#just because one or both of the protagonists have superpowers

[the-modern-typewriter]

Hey! Asking for some writing advice here.

How does one write a villain exactly. In a very simple world with no superpowers and stuff how do you give them motivation. How do you make them slowly descent into villainy. Somehow when the villain actually thinks they're doing the right thing until the very end?

Thx love

There are a few different questions here that I'm going to try to to unpick.

I'll start with a brief overview of the connections between protagonist + antagonist, just because recognising them can be really useful in shaping your own ideas. Then I'll dive into motivation. So.

Antagonist + Protagonist = CONFLICT

If you know your protagonist well, then you have all the ingredients you need to write a great villain/antagonist for them too. Here is why.

Your villain/antagonist is, at the most basic fundamental starting point, something that is between your protagonist and what the protagonist wants/needs. As a very simple example, if your protagonist wants to make sure that everyone is free, then your antagonist is going to in some way be involved with making sure they are not free. Once you know what your antagonist needs to do in a story, then it's a lot easier to pose the question to yourself of 'okay, why would someone do that?'

Villains often reflect an opposite or warped view of the values and motivations that your protagonist has. They mirror or foil your main character. So, your antagonist's motivation will often be either opposite to the protagonist (e.g, your protagonist is motivated by selflessness, so your antagonist is motivated by selfishness in some way) or they will be the same motivation or value gone twisted (e.g. we both have people we love who we would do anything to protect...it's the villains way of acting on that motivation that makes them the villain, not the motivation.)

Of course, you can not have your antagonist + protagonist connected in this way. This is often the case if the source of conflict in your story is not another actual character or if you have a more generic villain. Lots of great stories have generic villains. It typically just means the villain is not a focus. It might be, like, about the friendships made in the journey instead.

Motivations:

I find it helpful to think of all my characters having two motivations.

The external story-specific motivation. This is whatever the antagonist is trying to achieve in your particular story and where things like genre and superpowers etc come into play.

The internal motivation that is more universal. The internal motivation is, while still specific to the character, the driving emotions and values. With a villain, that is often hatred or fear or lust for power because they're villains, but as noted earlier it can be a twisted form of love, or a strong sense of an injustice committed against them. This shapes the external motivation (e.g. 'lust for power = I want the throne, 'fear' = I'm going to kill or belittle or control what scares me so I don't have to feel scared anymore', justice might equal revenge or gaining power to ensure that a wrong is corrected. ) It could also be a bias or a prejudice that they're raised on driving them, that they genuinely believe in. Lots of possibilities!

I think this is true of people as well. We have our foundational core beliefs and desires (to be loved, to succeed, to be accepted whatever) and then we have the things we try to get in the real world to meet those needs (whether they really will or not).

Either way, it's the second one that comes into play with the slow descent into villainy and the villain thinking that they're doing the right thing until the end. Because, initially, their heart genuinely is not in a villainous place. They may actually be doing the right thing at the start. And then bad things happen. They are changed by the journey. They are a protagonist gone tragic.

We all experience emotions that can drive us to behave poorly; the desire for revenge or recognition, to ensure that the people we care about are safe, to get money so that we can provide for ourselves and others etc. None of us are without prejudice or privilege. Those things do not make you a villain, but they can be an excellent starting place for one.

Think about times when you've messed up. A villain is often an exaggerated version of that. You start pushing your own boundaries because there is something you really want/need and, depending on how far you push that...do you feel like you can still go back? Or do you feel like you might as well finish it after everything. At what point do you breathe for air, look up at what you've done, and go shit.

That's the villain who realises way too late that they're the villain.

Final note: I've been using antagonist and villain pretty interchangeably here...but they have slightly different connotations. Your antagonist does not have to be a villain to be effective. They just have to be an obstacle to the protagonist. E.g. if two people are going for the same dream job or trying to win a competition, the other competitors are antagonists to a certain extent, but that doesn't mean they're villainous or bad people. Whether you have an outright villain will depend on your story.

I hope this helps!

Some going further questions to take with you.

Is your villain trying to stop your protagonist from reaching their goal? Or is your protagonist trying to stop the antagonist from reaching their goal?

How does the villain's external goal in the story reflect the inner need? Note. They are aware of their external goal. Most people are not aware of the inner goal in the same way.

Do you know what you want your stories themes to be? (This doesn't have to be complicated and it's fine if you don't, that's what editing is for). Your protagonist and antagonist often weigh in on these themes. For example, your antagonist might be a path the protagonist could have gone down, if they made a different choice or something happened differently in their past.

[forthegothicheroine]

are there any characters from Victorian horror/genre fiction who are essentially superheroes? Had the realization that Frankenstein, Moreau, Griffin, Rappacini, and Jekyll are basically Batman's rogues gallery and yeah I could make an OC hero to go up against them but it feels more fun to pit someone also from that era against them (for the purposes of this I am excluding Holmes and Van Helsing just because they have been used similarly a lot, the Scarlet Pimpernel is a strong maybe although it would have to be a descendant for the timeline to work but a heroic character with some sort of powers and/or otherworldly backstory would be most ideal). Thanks!

I would love to read a book about this!

Horror is a hard genre for superheroes to fit into (although it has been done), as we want to feel that our protagonists are in danger or even totally helpless. I can think of a few antiheroes from the penny dreadfuls here- Varney the Vampire, and Wagner the Wehr-Wolf, both of whom had superpowers and both of whom could be sympathetic or unsympathetic depending on the serial installment. If you didn't want to use them directly, you could have Varney as someone who turned your hero, or Wagner someone who got your hero to sign an infernal contract like Ghostrider (something you're apparently able to do for other people once you've signed your own infernal contract.)

C. Auguste Dupin is another great detective if you want that kind of hero but one less frequently used than Holmes.

One VERY weird option that's at your disposal is Jane Eyre, if you expand the bit where she hears Rochester call out to her despite being far away into her being generally psychic. You could do something similar with Mina's psychic link to Dracula- maybe it turns out to be to all supernatural creatures?

Followers, any further suggestions?

[skynapple]

Hi! Sorry to bother you but could you tell us (me) the plot of Love and Deepspace? I've seen a lot of tiktoks and tumblr post about the main 3 💦voice lines💦 but now I'm really interested about the plot of the game. I've only read about a Caleb dying in an explosion, Zayne seeing mc die in every timeline (?) and Rafayel being a Lemurian but I still don't know the contexts. I'm asking because I can't spend money on the game so I have no idea. Thank you in advance!!!

*cracks knuckles* Alright Anon.

This story is SO, so rich and deep and I can't even begin to cover it but I will try to be as thorough yet brief as I can for people who are interested!

TL;DR:

In a futuristic earth, the audience plays as a new hero in a world of alien invaders. When a sudden tragedy occurs, the world is revealed to be far darker than previously thought, and evil forces seem to be at play behind the scenes. Seeking the truth, our protagonist begins to investigate on her own.

On the outside, the story is about a heroine's journey, and also the internal struggle in seeking revenge and how far she'll go to find answers.

It's really about time loops, alternate universes colliding, and how far will you go for the one you love.

I'm going JUST off the main plot here not the myths or too far into the side stories and trying to avoid the in-game jargon:

About the three love interests in order of proximity to her:

Zayne:

Her childhood friend Zayne is introduced early on as her primary care physician and cardiologist. They spent 8 years apart and only recently reconnected. At this point in the story, he is the one she's closest given that history.

He is outwardly stoic but cares deeply not only about the MC but about people in general. This is widely noted by the hospital staff and patients you encounter.

He has an ice power that he uses sparingly and it's currently unknown whether or not it's because he doesn't have total control over it or because it causes him pain or...?

Secretly good at random things like he studied how to peel an apple perfectly in one go

Is shown to be very thoughtful. Always keeps candy around for MC (and his patients!) (they both have a sweet tooth problem)

Speedran med school (he's 27 good God)

Was a combat medic before taking up his current hospital residency

Plot-wise: he knows the most about MC's heart disease and a little about the evil forces who might be seeking to capture her? To me its obvious he may know a lot more than he lets on but he might be withholding to protect her

Xavier:

Xavier is introduced as a mysterious fellow hunter and colleague who is very powerful. They have odd run-ins and she's initially suspicious of him until his employment and position are confirmed by her supervisor, who seems to trust him greatly. Xavier is very knowledgeable about the antagonist's group (Onychinus, lead by the antagonist named Sylus) and what they are seeking. Proximity wise, he's her work partner and upstairs neighbor but it's unclear how much MC trusts him yet in the current plot.

