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xerith-42 · 9 months ago

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Stop blaming characters for bad writers

Seriously, stop fucking doing this. While this is a post that could certainly be applicable to MANY fandoms, I'm mainly directing this whole rant at my target audience which is mentally ill minecraft obsessed freaks.

If a character is written badly, gets badly fumbled by the creator, or has the ball dropped in regards to their arc in some way, a lot of people will blame the character, as if they're a real conscious person making these decisions. When they aren't. They're a block man literally being controlled by two people who just aren't very good writers and one or both of them are incredibly sexist, kind of racist, ableist, and just bad writers in general.

Yeah, Laurance does some pretty shitty things through out Season 2 of MCD, actively crossing lines he wouldn't have previously crossed. We as fans can cope by saying something something calling, or just saying Laurance is a bad abusive person, but the reality is that the writers wanted to force the series to fit a specific vision and as a result were willing to do anything to get the series to that point. In order to make Aaron the most favorable suitor for Aphmau, her previous suitors need to be out of the picture, or clearly inferior options.

Garroth suffered the out of the picture, being mostly absent outside of a few cutscenes here and there until episode 81 of season 2, but episode 81 is the culmination of the writers goals to make Aarmau happen. By the time Garroth has returned to the series, the damage has already been done. He's not getting the life he wants. And Laurance is written out of the picture as well, but only after being shown to be inferior because Jesson were pushing an agenda.

Laurance didn't deteriorate as a person due to neglect of his physical and mental well being after a severely traumatic experience. He deteriorated as a character because the writers stopped giving as much of a shit about him and instead were using the series as self indulgent fanfiction of alternate versions of themselves. That's not Laurance's fault.

And this applies to any character who was completely fumbled in MyStreet due to this similar focus on wish fulfillment from the writers. Jess has stated that the relationship between Aphmau and Aaron in Phoenix Drop High is reflective of her relationship with Jason, we all know this. This means that any characters who come off as total fucking creeps in that series (namely Gene), are not actually acting on the whims of their own autonomy or desires as characters. They are acting in service of telling a predetermined story that they are retroactively being added into for author fulfillment.

In this regard I fully support fandom cope and say that you should rewrite your little guys to your hearts content. But if you're going to criticize these characters for their actions, don't criticize them. They didn't do anything wrong. All characters are just puppets in service of the story or themes a writer is trying to push. If a character acts in an objectively terrible way, especially a way that isn't in line with their previous characterizations, that is a failing of the writers, not the character.

And I feel like largely a lot of us can and frequently do this. We're actively criticizing Jesson for being terrible low-key bigoted writers all the god damn time, it's like half of the content here. But when we get into character discourse I feel like some people cling onto bad actions of the canon too closely and I've seen more than a few posts presume some pretty terrible interpretations of characters based on these actions. Obviously Laurance is a character I and a lot of others are fixated on so a lot of discourse revolves around him, and it was seeing some... interesting takes on him that prompted me to start writing this post.

But this happens to everyone. Quite personally based on the character I was shown in MyStreet, it feels really weird that Garroth would make an insensitive comment about his brother's weight. Yeah siblings poke fun at each other and often cross lines, but if that was something Zane was seriously insecure about (which it seems like he might be) then it does make Garroth come off as a really insensitive brother, which just doesn't gel with how hard he tries to bond with Zane despite their tense relationship. And I don't think Garroth should be criticized for making those comments.

Whoever wrote those lines (Jess and/or Jason) should be criticized for writing a scene where a character is mocked by their older sibling over a physical insecurity even if said sibling would not normally do that. It's not Travis' fault that Jesson never decided to give him more of a character beyond "funny pervy guy" that's not funny in every anime they've watched until Season 5 of MyStreet. It's unfair to try and say Travis should be scrutinized for his borderline sexual harassment of some characters when it's not his fault that happened, he was written by writers who don't think this sort of behavior isn't all that bad if they make it out for comedy and punch him in the face.

And god dammit it's not Laurance's fault that his jealousy became the most prevalent emotion he felt. Laurance has always been a character to give into his vices and yet fight against them at the same time, it's what makes him compelling. If they were going to pull on those vices in order to make him a less appealing love interest, he never had a chance to really be his own character after a certain point. Because at a certain point in Season 2, Jesson stopped caring about the character they had been writing for over a hundred episodes at that point. They just wanted to canonize their self insert ship and were willing to do anything to get it.

Laurance isn't an abusive angry person who would have killed Aphmau if they got together. He's a flawed character being handled by incredibly flawed writers who are prone to making some of the worst decisions you have ever seen a creator make in regards to their character writing. He was caught in the crossfire of the adoration he received from a very dedicated fanbase, and the creator who would rather pretend he and his previous arc didn't exist for the sake of her fun. It's not Laurance's fault his arc was stilted, jerked around, and ultimately ended with him completely face planting. And yet still reliably dragging his bloodied body up at just the slightest glimmer of hope (Void Paradox).

It's deeply poetic and tragic that I can describe his character in universe and in the meta-textual sense that way, but we should never blame Laurance, or Aaron, or any other characters for things being like this.

They didn't write the show. Jess and Jason did.

#minecraft diaries #text post #aphblr #aphverse #laurance zvahl #garroth ro'meave #minecraft diaries laurance #mystreet #mystreet garroth #mystreet travis #bad writing #fandom discourse #fandom discussion #character discussion #character discourse

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ivomartins · 5 months ago

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It pains me so much that Hunger's branch has so much lost and unexplored potential. Its main downfall is, imo, is that we never see or even told why is he the one for MC/ why she fell in love with him (their wedding dance dialogue falls so incredibly flat oh my god). If you have low power path during the grand battle, Vicky will ask him to stop taking the soldiers' wounds because they will lose without him and he says somehow bitterly "Well, if I'm so strategically important...". It feels like even the writer lampshades how little she loves him.

Going a little bit feral how his branch could have been about an unnatural, shouldn't-have-been union of an eldritch powerful creature and immortal being, a couple for whom the phrase "you're my life" isn't just some cheesy confession but a simple truth for the most reckless, intense and codependent love imaginable but what we got instead is "oooh Hunger never kissed anyone before me it's so tragic and romantic 🥺🥺🥺🥺" over and over and over

THIS!!!! ALL OF THIS!!!

i was also pretty miffed right from the start of his route because of the way vicky displayed feelings for him but without any rhyme or reason to them like 😭 it frustrated the shit out of me and made me disappointed with his route real fast because it made it painfully obvious that alice had NO dynamic for them and no actual thought put into pairing them together, it was just fan service through and through

like even when you get to lock in your LI and you choose hunger, there's literally no grand realization or anything matching what was written for other LIs, it was just like "vicky can't stop thinking about him and wanting to be near him" like ???? HUH

it's the way you've so RUDELY transferred your feralness over to me though with that eldritch union vibe because UGH. it would have been INCREDIBLE. we could have had it ALL 😭

one thing i was also picturing for them was like a bond specifically forged through hunger being the key to vicky's power, like her feelings stemming from hunger being the one and only person to actually boost her up and help her reach her potential as a person and an immortal especially if there was a soul mate esque reasoning for hunger of all the horsemen being able to do that and vicky being the only exception to his influence. imagine that and imagine the beautiful conflict it would have caused them to have to navigate this power and this bond being something that was killing vicky especially in the final battle but rip!!! RIP!!!!

#romance club #rc hunger #heaven's secret #shut up jen #conversations #vicky x hunger #sorry it took me actual ages to respond to this i was going through it (and still am) 😭

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songofsunset · 1 year ago

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Please continue updating as you go through One Piece. I'm a fan of it and I absolutely need to hear more of your takes throughout the series.

Hello!!! tumblr didn't show me this ask until now, but it is always nice to hear that I'm not being super obnoxious when yelling about stuff! I have just finished episode 29 aka the Baratie and Don Krieg and here are my thoughts so far (aka justice for Usopp and also more thoughts after that hahaha)

-Usopp was done SLIGHTLY dirty in the live action lmao- the romance was great and it was all a wonderful bit of the show but like, anime Usopp??? he is a strategic thinker (he made a fake army in the bushes to scare away pirates! he prepped the choke point with traps!) and a good leader (he is so good with the kids!!) and is an excellent shot (he gets to use his weapon in a lot more ways and places in the anime!!!) and he KNOWS he is telling lies and exaggerations and he is doing it on purpose, because it's fun and it makes life interesting, and also because THATS JUST GOOD DAMN CHILDCARE LOOK AT THIS MAN GO!!!!

and he KNOWS he's a bit of a coward, which is why his goal is specifically to become BRAVE, and he is PROUD of his pirate dad, instead of like, kind of sad and jealous, and when he goes out to sea he is following in his dad's footsteps on purpose because he respects and looks up to that man (ALSO the fact that Yasopp wouldn't shut up about his son to the extent that anime Luffy recognized him on SIGHT with zero other context??? that helps!!! that makes things slightly better!!!! Like he's a shit dad still but lmao)(side note: I carried around pictures of my nieces and nephews and would regularly accost people with them for most of middle and high school lmao, same hat Yasopp, same hat)

And he is ready to do anything to defend his village even if he IS scared, and he just wants them to be safe so he let's them believe he'd been lying about the pirates this time as well instead of trying to grandstand and get credit for defending them, and they like him and miss him when he isn't there and he's a PART OF THE COMMUNITY (childcare!!!! entertainment!!! a public service!!!!!)

and he decides all on his own to set out on a journey, and the fact that he goes with Luffy is just because they are friends and they want him there, not because he isn't taking his own agency to change his own fate and become who he wants to be!!!!!!!!!!!

In conclusion I liked LA Usopp well enough, but anime Usopp is one of my FAVORITES!!!!! My hope is that they were just setting up a relevant arc for him, and I do believe they could pull it off hahaha additionally:

-yeah, the very first thing Nami did when she met Luffy was feed him, she was never gonna get rid of him LMAO

-the Sanji and Luffy dynamic is SO different in the anime and the show, and I love what they did with Sanji in the show (in contrast to Usopp the WHOLE BARATIE got SUCH A DAMN GLOW UP oh my god, the actor is charming as hell, and they nailed Zeff, and damn the set is so cool) but also the slow dawning change on Sanji's face from 'who the hell is this weird chore boy kid' to 'i respect him' to 'im gonna go be part of his crew and also I would die for him' is fucking visible in real time over several episodes and I cannot get enough of it, absofuckinglutely incredible oh my god

-Let 👏Anime👏Zeff👏Eat👏His👏Own👏Leg

-shoutout to the LA for saving their set budget for the Baratie and doing Zoro's ENTIRE BACKSTORY on one single platform in the middle of the woods, super effective and I didn't even notice until the anime had us in an actual training hall and stuff xD xD xD

-"If i can hold more swords ill be stronger" ACTUAL FUCKING ZORO DIALOGUE OH MY GOD, shoutout to that baby hamster for holding like 10 swords the first time he ever tried to sword fight, he began as he meant to continue and I love that for him

-JOHNNY AND YUSAKU!!!!! ZORO HAS GODDAMN COWORKERS AND THAT IS PEAK FUCKING COMEDY OH MY GOD, THEYRE GREAT AND ICONIC AND THEY ARE ALSO HIS ACTUAL DAMN PIRATE HUNTING COWORKERS LMAOOOO

-Mihawk's fucking EVERYTHING, what the hell, i love him and also LMAO

-Extremely fucking hilarious of the live action to have Mihawk deal with Don Krieg practically off screen lmaooooo, and also I understand why that one fan in the LA reaction videos I watched was so excited to see Gin show up, what an extremely One Piece character

-Luffy is my favorite. He is a character of all time. Something is deeply wrong with this child and also I love him and that terrible terrible glint in his eye

#lori chat #one piece #opla #usopp #the bit where luffy did the gum gum pistol right through don krieg's spike cape had me yelling so loud my sister came to check what was up #OKAY YES THATS MY THOUGHTS ENJOY #NOW ON TO NAMI AND ARLONG I GUESS!!!!!

