#it depends on which run/media/characterization

[shewolf-sinclair]

dick grayson/barbara gordon is growing on me….

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

Who Wants To Talk About Japanese Orthography In Manga???

Me, it's me, I do, and I have been chomping at the bit to get the chance to.

Orthography refers to the conventions of written language to represent sounds. That may bring to mind the idea of rigid grammar rules or spelling standardization, but in a linguistic sense, orthography simply describes observable trends across language use. This isn't about authority--I am not going to talk about what schools teach or say people should write one way or another. This is about examining how real people use written language creatively to convey different things in popular media.

This is a huge topic, so I'm only going to use examples from MHA to highlight Horikoshi's style.

First, let's get a run-down of the main parts of written Japanese and how they tend to be used.

We've got kanji and kana; kanji are logograms, while kana are syllabaries. Kana refers to both hiragana and katakana collectively, but we will delineate the two from here on.

The Wikipedia page for kanji, describing this more succinctly than I'm about to.

For clarity, I'm gonna color-code each one.

Let's take a quick look at all three in action.

Chapter 65

By virtue of being the syllabary that grammar particles are written in, hiragana can get away with a lot that kanji and katakana can't.

You can write simple sentences in hiragana alone, like so:

The sentence is perfectly comprehensible like this, but it reads as casual or perhaps a bit immature, like the person is either leaving out kanji for speed or simplicity (like online) or they aren't confident using kanji. Although, the word hito (person) is extremely common and its kanji is simple, so this would probably look more natural:

But there are also kanji for the word kawaii, so you could also write it this way:

On the other hand, writing the whole thing in katakana looks weird as fuck:

bECAuSE iT kINDA reADS LIKE THis, or maybe L I K E T H I S

It seems almost alien, overemphasizing the phonetic sound of the words, implying there's something notable or unusual about them.

But what if you write it like this?

Both ways use katakana to put flavor on a specific word. The first puts it on person, which could be used in a situation where someone hasn't been named yet, but the speaker tonally emphasizes your knowledge of them--like "oh, you know who."

The second emphasizes cute, which could read as sexually suggestive, teasing/joking, or even a threatening tone, depending on the context. "Real cute, ain't they?"

Basically, the connecting grammar bits need to be in hiragana, but nouns, verbs, and adjectives can typically be written in any of the three systems. That introduces choice into the matter, and these choices may have some cultural connotations.

This is a subtlety in written Japanese that manga loves to take advantage of. Orthography contributes a lot to characterization and tone, so individual creators develop little quirks as part of their own writing style.

Now let's finally take a gander at some of Horikoshi's!

Kanji instead of hiragana for semantic emphasis

Chapter 48

Best Jeanist could have used only hiragana for the word "good" (いい, ii), which is a very common way to write it. But he's not just commenting that they are nice kids, he's talking about them as "goodie two-shoes" and even puts brackets around the idea. The kanji emphasizes the cultural idea of a Good Child™, a well-behaved, morally upright, obedient young person.

Kanji instead of hiragana denoting a serious or severe tone

Chapter 36

Katsuki's "you" pronoun omae being written with kanji comes across as markedly serious, especially compared to how his dialogue is normally written. This is actually the only time Katsuki says omae and it is written with kanji--all the rest are in hiragana, which tends to read as more casual.

Hiragana instead of kanji denoting a gentle tone or youthful/childlike language

Chapters 129 and 183

Katsuki and his omae show us how kanji use can be seen as more mature and serious; Eri's dialogue does the opposite of this by using hiragana when it could use kanji, emphasizing her youth and innocence.

Katakana instead of hiragana or kanji for emphasis or slang

Chapters 209, 207, and 2

As I detailed above, one of katakana's most common uses is similar to italics or all-caps.

But you also tend to see slang written with it, and depending on the slang, the word being in katakana can immediately clarify it from other, perhaps more standard meanings. In Jirou's case, her personal pronoun uchi can mean a couple other things, so it being written in katakana clarifies her usage. It could arguably also imply she is taking a bit of an argumentative tone--Katsuki's slang is typically written in katakana for both of these reasons!

Katakana denoting regional dialect/accent, nonstandard pronunciation/muddled speech, or confused articulation

Chapters 102, 208, 394, and 2

Ochako gets flustered and defaults to her regional Kansai dialect. Instead of "chigau wa" (Tokyo dialect), she says "chau wa" repeatedly.

Katsuki and Toga both drop the w- sound from a word. Katsuki says "ore a" instead of "ore wa," while Toga says the word "kawaiku" as "ka'aiku" and "kawaii" as "ka'aii." Notice how the katakana which represents the vocal omission/hiccup is actually smaller than the others? That's also a little stylistic detail for communicating this kind of nonstandard speech.

Izuku repeats All Might's words, chikara wo, in a confused daze because he isn't following All Might's point. By removing the kanji especially, this kind of katakana emphasizes him sounding the words out without recognizing the underlying meaning.

Basically, Japanese has some excellent ~vibes-based~ orthography because of how the language is structured!

Of course, you find this kind of thing in English as well--especially in the age of the internet, where people note that "how dare u" reads as tonally distinct from "how dare you." As you develop language fluency, you tend to pick up these things subconsciously more than anything, but it's one of my favorite things to analyze and compare.

These are just a few examples and my own interpretations of them. I'm sure there are many more uses and flavor-nuance I'm not picking up on. Since any given choice can be read a few different ways, context is very important. My examples aren't definitive proof of anything, but it can be fun to keep these kinds of details in mind while reading.

Shueisha and Shonen Jump surely have in-house standards for text, and mangaka must operate within that range. That said, I have indeed seen every one of these examples in other manga as well.

And on the independent side of things, doujinshi and online manga are basically the wild frickin' west--I have seen tons of totally crazy, highly creative ways to take advantage of the unique flexibility found in Japanese, but that's a post for another day.

I will probably write more about this kind of thing in the future when I can pinpoint some more observations, but I hope you all enjoyed the ride. <3

[deuce-t-agere]

Could you do CG Cyclops/Scott Summers and Regressor Wolverine/Logan Howlette headcanons?

