#like half these characters aren't even morally ambiguous and a lot of the ones who are aren't sopping wet???

[ziracona]

why are half the meowmeows on the poll just blorbos

[onebizarrekai]

Hello, you used to do these things for ds characters a long time ago, like:

B A S I C S

full name:

gender:

sexuality:

pronouns:

And other-

Could you do this for Error or Cross(or both) please? I need it for my friend and his project-

sorry it's been like 100 years since I got this but anyway I feel like those characters have become so inconsistent it's tricky to narrow them down. if you ask modern me their names are ellie [last name missing] and victoria crow respectively, both are she/her, and none of the characters have articulated sexualities anymore besides Not Straight for imaginative ease. or if you're asked me from 4 years ago they're just error and cross and they probably are still trapped in the undertale dark ages of men who wish they were fashion disaster enough to fit in jojo's bizarre adventure.

do you mean like you want the WHOLE thing? like the whole whole thing? I just searched back and found the text base. dreamswap has plot holes and changed so much around its later era in it that it's difficult to articulate the details, but I can TRY.

ds ellie (to differentiate from the fatal flaws universe) was raised in an ambiguous institution (in other words, an orphanage) and has no mentioned relationship to her parents nor where she lives, barring the implication that she lives in an underground city. ds vick was born… somewhere in the spectrum of the multiverse, in a chunk of real estate owned by the ds version of big bad xgaster and it wasn't established who her familial relations were in this version. half the characters in ds are also conveniently unemployed and this includes the entire meme squad. ellie and vick's phobias have yet to be articulated because it was never that important to the plot. in other, less jokey words, I would say phobias are much more severe and neurological than bad memories or unpleasant situations. I don't really wanna say that ellie has a phobia of human connection or that vick is has a phobia of defeat or something. they have bad things that remind them of bad things and may even be debilitating, but I haven't had a chance to articulate them in writing or even figure out entirely how to do that or how they might relate to any given story. I never decided whether they had any irrational fears either. same thing for the next inquiry; what their guilty pleasures might be. all I can come up with is that vick likes fighting, and it's not always the wholesome kind.

morality alignment. uhhhh. it's complicated. people are complicated. the whole next list of character traits that split everyone into one half of the chart or the other feel like they're not accounting for any hypothetical specifics. like, I could say ellie is agreeable, but she's capable of doing things that make her disagreeable to many others. vick could be disagreeable to the people she picks fights with but she's capable of being agreeable to others. either one of them could be more optimistic depending on the circumstances. vick's carefree attitude could be read as optimism or nihilism. some of them are more cut and dry (for example, I'm sure both of them are anxious messes, which is common for their age), but I feel like saying it doesn't really say as much as just reading the material that exists of the characters… and said material is already only semi-reliable at best.

basically, I have this image in my head of the complex potential of each ds character, but none of them have really grown into it. you get what I mean? there's a lot of character details that aren't very clear simply because the characters were created, but not wholly written. not wholly developed. I'm not saying I have contempt for them or something, or wish I had done more. they just have something they COULD be one day. more complete versions of themselves. versions of them that I started out imagining back in 2018, but the directions I was going in with what I was making resulted in those versions of them not being fully realized. a character can only go so far with bouts of lore and minimal continuity.

I dunno if any of that even matters. it's probably more useful for me to just give yes or no answers, but I just kinda felt like talking about ds and its characters and how they've aged. maybe they'll end up in some medium one day that focuses more on who they could be rather than just their backstories and they'll be more fleshed out then.

[gayleviticus]

absolutely love your doctor who takes in the "worst episode" poll! i'm curious if you want to expand on your thoughts on journey's end? cos yeah... it's off to me though i'm not sure i can articulate it! and i agree about vincent and the doctor, i like the episode (even the invisible monster hehe) but i'm not sure the last scene is even enough for me to agree with its "one of the fandom's faves" status

haha I'm glad you appreciated them, sure I can elaborate. I actually think stolen earth is fine - it's good at building suspense and introducing all the characters gradually teaming up in the absence of the Doctor. but I think journeys end is far too overstuffed and brings back all your favourite characters only to do nothing with half of them.

