance

I know this is a difficult thing to understand, especially with the way love it typically framed in fiction, but at the heart of every larger-than-life romance, is the choice that was made to conceive it. Love is preserved in the choices people make to keep it alive. There isn’t a person out there who would tell you that they had a perfect love story without any compromise or conscious decision to stay and conserve it. If the love has gone away, it’s not because the couple was unlucky, it’s because one or both of them made a choice. Explain what choice(s) that was and why it was made in the first place.

The Little Things Build Up

It is never one big event or argument or struggle that makes love fade. It’s lots of little things, that each partner overlooks because “it’s not a big deal”, “they’ll get over it”, or “we’ve been through worse and gotten through it”. Show this, and make it hit home. This is the time to insert relatability, and the time to make the reader reflect on their own relationship(s), past or present.

Common Struggles

~ Couples who recognize early on that the fire is going out... There are three types of couples: the ones who try desperately to fix it before it gets critical, the ones who let it simmer and get worse, or the ones who give up immediately. Determine which type your couple is based on their personalities and motivations, then go from there.

~ Depicting faded love vs. evolved relationship dynamic... Faded love is just that. When two people love each other, it’s easy to tell that they’re more comfortable than they are bored or even unhappy. Show this through the little things, and through the way both parties react in mundane situations.

For instance, when choosing a paint color, two people who love each other may bicker, but it would show that they’re both confident that no matter the outcome, it will be a compromise and that the tension won’t long because, in the end, it’s just paint. For a couple whose love has faded, the paint would act as a channel for bigger issues, and the argument wouldn’t really be about paint. That would show in the way their argument escalates.

~ Showing the confusion between love and infatuation... This isn’t always the case for faded love, and for the most part I’d say it usually isn’t because time passing is a major factor in this category of failed relationship, but two people failing to differentiate these two things can often lead to what is mistaken for faded love. Your love can’t fade if you were only ever infatuated with each other, so be careful in this territory.

Stories that are meant to be about faded love, but are based on infatuation that went too far, often fall flat, and the necessary trends that are exclusively for faded love will leave a nasty taste in the reader’s mouth. Arguments between two people who loved each other, but now don’t, are completely different than ones between two people who thought they were in love, but never were. The latter often comes across as abuse, rather than tragic loss of true connection, because the tropes don’t work.

~ How do you show what love fading feels like?... You have to have experience, or have a really practical imagination. Simply, put yourself into different shoes, even if they’re yours from the past, and trust your instincts based on what you have been through. We all know someone who has experienced this in some form, if not ourselves, so don’t be ashamed of asking for others’ stories and recollection. Emotional research is just as valid as any other, and just like representing a mental illness, you will be representing this experience differently than anyone else has ever felt it, so accept that.

~ Parents hiding their situation from the kids... This is a tricky one, because this area is where it gets real, and it starts insinuating aspects of your perspective. A lot of why a lot of couples who don’t love each other stay together (realistically) is religion, traditional values, and shame. These are viewed very differently by any given reader, and is the easiest spot to push some buttons and accidentally push your personal voice through to the point of them noticing.

That aside, I would approach this, like the emotional aspect, from an empathetic angle. Imagine how the kids would feel, how the tension would build, why it would build, how the parents would feel, how the parents’ interactions with the kids would be impacted, etc. Simply, put some time aside to think long and hard about this situation and all its implications.

~ How would a couple revive their love for one another?... That depends on the individuals in the relationship. As I said before, there are three ways a couple would respond to this, and the way they respond greatly impacts the way they would solve the issue. Some would fight for a while and wait for the love to just.. come back. Some would simply call it quits. Some would be in complete denial. You decide, and base it on the characters’ personalities and motivations. Not just what they want in general, but what they want out of the relationship, because whatever they have to fight for is what will determine they strategy they use to do so.

Resources

Angst Prompts

How To Make A Scene More Heartfelt

20 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Young Adult Fiction/Romance

A Guide To Tension & Suspense In Your Writing

Writing Arguments Between Characters

Pros and Cons of Different Points Of View

Tips On Writing Intense Scenes

Resources For Romance Writers

Useful Writing ResourcesUseful Writing Resources II

Resources For Describing Emotions

Giving Characters Bad Traits

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#writing #writeblr #faded love #romance #writing resources #writing tips #writing advice #writing inspiration #love #writing reference #writer #authorblr #writerblr #amwriting #writespo #aesthetic #inspiration #spilled ink #writing prompts

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thebookbud · 5 years ago

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Normal People

A BookBud Review

By Sally Rooney

Finished 06-19-2020

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Basic Plot: This follows the young lives of two people, Connell and Marianne, and their deep connection to one another. Understanding there is something different between the two of them when compared to their other relationships, they stay close but, sometimes by circumstance and sometimes by choice, they can’t seem to push through into a public relationship.

Notable Quote(s):

“He’s amused at himself, getting wrapped up in the drama of novels like that. It feels intellectually unserious to concern himself with fictional people marrying one another. But there it is: literature moves him.”

“If she was different with Connell, the difference was not happening inside herself, in her personhood, but in between them, in the dynamic.”

Overall Rating: ⭐⭐

Readability: 3/5

Plot Interest: 1/5

Creativity: 2/5

I had to review this immediately worried I’d forget much of my feelings otherwise because so much of this book was so frivolous and fleeting but still wanted so badly to be heavy and deep. It all just felt too forced. The characters felt ingenuine. I really just can’t wrap my head around why we continue to romanticize mental illness, like depression and loss of identity are dubbed as somehow congruent with depth and mystery when in reality it’s just demoralizing. Maybe, it’s just meant to be a connection, to put in writing for those suffering through these trenches of emotional toil that there is always hope, you will survive. But I find this particular work to be harmful to those ideas. It was realistic, I’ll have to give it that. Some people never make it through those trenches, some people never pull themselves back up. But the basic concept of personal happiness being able to be invested in another’s individual attachment is disheartening and impossible. I felt this was trying to reach a depth and convey hurt and trauma in a genuine light, one without shame, which in that, I believe it did. These characters were never meant to be hated, maybe pitied at times but never hated. They also portray a lot of really negative concepts and they never really seem to break through that does offer a bit of realistic quality.

I gave this 2 out of 5 stars. What Rooney meant to do in giving characters who portray struggles of the mind, she did well. Almost too well in that they are hopeless. I mean, the sheer fact that they are akin to star-crossed lovers but have legitimately no reason to be as such, exemplifies exactly how badly these characters are hurting, most of which is self infliction. Rooney also touches deeply on these codependency like concepts in that they are so deeply attached, no matter how it may sting in the end, that they just can’t break ties and are further adding to deterioration of one another’s mental health by needing eachother instead of supporting. I felt she did a good job showing these mental instabilities and opens an interesting door for people to step through that need to relate, but I just felt this actually romanticized too many ideals that are in one with poor mental well being and for that, I just couldn’t enjoy it. I also felt that too much of the actual writing felt unnecessary. Paragraphs about how someone is stirring their coffee, or sipping it. I think I can understand why this did so well on TV from what I’m hearing. It almost reads like a play, and the characters give eachother knowing looks that are meant to excite you as a reader but instead I felt even further detached for feeling out of place in this little emotional war zone happening on the pages. There wasn’t any real substance, just hurt people moving about messes up lives.This book may have left a bad taste in my mouth, but I do still see what others may have enjoyed about it in that it is realistic and I suppose, relatable for others, but I am definitely not the target demographic here.