- scarlet-shades

This is not based on just one piece of x-men media so will probably be a mix of different characterizations and canon stuff

Scott tends to get very into the leader type personality and tries his best to provide Logan with structure and routine

Logan responds well to structure, but he does not want it, he would like to spend all day outside looking for bugs and doing whatever he wants, thank you very much

Scott tries to convince Logan that things are his idea to get him to do unwanted tasks, bathing is the hardest one but sometimes he can manage to get the idea in Logan's head that he doesn't want to be a smelly little gremlin

Scott will take Logan for rides on his motorcycle as a reward, Logan thinks it's the best thing ever, especially when Scott lets him "drive", which just means sitting in front with his hands over Scott's, it's a bit awkward to workout, but Logan loves it

Logan has a hard time sleeping a lot, Scott will take him out for a walk to look for night critters if he's too awake to sleep, and he'll take him for a drive if he's just having trouble falling asleep/staying asleep

Scott let's Logan climb into bed with him (and maybe Jean depending on if Jean and Scott are together at the time) after a nightmare to snuggle

When they sleep together Logan always either ends up curled up in a ball in the middle of the bed so Scott ends up trying to sleep on the edge without falling off or laying on top of him, Scott prefers that latter because at least then he can breath

Logan likes to give Scott rocks and sticks he finds when they go on walks

Scott has gotten angry scowls on walks for scaring off Logan's animal friends several times, he just isn't as sneaky but can't let Logan wander out of his sight

Scott gets very worried when Logan runs off, which ends up happening about every other time he regresses involuntarily, Logan usually shows up before he had to use it, but he has a ready plan to search for Logan if he's gone for too long

When Logan shows back up, usually all muddy with wrecked clothes, he has to sit through a long lecture about running off without a grown up, if he's still regressed he'll then be subjected to lots of cuddles, and much to his displeasure a bath

[my-favourite-zhent]

Writer Interview

Tagged by the lovelies @commander-krios here and @coreene here

Tagging: @dustdeepsea @thisaccountisagainstmywill @fistfuloftarenths

@littleplasticrat @captainsigge @grossestjay

Questions under the cut!

When did you start writing?

I suppose depends what counts? Where I went to school we did creative writing as early as six. The first stories I remember were Halloween stories I wrote with very unhappy endings.

Writing purely for myself maybe not till high school? I dabbled in a little fanfiction and then didn't touch it again for years and years and then suddenly BG3 and Rugan happened, smdh.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

Just like Krios I enjoy horror novels, although I actually prefer horror as short stories/novellas. If you look at my spotify history you will see a lot of NoSleep podcast and Knifepoint Horror so its definitely a running theme. I could never write horror though, would spook myself too much. I did rather like the tiny horror story in one of the books in Baldurs Gate.

I also enjoy reading low fantasy (low magic, more grit, considerably plucky, ensemble casts) which I think comes across in New Tricks, but in contrast the stories I read have very minimal if any romance.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

Nope, as much as there are many writers I enjoy and at times think "I wish I were that talented" I also don't wish to be a perfect copy of anyone's style because what's the point of that?

I suppose if it was something more like "as funny as so and so" or "world-building on level of such and such" then probably Pratchett, Rothfuss, Sapowski or Glen Cook?

I will literally write anywhere, a lot of my ideas pop-up while daydreaming and I have to get them down when they happen or I won't remember clearly later. So at my desk, in bed, on the couch, on the train, standing in the shoppe, literally anywhere.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Consuming other media. Books, TV, movies, podcasts, etc. Seeing a scene or circumstance and imagining how the characters I write would react under similar circumstances.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Hmm hadn't considered it before but I guess so far: grey morality, class differences (this likely due to my muse being Rugan) and overcoming betrayal? I suppose the last one surprises me a little, I think I might just like the angst of it.

What is your reason for writing?

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

I mentioned earlier I haven't touched personal creative writing since high school, although I did consume fanfiction on occasion. I originally returned due to a frustration at the lack of Rugan content. I wanted to consume, but at the time there wasn't much, compounded by the fact that I did not have an AO3 account at the time so of the few that existed I could only see half. So I started by writing how I thought getting that drink at the Elf Song might go.

After that I got a bit attached to the OC and was inspired by the works of @dustdeepsea to write something with a little more emotional depth. I was prone to daydreaming these sorts of things before but I never put pen to paper till now.

I'm happy any time someone enjoys my work, but I suppose the best comments are when the reader notices the characterization I've been trying to get across. It makes me feel validated that I'm able to write certain qualities without (hopefully) being too on the nose with it.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Me or my writing? Myself, hopefully reasonable and open-minded. My writing, I hope they find it funny and exciting in turns, I hope it makes people feel some sort of emotion even if negative rather than being boring. I hope the world I've tried to piece together from bits of Forgotten Realms lore feels consistent and cohesive, that the rules and stakes make sense.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Similar to Krios I think my dialogue comes across the best of all my writing, and it certainly feels the easiest to get down.

How do you feel about your own writing?

It seems to change by day and chapter. There are some things that when I write I'm quite pleased, and then come back a month later and am quite embarrassed by. Other things I didn't like originally but actually enjoy quite a bit on reread. I find myself having to just post things I'm unhappy with at times otherwise I won't get on with the story. I jokingly tell myself "we'll fix it in post!" and I have slowly begun some edits of early chapters so it's not a complete lie.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

It's mostly what I think the story needs at the time. There are times where I feel "augh we've been on this mood/theme for too long, the reader will get bored" but I try to reframe it to myself as "is the pacing good? is this scene necessary right now?" and that helps me make a decision that is hopefully a bit more objective. Sometimes we need that information for later, sometimes we don't. I have been known to go back and adjust a thing here or there if the current chapter is missing a bit of set-up and will continue to do so until the story is over. I'm treating it all as a work in progress.

Thanks for reading this far!

[evilwickedme]

Losing my mind at the kids reading Bruce/Batman fic

No cause I actually think about this stuff all the time. The Waynes are celebrities!!! Depending on your preference they could be international celebrities or local celebrities, but Bruce and Tim have both been the CEO of an international conglomerate worth billions, Bruce at the very least has to have been on the cover of TIME magazine and had a billion interviews about how-to-be-successful even though, you know, he's the definition of a nepo baby. So between the Waynes and the Batman being two of the most important cultural exports from Gotham, and the fact that WE openly funds Batman, there's gotta be some really good stuff in the celebrity and superhero RPF fandoms, right? It's just sort of obvious that people will start shipping them

So. Who brings it to the Batfam's attention? There are several possible avenues. I personally think it makes the most sense for Tim or Steph to have found it. They're both around 17-19, they went to school and had friends, so yeah, they're on social media. Tim has to have an online presence that's semi professional and so has a secret second account on all websites and apps, but Steph goes full fucking feral on main. I think Tim gets @ - ed a lot by weirdos, including people tagging him in their Tim Drake/YN fanfiction (sidenote do not do this in real life. Please don't do this in real life), but for that reason it might actually be that his blacklist is a mile long. Like he simply cannot see the word fanfiction on his Twitter feed. So Steph is the one that finds the one million BruBats fanfiction. She sees it mentioned and hunts it down. And then she sends it in the batkids GC and shit EXPLODES

Dick is very much like, a person with better things to do than be a weird gremlin online and he's never actually seen a fanfic before. He's heard of it because he gets asked weird things sometimes, but this is effectively his introduction to the world of fic and he's horrified. He steals Damian's phone so he won't see it which just makes Damian all the more curious and determined to read it. It gets physical

