#ie that the next scene I have to write is going to be DIFFICULT

[endiness]

some quotes from lauren about the technical aspects and logistics behind adapting the books and making the show

"I don't think we've created a "better" story at all. What we tried to do is adapt the short stories as Sapkowski wrote them, to an entirely different medium. Shows like Black Mirror are episodic, as you point out, and not serialized. That works because Black Mirror will never become serialized. There is no bait-and-switch in season four, where you suddenly start following one single character episode after episode; if that happened, the built-in audience for Black Mirror would be confused. The rule with television is: the first episode has to represent what the series will be. That's how television is sold (ie, the studio that's footing the 100 million dollar bill knows what they're purchasing) and it's how television is marketed (ie, the audience that shows up knows what they'll be tuning in to watch for the next year or two or seven.) The same goes for the characters. Yes, you can always introduce more characters as you go along in a show. We'll be doing that as well -- there's a whole new set of fun characters coming in S2. But it was important to me that from the very beginning, the audience know that this story is about Geralt, yes, but it's also about Yennefer and about Ciri and -- most importantly -- about what happens when they find each other and become a family."

"The number of episodes is based on the story we're telling, our sense of what an audience will watch (and finish), and the budget. When you're starting a show, and don't know if it will be a success, more episodes generally means that you get to spend less money on every episode. So we knew we didn't want to do that. Eight felt like the magic number. We're approaching S2 in a similar way we did with S1: what are the stories Sapkowski was telling, and why? What building blocks do we need to set up future stories? Is there anything we missed from S1 that we want to include? And what will work on television? For instance -- no one wants to see Triss have diarrhea for three episodes. So what are we trying to glean from that in the books, and how do we present that onscreen?"

"The checks and balances system includes me, the executives at Netflix, and the producers, who all offer notes on every part of the process: outline, script, and cuts. What happens between seasons is that we look at all of the episodes and discuss internally what worked and what didn't -- when we thought we needed exposition, for instance, but turns out that it came across clunky. And then we course-correct."

"And then there are inherent limitations of the television medium — episodes 102 and 103 (adaptations of “The Edge of the World” and “The Witcher”) initially came in at over 90 minutes each, so we found ourselves having to trim back certain details and scenes. It was a tough lesson to learn, for me — I had this enthusiastic attitude of “But I want to do it all!” when the truth is, it doesn’t all fit. It’s one of the biggest changes we’re incorporating into season two: we’re writing shorter scripts, so we’re not losing important moments and characters on the edit room floor."

"One of the biggest changes we’ve made is to make sure that the scripts aren’t too long. It’s a terrible thing when you shoot a story that you’re proud of, and then it’s 95 minutes long and you’re trying to fit it into 60 minutes of television. You end up cutting stuff that you know would be great, or would be important."

"Casting Freya as Ciri was also really difficult. We started with a very young, in the first script, Ciri was 11. Very quickly we started looking at 11-year-olds, and we realized a couple things. One, the production constraints of this show. It's a huge endeavor, we shot for a lot of days, and a lot of nights actually. And when you're shooting with someone that young, it's very restrictive. One of the first things that I was told is that someone that young [of a] Ciri is not going to be able to be that big of a part of the story. And I was like, well, that's not going to work. So we did age up the character a little bit."

[archangelsammy]

So that post said that s5 lucifer was subtle, quiet, manipulative, prideful, and he was compelling because he didn’t use threat of force, nor acted exclusively through henchmen like michael did. the main thing to take from this is that lucifer is meant to sympathetic! that's his whole thing! you're meant to think he's different and Not Like Other Villains because he's not! he's meant to be this sympathetic character, especially to his vessels (sam moreso), and he's not using brute force tactics like removing the vessels brother lungs right? kripke wanted lucifer to be this sympathetic character and that was his intention! and god did he do it justice. s5 lucifer is one of thee most interesting characters I think. esp if you wanna go with the samlucifer parallels.

anyway, next you have hallucifer right. hallucifer is fundamentally part of sam's mind. he's not meant to be the actual lucifer (although one day I will write a fic where he is), he's meant to be a manifestation of sams mental state at the time (which was handled very very poorly on screen but that's a different rant). It's very very difficult to reconcile these two characters as the same identity because they're so different.

one of the main differences between lucifer and hallucifer is the fact that hallucifer uses height as a form of dominance over sam. you can see this really well in 7.15 repo man (my beloved) whereas actual lucifer is usually around sams height ie their first meeting in 5.03 free to be you and me.

lucifer tends to keep his voice calm and level when talking to sam, such as the summoning of death scene in 5.10, whereas hallucifer tends to raise his voice, and shout and demand attention, ala 7.15.

so what happened here? are we seriously meant to believe that the lucifer that told sam he'd never lie to him, never trick him, could always become this?

it's almost like we're meant to believe that lucifer was so angry over being put back in the cage that he became hallucifer. like he was so angry that it changed his entire personality? I'm sorry but I don't buy it.

if anything hallucifer is more like soulless sam which is a rant for another day ahdjdjks

also. thank you @sugaraddictarchangels for letting me rant this at you yesterday ily<3

[writingfortheheart]

Hey all!

Sorry for the long absence. I had a bit of a writer's block recently, not helped by the fact that my last writing effort was absolute garbage, at least in my eyes. I find it difficult to write just a small resus scene with little to no context, so you end up with stuff that just isn't very good.

That said, my next story, the first part of which I just put up, is going to take its time. It'll still have resus, heartbeats, breathing, breath play, etc., but it's all going to be contained within a bigger story, one that incorporates another fetish of mine, ballet aesthetic.

I hope you like it, and I look forward to hearing critiques and praise, and if anyone wants to do a fan work based on the story (ie. artwork) I'd welcome that, too.

Thanks for understanding!

Breathe well, friends!

[booksandchainmail]

Pale Arc 2

Writing this quickly because I want to start reading Arc 3:

The more mundane parts of this story are making me think back on my own middle school experiences. It's well-written but giving me complicated feelings

I really like Verona and Lucy's friendship

The Fae negotiations were appropriately twisty and turny

Loved the Forest Ribbon Trail

Curious to see more of the Kennet Trio interacting with outside practitioners, and just how unusual a way into the practive they have

Still have absolutely no clue what happened to the Carmine Beast

Immediate future thoughts:

Getting Avery out is going to be difficult. Maybe Snowdrop can do something? Or Verona and Lucy can go in after her?

But they also have Nicollette coming in their direction. I'd hope that they could negotiate, but I'm not sure that will be an option

Not sure which of those last two will come first

And then they're also trying to disrupt the Hungry Choir this night. That's a lot. I'm not sure they'll be able to do that as well, but wildbow is fond of putting his characters in nonstop situations.

On that note, Pale's pacing seems a lot better than what I remember from his other works. More small time skips (ie going to the next day rather than things happening immediately), and more low intensity scenes (experimenting, family scenes, group dynamics, even interviews) rather than just events to respond to.

[darkangel1791]

For the one-shot asks - 3, 7, 10, 20, 22 - Walking Mojo

Sorry this answer is late! I didn't see the ask at the time and then had to find the original post! 😆

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

In most of them there is some aspect of hurt/comfort. Louis is almost always wanting to please and or protect Lestat. A detail that shows up so much in my fics is French. French words, French pronunciations or a character, Louis usually, speaking French. Often there is some kind of quote from the books that is in the fic, or inspired the fic. A lot of my fics are about some period of time that is just glossed over in the books.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

This is difficult. I don't know that I've ever done any world building in my VC fics. I tried to stick close to canon. And I actually used maps of New Orleans to make sure that if I had a character going somewhere in New Orleans, the streets are correct, and they lead to the right places.

