#slightly painful

[ganglystem]

thingies i made for a college computer graphics class

(had to manually input vertex coordinates and code the rendering in java script to make these)

[zillychu]

what if his suit WASN'T shrink wrapped

[brokendoor16]

Okay. Okay. I get that we all love Crowley calling Aziraphale 'angel' (bcz WHO FUCKING DOESN'T?? I MEAN, "Blasphemy? That's not not like you, angel." KILLS ME EVERY TIME) and obviously everyone wants Azi to have some cute little pet name for him (**ahem** 'dear' **ahem**) BUT JUST HEAR ME OUT.

BUT WHAT IF. The cute little pet name is literally just?? His name?? Like, I can't be the only one noticing how many times Aziraphale starts his sentences with 'Crowley,' even in the middle of a conversation with no one else around he could be talking to??

ANDANDAND he's the only angel who calls Crowley by his name as opposed to 'demon' (Yes, I'm talking about the fucking metratron rn) or 'the demon Crowley', 'the enemy', etc.

BUT THE THING IS, Crowley never TOLD Aziraphale his name the first time they met- we don't even know what his name WAS back when he was an angel- we know he's changed it before, and the original 'Crawley' doesn't seem particularly suited to an Angel ("well, you were a snake") so we don't even fucking KNOW the name heaven called him back when he was the starmaker.

Even hell barely call him Crowley, with the first scene of Ligur (literally one of the demons Crowley interacts with the MOST after Beezlebub and probably Hastur) featuring him asking "what's he calling himself these days?" (probably just another representation of how little hell actually cares about him, but moving on)

OVERALL, the only person (angel? being? idfk) to CONSTANTLY refer to him by name- whilst talking TO him, not ABOUT him- is Aziraphale. Personally, I think that constitutes a 'cute little pet name' 😇😇

[xxemo-hubrisxx]

[finchfvkingcortes]

charles “i’d give up forever to touch you” rowland and edwin “you’re the closest to heaven that i’ll ever be” paine

[bonefall]

Hey, what makes a character a 'plot device but not a character'? And how do you not do that? I'm trying to do it on purpose but also I need to still make them interesting because it's on purpose, yknow?

A good skill to pick up is to learn to criticise criticism itself. A "plot device" is simply a thing that moves the plot along, it's a neutral literary analysis term! Usually, when people are angry that "a character has been used as a plot device," it doesn't mean they hate plot devices. It means they're gesturing at something deeper.

Runningwind and Bumble are equally plot devices in their deaths. They are both killed by the antagonist to escalate political tension. Runningwind is rarely "accused" of just being a plot device, and yet, we're talking about Bumble for the same thing.

So, why?

Well, Runningwind is just a background character, but in life, he was a part of the community. He was characterized as impatient but responsible. Yet, he wasn't SO important that he died with a bunch of unresolved plot threads.

He is mostly an extension of the entity of ThunderClan. His killing by Tigerstar, and the fear and paranoia that settles on the group after this, feel like a progression of the story insteas of something forced.

Bumble, on the other hand...

Is hated immediately by Gray Wing, when she's established as Turtle Tail's friend. Bumble's abuse at Tom the Wifebeater's hands invites even MORE investment. The rejection is shocking and upsetting. There's a story there about our main characters being imperfect; jealous, bigoted, and judgemental.

But, she is simply killed off. Everything they set up for this character is gone with little personalized fanfare. It's not a tragedy with a lesson about cruelty, or something anyone regrets.

It's just... plot. Gray Wing whinging that no one will like his shitty brother now that his body count is 2.

More than that, in the discussion of women in particular, "Fridging" was coined to give a name to the way women characters often don't get their stories told at all. There is a CULTURAL trend of female characters facing disproportionate violence, for the sake of advancing male plots.

Bumble has a lot going for her. Petal had a lot going for her. Turtle Tail had a lot going for her. Bright Stream had a lot going for her. When they died, they took their potential with them.

It's not always wrong to kill off a character of high potential, mind you. In Gurren Lagann, Kamina's death is sudden and shocking, leaving a massive hole in the hearts of the cast that never heals. Grappling with that loss, but also letting his memory fuel them, is a major theme of that story.

All that to say... there's no formula for avoiding it. You've gotta identify what the deeper issue is, in your specific narrative.

I can't say for certain what that will look like for your story, but here's some things I keep in mind;

When you make characters who exist to die, make sure they're people before you axe them.

