#real mary sue main character energy here but I do what I want

[undead-potatoes]

I don't recall seeing it (if you've already addressed it whoops), how did Jay come to be a druid?

I've mentioned lil bits here and there, but I don't think I've typed it up in any coherent way before so thanks for the excuse B)

TL;DR: He always had an innate connection to nature, especially animals, which manifested itself in the form of being able to speak to animals and use simple wild shapes as a pre-teen. He was then taught how to harness more advanced druidic abilities by actual druids, first by a spore druid living in Baldur's Gate, and later by druids in a circle somewhere outside of the city.

I'm basing most of this on the fact that 1) Forest Gnomes have "Speak with (small) Animals" as a racial trait, and 2) how much of a druid's skill comes from simply studying and emulating nature - they're as much felt and intuited as they are taught.

Jay has always been very attuned to the animal life around him, being able to communicate with them for as long as he can remember. Strays, rodents, and birds were as much friends to him as the other humanoid kids, and it really shaped how he interacts with the world.

As a child he'd study the various animals to see how they moved, and then try to emulate that when he was playing and pretending to be those animals. You know, normal kid stuff. Which is why it took him by surprise when he suddenly stood there one day, having turned into an actual cat. It was more an accident than anything else, almost how sorcerer kids can have sudden and unpredictable surges of magic, where he connected with something more primal for just a moment.

It took him years before he could do it again, and even longer before he could consistently wild shape on command, but he got there eventually. He also tried his hand at other city animals like stray dogs and rats to varying degrees of success, but his cat form was always the one that felt the most "true" to him.

This was another thing that fundamentally shaped him and how he moves, the wild shape being a natural extension of his own humanoid form. As he got older, changing and morphing into other forms became almost as easy as breathing to him, something he barely even offered a conscious thought as he did it.

For years that's all it was, using his minor skills to play, travel around the city, and commit minor crimes like stealing food and trinkets. Nothing throws the Flaming Fists off quite like running into an alley and disappearing into thin air, leaving only an inconspicuous-looking cat behind.

He would eventually bump into Nana, an older spore druid who lived in and oversaw her own little corner of the Baldur's Gate sewers. She took him under her wing, and taught him some of the fundamentals of druidism, both in the form of the most basic skills, but also as an ideology. It's from her he learned to have deep respect for all forms of life, even the ugly and uncomfortable, and how death and decay are mere extensions of life itself.

Nana soon realized Jay's talents laid outside the realms of her own capabilities, and used her connections to druids outside of the Gate to send Jay away to a circle where he could really hone his wild shape abilities. He spent a few years at the circle learning a wider variety of skills, in addition to how to better control his shapeshifting.

He really could just have stayed there and become a permanent fixture at the circle among the other druids, which probably would have been a better life for him overall. But he longed back to the city, and so he returned to Baldur's Gate where he quickly fell back into a life of crime, just with a more advanced set of tools at his disposal.

I imagine he'd been about 14 or 15 when he left for the circle, and somewhere in his late teens when he came back; the perfect age to be genuinely useful, yet easily influenced and manipulated by people seeking to take advantage of him and his abilities.

[hamliet]

when does a relationship become queerbaiting? theres a book that i really like and the 2 male leads characters have a lot of storylines and arcs where they get closer and i think some of the tropes used can be similar to the typical romantic tropes, neither of them end up with anyone at the end of the story since its more about found family and the long journey the whole cast goes through. they even get shipped by another character as a running gag. personally i always saw it as being open to interpretation but recently the revised edition of the original novel came out and there were several lines those 2 characters had about each other that were kinda toned down, i didnt think much of it but i saw a post about how it was clearly baiting and the author was being homophobic for toning it down. i didnt think it counted as baiting since as far as i know, the novel was never advertised as anything with romance and the author never pretended they were gonna end up together. i am definitely a little weirded out by the decision to change those specific lines but a lot of the story stayed the same, including a lot about their relationship so idk what to think.

i guess im more confused on if it counts as baiting, or even substext??

Sooooo I am not the best person to ask about this, because I’m a cis woman who has thus far in life only been attracted in a romantic sense to cis men. I can talk a bit about baiting as a general concept in fiction, but you should definitely take it with some grains of salt. 

Baiting, for me, is like deliberately playing up an aspect writers have no intention on delivering on. Usually this is done for ratings, to tease fans, fanservice, etc, but without payoff, it is just bad writing. Red herrings are good in writing, but only can be successfully used if the actual result is more satisfying than the herring. This applies to writing in general, not just to romantic ships. However, when the baiting involves historically underrepresented groups for no reason other than to get fans to spend money consuming the story, I think we can all agree that becomes something more grotesque than just bad writing: it’s insensitive, socially irresponsible, frankly hurtful. 

Some common examples are Bridgerton which has a gay character, who is extremely minor, yet they played up this character in advertising. Also, Rizzoli and Isles I think actually had its producers mention deliberately playing up the lesbian subtext to hook the audience without ever intending on following through. 

That said, context also matters. Like, there are aspects of the culture of the work’s author, the target audience, and such that come into play here also (so like, romantic tropes differ by culture. For example, enemies to lovers is common in Asian stories but less in the west, and the “girl who pursues a guy” is extremely common in Japanese shonen in particular, while it is very much a cringe trope that almost never results in romance in American fiction. So if a writer reads, say, tropes that are common in America into a Japanese work and says it’s baiting, that’s quite possibly not the intent even if it may have been the experience of the reader. So even if there was no intent, there can still be hurt, and that hurt can be real, if that makes sense. 

The definition of what constitutes ‘baiting’ varies. I do think that, in true Tumblr fashion, the term gets thrown around a lot and loses its intended meaning, or is so rigidly defined that creators can meet the letter of the “not a bait” requirement while ignoring the spirit of it.

To start with the latter: regarding something hitting the letter of what most wouldn’t consider baiting yet not really the spirit, let’s look at The Rise of Skywalker. This movie had a genuine lesbian kiss in it... between two characters we’d never seen more than a glimpse of while others are celebrating around them. Since it has a kiss, it’s not baiting, right? Well... the director deliberately said in the lead-up to the film that he included it because he “wanted LGBT people to see themselves in the film.” If “see yourselves in the film” is like a nanosecond of background, then, like... idk. Baiting or not, it feels icky, and I know some people consider it baiting and some don’t even if they don’t like, love that representation. But I think this is more queerbaiting than like, Nobara and Maki, who don’t have explicit romantic coding. 

Going back to the former, in terms of ‘queerbaiting’ losing its intended meaning... I think there are a lot of really poorly written romantic ships out there, often het, while a lot of same-gender relationships are really well written regardless of whether there’s romantic coding within the text. The main emotional energy in stories with 90% male characters (as frankly many if not most stories are, great job world) is probably between two men. There’s just so much more potential with well-written characters who share a lot of screen time, so of course people are going to ship them. In my opinion, this does not inherently make it baiting, but it certainly creates an environment that lends itself to baiting even if the writers aren’t intending to do this. 

Like, you could say the main emotional energy in BNHA is Bakugou and Deku. However, Bakudeku is 100% not queerbaiting. It’ll never be canon romantically (I don’t even ship it lol). There has been nothing to imply romance between them even if the main emotional message can be seen in their development. Deku/Ochaco is likely to be canon, but there is a significant lack of genuine emotional energy between them (the story’s plots and themes don’t coalesce around their relationship), so it’s probably going to feel forced. In contrast, Naruto/Sasuke had an actual kiss in canon, which while played for laughs is a lot more direct romantic coding than anything between Bakugou/Deku. I actually don’t think the majority of Narusasu is baiting, but I definitely think that one moment in chapter like 3 was really poor fanservice for yaoi fans, and has not aged well at all. 

It is also the case that fans can confuse headcanons with what is actually in the text, and that just never ends well. For example, Clover and Qrow’s ship in RWBY: a lot of people read Clover as gay, which led to “bury your gays” outrage when he died. A member of the crew stated explicitly they had never intended for Clover to be a love interest for Qrow, and truthfully here was nothing strictly romantic in their relationship--nothing like a kiss or a declaration of love or a parallel to another romantic couple. Hence, I don’t personally consider it queerbaiting or bury your gays, but a lot of fans felt that it was and their pain is legitimate even if I think textually the argument isn’t there. The one thing I do think is true about this in particular is that there was also no strict platonic coding, which encourages headcanons. Clear writing, yo. It can help. 

Note the word “can” not “will,” because strict platonic coding doesn’t always fix things, either. In what was probably a reaction to the outrage over Clover’s death, you had extremely blatant platonic coding of Ruby and Penny’s relationship this season leading up to Penny’s death. Ruby refers to Penny as “our friend” three different times, wherein “friend” sends a platonic message and “our” sends an even stronger message that it’s not about the two of them despite the fact that their friendship is one of the sweetest and most interesting in the show. A lingering Ruby-Penny hug then is followed by a lingering Penny-Weiss hug, then Yang, then Blake, etc. The writers went out of their way to hit people over the head with “platonic” and yet they have still gotten accusations of bury your gays and queerbaiting because people will see what they want to see in a story. 

Seeing what you want to see in a story also isn’t inherently bad. People who are underrepresented are going to have to read themselves into stories because Lord knows writers ain’t incorporating them well enough if at all. It’s why “Mary Sues” are common in fanfiction, which is primarily written by people who are not straight white men: because where the hell else are we to see ourselves in fiction? So essentially the macrocosm of culture creates this problem, both in terms of baiting and the misuse of the term, and the only fix is a shit ton more good representation.

[babysatans-shifting]

• current shifting journey

• Lucid dreaming method every weekend because I have a job. Ugh. That sucks.

• In progress of mastering the awake method: a mix of Julia and ADHD method. Will interchangeably use subliminals and 8D audio with various results. Sad face, frown.

• Ultimate goal - respawn, maybe? Haven't considered it yet. Awake method first, then need to see how my clone behaves. Can't have any loose ends left here, now can I?

• The positives: successful half-shift in an awake state. Felt a change in surroundings, semi-complete ego replacement, (very dim) DR memories resurface but became too exhausted to continue. Two hours of extreme concentration. Take care of yourself, kids.

• It was a breakthrough, though. Finally understood that the foundation of a successful shift is built on four things: Belief, Willpower, Concentration and Engagement.

Belief as in, the hardest part - actually convincing yourself that you have successfully shifted and being able to shift. I've seen most adult shifters struggle with this vs adolescent shifters getting it right in shorter time. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that the adult mind is much more analytical than it is creative.

Willpower as in the ability to maintain belief and concentration. It is quite difficult to properly visualise with 3-5 senses at the same time and it does exhaust a person. Spatial awareness to the max!

Concentration is hard for the ones with the wandering mind. Some shifters struggle to stay awake, I struggle to keep up the feeling of "already being in my DR".

Engagement is the funny part, the one that's hard to describe because it encompasses all of the things needed. It's the gut feeling telling you to ditch the subliminal and just put some ambient noises. It's the actively fighting the desire to suddenly scratch your chin. It's the choice to not pay any attention to the car honking outside.

• Scripting? I keep it real. Sure, I did give myself main character energy like the best Mary Sue (yes, I'm that old!) but the amount of renovations I had done to my script after my successful first time was enormous. Because with all this "I never get embarrassed and my coochie tastes like choccy milk" crap (exaggeration), it felt as fake as a dream.