Maybe that I tried to include Anne and Stan Rice in some of my fics to explain why her name is on the books and why she goes on book tours, to put her into the same world as the vampires.

Or possibly 1940s New York in Christmas in New York.

10. How do you decide what to write?

Usually when I was reading a book, I would come to a part that I would have questions about. Such as, what happened during that time, or what did the other character in this scene think and feel? The fics that are not covered by that were just a single idea I would have, and I would start writing to get everything in line to lead to this idea, or scene, then write what the idea/scene was, and then what it would cause the characters to do, and resolve the story.

20. If you wrote a prequel to [insert fic], what would it involve?

Since you wrote Walking Mojo, I assume that's the fic you'd like me to use for this and the next question.

The prequel to Walking Mojo would involve Louis going to visit Lestat who is packing and him tossing his key to Louis and assuming he will watch Mojo, because Lestat needs him to. Then Mojo and Louis getting to know each other. Louis reading books or doing research on the computer about what a dog needs ie. exersise, socialization, plenty of fresh water, etc. And figuring out how to give Mojo these things.

22. Who is your favorite character in Walking Mojo and why?

Well, Mojo, obviously! 😁

Thanks so much @persefoniajax for asking!

Please let me know if I have the wrong original post, because this one doesnt say anything about one-shot, but it was the first on i found, and if so I will answer the correct questions!

[epersonae]

ehehehehe time for fic writer asks! R, Z, AN, AP, BC, BV, and then BW, BX, and BY for carlita <3

GIRL THIS IS SO MANY

Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

fuck titles, all my homies hate titles, etc etc. I don't think I've ever come up with a title first, but I can't say never for sure, so: sometimes during, often after. occasionally it'll be a significant line from the story itself, sometimes it'll be the classic thing of looking for a song lyric (and sometimes that means you are pitching me TMG lyrics), and once I just ended up with the dumbest description and couldn't think of anything else. (Looking thru the first page of my recent works, I swear there's one of every possible methodology, and actually I think Commit to the Bit I had the title either before or very early during the writing!)

Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Carlita help (ie, for the benefit of all the broken hearts) - I say this both as a writer and about the story itself, the whole process has been a kind of extended madness, and also it's just a very odd piece altogether imho.

If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

we were talking about this on the phone yesterday! there is a scene in the next chapter of for the benefit of all the broken hearts that I would actually make good art. I also think there's some good visuals in the boss battle scene of The Reckoning Arrives that would be fun to have as art. (oooh, or Lucretia sitting at Taako's bedside after?) Oh, and Ed and Stede in the auxiliary closet in nice either way.

What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

I just read the second chapter of Respawn and it's very good. This AU gets something about Stede that I really appreciate, and Izzy's intro is fucking hilarious.

Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

Is it possible????? that the unnamed wife (aka carlita) of for the benefit of all the broken hearts???? has supplanted my other faves??? Which is tricky because she is more or less an OC, so I don't know if that counts.

Honestly, even though it's been ages, it might still be Lucretia, if only because I am fairly evenly split in my enjoyment of writing both Ed POV and Stede POV.

I don't think? reader reactions comes into it much, except maybe specifically your obsession with Carlita lol.

You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

THIS IS A FASCINATING QUESTION THAT I HAVE ACTUALLY THOUGHT ABOUT. (I'm not digging it up now but I wrote a long rumination about that in re that collaborative Choose Your Own Adventure project, and trying to recognize writers I know.) Here's what I would say is particular to my unbetaed work: punctuation pokemon (gotta catch em all!), excessive parentheticals, "and then", and "is verbing". (I cautiously tag @gaypiratebrainrot who is by now exceedingly familiar with all my writing tics)

Thematically? idk. I'm pretty sure it's there, but I often don't notice those things until someone else points them out.

These three were requests about for the benefit of all the broken hearts specifically:

What scene in [Fanfic Name] took the longest to write? What was difficult about it? 

I don't know about the longest, but I'm pretty sure this most recent chapter (13) took the most drafts and the most reworking and rethinking.

There's so much going on, and all of the characters are finally "on deck" as it were, which means there's both a ton of conflicting emotions and motivations to keep track of AND "I am bedeviled by the matter of the pronouns" AND there's important action that takes place entirely off-page, and deliberately so, which meant I was resisting the need to write what that was because it was going to be throwaway writing, but it turns out I had to in order to make it work. The bit where Mary and Ed first meet backstage I probably ended up with four drafts altogether, including once where I threw out a huge chunk and just rewrote from scratch.

(oh plus I had a real life experience that necessitated a handful of little setting tweaks)

All of which is fair, because it's a big turning point and needs to be both surprising AND make sense in context. Which means I also had to go back to earlier points in the story and adjust in order to get some sense of foreshadowing, or at least plausibility. So thank you for pitching me on the idea for what turned out to the most difficult thing I've ever written in my entire goddamn life, I guess.

Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [Fanfic Name]? 

I had this idea for something where Mary and Carlita would be painting together, maybe in the style of Jackson Pollack? (this may have been based on one of your pitches) And I can see it in my mind's eye but it just didn't work in context at all!

Do you have a favorite scene you’ve written from [Fanfic Name] story/chapter? 

I have two favorites, and one of them is the painting scene that I did write. I love the tension and the physicality of it. The other is in chapter 17, so a few chapters from now (YOU know the one), and I'm not going to spoil it but I like it a LOT.

[fic author asks]

[powderkiwi]

I re watched Avatar The last Airbender today, yes the much maligned movie and tbh I still kind of like it. I know and understand that it does not meet the very high standards that ATLA fans of the original animated series have, it’s bitty, disjointed and rather all over the place, but I still like the performances given by some of the young cast. Ok I can hear the tufts of hair being pulled out at the roots by the fans as I’m typing this, but young actors generally are guided and steered by the director. They generally don’t feel they have the right to challenge directors or script writers, in this case the same person when they think something is dumb, they just try and meet the expectations of their elders.

The young boy who plays Aang, Noah Ringer.. he’s was and still is an amazing athlete, but he seemed to get allot of unwarranted flack for just not being, well ethnic enough and that he was too serious, even wooden. I think if we look carefully at the narrative from even the animated series and examine the things he’s gone through, i think he would be pretty serious, confused, distraught and angry. In this respect I think Noah does this really well.

So what’s happened to the wee laddie then?

You run away when you’re told your the Avatar and that you are responsible for keeping balance in the world, between the four nations. Hmm Not much pressure there for a 12 year old.

When you wake up you find out you’ve been asleep for a 100 years and then get captured by the Fire Nation.

You next found out that your entire nation has been wiped from the face of the earth, just because you feel you didn’t want the responsibility and that you could never have a family.

Yeah… he’s not really going to be in a great head space, Guilt, Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, along with Shame, Anger and fear would be coursing through this young boys body and mind.

But as the Joker would say “why so serious?”

I also thought Dev Patel was very good in his role, as Zuko, he showed the anarchic, panicked son under pressure to find the Avatar for the Fire Nation to regain his honour.

Yes he had some really bad dialogue.. but again he didn’t write the script…

I thought the CG Effects were pretty good, I’m not so sure about the choreographed bending moves tbh in some of the scenes, especially with the Earth Benders, but all in all I thought it was ok.

M.Night Shyamalan needs to wear the way this was received, he was really taking on a poison chalice and was never going to be able to meet the expectations of the Fan base.