Steph and Tim take turns reading it out loud to Cass (Steph does Batman's voice, Tim voices Bruce) who finds the whole thing a little baffling. Neither Brucie nor Batman are particularly similar to her adoptive father and the concept of fic is a little out of her wheelhouse, although Steph does a very good job explaining the basic terms and reasons for its existence to her

Babs knew all along. This wasn't new to her. She's read worse things while doing research for cases

Duke reads the whole thing in one sitting (ish, it's really long). It's actually really good and he leaves some really thoughtful comments on the characterization and slow burn. The author doesn't reply but does cherish those comments forever

Jason wrote it Jason doesn't interact with the GC but babs literally hacked his phone to prevent him from leaving it so he opens it once a week to mark it as read and leave and he happens to open it in the middle of this shit going down and decides to check it out. He accidentally clicks on the relationship tag however and sees things you can't unsee. He literally runs over his phone and vows to go off the grid from now on

[coldgoldlazarus]

Oh! Sorta responding to the "responding to sexualizing woman. Don't." post. What are your thoughts on Smash Ultimate altering Zero Suit Samus' design? Personally not a fan of it compared to Smash 4. I liked her bigger boobs. 😔

I don't really pay that much attention to Smash, honestly, (fighting games just aren't my thing as is, and I'm not attached to 95% of Nintendo's stuff the same way I am with Metroid (even if I am curious about Zelda and Splatoon)) so I don't really care that much one way or another. But I guess my take is, on one hand I respect the attempt to dial back on Samus's sexualization². On the other hand, as the full un-blackouted version of that post said, focusing on boob size to do so instead of other elements of design, both doesn't really address the actual problems, and kinda carries some dubious implications¹.

But on the other other hand, I remember the ridiculous blowback and controversy from Those Kinds Of Gamers™ being just, embarassing to watch, and I wish Samus hadn't been stuck at the center of that, but I kinda support the move on that front, catering to the assholes that much less, even and especially when they made a huge overblown fuss about it.

So it kinda balances out to a net result of "ehh whatever" either way.

---

¹The interplay of boobs and sexualization is of course it's own complicated topic, honestly. In an ideal (but hopefully attainable) world, the nipple would be free and breast size would be culturally sexually neutral - as with really any aspect of appearance. Particular people might have particular preferences, but it would be a purely personal thing without an established cultural yardstick to literally measure oneself up against. Unfortunately, we don't currently live in an ideal world, and that yardstick does exist (which is why all the Gamer Bros were so Big Mad over the Smash Samus breast reduction in the first place) and has to be contended with, so it's kind of a catch-22.

I do think breast size shouldn't be tied to sexualization, and unfortunately reducing one in the name of reducing the other, does just kinda serve to reinforce the base assumption of their tie being inherent. At the same time, while a real-life person having giant G-cups might have my sympathy for the back pain involved and little more thought than that, a character designed that same way would definitely have me questioning the creative intent behind that. So I do think there is kind of at least an upper limit to boob size in character design, past which it's hard not to assume sexualization is at play; even if I personally try to set that upper limit a bit higher than some people, and put more stock in other contextual aspects of the character design and source media before jumping to conclusions.

---

There's also a larger discussion to be had around like, what sexualization even is, types of sexualization and appeal, whether or not it's even a bad thing and when and why it is or isn't, and the cultural yardstick stuff surrounding that, but I don't quite have the brainpower or desire to get into all that right now. The distinction between why 2B from Nier Automata being sexualized can be criticized but is also mostly fine, whereas the gal from Stellar Blade being sexualized in a similar way is more dubious; and how the culture they both exist in impacts things, compared to if they existed in a vaccuum or a completely different zeitgeist. I guess a summary of my feeling there is that once again it really just depends from case to case; and the context of creative intent, execution, impact, and just how much narrative sense it makes, are key.

---

²Which brings me back to Samus. I'm running out of steam so I'm just gonna do a quick lightning round.

- Do I have a problem with the broad idea of her being sexualized? Not necessarily. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense for her role as a bounty hunter, but it can serve well as part of her personal characterization, and metanarratively as part of the subversion of gender roles and stuff that she can be read as. (Though that in of itself gets into some thorny bigger topics around gender I also don't have the energy for rn.)

- Do I take issue with the specific way most of her canonical appearances do it? Yes, and I've talked at length in other posts about how I think they should do things instead.

- Does her presentation in Smash matter nearly as much as her presentation in the actual Metroid games? Ehh, mostly not, but it would be nice if she was represented better there.

- Do I think her breast size matters all that much? Generally not, barring of course the aformentioned upper limit of reasonability; the problem is more in other aspects of the design. Again, I didn't have a problem with the original boob size or the reduction, so much as Zero Suit Samus's overall design in the first place.

- How should they actually fix those in Smash, then? IMO there are two different approaches there. The simpler way would be to redesign Zero Suit Samus from the ground up to be less of a latex-clad barbie doll. Dread's buffer ZSS model is a pretty good show of how to accomplish that without drastically altering the design; though I also think the Zero Suit itself is in need of a moderate rework, to feel more like the astronaut's undersuit and conduit with the Powersuit that it's excused as in the lore.

The other option would be to address the whole weird thing of Zero Suit Samus for some reason being counted as a completely separate playable character from (Powersuit) Samus, and coalesce them together back into one thing. (Possibly with the option to switch modes at will, or being forced into Zero Suit mode on her last life, or something like that.) This would definitely more significantly impact her place in Smash and would probably cause an uproar that would make the boob controversy look like nothing, but it would be worth it for the greater character accuracy IMO. Honestly of the two options... Well, I'd just prefer they do both, but I think if I had to pick, I'd want the full redesign more.

[ridiasfangirlings]

you this is going to sound like an unpopular opinion but gora is not consitent when it comes to writieng characters

Honestly you’re right and you should say it :P I love K but I do agree there’s some inconsistencies with how the characters are written, especially between different media. I think some of that is just to be expected from a project like K, that’s a collaboration between different writers who all presumably have their own viewpoints when it comes to each character. I definitely get the impression that certain members of Gora are more partial to certain characters, and that some characters are written slightly differently depending on who happens to be doing the writing.

I also feel like K as a series grew and changed the more Gora wrote — in particular I think a lot of the earlier parts of the series don’t always quite fit with characterization from later media. Fushimi is a big example of this, his character from S1 is almost entirely different from how he acts in all subsequent media and it feels like they bent a little far to explain why he acts the way he does in episode 5 of season one (while I do appreciate that Fushimi went from generic vaguely yandere guy to sad disaster child it definitely makes his characterization feel a bit off when you compare season one to season two). Similarly S4 in general feels a lot more antagonistic and sinister in the early episodes of S1, and I feel like the Munakata of Side Blue the novel and the Munakata of the 7Stories adaptation of Side Blue aren’t quite the same. I kinda suspect that while Gora did have some ideas for how the story and characters should play out from the start (the Greens are teased as early as Side Blue, for example) there was also some measure of ‘throwing things at the wall to see what sticks and running with that.’ For example, the Ashinaka kids are much more prominent in season one to the point you’d expect them to be more of a focal point going forward but they largely disappear after this aside from Kukuri and even she’s largely relegated to cameos, and while there’s no way to say for sure I do wonder if we would have seen more of her and the other students if they’d been more popular with the audience. 