I still occasionally trip and fall flat on my face and my body has stretch marks. I've come to better terms with some of my flaws, to be honest. Nothing is more creepy than staring at yourself in the mirror and seeing a living, breathing maneken.

• RE: Scripting - Relationships. That's where it gets all wonky. I hadn't scripted anyone's attitude to me beyond "positive", I hadn't scripted out the flaws of people in my DR. But what I did do was land in a universe where everyone is alive, nothing hurts and they're one big happy family. Where I fit in that was to be my own making and their choice and boy, am I glad that I did.

Taking time to know them - like people, not like characters with some screen time and fanon headcanons - was what made it real for me. I wouldn't trade those memories for my soul. They're not faultless, I am imperfect, and yet - we found each other.

To wrap it up, I will say - you can live out a life you want but keep it real. Keep it Age of Ultron and not WandaVision.

[ofthelabyrinth]

Instructions: Always repost with the rules, answer the 11 random questions left for you and leave 11 more for the people you tag!

TAGGED BY: @moonwoken​

TAGGING: be gay do crime

questions i am answering

1. how are things going?

They’re going, man! They’re...going. I have the next two weeks off work which I’m not thrilled about (I actually love my job) but like...my bestie and I keep trading silly little gifts back and forth, so that’s cool. I think I’m mostly still reeling from the blow-out of a breakup and like...feeling like I don’t belong anywhere? Maybe my depression’s just kicking into high gear again but I feel like I’m not wanting/don’t belong anywhere but maybe work. Like everyone and everywhere else just tolerates me. IDK man.

2. if you were someone else’s muse, how would your mun describe you?

Depressed, spontaneous, fickle, lacking in self-esteem but always available to build others up, loves too quickly and too easily, book smart but so fucking stupid otherwise. :/

3. if you could only recommend me three songs, movies or books to get to know you better, which would they be?

Ooooo, this one’s kinda tough! Well, for starters, my go-to movie is The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I feel like knowing it’s my favorite movie (and having seen it at least once, lol) really explains a lot of my personality. What Rocky Horror can’t explain, my favorite novel probably can: Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. I really am haunted by this book. My recommendation for a “song” would actually be the whole Beetlejuice: The Musical album, but I think “No Reason” and/or “Say My Name” nicely encapsulates either my split opinions (former) or my energies (latter).

4. what was it that first inspired you to write? what inspires you today?

My sixth grade English teacher. He was very supportive of my writing and became a touchstone for inspiration in my life. I really started down that track after his class, and even though I’m not doing what either of us ever thought I would, his words still ring true. I don’t really know if I have any inspirations today, though, per se. Performers, I guess. Most of my strongest muses/writing have been born out of my fascination with the performer/s I’ve used for their FC’s.

5. if you had to put together a team of 5 fictional characters plus yourself to save the world, who would you choose and why?

Captain Katherine Janeway, Q, Commander Spock, Doctor McCoy, and Charles Xavier (PatStew). I’m going to be honest here: between Janeway and Q...we don’t need anyone else. Q’s powers and Janeway’s moral compass in combination with Janeway’s leadership and Q’s simp status will solve the problem on the then and there. I just happen to like both Spock and McCoy and think they would contribute a lot of flavor to the adventure, although we’d need Xavier to mellow shit out when all those hot heads start to collide--in particular, Patrick Stewart’s Xavier, since he fits the Star Trek vibe and would thereby have a little more sway with Q than otherwise.

6. what is your favorite fictional trope? least favorite?

My favorite...ever? Period? At all? In all of tropedom? Dark circus/carnival. The exact flavor of the circus/carnival/other travelling show as well as the degree of darkness doesn’t matter, I just always end up drawn in and stupefied by it. I think it’s a combination of the tonal juxtaposition (the light, bright, fun, easygoing, smoke-and-mirrors sensation of the show juxtaposed to the darkness and the horror) and my unending fascination with performance and performance spaces being used outside of their “traditional”/majority context. Backstage mysteries have the exact same effect on me, as do haunted theatres. My least favorite was formerly the misuse of the Persephone myth--twisted by modern, romantic minds into a love story where one isn’t existent in the original mythos--but it has since swung back to that of the unaware Mary Sue/Gary Stu. It’s a trope that can be fun when the writer is self-aware enough to perceive it, but it’s otherwise irritating beyond belief.

7. what unpopular opinion do you have toward the rpc or tumblr?

Soft-blocking is an exercise in pointlessness, as it rarely actually results in the blocked party staying away. This website is too glitchy to make that kind of thing work. Have conversations with the people you’d rather soft- than hard-block about the offense they’ve caused or just hard-black them, myself included.

8. if you could spend one day with your main muse (or your muse of choice), what would that be like?

Look, I’ll be real. My muse of choice? Very much not advertiser-friendly, as they say on YouTube. The things we would do would horrify people unaware of my sex drive and wild attraction to him. A night of debauchery on all levels--because we’d spend a night, not a day, that’s just the way his canon rolls--and if unreleased canon has anything to tell, it’s that I’d end up pregnant with his son and then probably die but it might have been worth it, especially if we can skip the reality TV show in the middle. So let’s just pretend I said I’d spend a day getting high with Jareth and wandering around the Escher room tripping the most balls ever.

9. if you found yourself in one fictional universe of your choosing, which would it be and why?

................. I’d either end up in space on Star Trek because I’m a lonely space gay or I’d end up in a creepy gothic castle singing and dancing--is it Rocky Horror or Labyrinth?--and perhaps legitimately feeling like the siren I long to be as people compliment my voice.

10. a character you’ve always wanted to write?

Mirror!Spock. I wrote him once and I loved it and I would love to write him again, but I don’t use AOS canon so finding people to write with is often difficult.

11. what are five things that spark joy for you?

Space, Rocky Horror, singing, my pets (did I tell you about my new dog?), Renaissance Festivals.

.

my questions for you

1. how have you been holding up lately?

2. what are three surefire ways to make you smile/happy?

3. who is your comfort character and what are they like?

4. explain your URL!

5. what is one article of clothing you love above all others and why?

6. what is your favorite kind of thing to write? what about your least favorite?

7. what is one belief you hold but do not often share?

8. if you could choose one person (alive, dead, or fictional) to spend the day with, who would it be and what would you do?

9. what is one piece of media that continues to hold your attention?

10. what drew you to writing on tumblr?

11. what is one thing you wish you got to talk about more often?

[theinsanecrayonbox]

KP finally finishes Gifted s2

gave up on this back when FOX was stupid and Marvel had me jaded (still does but meh). so here’s the final 3 episodes and my incoherent babble about them i guess, after not watcing the show or nearly a year and only having my previous babble session as a refresher about what’s going on

Episode 14:

 for once the “previously on dbz” segment is needed since,. yeah been almost a year since i’ve watched this...whoops

heeeey opening flashback! i forgot the format of this show...-.- oh hey not-Graydon...you know his comment about “freaks to teleport me through traffic” would’ve been funnier if he was Graydon, since Kurt is technically his sibling...as is Clarice... just saying.

oh right, Lauren was dosed with serum. well, at least it’s working right, really screwing her up. but again, Mom is the only rational and logical one.

how are sewers large enough for a tent metropolis? but oh hey, she knows about past Morlocks hm??? maybe cause some Mauraders action...hm??? or something they previously established with the Brotherhood or not-Bishop explained that i can’t remember, whatever. i’m just happy to see Blink. and the Morlocks have a network to places...like Pittsburgh? i thought they just live din NYC...ok in this story it’s just DC because that’s where we’re set ok, but still...

wait not-Graydon is making Sentinel Guy do the Mauraders plotline?? ooo...

is the Hellfire building CGI? that..looked badly shaded...and Lorna’s hair still looks stupid...though Andy’s hair does too...why do the bad guys have bad fashion sense?

i hadn’t forgotten how Mary Sue the Struckers were though...uhg...but hey don’t sweat it Mom, if Moira McTaggert’ taught us anything, you’re never the only non-mutant in the pro-mutant side; turns out you’l end up being one all along eventually.

oh good back to Blink. please don’t flirt with not-Bishop though. just...go fight Purifiers, since that was backstory for you, ok, that’s way better than flirting. wait Gabby? uh...when’d Blink get blue in her hair?

wait Cop Man, were they dead when you found them, or did you...overall though, i am really liking the atmosphere of the Purifer’s tunnel raid. the mood and tension are great, and the cinematography is doing a good job at keeping it. it’s a shame the editor feels the need to cut back to sunny Hellfire tower to break the atmosphere...but hey

oh don’t get cocky Morlock guys...and grenade, yup cocky. but again, the lighting and mood of everything in the tunnels is really good. the power effects not so much...but tv budget. and i had actually forgotten not-Bishop had a lazer eye O.o

dang Mom you are still best OC here

nooooo you shot Blink!!! baby girl nooooooo. idc about Sentinel Guy’s burst of conscious at “wait there are mutant children?” you shot best girl Blink. boo on you

Episode 15:

flashback time yay -.- but Blink! won’t make me forget you shot her since the recap ended on that...but hey tell me more about her past please, i really want to know why she doesn’t think she’s best girl. just saying “i was with the brotherhood and i didn’t like it” doesn’t cut it...and John no, you’re not allowed to give out redemption to everyone unless they are convenient to your aesthetic or philosophical interpretation, that’s why Krakoa preaches

John you don’t have time to fight not-Bishop out of grief ok. you were a ranger, you should realize that.

wait, so Reeva’s the one to blame for the council of stupid on Krakoa? that...actually makes sense, since she’s done tones of hypocritical last minute rule changing plans. weird.

really, my joke about Sentinel Guy’s heel turn was right? he honesty never realized that there were mutant children? i...wow

hey Lorna’s tiara. it makes her hair slightly less stupid looking. makes her outfit a tad stupid though...she should have more of that green popping somewhere, like her knives or a wrist band, or something.

really John just stayed there punching a wall and no cops found him? bad writing.

oooo is Dad gonna fry Cop Man?? sorry, disintegrate, i forgot what he did. and holy crap he did-sweet!

there are a lot of dutch angles in this episode...

oh Lauren don’t turn on your Mom, c’mon! why is no one thinking realistically?

hehe Cuckoos and fashion joke...although why did they get a pop of color elsewhere...or were the boots white just to point out the dirt

“do you think we can mind control our way to a mutant homeland” hm...should i just put in a cut off now for shots at Krakoa?

Mom you’re the only one with a brain! don’t sacrifice yourself because “i has no powers”

gasp! Sentinel Guy *SEES* a mutant child, now he knows for reals they exist. i’m sorry but this heel turn for him is stupid. i get the “i never saw them as *people* and now i do” but the way it’s framed is, as i’ve said “wait there are mutant CHILDREN?? O.o” and that is just bad writing

i swear, if Lorna trying to save Andy gets her killed, i will hate the Wonder Twins even more forever. but at least i agree with his “well her plan sounds stupid” when he learns the truth. they could’ve colored Lorna’s zippers the metallic green, that would’ve tied her costume together...sorry distracted

Lauren’s shield looks like bubble wrap...and she’s super pouty wth?

ok the Dad-Andy monster talk was really good...ruined by Lauren’s stupid face inserts sure, but the talk was really good.

hey back to not-Graydon and Sentinel Man. ah yes, i knew killing Cop Man would just switch Sentinel Man back in the end, that is also why his little epiphany was so annoying, because ultimately it was pointless.

aw man sappy music when the OC Family gets back together...yeah ok, but still i’ll groan a bit because uhg. but ooo Lorna comes back to Marcos too ok now it’s less groany (but still overly cheesey and neon annoying). do kinda like John on the roof...too bad the over the top music drones it out a bit.