In the end he seemed to disappear into his own world and tried to make something that was beautiful to look at,but lacked the depth of story and also lost a lot of the charm that the series possessed.

I said I enjoyed the film, perhaps because I can fill in the blanks a bit because I’ve watched the animated series and can fill in the blanks myself.. or gaps.. well cazems in some cases.

One thing I will say is we can’t blame the cast, especially the young actors for not matching the expectations of the fans or the characters in the animated series, for their lack of ethnicity or the emotional tack that the live action film tried to take. We should remember that side of the animated series is pretty surface deep at best, with a lot of tragedy just laughed off, or immediately forgotten.

The Last Airbender’s narrative deals with a lot of very serious issues, that placed within the human world ie live action would be seen as tragic, testing and difficult… Genocide, being the chosen one…(Sorry Starwars, Harry Potter and of course the Bible) Personal loss and huge unfathononable responsibilities. The New Netflix series will need to address these as well, although they will hopefully have allot more time to dig into these characters during the series, to provide them with depth and personality, that was lacking from the film,

After all if we don’t care about the characters in any book, film, tv or animated series, you won’t become emotionally invested in them. We need to care about what happens to them, why they behave the way they do, what decisions they make, who their friends and indeed enemy’s are..what happens next?

I guess this is why so many people were disappointed with the film, because they were exactly that with the animated series.. if you love something that much, you will always feel some sort of disappointment when you compare it to any other version of the same thing.

[hareofhrair]

I’ve experienced this phenomenon too, and I think it’s a few different things. The first is that by talking about the story you accomplished what you needed to do with it— got the emotional catharsis you wanted, externalized and processed the feelings you were working through, got the positive feedback you needed— and now you don’t need the story anymore.

This is the good option.

The more neutral option is that if you write in a linear fashion, you’re telling the story to yourself as you go, figuring out what happens next. In sharing it, you got to the end and you’ve “finished” the book in your mind, so you don’t need to keep writing to find out how it ends.

The bad option is that sharing it resulted in no feedback/the wrong kind of feedback/negative feedback, and that killed your momentum. No one seemed excited about the idea you were so excited about. Or they’re interested in it but interpret it in a completely different direction than you, ie you want to talk about the complex allegory you’re attempting here but they didn’t *notice* the allegory and want to talk about the fantasy economy. Or they straight up say that’s stupid, or that ship sucks, or lament you not working on something “better.” Either way, the wind goes out of your sails entirely.

Personally, I tend to get really excited about the reveal on my stories. I build up in my head this fictional reader who will notice all my subtle symbolism and fall as in love with my characters as I am and clamor for me to continue. These scenes that don’t exist yet are so powerful and meaningful to me— but when I tell someone, they’re not seeing the version in my head with dramatic visuals and a full film score. It’s just me going “And after they finally give up, they wake up in the backseat of their dad’s car, on a long drive to nowhere important” and im actively weeping about it for no apparent reason. It doesn’t mean anything to them. It has no weight. And trying to express a feeling that intense and seeing it just whiff right past someone is a real kick in the teeth. Even if you know logically it’s only not landing because they haven’t actually read the story yet, it can be extremely difficult to maintain interest afterwords.

It also might be we’ve got the causation backwards. You don’t stop working on it because you showed it to someone. You showed it to someone because your interest was waning and you were hoping external validation or just being able to bounce ideas off someone would help pull you back in to that manic inspired place you were at the start. But it generally won’t.

Solutions to these problems: Make an outline. Treat it like a job. And Just Don’t Show It To Anyone Till It’s Done.

Even if you’re very much a seat of your pants type writer, if you want to be able to finish something longer than what you can write in a single setting you *need* to have an idea of where you’re going. Even if that idea is extremely rough, just the primary story beats (ie four children find a magic world in the closet -> therefore they get pulled into magic world politics -> As a result they’re forced to confront the white witch) that’s still going to help a lot in the long run. Outlining is hard because you’re essentially front loading the most difficult part of the process— figuring out what story you’re telling, building the shape of the narrative. But once you’ve got a chickenwire frame it’s a whole hell of a lot easier to build on top of than trying to construct the frame and build on it at the same time.

Treating it like a job is one of the big hurdles for writers. If you can only write when inspiration strikes, you’d better be writing something *very* short form or it’s unlikely you’ll ever get anywhere. You have to train the skill of writing even when you don’t particularly feel like it. Commit to writing a certain number of words a day and stick to it even when it sucks. Once you’ve built this skill it’s a lot easier to power through obstacles. Your daily word-count does not need to be high either. I know of multiple extremely prolific authors who write less than 500 words a day. But they do that consistently, every day, and it builds up fast.

And finally— Just don’t do the thing. Don’t fucking show it to anyone. That urge to show everyone your WIP is the devil talking. No amount of external validation is going to write that story for you. So write. Do it fast, do it dirty, get the ugliest, roughest, most bare bones version of the story you want to tell FINISHED. And THEN you can show people.

I think I’m starting to believe one of my old professors who told me it’s bad luck to tell other people about the plot of your novel before you finish the first draft.

[leupagus]

Ooh, @codswalloping is doing a fun meme where you post the last lines of your current WIP(s), so here are mine! (Guess which fandoms for extra fun)

1 - The next few hours aren't a blur, exactly; but certain moments feel clearer than others, sharper. 

2 - "Indeed, any reasonable person would assume I am no danger whatsoever," said Arabella, removing her shawl and folding it into a tidy square. "You are by far the stronger of us — larger, quicker — and more powerful in other ways, to be sure. But the trouble with magic, as I'm given to understand, is that it has no great understanding of strength or weakness. It is purely a matter of want; or as my husband says, what each person wants is what matters." She smiled. "And my want is quite the equal to any man in England."

3 - It's been a shock to learn how much of an octopus she is in bed, but he makes sure to keep his complaints half-hearted, grumbling about her cold feet or the bossy way she arranges his limbs to better suit herself. He never sleeps so well as when she's snoring in his ear or sleepily kicking him in the shins.

4 - 'You care for Lesley,' Nightingale murmured into my ear, his breath warm on my neck. 'You’ve always seen her as the person she could be. And yes, possibly your feelings blinded you to some things, but we're all susceptible to that.'

'Even you?' I asked, muffled against his collar.

'Even me,' he said, his voice low and dangerously affectionate.

5 - But from the hallway she could see the faint glow of another candle — no, a lamp, carried high by a shadowy figure. Bilbo scrambled further back, her shoulder against the wardrobe. In another moment the figure would be inside the room; she opened the wardrobe door, mercifully silent, and climbed in. 

6 - "I keep coming back to that one thing you said, how my obliviousness bordered on homophobia," Ted says, squinting out against the setting sun.

"Darling, I didn’t mean—"

"I know, but maybe it wasn’t too far off." He rubs at his palms with his fingers. "Growing up here was great, I don’t want you thinking it wasn’t. But I graduated in 1993, you know? And back then, at least around here, being gay meant AIDS and getting beat up and worse than that. People around here thought they were being polite when they called them 'homosexuals.' Said it just like that, too, and whenever I heard it, I… it sounded threatening, I guess. Like something bad. And I was really afraid of bad things, you know. Afraid of being bad, being wrong. I’m not sure if I just sort of hid it away, so good that I couldn’t even find that part of myself anymore, or if I would’ve been like this regardless. But something about being back here — I guess I’m just holding onto that fear a little harder than I’d like. And I’m sorry, and I’m trying to change."