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megamind2010 · 9 months ago

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standing outside your window knocking on the glass hard as fuck hand bleeding

3, 5, 12, 18, 19, 21, 33, 35 for my buddy nell bishop obvi

hello bitch (oc ask meme)

3. weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon? And here it becomes obvious that ive thought way more about nells personal life than their job as a superhero LMFAO i really like the weapon ideas shayan came up with… the ladybug shield and the little throwing stars (circles) i also think of her with some kind of derivative of the bb gun… something cute and nonlethal. most of her weaponry was developed with/by ted which explains a lot. similarly to ted she generally fights hand to hand but she probably has a few gadgets in her belt. maybe a ladybug taser

5. how do they typically dress? does their wardrobe lean more towards practicality or aesthetics? nell wears the same outfit to work every day (slacks, button down, sweatervest, tie, fingerless gloves, converse) because they found a comfortable outfit ten years ago. they tend to wear the same kind of thing casually as well… the gloves are a sensory thing so they tend to wear them pretty much whenever they arent asleep or showering lol but overall their entire wardrobe is extremely samey because i mean. He knows what he likes if it aint broke why fix it

12. how long have they been around? do you know their birthday? is their birthday the day you made them or another day? what do they think of celebrating birthdays? ……… I DONT REMEMBER? i think i came up with the first inklings pretty soon after colleen doran posted the original unused ladybug and blue beetle illustration which wassssssssss february 2023…? NOT EVEN A YEAR AGO? but i didnt start really developing them in earnest for a while after that I GENUINELY DONT KNOW i feel like theyve been around forever. if i made their birthday the day i "made" them it would have been too close to my birthday which felt weirdly indulgent so i made their canon birthday january 2nd :-) she doesnt tend to tell other people when her birthday is but isnt like Secretive about it, she just isnt a fan of huge displays

18. their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing? lying is fine if its for a reason or if its funny. in general her morals are in the service of preventing harm so stealing in the abstract is kind of neutral. not a fan of killing! you might ask then why she lives with casey, an attempted murderer. well you see 1. she didnt actually manage to do it 2. it was kind of funny

19. are they quick to anger? what sets them off? its very easy to annoy them step 1 be casey step 2 profit LMAO like with most of their emotions nell doesnt really externalise anger very obviously until it reaches a crisis point… many things that anger them! a big one is having her abilities/independence questioned… deliberately obnoxious behaviour… mouth sounds

21. their favorite place to be? he really does like his workplace… he likes being at home. being by himself in a dark quiet place is top tier

33. if applicable, how would your other characters describe them? i mean specifically the people around them. erm well not all of them are my characters but the people in her life casey: (under her breath) boring judgemental bitch (out loud) SAVE ME LADYBUG ted: she's a real bright spark :D booster: difficult to read michelle: really cool… but kind of frustrating at times! her dad: incredibly driven… just like his mother alex (middle brother): they work really hard even when people dont notice seb (youngest brother): SO COOL

35. do they ever return home? not very often. their family moved out of their childhood home after nell left so it's strange to go back to somewhere they didnt grow up

#nell #sorry this took a moment ihad to make shockwave and then listen to a thousand songs #wiihtigo

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looryraine18 · 1 year ago

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How Digital and Smart Technology Makes My Life Easier

In today's world, digital and smart technology has become like a trusty helper in my daily life, making things smoother and simpler. First off, my smartphone is like a pocket-sized wizard. It wakes me up in the morning, reminds me of important tasks, and even guides me when I'm out and about. It's like having a super organized friend always by my side. Plus, when it comes to school works, my computer and the internet are like a turbo boost. They help me finish tasks and talk to people really quickly.

When it's time to unwind, digital entertainment comes to the rescue. Streaming services bring movies and shows right to my screen. Digital and smart technology has truly become the backbone of my daily life, making everything from school work to relaxation a breeze.

These are the apps I rely on to fulfill my requirements and keep myself entertained:

1. Google Meet. A video conferencing platform that allows students to connect with their teachers and classmates online. I rely on this platform every time we have a synchronous session with our teachers. Additionally, I find it incredibly useful for presenting information. With this tool, I can effortlessly share my PowerPoint presentations with both my teacher and classmates, making the learning experience much smoother and interactive. This platform has truly become an essential part of how I connect and communicate with my classmates.

2. Canva. Canva helps anyone create stunning designs easily. It's great for making social media posts, videos, posters, websites, and more. Canva is a big help for me, especially when I need to create designs or make things like concept maps, circle maps, and venn diagrams. I'm not very artistic, so Canva makes my work look really nice and it's easy to use. It saves me a lot of trouble and makes everything extra pretty. For students like me, it's a real lifesaver.

3. GoodNotes. GoodNotes app is like a magic wand for student like me. It helps me write down notes neatly and easily if needed. This app is a real money-saver, instead of constantly buying expensive print ink and stacks of bond paper, we can take all our notes digitally. It also helps the environment by cutting down on paper usage. Plus, with everything neatly organized in the app, we never have to worry about misplacing important information.

4. Netflix. A subscription-based streaming service that allows you to watch a wide variety of TV shows, movies, documentaries, and more on your internet-connected devices. For me, it offers enjoyable things to do in my free time and a way to take a break from the pressures of school. I often become a fan of specific shows, which give me fun stuff to talk about with my friends.

5. YouTube. A free online platform where users can watch, upload, and share videos on a wide range of topics, from entertainment and education to tutorials and vlogs. Besides the lectures given by our professors, YouTube is incredibly useful for me. Whenever I struggle with understanding certain topics, YouTube comes to my aid with its abundant educational videos. These resources have been instrumental in helping me succeed in my quizzes and exams.

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bisexualshakespeare · 2 years ago

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[ID: Dear Willow Supporters (and Vocal Opposition, you guys get in here too): Writing to you today, one… preposterously, criminally and immeasurably lucky fool. The outpouring of kind words, support and passion for our shabby, idiosyncratic little show has been nothing short of mind-blowing and profoundly moving, not just for me, but for every one who worked their butts off on it. We're all inexpressibly grateful and thrilled that you enjoy watching it (almost) as much as we enjoy making it. Even those of you who didn't enjoy it, yet stuck with it for eight hours to critique each episode and let us know exactly which choices you weren't a fan of. That too is its own… incredibly specific form of flattery, and we appreciate it! As a life-long devotee of Deadline Hollywood, I also appreciate that punchy headlines drive clicks. So I understand how "WILLOW CANCELED AFTER ONE SEASON ON DISNEY+" is fun and juicy. However, as I'm nearly certain I've had more conversations about this in the last couple weeks than Nellie Andreeva (of whom I remain an ardent fan), I feel fairly confident that, if asked, neither I, nor the folks at Lucasfilm, would or have actually characterized it quite that way. The truth is less splashy, but here it is: A decision was made last week to release our main cast for other series opportunities that may arise for them in the coming year. With all the tv and movies in production around the world, it feels unfair to limit an actor's availability without a clear sense of when you're going to need them again. It's further trivialized by the simple reality that the scripts we've been working on require just as many actors (from our first season) with whom no such contractual hold exists. Nothing prevented Annabelle Davis, for example, from taking another show, but you better believe Mims appears in every single VOLUME II chapter. If you're asking what this means for you as a viewer, or me as the creator, here's what I think it means: Due to forces much larger and more intricate than I would ever pretend to fully understand, production of streaming shows is slowing down across the entire industry, and Willow won't resume filming in the next 12 months. But here's what's equally true: with the enthusiastic and unwavering support of Lucasfilm and Disney, we've developed and written what we hope is a brain-meltingly fun, richer, darker and better VOLUME II, which builds on the characters and story of our first eight chapters (The Wyrm survives!).

VOLUME II is all about courage, desire, acceptance and the comedy and beauty to be found in even the darkest places and moments. It's about the enemies we must inevitably confront, both without and, often far more insidiously, from within. But, above all, it's about the ineffable and enduring magic of friendship. I am confident I speak for everyone involved when I say that we'd all like nothing more than to deliver VOLUME II, on the scale expected and demanded by the story we're telling. Are we going into pre-production? Not right now. Does that mean we're never gonna make it? Absolutely not. Three weeks ago, we got a third season of Party Down, 13 years after season two. Between seasons two and three of Atlanta? 4 years. Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons 8 and 9 had a hiatus of 6 years. Not to mention, this little movie I love called Willow, that didn't get its well-deserved sequel for 35 years. Perhaps the one thing Hollywood has consistently been great at, over its entire history, is servicing the appetites, no matter how obscure, of its consumers. And I have total confidence that, if an appetite for more Willow persists, Disney, Lucasfilm and this amazing cast and crew will satisfy it. Is now the best moment to campaign/demand more? I don't really think so. I recommend preserving your outrage for the many real outrages in the world. The entertainment industry is in a moment of radical, global upheaval. The terrain ahead is unknown. But do I think enthusiasm for the show will still be meaningful a year from now? Or two? Definitely. As are all the people you recommend Willow to, that can enjoy it whenever they want. But declaring it dead, in the cultural in which we now live, feels, frankly, as anachronistic as… I don't know… putting a Soundgarden cover in a fantasy show. As for me, personally, I've been working on Willow for nearly five years. I've had the privilege of playing in sandboxes built by George Lucas, and stewarded (with deepest care and love) by Kathy Kennedy, for nine years. If you've hated the castles I've built, or helped build, in those sandboxes, this news should come as a tremendous relief and welcome respite. If you've enjoyed some of it and want more, I promise you that whatever I have to offer will only be cooler, funner and more exciting for the momentary break I'm now afforded.