And outside of the character writing we do know that Gora is not adverse to changing their minds and adding things to canon after the fact. Take the differences between S1, The First manga and the First Story novel for example. Hisui being behind Colorless isn’t even so much as hinted in season one of the anime but The First manga has a whole scene of Kotosaka interacting with Colorless which makes it clear. This is a fairly important scene in regards to what comes later and I feel like it would be odd for them to skip out on it in the anime, unless it’s something Gora came up with after season one had already been animated. Both the manga and novel also place a lot of emphasis on Colorless having the physical fox mask, which shows up only very briefly in the first season of the anime (offhand I think it’s just the random kid who calls Mikoto in jail and the personification of Colorless as a fox in that moment, whereas The First even replaces Shiro finding bloodstained clothes with Shiro finding a fox mask). The Return of Kings novelization adds a whole character arc for Neko that’s not in the anime, and while I think that was a huge plus it still does change that characterization slightly just by having this arc occur. In some ways K reminds me of writing a fic and changing things between drafts, it’s just for Gora one of those drafts was already animated or published and they just decided to roll with later changes as if those were there from the start.

[voxasks]

Hi hi 👋! First off, could I be tagged when ur inbox is open, and two! I started my own ask blog a while ago but still haven’t received any asks. Can I get advice on how to make myself more of a pro? Or smth like that 😅

(  HEYYY  OMG  I'M  SO  GLAD  YOU  ASKED!  i'll  be  answering  this  ooc  because  ...  well,  vox  won't  be  helpful  about  this,  haha!  AND OF COURSE I’LL TAG YOU ! )

    1st   :   get  your  friends  to  send  you  asks!

you'll  need  posts  for  people  to  see  your  blog  and  follow  you,  so  to  get  started  i  highly  suggest  asking  your  friends  to  send  you  questions,  and  bonus  if  they're  interesting  ones!  depends  on  which  fandom  your  muse  is  from  but  just  for  example's  sake,  an  interesting  question  would  be  on  characters'  backstories  as  there  are  many  hazbin  characters  without  a  confirmed  backstory  yet,  so  it  would  be  interesting  to  see  your  take  on  the  character  in  that  specific  angle!

    2nd   :   doll  your  blog  up!

this  is  genuinely  based  off  of  experience,  but  if  your  blog  looks  pretty  and  organized,  people  will  definitely  flock  towards  it  more!  it  might  just  be  an  aesthetic  but  it  really  does  go  a  long  way,  because  at  the  very  start  i  didn't  even  have  any  graphics  in  my  intro  post  and  i  realized  activity  went  up  as  soon  as  i  did  make  a  graphic  and  improved  the  quality  of  vox's  reactions.  if  you  need  help  on  where  to  start,  @hellishradio  has  a  tutorial  on  their  faq  on  how  he  does  his  graphics  for  alastor's  reactions  and  i  personally  use  canva  for  my  own!

    3rd   :   consume/analyze  canon  media  of  your  muse!

your  portrayal  of  your  muse  is  half  of  the  appeal  of  your  askblog!  people  will  stay  on  if  they  find  your  portrayal  is  accurate  to  canon  or  agrees  with  their  idea  of  canon.  of  course,  since  your  running  the  askblog  it  also  should  agree  with  how  you  think  your  muse  should  be  portrayed!  and  of  course  the  best  way  to  answer  asks  the  way  your  muse  would  is  to  study  them  in  that  way  as  well.  ironic  as  it  sounds,  i  actually  really  hated  vox  when  i  first  started  this  blog  meaning  i  didn't  really  care  for  his  scenes—now,  i've  replayed  his  scenes  over  and  over  to  the  point  that  i  can  recite  probably  80%  of  his  lines.  i  even  did  impressions  of  him  and  spoke  in  his  voice  every  time  i  would  type  out  a  response  just  to  be  sure  that  the  things  i  typed  were  things  he  would  actually  say  HAHA  OMG  yeah  but  these  are  just  fun  little  suggestions  to  help  with  your  portrayal!

    4th   :   this  is  important;  if  your  muse  calls  for  it,  don’t  be  afraid  to  be  mean.

obviously  there  are  things  you  can’t and shouldn’t  say,  but  this  was  something  i  was  very  scared  about  when  i  first  started  roleplaying  vox.  you  can  skip  this  if  you’re  playing  someone  agreeable  but  i  thought  this  was  worth  saying  because  i  know  how  daunting  it  is  to  be  mean,  but  believe  me  when  i  say  it  makes  the  biggest  difference,  especially  when  portraying  someone  from  hazbin  hotel.  there  are  a  number  of  characters  besides  vox  (e.g.  velvette,  valentino,  adam)  who’s  insults  are  part  of  their  characterization,  so  definitely  do  not  be  afraid  to  be  mean  if  your  muse  is  naturally  a  mean  person! i think specifying that you’re only playing a character and that all of it is for fun also helps with the nerves!

    5th   :   reply  to  others’  askblog  responses.

it  also  serves  as  a  really  fun  way  to  have  short  interactions  with  others  in  the  fandom  and  a  really  cool  way  to  make  roleplaying  friends  and  mutuals!  it’s  basically  how  i  got  to  be  affiliated  with  the  blogs  in  my  intro  post,  and  of  course  people  from  that  person’s  askblog  will  check  yours  out  too!

    6th   :   an  honorable  mention;  try  to  make  funny  responses  if  and  only  if  you  can!

i  won’t  push  this  point  as  strongly  as  the  rest  because  i  understand  it  also  depends  on  how  your  muse  is  in  canon,  but  i  thought  it  was  worth  mentioning  anyway  because  it’s  what  personally  really  helped  my  blog.  (if  you’ve  been  here  since  the  ‘hdmi  cable’  response,  i  love  you  so  much  thank  you)  i  think  it  goes  without  saying  that  people  remember  funny  responses  more  than  others,  and  with  that  comes  a  smidge  of  extra  entertainment  for  them,  which  will  draw  them  to  your  blog! 