And I'd like my followers to try this out for the fun of it, but most especially @angryonabus @whetherwoman @earlywrites @queenklu @spiders-hth-is-an-outlier @praycambrian @andthepeople @themardia @laiqualaurelote

[denimbex1986]

‘...The series seems to struggle itself with the question of what it says about Bucky that he “let” himself be controlled (nb: it doesn’t say anything) and decides some “will he won’t he” suspense over whether he’s deep down still a killer and how he can make up for what he supposedly did are valuable questions to ask, rather than a replication of the same agonising self blame that most abuse survivors subject themselves to.

...it’s believable for everyone to treat his torture and enslavement as an awful unspeakable thing no one wants to confront in earnest, because people are very bad at handling difficult emotional situations, but that treatment is also only ever depicted as wholly appropriate, and so the audience is asked to buy in. Beyond a couple of angry threats Bucky throws the way of Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), his former tormentor, Zemo’s two second apology in episode 3, and some blink and you’ll miss them visual inserts during the aforementioned scene with Ayo, the writing focusses entirely on what Bucky was forced to do while enslaved and skirts around the awful things that were done *to him*, rendering the exploration of his trauma confusing and unbalanced.

...the core message from Sam’s tough love, however kindly delivered, was “man up and take responsibility”. Far from being an example of men healthily discussing emotions, this is a fairly typically macho rejection of any suggestion of fragility or ambivalence. (He also talks about the ineffectiveness of Bucky telling people he’s sorry, seconds after mentioning he was doing the exact opposite, so the incoherence of this speech really has layers.) These might be the kind of well-meaning observations that a real male friend would make, but coming from the mouth of the next Captain America, we are also asked to take them as unimpeachably correct.

...this total emphasis on being “of service” is quite a directive to give a man who was compelled very painfully into service for years, and doesn’t challenge the unhealthy pressure men put on themselves to be in control of their own emotions at all times. The closest Bucky ever comes to falling to pieces comes not from the writing but Stan, who inserts the occasional waver into Bucky’s voice to show all this control is costing something, and does a great trade in “haunted behind the eyes” facial expressions. As a challenge though to the scale of what’s being demanded of the character, that’s fairly thin gruel.

...Sam entreats Bucky to stop working out how to stop all of Hydra’s beneficiaries, and focus on helping its victims — by going and telling them he murdered their loved ones. He doesn’t come out and say that explicitly, obviously, because that would involve the writers directly acknowledging this is some pretty extreme shit, so they just couch it as “people out there who need closure, which only you can give”. I think this is supposed to come off as subtle, rather than minimising.

I have to ask, because when I’ve suggested to people this advice was, well, bad, it hasn’t gone down well: does it really seem a good idea for Bucky, an emotionally unstable man in the midst of an identity crisis, to go off on his own and talk to the loved ones of Hydra’s victims, who he was forced to murder, given the last time someone found out about this (ie Tony Stark) they tried to kill him? Could this not be profoundly retraumatising, having to relive these memories out loud to devastated victims, again and again? Could taking on all their grief and pain and rage on behalf of Hydra, his own torturers, who he must have his own anger against but who will never seek forgiveness, not reinforce the self hatred he already feels?

Meanwhile, is it going to make anyone feel better to be told out of the blue how their loved ones died by the person who killed them? Did seeing Bucky make Isaiah feel better? Did he enjoy that reminder of his past? Did it bring closure? Did anyone on the writing team ask any of these questions?

...The writers...were so unable to authentically write a scene between Bucky and Yori (Ken Takemoto), the father of a man he murdered, that wouldn’t go disastrously wrong they cut it short after about three lines rather than suggest Sam might have oversimplified the problem. But, they needed their vehicle to get Bucky to his smiley happy ending, so the scene had to stay in. He declares at the end of it “I didn’t have a choice” and it‘s possible this was intended to sound like a breakthrough, but as a character beat it’s rather hollow, given that in six hours we’ve seen no depiction of him coming to this realisation.

In any case, no one asks Bucky if this drive to make amends for things he didn’t do is a form of self flagellation that’s preventing him from letting go, whether he’s really up to facing all of Hydra’s victims by himself, offers to go with him, or points out he doesn’t actually need to do any of it...

But aside from saying some pretty unhealthy stuff about recovery, which may not deliver the best messages to male survivors of abuse and assault watching at home, it does seem a shame that what’s unique and interesting about Bucky in the world of male superheroes has been stripped away: the challenging of normative male roles, all the real darkness of having to climb out of what he’s gone through, reduced down to a boring, irrelevant commandment to “do the work”, take charge. In this show, Bucky’s just another dude being a dude.

...Bucky’s story is...operatically, garishly tragic, full of high saturation contradictions and big questions about the self, and a story driven by real world struggle...’

[clownpi]

Do you do story collabs? If so, is there a place you and me can talk about, like discord or something along those lines?

I've never really done one before if I'm being honest (except like once in high school). I don't mind say, spitballing ideas to help with world building/plot/characters or helping with how scenes would go (basically just helping build the bones of the story), but actual writing collaboration (ie. you do 1 chapter/scene then I do the next) my personal confidence in making that work quickly dwindles because:

I basically write around my brains whims where trying to force it to work on something specific isn't guaranteed to work and it will give me a frustrating case of writer's block.

I am (surprisingly) defensive of my writing and ideas, never having liked when someone suggested "better" ideas. Simple grammar edits or spellcheck = Fine, but anything related to changing how I 'see' the story makes me bristle like a porcupine. Even if I know it's someone just giving genuine story ideas or criticism, it's basically an involuntary response I have to work around.

Relating to (2) since I know it's a personal issue that is unlikely to change without working through the root cause of the issue (something something therapy), I don't want to put someone in the situation where they'll have to deal with that. I just know I would be difficult to deal with because I can be both incredibly stubborn and passive aggressive.

I have so many WIPs atm that I'm already having to delicately balance my attention between that adding a collab (which would have its own unique stresses) would likely throw that balance off.

Like I said, I don't mind really helping with the backend of a story, but I think I'd get waaay to bristle about story to do an actual writing collaborations.

[nikadoesanart]

Why I think Bones animated the light novels in the order they have so far

Before I start, I will preface this by directly quoting Asagiri as he did say himself:

“...each of the plots in [novel] Volumes 1 through 4 are independent with their own timelines that follow different protagonists, meaning you can start them in any order.” (55 Minutes, Afterword, Yen Press translation)

This was of course written at the time of 55 Minutes being written (which was first released in October of 2016), but this has so far held true for all of the following light novels except for Storm Bringer. So officially speaking, you don’t necessarily have to read the bsd light novels in numerical/release order or chronological to the story order either, though you’d probably want to have read or watched 15 Years Old before Storm Bringer. Also, considering that 55 Minutes and Dead Apple are the only ones that take place during the main story, you may want to have at least finished season 2 or read up to the end of ch 37 in the manga so that you’re familiar with the characters (because these two take place shortly after where s2 left off).

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to why I personally think that Bones has decided to adapt the light novels that have been animated so far in the order that they have. Seeing as Dead Apple was pretty much requested by Bones for Asagiri to write (according to his afterword in the novel), I won’t really be going over it.

Anyway, my theory is that they chose to adapt Entrance Exam>Dark Era>15 YO because in that order the light novels are most relevant to which part of Dazai’s past and mental state are tied to the current main story arc being animated. This doesn’t make Dazai the protagonist in the main story, in fact he never has been as of yet, but this is how the audience is able to slowly uncover Dazai’s past and try to learn about how his mind works. Keep in mind that even the novels with Dazai’s name in the title and even what few scenes there are focused on Dazai and his POV in them, they are not actually from his POV and we are given the absolute minimal clues as to what he may be thinking.