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#Normal People #Sally Rooney #Rooney #Book Reviews #Personal

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socksual-innuendos · 5 years ago

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j grahams and emi

So idk if you wanted them as seperate characters or how they handle together but I’m gonna do both...all three? Y e a h

A Realistic HC

For Joshua, he’s prone to skin conditions even when he’s careful. His skin no longer acts like normal skin and can’t create the slightly acidic environment that helps kill microbes. Because of this, if he isnt thorough in cleaning himself, he can end up with skin infections or microbial growth very easily. I also think he has to dry himself off thoroughly after a wash or that he cant have wet bandages or clothes sticking to his body for too long. This would keep moisture close to his body which would again allow something to start growing on him. To slightly build off of this, I do think he smells a bit mossy at times.

For Em, I see her age starting to catch up to her after the bullet. She’s felt it before but NV events really lock it in. There’s plenty of ache, plenty of soreness, plenty of injuries that take a while to heal. She still loves what she does, but some mornings she just wants to go back to bed.

For both? Not certain, but I don’t properly know who kills who, or if either will at all. I think a big arc for Emi would be letting him go, at least in the target sense. She’s a headhunter and her desire to be the one to put Graham down is actually what allows them to start growing closer as friends. He’s so easily replaceable by different people she’s met, yet the fixation she has for being the one to kill him allows him to become more to her (she still wants to kill him though)? In the end he throws it all away and dropping their friendship completely is a choice Emi easily makes but, she could still return to Zion to see him one last time (not that he would see her, if she’s careful) and get her final kill. They’re both tough bastards, and they both have wills of steel, but I’m not entirely certain they would even get to that point.

Not realistic, but hilarious,

For both? It would def be Emi pegging him. While I think Emi would be able to do it and I laugh at the prospect that Graham gets off to it and is deeply ashamed by that, I cant work it into their story naturally. Still though, he gets the shocker at some point, and it goes about as well as you’d imagine.

For Em, I love to exploit her 10 Agil in stupid ways. I’m talking full spiderman shenanigans. She just abuses that grappling hook of hers in ways that doesnt make physical sense and you know what? This is fiction for a reason, and the frog has decided to drop in.

And Graham uuugh-- This might be more realistic headcanon taken a bit far but like, him reverting to a gross teenage boy when no one is looking.

Heartbreaking HC thats fun to inflict

God what isnt fun to inflict on Emilia. I cant think of anything canonical to her story immediately but anything that leaves her without Cam in some fashion kills me. Em can endure a lot of shit but her sister is her rock in all cases. In fact a whole au i have is based around Camila just not being there, and Emi is Much Different. I think the loss of Cam is the best heartbreak though. Emi can’t handle it in any capacity, and unless she has somewhere to focus that grief and pain she’s immediately unhinged.

You can never make me feel bad for Joshua buuuuuut— I think about how a lot of folks don’t mention that once shit is said and done, he probably feels conflicted over Caesar’s death. Edward being alive meant Joshua didn’t have to think about much aside from the anger, but now that he’s gone from the world? Graham has nothing but the past to focus his rage at, and 30+ years of friendship and ruling together heavily overpowers five years of denial and assassination attempts. Now hes left to face the loss, and its an unprocessed loss. And its also a loss he cant talk to anyone about because no one mourns the wicked. I fully believe that he has very few avenues allowing him closure over this, and that it will conflict him for the rest of his life.

For both uuugh, I think they’d make amazing partners if Graham could get over his pride. At the end of the day Graham’s need to fill his leader role inevitably prioritizes image over interpersonal relationships. Being a trade route away from Vegas, he’s basically Em’s neighbor and she was open to the idea of them staying friends. He however made his choice and he will die lonely on his throne. Given their dynamic, there’s so much potential between these two that will never get explored because Graham is well, Graham, and no matter what alternate routes rock bottom gives him, hes going to try and climb right back into his war chief role.

What I ignore canon for

A lot of shit, lmao. For both of them, I am overwriting a lot of the climax dialogue and HH ending. Emi prevents him from killing Salt purely because she is pissed and doesnt want him to have his satisfaction. She’s angry he dragged her into this, she’s pissed she cares about Chalk and that she couldn’t leave him, she’s angry that Joshua abandoned her (leading to her being injured) because he’s obsessive. She wanted that dog to sit and she made him do it, one way or another. They hate each other a while, and whether he realizes it or not I fully believe Joshua is less receptive then on to her because she managed to force him down. I have a lot of thought about how the endings to Honest Hearts should actually be switched, but this is an Ignore Canon answer for Joshua.

Emi I ignore a lot of in game mechanics for. She broke Raul out first and he was her first and main companion for a while, a lot of Lonesome Road story gets ignored because it fucks with her story previous to NV, and she does head straight to Jacobstown via Quarry Junction. Emi is an old and seasoned bird, she can handle herself and knows the roads. Because of this the game goes a little backwards for her, and her biggest struggle was trying to get into the Strip (She really pissed off Mick and Ralph at first, and in the end they eventually sold her the damn fake pass lol).

For Joshua, I think his endings slides should be switched for the choices you make. I want to see a Joshua that is resentful about the courier talking him down. I want to see him going full force after that, angry that he was again controlled into going against his beliefs (see: blame shifting him losing faith during Legion Time as Edward’s fault). Let me see Joshua acknowledging he went full emotional bitch when slaughtering Salt, let him be more mindful of not losing himself to emotion later on when he’s leading the tribes. Let his path come from within rather than having a third party trying to make him ‘good’. He’s a self made man in the sense that everything he’s done is because it’s what he wanted, or what he does to fix things is because he had saw issue within it.

#joshua graham #Emilia Vazquez

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kcwcommentary · 6 years ago

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VLD7x01 – “A Little Adventure”

7x01 – “A Little Adventure”

It was the news of this episode that caused me to arrange a weekend marathon, first catching up watching seasons three through six and then the new season seven. One weekend, 39 episodes. I was so excited to learn that the show was revealing not just that Shiro was gay but also that he had had a same-sex “significant other,” to use executive producer Lauren Montgomery’s words. I didn’t avoid spoilers about this episode, which had been shown at San Diego Comic Con, so I knew that the only content in this episode was the flashback scene of Adam breaking up with Shiro. But given how much LM and Joaquim Dos Santos were applauding themselves during the two weeks between SDCC and the season seven release, I thought for sure that there would be more interaction between them in the season than this one scene.

I did not expect Shiro and Adam to get back together, but because their breakup was told in a flashback, I thought there would be at least one scene of them talking to each other when Shiro got back to Earth to resolve the emotional content of the flashback scene. Scenes like this flashback serve a specific narrative function: to set up something more. This show failed to provide anything more. Between the Friday release of season seven and my starting my marathon on Saturday afternoon, the news that this one flashback scene was all there was, that Adam was killed off almost instantly the next time we see him after this episode, that once again a show had used the bury your gays trope, it was all being discussed online. I became furious.