Episode 16:

the finale! i don’t...know what to expect going into this, other than Blink pops in at the end and might be Exiles Blink?

hey the last time shows the reunion scene would’ve worked well without the over the top music. huh

oh the flashback is the 7/15 event. heh Hawks News, instead of Fox, heh. but otherwise...meh, mandatory flashback

so their plan is, use the Uber Mary Sue Wonder Twins to destroy a skyscraper. i...sure, what else can we expect from the Strucker Show (maybe Dad will sacrifice himself and do it all on his own, that’d be a neat-yet obvious-twist)

you can tell John’s depressed cause his hair isn’t floofy anymore ^^;;;

again, Mom’s the only one with thinking ahead skills.

oh, we’re getting spliced in flashbacks...yeah Dad’s gonna die.

Cuckoos! srry, still one of the best parts of any episode. and our dear Esme is starting to turn...

oh John’s going Warpath on us with his face paint (yes he’s Thunderbird, i know). the John vs Sentinel Guy thing might be a bit much, but this is an awesome fight for John...even if he is being a fool and self sacrificial.

at least it was a commercial break that broke the energy of the fight scene, and not just a scene change. also, more flashback, i’m even more convinced Dad is gonna die.

did they dye Andy’s hair so he and Lauren would look more twinny? that’s stupid...and a point i probably already made...

hm...since Bishop is from the future, are they implying that Erg is his ancestor? (though that fails to track with the timeline of DoFP IF this is the same continuity of course)

ooooooo John said it, he is Thunderbird...and i think his face paint changed between shots because that white line wasn’t there by the dumpster scene...whoops

oh don’t tell me the power of friendship is going to save the day. oh good, no, just the standby of “kill the evil cuckoos”

well the Wonder Twins are down for the count, so even more thinking Dad’s gonna die to blow up the Hellfire building...wait...you can’t control your powers when Reeva sonic screams? well Dad has no control-PERFECT!

wow there are a lot of power fights here. no wonder the affects in other episodes sucked, they spent the budget on the finale lol

hey Dad has the same plan i did. again, the writing telegraphed that was the ending...but still, i give Dad credit, he has grown as a character. the flashback doesn’t help though it just spells it out “this is best OC love him he is best ever” which...yeah, this show does that with the Struckers, we’ve covered that a millions times by now

i wonder if Dad touched himself would be disintegrate? also, shouldn’t his kids be safe, since same strain of X-gene are supposed to be immune...or does that only apply to certain power types?

not to play it down, but yup, dad exploded. if it wasn’t so thrown at you that that was how it’d end from, the start, then this moment might’ve had more impact...also the moment itself was kinda “you knew this was coming, there it’s done”

hey Esme’s on their team now, neat! i thought she’d be independent.

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey Blink’s back! but she had a collar on her coat that was reminiscent of her AoA costume, and she opened a portal to a place with burning fire...kinda like the DoFP setting/AoA, and she never addressed anyone by name, just a general “come with me”....so yeah, that was totally Exiles Blink, and not the Blink of this story. that’s really kinda awesome.

too bad we won’t be following up on that since there’s no plans for season 3. but...it was an ok way to end i guess. it closed off the story for our main people, and we all know that it’ll never end with a “and they all lived happily ever after in peace and harmony” because it’s Xmen. it opens the door for other stories to happen in the same setting...and leaves the big hole about Blink at the end, but yeah...

but now it’ll never be followed up probably because disney/marvel thinks the Xmen are the Inhumans now *shrugs* whatever, i finally finished The Gifted, i can check that off my To-Watch List

[note-katha]

Chapter Two: The Five Circles and The Four Rings

Welcome back! It’s time for...chapter two, right? Right. Okay, let me find my page again, let’s see.

There was a long silence….ah, no that’s too far ahead. We’re not ready for that yet, or at least you probably aren't.

Here’s chapter two! Let me tell you, this chapter is going to be filled with information. Classes and more classes and a few people that I recommend you take a moment to burn into your memory. Not literally though, I should point out. I can’t afford another literalism lawsuit. Well, let’s move on. We have a fresh pot of tea and an enthralling chapter to get too!

As entrancing as orientation can be, especially for new students, we, unfortunately, have to cut through all the chatter to focus! We’ll pick up right about here, where the professors smartly split the group into Witches and Nevermore-originating students. It’s just for ease of communication, I’m sure you understand, yes? There’s such a variety of different material to cover that it’s the only way they’d be able to get everything done.

We haven’t even gotten to the Rings!

Professor Maaya took the group not too far away, leaving Dr. Avali to deal with the Nevermore kids. Maaya, unlike Avali, was endlessly rational, a benefit when it came to describing magic to a few scores of people that hadn’t known magic existed until now.

“Shall we begin?” She asked with a warm smile. The professor turned to trace out the Five Circles of Magic in the air, illuminating it in Energy-based magic. Ah, you might want to see it, I’m sure my explanation wasn’t the most helpful, huh?

Here, hand me that paper, would you? I have a pen.

There we go! I haven’t been drawing this symbol for years to be bad at it. Now you have something to refer to while I keep going.

“The Five Circles of Magic are the most basic concept that as Witches, you all must understand,” Maaya explained. “The Fifth Circle is the most common, containing the spheres of Energy, Nature, Voice, Time, and Space. I’m sure most of you here are attuned to the Fifth Circle. I, myself, am an Energy Witch.”

Ardis and Jules shared a look, one that went “oh, that makes sense”. Ardis and Jules were both separately mildly relieved to know they’d have someone at least somewhat similar to them nearby. Aw, that’s so adorable, isn’t it?

As she spoke, the sigil lit up, starting at the very top and moving around in a clockwise pattern. Yes, this order is important, make a note of it.

“The Fourth Circle of Magic is less common but very important. The Fourth Circle contains the four basic elements, Wind, Fire, Earth, and Water.” The pattern repeated, showing where each one was placed with Wind at the top and Earth at the bottom. “While some countries choose to replace one or two of the elements with others which they feel works best, Evenfall has chosen to follow the Western Arcane theory for the Five Circles.”

She nodded to herself, eyeing the group to see if anyone was lost. No one was tired, though that was rather due to her energy spell currently covering the students. They’d sleep well tonight, luckily.

“Alright, moving onto the Third Circle of Magic, I hope you’re paying attention!” She clapped her hands together with a brilliant grin. Oh, right, did I forget to mention that Professor Suli Maaya was one of those kinds of people. The type that has a switch to flip and suddenly be a disconcerting vibrant (and mildly aggressive) person. “The Third Circle contains, from the top, Mind, Soul, and Emotion! This here is a very dangerous circle, as it relates to altering a person’s self but it’s not necessarily something to be feared,” she adds as a reassurance, “And Third Circle attunement is quite rare.”

Well, I hope that wasn’t too much for you, because we have a little more to go before we can get back into the fun stuff.

“Finally, the Second Circle of Magic, Creation and Destruction. This is the rarest and technically power circle to be a part of.” Professor Maaya scanned the group. Kal squirmed a bit, she was feeling guilty for some odd reason. It’s good to be unique! I would imagine she knew that but now, but she’s an odd one. “I want to preface one very important thing before I ask for questions,” Maaya said, “Despite how it may appear, you are all equal in power and strength. The Inner Circles often appear more powerful but are far more difficult to ever truly use. The Outer Circles may seem limited or small but they will provide you with undeniable abilities and skills. At Evenfall, we want everyone to thrive together and work as a group to hone your powers. Strength comes in multiples not singles.”

Oh my, that was quite cheesy. I told her once she should probably change that line, but it’s managed to make an impact every year. Judging by the baited breathes and silence, it worked once again!

“Any questions?”

There was a long silence, people don’t figure out things that quickly.

Fortunately, something did break the silence.

“Magic...MAGIC ISN’T REAL!” Someone unknown screamed from the back of the group. She’s one of those people I mentioned to remember. Her name is Mira and you’ll be hearing that statement and a variety of variations from her quite often. At least it broke the silence, sending the group into a crowd of laughter.

Kal bit her lip, unconfident. Originally, she was inclined to agree with Mira, but now? She was more unsure if she was capable of surviving at a school like this. Which, is absurd. She’s a main character! Well, she doesn’t know that, but that doesn’t make it not true. It looks like we’ll have to wait for the character development for the rest.

Someone raised their hand for a question, “What about the First Circle of Magic?”

All the energy seemed to drain as a quite deadly serious expression was now on Maaya’s face, “The First Circle of Magic is dangerous, so I beg you, please, do not look into it.”

“Isn’t that...just gonna encourage people to look into it?” Juli whispered quietly. These three were, in fact, the exact type to look into it.

“You could lose your life by doing so.”

“....Nevermind.”

There was far more to do in terms of “beginning”, but it was decided many years ago to place those in the first few days of classes.

All students being required to take their respective Circle Magic class gave a guaranteed spot for students to finish the final steps that would truly allow them to step into the world of Nevermore and Everless.

And allow those scared to run away. Don’t tell anyone I said that, I already got in trouble enough about it before, I would rather remain on good terms with the school.

Anyways, by the unfortunate thing called “organization”, all our wonderful students are all in separate classes.

Well, Kal was guaranteed to be separated but Ardis and Jules wound up in separate classes. Quite tragic, really.

Well, who’s first? Well, we started with Kal first so why not Ardis? He’s in for some, how would I put it, interesting company.

Ardis was humming lightly, as he tends to do, as he entered his class. He didn’t recognize anyone, which makes sense, Ardis you haven’t met anyone yet. Though, that’s probably because he’s in that dorm. A mostly empty place which people rarely actually lived in.

His luck was only evident of his main character status, don’t worry. He took a seat near the front of the class, hoping to be left mostly alone. He wanted to learn! Which, well, he hopefully will at Evenfall. That’s the point of college, isn’t it?

However, as unfortunate is it is for him, there was someone who recognized him.

“Hey, is this seat taken?” The voice of an obnoxiously flirtatious voice called out. Ardis glanced to his side, only to see Mary Sue, his suitemate.

“No?” Ardis answered quite unconfidently. Ardis wasn’t sure if he was relieved to see a familiar face or off-put by the girl’s odd behavior. He was fairly certain that getting involved with someone with a weird name like “Mary Sue” wouldn’t be a very good idea. Though, let me be honest, he’ll be doing far more than she will.

“Hey!” Mary Sue hissed, glaring as she looked around. “Who said that?”

“Who said what?” Ardis asked.

“That, uh,” she stopped. “Whatever it doesn’t matter, it’s just part of my fantastic destiny probably.” Oh dear, I think she can hear us. That shouldn’t be happening.

That’s quite a problem, but it doesn’t matter. We don’t see that much of her! So we can move onto discussing what happens during class. Personally, the Circle classes are always delightful to teach. They’re pass/fail classes and unless you miss all the classes or skip the final, you’ll pass. It’s education on how to use your magic, most students aren't inclined to miss the class.