In s1 we don’t know much about his past yet but Entrance Exam/Azure Messenger helps to highlight his eccentricities while also showing his cunning, but also addresses the question of how Dazai and Kunikida are able to work together. Atsushi himself starts the arc off by questioning how two people with seemingly such incompatible work ethics and personalities are able to work together and even became work partners in the first place.

This was cut out from the anime but the novel also shows how Dazai can act sketchy at times and acts on his own behind people’s backs. There were also a lot of overall changes from the Entrance Exam novel to the point that I find it more fitting to refer to the novel as Entrance Exam and the animated arc as the Azure Messenger arc due to how much was cut and changed, but that’s not the point here.

Next, Dark Era shows not only that Dazai used to work in the Port Mafia, but also some of his closest connections within it and why he left, which becomes relevant during the Guild arc. It also introduces us to the Lupin bar, which Dazai is later shown holding a match box from there as a relic of Oda, who he always thinks about/remembers in difficult situations. Dark Era is also where we’re introduced to Ango and what led to Dazai pretty much despising and refusing to forgive Ango.

15 Years Old mainly shows us the relationship between Dazai and Chuuya. This includes how they first met, the earliest instance we know of when Dazai can act his age, but also touches on the topic of Mori’s leadership. It takes place shortly after when Mori became leader, so the choices Mori makes during this time are crucial to both him and the PM. The importance of Mori’s leadership is later mentioned again during the Cannibalism arc, and we see Chuuya respecting Mori as a fellow leader at the end of 15 YO. We also see in 15 some of Dazai’s mentality as a strategist and leader when directly under Mori’s influence, and it is Mori’s teaching that got Dazai to a point that the only reason Fyodor was able to be found in s3 was because Dazai claimed that it’s how he would act in that situation. This is shown in some of Dazai’s unnecessary cruelty and use of excessive force during the arc (ie. continuing to shoot a dead body). 15 also shows not only how Dazai and Chuuya first met but also how they are both able to act their age around each other. Their constant bickering shows that they can both act like the teens or young adults that they are (depending on when we’re looking at) but also that they already have at least some respect and trust for each of them being their own person and each having their own strengths. They’re both being used as very important and powerful tools by their respective groups during 15, but they still realize that the other can each make their own decisions. Dazai is the one that tells the Sheep that Chuuya is his own person and Chuuya assures Shirase and Yuan of the captured members safety and he later realizes the extent of Dazai’s foresight after asking him to spare the kids, which Dazai mentions was part of his original plan anyway.

What’s interesting to me is how during the Rimbaud fight, Dazai claims that he’s started to become interested in living again yet only 1 year later in Storm Bringer, he is at his absolute worst in terms of what we’ve seen so far of his mental health. In regards to everything that went into Dazai’s mental health plummeting between 15 and SB and then improving again between SB and the Dragon Head Conflict, for now we can only hope to one day learn more about the DHC, how Dazai and Oda first met and what happened to Dazai during Chuuya’s first year in the PM. Also do keep in mind that 15 Years Old was originally written at Bones’ request (you can read the full afterword here).

In my opinion, when you think of these as some of the reasons for the order of the light novel adaptations so far, it makes sense to me. I do still question why we got Dead Apple instead of getting 55 Minutes animated, as they take place at around the same time on the timeline. However, if Dead Apple and even the Walking Alone OVA have proved anything, it’s that Chuuya’s mere presence alone brings in the money. Entrance Exam and Dark Era are respectively light novels 1 & 2 but #3 is Untold Origins of the Agency, which has a short story about Atsushi’s entrance exam being planned (A Day at the Agency) followed by the story of how Ranpo and Fukuzawa met and how this led to the need for the ADA to be founded. Personally, I don’t think Untold Origins is too necessary to the main story until Bones gets to animating chapter 71 onwards. In fact, if you want to look at the order of the Japanese release dates for the novels, Gaiden (January 2016) came out between Untold Origins (May 2015) and 55 Minutes (October 2016), yet with the official translations for the novels it’s been skipped over. But at the end of the day, the order Bones has chosen so far is by no means wrong or right. I’m not sure if the information regarding who chose which novel to adapt when is available to the public (if it’s in an interview or one of the guidebooks, hopefully there are translations available so please lmk if you know anything!), but hopefully Asagiri was involved in that part of the decision making as bsd is originally his story.

If you want to see my more in depth predictions for when the remaining light novel anime adaptations would take place (as in which order they’d be animated) and my estimated screen time for each, you can check it out here.

Also last minute thought/realization but they probably could’ve animated A Day at the Agency instead of Entrance Exam and achieved almost the same goal? I think I’ll revisit this idea later after rereading the novels eventually.

[scripttorture]

I'm trying to write a character who gets depression/anxiety after a few days of torture, but I'm worried that from an outside perspective the tiredness, lack of interest, and hyper vigilance are going to look like the character has been beaten down into meekness/compliance by the torture. Any advice on how to avoid the trope that this character was broken by their expeience when most days they're too tired to argue about anything and are slowly checking out of life due to the depression?

That’s a really good question. I think the best thing to do is combine several different approaches rather then relying on one particular thing.

 My first piece of advice holds true for writing any kind of minority experience. If you think you could be suggesting that an entire group has a particular feature/characteristic include another character from the same group who doesn’t. The more characters you have who are torture survivors the easier it is to show that they’re a diverse bunch with different symptoms and experiences.

 They don’t need to be major characters. They don’t need to be in the story for very long. But having them there makes a big difference.

 This is a lot easier if you’re talking about legally defined torture in a prison of some kind. But if that’s not the kind of story you’re telling consider bringing other survivors in during the character’s recovery. They could meet people while waiting to see the same doctor or mental health professional. They might be advised to join a group, either for group therapy or communal support. They might meet people while looking for financial support or jobs. If they’re religious they might be introduced to people through their priest or broader religious community.

 The next thing worth thinking about is: what can your character practically do?

 We have this tendency to conflate resistance with big, obvious, violent acts. Most of the time torture victims are not in a position to do that kind of thing. And in situations where people are held for a very long time (ie slavery, prisoner of war camps etc) what you tend to see are a lot of smaller or less obvious acts. Enslaved people did oppose slavery violently, with organised military action and with smaller acts of violence like poisoning slave owners.

 But they also did a host of other things. They sabotaged equipment or products they were supposed to produce. They broke valuable objects. They provided each other with material support and aid. They escaped and set up separate societies. They channelled resources into these societies. They aided others in escape attempts.

 It’s always worth thinking about what your character can actually practically do and what the risks or consequences of those actions might be.

 I talk about that in a post over here. Characters can take meaningful action even when they can’t take effective action. It’s worth taking the time to think about what would be meaningful to this character and figure out ways to show them prioritising it.

 It’s also worth considering what depression and anxiety can look like because yes, the features you describe are common in people with depression and anxiety. But they’re not necessarily constant and they’re not the only ways these conditions manifest.

 Depression can look like sleeping all the time. It can also look like not sleeping and a lack of sleep feeds into anxiety. Insomnia also causes paranoia after a while, makes it harder to interpret other people’s responses and can increase the risk of violent behaviour.

 Similarly depression can look like eating a lot, but it can also look like nausea, like being unable to eat full meals and struggling to keep food down. From the outside anxiety can be read as fear but it can also be read as aggression.