I know the fandom can be divisive. I know sometimes people say mean things, but I gotta tell ya, from deep inside… that has not been my experience at all. I love all you guys! And I relate and identify with every single person who is passionate about Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Willow, even if we crave slightly different things from them. I think an open dialogue and fan involvement only enriches these worlds as they grow larger, fuller and more inclusive. I have the best job in the world. And if you think I don't deserve it, you're absolutely right! No one deserves to have this much fun at work. I love everyone I've had the tremendous good fortune to collaborate with these past nine years, and I couldn't be more excited for what lies ahead. Ignore the bird, follow the river, I promise it'll take you where you need to go. Jon A picture of the ending credits of Willow season 1 that show three book volumes sitting on a shelf. /]

From Jon Kasdan’s Twitter

#MORE MIMS??? MY BEST FRIEND MIMS??#'hollywood has been great at serving obscure appetites' entirely untrue sir #willow 2022

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saintmurd0ck · 2 years ago

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ok so whether or not you read this -- it's absolutely fine; your girl is very, very deep in her feels and i want to get this out. i promise it's worth your while, if you choose to do so.

firstly i want to thank my lord and saviour matthew manwhore michael murdock for bringing me to new york city. this trip has actually been my dream trip for a while (totally not because of him!) and the fact that i'm here is just... incredible.

back in february, about a month before i joined tumblr, i wrote my very first matt fic. it's written in first person (and you can read it here if you want to but be warned it's kinda shit HAHA) but it is so self-indulgent. i wrote it for me. to me. i loved this man so much that i had to write this. at the time, i had of course never been to nyc before, so truth be told i had no idea what i was describing or writing; it was so hard to do this without having been to the place you're writing about.

now, onto the part making me particularly emotional:

i did a lot of research and sprinkled that into my fic, and after research involving where matt would live and where josie's and n&m would be located i came to the conclusion he would live on west 44th street in hell's kitchen. what i failed to realise was that streets and avenues here are very very long, hence why new yorkers tend to describe locations via corners (eg corner of 54th and 9th etc). so, yesterday, when i set out to find west 44th st, i ended up in times square, and took a photo of the sign. i was emotional because i could see my 'rhi-verse' coming to life, but this was smack bang in the middle of broadway, not a residential area, and definitely not where matt would live. so, cue a little disappointment, but never mind, i'm in the city of dreams, why should i let that get me down?

flash to this morning, and i decided to go somewhere for breakfast that i wasn't originally planning to, it was in the opposite direction of where i wanted to go after, etc -- basically, just somewhere new i wasn't expecting to be. lo and behold, i look up at the street sign across the road when i arrive - west 44th st. and i look beyond that.

it is the most perfect residential area, with beautiful brick and stone buildings, fire escapes, little restaurants and shops, a bar, everything. orange and red hued trees line the street. it was as if something had just... clicked into place. this was the west 44th street i was thinking about. and then something else dawned on me -- when i did my research for this fic, i designated the river-side of this street to be where matt's apartment would be located. and guess what? this was the river-side part of this particular street. (also i know the whole thing about the billboard -- let's just pretend it's there. :))

basically, fate manoeuvred me here and no one can convince me otherwise.

and another shocker? the street has a fucking CHURCH on it!!!!!

i spent a lot of time walking up and down it today, thinking and smiling and feeling so content. i'm so thankful that loving matt brought me to the other side of the world, and helped me to discover a city i'd move to in a heartbeat.

yes, this entire trip is a fan service to me, and i couldn't care less what anyone thinks of my motivation to come here.

i understand now why he so fiercely protects this place -- there is a love for this city and this specific section of it that runs so deeply in my blood too, perhaps not one that would necessarily cause me to dress up in skintight black clothing and scale rooftops (although, let's be real, if matt were here, i'd be doing that); i'm just happy to have found a second home.

so, if you're ever in hell's kitchen, come to 44th and 11th.

photos under the cut 💗

#rhi goes to nyc 🗽#rhi's thoughts 💭#saving this forever <3

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h-worksrambles · 2 years ago

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Xenoblade Chronicles 2: I wanna talk about Tora

With the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 less than two weeks away, I’ve been thinking a lot about Xenoblade and the Xeno series in general. And I wanted to use this time to talk about a thought I’ve had for a long time about Xenoblade Chronicles 2 specifically. That being, the one character in the main party who had severe missed potential, the Nopon inventor, Tora.

Now, before I go on, I want to pre-emptively state something. I love Xenoblade Chronicles 2. It’s one of my favourite games on Switch and I go back and forth between it and Xenosaga Episode III as my second favourite game in the whole Xeno series. Furthermore, it has overall my favourite cast of characters in the franchise. It’s full of likable, complex figures with great chemistry. But no game is perfect, and even a wonderfully realised title is going to have missed opportunities. I know how much flack 2 gets from portions of the fanbase and I don’t want this post to either become a rallying point for bad faith criticism, or for fans of the game to feel like their game is gettting still more unneccesary hate. Plus, much like the last time I did one these character critiques/rewrites, I must remind you that writing from scratch is incredibly hard, and me playing script doctor after the fact is not me claiming to be a better writer than the people who worked on the game. Everything I say comes from a place of love for this title. But I think Tora is the victim of several missed chances and poor writing choices that result in him being the weakest member of the party by a long shot, probably the only one I dislike. And I wanted to talk about how he might have been improved. Also full spoilers for Xenoblade 2 naturally.

Tora enters the story in Chapter 2 when he shelters Rex and Pyra from Ardanian soldiers. Tora is a Nopon mechanic who lacks the aptitude to resonate with a Core Crystal and become a Driver. Becuse of this, he and his family have been working for generations to build an artificial Blade, one that can resonate with anyone, regardless of potential. This Blade is the android girl, Poppi. Tora and Poppi befriend Rex and Pyra and join them on their search for Elysium, as Tora hopes to one day find his father, who vanished several years ago.

There’s a lot about Tora’s character that does actually work. Tora is very different from previous Nopon party members. Unlike the deceptively mature Riki or the outspoken, sometimes cocky, Tatsu, Tora is an introvert who spends most of his time tinkering in his home. He doesn’t have much in the way of friends or a social life and latches on to Rex very quickly. To him, Rex, this ordinary kid who became a hero by wielding the legendary Aegis, is exactly what he wishes he could be, and he respects him greatly. He’s basically a nerdy shut-in orphan learning to get out and make friends, all while fulfilling his dream of being a real Driver.

Unfortunately, whille Tora is pretty well established as a character, between a lot of ideas not being fully explored with him, and poorly executed comedy that actively makes him less likable, he falls short compared to the rest of the characters. I think the first step to fixing Tora is pretty obvious to anyone who’s played the game: We’re taking any of the ‘jokes’ about him being into maids or moe, and we’re throwing them out of the window. I was gonna talk more at length at this, but frankly I believe it’s self explanatory. The last thing we needed was to make this character into Mineta 2.0. Stuff like this casts really ugly implications on to Tora and Poppi’s relationship, which we need to buy into for this character to work. But it comes up in Poppi’s very first scene and makes an awful first impression, especially considering Poppi goes on to be arguably one of the best characters. And it’s not like it’s in service of any character arc. Whenever it comes up in cutscenes or heart to hearts, it only amounts to ‘Tora does/implies something creepy, the other characters get annoyed, but he gets off with just a slap on the wrist’. I think a lot less people would deride Xenoblade 2 for being ‘too anime’ if it didn’t pull stunts like this. Not funny. Never funny. Always gross. Stop it. The other issue is that Tora is relatively tangential to the story, with his only big moment of relevance being Chapter Four. Problem is, Chapter Four...kind of sucks. It’s a filler episode full of half explored ideas, cringy jokes, and the worst dungeon in the game by far (Screw you, Old Factory).

This is where that plot about Tora’s missing dad gets resolved. When the party is in Mor Ardain, they find another artifical Blade, who Tora recognises as Lila, Poppi’s prototype, who was stolen the same night Tora’s father, Tatazo, vanished. It turns out that Tatazo was kidnapped by a group of Nopon, led by Charmain Bana, who wanted to use his research to create weapons of war to sell to the already tense countries of Mor Ardain and Uraya, lining their pockets as the people of these Titans go to war.

I think this is a great idea to introduce to Tora’s character. Tora and his family designed Poppi with the best of intentions shut up that other thing isn’t canon in my version. They wanted to become Drivers, and to allow even those like them who lacked the aptitude to do the same. But now that same technology is being used by selfish people as a tool for war. And it gets worse, because by Chapter Six, Torna are using that same technology against the party. Tora’s family legacy is now being used by a group of murderers who want to destroy the world and kill his friends. This could have been used to make the young, naive Tora reflect on his part in this, since he and his family effectively opened the door to allow them all to do this. Heck, we could have even seen him wonder if it was even right to create Poppi at all. But he doesn’t. Tora gets briefly mad at Bana but otherwise never brings it up again , nor does his outlook or attitude change at all. Sure Poppi gets a power up, and this is actually a great moment for her. But this is supposed to be the resolution of Tora’s character arc and he doesn’t do or say anything meaningful. Plus, after this he fades into the background, only providing unfunny otaku jokes. Sure, Mòrag and Zeke also kind of fade in and out of relevance, but at least their dialogue and actions in major story scenes subtly show new or changing aspects of their characters as the story progresses. I can’t say the same for Tora. The thing is, we do get hints of this theme...in Poppi’s arc. In Chapter Eight, Poppi reflects on her nature as a living weapon, on what her technology could be used for down the line, with or without her say in the matter. And this is something Mythra is able to empathise with, having spent centuries being afraid of her own power, and wondering if the world would be better off without her. It’s a wonderful scene for both characters. But I can’t help but think this should have been an ongoing concern for both Tora and Poppi’s characters for most of the game, rather than just bringing it up now with just Poppi. It could have given Chapter Four more weight if its events had more of an impact on Tora, and if Poppi picked up on Tora’s own doubts, before she voices them to Mythra.

You could even have given more substance to the PoppiQTπ sidequest. Maybe make this scene the resolution to this arc as Tora, now reunited with his father, talks through his worries with him, as they work on upgrading Poppi, if he’s ok with knowing that people could use their research for evil, only for Tatazo to sadly explain that that’s the sad reality of being a pioneer. You can’t predict what your discovery could one day result in, and it’s up to Tora to decide if he’s willing to press on despite that. Then after QTπ is complete, we could see Tora and the now almost fully sentient Poppi, discuss this, reaffirming that Tora’s proud of Poppi, that he’s glad they met, and that they both still want to be Driver and Blade knowing the risks. I actually like the subtle detail that PoppiQTπ looks a lot like Mythra. It’s a great subtle expression both of how far Tora’s skills as an inventor have come, and of his admiration of Rex. He’s built a mini-Aegis so he can be like his hero. But I think this side quest could have been a much stronger conclusion to Tora’s character arc if the writers cut the cringy humour, and went all the way with the themes and ideas they set up.