Many things hint to him having lived a long, long time but his age is unconfirmed (he has mentioned he's around 23)

Has a light superpower, in that he can weaponize and control rays of light. Can also teleport.

Is probably definitely an alien

Has a secret alter-ego as a superhero vigilante called "Lumiere"

Is often shown needing to sleep to recover energy and finding out why killed me dead

Obviously knows more than he lets on

He's a bit standoffish with MC at first but this is revealed to be because he can't let her know too much and it's made clear he's very protective of her and shows up often to rescue her

Has a playful "play dumb" side

Rafayel:

Rafayel is a renown artist who is currently living in the same city. He's introduced as somewhat rude and maybe even arrogant. Because of his wealth and popularity, he's targeted by no-gooders and the MC is sent to investigate. She ends up being coerced into being his personal bodyguard-for-hire, in exchange for some information. Rafayel, too, knows more than he lets on and its clear very quickly that he is no ordinary artist. At this point, while they are friendly it's clear that he might be the person she trusts the least (just because she knows the least about him at this point and it's so, so obvious he's hiding a lot).

His paintings are implied to have occasional hypnotic abilities

Is obsessed with the ocean

His special power is fire and it can't be put out by water

Is older than MC

Its revealed to the audience but not MC that he is a Lemurian from the ancient and long gone civilization under the sea (not actually a merman but can and does take the form of one)

Has a strange work partner that may or may not be related to Onychinus but either way he's definitely involved in the underworld somehow

Initially comes off bratty, whiny, and demanding, seemingly thinking only of himself. Overall very over-dramatic

Has a lot of faith in MC for seemingly having just "met her"

Lore-wise: his backstory is very, very deep, tragic, and intriguing where you learn the brattiness is somewhat of an act

The Myths:

Each love interest has an equivalent "mythical" story self, either long, long in the past, long in the future, or simply an alternate world altogether. There's no official word yet on whether they're all connected, or if the myths truly happened. The myths at least add layers and layers to the love interest's personalities and interactions with the MC, at least in showing their deep care and also how they conduct themselves in different circumstances. In each myth, the MC is known to either be romantically involved or wanting to be romantically involved with the corresponding love interest. In all of the myths, the MC has the same heart disease. All the myths have tragic endings.

Rafayel: a former sea god

Xavier: an immortal prince

Zayne: a cursed demigod

About the MC:

The version of her in the main story was adopted by her grandmother-like figure (but no confirmation of true relation) alongside her adoptive brother, Caleb. They fit into the mix for only a brief moment in the story and both die tragically early on in an explosion. This being the event that shakes her world and sets her off on her journey to seek truth of what secrets her grandmother may have been hiding.

Can reincarnate

She's shown to be headstrong, determined, diligent, and a little mischievous.

Her superpower is "resonance" which. I'm still... a little lost on what that means altogether. We do know that she can "connect" and "enhance" other things so in the gameplay by "resonating" with the love interests' powers she can enhance their abilities and make them stronger and maybe even mirror them(??). Don't quote me on this. Anytime she does something I'm like "okk?? I guess she can do that now??"

Her heart is Broken™️ in that she has some kind of disease that only exists in that world. Something struck her heart in a catastrophe when she was young and is now just... lodged itself in there.

Whatever is lodged in her heart is what the evil group (and literally everyone) is seeking.

It's somewhat obvious in the plot that her power is actually going to be crazy OP and strong and that "Only She Has The Power To Save Us All" type of trope

Has a mischievous side

When she wants something, come hell or highwater she's gonna get it

Currently does not have feelings for any of the love interests in the main plot

There you have it!

There's so many layers, so much to uncover, but the main plot is relatively simple so far. The gameplay is fun, and easy. Apparently its similar to Genshin Impact but I've never played that so I can't say!

There's a ton of content on Youtube so if you ever have more questions pls pls bother me I will be glad to send a link or explain more things! My brainrot is spinning so bad.

[inamindfarfaraway]

Elena of avalor goes crazy

Esteban’s song something I would never do Is essentially a whole soliloquy in a preschool show

Elena of Avalor goes SO HARD. Sometimes it’s pretty standard Disney Junior fare, but then every now and then, to keep you sharp, it punches you in the jaw with darkness or moral complexity or really profound, emotional storytelling. Esteban’s whole antivillain-antihero ping pong arc is rightfully iconic. But I want to call out Elena herself too. The protagonist of this Disney Junior princess TV show, the one little girls even younger than Disney’s average demographic are meant to look up to and connect with, clearly has PTSD, repeatedly demonstrating symptoms like flashbacks, panic attacks and hypervigilance. Her character growth is so well-done. She has serious flaws and makes meaningful mistakes, and then matures and takes accountability for them. Not all her issues are resolved within a few episodes or even whole seasons. In Season Three she gets a lot worse in some ways due to trauma. But she chooses to do the right thing enough, and receives enough help and support from her loved ones, to remain a good person and become a better one. She’s a genuinely great role model for kids and has so much older people can relate to and appreciate.

Like, Frozen has got a lot of praise for its portrayal of mental illness. And I am so glad that it did what it did, giving symptoms of anxiety and depression sympathetic representation in a mainstream, theatrically released, incredibly popular Disney movie. But Elena does everything Elsa does on Disney freaking JUNIOR and more over more time. Superpowers? Check. Beautiful, evolving relationship with her younger sister? Check. Rules a kingdom? Check. Is mentally ill, uses unhealthy coping mechanisms like emotional repression and learns healthier ones? Check. Sings amazing musical numbers? Check. Never falls in love? Check. None of the main cast have a romantic subplot! The importance is all on family and friendship! It makes this asexual very happy. Nearly kills people? Multiple times! Actually kills someone? Check. Wait, what? Elsa didn’t do that!

Yeah, let’s talk about the murder, shall we? I particularly love how this series handles revenge. Elena really, really wants to kill Shuriki, both to protect her country and to avenge her parents and herself. Her family have a debate about this. Do they argue that killing or acting in hatred and anger is always wrong? That not even the pure evil Shuriki deserves it? That it would be an irrevocable moral stain on her soul to take any life? Nope! They argue that she matters too much as the ruler to run off and attack an extremely powerful, deadly threat and it would be more effective in the bigger picture to let her royal guards do their job. Their disagreement is entirely practical. Nobody suggests that Shuriki should be forgiven or offered a second chance. When Elena later defeats Shuriki in an epic final duel, she does indeed kill her! She incinerates her with a fire spell! The narrative never shames or punishes her for this, only rewards her, and she doesn’t feel any remorse or forget to value life as a result. A Disney Junior princess commits first-degree murder in cold blood and it’s depicted completely positively. She did what she had to do and is happier and safer for it. BUT then in the next season, she really, really wants to kill Esteban because he was directly responsible for Shuriki getting to do everything she did to Avalor and its royal family, even though he initially has no malice toward anyone and just doesn’t want to be imprisoned. Her pursuing him with unnecessary aggression and coldly disowning him when he tries to make amends gradually drives him to seek power and be an actual villain to compensate for his ruined life. She’s disproportionately fixated on catching and hurting him over the greater good and her own wellbeing. This time her thirst for vengeance is negative because it harms herself and others who don’t deserve it. She’s sympathetic and understandable throughout, but not making wise or kind decisions for herself or her loved ones, like not letting Isabel to talk about her feelings on Esteban with her. In the end, she does need to forgive Esteban to save everyone and have peace. But only after he tangibly proves his change of heart by sacrificing himself for her. The NUANCE.

Also, going back to Frozen comparison, I would like to point out that if you’re sick of them, Elena of Avalor has no twist villains. But it does have an array of interesting villains who are fun to watch and can be surprisingly layered and dynamic. Victor and Carla have a natural redemption arc building off their established true love for each other. Ash loses her love for her family to become even more immoral. She essentially kills (petrifies) her husband before their daughter’s eyes. They didn’t need to go that hard, but they did. Shuriki is a sorcerer queen with classic Disney villain confidence and flair, and has the added menace that a) she literally murders Elena’s parents in front of her in her first scene and b) she’s a colonising dictator who we actually see oppressing her conquered people through realistic methods of cultural suppression and police intimidation. They didn’t need to go that hard, but they did!

Thanks for the ask!

[generalluxun]

What makes Sabrina one of your favourite (if not favourite) characters of the show?