 It wouldn’t be unrealistic for this character to be more depressed at times and more anxious at others. It wouldn’t be unrealistic for them to be incredibly sleep deprived, paranoid and less able to see the risk in something like… spitting on a guard some days even if they’re generally incredibly tired, lethargic and apathetic.

 Basically even if this is the predominant way depression and anxiety manifest in this character there’s still leeway. There’s still moments when you can have them go against that. Even if it isn’t very often.

 The choice to use an outside perspective does make things harder. Especially if that perspective is a character who believes these kinds of tropes and has a poor understanding of mental health. One way to get around this is to have the point of view character’s perspective change with time and have them come to (and lead the audience to) the conclusion that they were wrong.

 But the character doesn’t need to reach that realisation if you work in enough signals to the reader that they’re unreliable. One way to do that is to contrast what the point of view character thinks with what the survivor character actually says and does.

 Let’s say the point of view character is having a conversation with another person who isn’t a survivor and they present the survivor as this sad case, broken by what they experienced because of a specific behaviour. Like sleeping a lot or being listless or not engaging with things in the way they used to.

 On it’s own that scene could easily back up these tropes (though it’s not an unrealistic scene because these tropes are commonly believed.) So let’s imagine the scene with the survivor’s response.

 They could respond that they sleep a lot because they have chronic pain or because their depression makes it hard to eat properly which leaves them exhausted. Physical symptoms like that are often easier for people to understand and it underlines the point that this is illness not some state where they’re permanently incapable. They can also respond with the steps they’re taking to try and make their life better. For chronic pain in torture survivors that can mean medication or physiotherapy. Perhaps they’re working on changing their diet or the schedule they eat at and sleep at, to work around these physical limits.

 You can apply the same kind of logic to the other points here, talk about why depression makes the character listless or stops them engaging and what they’re doing now. The aids that help them focus, how therapy is going, the new hobbies they’re exploring instead (perhaps because old ones contain triggers.)

 It’s harder to apply the same thing if the character is still imprisoned and still being tortured. But you can still do it. May be the dreams and plans the victim character had before seem meaningless now, but there will still be things they want to do and there will still be things they find meaning in.

 May be they don’t think they can be a Nobel prize winning doctor any more and may be to an outside perspective that looks like ‘broken’. But it’s harder for the audience to agree with that conclusion if the victim character is saying ‘My priorities are different now. I regret spending so much time working and I miss my family. If I get out I want to make them my focus instead of work.’

 A self aware character might be able to say ‘I don’t think I could achieve that dream anymore. But I think I could achieve this instead.’

 You can have other characters, doctors, psychologists or anyone who has worked with survivors for a long period, refute the idea these people are broken. Hurt, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re incapable of living or of living well.

 If the perspective is more of an omnipresent narrator you’ve got more scope to show little acts of resistance the character might be engaging in. You’ve also got more scope to just straight up tell the readers what’s going on in this character’s head.

 It’s worth stressing that characters like this do still have and make choices. They are choices in incredibly awful situations and they are not free choices. But that capacity to choose is still there. And there are understandable, though not always rational, thought processes behind those choices.

 Depression doesn’t always mean checking out of life. I’ve known a fair number of people with depression who kept going with things they considered important. They just also… got no enjoyment out of it. They were miserable and in pain. But they were still trying to do the best they could for their kids or finish their degree. These efforts weren’t always successful. Depression makes most things more difficult.

 But a character willing to give up on themselves isn’t necessarily willing to give up on other things.

 At the end of the day the symptoms you choose for your character and how those symptoms manifest isn’t the problem. There’s nothing wrong with picking the symptoms that are right for your character and there’s nothing wrong with writing them in this way.

 The problem comes when we start telling people that there’s no hope, that nothing gets better. It comes when we imply that natural, physiological reactions to trauma are somehow the fault of the victim or that those reactions mean they are forever controlled by their abuser.

 Torture is an awful, effecting and life changing experience. It leaves lasting wounds.

 But humans are incredibly resilient, stubborn creatures. Our capacity for survival, to find ways to live well, is astounding.

 There’s room for optimism here and it’s worth making space for that in your story.

 I hope that helps :)

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[cricket-boyy]

Just gonna ramble a bit about what my ideal Digimon game would be like.

It would definitely need to be a jrpg but not a monster collector. I feel like the comparisons to pokemon are the main reason for why that's the go to concept for a Digimon game. But whereas pokemon's thing is "gotta catch em all", Digimon's is something different. The core point of Digimon has from the very start been the bond between digimon and their partners. Therefore to stay true to that theme in a videogame would to me mean a focus on narrative, where instead of playing as a blank slate silent protagonist you'd control a fully fleshed out character. I would also want the partner digimon to be a proper character in their own right (personally I'd love Veemon who evolves into the Veedramon line). You could still have a choice of who your partner would be like in the Cyber Sleuths but then they'd all just be written as the same character. Only the model and names would change.

I believe Digimon would lend itself well to being a traditional story driven jrpg with set party members. Now if you really need monster collecting in there, I'd have it as a slapped on side thing and have the story be about needing to build an army to revolt against the villain who's a ruler of some sort. I'd definitely write a Digimon story with heavy anti-capitalist themes. But I think ultimately the story should have a simple plot and be mostly character focused. Characters get isekai'd to the digital world, get partnered up with their digimon, explore, a problem is presented (ie bad guy is doing bad things), they solve it, shit gets fucked, more bad guys, stakes are raised, maybe go back to the real world cuz villains go there, solve that, get back to the digital world cuz gotta take care of the big bad, the end.

Dialogue choices and branching paths would be cool but not necessary. Maybe a social link type mechanic that unlocks side quests or something. I wouldn't wanna tie evolutions to those though. One of many things that was disappointing about Survive was that evolutions past champion were these missable side things. Evolution scenes should be hype pop-off character developing moments but taking them out of the main story and having the writing be flimsy and just bad (I mean all of the writing in Survive is bad), ruins one the most fun parts of Digimon. They didn't even have voice acting.

Gameplay-wise I'd take heavy inspiration from SMTV, at least with the exploration. Open world is a recipe for disaster, so multiple open levels is the way to go. I'd also love to see environments in the digital world that we don't usually get to see like a big city. Exploring jungles, deserts, ruins and then going to a huge busy city could be a great moment.

Combat should have some kind of a gimmick. I'm often disappointed by turn-based combat systems due to them being too simplistic to me. I have a bunch of ideas I'm not gonna list here, but something that encourages you to use all of the tools available and keeps you on your toes. The last thing I want is just using your strongest attacks over and over, and the only strategy to keep in mind is some rock-paper-scissors weakness system.

Also the vibes should be Y2K heavy. I'm talking trance and prog house music, late 90's-early 00's style fits on the main characters.

When it comes to videogames the Digimon franchise has so much to offer, which is why it's so sad to me to not see that potential realized. The Cyber Sleuths are difficult to go back to cuz they don't respect your time, Survive is a badly written visual novel, and I doubt whatever comes next will quench my thirst for a Digimon game that I could love. It's great to see how much effort they're putting into the card game, I just wish Bandai would take a chance and put a similar amount of effort (and money) into a videogame. I mean the Cyber Sleuths, despite not being very good, got a lot of attention on them for being better than what had come before, having a bit more mainstream appeal and good old fashioned word of mouth. Imagine how a game that's on the level of, say Shin Megami Tensei V (but with a better story pls) could do.