JDS and LM had been going around for two weeks acting like they had accomplished something major, and then I find out that the queer inclusion was blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. For me, it felt more hurtful than if they had just not had any inclusion whatsoever. I’m used to most stories ignoring the existence of queer people. What JDS and LM did was manipulate us. They used queer identity as nothing more than a means to promote the season. This is why JDS and LM were accused of queerbaiting the audience, not because of any long period of the show suggesting Shiro was gay without ever confirming it, but because JDS and LM used their many interviews between SDCC and the release of season seven to significantly hype the reveal about Shiro. That promise of inclusion through Shiro’s relationship with Adam was the bait they used to get people to watch season seven, but this one, short flashback scene of the breakup in this episode is the entirety of that relationship.

The anger of the fandom was significant enough that JDS and LM posted apologies online a few days later. Those apologies did not help.

JDS said they had to kill Adam because “we knew seeing a familiar face bravely make the sacrifice along with the squadron he led (and countless others) would help get across the gravity of this invasion.” The only reason Adam was a “familiar face” is because of the two weeks they spent hyping him up, not because of the show itself. Before his death scene, he’s only ever in the flashback scene in this episode. If a viewer was relying exclusively on the show itself, it is easy for that viewer to watch Adam’s death and to have completely forgotten who he was.

JDS said, “We were aware of the ‘bury your gays’ trope but hoped against hope that our struggle to confirm Shiro’s orientation would take center stage here.” They knew that they were using the bury your gays trope, they just hoped people wouldn’t notice.

JDS said, “We had not intended for Adam to be interpreted as a recurring character or someone that would come back into Shiro’s life.” You don’t do a flashback scene like the one in this episode if you don’t plan on resolving it by later having the two characters meet again. Also, JDS has since contradicted this statement in interviews saying that they had wanted to have Adam return with Veronica, but that they didn’t have time to change it back to that supposed original intention because they had changed it to have Adam killed before they were told they could reveal Shiro as gay. Because of instances of public contradiction like this, I don’t trust anything really that JDS and LM say to be the total truth.

JDS said, “We knew people would be affected by the loss of Adam we just could not have predicted how profound that loss would be.” I do not know how he and the rest of his crew could have been this ignorant and oblivious. They are not the first show to employ the bury your gays trope. They weren’t even the first show to do so in the year season seven was released. Audience anger at the use of that trope is not new, so I can only conclude that JDS and his crew just didn’t care to know the history of queer characters in stories to realize why bury your gays is so offensive. Also, this statement and the “familiar face” statement reveal that JDS and LM’s decision to kill Adam was yet another instance of their purposefully trying to manipulate the audience. All writing is a choice. They could have chosen to kill another character instead, but they specifically chose Adam. They wanted people to experience some form of shock in watching Adam be killed, and they thought the best way to produce that shock was to kill a character whose sole characteristic is that he’s gay.

On to the episode. This was a pivotal episode for me, so I have a lot to say.

The episode is credited as written by May Chan and Mitch Iverson. It’s my understanding that May Chan is given a writing credit here, despite not having any credits since 3x02 “Red Paladin,” because she’s the one who wrote this episode’s flashback scenes. I have seen some reference in the fandom to how the content of these flashbacks were originally going to have been included early in season two when Shiro and Keith were trying to survive on that planet in 2x01 “Across the Universe.” So, if JDS and LM are telling the truth when they say that Shiro being gay has been a part of his character from really early on, and these flashbacks were originally written for season two, and JDS and LM wanted to kill Shiro at the end of season two, then they wanted to use the bury your gays trope in killing Shiro too. They wanted to kill the gay character to promote the emotional development of a straight character (Keith). Their approach to including queer characters in the show has always been problematic, at best.

The episode opens at a school – I think Keith is supposed to be something like 12 or 13 years old here. Shiro is there to give a school talk and promote the Galaxy Garrison. The teacher introduces Shiro, saying, “I’m sure you all recognize him. He’s the youngest pilot to ever lead a mission into space.” So, Shiro is a celebrity due to his piloting achievements. This helps give some scope to why Lance has described Shiro as being a role model for him. Every kid in the classroom seems excited, except for Keith, who is just staring out the window. It makes me feel sad seeing Keith so disengaged like this. Shiro clearly notices that Keith is mentally distant. I love when characters (and people in real life) demonstrate significant interpersonal insight like this.

Shiro has brought with him a mobile flight simulator for these students to be tested on. James, who we first saw sitting several seats from Keith outside an office at the Galaxy Garrison during a flashback in 6x05 “The Black Paladins” (a scene that’s repeated in this episode) and will see again as a pilot later this season, is up front, the most eager to use the flight simulator. The visuals of the simulator are ridiculous. It seems like it’s relying on the mistaken belief that the asteroid belt is more dense than it is. The show can’t hide behind a fictional location for the content of this simulation because this scene takes place in a time at which no one on Earth had been outside of our solar system, so this simulation has to be of our asteroid belt. A pilot navigating through our asteroid belt would not have to be dodging asteroids like this because the asteroid belt is nowhere near this dense. Also, anyone having a reaction speed as fast as depicted here, let alone kids, is not realistic. But whatever.

There’s a montage of various kids eventually crashing into asteroids and failing the simulation, including James. Keith sits alone, away from everyone, just looking at the ground. The emotion of Keith’s loneliness is tangible for me. Shiro has let Keith sit off to himself until everyone else has had their turn with the simulator, and then he finally turns to Keith. Keith’s reaction almost makes me think he was surprised that Shiro even noticed him. Not surprising, Keith is really good. “That emo kid’s doing it,” one miscellaneous student says. It’s frustrating that the show, with that line of dialog and with so many others prior to this, is so reductive of Keith’s character to derogatorily label him as “emo,” as if Keith’s emotions aren’t valid. He never knew his mother (until season six) and his father died when he was young, resulting in his being put in an orphanage. His emotionality seems totally justifiable to me.

James is antagonistic toward Keith, saying the simulator must be broken for Keith to have made it past level 5. James’s behavior here is very reminiscent of Lance’s and his perceived rivalry with Keith, so much so that I don’t know why, if they wanted a character to react to Keith like this here, they didn’t just have this be Lance instead of James. With characterization so sparse in this show, why take one of the few characteristics of Lance and give it to another character?

The teacher gives Shiro a list of students she thinks are best suited for the Garrison, and Shiro wants Keith on the list. The teacher then engages in seriously unethical behavior. Clearly able to be heard by both Keith and all the other students, she is dismissive of Keith to Shiro, saying, “He’s a bit of a discipline case. I don’t think he’d necessarily fit in with the rigid Garrison culture.” Even if a student is a frequent discipline problem, no teacher should be having this kind of administration-level discussion in front of the whole class. No wonder Keith is angry, adults like this teacher publicly degrade him given the chance. She then tries to hype up James Griffin, and the show, in giving James a last name, does something it never does for most of its main characters. The show expects us to like James and all the other pilots later in the season, but this introduction to James does not make me like him one bit. The teacher explicitly dismisses Keith and promotes James in a juxtaposition. The show writing James’s introduction this way instantly positions James as an antagonist to Keith.