She's just a fun plucky underdog type character? I like to describe her as 'What Marinette would be if the opening theme song were honest.' She's just an ordinary girl in amongst all these high-powered/rich/multitalented children in a world of superpowers. Her talents are hidden. She's *actually* clumsy unlike Marinette who is only 'cutely clumsy'.

All in all, she's fun to write for.

She's connected secondhand to a large portion of the caste. Her characterization is loose enough to be played with a bit. Her loyalty is refreshing in a surprisingly mercenary caste of people. She is in a portion as a protagonist to learn much and grow in new and exciting ways.

I absolutely LOVE how she and Adrien ended up mixing when I tried writing them in a one shot. She has one thing that Marinette lacks- humility. I'll try to explain this.

Marinette- Oh No I'm being cringe, everyone will see! My reputation, I'll be a laughing stock! I have to run and hide! Panic! Anxiety! Flail!

Sabrina- I'm being cringe, because I'm me. People will laugh, but no one expects anything from me anyway. So, I might as well just be cringe and honest about it.

That difference is so big. One creates so much stress and the other just... lets it go? This is what made Adribrina click. The way they just both get to be dorks with each other. Adrien showed Marinette he was Cat Noir in Ephemeral and she freaked out, rejecting that side of him. Adrien shows Sabrina he's Cat Noir in Dog Daze and she just thinks that is SO COOL. Like, he's awesome both ways!

See how that relationship is just... healthier?

I'll say I like Sabrina as someone who sticks with things, who muddles through problems, and who doesn't expect instant gratification. (the show has a problem with too much instant gratification)

I don't like her as someone who pushes Chloé aside, all those fics where she dumps her lifelong friend read as salty and OOC to me. If there's to be a break, Sabrina would be sad, it would be tearful, and she'd leave the door open. If anything Sabrina would work to become the kind of person who could set good boundaries, and then try to rekindle their friendship if possible on more even terms. Would it work? That's the plot of a good fic, isn't it?

That's just a primer, She's so much fun.

Also: She SMOL.

[purplepadlock]

I just realized that my two favourite manga series (Shadows House and Talentless Nana) are both about very secretive girls bringing people with superpowers together that they were initially cautious of because of brainwashing in order to do what they believe is the right thing; which is, currently in both series, to overthrow a hierarchy imposed upon them by one cunning, evil man who was seen as a family member (in name only) by the main protagonist for a short period of time. Also there are monsters involved whose origins have not yet been fully explained but they are integral to the plot of the story to the point where main characters have become said monsters.

[magicaldogtoto]

I half-seriously compared the 2023 Knights of the Zodiac film to the film adaptation of The Lightning Thief because both were Greek Mythology-inspired works with Sean Bean in a supporting role, but honestly comparing Saint Seiya to Percy Jackson and the Olympians does reveal some interesting things about the approach both works take to putting Greek Mythology in a modern setting. Most of these differences are definitely due to the divergent histories and cultures of both the United States and Japan.

Percy Jackson is very much rooted in Western history. It's a plot point that the Olympians now live North America because they represent the fundamental elements of Western Civilization and thus migrate to whichever Western country/region is the current superpower. Despite being a very American work, the Greek Gods are very close to the protagonists, living in Olympus at the top of the Empire State Building (and Los Angeles is on top of the Underworld, while San Francisco is where the Hesperides live). American history is also portrayed as inextricably linked to the world of gods and demigods--the American Civil War is revealed in The Heroes of Olympus to have been a front (so to speak) for a larger conflict between the Greek demigods and Roman demigods.

In comparison to that, Saint Seiya's worldbuilding treats the Greek Mythology elements as separate/cut-off from Seiya's Japan, save for a few connecting points, like Athena reincarnating as Saori, a girl who lives in Japan. Seiya has to go all the way to Greece to train and earn the Pegasus Cloth, and Sanctuary (who serve Athena and is where the Gold Saints reside) is portrayed as being firmly in Greece (from where they send their agents to antagonist the Bronze Saints, particularly in the anime where they want the Golden Helmet back) and at odds with the Japan-based protagonists. At the same time, there are hints that the Saints have influenced history like demigods did in Percy Jackson's world. But while Percy Jackson's worldbuilding says the Olympians and their children only really had influence on Western history, Saint Seiya does mention events firmly in Asian history (the fall of the Mongols, as the anime mentions at one point).

Another final point is that Riordan goes to great lengths to point out how the mythology of the Olympians is not the same as the Bible and Christianity. Percy asks about the existence of God in The Lightning Thief (the book) and gets a non-answer/"it's complicated" response. (Relatedly, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard features a Muslim Valkyrie, and she makes a point of saying that she doesn't see the Aesir as literal gods.) As I've commented before in another post, Seiya's lore liberally combines Christianity with Greek Mythology, whether it's just Mitsumasa Kido comparing being given Saori as an infant to Abraham's trials from God, to just Sanctuary being a fictional counterpart of the Vatican with a Pope and Saints, but where they venerate Athena instead of Mary, etc. The concept of Cosmo also feels very Eastern in its philosophy.

It's an interesting look at how two works can take inspiration from the same source, but then diverge in different ways due to being made in different countries and with other, divergent sources of inspiration.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

So there's this web novel called Worm.

[art source]

 It's about a dark and edgy world that's full of superpowered folks, and which is, therefore, about three steps away from dystopian collapse. Many places are already there.

The story is about a teenage bullying victim who gains powers, and uses them to become a very dangerous supervillain, despite her best efforts.

And anyone familiar with the RWBY fandom may have just gone "wait, this sounds familiar. Are there a lot of fics where a main character gets an alternate power set?"

Yes, yes there are.

In this fanfic I'm about to complain about, Taylor gets an already existing power that's already broken.

Canon has "Path to Victory", which is almost literally just an "I WIN" button. It tells "Contessa" what she needs to do to succeed at almost any goal she wants. She's a big blindspot for people who can see the future.

Some powerful entities can't be accurately predicted, she can't predict how people will "trigger" and get their powers, and she's terrible in space.

Taylor has the darker, edgier little brother. Which is just an "I WIN" button, with no “almost”. It means she gets to do whatever she wants, and she’s a borderline sociopath.

Someone tries to mind-whammy taylor? Nope, doesn't work.

Contessa tries to use PTV.on Taylor? Doesn't work.

Look, this is obviously, transparently a stompfic. And there two ways to go with that.

ROFLSTOMP, or take it seriously.

Make it a humour fic, or focus on how the protagonist seems strange to those around them, and how they see everyone else as strange in return. Also how the protagonists actions affect various people and the system. 

If you want challenge just give them mutually contradictory goals. The power can't do x without risking or losing y and certainly can't take care of z at the same time.

I read a Harry potter story which gave Snape the path to victory and the last published chapter was snape sitting in a bar trying to figure out what he wanted to do next. Looking back, that was probably meant to represent the author.

You can tell a good dramatic story with an OP protagonist. You just have to work harder.

This story mostly worked hard on setting up literally contrived situations so Taylor can kill someone in amusing fashion. And people's amusing reactions. That's the main selling point.

And of course the author and Taylor say that she has no more moral issues with killing. Because ROFLSTOMP.

In fact, one of the first things she does is literally stomp Sophia to death.

Taylor will still go after hard drug dealers because they hurt people, but she'll leave soft drug dealers alone. And of course she hates the local Nazi gang.

In short, she's a very selective sociopath.

So the story tries to mix both types, including with Sociopolitical Commentary™. It doesn't work very well.

At one point Taylor cracks a joke about tech Bros. 

Fun fact: Worm  takes place in an alternate universe where there is a very slim chance that they would develop that particular slang. A universe that is culturally very different from our own. In fact, I'm pretty sure the original webnovel ended before "tech bro" was even really a phrase.

And when Taylor kills the local Injustice League, she gets the bounty, and decides to donate it to the city. Specifically, she announces, the general public. 

And in case anyone was wondering why it can’t be given to businesses directly, she says trickle down economics doesn't work.

Let's ignore whether that's true or not. Trickle down economics usually refers to tax cuts. Not handouts and bailouts. Also the phrase was popularized mainly with Ronald Reagan's tax cuts.

Note that superheroes and villains started appearing on record in 1984. Reagan's first tax cuts were in 1981. His second were in 86. By 1985 in the worm universe, the breakfast club came out with Nic cage as bender. Superheroes didn't go public until 1987.

So it's possible that the phrase could still exist in the worm universe.