(  i  really  hope  this  helped!!!  thank  you  so  much  again  for  this  question  i  had  so  much  fun�� answering  it!  once  again,  hellishradio  also  made  a  similar  post  on  their  faq  if  you  wanna  check  out  their  tips!  )

[gauntletqueen]

Okay so! I saw Across The Spider-Verse. I wanna say some lil thoughts. First off, without spoilers:

I thought the first movie had prepared me for how visually captivating and groundbreaking this one would be and I was WRONG. They took it SO much further in this one and it is SPECTACULAR. The way they play much more with the art style depending on the spidey-person and the universe is incredibly fun to see and impressive to think about.

Now for a LOT of thoughts concerning spoilers:

I am SO glad that they used the fact that it's a two-parter to take the time with its story. Plenty of slower moments, room for talking, etc. I knew it was gonna be a To Be Continued, but was worried the movie would be at a break-neck speed to cram in as much story as possible like with the fuckin uuuh avengers movie with Purplo The Mean Man, and I am SO GLAD!!! That they didn't!!!

Next off I was never a fan of Peni's design in the first movie. It felt too much like that "trying to be anime" thing that western cartoons had going for a while, and I can now only imagine that the creators had planned from the start to have her grow into her comic book design between movies, which is VERY GOOD. (I had already assumed that SP//DR's design would be comic accurate in this movie after its destruction but it's nice to see :> )

On that topic, I do thing it's a bit of a shame that Peni, Noir and Ham didn't get to be in this movie, really. I understand why! Use this one to flesh out the new important characters (and they are very good especially Hobie) so it doesn't feel cluttered when you put them all together in the third one. But I was looking forward to seeing them...

Now let's have a little intermission. (it's relevant I promise) Please meet Carapace, my Spider-Sona, who I created after I had gone to see the first movie back in 2018:

I won't bore yall with the details, but basically she got her powers due to outside intervention causing a shift in her universe. Her getting these powers resulted in that universe's Peter Parker, the one who was supposed to be Spidey, to die. Carapace is characterized as sticking very closely to her own morals even if it might harm in the long run, even when people tell her and show her what she is doing is dangerous, and eventually this leads her actions, as well as her very existence to endanger the entire multiverse despite her best efforts.

So. you know. I thought that was interesting. Given. Yknow. The movie

Okay moving on. Spider-Gwen is the only spidey comic series I've actively read, so seeing her story and her artstyle explored more in this movie was a delight! It's also just really nice how she's more of a pivotal character this time around, given a lot more focus. I'm happy about that :> (also can't believe we now know why she has sneakers in fortnite wow)

The Spot! Was spoiled for me. But not like, in much detail? I had, after seeing fanart against my will, pieced together that he was the guy that got a bagel thrown at him in the first movie, and that he had something to do with "Canon". Now as someone who's read homestuck, and has consumed modern media in general, the use of the word Canon worried me. I was worried they'd break the fourth wall and get all annoyingly meta and stuff. BUT they didn't! They did get meta with it, talking about the canon events that make a spidey-person, but never broke the fourth wall. It was handled carefully and it works! Maybe that's why Ham isn't present in this movie... He'd definitely ruin that now that I think about it. As for The Spot, he's not the most compelling villain. He's funny! it's a funny concept for a villain origin. "Just take this one-off gag from the first movie and turn him into the main villain." But by doing that, by making him Funny and Pretty Dumb In Concept, and then turning him into an Actual Real Threat whose motive is that nobody takes him seriously, it WORKS. We the audience are PART OF THE PROBLEM kinda I dunno I thought it was neat.

Miguel is mean to Miles >:| Stoopid poopoo head >:| (but it's cool that he's like a parallel to Kingpin from the first movie)

As for the whole "different versions of the movie in different theaters" thing, that was spoiled for me, thoughI didn't know what was different heading in. Apparently it's like, Lyla doing some funny little bits? Whatever. I can only assume needing to re-animate perfectly good scenes for no reason other than "aah gotcha! Neat right??" is definitely something that contributed to the reported terrible working conditions and crunch during production. It's a fun reminder that even a film that is so strongly about art, about pushing back against conformity and those that want to control you, is still being made by a giant corporation, and according to that corporation, the workers don't matter, only the product's ability to money. I can only hope that the animators get enough time to work normally on Beyond the Spider-Verse, which I'm sure will be also a phenomenal movie despite the higher ups' demands, just like this one.

Also they said ASS and CRAP in it!! Wow!!!!

[vellaphoria]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @waffleinator-inator! <3

20 Questions for Fic Writers

How many works do you have on AO3?

There are 40 that I’ve solo-authored, and 9 that I did varying degrees of work on when a group of dc writers doing a round robin fic collaboration thing

What’s your total A03 word count?

It’s a bit thrown off by the aforementioned colabs, but I don’t want to go through and do the math, so the overall total is 567,072

What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly DC! The comics variant, that is. And within that, mostly Batman-adjacent characters. Though I also have one fic each for the avengers, the silmarillion, and haikuu

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Excluding the collaborations, it’s:

Cut and Run (Bruce crashes Tim and Ra’s’ dinner/business meeting; T, gen, 1.6k)

Deadfall (Canon divergence where Tim died in Red Robin and was resurrected/kidnapped by Ra’s; M, gen, 125k, on hiatus)

Recursion (Tim accidentally travels back in time to when Dick was just starting out as Nightwing, which is complicated by the fact that they still haven’t made up after Damian became Robin; M for mild nsfw, DickTim, 20k)

Complications (Outsider POV of post RR-canon divergence, ft. morally grey Tim; G, gen, 1.7k)

This Whole Damn City Thinks It Needs You (But Not as Much as I Do) (There has been a fair amount of building ust between Dick and Tim after Red Robin. Dick decides to do something about that; E for blatant nsfw, DickTim, 23k)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, but very slowly!

I respond because is someone took the time to engage with my work and actually write one, then it feels like it’s only right for me to put in an equal amount of effort to respond.

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

That would probably be the DickBabs with unrequited DickTim wedding Tumblr fic (here, if you like pain)

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

It’s hard to say. Since I tend to be averse to bad endings, most of my fics have happy endings of one sort or another

Do you get hate on your fic?

Sometimes. Usually from people who can’t grasp that limited third person POV means that the narrating character doesn’t have perfect information at all times, or people who are upset that characters don’t make 100% rational decisions 100% of the time.

Do you write smut?

Yep! <3

Do you write crossovers?

Depends on how you define them. I tend to do a lot of AUs which blend elements from other settings with DC, but I don’t really enjoy writing characters from different, unrelated media meeting.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! My Running (and when to stop) DickTim series was translated into 中文-普通话 國語 by SummerVapour and tiktiktiktiktam, which is linked on the fic itself

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yes; I helped write a few fics in the round robin collaboration series A Journey of Personal Discovery Through Social Isolation. Amusingly, we named it that a year before the pandemic started.