As soon as the teacher speaks dismissively of Keith and praises James nearly in the same breath, Keith purposefully fails the simulator. He steals Shiro’s transport and drives off. Cut to later, Shiro is getting Keith out of a Juvenile Detention Center. Keith expresses surprise that Shiro would not only not be mad but also help him after that. Keith has clearly had little support in his life. Shiro wants Keith as part of the Garrison and gives him an address to report to. It is a little odd that Shiro drives off, leaving Keith standing in the Juvenile Detention Center’s parking lot, instead of driving Keith home though.

I’m going to say this now and I will say it again in this commentary: I love the music of this episode.

Meanwhile in the main story (I take it that all the non-flashback scenes are the writing of Mitch Iverson), the Paladins are still on that planet like they were at the end of season six. Shiro, now in the clone’s body, is being kept in the healing pod. Allura says, “Only time will tell if this body will accept Shiro’s consciousness.” This statement is a reminder that this body belonged to someone else and the Paladins took it from him to give to Shiro. If the clone is supposed to somehow be an empty body, then there should be no chance of the body rejecting Shiro’s spirit. But if there’s supposed to be a conflict between the clone and Shiro, then the show needed to actually show that. Also, how could Allura have been so confident in taking Shiro’s spirit from the Black Lion and putting it in the clone’s body at the end of last episode and then now have worries about if the process is viable? Shouldn’t she have discussed that with everyone prior to doing it last episode? This whole moment feels really contrived just so the episode can threaten Shiro’s wellbeing.

Pidge says that she’s tried contacting the Voltron Coalition to ask for help, but that she can’t get through to anyone. Hunk says the Lions need their energy systems recharged. Allura says, “If we had the Castle of Lions, we could recharge them.” Uh, since when did they ever use the Castle to charge the energy systems of the Lions? Why would they even need to? In 3x07 “The Legend Begins,” Alfor says that he made the Lions “from the quintessence-infused ore of the comet, which provides them with an endless supply of power.” In other words, the show has established that the power systems of the Lions are self-sustaining. They never would need to be hooked up to the Castle of Lions to recharge. The show now acts like the Lions need an external source of power, whereas the show has previously established that their power is inherent. So, this energy depletion is a contrived situation that is inconsistent with what the show has already established about how the Lions function.

Coran suggests a potential course of action, that they could use some fictional substance to do something. None of it is important. Keith tells everyone to go get what they need, that he’ll stay with Shiro. Krolia steps up beside Keith, and Allura says she’ll stay too.

And then Romelle speaks. I actually think Romelle’s dialog here is important. She says, “Wait. You just fought Lotor, defeated him, stopped an explosion that could have destroyed reality, took your friend’s consciousness from the Black Lion of Voltron and put it inside his clone, and now we’re simply moving on?” Hunk replies, “Trust me, I’m always saying the exact same thing, but these guys like to move on.” This totally lampshades the show’s plot. By employing lampshading this blatant, the writers are demonstrating that they know the show’s story is badly written, and they are effectively asking the audience to ignore it. This is the second instance of lampshading used recently, the other being in Ezor’s dialog in 6x06 “All Good Things.” If an audience has a net-positive reaction to a story, lampshading confusing or senseless parts of a plot can even read as humorous. But this show has burned the audience at this point, so this moment of lampshading with Romelle feels more offensive. This is the writers saying that they don’t want to have to do the necessary work of following up on the trauma inherent in the situation Shiro and the clone have gone through. The show wants us to “move on.” I even kind of wonder if the dialog being specifically phrased “but these guys like to move on” is even some subtle reference, Hunk standing in for the episode’s writer and the “these guys” being a reference to the executive producers. I have nothing to substantiate that idea, but I do kind of wonder what the creative relationship between the writers, at least the non-Tim Hedrick and non-Joshua Hamilton writers, and the EPs were like. For a long time now, I’ve suspected that the work environment for this show had a disruptive level of toxicity to it, and I’d be curious to know for sure what it was truly like.

We flashback again (so, supposedly back to May Chan’s writing). Keith is looking at a ship that Shiro identifies as “the Calypso, the first ship to carry astronauts to the moons of Jupiter.” Keith demonstrates knowledge of space exploration history by following up with a statement that “it took them three years to get there, longest voyage of its kind.” Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery have called Shiro “boring,” but I don’t know how anyone could watch Shiro in this scene and think he was a boring character. He says, “Reading about that mission is what made me want to be a pilot. Those astronauts braved the unknown. People can accomplish incredible things if they’re willing to put in the time and effort.” This shows that Shiro is a curious, dedicated person. He is someone who aspires. Some stories just use space as a setting, and they can be fun stories too, but I love the portrayal of the sense of wonder that space causes those who seek to explore it to feel. What Shiro says here is at the heart of his character’s motivation. His character is also revealed, not just through his personal aspiration, but also through his ability to inspire others to want to achieve too. He speaks very supportively to Keith here.

Back to the now of Coran, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Romelle looking for whatever they’re looking for. Honestly, given how emotional the Shiro-Keith flashback scenes are, I don’t care for this Coran and crew plot whatsoever. It’s not exactly a bad story, but juxtaposed to such significant, quality, character-driven storytelling like the flashback scenes, the Coran and crew plot is meaningless and just takes up time. There is some humor in it. Coran licking yelmore spray off of flowers and his yelmore animal call make me laugh. I also laugh at a small moment between Pidge and Romelle. Romelle asks, “Are all ancient Alteans like this?” and Pidge responds, “Well, we only know two.” Things go awry and they all get sprayed by some other animal, and the spray instantly shrinks them. Thus, this plot turns weird and feels tonally unlike anything this show has done before.

Back to the flashback scenes. A group of Galaxy Garrison cadets are working collectively in simulators. The process is so easy for Keith that he yawns. Also involved in this group simulation are Hunk, Lance, and James. Of course, the show has Hunk’s contribution to the scene be only his queasy stomach. Keith feels unchallenged by the current simulation and “test[s his] controls.” First Lance, then James, then the no-name others glare at Keith. In the simulation, Keith jets away from the rest. Afterward, Colonel Iverson yells at everyone, saying that because of Keith the whole group will have to spend several weekends running drills in the simulator.

James again demonstrates that his place in the story is that of being an antagonist, further making his switch-flip turn into a protagonist later in the season annoying. He says to Keith, “We all know the only reason you’re here is because of Shiro.” Keith retorts, “I can out-fly anyone in this building.” James reaches a peak of antagonism then by mockingly saying, “Oh yeah, is that what mommy and daddy told you before—” and he doesn’t get to finish before Keith punches him, knocks him to the ground, jumps on him, and starts to beat him up. To go on a tangent briefly, this is something that infuriates me about our society, and I think this episode accurately depicts this reality: In schools, kids are allowed to bully other kids the way James does to Keith here. Depending on the situation, teachers are either too overworked to notice or they just don’t care and let it happen. The instant that a kid who is bullied fights back, the kid who’s bullied gets in trouble. The conclusion is that kids who are bullied are expected to endure the onslaught of the bullying while our institutional authorities allow the bullying to happen.

We cut to the scene that was in the flashback in 6x05 “The Black Paladins.” Keith and James are sitting outside the, presumably, principal’s office. Shiro is inside speaking on Keith’s behalf. Keith clearly has a very low sense of self-worth, telling Shiro, “You should just send me back to the home already.” These flashbacks do so much character work, revealing to us how much Keith needs to feel wanted by others, and it breaks my heart. I love how supportive Shiro is.