But it does seem strange that a teenager with little interest in politics happens to use it. In fact it seems a lot more like something an adult writer from our universe would use.*

And besides all that, it's just getting one note. No char development. Even the people reacting to Taylor do it the same way.

I mean I knew this was going to be self indulgent Mary Sue nonsense from the jump, so I really have nobody to blame but myself.

*To be fair, precedent does exist in canon. There's a character called Nice Guy. He can make himself appear to be a non threat, or even socially invisible, even when people are actively trying to find him or he's slitting a throat. Which sounds a lot like the 2000s  internet feminist stereotype of a nice guy. Ironically, the character concept was originally for a girl.

[immortalbutterflycos]

A Comprehensive List of all of the (Queer) books I've read since September 6th (as of September 28th):

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens

Magic, chaos, a nonbinary protagonist, and a cursed rug that's a bit of a dick. (also I may or may not have bought this one in the first place because the two main characters reminded me of James and Regulus. Even after finishing it, I stand by that assessment lmao)

In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens

Pirates and Princes and Magic Oh My! Oh and magic. Did I mention magic? Because there's also magic.

So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens

"And they were Soulmates!" (Oh my god they were soulmates...) but with the obligatory "I love him but he doesn't love me the same way" trope.

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey Mcquistion (I read it twice this month)

I don't think this one needs a description at this point. If you've seen the movie, I recommend the book. Both are fucking amazing, but there are just so many things that the movie couldn't do with the time frame it had to fit into. <3

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Fake dating so hard it becomes real. You know how it goes. ^.^

Simon vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (I've read this one so many times ngl)

Not sure this needs a description, but this too, is better than the movie. Which I also love so so very much ^.^ &lt;3

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee

Okay, this one made me emotional. I love it so much!

The Extraordinaries by TJ Klune (book 1)

Flash Fire by TJ Klune (book 2)

Heat Wave by TJ Klune (book 3)

SUPERHEROES. FANFICTION. LESBIANS. (the lesbians are side characters but they're always a presence and I love them) AND SO MUCH ADHD THAT IT'S A SUPERPOWER ALL ON ITS OWN. I just finished this series like five minutes ago and I'm so obsessed!!! ToT I love them all so much!!!

(totally has nothing at all to do with the fact that the Dnd campaign I'm a part of is about our modern world but with mutants and magic and heroes and all that jazz~)

I loved every single one of these books so much and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for some really cute lgbtq romances!

[dr-futbol-blog]

Excursus: Sheppard's attraction to siblings (fictional)

In the previous entry I discussed some of the instances where Sheppard seems to have been attracted to both members of a pair of siblings in the "real world." But what really makes this come across as a preference rather than pure coincidence is that he also seems to showcase attraction for siblings in fiction, in the media he consumes.

First, there is the curious case of the Fantastic Four. Sheppard describes his team as resembling that of the Fantastic Four in First Strike (S03E20):

Dex: I need to learn some science. Sheppard: What for? Dex: I'm not all that useful in situations like these. If we get into a fight, or we need to break out of somewhere, you know, kill someone, I'm your man; but a laser attacking the city's shield. I don't know where to chip in. Sheppard: Well, that's why we're a team, like the Fantastic Four. It's a comic book where superheroes fight crime and stuff. See, I'd be Mr Fantastic; Ronon would be The Thing; McKay would be the Human Torch... you'd be the Invisible Woman. Teyla: I am not invisible. Sheppard: No. No, and McKay's not a human torch. Teyla: Well, how come you get to be Mr Fantastic? Sheppard: Because he was the leader and I'm the... I'm just saying that they were a cool team and we're a cool team and they use their strengths to, you know... I'm gonna go check on McKay.

Teyla has a good point. Why does Sheppard get to be Mr Fantastic? Mr Fantastic is a man of science, has multiple PhDs in the same exact fields as McKay, whose superpower is elasticity but more often uses his intellect to save the day. Surely that should be McKay and not Sheppard. I mean, self-identifying as Reed Richards (he even gives the name as his alias In Travelers S05E04) means that he admires Mr Fantastic, right? Sheppard is projecting his admiration into wanting to be Reed Richards. While this may well be true, that is not the only reason why he fancies himself Reed Richards.

Thing is, the episode First Strike came out very close to the premiere of Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer if not precisely on the same week. Their discussion in the episode, lengthy as it is, is clearly meant to advertise the film, the franchise being a 20th Century Fox IP. They frequently mention The Simpsons, for example, so this synergy between IPs in the Fox family is established. So, there is a commercial reason for this discussion, it is guerilla advertising of a kind for the film. But it still doesn't explain why Sheppard identifies with Reed Richards and not, say, with Ben Grimm who is a former USAF test pilot like Sheppard. It doesn't seem like Sheppard has much in common with Reed Richards and given that he was the first to discover the cloaking technology of the jumpers, an argument could be made for him as the Invisible Woman. Only, the Reed Richards in the film played by Ioan Gruffudd does kind of look like Sheppard. Dark hair, rakishly handsome, protagonist. Yeah, if Sheppard had seen the first installment of the franchise that came out two years prior, during their first visit to Earth, he could identify with Richards just based on wanting to think of himself as the Ioan Gruffudd type.

But what is interesting is that Reed Richards is also a man with an interest in a pair of siblings. Sheppard explicitly and specifically calls McKay the Human Torch, although he points out that he is not literally a torch. And there is kind of a resemblance between this iteration of Johnny Storm and McKay too. Especially if Sheppard sees McKay through the rose-coloured lenses of a man that loves him. The Johnny Storm of the film has spiky, dirty blonde hair rising up from the temples, dressed in blue. Yeah.

While there is some "ho-yay" in the film, there is no particular subtext of anything going on between Reed and Johnny. The plot revolves around Reed getting married to his sister Sue. But the thing is, Johnny Storm is one of the most queer-coded characters in all of comic book history. He has been made canonically bisexual by at least one of the writers but he has also been written as a closeted gay man ever since the inception of the comic book in the 1960s. There is even an alternate universe where Reed Richards married Johnny instead of Sue where Sue Storm was Reed's sister-in-law. And this also establishes Reed Richards as bisexual.

So if we assume that since it's a Fox IP, Sheppard had seen the first Fantastic Four film from 2005 (it would have been in the theatres when they visited for a few months following The Siege, S02E01) when he was thinking about this on the eve of the premiere of the second installment, it is rather easy to see how he could identify with Reed Richards in spite of their personalities being very different, being that McKay was out of bounds for him during this time. Sheppard could look but not touch, just like one could a brother-in-law. It kind of seems like Sheppard and McKay's outwardly habituses resemble those of the characters in the film (Sheppard looks like Ioan, McKay looks like Chris if you squint and are in love), while their personalities have been switched around (McKay is much more like Reed in personality or characterization, and Sheppard seems to have more in common with the wisecracking carefree flyboy).

So if Sheppard sees McKay as the Human Torch like he very much said that he does, then how does Sheppard see McKay?

Hot. John Sheppard sees Rodney McKay as hot. In First Strike, he had just canonically called McKay hot. This is the version of Johnny Storm that he likened McKay to. Both Sue Storm and Johnny Storm of the Fox IP franchise Fantastic Four are hot. And Sheppard fancies himself as someone that gets to hang out with both of them. This may seem ridiculous unless we recognize that Sheppard sees McKay the way a man in love will see the object of their desire, the apple of their eye. This version of Johnny is like the ultimate glow-up version of McKay, receding hairline and everything.

But Sheppard doesn't just fancy himself Reed Richards. He is likened to Han Solo multiple times, and this makes a lot of sense. He never calls himself Han Solo as such, but he calls Ronon Chewie multiple times which means that he fancies himself Han Solo, Ronon as his trusty sidekick. The first time Sheppard calls Ronon Chewbacca is in Condemned (S02E04), but this happens multiple times over the years.

And it isn't just him calling Ronon Chewie, either. In fact, one of the first things we ever hear him say to native Pegasusians is that he is from a galaxy far, far away. In Harmony (S04E14), Sheppard clearly borrows a page out of Han Solo's playbook as he is forced to pretend to be a Genii soldier over the radio, and it is entirely possible having watched the films as a child (Sheppard would have been c. 7 years old when A New Hope came out) later influenced his decision to become a pilot, and Han Solo's dashing rogue character would definitely have had a big role in this.