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

If they just miss them because they were (pre-existing relationship), go back to the drawing board.

Fluttering Bird as an example. Who was she? Dead sister. Why do they miss her? Dead sister. No traits until after her death.

Runningwind was short-tempered and helpful. Kamina was a valuable leader who made people believe in a brighter future. Swiftpaw was fiesty and desperate to prove himself. The better characterized, the more profound the loss usually is.

If this is a female character who is dying just to serve the plot, be aware of cultural bias and tropes. How is the gender ratio looking in your cast? Is this happening disproportionately with your girls?

Note how Quiet Rain's litter had both a boy and a girl, but the girl was chosen to be "weaker" and wither away.

And how most of the time in DOTC, whenever a man had to be upset, a girl would get killed for it.

If you ever feel like the character on the chopping block is NOT a full character, ask yourself why it needs to be a character at all. You don't need to spend narrative time building out someone when a literal object of high value might suffice.

"My sister died when I swore to protect her and I can't face my family" = Old. Tired. Ive seen this.

"I lost my heirloom sword when I swore to protect it and I can't face my family." = Fascinating. Why was the sword so valuable? Will they really not take you back? How did you lose it?

When you do kill off "high value" characters, try to make sure you're not leaving too many plot threads hanging. Or at least make a point of how they will never get closure.

[reejindeed]

Aengus Óg!

[rikacreature]

commission for @spyromancy!!! this is such a cool design omg

[orengejoshi]

some simple bunny Flug pinups

[nohoperadio]

There's a weirdly poignant sort of... metaphysical tragedy in the fact that pain, which evolved as a helpful signal to alert us when bad things might be happening to us, grew into becoming... well, basically the Bad Thing. To the point where by universal consensus the very worst thing you can do to a being like us is torture them (i.e. trigger the warning signal as strongly as possible while perhaps deliberately avoiding causing "actual" harm). And there are tons of illnesses and injuries and disabilities that massively impact people's quality of life, ranging from annoying to depressing to driving people to suicide, basically purely because they're very physically painful, while the underlying bodily dysfunction that the pain is supposedly "warning" of is either relatively minor or literally non-existent.

The capacity to feel pain is a good and important thing, some people lack it and that's generally awful for them, only in a universe unrecognizably different from ours could we ever do without it. But isn't it awful to think how if only there was somebody up there to adjust the settings for us, they'd probably only have to tweak them the tiniest bit to keep 99.99% of the benefits while saving us from all the most extreme miseries forever?

The mechanism didn't have to be perfect for natural selection's purposes, it had to be good enough that the average individual in the average situation would be motivated to stay more or less out of trouble. Measured by the metrics nature was working towards, she could afford to be a little slapdash with the exact implementation, and she was. In doing so she opened the door to infinities of evil and suffering that wouldn't otherwise be conceivable. All this only had one chance to happen, and it happened that way. There's nobody to be mad at--I'm mad about it, though.

[fantasykiri5]

Fig Cigarette Papers

[atitanbitch]

I’ve just made the realization that Dead Boy Detectives can’t be an infinitely long show because actors do, in fact, age and get older, and dead boys don’t.

It is a sad day

[gibbycat]

there are not enough words to describe how much mithrun means to me. there is something wonderful about a character who has to rediscover themselves after having their sense of identity stripped away from them except for one thing that they have for their reason to keep going.

as someone who was in a similar position, mithrun's journey means a lot to me. someone who acted on a desire that, at least in the short term, provided some semblance of direction but would inevitably burn out in the long run. desiring revenge wasn't sustainable, yet it was the only thing that kept mithrun going. because that was all he had left of his identity.

but in the end, when mithrun realized that he wanted to do something else? that he wanted to live? i cried so hard.

[desultory-novice]

I get the feeling that Adeline is the most likely to get therapy.

...She'll probably need it too... (Pausing the fun times for something dreadfully serious) -

"Pieces"

-

[Apologies AU Masterpost] [Noir's Field Trip]

[pallanophblargh]

Color! Composition still wonky, but this was done mainly to see how I liked the colors and such. I can reposition and resize birds/leaves/etc another time. And get a decent proper hexagon drawn up.

This has been an exercise in not letting perfection hold me back. I have to start getting back into art somehow, right?

[scisac]

scisaac in 2x11: battlefield