Back to Coran and crew, and I’m still not interested.

Back to the flashbacks. I love the music of this scene so much. Shiro and Keith are flying around on hovercrafts, showing some of how Keith developed his hovercraft piloting skills that he used in rescuing Shiro in 1x01 “The New Alliance,” including jumping laterally across a chasm from one ledge to another. Shiro is clearly having fun racing with Keith here. Like Keith in “The New Alliance,” Shiro dives forward off a cliff (I think it’s supposed to be the exact same cliff). Keith, here, however is too hesitant, so he stops at the cliff’s edge. Keith eventually catches up to Shiro, who’s parked. They watch the sunset together.

I love the music of the sunset so much, more than I can ever describe. I have very strong emotional reactions to sunsets. They have a way of instantly evoking a sensation of nostalgia, wistfulness, and peace. And this music perfectly manifests those emotions. I totally love this moment. (And it annoys me that this music is again used for a sunset scene between Keith and Lance in season eight. Using it there for the two of them feels like a violation of the beauty of this scene and the emotional bond between Shiro and Keith.)

The two of them discuss Shiro’s dive off the cliff. He explains how he did it, and Keith wonders if he is “ready to try that.” Shiro playfully turns the question back on Keith, saying, “What do you think?” and Keith, thoughtfully, answers, “Maybe I should be patient and keep focusing on the basics first.” Shiro asks, and Keith confirms, that Keith grew up in this rocky desert. Keith lived here with his dad, who was a fireman. Keith thinks of his dad as a hero because his father ran back into a burning building, supposedly being the event that killed him.

And then the show hints at Shiro being sick with his using “electro-stimulators to keep [his] muscles loose.” Keith picks up on something benig wrong with Shiro, but Shiro casually dismisses it and says, “It’s just what happens when you get to be an old-timer.”

Back to Coran and crew, and I’m still not interested.

Back to the flashback, where Admiral Sanda is telling Sam Holt that Shiro, despite having cleared all his physicals, “is sick and shouldn’t be sent on another mission, especially as far away as Kerberos.” Sam Holt stands up for Shiro, saying he won’t go on the mission if Shiro doesn’t. Keith is in the hallway and can overhear the argument through the open door.

Then we get the infamous scene between Shiro and Adam. Despite how supposedly close the two of them are, you couldn’t tell it from this scene. The staging does not feel like they’re a couple, keeping them instead across the room from one another. They barely look at one another. The scene ends up not feeling like Shiro and his significant other, and instead feels more like the end of a relationship that was really over a long time before this. This scene gives no sense of these two characters being in love. Shiro is upset because Colonel Iverson called in Admiral Sanda to try to keep Shiro off the Kerberos mission. That Iverson was involved makes Shiro joking with Sam Holt in in a way that suggests friendship between Shiro and Iverson in 5x05 “Bloodlines” even more baffling.

Adam sides with Iverson, citing the mission as a risk to Shiro’s health. Shiro reaffirms how exploration of space is important to him. Adam wants Shiro to view their relationship as more important that Shiro’s desire to explore space. Adam is worried that the mission could result in Shiro’s death. As I said in my commentary for 1x07 “Tears of the Balmera,” the addition of Adam’s worry about Shiro’s health regarding the Kerberos mission in this episode adds a new dimension of emotional pain the revelation in “Tears of the Balmera” that the Galaxy Garrison publicly blamed the destruction of the Kerberos mission on Shiro, saying that it was pilot error. I imagine Adam would have been heartbroken hearing that news, thinking he was right that Shiro’s illness caused him to lose his life. That the show kills Adam, him never learning that Shiro did not die, that Shiro was not at fault for the Kerberos mission, well, it pisses me off. It contributes to how it feels like the EPs and writers of this show wanted to hurt Shiro, and it also makes it seem like they wanted to hurt queer characters.

Adam reduces Shiro’s desire to go on this mission down to the idea that Shiro’s trying to prove something, but we know it’s not about proving anything. It’s about Shiro wanting this experience. He wants to explore space. He likes the way it feels to do this work. He doesn’t pursue this work because he’s competing with anyone, even if he has broken flight records. It is hurtful that Adam doesn’t seem to understand that. It’s realistic though that two people in a relationship would break up because they have different things they want to get out of life.

Adam says, “But I won’t go through this again.” What does that mean? Does he just mean Shiro being away on a mission? Does that mean Adam hasn’t actually been supportive of Shiro’s work even though he says he has? Whatever this is supposed to be referencing, it’s important context, suggesting this is a long-term argument between the two of them. We never get any details as to what has happened before that would result in Adam saying “again” here. I think this line in particular is why this scene feels like this is the end of a slow-process breakup.

I’m okay with Adam feeling like they’re on diverging paths, wanting different things in life, and breaking up over it. I’m not okay with him seemingly not understanding why working space missions are important to Shiro. Adam can claim he’s supportive of Shiro, but with this breakup, it does not feel like he is or really ever has been.

And by having Adam break up with Shiro, it feels like it’s just another instance of the show writing everything to hurt Shiro. And since this is the episode and the scene that reveals Shiro is gay, with Shiro never seeing Adam again, never resolving the tension this scene ends on, it feels like the show is only willing to include gay characters if the story makes them and keeps them unhappy and rejected.

Lauren Montgomery, now infamously, posted a sketch dated November 8, 2016. Hunk and Keith holding a placard with the word Race on it, Allura and Pidge with one with the word Gender on it, and Shiro and Lance with one with the word LGBT on it. At the bottom is a caption: “You are deserving of respect!!!” The show in revealing Shiro is gay, inflicting emotional pain on him in the process, through having the reveal come from Adam breaking up with him, and the show having the rest of the season and the next one having Shiro alone, isolated from the Paladins, no one ever speaking to him as a friend, does not put Montgomery’s claim that LGBT people are deserving of respect into practice. When viewers complained about how the show never lets Shiro have anything that makes him happy, JDS and LM seem to have interpreted that solely through a reductive perspective that viewers were saying Shiro needed to end the story in a relationship, thus the emergency epilogue being added to the end of the last episode having Shiro marrying Curtis. Of course, we fans of Shiro are not against the idea of Shiro ending the show in a relationship, but our criticism is bigger than Shiro having a same-sex relationship. That JDS and LM responded to criticism how season seven handles Shiro being gay and Adam’s death by thinking the solution was to just fling an empty same-sex marriage at us shows that they did not understand why people were so furious over seasons seven. In the end, they could not see Shiro as anything but gay. Respect would have been writing Shiro to be a whole person, with being gay as just a fundamental and important part.

Shiro is an explorer, a pilot, a teacher, a leader, a friend, a fighter, a good man, and a gay man. But with the revelation that he’s a gay man in this episode, the show now begins its process of sidelining Shiro. Being Black Paladin is taken from him. He fought for the Black Lion in seasons one and two. Like here in these flashbacks, we see that Shiro fought to be allowed to pilot space exploration missions. With the EPs taking being the Black Paladin from Shiro, it makes them feel like Colonel Iverson and Admiral Sanda wanting to take being a pilot away from Shiro. They write him increasingly separated and isolated from the other Paladins, his supposed friends. Even with the depiction in seasons one through six and especially in this episode of how close Shiro and Keith are and how important their relationship is for both of them, the next two seasons take that away from Shiro too, leaving the two of them to only ever speak in the most perfunctory ways in season eight. It feels like with the revelation that Shiro is gay, the show decided that he couldn’t be allowed to have a relationship, including friendship, with anyone.

Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery wanted to kill Shiro from the beginning of the show. They did kill him at the end of season two. Imagine May Chan’s flashback scenes from this episode but instead set during Shiro and Keith’s time crashed on that planet in 2x01 “Across the Universe.” Imagine the revelation of Shiro’s illness as set-up for Shiro pushing Keith to become the team leader. In that context, Shiro encouraged Keith to see himself as leader because Shiro thought his illness would eventually kill him. It’s insulting that the EPs and writers thought this was a respectful way to write Shiro’s character.

And what about this illness? The show never confirms that Shiro no longer has to worry about the illness. JDS said the disease is no longer a problem in an extratextual interview, but no one respected Shiro’s character enough to resolve this illness plot in the actual show. This episode introduces the illness and then it is forgotten hereafter. That’s how much respect the EPs and writers have, that they just threw a life-debilitating, potentially life-ending illness on Shiro and didn’t bother any textual revelation that he’s now free of it. It makes the inclusion of the illness in the story absolutely cheap, and it pisses me off.

Back to Coran and crew, and I’m still not interested.

Back to the flashback scenes. Shiro is working on the systems of a hovercraft. Keith walks up, upset, asking him “When were you going to tell me?” He tells Shiro he overheard the argument with Sanda. Shiro explains, “I have a disease, and it’s getting worse. I’ll only be able to maintain my peak condition for a couple more years, after that—The Garrison doesn’t want me up there, neither does Adam.” While whatever disease that Shiro has is not HIV, I cannot escape the distasteful way that the show reveals a character to be gay and to have a disease in the same episode. It feels like the reductionism that a lot of people engage in when they equate being gay with being sick. Our society has gotten better at not doing so, but I’m roughly the same age as Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, so I’m quite acquainted with when our society did mostly equate being gay with having a disease. I can’t help but to be uncomfortable with the implications of this episode simultaneously revealing Shiro to be gay and to have this disease.

Keith asks Shiro, “So, what are you going to do?” And Shiro, looking down, gets an expression of determination and says, “I’m going on the mission.”

Back to Coran and crew, and I’m still not interested. They have made their way onto a yelmore and ride it to a spot. It digs, some bubbles float out of the dirt, it hollers, and other yelmores come running. The yelmores link ears and dig up more of the bubbles. The shrunk Paladins jump off the yelmore and somehow all luckily fall into the bubbles. Doing so causes them to return to their normal size. It makes little-to-no sense. It’s all just a giant whatever.

Back with Shiro in the healing pod. Allura says, “I’m afraid the clone body has rejected Shiro’s consciousness.” I can still feel JDS and LM’s desire to kill Shiro in this moment.

Keith slams the pod with his fist in frustration. Keith’s voice acting is good. “Shiro, please. Fight. You can’t do this to me again.” The ache in Keith’s voice hurts. The pod’s display then indicates Shiro’s vitals improving. Keith opens the pod, saying Shiro’s name.

Shiro, with more really good voice acting, looks at Keith and says, “I was dreaming. Keith, you saved me.” Keith hugs Shiro and replies, “We saved each other.” It is so emotional. It still makes me cry watching it.

I love the music during this moment. It affects me in similar ways to the music during the sunset scene. This music evokes something that feels pure to me. It contributes to why the relationship between Shiro and Keith is the most important and interesting thing to me in this entire series.

Coran and crew return. Lance relates their absurd experience, and Shiro just laughs and says, “It’s good to be back.”

I was so excited to learn that the show was revealing Shiro to be gay. He was my favorite character. He was the lead character, at least in seasons one and two. He was strong, brave, supportive, calm, a leader. It meant something to think that this show was going to make a statement by having such a character be revealed as gay. But then, the how of they did it was a huge disappointment. Realizing how JDS and LM were totally manipulative of the audience during the two weeks between SDCC and the season seven release made me feel totally deceived and used. I did not feel respected. Their attempts at justification in their apology were offensive.

I’m not a big mecha fan (maybe I just haven’t seen the right mecha stories yet), but I am a big science fiction fan, especially space science fiction. I’ve loved space since I was a really little kid. I also love animation because I think it allows for a way of expression and storytelling that’s different from film. Having a space-based science fiction animated story revealing my favorite character to be a gay man was important to me. It was hurtful to then see, through how the show treated Shiro, how little respect the EPs and writers actually had for LGBT people. How little they understood the importance and implications of how they handled the whole situation.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron #vld #voltron criticism #vld criticism #voltron critical #vld critical #vld season 7 #vld 7x01 #commentary

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scripttorture · 6 years ago

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(1) i'm writing a story about a kid (under 13, havent decided exactly how young), who undergoes a horrible though mostly unintended period of psychological torture, set in northern Russia in the 13th-14th century. They're the youngest child of the local Lord, and their town gets invaded. Once the dust has settled, their family is brought up on a stage and all the commoners and servants are made to watch in silence as the family is tortured via slow dismemberment, then killed.

(2) The child is basically in a position where they have to serve the people that did this and maintain their disguise, or they will have the same done to them. At one point they are accused of theft and are given the punishment of that time and place- cutting off a finger. Beyond that there's no direct, intentional physical harm done to them. After several years, the invading force leaves and it becomes safe for the surviving child to come out of hiding.(3) What sort of effects could i expect them to have after the torture and trauma? Currently I have them as being so afraid of speaking giving away their identity that they've gotten selective muteness, and once it becomes safe to come out of hiding giving up their former title due to fear of becoming a target. I'm looking for stuff both during the ongoing trauma and afterwards, and i want to do it justice!

Thisall sounds possible.

Idon’t know anything about Russia during that period so I can’tcomment on whether these particular attacks fit the place and period.

Ialso don’t know much about childhood development. The majority ofthe accounts I have are from adults. And while the same symptomseffect children and adults the expression of those symptoms can bedifferent.

ScriptTraumaSurvivorshas a post here on age appropriate expression of trauma symptoms.

GenerallyI tend to stress that witnessing traumatic events doesn’t alwayscause trauma symptoms, but given all the other circumstancessurrounding this I think you’re right, it’s highly likely thischaracter would be extremely traumatised. They’ve lost theirfamily, witnessed horrible things and lived for years in a constantstate of fear and threat. Long term psychological effects areextremely likely.

I’dsuggest you don’t refer to that as psychological torture becausewell- that’s a phrase a lot of torture apologists tend to use torefer to things like starvation, sleep deprivation and stresspositions, which leave no obvious external scars but do cause a lotof physical damage. It’s a phrase that tends to get used to dismissor belittle physical tortures by implying they’re ‘only’psychological.

Iunderstand why that’s the phrase you reached for here though and Idon’t think you’re downplaying what the character goes through.Just- be aware of how that phrase is often used.

Iget asked about muteness or refusing to talk sporadically. Thereisn’t really a way to purposefully inflict it and from everythingI’ve read it seems to be a rare symptom. But you do occasionallyget survivors who stop talking for a period of time. And the wayyou’re describing this it seems as though you’re treating hisrefusal to talk is part of an underlying set of symptoms rather thanthe symptom itself. Which I think works.