So yeah, here's hoping one day a Digimon game can rock my socks off.

[asagimeta]

Enhypen Theory- Ruins & Rituals

So I've been watching Given/Taken alot lately for writing purposes and am curious about something....

What's with the weird monument?

The beginning of the video starts with Jungwon standing in a desert with a bleeding nose, but we don't see this scenery again until the third "arc" of the music video, when the rest of the boys join him and immitate firing arrows at this broken monument of some kind- we later see them at night, dressed in their uniforms, dancing in front of it- though before this Jungwon is seen again slowly burning from (presumably) the sunlight

But... what is it? What's the significance and why does the video open there? Why are they firing arrows? There are just so many questions and I, personally, haven't really seen this part of G/T addressed yet so I'm going to take a shot at it for my first HYBE theory! (I actually have been *following* HYBE theories for a few months now but I'm new to K-Pop in general so I've been quiet until now)

First, it's important to note that it stands out as odd from the rest of the video

The beginning and middle of the video have two primary locations with similar but still considerably different vibes-

Old fashioned clothes, indoors, a sense of containment and "other"ness, even though they aren't the same, you can still feel the connection to eachother- but that's completely removed in the desert scenes, wich are outdoors, in modern clothing, and present the boys with more individuality (IE: lacking uniforms)

And it makes me wonder if the ruins they're visiting are of their old testing facility

Let me break it down a bit better-

The two primary locations we see other than these ruins are a mansion-wich I'll, possibly incorrectly, refer to as "the orphanage" henceforth- and a testing/containment/research facility of some sort

At first I wondered if the ruins were simply the orphanage but that's clearly not the case as you can see the exterior of the mansion in one of the snapshots early on, it's very different looking- even the shape is extremely different, and it seems to be in a forest just below a hill, not in the middle of a desert

What about the other place though? The facility- as I'll call it from here on- doesn't have the same deniability

In fact, we see a very similarly shaped building to the ruins during one of the snapshots, but we don't have any clear indication of what it is, why would it just randomly be there? Unless, ofcourse, it isn't random

Initially I assumed the orphanage and the facility were the same place because the boys are wearing the uniforms in both locations, but I'm starting to think that isn't the case, and that the boys were moved to the facility after being experimented on at the orphanage

The thing is that vampires don't always turn when they're given the venom/virus/blood/whatever-it-is-that-turns them, and when this substance is manmade or engineered somehow, it takes even less frequently, this is true of all supernaturals, and again, is emphasized when the people attempting to make the transitions are humans experimenting with forces beyond their understanding, so it's typical of these practioners to have large "sample sizes" of potential experiments, often turning to hospitals, schools, and orphanages (to name a few) seeking the few candidates that can survive and thrive under these new conditions- from there they'll experiment on all of them until they get the desired result, and those select few will move on in the process to the next step

Sound familiar at all? I think this is further representative of the idol industry

We know that a big theme of Enhypen's storyline is going against the toxic nature of the idol industry, with songs like "Not For Sale" and "Mixed Up", and themes like being museum or display peices in "Let Me In", and the process of a large group of young boys being picked through and groomed until there are only a few left standing, who are then taken away from the "orphanage" and brought to a more intense experimentation/testing facility, sounds alot like idol-potentials who are on talent shows, win, and then assigned to a group and agency who put them through intense preperation for their debut

We know Enhypen went through that exact process on I-Land, so it's not a stretch to say this may be what they're referencing

But back to the ruins

You can see a definite difference in the way the orphanage looks vs the facility, wile the orphanage is a western style mansion that looks like it came from the late Victorian era- though, as Laina Sunflower pointed out, it does seem to have some modern conveniences like pen lights and electric fans- (the person conducting the experiments is also wearing a face mask, wich looks more modern from what I can tell)

-the facility is seemingly more modern than that, and has a much less homey feel, resembling instead a more containment type of vibe- large areas of open space, large glass windows dividing one from another, and the boys all seem to have their own rooms to keep separated from eachother, very unlike the mansion where you can probably safely assume that they share rooms, as unlike the sleek, minimal style of the facility, is cluttered with children's toys, furnishings, and accents, and you get the vibe that the boys are allowed around eachother often, the entire feel is more casual, and considering the number of tables in the dining room, you can also safely assume that there are many more inhabitants of the orphanage than just Enhypen themselves, meaning that it's more likely they share rooms

We know what the outside of the mansion looks like, but we don't have as definitive of a space for the facility

Wile the tower in the snapshot is a bit different in shape from the ruins, they're similar enough, and the landscape is notably perfect for a facility containing baby vampires- a barren desert devoid of the one thing they need most (blood) and full of the one thing that can most harm them (sunlight), it would be like keeping Superman in a chamber beneath the red sun surrounded by kryptonite, there's very little chance of them escaping

There's also something particularly strange about the ruins, in that there's a LADDER hanging off of one side leading to the top of the facility

The entire set up reminds me of the vampire facility in True Blood, and I wouldn't be surprised if the facility had this peculiar setup to make it even more difficult on the boys to possibly escape, I wouldn't even be surprised if these ruins are only a small portion of what's been left, maybe the original facility was a little in tune with the building from the snapshots before whatever happened to it... happened

There's also some other things I want to point out with this line of thought-

Sunghoon is kept in a room filled with orange light at one point, sitting on the edge of a bathtub-?- when his hand catches on fire

Some have theorized that this is Sunghoon's power, just like other boys have the power to levitate, hypnotize, and teleport, but what if that isn't it? What if that was the facility testing him in a room full of manufactured sunlight to see if he indeed burns in the sun? True Blood, again, has a similar theme (and it wouldn't be unusual for HYBE to draw influences from other popular media, what with TXT's frequent Harry Potter references)

Additionally, could this be in part about their escape from the facility? We see the boys make a running motion as though they're trying to get away, only to stop

We see something almost exactly the same in "Fever", but this time they succeed in seeming to go through the door to their freedom

I also wonder if the Victorian style clothing vs the French Roccoco style clothing is meant to show that there was a large gap between the time they were originally imprisoned and the time they got out?

This also fits with "Drunk Dazed", we see the mystery woman before the boys, still in their Rococo style clothes, performing a "ritual of blood" by pouring blood into the fountain, could the boys have been rescued, found, or "adopted" by **real** vampires after their, probable, human experiments? If the French Rococo style represents the boys during their escape period, this could make senses, and could also serve to explain, to a degree, their blood festivities in the first place

This doesn't make alot of sense though in terms of timing as the Victorian era is around two hundred years *after* the French Rococo period, so unless it's symbolic....

But I've wondered about the weird contrast between the boys being experimented into vampirism vs being turned naturally, as the mystery woman seems to heavily implicate that she herself is a vampire and that she's showing the boys a "natural" ritual, something that's part of the vampire community/species/way of life, but this is a giant contrast to the more clinical, experimentation vibe of what the boys had been going through in their orphanage/facility days; I'm reminded again of True Blood here, as well as "Bitten", "Servamp" (the manga), and plenty of others where the older, stronger vampires (or werewolves) free the younger ones from human captivity

Things I still haven't figured out or that I find most notable:

-Jungwon seems seperated from the others the most here, he's the one at the beginning with the nosebleed and the one catching on fire- something that doesn't happen to any of the other boys- and in one of the flashbacks he's the one standing outside of the orphanage banging on the window as the others go about their routines, and in “Fever” he’s the one left behind/last in line when everyone is running towards the door, he seems to be the "main" charector in Given/Taken, as he's the last one on screen revealing what everyone suspected: that they're vampires; he's also the one with teleportation, most prominantely seen in Drunk/Dazed, flittering around outside the room where Sunoo is pouring his blood into his glass and coming in between the two groups of three who, according again to Laina Sunflower, seem to be at odds with eachother

-Sunoo is also the one seen to be biting (or attempting to bite) Jungwon, this could be a really interesting nod to their relationship, the two seem to be connected in a special way (is this why Jungwon is outside Sunoo’s room in Drunk/Dazed, flittering around anxiously as though he’s not sure what to do with himself or isn’t sure what to do about something that’s bothering him?) Could Sunoo have been responsible for turning Jungwon, or maybe completing his transformation? Or even just feeding off of him, wich, in some lore, creates a special bond between two vampires?