Mary Sue plopped down with a huff, but caught Ardis’s confused staring.

“I’m sorry, uh, whatever you’re named, I’m not interested,” she said with a weird smile.

Ardis cocked his head to the side, very innocent, “What?”

“I’m not interested in you, so don’t even try.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I mean that look you’re giving me!” Mary Sue laughed. “You have something to say, right?”

“I was going to ask if you needed stomach medicine, you had a weird expression,” Ardis said simply. Ah, that’s what I love about this kid. Blunt and innocent, it’s a very fun combination to see. Especially now that that Mary Sue girl’s eye is twitching. Let’s hope that doesn’t become a habit.

“I don’t.”

Ardis gave a nod, finally being able to focus on his own stuff again. A delightful set of pens and paper to take notes with. Oh yes, he’s one of those people. He likely spent a few hours debating which of his colorful stationery he’d bring along.

Class began shortly afterward. Professor Zita Cavallo was teaching this class. I hate Professor Zita Cavallo, she owes me for an incident way back in ‘33. She’s a generally nice person, however, which prevents me from telling you to hate her.

Regardless of owed debts, she was teaching this class. Attuned to Space Magic, she was quite the interesting teacher.  Someone stood beside her, a glamour placed upon them. It seemed to be tied to Professor Cavallo but none of the students here were really talented enough to notice that.

“Good morning students,” Cavallo signed, accompanied by their assistant. “My name is Zita Cavallo, this person beside is Luna. This is the Introductory Fifth Circle Magic class,” she paused to cast a spell. The fifth circle emerging behind her. “That includes Energy, Nature, Voice, Time, and Space.” The corresponding points lit up as she signed. “I’m attuned to Space, personally. There’s a lot to discuss! So, we need to discuss and work on the assignment of Rings.”

“Rings?” Someone called out.

“Evenfall and the surrounding area is unfortunately not very safe. So, in order to protect our students, we have made pacts with ancient entities. These old and wise beings have protected our school and students since the beginning of the school’s life. Today, before any classes truly begin, we will be allowing the selection process to occur.”

That got Ardis’s attention. “What do you mean, allowing?” He asked, looking at the professor with confusion.

“You and I do not select your Ring. Their Guardian selects you.” Ah, yes, the stock line every Circle Magic professor uses. I mean, it’s not bad just not creative! “We’ll step outside for a few minutes for the process. It shouldn’t take long but we’re organized into times since there’s quite a few classes to get through and our guardians can’t stretch themselves too far trying to help all of us.”

There were murmurs through the class as Cavallo began to lead them out of the room. It was rather unexpected, after all. The Rings, however, are quite interesting and I always find it fun to watch students in their amazement for what goes on.

They filed out onto an open area, where Cavallo ordered them to circle around. She stepped into the center. The first step to the Ring ritual was the origin summoning.

Cavallo was good at this, she’s done it plenty of times. She stretched out slightly before beginning to cast a very specific spell.

Five circles, well, five rings were illuminated around Cavallo. They burned brightly for a long moment, even despite the sun shining above the students. They soon disappeared and Cavallo grinned. I swear, I hate her cockiness, she did a simple spell, not changing the world. I would know.

“Okay, students. So, the Selection process isn’t very glamorous, but that’s not the point here. This is important, so please listen well.”

Well, we’re not listening to her. I find that Cavallo’s explanations drag on and on and on. She’s the through type and we all know that through means boring.

The Five Rings each represent a Guardian. Fye, Brist, Mir, Sair, and Ravere.

Brist, who manifests as an owl, represents wisdom and creativity. She’s a sweet person but can be terrifying when upset. I don’t recommend making her upset. Mir, who manifests as a deer, represents nature and growth. They’re quite a nice being though a bit of boring. They’re very reliable.

Sair, who manifests as a fox, represents fire and trickery. He was once considered evil but if you give him pets, he melts. Don’t tell him I said that though. Then there’s Ravere, manifesting as a hawk, she represents wind and passion. She’s very strong and appears most frequently to her charges.

Finally, Fye, of ice and courage. A lone wolf, both in personality and form, they’re very selective in who they pick and rarely show kindness. They’re just shy, I think.

Anyways, with that explanation, let us return to the story.

Mary Sue, who had stuck near Ardis for some reason, leaned over. “Obviously, Fye will pick me. I’m the perfect choice!” Ardis nodded half-heartedly, far more curious in the ritual than the girl beside him.

“We’ll begin with…” Cavallo scanned the class. “You! Come here.” Ardis! Wonderful, this chapter was getting long.

Ardis walked over, curiosity suppressing any of his nervousness.

“So, quick explanation, you’ll stand in the center of where the circles were and with a bit of your own magic energy, the Guardians will appear for just a moment, before one selects you. Quick and simple, your magic carries part of yourself, allowing the Guardians to start to understand you.”

Ardis nodded, “How do I use my magic energy?”

“Ah! I forget, not all of you know. Just take a deep breath, focus on whatever it is you feel within you. Search for that energy and cling to it. That’s enough.”

Deciding that was enough of an explanation, mostly because he had been able to do some types of magic beforehand, Ardis figured it wouldn’t be hard.

He closed his eyes, trying to shut out the students around him. He could feel it, the energy and the magic that was there.

He jerked, opening his eyes to see the rings once again bright with light and animals in each one.

The Guardians.

There was only a short moment of tense deliberation before one ring, rimmed in orange with a fox at the center was the only one to remain. Sair, the fox of fire and trickery. He had been selected.

The fox seemed to bow before disappearing as well.

Cavallo clapped her hands to grab Ardis’s attention. “Good job! Let’s get to the next person. You?” She pointed at Mary Sue.

The two switched places as Mary Sue flipped her hair. She was confident, very confident.

Ardis was now able to watch the scene that had unfolded for him, yet slightly different. From the outside, you couldn’t see any of the Guardians, simply the light of the Rings.

For now, Ardis quietly wondered how Kal and Jules were getting along and what it meant for a being of trickery to select him of all people.

taglist: @falling-rivers @superwaywardangel @immawritethat @arynneva  @likeicarusifall @aschenink, @writing-for-the-batfam, @ekrizdis, @wiccanchester, @spacebrick3

[fyrapartnersearch]

Fandom and Fandom Inspired

Hi! Welcome to my humble partner search. Before going into detail I'll explain "my rules", I know it's a boring part but it helps us both to know if we are compatible.

- I prefer to roleplay with +18 people, even if we don't get to touch anything +18 like descriptive gore, smut and such (we can though). I'm over 18 and while in my younger years I roleplayed with both minors and adults, I'm not comfortable enough now that I am myself a legal adult.

- Quantity. I've been told that I'm on the literate side, or semi-lit, or lazy lit (at this point I don't even know what all of those mean exactly ;u; ) but I know that sometimes one doesn't have the energy or just not enough to work to make a +1000 words post. So Quality> Quantity but please give me something to work with (my "lazy/small" usual is around 600 words per character I guess). You get stuck? Lets talk about it. I'm also here for the long term.

- Doubling is required. I like to play both Canon and OC (CanonxOC trash here) and I intend to keep doing it. Do you want to play a canon for me? Please tell me you have a canon you want me to play against your OC. I get easily bored when I don't get to play more than one main character, and I like to build different kind of relationships (friendships, rivalries...) on my RPs, so I expect you to like playing multiple characters (it can be as I said like having two mains and then the others being like NPCs to build the scenes). And I prefer to double with a male canon character usuallt. Why? I don't know to be honest but that is how it works for me. Note: There may be exceptions to this rule, like fandoms where I prefer OcxOC pairings (usually fandom inspired), but the doubling rule still applies and I'd like to play a female and a male OC -- again there may be some exceptions, if there are you'll see it on the fandom list. In the end, playing multiple characters is my jam.

- About OCs.... I used to accept any kind of OC but I've gotten tired of Mary Sues and all angst kind of characters. I know, it doesn't mean your OC is bad, but bear with me, I've had enough with those characters. This doesn't mean that your character can't have a sad story or that they need to have a friendly personality. The problem is when the only thing they do is a constant monologue about their tragic past and they never move the story forward. It gets boring. I want to be hyped about your OC! Choose songs, pinterest boards...

-MxF is what I'm looking for in mains right now (playing both male - most of the time the canon - and female). I don't have anything against MxM, FxF, and I may have them as side pairings too, so if you're against the LGTB+ community I'm not your partner either. Apparently this can be misunderstood so I'll make it more clear. My females and males are only available for MxF pairings. The only exceptions will be mentioned in the fandoms part of this post.

- Let's both contribute to the story. Maybe one has more ideas one day, or one suffers writers block, but lets work together yeah? I also prefer if we use both 3rd person, it can be present or past, as you prefer, but 1st is a bit difficult to me.

-When it comes to romance, love at first sight isn't my thing, I usually go with the slow burn/ "organic" path. Maybe you're more impatient, it's ok, I don't mind speeding up things, but not just saying hi to each other and wanting to marry instantly. I like to keep the main genre of the series and focus on our character's development more than having romance as the only and main focus too.

- Don't feel forced to answer everyday. I can't stress this enough. This a hobby, not a job. Even if I answer at the speed of light I'm not expecting that from you. There will be times that I won't be able to answer for days, life comes first. And I like OOC, share all your memes, silly headcanons, and feel free to chat with me even if you haven't replied to the RP. I've seen some people hiding that they are online to not be pressured about their RPs. I won't pressure you.

- Ghost friendly. We've done that before, it's ok, maybe because we didn't want conflict or because we forgot about the other person.

I think that those are the basic rules. I have triggerings and so but I think I prefer to talk about those matters with someone already interesting in roleplaying.

Now, the fandoms (AU/ Aged up friendly). I'll include what canons I'm interested in (usually a list, so don't worry if we have one or two in common) and then those who I feel [more confident playing as] (your canon isn't there? Talk with me, I may want to give it a try if you're patient with me).

Note for FANDOM INSPIRED: It means that I'm interested in the universe and concepts of the canon story, but also means that I lack enough knowledge to play canon characters and I'm open to more original approaches in terms of story. That being said I'll will probably like to keep some things loyal to the canon, such as the camp of demigods on the Percy Jackson one, or the Parasite's concept + Hybrid Parasites on the DITF one.

- PERCY JACKSON [Inspired](This nerd right here loves the concept but hasn't read the books or watched the movies. I used to have a roleplay based on it and I loved it) - OCxOC

- THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU (an old fandom of mine that got a remake for the switch) - Beat [Neku, I'll need to play it again to remember the others]

DARLING IN THE FRANXX [Inspired] Once again my darlings I've watched bits of every episode, I know I think enough to follow the canon setting but not enough to play canons. So here we are with that juicy OCxOC. I have some request here though, and I feel like a jerk because of it? But I'm more interested in specific type of OCxOC pairing on my side, "Human! Fem! OC x Hybrid! Male! OC" with me playing the human. But, wait for it, I can give you the same pairing if you want it since I double, or also stay on the PilotxPilot, Human! Male! OC x Hybrid! Fem! OC for your side (playing either male or female).

- Shazam! [Movie universe, got little to no knowledge about the comics] - Billy Batson, Freddy Freeman. - [Billy Batson, Freddy Freeman] As you can see I don't have a real preference here because I find the two characters both fun to roleplay against and roleplay as. Give me the awkward teen setting or the aged up version, I don't care, I just think that this roleplay could get hilarious with those two nerds.