Truthfully, I didn’t need to change much because the ideas for Tora’s character arc are all there. What it lacks, is any real response from Tora that suggests the game’s story has impacted him in any way. But in the actual game, he feels like the exact same character he was when the game started, and compared to how much growth the various heroes and villains of Xenoblade 2 go through, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Tora had the potential to be a really sympathetic and interesting character, a lonely boy genius who made a huge step in his scientific field, who gets to see the world with his new friends, but also has to come to terms with the ugly realities of not just the world at large, but his own creation. Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t commit to the ideas it introduces with his character, and drags him down with misguided attempts at humour, that cause many players to dismiss him outright. At best, he’s an accessory to Poppi, who is a far better developed and more likable character. The result is a huge wasted opportunity in an otherwise splendid game. And that’s a real shame.

#the pieces are there for tora #but it just doesn't come together #xenoblade 2 has a lot of great characters #but to me tora is the exception to the rule #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade 2 #tora xenoblade #poppi xenoblade #character discussion #i rant about obscure characters who i think could have been better maybe perhaps?

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bigskydreaming · 3 years ago

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If you were editor of Nightwing's book ever since at least the start of Rebirth to today and you were given free reign, what would your story mandates?

Oh no, this is dangerous. LOL. Hmm, I have no idea what to shoot for here, so I'll try to keep it to ten. That's reasonable right? Ten is good. Yeah. Is fine.

Okay, so, in no particular order:

1) Let Dick be competent 101. None of this him having to play hype man for every other character to pop up in HIS title bullshit. Nope. That's not what they're there for. He's the lead man, LET HIM BE THE LEADING MAN. Like sure, everyone has their areas of expertise, he doesn't need or have to be the best at everything, blah blah blah.....but its about the nuance. All of that is kinda lip service because the thing is, you don't go into MOST comic books and NEED to be reminded of that because the lead characters of those books are all constantly getting saved or shown up or chastised by every guest star in their books, you know? This is a very weird, very niche phenomenon very specific to Dick's character, and I'm super over it. I'm here to read about the guy who has literally been doing this longer than most superheroes twice his age. The guy who's been doing this since before he hit double digits. The born acrobat. The destined ultimate warrior or whatever of Gotham's Ornithological Society Of Murder and Pretentiousness. Gimme that guy. And that guy doesn't need to be 'humbled' every other page, because the thing is, he's not some egomaniac to begin with so the everpresent need to humble him doesn't actually come off as humbling! It just comes off as pandering and not even to actual fans of the actual character, so its like.....wyd DC.

2) Let other people take responsibility for their own crap with Dick rather than always just expecting a mea culpa from him. I'm so unbelievably tired of the words I'm sorry from Dick. I love personal accountability, so I never thought I'd have to say this about a character, but enoooooough. They have made it completely in character for this dude to apologize to everyone ELSE for being brainwashed, getting amnesia, being KILLED, like.....the amount of things he's groveled for forgiveness for when he didn't actually do a damn thing wrong or worse yet, was the ACTUAL victim of is like....pretty damn staggering. And meanwhile, there's nary a peep of apology from the people who regularly insult or belittle him, get physically violent with him, take advantage of him or take him for granted, etc, etc, etc. Its entirely too one-sided and imbalanced, and the pendulum needs to swing the other direction, like YESTERDAY, and in a fairly big way, IMO.

3) None of this Baby's First Social Justice Awakening 101 crap. I'm sorry, but no. Especially not when you go out of your way to acknowledge that Dick is Romani, only to then turn around and act like he's only JUST had his eyes opened to an awareness of like, classism and poverty and the real struggles people face day to day? Sorry not sorry, but especially for other white writers out there, do not use people of color as self-inserts for dipping a toe into Learning To See Past Privilege. And especially when talking about a character who has a history of being actively abused and hurt by the system and institutions of power, or hell, even leaving out that particular origin story, who has still been out on the streets helping people since he was a literal child. You can not tell me that this is his first face to face experience with social issues, or the first time he's had the inclination to try and address those head on. (And its also particularly egregious that the people second-guessing Dick in his own title and giving him reality checks or acting like they have more of an awareness of all this than he does like, happen to all be white? OPTICS. LEARN ABOUT THEM. COMMON SENSE. GET SOME.)

Know what would actually be a better way to approach this? Flashbacks. Show us Dick running into situations that make him think back to a case when he was still Robin, when he and Batman had started fighting over their approaches to things, actually SHOW us those conflicts and how their viewpoints had started diverging, and how much of that was due to Dick not having the same experiences as Bruce, or the same standing in society, no matter what house he lived in. THEN you can jump BACK to the present, with the reminder/awareness that this is something that isn't NEWS to Dick, but that he in the past felt he was forced to make his peace with as something he wasn't in a position to do that much about....only NOW, he's in a very DIFFERENT position, and suddenly it just hits him how he's still acting like he did when he was limited in resources or in having to be part of a chain in command or having to factor other responsibilities into things....now he ACTUALLY has the power and the resources to make meaningful change in the ways he ALWAYS wanted to, but maybe just needed time to figure out HOW.

Like you know what would have made Shawn Tsang's story arc so much better? If Dick didn't just remember her as the Pigeon's one time teenage sidekick he'd briefly fought as a kid, but like.....if he remembered her as someone he and Bruce had FOUGHT about. Because he didn't agree with sending someone to juvie for defacing public property as a form of political protest, when it was someone's LIFE who was going to be irrevocably damaged by that while the damage to the city could be fixed with a check, and what made Dick any more deserving of Bruce's leniency and faith in his potential or underlying goodness than Shawn?

But he was still a kid himself back then, and when Bruce responded with his usual conviction, talking about the importance about rule of law and etc etc, Dick just didn't have the words to get through to him then, to get him to understand that this wasn't just Dick not getting it because he was too young, it was BRUCE not getting it, that Dick was literally just saying well he wasn't too young to have been in juvie himself, and of the two of them, he's the one who has experience there so why was Bruce's opinion on whether this was the punishment that fit the crime the one that got to hold more weight here? When Dick's the one who knows what that punishment actually LOOKS like beyond the abstract, for whom it was a reality that still haunts him in ways that even defacing a few statues of some rich old fucks doesn't deserve?

Or hell, go back FURTHER than when he was Robin. Idk where any of those posts are, but I've always wanted to see something where Dick maybe runs into someone he remembers from his time in juvie, maybe a guard who is like, the source of the reasons Dick mistrusts figures of authority and is so hung up on independence and not being under anyone's thumb, or maybe someone who was in there with him, another kid who looked out for him when he didn't have to, etc. Gimme Dick tackling head-on his firsthand awareness that there's no rehabilitation to be found in a jail for kids, when most of those kids don't even need rehabilitation in the first place and only did what they did in order to survive or escape from worse situations or like, were there purely because of racist cops, etc. Let him go after THAT system, driven by personal experiences and memories that maybe only hit him in full after recovering his memories from the Ric Grayson arc, like they're things that he put in a box in his mind a long, long time ago because he didn't have the spoons or reserves to deal with them when he was a kid still so traumatized in so many ways, like, something had to give and so he put all those memories away for another day and just....never got back to them because life kept hitting him with new and fresh trauma every week.

But now something has him thinking back to those early days in Gotham, and reminding him that not everyone had a Bruce Wayne willing and able to give them an out from that place or acrobatic skills to escape it on their own, and like. You want to do something about the cycles of violence in Gotham and Bludhaven? Why not start with the places that literally MANUFACTURE cruelty on an institutional level, that teach kids that no matter what they did to get put there, even if that was nothing at all, they're all going to be treated the same way and given no reason NOT to do whatever it took to be top dog in a dog eat dog world by the time they got out.

There's SO many better approaches to social awareness in the Batbooks than what we're seeing, and like. Sheesh. The bar is way too low.

4) On a related note, if I'm editor of the Nightwing book, the FIRST thing I'm doing is making it a priority to find a writer of color for that book, ideally someone of Rom descent. Its waaaaay past time to let a Romani writer take the reins on Dick, Wanda, Pietro or Doom, aka some of the only prominent Romani characters out there? You can't tell me that there aren't talented writers who identify as Roma who would be more than willing to add their perspective to Dick's archive of narratives, and if an editor's gotta go looking for them? Go fucking look. DC and its fans have milked a lot of mileage out of the idea of Dick being Romani with very little in the way of nuanced storytelling to show for it in the past twenty years, and if DC wants to trot out little reminders that Dick is Romani every couple years, like in the form of a freaking line that has no follow up or expansion to any degree and is offset by an internal monologue that otherwise reads as incredibly privileged, the least they can do is TRY to expand on that with the narrative perspective of someone they claim to be representing via that character.

And no, this isn't gatekeeping, this is prioritizing. Its not about preventing other writers from writing this character, like just for the hell of it, its about being proactive about finding a writer who can write specific aspects of this character that have long gone unaddressed or poorly represented. And like. Okay. Its not easy breaking into the comics industry for anyone, but its particularly not easy for marginalized writers. Most every major comic book company just recites 'make your own stuff first and then show us that' but when you're a writer specifically, finding a compatible artist to partner with on creator-owned indie stuff first, when those artists are in the same position as you are and apologetically and understandably tend to have to take paying work over yours if you can't pay except on the back end, like....there are a lot of hurdles to getting your start in comic books, and while there are more and more marginalized writers in comics these days, DC and Marvel kinda fucked up, because you know what?

After being told 'make your own first, then we'll talk,' writers DID do just that....but then found out that well, due to the ease of online distribution and access these days, for any writers who CAN find an artist to partner with, its a hell of a lot easier to get their content out there these days WITHOUT a major publisher behind them.....and for a lot of marginalized writers in particular, its worth it to keep full creative control in exchange for smaller circulation. Especially when they don't have to deal with editors 'softening' their work to make it more palatable for audiences that quite frankly aren't necessarily their primary target. So yeah, marginalized voices are becoming more and more present in comics, but Marvel and DC for the most part are keeping the same voices centered they always have, and what these voices have to say is becoming less and less relevant and outdated. Because much like this arc from Taylor, even when they DO dip their toes into story matter that's of interest to wider audiences, they're doing so to a degree that still puts them years behind the conversations everyone else is having.

5) The same holds true of disability representation. I stopped reading Taylor's run for a lot of reasons but his way of responding to people unhappy with his depiction of Babs was a key one. If I'm editor on a book, and someone tweets at one of my writers that their depiction of a disabled character was hurtful because it feels like they're doubling back on everything Babs has ever said about not being defined by or ashamed of her disability and now its being treated like a dirty little secret, and that writer's response is essentially to just laugh at them and say there's nothing wrong or ableist about their writing of a disabled person, TO a concerned disabled person? That writer's ass is getting fired. Full stop.