What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

DickTim, to absolutely no one’s surprise :D

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably To Break Every Bended Knee; or, Apocrypha. I really love the setting, but the fic is supposed to be JayTimDick and all the endings I plotted for it ended up being DickTim with Jason kind of doing his own thing. That doesn’t seem like a particularly satisfying conclusion to anyone interested in the story, so I decided to put my time elsewhere.

What’s your writing strengths?

Comments that have gone into specifics have said that my fics have good characterization, visualization, and engrossing plots.

What’s your writing weaknesses?

I’m very bad at brevity, so writing short, snappy fics that also make sense doesn’t usually work out for me.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I pretty much only speak English, so I don’t tend to do it. If I ever had a fic that absolutely needed it, then I’d ask for writing support from someone who actually does speak the language in question.

First fandom you wrote for?

Depends on how you define wrote. If you mean wrote and published, then it’s DC. If you mean wrote when I was a kid and then let disappear into the files of a long-defunct computer, then probably Stargate SG-1.

Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Of the stuff I have published, probably Recursion. Though if I’m allowed to include WIPs, then I’ve been working on a DickTim slowburn on and off for a while now. It’s meant to cover things from when they meet to post-Red Robin, with a fair amount of mini canon divergences throughout. Currently it’s somewhere upwards of 50k, but I haven’t had a chance to work on it in a while. If you're in the mood for it, no pressure tagging @gerryrigged, @marirah, and @themandylion :D

[strahdapologist]

so I read through your blog and you really don't like the fact that 5e Strahd is a biphobic stereotype. But you run campaigns and play him. Can I ask what changes you've made to his characterisation to make him less of a biphobic stereotype? I know you didn't do the dumb elf genocide thing with him of course

uhm so the first change i made was to his consorts because 5e is shitty towards women and to its other minimal queer rep in the adventure, so in my campaign they were remade to be actual members of his court. their exact responsibilities shifted depending on the ideas i had at the time, but in their latest incarnations ludmilla was in charge of external affairs such as communication with other realms and trade, volenta was in charge of internal affairs, anastrasya was in charge of gathering intelligence and all matters arcane, and escher was charged officially with arts and culture but he was also an active diplomat and spy for strahd. they all have royal titles (that correspond with old romanian nobility) and i made sure they all had their own little story trees of responsibilities to enact across barovia while the campaign was occurring.

i still wanted bisexual representation for strahd that was explicit, however, so a plotline was him and escher breaking up. however their romantic tryst was undertaken with an explicit understanding that strahd was still seeking tatyana, but that in spite of this search he still yearned for intimacy and closeness. escher agreed to these terms and was not taken by surprise when strahd ended things in light of tatyana being reincarnated, though he was still sad about it ending. as strahd's spy, though, he played up this heartbreak to appeal to any who may be against strahd (two members of the party) and tricked them into divulging their true intentions rather quickly. instead of having escher as a hopless gay longing for senpai strahd's love again he became a quietly dangerous character that no one noticed was spying on them lol

i also removed all instances of strahd seeking new consorts in the players. his romantic attention is focused solely on tatyana but in a respectful way that does not cross any lines and instead plays into old ideas of victorian-era courtship. tho he and our tatyana had pre-marital sex so his commitment to prudish courtship is well...... yeah lol

finally sasha was entirely removed. the idea of becoming "bored" of wives and throwing them to the crypts was misogynistic before he was bisexual, and 5th edition made this plot line worse by making strahd bisexual because it implies he is voraciously lustful and can never be sexually satisfied and that the fate of sasha may well be the fate of tatyana if they ever got married. now it's not just sexist, it's biphobic! thank u 5e <3

so yeah tl;dr i just play him as more of a forlorn romantic and gave all the consorts actual titles of duchess/viscount/marquess etc. ditched most of his romantic relationships as well. 5e's biphobia also remove the agency of other women and queer characters in their module so it was important to me not just to adjust strahd's characterization, but the characterization of those around him. through the campaign, it was hinted that ludmilla and volenta had romantic relationships of their own (volenta with gertruda, for example) and escher's crush on ismark turned into the party trying to set the two of them up on dates which is quite sweet. this gave also a lot more room to the tragedy of strahd's love for tatyana when it was inevitably, once again, taken away by forces of darkness

i also spoke to people who are bisexual and i myself read about biphobic tropes in media bc as a lesbian i would find myself icked out by contents of the module but not entirely aware of why or the history of it until context was added, so seeking outside input on what exactly was offensive and why was very helpful

anyway follow me i'm delicious

[hellsingmongrel]

Manga Recommendation For The Triguners

So I’ve been seeing people who, after having binged all of the available media for Trigun that’s out there currently, wondering about things that were similar to it, and I just remembered a manga series I read in college that, I’m not even kidding, felt like it was a Shojo inspired directly from Trigun, and I thought I’d recommend it here.

The title of it is either Immortal Rain or Meteor Methuselah, depending on which language you get it in, but in the US it was sold under Immortal Rain, and it was written by Kaori Ozaki.  To my knowledge, it never got an anime adaptation, and it was published by Tokyopop around the time TP went defunct, so you can’t find print versions in English of all of the volumes, but there were, at least at one time, digital translations available online.

I honestly really loved it, the story was as traumatizing and crazy as Trigun in a whole lot of ways, still a bit goofy but also just really sad at parts, but a really enjoyable read as a whole.  I think people who liked Trigun would find a lot of things to enjoy about that manga, what with the number of similarities in the plot and characterizations, from a young-looking, very traumatized, very old man who just wants to live a quiet, peaceful life but is being blamed for heinous things and is on the run from bounty hunters, with a haunted past that shows that he wasn’t the actual cause of all the shit, it was another person with a sibling-like relationship with him, who’s also had horrible medical procedures performed on him and is all scarred, who’s also able to do CRAZY shit.  There’s also monsters, body horror, some really fucked up shit involving births and pregnancies, copious amounts of religious symbolism, people who lived and/or worked at an orphanage, the list goes on and on and on.  So if you’re looking for something new to tide you over while you wait for season 2 of Tristamp, maybe pick that one up if you can find it.

The only thing I would warn for, and I know this can be a biiiig deal for some people, is that the lead female character (and the possibly romantic interest to the Very Old But Young Looking Man, but it’s been a long time since I read it and if it was romantic, I intentionally just mentally blocked that part out) was underage.  An older teenager, but still not 18 for at least the beginning of the story, though she might have aged up by the end.  :|  I know it’s a huge deal to a lot of people, and that is absolutely valid, but it’s also something that’s unfortunately kind of common in manga and anime, so.../s h r u g/

Not that Trigun also didn’t have that, though...hah...hah hah...HAH HAH HAH 8|  /Stares at Wolfwood and his actual age that all the old 98 Anime and Manga fans had dropped in their laps, very late in Trimax...Jesus H Christ.../

[steampunkforever]

As facetious as I may be when I claim that to reach Pretentiousness is to peek through the gates of artistic Valhalla, I do sincerely believe that being an art snob is both good for the soul and one of the only ethical ways to approach art point blank.