SOUL EATER(Read the manga like 5 times, watched the anime, don't talk to me about Soul Eater Not, I tried but it's not my thing). In this one I'm open to play two females if you want two MxF or FxF for your side. Remember that I'm always going to ask for MxF for my side (me playing female). -OcxOc (I have a female weapon and a male/female that can be a weapon or a Meister depending on your OC. Note: that my second OC is flexible in terms of Weapon/Meister and gender doesn't mean that it is rushed. All of my Ocs are basically my children)

Ah! Feel free to ask for fandoms that I don't have listed here, but I may not know them. You can also ask for originals (taking into account what kind of genres I'm craving) but be aware that I'm more of a fandom roleplayer because I've had also weird/bad experiences with originals.

To contact me (I don't post my Discord info) e-mail to neoncat.rp@gmail.com

Thanks for reading!

[brynwrites]

What do you think of Mary Sues? How do you avoid writing that? Sometimes it feels like any strong female lead gets accused of being a Mary Sue, and it's frustrating.

What’s the deal with these Mary Sues?

Most of us are quite familiar with the term, but if you’ve heard it passed around without a proper definition, a Mary Sue is a (traditionally female) character who’s known for being flawless. She’s powerful, beautiful, intelligent, more skilled than her peers, gets herself out of every bad situation with ease, (usually wowing a crowd of bystanders in the process), and ever other character in her age range is either in love with her, wants to be her, or is raging with jealousy for everything she has.

This, ironically, also describes a large percentage of all popular male protagonists ever created. We could rip apart the inherent sexism in the fact that it’s the Mary Sues who are almost exclusively called out, but honestly I don’t have the lung power, nor the energy to roll my eyes at the mob of basement dwellers who will rise out of their holes to sob threateningly at such a discussion.

Why should we avoid writing Mary Sues? Here’s the catch – we shouldn’t always avoid writing Mary Sues. (I’ll touch more on this later.) But a very good reason not to write flawless characters is that real human beings aren’t flawless. Real human beings fail. And so should your characters.

How to avoid writing Mary Sues.

The immediate reaction of most writers trying to avoid writing Mary Sues is to go “well Mary Sues are strong, so the way to avoid writing them is to write weaker characters,” but the reason Mary Sues are often badly written characters is not because they generally fall into some timeless trope of power and prophecy and become the center of the world – it’s because they don’t have to fail in order to grow.

Mary Sues already have (or very quickly acquire) all the traits, skills, and knowledge they need to use their strengths in order overcome all the bad things the story throws at them.

Well written characters have flaws and misconceptions that lead them to fail, thereby personally creating the bad situation they now have to work their way out of. They mean to use their strengths to overcome the bad things, but instead they start out by making things worse, by being slowly crushed by their own flaws and losing the world’s (positive) attention, until finally they choose to grow as people so they can apply their awesome abilities in the right way and finally succeed.

All you have to do to kill your Mary Sue is to almost literally kill them:

Give your Mary Sues flaws.

Let your Mary Sues fail because of their flaws.

Let your Mary Sues create larger and worse problems because of these failures.

Let other characters abandon and give up on your Mary Sue as these problems grow.

Then, at the very last minute, let your Mary Sue grow as a person and learn to use their amazingness the way they were meant to, and succeed.

This is nothing more and nothing less than well done character development. 

Are Mary Sues always bad? 

Not in the slightest. Mary Sues have two amazing uses:

1. As protagonists in children’s and middle grade books. As adults and older teens, we have reached a point in our lives where we’ve all failed miserably at something, and we desperately need to be told that failure isn’t the end, that we can succeed despite the messes we’ve made. Children don’t usually need that yet. They just need to know that dragons can be beaten. That heroes exit. That we’re made of amazing and impossibly cool things.

Which isn’t to say that children’s and middle grade books shouldn’t have characters who grow and learn and fail at times, but the rising tension in children’s books is often created by the protagonists growing continually to meet bigger challenges, while rising tension in books for older readers is caused by the protagonists failures making the challenges increasingly harder and their own emotional state more and more tragic.  

2. As the main character in those stories we write for ourselves for the sheer enjoyment of it. If you want to write Mary Sues in your escapist fan fiction, then write those damn Mary Sues. If you want to read about Mary Sues being boss and flawlessly conquering the world, then by all means, read what makes you happy! 

Don’t ever feel bad because occasionally a Mary Sue story is more appealing then a story with a realistic protagonist. We all have a little bit of our childhood in us still, and sometimes we need to return to the times in our lives when perfect heroes were believable, even if it’s just for a little while.

For more writing tips from Bryn, view the archive catalog or the complete tag!

[aokane-eldarya]

Hello :-) hope you're doing well . Just wanted to know what do you think about eldarya and mclul writing .

Hi anon :D

Thanks for you concern, I’m doing well enough (although my cat woke me at 4:30 am and did not let me go back to sleep and she pee on the dirty laundry…)

Sorry to answer you only now, I needed the time to think (and finish my opinion about Leiftan spin off). It might be a bit long lol

So, generally, for both games, I would say that, considering the conditions in which the episodes are made, the writers are doing well ; it could clearly be worse.

Chino has three games to manage and it’s just amazing that she manages to deal with so many stories at the same time and in record time. When you work in a professional way, it can become exhausting quickly, you have to think about everything, keep in mind each of your stories, the characters and background of each of your characters…

Not to mention the technical aspect and management of each team and each person who work on your projects.

My main problem with MCLU and Eldarya comes from the means that are given to the teams.

I really feel they do not have enough time to go deeper, to do more research. Normally, when you write, it is best to let your text rest, not to touch it for a while. (personally, when it comes to my novels, I do not touch for a month after finishing the first draft) 

Then you read it again with a new look, you correct, you rewrite. Then you confide it to several beta readers (I usually give them one month delay for a novel) and then you read it again, you help yourself with the advice of beta readers to eventually correct the content, then the form and the style.

For an otome, you must also think of all the graphic aspect, the appearance of the illustrations.

The creation here seems to depend on a calendar and the availability of the translators, whereas it should be the opposite. I’m not saying that they have to take all the time they want, but that the time should be calculated more accurately.

For MCLU :

- My first problem is the presence of Hyun and Rayan. Now, I understand better for Hyun who seems to me to be a bit extreme in his feelings and who is hasty in my opinion (it reminds me of one of my ex who thought I was the woman of his life when we were a couple for only a few days ), so, it’s ok. For Rayan, I really love him, I think he’s really interesting, he’s definitively my crush, but I don’t understand why some passages have been put in place even when you have a low LoM. You can not use the argument that it’s her soulmate, like Leiftan. And it’s quite paradoxical, because for certain passages, our choices are perfectly taken into account and we are not confronted with certain scenes.

- I also have a problem with Priya, who does not have the same place, it seems to me, as the other crushes. We still have trouble knowing where we go with her. We have learned some interesting things about her past, we also know that she will rather enjoy the life. Maybe with Priya it will be to convince her, to reassure her about being in a serious relationship. It’s difficult to know at the moment and the fact that she has that perfect and Mary-Sue side is not helping her for the moment.

- I really love how Nath is writing for the moment. I know from experience that when you love a character, it will be easier to write it and to write it well. That does not mean that we can not write well a character we love less, it only means that it will take a little more time and energy. Chino said Nath is her favorite and it shows in my opinion. She has a predilection for tortured characters.

- Castiel is also a character that I appreciate. During those four years, he really became a more mature adult, he kept what made his charm when he was younger, while working on his flaws. I’m still waiting a little, but for the moment, it seems to me to be well written.

- There are other characters I like the way they are written at each of their appearances, like Kim or Amber, even Yeleen and I love Chani with all my heart

- Even though I do not like her, Melody seems to have more to show than in HSL, so I’m a little intrigued.

- I do not really have an opinion about Alexy, Rosa, Morgan, Nina … I still can not understand how they are written, especially Rosa and Alexy. Unlike Castiel and Nath, I can not see how they have evolved and become who they are today. So wait and see.

- I do not really like Clemence’s writing, too caricatural for me for the moment.

- About Candy… I have mixed feelings. Sometimes I love how she thinks and reacts, sometimes I just wonder where she put her brain. I love that we can have so much access to her thoughts. I know that some people do not like it because of the AP system or because some of her thoughts could be embarrassing to players who want a more malleable character. I have to admit I’d like her to have more questions, but maybe because I’m a very introverted person myself and I’m constantly thinking, having a lot of questions in my mind.

- Regarding the plot, there may be some clichés, but I do not think that’s a problem. Clichés are good too ! I am not asking an author to give me something that is necessarily original and never seen. I first want my emotions to be jostled. Sometimes laugh, sometimes dream, sometimes cry.

- There are scripting facilities especially concerning Candy’s studies. This point is delicate, especially because it is an otome. There are people who want more, others who want less … It’s complicated. That said, I think that some things could be avoided, even when we do not want to develop too much.

That’s all that comes to me about writing MCLU right now, actually.

For Eldarya :

- I really, really love Eldarya, but my main problem is the lore. I want more. I want so much more. I really feel that this is the most damaging to the game and gives the impression to some players that the game has problems of inconsistency and misunderstanding. But again, it’s really difficult, because there are a lot of players who do not care, who do not want more lore, more explanations and just want the plot to advance, again and still, who do not want to take the time to observe the world in which Erika evolves. And the most incredible is that these same players are able to blame problems of inconsistency ! And, of course, there is this word limit problem. This is really a problem for me, because it forces writers to get to the point, to give the maximum, but with the minimum.

- The way our character is written is really correct for me, but I would just like her to have a lot more questions about the world around her. Simply because it makes sense to do it in an unknown world !

It’s a personal taste, but I love her sexual freedom, the fact that her relationship starts this way. Because it’s really, really pleasant to be able to play, in an otome, a character who has the same sexuality as you. In most of the otome games I’ve played, the character does not have that freedom, she’s either uncomfortable or completely ignorant. I can deal with this, because some people work that way in real life, but when it happens again and again, it becomes very frustrating.

But, I still have a problem with the way in which the relationship is presented.

For Leiftan, it’s completely perfect. It’s from the beginning that they get closer slowly, Leiftan is really adorable, he never rush her when he loves her from the beginning. And the beginning, it means several months, almost half a year ! And considering this, considering the link that unites them, I just find that their relationship is fantastic. This is the only one of the relationships where Leiftan really tells her “I love you” and not in a roundabout way and retracting, like Nevra for example. And we really have the choice to say “I love you” too and it’s so fucking amazing because it’s so natural! I love them, I love their relationship !

 And then there are the chiefs of the guard. The problem is that the beginning of the relationship was not as idyllic with them and that there were problems, they did not really respect her when she arrived and for a moment, and they have even betrayed one of the worst ways possible. They stole his earthly life!

So, the relationship with them sounds a little … weird.

Valkyon is pretty much ok, because for the moment, the beginning of their relationship was mostly focused on the physical aspect, not yet sentimental. So … ok.

For Nevra and Ezarel, it’s clearly more weird in my opinion. It’s rushed. They are there, animated by the passion of love and you do not understand just why, how it happened so quickly. Not even three months ago, they forced her to drink a potion to erase her from her family’s memory, and now it’s almost as if Nevra is going to ask her to marry him, to take his example.