Either you give a shit about this stuff or you don't. Don't pay your readers lip service about how important social issues are to you and how much you care about using superhero narratives to inspire people on these matters if you're gonna turn around and show your ass the second you don't feel comfortable and prioritized by the conversation, like it wouldn't exist without your oh so valuable contributions. ESPECIALLY if you don't identify as sharing the same identity of the marginalized character you're writing. You are a guest in someone else's lived experiences at that point, and you think you've got the right to belittle and talk down to the people who LIVE THERE? Fuck off, my dude.

6) Re-center Dick as someone who the superhero community RESPECTS. I love seeing Dick depicted as someone who has an awareness of his own limitations and an appreciation for what others bring to the table, and so I'm not opposed to him calling on others when he needs to.....but I also would like to see more of the opposite. But not in the way we usually see it these days, where he's asked to come help with a crisis and then usually second-guessed the whole way, and then sent back home without so much as a thank you when its done. Yawn. Sorry. I've read that story by now.

You know what story arc I freaking LOVED as a kid, back in the 90s? In Green Lantern, when Kyle Rayner first became the sole GL, one of his very early arcs, before he ever joined the JLA or anything....was him realizing how little he knew about being a superhero. He was like, my predecessors all had a full fledged CORPS to teach them everything they needed to know, but I had a few lines of exposition from a funny little blue guy in a red pillowcase and then I was off to the races. That's not good enough. There's so much I don't know about being a hero, I don't even KNOW what I still need to know.

So he went on kinda a superhero training roadtrip. He went to Metropolis to ask Superman for advice, he went to Batman to learn from Batman and Robin (Tim at the time). He went to Wonder Woman, Sentinel (Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern), etc, etc. And in the end, Kyle very much became his own kind of hero who wasn't just a pastiche of all those other heroes and the advice they gave him, but like....this put him on the road to that.

And I'd love to see something like that happen in Dick's solo title. We've seen him train in a team setting, we've seen him train the other Robins.....I'd love to see like, young superheroes from OTHER books, not ones created by the title, but like names people actually recognize from other franchises, like, guest star in Nightwing's book to learn from HIM, specifically. I wanna see something where Wally looks at the latest speedster and is like, you know what, if you really wanna be the best hero you can possibly be, then Nightwing's who you gotta go to, because there's no one I trust to make a better hero out of someone than him. I want the newest kid on the JLA block to worry that people aren't taking him seriously because of his age or experience, and he's always hearing them talk about Nightwing and how young he was when he started and so if anyone knows something about how to gain the respect of your older superhero peers, that's the guy to talk to.

Gimme Dick's couch being crashed on at various times by a half dozen new or upcoming young superheroes who all heard or figured out that if they really want to up their superhero game, Nightwing's the guy to see.

7) Bring back Bea. There's no long paragraph expansion on this, its really simply. Bring back Bea. She was one of the freshest breaths of air in Dick's supporting cast in ages, most of the current run is based off her character direction in the first place, she's literally the best suited TO help Dick in this venture, and the reasons they gave for writing her out of Dick's life were all bullshit and they just wanted to focus on his previous relationships, which would be fine if they didn't fall into the same two endless cycles of bring back up, go nowhere with, awkwardly avoid each other for years, rinse and repeat. Like. Bring back Bea, please and thank you, the end.

8) Focus on new villains. Heartless is meh, but the idea of new villains is still better IMO than rehashing Blockbuster, Zucco, etc. Like, nostaglia ain't it. If I want to read Blockbuster fucking up Dick's life, I can do that. They're called back issues. The thing is, love it or hate it, the Blockbuster arc WAS iconic. It left its mark. And anything that doesn't leave just as much of a mark, if they're going to bring him up again, is just gonna be a waste of time, you know? It'll just dilute his overall presence when like, what he was - worked fine as is. We don't need Round Two.

The trick to good villains, IMO, is they have to speak to a fight that needs fighting.

What I mean by that is....the best villains are those who resonate on a more instinctive level because they embody something that already exists in a reader's mind as a conflict that needs fighting. Like, if superheroes exist, if the embodiment of larger than life presences and forces devoted to protecting the world from various things are real....then their villains need to embody the kinds of fights or conflicts that NEED larger than life figures to combat them, at least on a one to one level.

Look at Superman and Lex Luthor. Superman at his core embodies the strength of community. He's the ultimate hero of the people, his essence is that he was the last survivor of a doomed race who was raised by two honest, hard working people to see the beauty in just being ONE of them, in using what he had on behalf of all of them and not just himself. In contrast, Lex Luthor is basically the embodiment of capitalist greed, of excess, of the entitlement of being able to have anything with a snap of your fingers and thus assuming that gives you divine mandate to make the kinds of choices that he sees as only his right to make.

He hates Superman, ultimately, because Superman is the WRONG savior of the people. He wants their only savior to be HIM, half the time he honestly believes he's saving the world FROM Superman, but just as often he's perfectly content to be the villain and not shy about it....because Lex Luthor's ultimate motivation is he wants everyone to know when he's dead and gone that LEX LUTHOR WAS HERE. He genuinely doesn't care WHAT his impact or legacy is at the end of the day, just that it exists and it overshadows most everything else...because all that really matters to him is the irrefutable proof that HE mattered. And thus at their cores, Superman and Lex are perfectly opposed. Ideally situated to eternally be in conflict, their own forever war, because their core natures are incompatible. They CAN'T compromise, without compromising themselves and essentially ending up as someone totally other than who and what they are already.

And you can go down the list. The Joker is the chaos to Batman's order, while Mr. Freeze is the stagnancy of that order taken too far, he's what you get when you freeze everything in your grief and refuse to let anything go on, anything new grow, because that would mean having to admit once and for all that what you're mourning is really gone. Two-Face is the ultimate embodiment of Man vs Self, a once good man at war with his own worse nature, and reminding everyone who looks at him how easily they could fall to the same fate.

And so on and so on. What Dick needs, is more of the same. Like, as much as I'm not a huge fan of Talon stories, I maintain that the Court of Owls were a great foil for him - just they tend to be poorly used in canon as well. But I also think how poorly they come off in canon has a lot to do with canon not really touching on WHY they're such a perfect foil for Dick....and that's Dick's history with being outside the system, mistreated and even exploited by the system. Because the Court, their core concept, is they ARE the system. They are entrenched, enfranchised, institutional power, passed down through generations, dynastic control that is a perfect counterpart to the dynastic power of the Wayne family, embodied in its youngest generation in the form of Bruce's FOUND family, the children he adopted regardless of whether or not his peers found them deserving of that honor. The Court, and their entire....thing...about the Gray Son, is the entitled fury of those denied something they deem theirs simply because they WANT it, and who will burn the whole world down rather than admit defeat or let someone else have it instead.

And that resonates. It could resonate a lot MORE if DC would actually lean into those concepts and allow Dick to explore how the Court are nothing he's not used to, they're literally made up of the same people who have looked down on him ever since he came to Gotham, but now they're actually a face and a name put to all those attitudes, something he can literally FIGHT BACK AGAINST. The Court are literally human-sized embodiments of everything and everyone who's tried to confine Dick since his parents' deaths, tried to define him without his permission, tried to make him other or lesser than who and what he is.....and who thus now exist in a form that Dick can literally BATTLE. So that he doesn't HAVE to just take this stuff lying down.

Thanks to the Court, he doesn't HAVE to just passively accept it, that this is just how life is, that some people are going to view him this way and think this about him and there's nothing he can do about it. He CAN do something about it, in superhero stories. He can kick its ASS, in the form of the Court of Owls and everything its members think about him and intend for him. He can refuse to bow down to them, to accept their mark on him. He can say lol, no, and then blow their shit sky high, ideally with a little help from his family. He can BEAT them, in this incarnated form, and in doing so, even though he can't beat everything they stand for and represent, that victory still matters, still means something symbolic to readers it resonates with.

And that's what we need more of. Villains created specifically to embody concepts that are diametrically opposed to Dick and what he represents. The system, yes, but also villains who embody the kind of tyranny and control he fights back against in his constant battles for autonomy and self control. Villains who embody the 'new hopes' of a second generation just like Dick himself is the focal point of the hopes embodied by the second generation of heroes. I'm actually not the hugest fan of multiversal constant Dick Grayson, but I might like it more if he had an opposite number there, someone he was specifically contrasted with. Idk.

But you get it.

9) Dick having a social life. Gimme the Titans and his siblings showing up JUST to show up. We have room enough for at least a couple pages every other issue where we just get to see these characters having some breathing room, taking a beat to stop and be something other than just a superhero, to be human as well. There's more to life than 24/7 fighting, even for them, and that's largely been lost in modern superhero comics, which kinda sucks, because that was what made most of the more iconic and lasting dynamics between various characters like, STAND the test of time. The larger than life battles between good and evil might be what many of us come to superhero comics FOR, but the relatable back-and-forths and ups and downs of their private lives spent with friends and family tends to be what keeps most of us coming BACK. And lately its all just mission, mission, mission, and I'm like blah, blah, blah and its like, meh, meh, meh. Y'know? Give the guy some down time, and let his friends come spend it with him.

10) Boone. This is purely self-indulgent, but if you know anything about me, you know my obsession with Robin: Year One, Dick's brief time at Vengeance Academy, and the hate/hate relationship he has with his brief frenemy from that period, Boone aka Shrike. This character has SOOOOO much potential to be Dick's true archnemesis and rival, and like. *Sobs* I can't get into it all again. Its too much. I can't do it.

Okay, I absolutely can. And will, probably. But like. Later.

BONUS ROUND:

Other thing I would absolutely insist upon if I were Nightwing editor....

GET THAT FUCKING MEME SHIRT ABOUT BRUCE SLAPPING DICK THE FUCK OUTTA HERE.

Like. Seriously. WHAT THE HELL. Why would you double down on THAT? Why is Babs STILL wearing it? (Last I checked, like I think I saw it in a scan from last issue? I'm pretty sure its still there? If not, forget this entire rant, and I am very embarrassed. Okay not that embarrassed. I don't really care if I'm wrong here but like, in case I'm not)...

WHY. Who thought that was funny? No, seriously, on behalf of any other abuse survivors who like me are SERIOUSLY not amused, who the FUCK thinks its FUNNY to have one of Dick's best friends sporting a shirt that no matter what it represents IN universe, to readers OUT of universe, is always going to call to mind the fact that this meme only freaking EXISTS because of all the times DC has obliviously and without acknowledgment written Bruce abusing his children, including the BFF that Babs is literally wearing that right in front of.

Like omg do you hate her, DC? What other possible reason could you have for thinking that would be a cute, funny thing for her to wear around the guy getting SLAPPED, by his DAD, in your shirt's iconography.

Okay I'm done.

LOL.

Sorry, that last one was brewing for awhile. Deep breaths. Woo.