I’malso getting the impression that you approach writing symptoms quitedifferently to the way I do. There’s absolutely nothing wrong withthat: we all have different ways of writing and I honestly think themost unhelpful writing advice is the sort which sets out to changehow someone writes.

Rightnow you’ve got a set of behaviours but not necessarily an explicitset of symptoms.

Nowyou don’t necessarily needto come up with an explicit set of symptoms to do this justice, butit might help guide you through how the character’s mental healthproblems change with time.

Atthe moment it sounds as though the main mental illness you’reportraying is anxiety (though you could possibly also write whatyou’re describing as hypervigilance or depression). That in turn isleading to social isolation as the character avoids or cuts himselfoff from other people.

Ithink that’s a pretty good starting point. The symptoms have beentied to both the character and each other in a way that feelsnatural.

Myinstinct is that given everything going on here another underlyingmental health problem might be a good idea. Given the character’sage, the setting and the other symptoms I think insomnia, learningdifficulties or memory problems could all work well.

Insomniaexacerbates pre-existing mental health problems and you could usenightmares as a way of tying this to the other symptoms.

Learningdifficulties would probably be a little more subtle as they might bedismissed as inexperience or a product of the character’s age butthat subtlety could also make them easy to work into the story. Theother symptoms clearly establish that the character hasserious long term symptoms and that means you have space to includeless ‘obvious’ ones.

Irecommend memory problems pretty often because they’re incrediblycommon in real life but rarely depicted well in fiction. They’realso often not acknowledged in the real world, despite having amassive impact on survivors’ lives.

I’vegot a Masterpost on the most common types and how they work here.

Giventhe story you’re telling I don’t think memory loss orinaccurate/false memories would be a good fit.

Butforgetfulness might well be: the character could easily use that asanother ‘reason’ why he ‘has’ to step down, believing himselfto be incapable or unsuitable. Intrusive memories could also be avery good fit and could feed in to his other symptoms. Writing wisethere’s the ‘danger’ of including too many flash backs toparticular awful moments, robbing these moments of their power. Butthis can be overcome quite easily by stressing the feelings thememory evokes rather than the details of the moment in itself.

Loopingback to the main part of the question- The ‘right’ way to handleany of this going forward is going to depend on the story.

Whilethe character is still in danger there may well be worse moments andbetter moments but he’s not going to make any real progress towardshealing while he’s still effectively a prisoner. This doesn’tnecessarily mean his symptoms will be constantly getting worse. Itwould be perfectly normal for them to reach a point and plateau.

Recoveryafterwards isn’t something survivors do in isolation. He’d need asupport network which he currently doesn’t seem to have. That couldmean that part of his recovery process is buildingtrusting and healthy relationships with others.

Giventhe time period and place the church could play quite a large role inhis recovery. Priests, monks, nuns (and anchoresses but I’m unsureif Russia had them) all played roles in communal mental health. NowI’m sure the quality of this help varied widely from place to placeand person to person but there’s nothing wrong with you choosingthat your character has access to better quality help.

Hislack of support network means that recovery would take longer andthere’d probably be a period where he’s at quite high risk ofharm. That doesn’t necessarily mean attack by others or self harm.Severe mental illnesses can make it difficult for a person to takecare of themselves.

Forinstance he might have days when he’d rather go hungry or cold thengo out among other people and get food or firewood. That’s the kindof time when having a support network is a huge material help.Linking back to the church idea I think it could be plausible to havelocal religious figures attempt to help in this kind of practicalway, leaving food or firewood. Other characters close to the survivorcould also fill this kind of role.

Recoveryis slow and it is rarely linear. Even if someone is generally gettingbetter they can still have incredibly bad days or weeks.

Andas people recover they often find that aspects of their mentalillness seem to change. For instance if someone has severe depressionit’s not uncommon for them to start feeling more anxious/overemotional as the depression eases.

That’spart of why I think trying to figure out the underlying illnessbehind these behaviours is helpful. It can give you an idea of how tohave those behaviours change in ways that are organic and realistic.

Goingwith the idea that the character’s major illness is anxiety- Thephysical symptoms can include shaking, nausea, heart palpitations,chest pain and generally feeling like you’re having an adrenalinerush most of the time.

Somepeople have speech difficulties when they’re having an anxietyattack. That can include difficulty taking in what people are sayingand difficulty communicating clearly (though it doesn’t stopspeech). Things like repeating the same short answer a couple oftimes. Sometimes it means giving a reflexive ‘answer that will getrid of the person’ rather than an accurate answer.

Anxietycan drive people to withdraw from others, especially if their anxietyis triggered by others. Things like stepping away from people duringconversation and struggling with crowds or confined spaces canhappen.

Itcan also be difficult to sleep, which in turn makes other symptomsworse.

Depressioncan make people feel tired all the time, while also making itdifficult to fall asleep or sleep well. It can make eating difficult.It tends to mute sensation and can leave people feeling numb.

Itcan get in the way of positive interaction with other people indifferent ways. One of the things I hear people describing most oftenis difficulty engaging. When all of someone’s emotional energy isgoing on holding themselves together sparing some for other people isincredibly difficult.

Ihave a post about solitary confinement that may help you get a graspon the effects of isolation. Keep in mind that solitaryconfinement is much more extreme then the vast majority of cases ofsocial isolation. The effects on your character probably wouldn’tbe this bad. But it could help give you an idea of the way this kindof isolation effects people and how it feels.

Itend to approach recovery quite organically. For me it’s anextension of both the character and their symptoms- the logicalconclusion of the situation the story posits. But that’s because Itend to write symptoms in a way that’s very rooted in the characterand I tend to write very instinctually.

Ifyou’ve got a more analytical approach then breaking symptoms downmight help.

Onceyou know what conditions the character has (rather than just thebehaviours) you can start to tie those behaviours to particularaspects of his mental illnesses. That in turn helps you figure outhow he might recover.

Let’stake his difficulty speaking for a moment and assume that the rootcause of that is anxiety. He probably knows that ‘fear’ is thecause of this. He probably feels less afraid on a daily basis afterthe invading force leaves. And that could lead to him finding it alittle easier to speak again.

Buthe might not understand why he keeps getting chest pains. Or why hefeels ‘afraid’ when in a crowd of people he knows are ‘harmless’.

Ifhe, and everyone else, focused on the biggested most obviousbehavioural problems he had then there’s likely a lot of thingsthat slipped under the radar. That were too small to comment on atthe time or that everyone assumed would stop when the invaders left.This can be a pretty effective way to approach how symptoms canchange and how it can catch a character off guard.

Anotherapproach is thinking about what a character currently can’tdo and when in the story they needto do that particular thing. Then think about what needs to change,environmentally or emotionally, for the character to be capable ofthat action.

Sometimesyou can only really get them half-way there and then find yourselfputting together a creative work-around. That’s OK. That can add toa story and be an interesting break from typical tropes.

Recoveryis a slow process of learning to deal with symptoms in healthierways. And incidentally virtually every mentally ill person I’veknown has had moments of expressing things like ‘But I should beover this’ ‘But I should be able to deal with this’ ‘But Ishould be better by now’.