And since Han Solo is a pilot with a rebellious streak, Sheppard certainly wants to believe he is something like the Corellian smuggler. Sheppard seems to have persisted in bucking the system he serves in subtle ways, shown for example in how he refuses to tie his combat boots all the way up.

Like Sheppard, Han Solo can also certainly be interpreted as a bisexual character, and he is at the very least bi-coded. And Han Solo not only has that bisexual swagger, he also seems to have a thing for both siblings, Leia and Luke. Perhaps not coincidentally, like Johnny Storm, Luke was gay-coded in the original trilogy and his sexuality has been a topic of debate ever since the 1970s based on deleted scenes between Luke and his friend Biggs Darklighter. There is some heavy subtext between the characters that never made it to the final cut of the film. But there seems to be subtext between Luke and Han Solo, as well.

Now, some of the subtext seems to stem from the fact that Luke and Leia were originally meant to become an item and they were only later retconned as siblings. It is this retconning that has lead to an interesting dynamic between the three characters. Isso Flower writes:

Luke also has plenty of chemistry in New Hope with Han Solo. If we read it as a coming-out story (a boy desperate to leave his home is integrated into a rebellious community wherein he finds acceptance for the first time), then Han is the older man who instigates Luke’s movement into the wider community. Han is a sexy rogue with plenty of chest hair, panache, and nice eyes, that Luke spends half his time hero-worshipping and half his time ribbing—as Chrissy Saul identifies, ‘in peak rom-com fashion’. There is also the infamous moment when, following their rescue, Leia leaves the cockpit: Luke: So… what do you think of her, Han? Han: I’m trying not to, kid! Luke: (Quietly satisfied) Good… Han: (Smirks in a dashing fashion) Still, she’s got a lot of spirit. Luke: (is not happy) There are of course two ways to read this. Either Luke is attracted to Leia, which becomes extremely uncomfortable once you’ve watched Return of the Jedi (1983), or he’s jealous of Han’s attraction to her because he fancies Han. The way the scene is played, especially by Hamill, leaves the interpretation up to the viewer and makes sense in either case. Again, this is exactly the type of subtextual, interpretation-based dialogue that is catnip to fandom—the kind of lines that open up possibilities for stories and for slash. Later, before Luke sets out on the mission to destroy the Death Star, Han asks him to come with him, saying that he’s going on a suicide mission. Not only this, but the scene sets up the heroism of Han’s return to the fight—with the implication he’s returning for Luke, much as Biggs did. This is backed up by some evidence that there was one draft where Luke was female, and in love with Han.

Obviously this was never going to be maintext when the films were originally released. Important here is that Luke was gay-coded and a case can be made for Han Solo to have expressed interest in both siblings.

What makes this interesting is that in Condemned (S02E05), several parallels between the episode and Star Wars seem to be drawn. These parallels are both visual and thematic but the interesting thing is that McKay is placed into the roles of both Luke and Leia.

In the episode, McKay is playing the part of Luke Skywalker as he is inside the jumper being threatened by the leader of the prisoners of the island, their Emperor, who describes him as "the type of man who, despite being weak and cowardly on the outside, harbours a strength of character he doesn't even know he has." Luke was a simple country boy who seemed weak, whiny and cowardly at the start of the journey but whom we later discover harbours this strength of character he doesn't know that he has. Luke was also fair-haired which Sheppard referenced by calling McKay Goldilocks earlier in the same episode.

The scene calls back to the well-known scene in the Emperor's throne room in Return of the Jedi where the Emperor is trying to manipulate Luke, to get him to join the Dark Side. To join his cause. He doesn't threaten Luke because Luke had walked before him willingly in chains. He threatens his friends, and that is the correct lever to pull. And it is finally threatening his sister that causes Luke to lose control. His feelings betray him, and all seems lost. Their leader had personally witnessed both the fact that McKay appears to be weak and cowardly and the fact that he is made of much stronger stuff when the chips come down. But at the same time McKay, who was forced to work fixing the jumper just as Princess Leia had to work on the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back, also seems to be likened to her. McKay is also visually placed in Leia's spot on the Falcon, sitting behind the handsome rogue pilot.

The Falcon is bombarded by asteroids and has to be taken down for repairs where the jumper is bombarded and taken down with McKay having to make repairs, Chewie attempts to choke the life out of Lando Calrissian when he comes to release them just like Ronon attempts to take the life of the prisoner Eldon that had come to release them, Sheppard describing himself lazy but fighting if he has to which is basically Han Solo's entire character. There is also a parallel in the low-tech Ewoks (the prisoners that McKay described as "the cast of Braveheart") taking down the Rebels while both have a common enemy in the Empire, the wraith cruisers even resembling Star Destroyers.

There are many parallels between the episode and Star Wars, and McKay's description by the leader of the prisoners especially seems like an intentional allusion to the characterization of Luke Skywalker who, along with his twin sister, possesses a strength of character that he does not even know he has. And yet, they didn't need to do it like this. They could have just described Sheppard as Han Solo, have him make a reference to Ronon as Chewie. If they wanted to bring McKay into it, they could simply have described him as a Luke-like and called it a day. But the fact that McKay is likened to both Luke and Leia seems unnecessarily complicated unless they were looking to make a point. And the whole point seems to boil down to the notion that John Sheppard is bisexual. And it isn't just that he identifies with bisexual characters but that he specifically identifies with characters that are attracted to both brother and sister. John Sheppard wants a family so bad. And, given his favourite characters in the fiction he consumes, it also seems rather obvious who he would like to have this family with.

[magnetictapedatastorage]

"You have ignited a nuclear war. And no, there is no animated display of a mushroom cloud with parts of bodies flying through the air. We do not reward failure."

Balance Of Power is a 1985 apple ][ game where you control either the US or USSR between 1990 and 1997. If you provoke any kind of nuclear attack, no matter what, you lose instantly. It's a fascinating game, utterly unlike anything else. Why does it seem to stand alone? It received an update in 1990, but after that, dead silence.

apparently the reason balance of power never really went any further after 1990 is that its creator, Chris Crawford was kind of a dick. and more than a bit full of himself. at the 1992 game developers conference he gave an anime protagonist speech that boiled down to "video games are ART and shouldn't HAVE to be FUN" and "if your GAME is FUN, it's NOT ART" and ran out of the room, burning every bridge in his entire career.

after he miserably failed to produce anything as an outside artist, he then blamed Society, and the games industry, for not being Ready for his Art, ...and then bafflingly proceeded to write two books about the games industry, the latter of which after he'd already been out of it for twenty fucking years.

i checked his personal website. in it, he still writes about how the games industry doesn't "get" his "art" and that he's so much smarter than everybody else, shown on a neon blue background that hurts to look at.

it's a shame. the new breed of strategy game he invented 1985, while considered successful at the time, just didn't have any kind of staying power. but imagine if it did!

imagine if it had sprouted an enduring genre of modern political simulators, ones where avoiding war is the bread and butter of the campaign, and earning prestige is just the seasoning. imagine if paradox, sid, etc, were on that kind of bandwagon.

it would be a different gaming landscape for one thing. but knock-on effects... i can't even begin to guess.

I'll tell you, playing BOP 1990 edition had me sweating a few times, and giving it a handful of well-earned oh thank god's at particularly stressful moments. It's old, clunky, very much a product of it's time, and how couldn't it be? it couldn't have been made today, both because the ending would already be spoiled (we're alive, more or less), and the political motivations for making it (antinuke, pro normalization of relations) would be absent.

[etcair]

Opened my spreedsheet to work on my MCC team simulation mentor/trainee groups. It's a necessary evil because this is the plot I have committed myself to, but at the same time:

68 trainees means 68 mentors, so it's 136 people divided into 34 teams of 4

The 34 teams are further divided into 4 groups (8 + 8 + 9 + 9) so they can actually play Survival Ga— I mean go through exams

The 8/9 teams are colour coded (obviously) so each team is called something like Red1 and Blue4

For plot reasons, most of the Main Characters are in the same Survival Games group which is kinda funny. Me and my best friend and my other best friend and my enemy and my mentor and my mentor's ex and best friend and potential love interest and—

The teams rely on a draft system. The rank 1 mentors get to choose first, so you'd expect powerful mentors to choose powerful trainees and it dwindles until the last ranked mentors choose the last ranked trainees.

Well, no, because this is MCC9 Blue Bats, and naturally the rank 1 mentors chose the last ranked trainees. And no one knows if that team is gonna flop or just kill everyone, so their group includes both high ranked teams and low ranked teams. (Spoiler alert: they kill everyone.)

