#projecting your trauma onto your characters

[fromtheseventhhell]

The way fandom keeps flip-flopping between Arya's age is so weird. One minute she's too old to experience trauma, the next minute she's too young for crushes and romance. Like jeez fandom, make up your own damn mind.

I've been saying that a lot of people don't consider Arya an actual character, and the inconsistent takes about her are one of the best examples. People just want her to exist as a prop to support their fanon so they don't bother doing any analysis (a lot of them don't even bother reading her chapters). They'll just say whatever depending on the conversation. They hate empathizing with her, so they adultify her; They hate the idea of her having a romance, so they infantilize her. No consistency or logic...just vibes and the desire to reduce her character. It's like them claiming she has masculine privilege but then insisting she has to leave Westeros to be "free" since she's non-conforming. Or that she's a feral wild child who can't control herself while also claiming she's a cold-hearted, calculating assassin.

They're so obsessive about it too. They can't just dislike her character and not talk about her, they need to erase basically everything about her story. It really boils down to them liking her story elements but not being able to project onto her, so they steal her traits for their fanon!fave. It's wild we have to see their nonsense takes because they can only "enjoy" the story after they've rewritten it. At this point it won't even stop if we get TWOW; I can already foresee the "George stole [x]'s story to give to Arya because he hates feminine women" takes lol

[remwantsmorewords]

Omw to make my favourite OC has the same deeply entrenched trauma that I have

[mewunderthetruck]

me 🤝 @nanaten

studying Ninten under a microscope but also kind of chewing him like a toy

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

i love writing alicent-centric rhaenicent fics and projecting onto alicent and rhaenyra just has to deal with her (my) (our) shit

[katyspersonal]

3 for Aldrich, Aldia, Willem & Laurence

9 for Maria

11 for Micolash & Aldrich

24 for Laurence

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

3) What first drew you to this character?

As for Aldrich, I vaguely recall finding out that he checks the traits I like the most? He was one of the characters I've learned about through fandom and not on my own, and I think this ancient meme about summarises it:

Also:

@val-of-the-north SHUDDUP you're basically so horny for Laurence/Logarius/Snatchers that you can't even picture them in your mind in any way but being naked!!!!!!! *casts the stone back at u*

With Laurence, like with Mico, it was the very first glance at the character in Youtube compilation with boss themes and concept art image. I did not know the lore yet, but the design and the music made me imagine Laurence as sort of aged, sagely librarian. I could not imagine back then that his boss fight would be him being a "helpless abhorrent little mewmew" as kids call it! Heck, I thought he'd have dialogue despite the monster form x) In a way, my first impression was not wrong, with the cut content of him actually talking even in a beast form, and implication of him being a son of Cainhurst cut content librarian NPC! I have intuition for cut content before having information, hahaha!

I have nothing to say about Willem. It might be a memory gap thing, but I swear at some point I feel I was turned off and then booted back up with liking this character already installed in my system x) As for Aldia.... ugh for fuck's sake... yeah, it was this legend:

I was absolutely floored by this stupid vid even without knowing any context, but I also instantly liked this character. I didn't even know his name yet, but the voice acting and long yapping about philosophy already pulled me in XD (Also unironically, this video is precisely how I give relationship advice fhfhdds)

9) Does this character remind you of anyone you know? Does that affect how you see them?

Yeah, I know this person. I know them very well. I know them more than anyone else. Someone who was misguided (by their destructive influence mentor figure, by their own foolishness and past history, or combination of both, who can tell anymore?) into committing awful things, then despaired over their sins and attempted redemption but also failed in some way? This person is me. At some point I've found myself in front of horrible truth about my past life and personality, and knew I was guilty and sullied forever. That it was over for me as a human being, but that didn't matter, and I could only keep people safe by locking myself away and trying to serve something better.

......annnnd it took a few years of more informed people to (metaphorically) shake me and slap my face into lucidity, explaining to me that I've fallen for the "BPD demonization" that was going far beyond than my individual failure as a friend, and we are always accused of abuse and causing irreversible harm when the worst we do is being emotionally overbearing. I kept losing trust to those friends, telling them that they were enablers who tried to gaslight me into thinking I was not 'that much of a monster', until it was other people with BPD who 'shook me and slapped my face into lucidity'. xd Nonetheless, even though now I know the truth about how society treats BPDs, I remember the feeling of being so monstrous and harmful that I was not even allowed to "touch" people with my dirty hands, how my reality used to be. So, I could write Maria going through this effortlessly, especially considering what she did was more plain and tangible!

In fact... thank you for asking me about this, because I kept wondering why I had such frequent dreams about being Maria, and why the Maria in my dreams acts like abused child that took back control against Gehrman despite my portrayal of the guy being so different. And now the puzzle is solved! That part of me still lives inside, it seems.

11) How did you “fall in love” with this character?