That said, it’s also very easy to get lost in the sauce, as it were, and turn pretentiousness (good) into an ego high (less good) that results in you becoming a heel (not good). Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller in the titular role, is a study of a pretentious man so lost in the sauce that he actively alienates everyone around him.

With that, Greenberg not only puts me three films away from completing Buambach’s filmography, but also the first feature film in which Noah cast Greta Gerwig, starting a chain of events that would ultimately lead to me making divorce jokes about the Barbie movie, a very normal thing to do.

On that note, Noah simply could not restrain himself with this one and gave multiple characters marital trouble ranging from trail separation to outright #STATUS: DIVORCED.

Though not as blatant as Marriage Story in its bleakness, Greenberg is not a fun film to watch. Ben Stiller’s Greenberg plain sucks, and you spend the entire movie with the guy. For as much as he’s a stand in for Noah’s self-insert neuroses (a spot usually reserved for divorce in one form or another), he lacks the snappy quick witted grad-student energy of some of Noah’s earlier films. Greenberg is a sad sack fresh out of a mental hospital and his miserable self-absorption wears you down where in other films it would be relatable.

This is clearly on purpose, and it’s enjoyable to watch Noah craft the narrative in this film, but it’s not fun like it would be if Wes Anderson handled the characters. This is where your own pretentiousness is key, as you can enjoy it for what it is rather than splashing about in the shallow waters of “let people enjoy things” (gah remember when that argument held any weight?) and forego art that challenges the viewer.

My own challenge with the film came through the dialog. Noah, as the child of two (divorced) academics, has always had that specific lilt to his dialog (pretentious! I love it!) but Greenberg adopts a specific early variation of therapy-speak that is both novel and grating. The phrase “hurt people hurt people” is quite literally used in this film. It makes sense considering Greenberg’s ongoing neurosis and recent contact with the mental healthcare system, but as more and more modern media takes this tone, I can see where the Baumbach Divorce Proceedings set trends a decade ahead of (beloved!) Ted Lasso pushing therapy speak to Andy-Griffith levels of wholesome moralizing.

Of course Noah, being an expert at more than Divorce, saves the entire film with the most passively toxic romance I’ve seen in a long time. Gerwig and Stiller’s characters have such an awful co-dependent love hate relationship that’s played in an understated yet skillful manner. If I were reductive (stupid) I’d accuse this film of romanticizing harmful relationships, but the film is art, not an after shcool special, so instead I’ll liken this to a very low-stakes trainwreck.

Stiller and Gerwig’s characters like each other so very much, and somehow also are so bad for each other, with Gerwig’s pushover “says sorry too much” characterization mixing with Stiller’s “generally awful basketcase” demeanor the same way ammonia and bleach mix to create chlorine gas and two very uncomfortable sex scenes.

It’s a challenging film, and yet a very good film that follows Greenberg’s attempts to deal with aging, a fear of death, and the acceptance that he doesn’t have to run from success and he should accept love from someone he doesn’t deserve to love. For how understated it is, it still manages sophistication in its character study that only Noah “Ethical Woody Allen Substitute” Baumbach could pull off.

Maybe it’s Stiller and Gerwig’s awkward chemistry, maybe it’s that Baumbach knows how to write women, maybe it’s the commentary on the rise of the “Millenial” generation that spurred a perfectly of-its-time soundtrack, but the movie and its romance managed to both challenge me and delight me in its muted sophistication. I hope they have a long and prosperous divorce.

[themelodicenigma]

Since you talk about finding out if things are romantic or not, what about Jessie and Tifa's moments in the two pasts novel? They have a moment where Jessie is suuuuper blushing because of something Tifa said. If I didnt hate her character in the remake so much i'd ship them!

I think I know what you're talking about, which if using @pekotranslates translations of the novel, is probably this scene:

“Nibelheim is right here with you, and your dad is right here with you too.” Jessie cupped Tifa’s face in her hands. Her touch was warm. “You’re not alone.” Tifa placed her hands on top of Jessie’s and said, “I haven’t been alone since the day you first came here.” Jessie’s eyes widened. Flustered, she broke away. “Oh my god! That’s so sweet of you to say!” She brought both of her hands up to her cheeks, looking extremely flattered. “Well, see ya!” Jessie walked away, her cheeks still pressed in-between her hands. Tifa realized that she had forgotten to check to see if Jessie was a member of Avalanche but felt strongly that it didn’t matter.

Is this it? I feel like part of how I answer depends on what you're really asking me lol

If you're asking me if this is like, a genuine "romantic moment" (genuine as in, authorial intent for the characters and their storytelling to reflect their feelings for each other), I'm more tempted to say not at all given who these two characters are and their complete association with one another.

But if you're asking, as simple as can be, whether this holds identifiable "romantic elements" for the sake of the scene itself, then my answer is...maybe? Really: sure. lol

My more strict logical answer for her reaction itself (i'll describe later), at it's most basic core, is that it's contextual. But, the way it was written in context—such a hard reaction + Jessie's characterization adds to the perspective that it was maybe functioning in the way of a "romantic element". Maybe. That's honestly what we're looking at more, is how Nojima wrote it + Jessie's character.

I think it can be seen a lot of different ways in and out of the grander context, as supposed to the isolated contextual observations of the passage itself.

But to recap what I mean by "romantic elements"—to keep this short, similar to what I talked about in this post about FF7 ships, it's just anything of which is identified specifically as a romantic/sexual attribute—suggestive or direct. In media, this can be used in A LOT of different ways, including that of comedic things or fanservice things. Anime/Manga is notorious for using "romantic elements" in essentially, for the larger understanding, neutral situations for a certain effect.

So if the question is "Is there a romantic element here?"—if I was trying to identify a romantic element here, I'd probably be looking prominently at Jessie's reaction. If out of context (that is, to simply talk about the action)—someone being flustered by flattery + covering their cheeks w/ their hands as a reaction to this (which is basically implicit of blushing/warmed face), so much to the point they basically run away from being so thrown off by this.

I mean, generally this is used a lot where said flattery is a romantic/sexual thing. BUT, I'd argue it's still contextual, as opposed to an inherent romantic action.

"Contextual" meaning, what is described above isn't ultimately of a reaction to a specific tone (which in this example, is romantic), but it's meaning derives primarily from the situation (the how/why), which depends on a lot of other factors in order to be understood. This is different than a "romantic element being used platonically", but just ultimately a "neutral thing" that's meaning is decided by how it's used by the writer. Think the difference between the act of sex or making out—inherent romantic/sexual things no matter the context VS holding hands is an action that absolutely is contextual and can happen in a lot of scenarios to signify different things.