The reason is simple, it is to try to put the three guys at about the same level as Leiftan (even if Leiftan remains favored). But it still weird.

- I am totally in love with the way Leiftan is written. I. Love. Him.

- There are other characters I like the way they are written, like Chrome, Ewelein, Camera, Keroshane…

- About Ezarel, Valkyon et Nevra… I don’t really know. I always had a little trouble with their personality. They bother me a little, but I hope their arcs will make them more interesting.

- I’m really, really intrigued by Lance.

- Miiko was written a little awkwardly for me, the aspects of her personality were not presented in a balanced way

- I do not really have an opinion about writing other characters.

- And finally, about the plot, I really love it, i’m really interesting, passionate about this, I can spend hours thinking about theories, thinking about all the details, doing research… I want a library with a list of info unlocked for each episode.

[knightofbalance-13]

Actually...

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/165589953048/lets-be-real-and-agree-on-something

No we are not agreeing to this.

RVVBY is an amalgam of multiple tropes, cliches, and concepts from other media that did it much better.

As we will soon see: The examples are either way too general, RWBY does too differently for a comparison or RWBY actually does it BETTER.

Faunus as a stand-in for minorities. X-Men did it first, did it better, and has better justification for it. Some mutants are dangerous, and have abilities that could level a building with little effort. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants are just a separate branch of mutants that humans use to justify their discrimination, and sentinels are extermination bots. There’s literally “Mutant Camps” In the Days of Future Past movie that are analogous to concentration camps. Whilst being a mutant has since evolved into an analogy for being part of the LGBT+ community, it started as an allegory for racism. And it was much MUCH better at it. Last I checked, Inhumans are now the new racism allegory, and even then, they’re still a better analogy than faunus. The reason why both of these are all more effective is because they don’t replace all racial minorities by being their stand-in. There are African Mutant (Storm), Native American Mutants (Moonstar), and even biracial Mutants (Darwin). So, Mutants are a multi-cultural fictional race that acts as a stand-in for a minority group in the Marvel Universe. See, this is what happens when you have good writers who are open to criticism.

Except the racism is UNDERSTANDABLE in X-Men since mutants ARE more dangerous than humans and some of the (like Rogue) can’t control their powers and thus are a danger no matter how you slice it whereas the Fanaus aren’t any dangerous than humans because they don’t significant enough advantages to overcome the human dominance so it’s just like racism here in our world: Stupid and irrational. So you’re basically saying it’s more rational to hate an innocent group of animal people that people who can control the weather, kill on touch or mindfuck everyone. COngrats, you have shown you have a bias against RWBY so your opinions mean jack shit.

Final Fantasy did the idea of dust better. It was called Materia, and it had a better explanation as to how it’s applied. Much like dust, it’s mined. Unlike dust, it’s explicitly stated to be magical in nature rather than the vague explanation we got for dust. dust is also weird in the sense that it’s kinda elemental. Materia also has a simpler categorization by just giving it five subcategories. Dust has to be classified under fire, ice, gravity, electric, stone, whatever Yang’s standard buckshots are, and so much more. It’s starting to get to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised if they started to be more direct in their rip-off and make Summon Dust. And it’s hard to even argue this because Monty Oum (God Rest His Soul) is a Final Fantasy fanboy (See: Dead Fantasy), so there’s no doubt that there would be some FF references every now and then. But the idea of Dust is too similar to be a coincidence. Even the claim of how similar the show is to Advent Children is rather hard to see any other way. Advent Children had very little plot to it, but had spectacular action scenes - sound familiar?

Yeah, of course it’s a rip off here! ...And in Storm Hawks...and Kingdom Hearts...And Pokémon-

Almost like this is a COMMON TROPE. Can’t really call it a rip off when everyone is doing it. Almost like you don’t know how tropes work.  Also, you don’t mention how Final Fantasy does it better: you just say they do. Probably because FInal Fanatsy=Not RWBy ergo better.

Legend of Korra did the whole “Girl Power” thing better. Considering that they also managed to portray PTSD in a much more realistic way, and didn’t romanticize it like RVVBY did. Korra had hallucinations, was clearly sleep-deprived, and struggled to keep up with even a few non-benders because of the trauma. Sure, LoK had its own issues (Like trying to keep up with its predecessor), but it still managed to hold its own. What does RVVBY do? - only ONE on-screen nightmare, and only ONE on-screen panic attack. The worst part is that we didn’t even NEED it to be on-screen. Just show Yang not wanting to sleep, or her waking up from nightmares. Even offhandedly mentioning that she’s having nightmares would have been better than nothing. But we get that nothing. Because making Yang get back to doing badass fighting moves is more important than giving her a good recovery arc.

OH Ho ho ho ho!

This is a fucking GOLD MINE!

A. RWBY was never touted as a Girl Power show: It just had female protagonists. Men were just as capable as women and it was clear from the first episode so this comparison doesn’t even count.

B. Oh korra. The one with a protagonist who was one trait away from being a full blown Mary Sue who disobeyed orders, stole food, caused property damaged, nearly committed murder, committed police assault and resisting arrest who gets off t6eh hook and is treated as in the right for doing all that. And that’s just the first episode, shall I go on to explain how Korra essentially harassed a guy and acting like an obsessive stalker despite him saying that he has a girlfriend and then kisses him despite this, hurting his innocent brother and gets rewarded for it, or how Korra barely practices Air bending (the ONE element she doesn’t aut know) but can magically airbend without using airbending techniques and having her bending TAKEN AWAY. Or how about Korra flipping outa t Mako, May Lin trying to arrest Tenzien’s wife and wrecking Airbending Island for getting dumped and that one Psycho girlfriend Waterbender is all treated as humerous and okay? Or that Asami was just basically eye candy in the first and second seasons? Or how the one main female villain seen as redeemable is the one who refused orders, forcibly recruited people, took advantage of the spirits, tried to kill her fiancé, sent people who didn’t agree with her to “reprogramming” camps, threatens the lives of her subordinates and tried to kill an entire city. It wasn't Amon who was implied to have severe hatred against benders due to his dad’s abuse. It couldn’t even be the fucking Red Lotus, the most human villians in the Avatar franchise since ZUKO: It was the female earthbender whose actions numerous times mirrored fucking Hitler.

Bottom Line: Even without TRYING to be a Girl Power show, RWBY is a BETTER Girl Power show than Korra.

C. The PTSD arc is the ONE thing Korra has above RWBY and it SHOULD be better because Korra has more time, more experience, more money, more people and in a medium that is more forgiving than RWBY’s. And even then, it’s BARELY better in terms of actual writing because it tries portraying Korra’s PTSD as an outside force, uses her Avatar State self as the representation when it makes no sense, she gets over it by herself despite her lesson being not to lock other people out, it came back with no indication, uses Zaheer out of nowhere and brings up smaller events that never eluded to extend the arc. It could have been fixed so easily by just having an imaginary Zaheer attacking her with kora being hesitant of airbending. I fucking fixed and I’m an inexperienced fanfic writer. All RWBY needs to do to be better is acknowledge it again: Something VERY likely due to RT’s history.

So far: We have one example that is out right wrong, one example that is too broad to do anything and doesn’t show jack shit and one example that is so wrong it helps ME absolutely.

SO what’s next?

And since it probably wouldn’t be me if I didn’t include this, here’s the one that some people are probably waiting for:

So you’re outright acknowledging bias against RWBY and for Storm Hawks because Nostalgia huh? Fine, I’ll cut you down HERE too.

Storm Hawks did the small amount of habitable land that needs to be protected by various teams of heroes first and better. Energy attacks have better justification for their appearance, and the fact that both Crystals and Dust are both gemstones with elemental properties that need to be mined and are integral to powering weapons and vehicles. Both shows have amazing transforming weapons, teams made up of various people with different skills, and incredible action scenes. They even had a spectacular superpower that manifested in one of their main characters after they were put in a tough situation. See my chart below for more detail.

Sky Knights : Huntsmen/Huntresses

Crystals : Dust

Squadrons : Huntsman Teams.

Atmos : Remnant

Talons/Raptors/Murk Raiders/Beasts : Grimm/WF

The Binding : Silver Eyes

... (points to the Final Fantasy point above)

So it’s perfectly okay for Storm Hawks to “rip off” Final Fanatsy but RWBY is bad for doing it?

Because these are all elements from Final Fantasy.

Not to mention since you DON’T explain why Storm Hawks does it better, all I have to do is point to the fact that Storm Hawks is canceled early and RWBY is a worldwide phenomon. Storm Hawks is at 7.2  whereas RWBY is at 8.3 , Storm Hawks had more time, more experience, more money, more people and the backing of Cartoon Network where RWBY doesn’t.

Dudeblade, this is why you go unnoticed by the writers, why all of you in RWDE tag go unnoticed: you do ANYTHING to tear down the show, whether or not it’s true. That and you suck so bad, I can do a better job than you.

Here, let me:

Harry Potter does the “school for special people” better because the school stays in focus for most of the show where we grow more and more attached to the setting and characters there and since the enemy is gradually shown more and more: he gain slightly more and more fear in a very smooth and natural way. And since the books take time with the enemies, we can keep track of the numerous characters easily. All unlike RWBy

Kill La Kill does the Girl Power aspect of the show better as the main cast is female, the show is driven by females and each character has their own unique set of strengths and weakness along with flaws they must overcome and deal with. It also tackles the idea of women being objectified and encourages women to take pride in who and what they are, ignoring how society sees them and think ofr themselves. Again, unlike RWBY would be.

Dragon Ball does the “Writing by the seat of your pants” style better than RWBY because Akira Toriyama was used to writing tis way and thus had more experience and even had a talent for writing this way which also made the series more suspenseful. Once more, unlike the CRWBY.

When I can do your job better and in less time: Might want to rethink what you are doing.

[slayeroftears]

The Problems With RWBY

Now, before I get down to it, let me make one thing clear; I LOVE THE SHOW. I enjoy its story, its characters, the music, the unique animation, etc. I am not just “mindlessly hating on it”. Constructive criticism is given BECAUSE I love the show and is done in the hopes that Miles and Kerry will read it and improve on it. I do not want to hear fans whining about me pointing out the show’s flaws just because they can’t see them or accept them. If criticism is not given, people will not improve.

OK, with that out of the way, LET’S BEGIN!

The first flaw RWBY faces is also the first rule of writing that it’s broken: Show, Don’t Tell. RWBY tells us a bunch of stuff, but never shows it. The one thing that comes to mind, even as you’re reading this, is the alleged racism against Faunus. We’re never actually shown true racism against Faunus within the show.

No, Cardin and Roman don’t count. Cardin is a jerk to everyone around him regardless of species, and Roman’s just evil. He belittles everybody under him except for Neo. We’ve never seen anyone be racist to Faunus within RWBY. The World of Remnant videos also don’t help, as it’s just telling us about it instead of showing us it.

At this point, we could just as easily say that the Faunus are all prejudiced against Humans, as we’ve seen more of THAT than we have of Humans hating Faunus. We need to see more racism within the show, instead of it being told to us. It needs to be subtle, no over-the-top ridiculous displays, something more real. Say a Human buys some Dust for some Lien and leaves, then a Faunus tries to buy some too. Have the Faunus charged more than the Human was. Show racism, but make it look and feel real. Otherwise, there’s no point in this imaginary hate against Faunus.