and it especially sucks for donna, because it means she gets locked out of her own season finale. love them or hate them but at least doomsday and especially last of the time lords were *about* Rose and martha; but donna really ends up more of a plot device to cruelly dispose of last minute for some emotional kicks.

in general it feels like a lot of decisions in journeys end are driven by wanting very specific gimmicky things that aren't necessarily good for the story. how can we end stolen earth with a fakeout shock regeneration without actually getting rid of david tennant? metacrisis! how can we give rose a happy ending while reminding the doctor it's something he can never have? palm of TenTwo onto her! how can we save the day w a deus ex machina and get rid of donna in a tragic way while we also have a dozen other characters to deal with? make her become doctordonna and then mindwipe her.

it feels a lot like an entire episode that's just clickbait, which the rtd era does elsewhere (like the Doctors daughter) but is especially bad here

also, the episode could have smth interesting going with davros accusation the doctor turns people into weapons, but I don't think it unpacks it anywhere near enough to not just feel like a cheap grab for moral ambiguity

[scribeoffate]

10 characters game

I've seen this tag game going around where you list your favorite 10 characters in 10 different fandoms. Not being tagged has literally never stopped me. So I play! Uhm, there is a very unmistakable theme. 😅

Captain Kathryn Janeway: Star Trek: Voyager To say she had a huge impact on bb! Jenn is an understatement. I remember being so excited for the first female Captain. And she's stern but fair. Compassionate but still able to make the tough calls. Is it a little weird that I look to her as a role model for leadership? Eh, we all know I'm a weird person.

2. Lina Inverse: The Slayers One of my all-time favorites! Lina is a violent, no-nonsense-taking sorceress with a love of fireballs. She's also so powerful and cares so much about her people. She's mostly good with a love of mischief and I adore her.

3. Dana Scully: The X-Files Bb! Jenn had the biggest crush on her. (Not that I understood that.) There is something about a confident, tough-as-nails woman. And I loved her commitment to science and logical explanations. My favorite episodes were always the ones that left you wondering if it was supernatural or just interpreted that way.

4. Ms. Parker: The Pretender Confident. Morally ambiguous. Uses anger to disguise deep, deep hurt. (Did I have a huge crush on her too? Listen. Maybe.) Her relationships were so complex, and she was so fun.

5. Bela Talbot: Supernatural Morally ambiguous conwoman? Yes, please. Please. I adored her so much. (Have you guessed the theme here yet?)

6. Madeleine: La Femme Nikkita Co-head of Section One. Another morally ambiguous woman. Another powerful woman. Confident. Very tragic past. (Oh man, this bit will mean nothing but I just realized she killed her sister, much like a character from another show I love, and I'm having parallel thoughts. Ahem.)

7. Nikita: Nikita Tough as nails spy who's hellbent on taking down the organization that wrongly enslaved her and forced her to kill her love? Uhm, yes, yes yes. This time I was old enough to know how hard I was crushing. But can you even blame me?

8. Rachel: The Animorphs Another complex, morally ambiguous young woman. It has always been very difficult for me to choose a favorite in this series. Her best friend Cassie and her cousin Jake are also my favorites. Her arc is so devastating and tragic that it sort of sneaks into first place for today.

9. Oliva Armstrong: Fullmetal Alchemist

This one was hard because also I love Riza Hawkeye to pieces. But Oliva is the hardened General and I just. I have to. I adore her too.

10. Lydia Martin: Teen Wolf Another difficult decision with a lot of characters falling in a close second. I really adore the play on the mean girl trope. And her arcs in s2 and s3a just especially get to me. She's again tough and confident. And I love her.

Bonus: Xena: Xena Warrior Princess

I never really was in the fandom, but bb me had a crush. (Could this read anymore like a 90s bb should have figured out she was queer so much sooner than she did list??) I've recently been half-considering a rewatch. I mostly got to watch this on Saturday nights when I stayed up too late and the night was clear enough to get the station in with our giant rotator antennae.

I'm a tag some people now with no pressure. Also if you aren't tagged and wanna do it, go for it. I won't judge.

@momentofmemory, @lexluthorswigcap, @domesticated-feral, @nacreousgore, @azraeldoesnotdispute, @possibleplatypus, @turtlycute