Fromthe sounds of things you’ve put a lot of thought into both thecharacter and that process already. You are doing a good job. Keep atit and I think you’ll have an excellent story.

Ihope this helps. :)

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#tw torture #tw scars #scarring torture #historical torture #historical fiction #writing victims #mental health #recovery #social isolation #Russia #memory #cosmofex

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ladyherenya · 6 years ago

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Books read in February

I don’t have a neat summing-up statement to make about what I read this month. But more than one of these stories set me wondering Does this qualify as a novella? and Does it matter whether or not it is?

My favourite cover is Thornbound.

Reread: Half of Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis.

Still reading: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson and Dragonshadow by Elle Katharine White.

Next up: A Spark of White Fire by Sangu Mandanna.

(Longer reviews and ratings are on LibraryThing. And also Dreamwidth.)

Witches Aboard by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): Although there were parts of Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters that I really enjoyed, they are not my favourite Discworld of the novels and I was unenthusiastic about the witches travelling to foreign parts. Was that going to be funny or tedious? But this isn’t just about Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat going abroad, it’s about them taking on fairy-godmothering and it’s excellent. Exactly the sort of commentary on fairytales that I like.

Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (narrated by Nigel Planer): “Lords and Ladies” is a euphemism for elves, for faerie-folk, who are threatening to cause problems in Lancre. I think there might be some A Midsummer Night's Dream references going on which I would have appreciated those more if I had more than vague idea about that particular play. But I was still entertained! The plot went in some unexpected directions, there are some young women who might become witches and Magrat versus the elves was a particular highlight.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: I love this book -- I’m getting emotional thinking about it! Because of Ada’s twisted foot, her mother doesn’t allow the ten year old to leave their one-room flat. But in 1939, Ada secretly teaches herself to walk and when her younger brother’s school is evacuated to the country, she leaves with him. Ada and Jamie are foisted upon a reluctant, grieving woman who owns a pony. Ada’s determined to teach herself to ride. The amount of things Ada doesn’t know, the extent of deprivation she’s experienced, is staggering, and recovery isn’t straightforward. But her journey is so heartwarming and hopeful.

The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley: I loved the sequel too. The war continues. Ada, Jamie and Susan wind up living with Lady Thorton, the mother of Ada’s friend Maggie, and Ruth, a Jewish teenager being tutored by Susan, whose mother is in an internment camp. Ada is frustrated that Lady Thorton doesn’t understand what her friends need, and is resistant to anyone mistaking Susan for her own mother. I liked the way the pieces of this story fitted together thematically: found-family and mothers, healing, and the things people need, and Ada learning what she can do for the people she loves. Moving. Made me tear up.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson: A girl and her starship, on a planet where most people live safely underground and the stars are obscured by a layer of space junk. Not the first story I’ve encountered about a teenage underdog attending a special training school, overcoming obstacles and making friends, but it’s such a fun trope. This has lots of things I like: Teamwork! Flying! Mystery! An AI with personality! With satisfying twists and some oddly amusing characters.Some of training/fight sequences are too long and sometimes the narrative needed to show, rather than tell, Spensa’s emotions. But I still enjoyed it.

Thornbound by Stephanie Burgis: Sequel to Snowspelled. While Cassandra Harwood’s magical career has ended disastrously, she’s determined to keep challenging the idea that magic is the domain of men. But not everyone wants her college for young women to succeed. As staff and students arrive, Cassandra has to deal with thorny nightmares, an unfairly-overworked husband. a government inspection and a malicious fey disturbance. This is a story about challenging the status quo, and about the importance of having others -- family and community -- who can support you. Cassandra still struggles with feeling that she has to fight her battles alone. A delightful sequel. I loved this.

The Chosen by L.J. Smith: Not quite what I was looking for, in terms of reluctant soulmates, but it was fast-paced and entertaining. And it's ages since I've read any YA with vampires, so this was good for a bit of variety. Girl on a revenge mission makes some new friends.

Beyond the Dreams We Know by Rachel Neumeier: I loved this collection! Neumeier’s stories are vivid and atmospheric and hopeful. If anything else ties them, it is the place grief and loss have in most of the characters’ pasts and how the stories are then about those characters discovering something positive and new. The four novellas are sequels or prequels to Neumeier’s novels. My favourite was “Fire and Earth”, a coda to the Griffin Mage trilogy. So very satisfying! Of the shorter, standalone stories, my favourite was “Lila”, an urban fantasy about unexpected dragon hatchings, an artist living in her late-mother’s house and a fluffy dog.

At Your Service by Sandra Antonelli: About secrets, spies, scrambled eggs and defending one’s self with cleaning supplies. Mae works as a butler for Major Kitt, a retired army officer. When Mae is attacked and her late-husband’s mysterious trust fund disappears, she heads to Sicily for answers. I liked the mystery, the danger and the ratio of romance to plot. I liked Mae and Kitt’s relationship and appreciated the realistic way Mae processes life-threatening situations -- but I was uncomfortable with the violence. Fictional Espionage = Not (Always) For Me. I don't know if I liked this, but I want to know what happens in the sequel.

The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley: Emily’s cousin, a history lecturer researching the Plantagenets, persuades her to join him for a holiday in France. I loved the atmosphere -- I loved the scenery and the tidbits of history and the growing sense of unease. There’s a medieval chateau, tunnels, a classical violinist, a tragic tale about lovers during WWII, the possibility of hidden treasure, a suspicious death, a stray cat, a child who likes to feed the ducks and quotations from Tennyson. This isn't a perfect book, but it was EXACTLY the sort of thing I wanted to read! (It’s even more Mary Stewart-ish than The Shadowy Horses.)

Legion: Skin Deep and Legion: Lies of the Beholder by Brandon Sanderson: Stephen Leeds lives with multiple hallucinations, stable personalities who only Stephen and his other hallucinations can see or hear. With Skin Deep I was more interested in the dynamic Stephen has with his so-called hallucinations than in the mystery they were trying to solve. They’re like imaginary friends -- except they’re more independent, not wholly imaginary. I found plot of Lies of the Beholder more engaging, but I’m undecided about whether the resolution was satisfying. It’s tidy in some ways and disappointing in others.

From Clarkesworld Magazine, issue 73, October 2012:

“A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones” (from Clarkesworld Magazine) by Genevieve Valentine (narrated by Kate Baker): A story about colonising Europa, haunting in that way Valentine’s often are. (Her stories have a quality which remind me of Vienna Teng’s songs.) I found the audio version harder to follow than the other Valentine stories I’ve listened to, perhaps because this one is punctuated by brackets and breaks, and those are harder for a narrator to capture.

“England Under the White Witch” by Theodora Goss (narrated by Kate Baker): Ann tells of her childhood, when the Empress came out of the north, and of her subsequent years in service. This is bleak but not hopeless. You have heard that there were once green fields, and rivers that ran between their banks, and a warm sun overhead. You have never seen them, and you believe they are merely tales. I am here to tell you that they are true, that in my childhood these existed. And cups of tea that were truly hot, and Christmas trees with candles on their branches, and church bells.

#Herenya reviews books #Brandon Sanderson #Stephanie Burgis #Rachel Neumeier #Susanna Kearsley #Terry Pratchett #Discworld #Kimberly Brubaker Bradley #Sandra Antonelli #Genevieve Valentine #Theodora Goss

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