This is a balancing mess. How on earth do people make MCC teams 🤡

Except the rank system is Canonically Shit so there is no actual basis for balancing

It gets worse because they all have different superpowers and you would assume mentors prefer to choose kids with their powers. But having too many same powers fighting in one exam makes for an uninteresting action scene

There are only so many nice sounding names from your Google search of "boy names nature inspired"

You're calculating the average ranks of one group to make sure all four groups have similar power levels. 16 for the mentor ranking, which means the mentors are more powerful than average (17). 39.5 for the trainee ranking, which means the trainees are less powerful than average (34). Wow I sure wonder which team caused this anomaly.

Let's go Protagonist Power for the win 💙🦇

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

Just finished reading Pez Dispenser Debris (I don’t even go there but I am fueled by Wiki articles and a love for your storytelling) and first of all—amazing!!! 10/10, I think I need to watch this series now. 

Second, I  noticed that (while very much distinct) Yuuta & Izuku have a lot of similarities in the voice you gave them—maybe it’s the constant panic attacks or perhaps both of  them placing blame for everything squarely on their own shoulders, but ough it makes for the perfect blend of gut-punching angst. I’d love to hear any ramblings you currently have about either of them. I am currently obsessed with both of them now and am placing the blame on you <3

I’m gonna pretty heavily discuss some spoilers for my hero academia in this. I figured that was okay since you’d already read my fanfic and the wiki so the cat is out of the metaphorical bag. That being said, maybe wait to read this answer if you want to not be spoiled for more details in my hero.

Yuuta and Izuku absolutely have the most similar voices out of all of my narrators and it is 90% because they are both completely insane and in violent need of a Xanax and a nice soothing cup of chamomile tea. God I love them both so much. They should each be heavily medicated.

My hero academia is a pretty great watch through the Shie Hassaikai arc. The concept is entertaining, the characters are GREAT, and the world building is really cool.

Then the story sort of. Went to shit.

I tried for a while after that, but eventually had to stop watching. My friends and I have a group chat named “horikoshi just call us” because we got so despondent at the writing decisions after that arc.

Horikoshi. If you’re out there. If you’re reading this. Just call us. We just want to help.

That being said, my love for the characters maintains its death grip on me. I simply adore them. They’re delights.

Yuuta and Izuku, on their face, have a lot of similarities as protagonists. The aforementioned insanity and need of Xanax, of course, but the skeleton of the stories has a lot of common touchstones and themes, like:

Both characters have some kind of history with suicidal ideation or tendencies. In the second scene of JJK0, it’s established that Yuuta canonically tried to kill himself. In the first episode of BNHA, Izuku is told to kill himself by his bullies, in an act which appears to be common to izuku’s life, and the only reason Izuku comes up with to not do it is “then you’d get in trouble for telling me to do it.”

Both characters have severe self worth issues. Yuuta’s looking for a reason to be alive at the start of JJK0. He’s looking for a right to be alive. In a way, Izuku is too at the start of BNHA. At the open of action, he is told by everyone in his life that he is useless. His nickname is “Deku,” which uses some of the same kanji as “Dekunobo,” meaning blockhead. The most direct translation were given is that this is a way of calling him useless. He’s the powerless member of a society choked with superpower, and he’s been told his entire life that he can do nothing, that his dreams are pointless, and that he’s a burden who would be better off dead.

They’re both saddled with power they can’t fully control. Yuuta with Rika, and Izuku with One for All, a transferable power that’s too strong to be contained in his body.

They both have a close relationship with an impossibly strong mentor that they are implied to be the successor of. Yuuta with Gojo, as he’s second only to Gojo in the modern age, and Izuku with All Might (aka Toshinori Yaga), who he is more literally taking on the mantle of One for All from.

They both are chugging that Loving Their Friends Juice and have tried to kill grown men with their bare hands as a result

That all being said, they could not be more different characters and honestly aren’t all that similar.

I have this sort of lasting grievance with literary analysis when people take a list of common plot points or events and use them to make the argument that characters are similar or parallel one another. Like, that’s all facial. The real question is how do they substantively handle those events. How do their story arcs treat those things? How does their character react to them?

Yuuta and Izuku’s actual substantive characters don’t really react to those events in the same way at all. The analysis could go on all day in this respect, really, but the biggest difference is how their respective story arcs treat the cornerstone of their original conflicts.

Yuuta opens action with Rika as the cornerstone of his conflict. She’s who he wants to free, she’s who he’s chained to, and it’s her protection of him that makes him think he deserves to die. Izuku’s cornerstone, meanwhile, is his own Quirklessness. He desperately wants to be a hero, and everyone in his life tells him he can’t be because he is Quirkless. He’s useless because he’s Quirkless. He should kill himself because he’s Quirkless. He’s a burden and always will be because he’s Quirkless.

And while Yuuta’s arc reconciles him with his cornerstone, Izuku’s forgoes it entirely.

The story just. Forgets. That he’s Quirkless. They stop talking about it. It never comes up again. It doesn’t make any real big impact on his character or decisions. It’s one of my biggest axes to grind with how the story developed, and it’s actually one of the biggest reasons why I wrote pez dispenser debris.

Pez dispenser debris was actually inspired by this one piece of my hero academia art where Izuku is hugging his younger self. I don’t know if it was official art or fan art, and I have no idea where it is or where to find it because by god have I tried so I can find it and link it for credit/to boost it. I saw it literally years ago, thought “oh that’s cool,” wrote the original first scene of the fic (where Midoriya stops the bus and is hit by the Quirk), wasn’t feeling it, got distracted by other projects, went to law school, graduated law school, signed up to take the bar exam, and was suddenly electrified in the last fucking month of studying with this fugue state of feverish artistic inspiration. I have never written so easily or so compulsively in my life. I’d write for eight unbroken hours and it would be fucking magic every time. It was like an addiction. I was writhing with a need to create and had so much fucking anxiety about the test I was not studying for instead. The words could not be restrained.

Anyway I taught myself three subjects on the plane ride to the state I was taking it in and passed anyway so it’s fine we’re fine

The moral of the story is that this story has been cooking long enough for me to get two more diplomas than I had when I started it and I have no idea where to find that fucking piece of art that inspired it, but if I find it, I’ll reblog it so y’all can see it too.

The thing is, the narrative sort of forcibly excluding Izuku’s past as Quirkless would make total sense to me if it was used as something Izuku himself was doing.

Izuku necessarily had to hide the truth of his former Quirkless status at the start of action—he needed to keep the secret of One for All. Like, he could not let people find out that a Quirk was transferrable, but you know, just the most powerful one, and also he had it, please come torture it out of him.

But as the narrative goes on, that rationale becomes less important. He has people he can trust with it. And yeah, eventually One for All becomes more known, but the discussion is all about him being all might’s successor. Him being Quirkless and how that affected him and still affects him isn’t really discussed or treated as important. And Izuku doesn’t act like it’s important to him either. He never really thinks about it.

And I just hated that. Like. He spent almost his entire life as a member of society who was spit on. He’s had a Quirk for less than a year. How are his experiences with Quirklessness not important to how he interacts with the world?

The other point of contention I had was Mirio.

Mirio is this superstar of a senpai who takes Izuku under his wing. He has an extremely powerful quirk that’s only as effective as it is because he put in the work and learned how to handle it. He’s a perfect, eternally smiling paragon of heroism. He’s flagged early as the one out of everyone, including heroes with established careers, who is most likely to replace All Might.

He’s also the one who was supposed to get One for All.

His mentor had found him and trained him to be All Might’s successor. Before All Might could meet him, however, he found this feral raccoon child in a sewer and said “oh my god I can’t not offer him incomprehensible power within the first three hours of meeting him” and tripped face first into fatherhood.

During a rescue mission, Mirio loses his Quirk in a way that’s borderline irreversible. There’s no known cure, and the only possible one is dependent on a little girl learning how to control an extremely volatile and dangerous quirk and using it in a way she never has before.

So surely, they’re going to commit to that writing decision, right? He’s Quirkless. We’re bringing back having Quirkless characters. It’s going to be this sick as hell juxtaposition between Izuku and Mirio. We are at least going to force Izuku to reflect on his own times as Quirkless or have some kind of discussion about how Mirio is treated differently now that he is Quirkless.

But no. He gets his Quirk back by the next season. We don’t talk about it much. It’s more of a minor inconvenience than anything.