Moving back to the reaction:

I mean, plenty of times this happens in JPN media when someone (let's be honest, mostly women) is reacting to something of a "romantic element". Very easy, I believe that to be true, and I think it makes sense for people to see it that way even for this scene. I DEFINITELY have seen it this way WAAAAY more often.

The problem is, I've also seen plenty of JPN media that has this type of reaction, but a lot of the time it's really just based on the character more than what was said. Is this a character who is easily embarrassed? Are they consistent? I mean man, you have some mangaka who draw characters who honestly blush at everything because it's treated as a character trait of being easily embarrassed or flustered.

Now, if I was looking at Jessie's character—I think it depends on what you're deciding to focus on in regards to her character + this reaction.

Jessie's character was built to be someone who is very jokey w/ "charm and attractiveness", teases people, has a lot of bravado, etc. She's very energetic, and acts with "flare". Very loose and carefree., and in the novel, VERY much so within the supportive archetype. She's not one to get embarrassed, but rather is probably trying to get other people to be flustered. The extent of which she takes this with Cloud is very defining of this—is MOSTLY defining of this. She doesn't exactly treat Tifa the same way she does to Cloud—with Tifa she is just generally energetic as opposed to flirtatious.

Still, for Jessie to have a moment where SHE is thrown off, I feel like I have to ask myself: is she capable of reacting like this only from a romantic element, or is it more of a reaction to actually getting something that is genuine and isn't a joke, as she always is doing?

I think both paths of thinking are understandable given her characterization, though I like the latter more to be honest. I also don't think these have to be mutually exclusive either, so that third option is there technically.

She's having a very heartwarming, intimate moment with Tifa, where SHE is the one to console Tifa by even grabbing her face (something that is definitely contextual)—something that the novelization actually does a really good job of doing: showing us a side of Jessie that the game absolutely did not—she's caring and attentive, she built up a close and supportive relationship with the teenage Tifa (Jessie is about 3 years older than Tifa, who is first 16 going on 17) and reading, Tifa REALLY needed the interactions and support Jessie gave—all that plus her VERY active personality described above. I've seen people who have made it no secret they prefer novel Jessie over game Jessie. XD

So when Tifa reciprocates that warmness, suddenly Jessie is all flustered, as if she wasn't expecting Tifa to say something so wholesome and not as a joke. It's interesting that Jessie is the one who is initiating the heartwarming nature of this conversation—she's being supportive to Tifa, she is consoling her, and even showing the physical intimacy (which she has before) that can often come with that. She's the one that tells Tifa "you're not alone", but I suppose she didn't expect Tifa to actually confirm that, yes, she didn't feel alone since she's met Jessie, like, so sincerely.

I think about a scene before this one, which shows how Jessie acts when she is being jokey/spirited and is complimented:

“Jessie, do you practice martial arts?” “Huh? Oh, you mean that kick? Neat, wasn’t it? They had it on the action training program. But that was the first time I actually struck a person. I’m an actress, you see.” “What?!” “Business is temporarily closed now though.” “I believe you.” “Is it because you’re in such awe of my beauty that you’re convinced I’m an actress?” “Yes.” “Aww! That’s so sweet of you to say!” Jessie gave a carefree laugh. Tifa found herself laughing along too.

Jessie has the personality that is into her own hype and is super jokey, normally. lol And she initiated the joke. She just laughs about it. It's a simple conversation. This is a big contrast from what otherwise is a serious conversation between her and Tifa when talking about Nibelheim and Tifa not being alone.

So, one could say, for Jessie, to have been told such a genuinely, heartwarming thing, she got flustered because otherwise, this isn't really what she is used to. She's super embarrassed. I've seen this kind of characterization before, but a lot of the time the person in question would play it off as if they weren't affected.

Jessie was very ungraceful in taking the compliment, as you see. XD She's all about being sweet to Tifa until Tifa is sweet back, and then she immediately gets embarrassed.

This could be more about Jessie's character handling actual genuine, sincere behavior when she herself always treats these things as jokes or is super positive-energy.

Buuuut, at the same time, since we know the prime way Jessie acts with her confident, bravado stuff is, a lot of the time, with romantic/sexual tones about herself, her ability to finally be "thrown off" instead makes it feel like the only way she could be like this is if she felt it was something of that nature in a genuine way. I think at that point you'd have to assess whether this is written to be something Jessie takes in this capacity, as something of romantic nature, or if author's intent was "romantic thing for neutral context". It was kind of a large reaction, really. If large reaction always = romance, sure, but it's debatable.

I can see both, sort of, but the actual depth of things is better if it's more about how Jessie handles genuine, sincere expression.

Like all things intimate or revealing of a depth of bond, some people have an instinct to mentally configure it as romantic on sight. Nothing new. I feel like I kind of did too, but once the more relaxed observation passed and I thought about it from a writing perspective, I can see Jessie's reaction definitely doesn't (and probably isn't) have to function as a response to a "romantic element", but I think it's also culturally obvious as to how people see it that way initially. People be romantically inclined, yo.

Not that I ultimately agree with what people still forego in order to fall in to this instinct once they're open to be more logical than reactive, just to be clear, but I understand it.

[hopedefined]

@snkts said: 9 from the canon questionaire? | 9. Have you tweaked the character from canon? If so, what did you tweak? | accepting

man I got so far into a paragraph being like "not really" and then was like "but..."

I'd say the tweaks I've ended up with are more smoothing over 40+ years of multi-media characterization than like. major character or story beats.

I'm also not about to claim that I have sat down and consumed every single piece of available media yet so. forgive me the inevitable ridiculous thing I say bc I misread something 30 issues ago and haven't gotten to the piece of media that corrects it. but.

I tend to reference rogue's relationship with destiny and especially mystique as being pretty damn fractured by default because jesus christ y'all

speaking of which, timeline-wise, I guess I've technically blended canons. My order of operations is Anna running away from home after her mother's death, then meeting Cody while on the run and presenting as a mutant by putting him in his coma, then meeting Mystique. as Mystique.

keeping rogue's tiiiiny bit of esp. that one's just for me. she honestly thinks of it as having good instincts, but I like it. also leaning into the identity issues in younger/earlier in timeline verses, even outside of carol

-checks notes- uhhh

tentatively putting my flag in the sand as keeping up with/being willing to write up through the new uncanny canon bc rogue and her boys are everything 2 me (normal caveats about not assuming relationships go here). but for the most part I just try to sync up temporally with partners.

which means as much as I live for the angst I am willing to write rogue with her powers both uncontrolled and under her conscious control depending on when we're talking.

unless it's somehow intensely relevant, I'm likely to keep rogue's powers restricted to needing skin-on-skin contact. not that I ever mind her being OP as fuck, but I prefer it as a narrative and symbolic beat, idk.

other stuff might very well come up either as I keep consuming canon or through play/plotting but y'know. that's everything that came to mind immediately.

[kendalynnjackson]

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