Already answered this for Micolash here: ( x )! As for Aldrich, it was through properly analysing the bigger picture and context of his actions. I've figured that his madness was, in fact, being informed on what was far too ahead of everyone else around him! He, like the rest of the cast, is trapped in the rotting, doomed world in which the only choices are 1) "die with dignity" or 2) commit something unthinkable from moral standpoint for a chance to escape. And will morality of the rotting world will matter in the new world anyways? Won't it all be left behind and be forgiven?

The guy also tried to take everyone else he could with him, like sort of a fucked up Noah's Arc! I can tell that they reused the concept with Rykard, at least, I am glad they know what works xD I'd say that the sadism he experienced upon eating people was either result of insanity (he understood a thing no one should understand), or still didn't exclude the bigger purpose (egotistically revelling in how holy he is helping everyone and doing what no one else dared, which would be like my Laurence). In any case, I have the strongest respect to the courage it takes to transcend the bonds of morality and compassion in order to to greater good. Being burdened with the knowledge of how the world really works, and choosing to push through instead of still being bound... This is why I also like Fauxsefka; learning how this world works, she chose to turn people into Kin so they can't ever become beasts. I am weak for this trope, you don't understand.

24) Do you ever dream about this character? If so, describe a dream you once had about them.

Laurence appears in my dreams only in two contexts: 1) Micolaurence or 2) dreams about finding secret files in Bloodborne that reveal his canonical appearance before beasthood! I can tell the latter comes from my everlasting unsatisfaction with my design for him, because I love it but it doesn't feel "fitting" and I can't identify why!

The former, I think, fandom rubbing onto me x) In two of these dreams, I was Laurence. In other two, I was Micolash. In one of Laurence dreams it was mutual, in the second one I was in love unrequited. In one of Micolash dreams, it was mutual, and in another it was not.. Basically, my dreams allows me to experience this ship from every possible angle. o_o Waiting for more I guess fhhdfsfd

______________

Thank you for asking! And.. without exaggeration, you've just done quite a psychological work on me by just asking the right thing. I need to think about that, hahaha

[pinewae]

i think often in fandom people are so ready to die on their hills that they forget about things like the unreliable narrator and differing character perspectives being unobjective. sometimes the story isn't going to tell you exactly what to think and who is right and wrong and what everything means. you're usually supposed to, as an audience member, see the context of the whole story and make judgments based on that. not just believe everything out of the mouth of one character. you have the knowledge of their whole world and insight into their relationships that is invisible to the characters, why are you just trusting everything they say objectively as if they don't exist in surrounding context?? i don't get it. how do people enjoy stories that way

[queensof-my-heart]

Jesus Christ…people have absolutely lost the fucking plot when it comes to hating Jaehaerys the first. He is a flawed character as they all are and made some very poor decisions in regards to his daughters but to claim that he sexually abused them when the text doesn’t imply it is frankly disgusting

They’ve gone from criticising things that are true and fair to critique him on to making up slander to make him into some grotesque monster who hates every woman who breaths

[acourtofquestions]

JUST FINISHED CHAPTER 23 OF CROWN OF MIDNIGHT!!!

AND I LEGIT DONT WANT TO READ ANYTHING ELSE — BECAUSE ITS GONNA RUIN IT — THERE ARE TOO MANY BOOKS LEFT IN THE SERIES FOR THESE CHARACTERS TO BE THIS HAPPY AND ALSO STAY THIS WAY — BUT ITS JUST SO PERFECT

AND I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY WITH CELAENA AND CHAOL FOREVER

WHYYYYYYYYY

[kingtycoon13]

That last post is the reason I wanted to once almost throw hands at some idiot Gale hater in the tags who was trying to say that the dev note about how he says I love you in the epilogue is like he’s said it thousands of times means that it’s lost it’s meaning

[theyreallgaylol]

HHHHHHHHhhhhhaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[zahri-melitor]

Me: I’m unsure if I want to add Gotham Knights to my read through list. It IS an ensemble book, however I’ve heard good stuff about the early run and I WAS enjoying the writing in Shadow of the Bat every time in appeared in crossovers.

Issue 1: Tim is stressing to Dick, Dick is stressing to Babs, Alfred is being sarcastic and Bruce?

Me: good talk Bruce, I’ll be back for more fascinating updates on your mental state circa 2000, neurodivergence, and eternal incipient breakdown next month.

[piscadilly]

sal isn't some kind of stereotypical emo boy band rockstar he doesn't drink canonically and i doubt he does hard drugs either thanks and goodbye

[imsosocold]

[sporksaber]

*me slinging my arm around a vampire character and patting their face* this baby can fit so much projection of my teenage mental issues.

[carmybearzattos]

i had a dream last night i was making sandwiches for my boss and then this morning i woke up and threw up before work so that’s how i’m doing. in my carmy berzatto era

[ririrules60]

Undertale sketches??? About an undertale COMIC??? In 2023???????

More likely than you think... (help girl ive been consumed by my hyperfixations)