Another issue is the "controversial labor forces" that the Schnee Dust Company utilizes. So, when we were shown Weiss’ father and brother, why never bring that up? SHOW, DO NOT TELL. NEVER JUST TELL.

Another issue RWBY faces is its characters. Namely, how they’re handled. I’ll be taking a crack at a few of them, so bear with me. First stop; YANG. She lost her arm to Adam, and I theorized back at the end of V3 that she’d face some difficulties, probably have PTSD. Now, know that not everybody who has a traumatic experience will suffer from PTSD. However, Yang showed signs of it in V4, and to RT’s credit, they did it rather well. My mother, who does suffer from it, commented on it (Yes she watches RWBY too), saying that RT managed to do it right. However, as Yang got her arm on and started training, her PTSD looked like it disappeared and she seemed almost right as rain again.

Now, I’ll give RT the benefit of the doubt and say that Yang may NOT be over her PTSD and may be forcing herself upwards and onwards. My mother certainly thinks so, as she did it when she was younger. The result, however, was that it made things worse for her later on. IF Yang really is pushing herself, we need to see proof of it. Little scenes here and there to show that she hasn’t recovered. Hell, have her see a flash of Ruby’s cloak, make her think it’s Adam, and have her almost attack Ruby. I mean, I’d personally like to see it, but my point is, if Yang still suffers from PTSD, show us. Don’t sweep it under the rug, because you don’t recover from it, you just learn to live with it and try to move on. This is coming from someone who sees it every day with his mother.

Next up: Blake. Hoo boy, what most critics will say is the biggest disappointment in Volume 4. After Beacon’s fall and Yang’s cripplement, Blake seemingly did what she vowed never to do again; ran away. She either did it so Adam wouldn’t target her friends anymore, or because she was scared. Who knows? The issue here is it’s not clear. If she ran away so Adam wouldn’t attack her friends or loved ones, why return to her family? Adam swore to destroy EVERYTHING she loved,and you better believe family is on that list. Did she think Adam wouldn’t know she was on Menagerie, or did she think he wouldn’t target her family? She even hints at this to Sun, saying “This is why I left them all behind” after Sun was hurt. So, why return to her family? HOWEVER, she also told Sun on Chapter 8; “I told you, I'm not here to fight the White Fang, I'm not here to fight anyone. I'm here to rest, to figure things out, and to see my family.”

So, which is it? A character’s reasons for running need to be clear and easily understood, instead of contradictory and confusing.

Another issue everyone seems to have with Blake is her family; namely that her father was the founder and head of the White Fang. While I don’t mind it, and it even clears up just why Blake feels like it’s HER responsibility to stop the White Fang, as well as I just hate the old “Blake’s an orphan” theory, another issue with her family is Ghira himself. So why did NOBODY, not even Ozpin, make mention of Ghira? She shares the same last name as the founder of the White Fang, Belladonna, so why did nobody comment on it? It’s not like the White Fang were created in secret either, Blake herself outright tells us that the organization was formed to bring peace between the two races. You can’t do that in secret, and if Ghira DID hide in the shadows, then that should have been made clear LONG ago!

With Ruby, the problem lies in how little character development she’s gotten. Yes, we’ve seen her change from a shy girl who didn’t want to make friends to someone who DOES, but that’s about it. Outside of crying for Penny, and going Mary Sue on Cinder after Pyrrha died, Ruby hasn’t shown much of a reaction to their deaths. She’s pretty much the same character, albeit with a little less energy and love of weapons as she used to be. She’s the main character, the show’s pronounced after her name, show us how she’s coping. No long letters that honestly aren’t that good (Sorry, but that letter was pretty bad) and no telling us about it. Show us how the death of two friends has affected a 15-16 year old little girl.

With Jaune, it’s how MUCH development he’s getting. Yes, I get it, he’s the Deuteragonist, the second protagonist, the Hero to Ruby’s Heroine. However, at this point he’s becoming more like the traditional main character than Ruby herself is. He’s had the Love Interest (even if he never knew it) who died, he’s the audience surrogate, he was made leader of his own team, we learned that he cheated his way in, etc. etc. Now, I’m not saying that what he’s been through is BAD, but the issue here ties in with Ruby, namely that she hasn’t gotten as much attention or development as Jaune has. I like Jaune. In another story, he WOULD be the Hero. But the show is called RWBY because it revolves around Team RWBY. It’s time they took the spotlight back.

Another issue that the show has is its sense of time. Before it was retconned, Miles and Kerry said early on that Volume 4 took place 6-8 months after Volume 3. They then decided to change it to avoid plotholes. Unfortunately, this just created more plotholes. How long were Blake and Sun on a boat? How long was Weiss cooped up in her room? Yang said she and Taiyang were training for weeks. The only thing that makes sense is RNJR’s journey on foot, as it WOULD take quite a long time to go from one country to another like that. (A minor plothole with THAT is why didn’t they get transportation there, when Oscar did? If the answer is no money, where did they get the extra ammo at the end of Chapter 1 of V4?)

Something I personally have a problem with within the show, though some would argue against it, is the Grimm. We’ve been shown Grimm that wiped out whole villages, Grimm that rule the seas and are huge, and yet students who haven’t even finished their first year were able to kill. The Grimm as a whole are also disappointing. We’ve been told that they wiped out all life on Remnant except for four Kingdoms where life exists, but we’re always seeing them mowed down so easily and quickly that it’s kind of pathetic. The Nuckleavee Grimm, in particular, showcases this problem. This is something that wiped out three villages and could not be defeated, yet RNJR took it out no problem. A better way to resolve it would have been if they had managed to fend it off long enough for the airships to arrive. The Grimm have been getting the Worf Effect pretty badly, and they’re not the scary monsters that we’re told they are. I, at least, want to see more creepy looking Grimm that aren’t defeated on the first encounter with our heroes. Grimm are supposed to be unnatural monsters of darkness, not cannon fodder.

The lack of foreshadowing is also a problem here. We had only one line of dialogue about Ruby’s silver eyes, and that was it. One line, in the very first episode,and it was never touched upon again. Blake’s family was never hinted at, neither was Weiss’ little brother, Whitley. While I understand that some things are meant to be a surprise and kept secret, common things like family need to be at least mentioned. You don’t need to reveal any big secrets about them, just a mention is enough, like Winter in Volume 2. For something as big as Ruby’s silver eye power, foreshadowing is a must have, otherwise it’ll come out of nowhere and feel like a Deus ex Machina.

There are probably many other things I’ve forgotten to add in that I meant to, but I can always address those later, or edit them into this post. These are the biggest flaws though that are dragging RWBY down. I still enjoy the show, and I will keep watching it, but it could always be improved, and there are some things in it that require attention and fixing.

[fairytail-whathesays]

In my never-ending crusade against Jellal and all who stand for him, what I’m going to embark on now are problems with his magic (”Heavenly Body Magic”). No big shebang, just jumping right in. If it wasn’t clear I like to make lists before, it should be now.

The first problem is that his magic has no rules or guidelines whatsoever. Long post ahead. 

All we know of it is that it is based on stellar objects and what he can do with it, which consists of:

Meteor, a spell which increases his speed to ridiculous heights.

Altairis, a massive energy ball with gravity properties.

Sema, which calls down a giant meteor.

Grand Chariot, which calls down seven blasts in the shape of the big dipper.

Random unnamed and unimportant energy blasts.

That’s it. Beyond basic thematic scheme and massive power, there are absolutely no guidelines presented as to what Jellal can and can’t do with his magic, and he’s only showcased four official spells with it. Even other powerhouses who tend to win the day with nakama power and brute force have rules on how their magic works and what can be done with it. Examples I’ll give are Natsu and Erza, two of Mashima’s biggest Mary Sues and the ones who most often win fights in an unsatisfying manner.

Natsu:

Can eat fire to replenish health and magical stamina.

Cannot eat his own fire to do so.

Is immune to all fire attacks with the exception of godslaying fire.

His magic requires tutoring from a dragon or an implantation of dragon lacrima to use.

He gains enhanced senses, most notably smell, alongside this magic as a dragon would have, alongside lungs exponentially more powerful and durable than a normal human’s.

Natsu can eat other magics and sources of energy to enter Dragon Force and receive a massive boost in power. However, doing so will absolutely wreck his insides and make him sick and unable to fight for a week or more thereafter (ex. Etherion-infused crystal, Laxus’ lightning.)

Natsu cannot keep the exterior magic he ingests unless it is specifically bestowed on him by its user, i.e. Laxus’ lightning.

Natsu can enter Dragon Force at will as of his fight with Mard Geer. 

You could include motion sickness, although I tend not to because it was a poor rule to add.

Erza:

Can requip different armors and weapons with different effects on the user.

Uses what is specifically spatial magic in that it summons weapons from a pocket dimension. As such, it is vulnerable to other spatial magic users who may be able to shut it down.

If an armor or weapon is destroyed, that is it. It must be repaired before it can be used again, and the user must rely on different weapons and armors in the meantime.

Erza’s proficiency with requip magic allows her not only to summon her swords virtually anywhere, but to summon up to 200 at a time and move them around telekinetically.

“Heaven’s Wheel” allows Erza the most elasticity with the above abilities.

“Flame Empress” does not null fire damage, but will cut its effects by 50%. The same presumably goes for her Sea and Lightning Empress armors and her Wind God armor.

“Fairy Armadura” is Erza’s strongest armor in terms of offensive power, but apparently provides poor defense.

The “Crimson Blossom” sword translates all defensive power to offense and requires the user to wear no armor whatsoever.

And so on and so forth.

Jellal has no such boundaries and rules. There is no real logical way to get around his magic, which kind of sticks out, as I can think of ways to overcome even such mighty magics as Gildarts’--and the one time someone did, Jellal made sure to stomp him in the battle that I hate more than any other in this fucking series. However, rather than simply pull new abilities out of his ass like Erza, or just win despite explicitly being overpowered and outmatched like Natsu, Jellal’s ridiculous wins and battle ability seem to revolve around him simply being that powerful and that good with his magic. In fact, he’s not unlike another character. This character is also a Wizard Saint, and has battle reputation built solely around his monstrous power, with little to no established rules as to how he can use it. I’m talking about Jura Neekis, who for the most part is a respected character and who Jellal fought in the Grand Magic Games.

The problem here with such a similarity is that Jura Neekis is a background character. His daily life, his motivations, and what he’s up to at any given moment aren’t really a part of the main narrative--he pops in when he can and has overall very little impact on the story, with the exception of his introduction arc, where he served to illustrate the power of Wizard Saints that weren’t Jellal, Jose, or Makarov. Jura Neekis can afford to be unexplained. Jellal by comparison moves about 400 times the plot Jura Neekis ever did, has connections to pretty much half the cast, and is highly involved in the story (a lot more than he needs to be, as I’ve expounded on before). If he’s going to be shoved up my ass the way he is, he should at least have some established rules and guidelines to his magic to justify his wins (there is no justification for his wins. None.) or else the fact that he can do whatever it is he does will be news to me. 

So we’re essentially told “this character is super strong and wins all of his battles that way, don’t sweat the details and get over it”. It also handily erases strategy, which was already lacking in most of the other characters’ fights to begin with. 

There’s also the problem of not knowing how it is he came to be so strong or powerful or how he learned his magic. Many characters offer at least this much.

Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting, and Rogue learned magic directly from dragons. Natsu in particular is also the strongest demon Zeref ever created.

Erza learned The Knight based on her time rebelling in the Tower of Heaven, where she picked up a sword for the first time, and trained like hell. She is also the daughter of Plot Device Irene Belserion, a witch strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Acnologia.

Gray learned his magic from a woman in an ice-using clan, who was of Wizard Saint strength and most definitely knew her stuff.

Lucy Heartfilia comes from a longass line of celestial wizards, including a historically titanic one who was said to be the strongest celestial spirit wizard to ever live.

Similarly, Laxus comes from a line of people known for their immensely powerful magics and supersized magic pool. His great-grandfather, Yuri Dreyar, learned magic from none other than Zeref himself.

Juvia has magic explicitly tied to her emotions and was born using it. The stronger her feelings, the stronger her fighting.

While Gildarts has an immense magic pool himself, half of his battle prowess comes from extremely overpowered magic that is explicitly designed to blast through and break things, other magic included.

We know Jellal was not a wizard by nature or his own study. Upon being possessed by Zeref (later retconned to Ultear), Jellal gained absolutely monstrous magic, with which he promptly took over the Tower of Heaven. Using common sense, we can guess that Jellal gaining this magic is a result of Ultear infusing it into him. As such, Jellal should’ve lost it the moment Ultear’s influence left him, because he did not learn it or gain in naturally--it’s someone else’s entirely. Losing all memory of being possessed should have also wiped any knowledge of magic gained in that time period--including the Destruction Circles he uses while claiming amnesia, which he learned from Brain while possessed (this is another reason I don’t forgive Jellal--his actions and words don’t line up at all).

As such, we have absolutely zero reference for how strong Jellal should be or how fast his strength should be growing, except that he should be significantly weaker than Ultear, who is of Wizard Saint Strength herself, yet the rules we could potentially put in place do not apply as explained above. Ultear, if she were going to function with any semblance of capability under Hades, would reasonably give no more than half her magic to Jellal, who then made Wizard Saint status with half of that power. Yet Jellal and Ultear are assumed to be rough equals when we see them in the same guild. Any guesses we could use to try to get a handle on how strong Jellal is or why he is that powerful (because Mashima clearly wants him to be top tier) are completely scrambled because so much contradicts them.

Which is kind of a problem, considering that almost every issue within Fairy Tail is solved with some sort of battle, and Jellal has a fair number of battles to his name--his first real loss is attributed to an inordinate drain on energy thanks to a single failed spell he cast earlier that didn’t even go off, and he later “corrects” that by stomping the wizard in question.

I can’t decide if this is author wank, lazy writing, or both. Actually, it’s probably both.

[fluffandfiteme-archived]

#JustKeepWriting 1/13/17

Not 15 minutes ago I was planning to go to sleep. Between the ping pong game the medical “professionals” are playing regarding my mother’s well being and my own matters, I have been drained and exhausted. An unrelated note, the death of diets is mothers. I haven’t given up on eating less, but today certainly took a hit.

But no, as I went into my mother’s room to say good night, she read a question of her social media site of choice-Quora, a privately run question and answer site. A single question ignited me, and now I must write on a topic I have before, and likely will again.

“What is a Mary Sue and how do I avoid writing one?”

I sucked in my breath before answering. You see, in my dozen years of dabbling in social circles based on movies, games, and shows I have encountered this term. It has been used to terrify young women who really want to write a character who happens to be extraordinary. Most often it was used to refer to fan created characters who appeared in fan fiction or role play, frequently pairing off with a pre-existing character and potentially changing the course of canon.

I mean not that that it doesn’t make complete sense that a new character of substance could change the course of a history. Because you know what? It really does.

It was usually used as a shaming technique on female writers or writers who created female characters. Often called overpowered, too perfect, too happy, and too tragic and angsty all at the same time.

Over the years, the name calling of Mary Sue has moved to canonical characters, in other words, characters in the main narrative by the same writer as everyone else who do appear in the work. A fresh example was regarding Rey, in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Before that, I remember Xion who appeared in Kingdom Hearts Days. Technically there’s a number in that title, but it was confusing and false advertising so everyone calls it Days. Bella Swan from Twilight and the character that was once literally her in fanfiction, Anastasia Steele from 50 Shades of Grey have both been called it. (Yes, I read it. Will probably continue to for research to further tear it apart and write alternate reality fiction. Who knows, maybe I’ll knock off 50 to expose the dangers and conflict caused by the so called romance).

During the brief questioning regarding Rey, I wrote on my old blog comparing her to Anakin and Luke Skywalker as they appeared in the previous trilogies. Except I did it without identifying any of them until after their scores were in. My scoring methods were simple: did they follow the core components of Wikipedia’s definition, and how high did they score on the Universal Mary Sue Test.

[The mentioned Quiz is found here ]

[The full posts can be found here and here

Shockingly of the three leads, Rey scored the lowest on both counts. She was the most balanced of the characters. Anakin was inching onto the Sue scale. And Luke was no holds barred.

But you know what the funny thing I noticed in my own experiences are?

I have never once heard someone call a male character a Mary Sue. Now, there is a term for it-Gary or Marty Stu. But I have literally never heard it used.

(I mean, there are characters that are just really badly written, but this is about the Mary Sue stigma used to keep female characters demur, weak, and undeveloped.)

Now, the wikipedia intro blurb defines a Mary Sue as:

“An idealized and seemingly perfect fictional character, a young or  low rank person who saves the day through unrealistic abilities. Often this character is recognized as an author insert or wish fulfillment.”

Author insert aside, because fuck you I have two characters that started that way but both of them and I have diverged and developed completely independent and because I write them well, no one could guess, and most enjoy writing against them in role play.

Idealized and seemingly perfection fictional character, often young or low rank who saves the day through unrealistic abilities.

Literally any and all Jedi could be shoved under this category.

Kingdom Hearts is literally full of lead characters and supporting cast fitting this classification-not to speak of Square Enix and Disney, the parent companies.

One could say Bella qualifies, given her unique resistance to vampire abilities, her teenage status, and how all the boys and girls lobe her.

The same cannot actually be said about her fanfiction counterpart, Ana Steele? I refuse to count 21 as young, she doesn’t save the day through unrealistic abilities, and she is not perfect.

But you know what? By that definite, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, is a Mary Sue. He was a kid from Brooklyn, barely old enough to be drafted, if he had ever qualified. He was poor as dirt, so also of low rank. He has no real character flaws of note, Civil War not withstanding because that’s a separate issue but the narrative still displays him as in the right. And suddenly through the power of science, he becomes a super human and saves the world time and time again.

Or hey kids, how about Batman? Little Bruce Wayne is orphaned, but over the years trains and uses the family fortune profits to run the company, improve Gotham City’s socioeconomic structure, win multiple hearts and minds, and oh yeah, create an arsenal of super advanced and cool tools and weapons with a bat theme, including a car, a super computer, a suit, and a secret lab.

Oh! Aragorn! You know, the Ranger, Strider, Aka, Aragorn, Son of Arathorn, Isulder’s heir from Lord of the Rings? His mother literally died dropping him on the doorstep of the elves in Rivendell. Thus he became a human raised among them, and oh yeah, he’s a Dunedin (not sure how that’s spelled) with super ranger tracking abilities and extra long life expectancy. Not like elf long, but easily topping dwarf or Hobbit. Wins the heart of Arwen, then Eowyn, basically the only two female characters that aren’t Galadirel. Who by the way is Arwen’s aunt so that would be weird. He unites the previously warring peoples of Elves, different nations of man, and even a few hobbits and a dwarf. And I mean like literally the day before he gave King Theodan a pep talk, Rohan was of the mind Gondor could go screw themselves. And the elves had been completely indifferent. Oh, and lets not forget the special chosen prince totally not Excaliber sword he used to summon the army of ghosts that wiped out the entire force attacking Minas Tirith.

Captain Kirk. Even before the reboot, he was mister Captain Perfect Hair. He could do no wrong, and generally had a different lover interest every episode. And oh yeah, he was born in Iowa, pre reboot, a good old country boy.

Lets see, Marvel, DC, Fantasy, Scifi…

I feel like I need anime and video game examples next.

Bleach. An old favorite though some of the final arc decisions-well, let me be honest, the final pairing decisions, left me put off. Anyway. Ichigo Kurosaki is the lead character. Spoilers ahead for anyone not familiar. It turns out he’s a half Shinigami on his father’s side, half Quincy on his mother’s side, and a pinch of Hollow because house Isshin met his mother. Which means all three main races, that DO NOT GET ALONG THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE SERIES, he is part of. Even at the beginning of the show, he’s got the ability to see ghosts and spirits, and seems to be able to take on entire gangs on his own. He is a poor boy whose father runs an urgent care clinic, and is guilt stricken constantly about the death of his mother. Which later becomes a major plot point like twice over to give him angst. Once given Shinigami powers, or once his powers awaken, he is an instant bad ass, having more abundant spirit energy then anyone has ever seen. Literally every time a rule is explained in Bleach, you know its purpose is for Ichigo to break that rule. And oh yeah, with the exception of the lesbian and his sisters, literally every female character of note who encounters Ichigo has a a desire or longing for him of some form. Rangiku might be an exception, but I know Rukia, Orihime, Neliel, and Tatsuki all have a thing for him. And yes, he saves all of existence pretty regularly.

Video games are rife with examples of this blatancy. Cloud Strife comes to mind, a well known character from Final Fantasy VII. Multiple unlockable date scenes, boy from the country, tragic story. Low rank, still saves the world with the power of friendship. (TELL ME I’M WRONG). But I will also cite a much older known character.

Mario. Mario of Super Mario Brothers, Mario Party, and Mario Cart. Among many others. He is a plumber, who accidentally found up in the Mushroom Kingdom through the pipes. There he learns he can crush enemies by jumping on them, double in size if he eats the right mushroom, and develop a number of abilities such as pyrokinesis or growing a tail and being able to fly. And of course, he defeats the dragon and saves the princess. Remember: he is a plumber.

Now here’s my point. All of these characters would fulfill the qualifications of a Mary Sue. But none of them have ever been called one. Why not? I assume because they each have a penis. (Except maybe Cloud. I maintain Cloud is a gender fluid female).

There is literally an anime out about a dude who wins everything in one punch. If it was a chick I guarantee it would not have gotten past an episode.

The point I am making here is: most stories feature a hero that starts at a low point of some form, be it tragedy, rank, or age. They may develop a love interest, and eventually save the world through extraordinary means. This is actually a skeleton that can be applied to almost any movie, book, game, or show.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed. I encourage you to keep loving Batman and Captain America and Aragorn, and everyone else I highlighted. What I also encourage is to compare a female character if she wasn’t female to Batman, Superman, Captain America, or Aragorn. You may find Mary Sue falls apart. I know I have.

I have a friend. A chosen sister. We butt heads for a while because I got so paranoid about making overpowered characters, I didn’t like writing with them-even if they weren’t mine. I’ve now realized that’s not the point. If you write a character well, and let the reader or viewer understand that through the narrative, that’s all that matters. Male, female, power level, rank, and number of love interests just don’t matter.

Mary Sue doesn’t matter.

Perhaps I’ll bring back Mary Sue Monday...