-Speaking of Drunk/Dazed, we see the mansion reappear during their first "bloody birthday party"- when there was only one candle on the cake- does this mean that they celebrated their life as vampires before being transferred to the facility? Were they vampires for a fair amount of time- several months or maybe even a year or two- before being taken away?

-Why are they immitating firing arrows? They don't seem to be *actually* doing this, just mimicking it, why expose themselves to the sun just for something symbolic? Is it a repetition of something they've done before? Did they originally destroy the facility themselves? Or it it something else..?

If anyone has any ideas definitely let me know, HYBE is my new favorite thing for theorizing!

[the-nysh]

Hey! I just wanted to say that I love your writings and character analysis! :D. Do you have more examples of garou being an empath?

Oh! 😳 Thank you, ah you probably saw some of those recent posts about it, yeah? :O Are you looking for more story examples or older posts previously written more in depth? Cause I think this one went into most detail before, but also oddly enough, I don’t think I’ve ever used that precise term (diagnosis?) for him either, hmm mainly because I’m no clinical expert he most often practices avoidance - both with his feelings and in forming relationships with others, in favor of focusing on his goals instead. (Familiarly, he’s that lone wolf introvert who isolates himself out of having to deal with such socially difficult situations.)

So other than Tareo, we haven’t really seen him...allow himself many other opportunities to empathize or connect with others yet (even when he has the potential & capacity for it, which I feel Garou has some of what Bang lacks and needs most to improve his teaching method, in that regard). Also because whenever he finds himself caring too much (like about Bang, whom he still closely emulates, so you can interpret Garou’s ‘absorbency’ trait as a symbolic manifestation or another side to him being an empath, heh :P) he gets pissed at himself for feeling that way, cause it interferes with his goals and how he thinks he should act & behave instead. :’)) So here he is, getting pissed whenever he runs across or experiences injustice (compelling him to act on emotion, instinct, or gut intuition which he can hastily misjudge), but then also getting pissed at himself when he doesn’t fully understand why he’s upset, or when he feels it goes against his ‘image of a monster,’ only to forcefully push those feelings aside and once again avoid thinking about them any further. Ohh!!! lol someone help him always suffering a cycle at conflict with his own feelings...

But! Saying all that, I feel the first instance that closely represents this, as part of his origins to show he was always empathetic like this, comes from when he stood up for the other kid getting hurt by Tacchan:

“That’s dangerous; I feel sorry for him!” Getting upset for the other kid’s pain (already knowing this game’s behavior is wrong for the violence inflicted & injustice suffered) and instantly stepping in to break it up. (Driven to help out only for the other kids to turn on him as the next easy target...) 

This also ties into why he relates most to the fictional representations of monsters on tv; he sees himself in their shoes and sympathizes with their pain and situations too, so to speak. Not because they’re ‘evil bad guys’ per se, but rather cause they’re the unpopular ‘outcasts’ like him, who have dreams and aspirations to live too, but get unfairly targeted, outnumbered, humiliated, and crushed underfoot by.....the representations of those preaching ‘justice’ (like Tacchan above). When what Garou clearly sees, feels, and takes from this, is the unbalanced injustice suffered by those in these designated ‘monster/villain’ roles instead. (Counterpoint: these fictional roles he saw in cartoons, or reenacted in games, were not accurate to real monsters & heroes, but that’s Garou’s other struggle he comes to realize as he experiences more of the real world...) Another way of looking at it: when the favored/popular/strong group deems another marginalized group as ‘bad’ or undesirable, it absolves them of any guilt and their capacity & kindness to care, giving them the freedom to enact violence on them (ie bully the weak) without shame. For ex: ‘oh you’re a [insert any dehumanizing label here] monster? Prepare to be dogpiled and eliminated in the name of performative justice! :3′  I’m getting ahead of myself, but does this not ring a bell to anyone familiar with online cult movements? Which is precisely the unjust behavior Garou hates.

So another instance of him stepping in to inadvertently help a stranger in distress, as another victim to what he hates seeing (with the excuse ~they just happened to be in his way~) was when he stomps over to break up a fight between an old man and a rowdy drunk outside the dine n dash restaurant. He could have ignored it, walked on by, or gone to another place to eat, but nooo; seeing this behavior still pissed him off enough to intervene and deescalate the fight by scaring off the aggressor. 

With non-strangers, naturally we see most examples of Garou’s empathetic side with Tareo, cause Garou sees much of his bullied past-self in him, and he can’t help but care and react to his similarly felt distress even if Garou is very tsundere denying how much he cares; remember his ‘I didn’t come here to save you’ blatant lie line? Yeah; no one else made a beeline responding to Tareo’s cries for help, heh. 

(As covered in the other posts you’ve seen) he sensed and understood why Tareo was upset without him even having to fully explain it. Since he empathized enough with that familiar frustration (peers messing with him) to step in and help out with advice. Which was a gracefully ineloquent way with words, but hey he tried the gesture actually calmed Tareo down and got him to stop crying. :’)

Likewise, later witnessing Tareo suffering from the bullies pissed him off for reasons Garou can directly relate to (they were even calling Tareo a monster!) so once again, he’s compelled to step in, break it up, and deescalate the behavior.....then waltz down there to check in with how Tareo’s doing.

Offering another “I feel sorry for you.” :’) Which he plays off as more detached pity before he whoaaa, quickly turns around to leave with a ‘tch, go home’ once Tareo speaks. :’D (Like he can’t emotionally handle facing this, even turning his back when Tareo thanks him for helping him twice now since the shed scene.) But, we know there’s empathy felt for Tareo getting picked on, which drove Garou to act and intervene on his behalf here, BECAUSE..!!! Look what drives that evidence home:

Ohoho...probably one of his biggest telling moments! 8′D Recognizing what’s on Darkshine’s face now (while rendered overpowered & unable to fight back)...is the same he remembers relating to in Tareo, cause it’s similarly what he’s felt and suffered before in his past! :O Ahhh!! Making him go ‘oshit, wait...NO,’ as he realizes this is what he hates; ‘this isn’t what I want to do or who I want to be,’ and forcefully stops himself (he breaks up his own fight) before soon barreling over as the pain and consequences of everything finally catch up to him.

So...! Based on his track record, and provided he’s not off on his lonesome anymore or unable to interact/socialize with anyone in the near future, then he’s highly likely to add on more examples of such moments. Especially whenever he witnesses what he hates seeing (similar cycles of what he’s felt in his past, attuned to the same injustice suffered by others that he’s already experienced himself) that he can’t help but intervene & act on their behalf. Even when it gets emotionally overwhelming (for him to get upset with himself and want to avoid it as much as possible) or in direct contrast to the person (ie closed-off ‘monster’) he’s trying to be, ever at conflict with the inner empathetic kid he always was. :’)