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d-criss-news · 3 years ago

Text

20 Questions With Darren Criss: How Acting Has Helped Him Make New Music

While Darren Criss has graced our TV screens with a range of characters, from high schooler Blaine Anderson on Glee to serial killer Andrew Cunanan on The Assassination of Gianni Versace, he was last spotted just being himself, on our For You Page on TikTok. “I’m walking to rehearsal with a guitar on my back with a Trader Joe’s bag ... I did not bring an umbrella because I forgot that it was raining. I’m rocking that NYC musician life,” the Glee alum explained in the hilarious clip posted three days ago.

While Criss’ acting work has earned him acclaim and stardom, he leaned into making music during the pandemic. On Aug. 20, he dropped a new EP, Masquerade, featuring five new tracks that Criss says were inspired by the different characters Criss has embraced throughout his career. After Criss wrote songs for his musical comedy web series Royalties and Apple TV+’s animated sitcom Central Park before the pandemic struck the United States, he then used those experiences as a precursor to his new EP. As Criss continues to promote his new music, he answered 20 of Billboard's questions – giving us a peek into how his new EP came together, and how growing up in San Fransisco shaped him as an actor, singer and all-around artist.

1. What inspired your latest project, Masquerade?

Although I would have preferred that it come at a far less grim cost, I finally had the time. Before the pandemic, I had written 10 new songs for my show Royalties -- along with an original song for Disney and another for Apple’s Central Park. These were all assignments in which I was writing for a certain scenario and character. Go figure. It was the most music I had ever written in a calendar year. This really emboldened me to rethink how I made my own music— to start putting a focus on “character creation” in my songs, rather than personal reflection. The latter was not proving to be as productive. The alchemy of having this time and having set a new intention with my own songwriting and producing made me put on a few of my favorite masques and throw myself a Masquerade.

2. How do you think your background as an actor complements your music?

They are one and the same to me. I treat acting roles like musical pieces— dialogue is like scoring a melody; there’s pace, dynamics, cadence, tone. Physical characterization is like producing -- zeroing in on the bass line, deciding on the kick pattern. Vocal characterization is like choosing the right sonic experience, choosing the most effective snare sound, and mixing the high end or low end. It goes without saying that it works in the complete opposite direction. Making each song is taking on a different role literally and employing the use of different masques to maximize the effectiveness of the particular story being told.

3. On Instagram you wrote that “Masquerade is a small collection of the variety of musical masques that have always inspired me.” Which track do you identify with most in your real life?

Everybody absorbs songs differently. Some key into the lyrics, some into the melody, some the production, some into vocal performance. When I listen to songs, I consider all of their value on totally different scales. So it’s hard to say if there’s any track I “identify” with more than any others, since I -- by nature -- identify with all of them. I think I just identify with certain aspects more than others. If it helps for a more interesting answer, I will say I enjoy the slightly more classical, playful -- dare I say -- more Broadway-leaning wordplay of “Walk of Shame,” but that’s just talking about lyricism. I enjoy the attitude of “F*kn Around,” the batsh--t musicality of “I Can’t Dance,” the relentless grooves of “Let’s” and “For A Night Like This.” All have different ingredients I really enjoy having an excuse to dive into.

4. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?

Beatles audio cassettes: “Help” and “Hard Day’s Night.” I just listened on repeat on a tape-playing Walkman until my brother and I got a stereo for our room with a CD player in it, which was when I just bought the same two albums again, but this time as compact discs.

5. What was the first concert you saw?It’s hard to say, because my parents took us to a lot of classical concerts when we were small. But I guess this question usually refers to what was the first concert you went to on your own volition, and that my friend, was definitely Warped Tour ’01. My brother and I went on our own— two teenagers going to their first music festival, in the golden age of that particular genre and culture. It was f--king incredible.

6. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

My dad was in private banking and advised really, really wealthy people on how to handle their money. My mom was, by choice, a stay-at-home mom, but in reality, she was my dad’s consigliere. They discussed absolutely everything together. They were a real team, and I saw that every single day in the house. They both had a background in finance (That’s how they met in the first place.) and were incredibly skilled at all the hardcore adulting things that I absolutely suck at. They were total finance wizards together. So of course, instead of becoming an accountant, I picked up playing the guitar and ran as far I could with it. Luckily, they were all about it.

7. What was your favorite homecooked meal growing up?

My dad was an incredible chef. For special occasions, I’d request his crab cakes. They were unreal. I’ve never had a crab cake anywhere in the world that was good as my dad’s.

8. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?

I don’t know if I’ve actually realized that yet.

9. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?

The specifics change every day, but the core idea at the top is to continue being consistently inconsistent with my choices, and to keep getting audiences to constantly reconsider their consideration of me. But I mean, sure, what performer doesn’t want to play Coachella? What songwriter doesn’t want to have Adele sing one of their songs? What actor doesn’t want to be in a Wes Anderson film?

10. How did your hometown/city shape who you are?

San Francisco. I mean, come on. I was really lucky. The older I get, the more grateful I am for just being born and raised there. It’s an incredibly diverse, culturally rich, colorful, inclusive, vibrant city. By the time I was born, it had served as a beacon for millions of creative, out-of-the-box thinkers to gather and thrive. I grew up around that. The combination of that with having parents, who were unbelievably supportive of the arts themselves, laid an incredibly fortunate foundation to consider the life of an artist as a legitimately viable option. It’s a foundation that I am supremely aware is not the case for millions of young artists around the world. I was absurdly lucky.

11. What’s the last song you listened to?

I mean probably one of mine, but not by choice. I know, lame. But I’m promoting a new EP, what’d you expect? But if you wanna know what I’ve been listening to, as far as new s--t is concerned: a lot of Lizzy McAlpine, Remi Wolf, and Charlie Burg.

12. If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?

The Beatles is an obvious "yeah, duh." Sammy Davis, Mel Tormé, or of course, Nat King Cole. I would’ve loved to see Howard Ashman give a lecture on his creative process and his body of work.

13. What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your sets?

I feel like just having a crowd at all, at any one of my sets, is pretty wild enough.

14. What’s your karaoke go-to?

The real answer to this I’ll write into a book one day, because I have a lot to say about karaoke etiquette. I have two options here: I can either name a song that I like to sing for me, for fun, or I can name a song that really gets the group going. The answer depends on what kind of karaoke night we’re dealing with here. So I will say, after I’ve selected a ton of songs that services a decent enough party vibe for everyone else, then I would do one for me, and that would be the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling.”

15. What’s one thing your most devoted fans don’t know about you?

What I have up my sleeve.

16. What TV show did you binge-watch over the past year?

Dave is a stroke of genius. There are episodes that I believe are bona fide masterpieces. Also, My Brilliant Friend is a masterclass in cinematic television.

17. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?

It’s A Wonderful Life.

18. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

Get used to sharing everything about yourself and your life now, or more astutely, to the idea that you don’t necessarily get to control how your life is shared. I know it’s not really your thing, but you’re gonna have to get used to it, so start building up those calluses now. And don’t worry, all the stuff you love now will be cool again in your mid-thirties, so keep some of those clothes because you’ll be a full-blown fashion icon if you just keep wearing exactly what you’re wearing. Oh nd also, put money into Apple and Facebook.

19. What new hobby did you take on in the last year?

I’ve always been a linguaphile. My idea of leisure time is getting to study or review other languages. This past year, I took the time to finally dive into learning how to read, write, and speak Japanese. Other than making music, it was one of the biggest components of my 2020-2021.

20. What do you hope to accomplish or experience by the end of 2021?

I hope I get to play live shows again.

#darren criss #billboard #masquerade ep #press #sept 2021

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cavehags · 3 years ago

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Do you have any thoughts on the way things are going with Guillermo and nandor’s relationship? I ask bc you seem like a big fan of Guillermo (correct opinion) but perhaps more Nandor apathetic

i am not sure i totally understand the question! i do love guillermo because he's a fascinating and compelling character in his own right, with his feelings for nandor just one small piece of the puzzle. never content to let guillermo be a simple audience surrogate, the writers and harvey guillen work together to make him incredibly specific, dynamic, and weird. because of the show's formula, guillermo has to be a dynamic character. he's the only character who can ever change! and he is someone you can't help but root for. his coy sense of humor, his tension around sex, his exasperation where his delusional ambition and cold reality meet--he's so fucking real and so fucking funny. a repressed catholic boy turned goth gay people-pleaser. i love that he knows the vampires well enough to manipulate them but not well enough to understand the one truth about them that affects his own future: that they will never give him what he wants. and i love how the show has built on this character over time. it's such juicy irony that he was cursed with the exact last skills he wanted to have. season two was so good because the show let him be hot at the same time that it let him hate every stake he reflexively, successfully threw into another vampire's heart. reluctant action hero who wants to be at home doing nandor's laundry. and now we're getting the even more satisfying payoff in the reveal that against all odds, the skills he was so afraid of turned out to be the very skills he needed to create change in his standing with the vampires. guillermo wants to be like a vampire--to get power in one quick moment and never have to confront any change in his life again. but as a mortal, he's facing changes all the time and he is forced to work through them to become a stronger person on the other side. it's so great to watch.

as to nandor and guillermo's relationship, i think a good way to look at wwdits is to remember that it's kind of like it's always sunny in philadelphia, in that vampires never change. guillermo can change, and he is always changing. giving his feelings for nandor a name is kind of cool. there's another version of this show where that wouldn't have happened, either because the show was married to the concept of constantly disappointing guillermo by keeping nandor oblivious of his inner life or because of a sentiment that the language of vampire and familiar say more than the real-world emotions that guillermo's feelings can best be likened to. i feel like giving nandor the opportunity to see something in guillermo that might have frustrated the audience to watch bubbling under the surface for too much longer ultimately does a service to both characters. it gives nandor's actions more stakes and it allows guillermo an opportunity to face reality about his life, something he's been quite reluctant to do so far.

but if you're asking if i think the show is going to make their relationship a more realistically romantic one, i really don't think so! i expect that guillermo will continue to learn new ways to communicate with nandor to get what he wants, and nandor will dabble in listening to him, but their relationship is fundamentally too unequal and one-sided for them to be, like, boyfriends. that's the fun thing about vampire stories though. there is a real sexual tension that the show isn't shy about addressing (even from the first minutes of the pilot, we see that outsiders are constantly mistaking the pair of them for weird kinksters), and their codependence on each other combined with the sexual language and physical intimacy they share make for something that i think is more interesting to watch than a straightforward dating relationship. i like that the show seems to agree with that, while still acknowledging that for guillermo, their dynamic isn't just close to a romance; it is a romance, and one that can never really make him happy. it's the "have your cake and eat it too" of gay-coded and toxic supernatural love. might not be for everyone but it's definitely hitting for me.