It’s almost as if the show accepted as an actual rule that you couldn’t be a hero without a Quirk. And then just. Forgot. Everything it had to do with its literal protagonist.

Anyway, I hated it.

In contrast, I fucking loved how yuuta’s storyline with Rika ends. That scene where Yuuta’s turning back to Rika, thanking her for loving him, telling him they can die together? I’m obsessed with it. I recently moved across the country and listened to that theme song on loop during the drive.

Yuuta and Rika’s love was unhealthy. They hurt each other. But it wasn’t malicious.

They just didn’t know how to love each other in a way that didn’t hurt.

They were in shit circumstances. But the love was there.

Yuuta felt guilty for Rika’s love for him and his for her almost the entire narrative. He thought he cursed her with his love. He wanted to kill himself because of how she hurt people out of love for him. It’s why I have moments in sea glass gardens where Yuuta talks about begging Rika to stop loving him—he didn’t know why love had to hurt so goddamn bad, and he’s sorry for that, he really is. He wishes he was better at it than he was.

At the end of JJK0, Yuuta truly is the last person who remembers Rika as she was and still loves her for who she is. He’s faced with Geto, who wants to use her as a weapon. Everyone treats her as a threat or a tool, except for Yuuta.

Like. Just that moment. Of loving someone so genuinely, and being the last one who does, and knowing that everyone else will just use them. I’m obsessed with it.

Yuuta reconciles with his love for Rika and her love for him, and they’re both finally freed. It’s this perfect moment of acceptance that I adore. He comes to terms with his past. It doesn’t hurt him so much anymore.

I wrote pez dispenser debris to sort of force Izuku to have that kind of reconciliation. As it is, he hasn’t reconciled with his own Quirklessness and how that affected him. I wanted to give him something he couldn’t physically escape and had to face.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

SUSAN PEVENSIE (THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA)

1.) (Reusing my propaganda from a previous poll, I promise I wrote it, and I’m not typing all that again)

So what if she liked makeup, Clive. So what if she was interested in boys? Who cares if she wanted to keep her dress looking neat? You took every single protagonist to weird lion heaven, Clive, but suddenly Susan isn’t good enough. Susan did nothing to deserve the sudden turn in characterization, she did nothing to deserve being the only character to be condemned. SOMEbody (lookin’ at you, Clive Staples) was just a raging misogynist who wanted girls and women to be really clear on the fact the betraying your siblings nearly to death was forgivable, but being interested in feminine things and taking pride in your appearance was punishable by death. “"Lipsticks and nylons and invitations”“, the fucking horror.

Because you were writing a fun fantasy story for us, right Clive? Magic and dragons and animals that talk. But you fucking weren’t. You were writing an indoctrination story for us, weren’t you? And you needed someone to represent those empty headed young people who turn away from the church’s rules. And so you decided that Susan had become too grown up and you massacred her.

2.) Is deemed “no longer a friend” of Jesus’ fursona’s kingdom because she cares too much about “nylons, lipstick, and invitations”. Both of parents and all three of her siblings die in a train crash at the end and her feelings about this are never considered or acknowledged.

RIVER TAM (FIREFLY) (CW: Ableism)

1.) Being a woman written by Joss Whedon should automatically entitle her to financial compensation tbh. No but okay so River is a super genius girl, & at age like 14 she gets sent to an “academy” that allegedly was a government school for gifted kids but was actually a government facility for experimenting on (read: torturing) said gifted kids. Her brother breaks her out by having someone smuggle her out of the school (naked. btw. she’s snuggled out & transported naked & kept unconscious in a fancy storage crate. she is also 16) & they end up on the spaceship with the main cast, who take her & her brother in as fugitives while also being so so so ableist (she has, understandably, MASSIVE ptsd from the everything, but her trauma also gave her psychic powers & turned her ~insane~) & lots of truly gross misogynistic & sexual comments from Jayne in particular about her. All of this is of course depicted with so much sensitivity & care (lying). Anyway I want joss whedon dead in a ditch thanks for coming to my Ted talk

2.) She is a really cool superpowered character that is used as a vehicle for Whedon’s fetishes. There is at least one shot that has an uncomfortably long close-up of her feet. She also spies on her brother and another character having sex. She’s the epitome of the “Born Sexy Yesterday” trope, very innocent while also being treated as a sex object.

3.) Named after the river Ophelia drowned in, thus clearly being based on another CMV. A super soldier whose physical strength was augmented by scientific experimentation, so of course her physique is… super slender and delicate (typical of women written by Joss Whedon). The series includes a lot of focus on her bare feet (also typical of women written by Joss Whedon).

[thatonebirdwrites]

Answering Questions for Fun

20 Questions More

This is a deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers.

I yanked the questions from someone in the supercorp fandom. I forget who. I never get tagged since I'm not really well known writer yet (I'm still a tumblr newbie!), so I'm doing this just for funsies and because I like answering questions.

I will be answering this for the supercorp and korrasami fandoms. My works are here (though I do one-shots on tumblr sometimes).

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship / fandom?

By existing, reading, listening, writing, watching things, staring at the sky and watching the clouds drift by. Seriously, my ADHD's superpower is generating ideas. So I have way too many of them, and I have a note in my Scrivener projects with all the ideas. If anyone needs more ideas, I'll spin out so many. lol

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

So for the Korrasami fandom, that would be @korrasamibottles for their fantastic oneshots, Progman for one of the best post-series fics I've ever read (seriously, the Asami Sato of RRU is awesome), Shigan for some amazing korrasami oneshots, FuzziFox for an adorable and action-y AU where Asami goes south with Korra, lovedeathcats for the best Indiana Jones AU ever, RainbowRosie for a great AU where bending has vanished, paxbanana's Place in the World is an interesting AU take on Korrasami. @asamiontop's Modern world AU is a must read (she also has some great supercorp one-shots). For supercorp? @jazzfordshire has exquisitely written fics, everything @fazedlight writes is gold, @snowydragonscave's oneshots are adorable, @mycatismyeditor has some great AU's that really dig into the characters, @ekingston has some of the best written AU's I've ever read, @karalovesallthegirls has the most hilarious fics ever (Mime fic), robie's AUs are some of the best slow burn I've read, TheUnforgivingMinute wrote a fantastic spookysupercorp, @coffeeshib floored me with their gorgeous prose, @rustingcat not only does amazing art but the fics are such a great slow burn, @chaotic-super's back to Krypton was absolutely goldmine of fun and digging into the lore of Krypton. I could go on. Let's just say I LOVE Y'all's fics. The above are the people who had the most impact on me personally. Where I learned the art of fanfic writing. Since I'm a science fiction writer, I tend toward creative writing techniques that don't always jive well in the fandom realm, so learning from others helps me refine my writing to use the least amount of words for the biggest impact possible. It's also great practice for my original fiction honestly.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

I really love writing Sam Arias. Nia is also super fun to write, and writing Brainy and Lena arguing about science is always fun too. Alex is a littler harder for me to write (her snark is hard for me to capture), but she's a blast once I get in the right headspace for it. For Korrasami, I really love writing Jinora and Bolin. Asami considers both of them basically siblings at this point, and Korra does too actually. heh.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

I will NEVER EVER writing Makorra - that is a clusterfuck I will never touch. Hell, it's why I didn't rewrite book 1 of TLOK for my Shared Moments series because I really didn't want to touch it at all. lol I just skipped to the six months after and started there. I'll NEVER write Lames or any relationship that features Mon-el. Nope. Not touching it. I prefer to write sapphic pairings for the main protagonists. Sure, side characters can have het pairings (like Brainy and Nia), but I won't write a fic with them as the focus. Other folks can do that.

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

Step 1: Wake up, wash up, and get tea. Step 2. Cuddle the cat to prepare myself. Step 3: Put on my compression gloves and stretch my arms. Step 4: Put on the correct playlist (absolutely essential step otherwise it'll throw off the entire scene and then I have to start over.) Step 5: Try to avoid Tumblr. (Doesn't always work, this place is cursed I swear. lol) Step 6. Open Scrivener project (who am I kidding, these primary projects are always open on m computer). Write while my brain is cooperating. (30 to 40 minutes before I got to rest for 45 minutes then I can start writing again. Chronic illness sucks like that.) Step 7: realize I need to research something and lose two hours to that. Step 8: AO3 emailed me! Who commented this time! Oh noes, now I've fallen down the looking at the Internets.