#wwdits

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life-rewritten · 4 years ago

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OMG!! I just found your blog through a WBL fan sharing your post about WBL on Instagram, and I am SOOOOO happy to see that you noticed and appreciate the tutor and fighter couple from Why R U series too. If possible, please write an analysis about this couple, about any specific aspect you deem as most important or just generally, whatever you are okay with. I love reading your analysis and the insights it gives me, and I just finished binge reading all of your writings on my favorite bl (1)

Hi wow mindblown by this comment Thank you so much for letting me know that my stuff is being shared I really appreciate that and I am so grateful that you took time of your day to come speak to me. I adore Fighter and Tutor, like they’re my favourite couple ever. What happened when why r u was airing was I wasn’t yet analysing BLs at that time otherwise I would have been writing essays and essays about them. Because it’s been so long since I went back to watch them I’m going to let you see some of my drafts on how I would have broken their relationship into pieces and analysed. Because they are incredible and I really always feel sad when people see them as just like a se*ual couple when there’s more to them than that. So I will let you see the first drafts and my ideas on them through this ask and I hope that's okay for now. Maybe after my other shows I will like go back and rewatch them and start analysing more about them. If I do I’d probably do a youtube video about them because they’re so good.

Here’s some of the analysis for them that I wrote:

The theme for these two is the struggle with internalised homophobia and self-acceptance. They both had this obstacle in themselves as they fell for each other and tried hard to avoid and run away from what they felt. It’s been a long journey for them being into each other since the first time they met but not really realising what they felt. Fighter did but he went into extreme panic mode and tried to run away immediately he felt that. So he tried to stay by Tutor’s side through the teasing and bullying because Tutor made him feel great and happy always but then with pressure from his father and the path he was meant to take to keep on being seen as successful, he thought his feelings for Tutor were useless and wrong. Plus he didn’t know if it was reciprocated so that caused even more fear for him which is why he just stayed with teasing and finally kater in thinking Tutor likes Hwa he chose to pull her away from him by taking her attention but also he chose to keep what they have as enemies/haters that way and avoid being near Tutor. This is why they end up hating each other a lot by the beginning of Why R U which is like 3 years later or something after he chose to stay with Hwa.

Tutor didn’t understand fully why he got angry, jealous and annoyed, he had an inclination from the first year that Fighter liked men and he was actually hopeful about it because deep down he had feelings of wanting to also flirt with Fighter, wanting to stay with Fighter even when annoyed him and bullied him. He liked Fighter’s softness at times and he liked the way he felt even though he didn’t understand why he was so rifled and affected by Fighter’s presence when no one else has been able to do that to him before. But he became upset when Fighter chose to date Hwahwa because it was his automatic issue with IH that of course Fighter doesn’t like him but he likes girls, so he got jealous and sad and proceeded to also dislike Fighter because he had this effect on him whilst still trying to date his best friend who had feelings for Fighter.

They both have had unknowingly pent up feelings for each other, so once Fighter breaks the barrier by their first kiss, they both go into extreme panic and they both could no longer pretend any more with what they have. Which is why the first episodes they both keep struggling to keep their attraction with each other quiet because its been 3 years since they wanted each other that way. Fighter has so much pent up attraction and needs to give into his feelings that each time they have a chance to break that barrier it’s intense and crazy. Both have been longing, pining secretly for each other since the beginning of the show. What happens next is for Fighter he has to choose to finally accept that he cares a lot, a lot , a lot about Tutor, he finally starts to learn more about this person he loves and he starts to want to protect and keep Tutor happy and by his side. When it comes to finally choosing to let go of Hwa and choose to fight for Tutor and start knowing if he feels the same way. It’s a leap of faith he takes when he breaks up with Hwa. He realises he’s the one stopping his wishes from happening with Tutor because he keeps being in denial about what they are because he’s scared it’s only him that’s gay and has feelings for the other.

It’s only after tutor sister tells him that he’s holding back his feelings does he realise that it’s time to talk about their unstable relationship and Fighter at that moment had also come to terms with his break up with Hwa after making out with tutor revealed the truth, that’s why on the rooftop they do a test that ultimately breaks their walls down and choose to give in to their feelings no matter how scared they are about it being reciprocated. When Tutor looks away and loses the game it’s a symbol to Fighter that he’s also been the same as him from the start. Tutor looks away sadly thinking he’s the one who has the feelings but Fighter just loses it and lets him know its equal which is why I love that scene so much because for so long both of them because of IH has been avoiding thinking the other had the same feelings for them when they both from the start have felt love for a long time. And from then they go on a journey to learn about what this means, if it’s real feelings and not just attraction hence their beach vacation which is essentially them asking if they could love each other and be in a real relationship, and if they can take on their obstacles around them. The beach solidifies for them their feelings so they choose each other for life hence the earring and necklace. But it’s fast paced how they feel because it’s just confirmation, now Tutor starts to realise that Fighter is actually different than he thought he was and he falls so fast, he now realises how much he loves Fighter and how much Fighter made him want to fight for his happiness and life. Tutor has not had hope for happiness and ease in his life, because he’s always had to fight to survive on his own. So when Fighter shows up like a prince charming and constantly is connected to saving him time and time again, it’s exactly him realising there’s someone who does represent that hope that he’d be fine. Hence why the final obstacle is Tutor regressing and starting to think because of IH and society that he and Fighter are just a pipe dream.

They go back to face the world only for Fighters father to bring back all the fear, internalised homophobia and obstacles they had. Fighter panics and thinks he was right; the reason why he never told Tutor his feelings was because he was afraid the other would break his heart (was not gay, did not have feelings for him, would make fun of him etc) so when Tutor breaks up with him he loses his mind after trying hard to let go. When he sees that actually Tutor is taunting him and is still flirting with a guy, not him, he proceeds drunk and upset to try and get back moments from the beach scene/ past make out scenes to keep that spark alive but realises Tutor is not okay this time and he’s the one forcing it. He also acted out because with them the truth comes out each time they’re physical with other romantically. It’s a kiss that caused them to finally tell each other how they felt. That’s always been the way they break their walls down.

It’s what causes him to break down and finally reveal the truth he’s loved Tutor since he met him, he’s just been afraid of all that’s happening even if it’s happening he still wants to be with Tutor. Tutor however breaks his heart even more so he backs off. Tutor on the other hand is broken and mentally exhausted back to depression, back to having to fake being strong and deal with the futility of hope and joy in his life as he’s always been used to. He gets seen by Fighter and doesn’t have it on him to fight him away, so decides to stay in an idealistic fantasy, tells him to hold him and breaks his walls down again. Tutor is always having to fake being strong because it’s how he survives so whenever Fighter enters his world his vulnerability scares him, that’s why his sister gives him the image of a cactus. He’s tough and sharp or pretends to be with his demeanour but actually he’s just a boy who wants to be happy and be safe and survive. So when Fighter shows up at his weakest moments, as he struggles to deal with his mental exhaustion and heart break, he gives in because again Fighter represents to him that hope. He starts to waver and want to stay in that lie for a long time with Fighter. Hence when he wakes up and Fighter is gone he thinks its all over and he finally breaks down completely.

Only when Fighter goes he breaks down in anguish truly thinking he lost him. Fighter finally comes out to his dad and fights his views, And we end up back at the beach, a place which represented authenticity and truth for them, it’s their truest realest self, but it also was their escapism. So Fighter coming there and letting Tutor know there’s no more obstacles in their way makes them both finally equally start a stable relationship with no more fear or care about anything. These twos relationship is full of tension and they both feel the chemistry, like magnets their bodies are drawn together, every scene they’re in, it’s their love language physical touch not bl fan service. They just naturally want to be in contact with each other and also their pent up feelings leads to them constantly wanting to sleep together because of hormones and well because they enjoy their se*ual life, nothing bad about that it’s realistic for couples to be that horny, that needy and that touchy.

It’s people who don’t get the context of internalised homophobia and what being in the closet is like for people with this anxiety and self hate caused by how they think society views them and treats them if out, those are the people who think there was no plot. Every dialogue these two had, their flashbacks and their acting (eyes, facial gestures, touches) showed why Fighter liked teasing Tor, why he dated Hwa but never paid her attention, why we had the beach scenes, why the break up escalated, why Tutor gave in when ill, why the non/dubious consent scene happened, why they get back together and why they told each other I love you forever immediately after they got together. Every single part adds up. It really is insane to me how people don’t see their real story to this day or see them as such a great storyline for BL. I would never get it.

#fightertutor #saintzee #fighter x tutor #thai bl #bl series #bl drama #fvete #march #wrpup #asks #why r u

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joezworld · 4 years ago

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📁

Specifically, any headcanons of the Sodor Engines interacting with the internet, or the internet in general?

For some reason, I’d imagine that podcasts and the like are popular among vehicles in general.

That is a question that I've been working on for some time - because I'm workshopping my own Tornado headcanon (and boy oh boy does she use the internet a lot) - but I have some ideas for the Sodor engines as well:

Henry is probably the most "plugged in" engine on the island, weirdly enough. One of his drivers gave him an iPod back in the early 2000s, and kindly preloaded it with a bunch of torrented music.

BTW, that works because all the engines are now equipped with automatic train warning systems, and the little on-board computer has a USB port - as a nice side effect it allows music players to work with the engines in the same way as bone-conducting headphones do. The computer also acts as some kind of computer interface, which I am not going to explain how that works because Jesus Christ I don’t know how it does either.

Henry has managed to upgrade his iPod a few times since thanks to hand-me-down units from NWR staff, so he eventually got his buffers on a wifi-enabled iPod Touch and now downloads new music from the station wifi. He does listen to podcasts, but as every other engine will tell you, you could show Henry ten thousand new and exciting songs from the best artists in the world, and his top ten played songs are still going to be Genesis, Phil Collins, and Yes. Bear considers it a win that he managed to convince Henry to regularly listen to Rush after a mere twenty years of convincing.

Mavis and Daisy listen to a very interesting program called The News, because as stated elsewhere, they invest a shitload of money and need to be on top of things. Thomas and Percy wish that Daisy would use headphones or something similar to that, instead of listening to Bloomberg TV at loud volumes in the middle of the night. Toby frankly doesn’t mind, as it’s very nice to be kept up-to-date on the outside world.

In a move that surprises no-one, Bill and Ben have a podcast where they talk about whatever they think about at that moment - usually horse-racing, investing, and clay mining. As such, they have a wide audience, almost none of whom know that they’re that Bill and Ben, as their podcast is audio-only.

In an also unsurprising move, Edward and BoCo have been made very much aware that Bill and Ben have a podcast, but are still unsure as to what the hell a podcast is, despite being frequent guests on it.

Of the main line diesels, only Bear has shown any real interest in the internet, and was immediately put in charge of the Amazon Alexa when a unit was installed in the diesel shed. He also has an iPod that he got for Christmas a few years back. (The NWR has a very good personal electronics recycling program called give it to Henry, he’ll make use it.)

Bear does listen to podcasts as well as music, but his choices are so insufferably boring that even Henry refuses to listen to them. (I don’t really listen to podcasts - despite making one - so insert the most boring podcast you can think of here.)

As for other internet uses...