The other thing I do is carry my journal everywhere to document everything and end up with some weird random poetry, drawings, and dialogue from people I overhear. Oh, and on bad brain days, I'll draw cursed images.

I also use Scrivener and go all haywire on all its features to a ridiculous extent. Like, I try to stuff ALL my outlines, research, scenes, into that Scrivener so it's all in one place, that way I don't forget anything. It makes for large projects. ha.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

Incorporating my research into the story in subtle ways to fill out the world and immerse the reader more fully. It's fun to put some of this research in the end-notes for my fics on AO3. (The power AO3 gave us writers with those end-notes!!)

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

Maturation of bird species and the DNA overlap with human beings to see if I can craft an alien species that is at least 90% DNA similar to humans but is more birdlike.

I looked up the absorption of chemicals through skin. (This is why I use duckduck go for anonymity for this sort of stuff. LOL)

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

Reality in general - ha. Seriously though, the chronic illness makes it really hard to concentrate and have energy for writing or really anything. The second thing I struggle with is I have an annoying habit of adapting my tenses to what I'd last read. So if the story I read was past-tense, I'll jump into my writing using past tense (which most of my stories is that tense, but there's two that aren't so that's when it gets annoying).

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

The hardest scene was the end of Book 3 for Shared Moments for the Korrasami series. Both Asami and Korra (due to the bond they forged by accident at Harmonic Convergence) are captured by Zaheer, so that was a brutally painful set of scenes. Full of pain, fighting, poisoning, and a struggle to survive. I wept through it honestly. Whew. Yikes. For Supercorp, the hardest scene was when Nia assists Lena with her dreams and memories of her birth mother. Those were so sad and I totally teared up writing them. It was also hard to sort out the best way to reveal details without giving too much away either. Since Nia's powers are a little all over the place too.

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

All the time! For the TLOK: Shared Moments series, Asami keeps surprising me, so I often have to sit down and remap her timeline, and it always enriches the entire series. For Supercorp, Nia keeps doing things that surprise me. She's like this chaotic good agent that adds in humor and twists that enrich the tale in subtle ways I think. There's many other surprising moments the characters do. That's half the fun! Seeing where the characters end up and if I need to adjust my plans. :D

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

That's a tie between Asami Sato and Lena Luthor honestly. But then I sort of think of them as basically the same person (Lena may be more neutral in temperament while Asami is chaotic good. Also, Asami isn't afraid to fly planes and crash them for Korra. Lena would prefer no flying. lol). I just wanna talk science with them. Oh and ask them about how in-love they are with Korra and Kara respectively. (Lena will try to deny it, but Asami will gush and admit it because she's a little more in touch with her feelings). I just love these two so much. :D

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

Healing journeys. I really enjoy writing healing from trauma, because I feel like it's so relevant for our times, and the characters never really get that in their series (well, Supergirl characters don't, and they really need it!).

The theme of chosen family is another theme I come to again and again. Partly due to how my life is -- my bio family is not healthy for me (outright abusive), so my chosen family is my real family. So I like to dig into those dynamics a lot.

I also tend to write the survivor narrative a lot. It's a more interesting narrative structure, but it's also less used so that can startle readers. Sometimes in good ways? A good example of a survivor narrative structure is TLOK actually.

Another good example of the survivor narrative is Sam Arias' journey in Season 3 of Supergirl. Maybe I'll write an essay someday on it.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

There's isn't any one most important resource. I'd say fellow writers and artists is a great resource, lore books is another, random research books (yes, I have a guide to weapons for writers, guide for poisons for writers, guide to x or y for writers, because I'm a nerd like that), the Internet, and lots of listening to others.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

For editing/revising, I start with SPAG: spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Once I do a few run-throughs of that, then I look at the dialogue -- Is the dialogue true to the character's personality and quirks? Can I make the dialogue more succinct?

After that, I look at descriptions: Is the description immersive? Do I utilize the five senses in a concise way? Can I pare down the description while still keeping the immersive quality? Is there any description that doesn't add to the scene or character's growth and can that be moved to a different scene or saved for later?

Finally, I do a fresh read-through and check how it impacts my emotions. Do I laugh at the funny parts? Do I tear up at the sad/angst parts? Does it feel too dry or not emotive enough? What words could be used instead to better invoke emotions?

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

Ugh, summaries are the worst. Sometimes it's easier to just pick an excerpt of a scene and slap that as the summary. Tags are even worse. I never know what to use for tags, especially since people seem to be kind of random with AO3 tags. I mean, I feel like some writers just will write a statement as a tag and it's amusing but also confusing.

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

I don't really measure success.

If I get comments from folks that say they're enjoying it? That's a source of joy for me but it's not about success. Because I'm writing mostly for my enjoyment, but to hear that others enjoy it too? Damn, that's like the best news ever. It really helps me feel better about myself and my writing. Like I'm valued and not forgotten. That I actually have an impact. So yeah, go leave comments if you like stuff, please. Us writers love it.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character / ship?

YES. I Always make a playlist for each project I do. I craft it based on their personality, their character arcs, the mood of the piece, and I focus on a variety of genres. I think about the lyrics of songs and try to match it all together. I might spend way more time on playlists than I need, but since I have them playing as I write, I need them to fit the mood and atmosphere to increase inspiration.

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Um. Huh. This is a hard question. I try to draw my own, but I can't do color (y'all that do color, are freaking WIZARDS). I think Confession fic and the scene where Lena resurrects Kara, and if and when I have money again, I'd ask @rustingcat if commissions are open for them.

For Korrasami, I'd choose Book 3 or 3.5 but I'm not sure on the artist.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

UM. If I count just fanfics, probably fifteen. I'm actively working on six. (Three in each fandom. Two are usually shorter, and one is the longer fic) If we include original fiction and fanfiction? Uhhhhh. Hahahah, that's like twenty-five or so. I'm only working on one original fiction piece set on my SF world of Elivera.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

Pace yourself and take some time to edit and revise before posting. Also, take some time to review the transcripts and how the characters talk. That can give some fun insight into the characters and ways to expand on them in interesting ways.

Ask questions a lot! There's so many nice folks in the fandom, and folks are so kind about answering questions. I know because I still ask questions and talk to folks about this, and more seasoned writers have been so lovely.

Write what you want. Don't write for your readers (unless someone requests and pays you for a fic, then I guess write for them. lol) but otherwise, write what you want. This is supposed to be fun. If you're getting stressed out, take a break otherwise you will get burned out. To avoid burn out, take time to rest. Read a bit, do fun hobbies, do some practice writing, and then dive back into your fic.

Yes, it's important to try to finish things, but don't feel pressured. Remember, having fun is crucial! It's okay to take your time. Readers will stick with you if they like your tale.

Happy Writing!

P.S. I'm going to quote Brenda Ueland who wrote one of the best books on writing (If You Want to Write):

“Don't always be appraising yourself, wondering if you are better or worse than other writers. "I will not Reason and Compare," said Blake; "my business is to Create." Besides, since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of Time, you are incomparable. ” - Brenda Ueland

And:

“I want to assure you with all earnestness, that no writing is a waste of time, – no creative work where the feelings, the imagination, the intelligence must work. With every sentence you write, you have learned something. It has done you good. It has stretched your understanding.” - Brenda Ueland

[exocynraku]

omg what is feline wizards . is it a good alternative to warrior cats i need more cat xenofiction...

yahoo!! i'm so glad someone asked!! it's a 3 book series (though i've only been able to find the 3rd one as an ebook) by diane duane! it is similar to warriors because of it's cat protagonists but alot of other things are different! the cat main characters are wizards who have been tasked to stay in new york city and keep the fabric of reality from falling apart is genuinely the most simple way i can explain it w/o spoiling anything crazy lol these cats have their own religion that isn't really just normal basic heaven & hell, talks about gender (mostly related to unspayed/spayed or unneutered/neurtured cats), lots about spirituality & jumping in & out of bodies, a few really impactful chapters esp in the 2nd book to do with death, life and reincarnation, really interesting magic that isn't just haha. i have superpowers and sooo much more! the cats even have their own language in a way! (ex: dogs are called houiff) mostly based off of the sounds things make it's really, really fun and both/all books are a very good read! it's not particularly popular so that's why i've been marking down characters descriptions cuz there isn't anywhere like the warriors wiki to find them :3 the books are pretty long (at least in the physical version i have the printing is very small and they're both about 400 pages long) but TRUST me they're incredible