Gordon is very up-to-date on the newest social media trends - somehow - but only really cares when he is involved. He won’t admit it, but he’s been trying to figure out how to work a camera/selfie stick for some time so he can start up his own Instagram account. So far he has been unsuccessful, but one day he will manage it.

James has had an ongoing feud with his own Wikipedia page for about a decade now. The article sourced most of its information about his construction off of some out-of-print book about the L&Y. The book in question is accurate about James’ class, but not James himself - as he was a prototype engine. There’s no other primary sources available, so the very dedicated Wikipedia mod who created the page won’t change it - no matter how much James complains that he was there! He knows what happened!

Every now and again a TTTE fan blog/tumblr will make a post about hypothetical “ships” of the Sodor engines. Most of the time it’s shipping the core characters like Gordon and Henry, much to Gordon’s bafflement and Henry’s amusement!

Only one blog (a ttte fan tumblr by the curious name of @mean-scarlet-deceiver ) has gotten it right. Henry actually reached out to congratulate this blogger, but was unfortunately mistaken for a very dedicated roleplay account.

James is very annoyed by these blogs, as they have never once correctly guessed who he is “shipped” with! He has tried several times to be seen in public with Delta, but these events have never gone as planned - the “best” instance is when Edward rolled by at exactly the wrong moment, leading to months of speculation that JamesxEdward was the ship to look out for!

Thomas, being a generally oblivious sort of engine, was totally unaware of the online fan community around the TV show until he started getting actively harassed by vloggers and Instagrammers in the early 2010s. He’s fine with it now, but it was a deeply unusual experience for most of 2012.

Toby has developed an unexpectedly popular following on social media following his collab with Stormzy. His official twitter is huge now, with over a million followers, even if he has no idea what to do with it. He posts rarely, but usually manages to make an incredible post when he does.

No-one is sure who told Oliver what a “fan-production” is, but if you manage to get ahold of him for any period of time and ask him nicely, he will lend his voice to your TTTE fan-project, so long as it isn’t about [INSERT TERRIBLE SOCIAL/POLITICAL VIEW(S) HERE]. This means that he has 100% voiced dramatic readings of NSFW Fanfics before, which is always an absolute riot to spring on people unannounced.

There is a series of slice-of-life TTTE fanfics on Ao3 that have been written with such accuracy and innate railway knowledge that people are sure it was written by a Sodor engine, but nobody knows which one.

The Culdee Fell Railway has very active Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts, with all of the engines and coaches showing up regularly. It’s about the closest any of the railways on Sodor have come to what those outside the UK would call “normal locomotive social media”.

The Skarloey Railway has social media accounts too, but they don’t really feature the engines in any meaningful way, instead being used as a normal service announcements page.

The SR is a real working railway that doesn’t rely on tourism money as much as the others do, so they get a bit of a pass here.

The Arlesdale Railway has Twitter and YouTube, which didn’t usually get a lot of hits until 2020, when Ivan and Amanda Farrier started badgering the staff to make some videos just to alleviate some boredom. So far the most popular videos on the channel are a front-mounted camera video of the entire line slow-tv style, Bert explaining how steam engines work, and a video of Mike complaining about Justin Bieber for a solid half-hour.

That’s about it as far as Sodor goes, but before we’re done, I want to take a moment to talk about Tornado, because I have some fun ideas for her...

First of all, we need to establish that Tornado is very young. Her construction only started in late 90′s, and she was steamed to life in 2000, putting her firmly into the “Zoomer” category. Add in the fact that she was built by a bunch of old men who didn’t really know how to treat a new engine, and she was raised much more like a human than a locomotive - I’ll get to this much more in the proper Tornado Headcanon post, but what this means here is that when social media started being a thing in the mid-to-late 2000′s, the people at the A1 Trust decided that they needed a young person to run things like Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace... and, well, Tornado was the youngest person in the trust by a large margin.

I should state here that in the rest of the world, locomotives are on the internet at roughly the same level as humans are, so there’s plenty of equipment to connect a phone/computer/camera to an engine - being English, the A1 Trust didn’t know how common it was, but they managed to get it up and running just the same.

So Tornado has very quickly become attuned to the internet, just like any other teenager would. (yes, let’s let that settle into our minds for a moment - Tornado is barely old enough to drink in the US!) Quite naturally that means that she knows social media inside and out, and is actually quite a proficient social media manager for the trust, managing all of their social pages. More than one person who has complained about the trust on twitter has unknowingly been complaining to Tornado herself!

“On the internet, nobody knows that you’re a dog Engine”.

Tornado has her own personal social media accounts too, but most/all of the time she gets mistaken for a very dedicated role-player, as the general perception of British Locomotives is that they don’t tweet. This has resulted in some amazing reactions from podcast hosts (because, as you might expect, Tornado is very knowledgeable about steam traction in the 21st century, and tweets about it often, so train podcasts want to talk to her) when she gets invited onto video calls, turns on her webcam, and is met with screams from people who suddenly realize that her profile picture is accurate.

By far the best instance of this is when she was invited onto a video call with a railfan podcast. She was at the NRM at the time and managed to convince them to let her use their Skype setup. A wide-angle lens was needed because she was on the turntable in the Great Hall, so that podcast quickly got sidetracked when her webcam was turned on and revealed Tornado, with Mallard, Evening Star, City of Truro, and Green Arrow visible behind her. Whatever the original topic was quickly got thrown out in favor of a 2-hour Q&A with some of the most famous engines in the UK.

#ask response #the internet #ttte thomas #ttte toby #ttte bill and ben #ttte gordon #ttte daisy #ttte mavis #ttte henry #ttte bear #ttte oliver #tornado #nrm #trains using the internet #ttte #sodor #sodor shenangians #the formatting on this one is super fucked up and i can't figure out how to fix it - sorry

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nct-oli · 4 years ago

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I haven’t talked about Lovely Writer on here at all I think, but I really am loving it so much. It took a while to grow on me, especially given how attached I have been this year to A Tale of Thousand Stars (it was hard to open my heart to another show lol), but I really do look forward to each episode, and I’ll be genuinely so sad when it ends next week.

I’m incredibly critical of the media I consume, and I think my standards are quite high when it comes to specific aspects of that media. I think the BL industry romanticizes a ton of toxic bullshit in their series, and fans eat it all up without ever recognizing the problems at play. I can’t 100% blame fans for enjoying the media that is blatantly presented to them as positive and not automatically finding the faults, but it’s a really toxic relationship between BL creators and BL fans. The supply and demand for really problematic content is so high.

A Tale of Thousand Stars and Lovely Writer, in my opinion, have been so refreshing as someone who was getting honestly really tired of BL series recycling the same toxic tropes over and over again. Neither of these series are perfect (that should never be the expectation), and they both have elements I’d still deem controversial or troublesome. But in comparison? Absolute standouts.

A Tale of Thousand Stars was able to tell a beautiful queer romance without the coming out drama, without the homophobia, without the oversexualization, and without the bland, two-dimensional characterization you too often see with queer characters. The only coming out scene was tastefully done and perfectly fitting with the story, and the rest of the series could play out as a mlw romance, if you were to replace one of the characters with a woman. Queer people deserve those romances, the ones that center around two people simply falling in love regardless of gender. Queer people have been asking for those stories for ages. There’s nothing wrong with the cliches, but the creativity shouldn’t stop there every time. A Tale of Thousand Stars was, at base level, just two people finding love in the mountains, and I’m so grateful for that. On top of that, the show also avoided so many toxic tropes (i.e., power differences, violent jealousy, romanticized SA). Add phenomenal acting, ridiculous chemistry, beautiful scenery, an interesting plot, and P’Aof to all of that and you have my favorite BL drama and one of my favorite general series to ever exist. Yes, I said it. (I add P’Aof because he’s an actual queer man who cares so much about portraying realistic and beautiful queer relationships, and I am so grateful to him for taking his talents and efforts into the BL industry. I think he is and will continue to be such a force for needed change. I appreciate that man so much and will be watching every series he creates.)

But then we have Lovely Writer, which I appreciate for somewhat similar but relatively different reasons. Sometimes I’m not even sure to what degree it’s all intentional, but the COMMENTARY on the BL industry is *chefs kiss.* I mean, the stark contrast between the gentleness of Nubsib and Gene’s real relationship versus the romanticized aggression of the fictional relationship within Gene’s novel is so important to me. I get so uncomfortable watching the scenes where they are filming the series because the comparison is so obvious and it’s mind boggling that so many people find the abusiveness so attractive and romantic. That’s such a huge issue in the BL industry, and I love how blatantly obvious they make it in the show. In addition, the series has highlighted the facade that is fan service, the fetishization and oversexualization of mlm relationships, and the issue of BL stories never being written by queer men. And most recently in episode 11, I think they really showed how the BL industry loves making money off of the queer community but doesn’t give a shit about queer people in real life. What I mean by that is, Gene is forced to write BL novels despite his own wishes, no matter how inauthentic they are to him as a writer, because the company believes they are marketable and profitable. But when Gene and Nubsib’s real life relationship comes to the surface, they are treated like dirt for the sake of the company and the show… for the money. There were other solutions to that issue, but the easiest in the company’s eyes was throwing them, actual queer people, to the side and telling them to essentially get over it. Sure, that’s just capitalism, but it really is a massive issue in the BL industry that needs changing. So to see that portrayed within the show is incredibly satisfying. They’re really bringing to light so many problematic aspects of the industry that have been hidden or downplayed for too long.

And then both of them are telling stories about actual queer people, which I love more than I can explain. And by that I mean characters who actually use words to say they are not straight. I’m so freaking tired of the blatant avoidance of the word “gay” or even the words “I like men” (plural men) in BL. And I’m especially tired of the “I don’t like men. I just like x” trope. I really, really appreciate both A Tale of Thousand Stars and Lovely Writer telling queer stories by making their characters actually queer. (And this isn’t at all about those who choose to not label their sexualities. That is absolutely valid, but unfortunately in the BL industry, the avoidance of any words indicating sexuality is generally done to separate the show from the actual community being profited off of, not to avoid labels for empowerment.)

I’ll stop rambling, but I just finished ep 11 of Lovely Writer and I had so many thoughts. 2021 has started off really well with both of these shows airing, but it also means my expectations are so high now… welp! Looking forward to the Lovely Writer finale next week. I’m really glad a show like this exists, and I hope it makes even just a few fans realize how they may be participating in toxicity or just a few creators realize they can have a successful series without romanticizing problematic behaviors.

Thank you to A Tale of Thousand Stars and Lovely Writer for restoring some of my faith. I’m grateful to you both.

#olivia rambles #a tale of thousand stars #atots #1000 stars #lovely writer spoilers #lovely writer #I know there are a couple other shows I need to check out that people have said are pretty good in these regards as well #looking forward to those too #I’m tired of shows like [redacted] getting all of the spotlight when they’re toxic af #I feel kind of funny invading the lovely writer tag lol I was active in the atots tags but I’m a nobody in the lovely writer fandom 👀

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