#so this is kinda just a poorly written version of those

[gonzo-rella]

I wanted to say I love our nonbinary Thunderbolts headcanons! I always enjoy x reader content that tackles gender identity because there usually isn’t content about that. I’m transmasc myself, so I appreciate the enby representation!!

I liked your version of Walker’s reaction to a nonbinary reader, it felt very in character of him. I was wondering how you think Walker would react to someone being transphobic towards Reader, outside of the group.

Anyway, I love your writing and happy pride month 🌈

happy pride month!! and ah thank you so much for this!! it means a lot. as someone who has existed for a decade in the space of reader-insert fanfic, as both a reader and a writer, representation has always mattered a lot to me. it's one of my key values as a writer in this space because i have felt that exclusion from other people's fics in the past. even before i was conscious of the queer facets of my identity, i sought out fanfiction that featured a plus size reader. i've always been fat and as a teenager fanfiction had the power to comfort me and make me feel worthy of being cared about and loved. but often that fat!reader representation was nonexistent in certain fandoms or kind of poorly written, in that it was melodramatic, out-of-character and samey. so, having been stuck reading that crap, and as someone who can rarely find fics with a specified nonbinary!reader, i do my best to write the fics i can't find but want to read.

and, thanks for the praise of my characterisation of Walker!! it's always intimidating writing for a character for the first time, so to be told i've done it 'right' really puts those worries at ease.

come to think of it, i feel like the Walker and reader dynamic i introduced in those headcanons would make for an interesting one-shot fic, one that charts Walker's progress from being an apathetic asshole to someone the reader can kind of rely on. i may well write a fic like that because i love writing dynamics that have that complexity. i can't sleep so i may well make a start on it after i've replied to this ask.

on the off chance i fail to write that fic, i'll answer this now. if i do manage to get the fic written, think of this as a preview of sorts. the dialogue may change but the sentiment remains.

so, i feel like his reaction would be dependent on how long he's known you. when he first meets you, like i said in the hcs, he's part of the problem for the most part. he's not an outright transphobe in the traditional sense of purposely invalidating trans people, but he sees it as going out of his way to afford you the basic respect of referring to you properly. he doesn't really like or respect anyone. it's nothing personal. he's got bigger things weighing on him, like his wife leaving him or the bad things he's done. it's no excuse but he doesn't realise just how harmful it is.

once he gets on board with affording you that basic respect (which happens quite quickly) and you become teammates, he becomes more able to see you as a fellow person. he isn't too clued up on the whole trans thing, so he doesn't pick up on things in the same way that your other teammates would. it's something he gets better at identifying with time, but i feel like in this earlier stage he would just kinda let you deal with things yourself, or let bucky and yelena help you deal with it instead.

but, i have a very strong image of him having a moment where everything shifts.

you're having some kind of meeting, and Valentina explains that she has concerns about you. in my hc/characterisation of the reader, they're a mutant from another universe (i'd like to think that's an apt edition to their nonbinary identity, in the same way that so many queer people align with mutant characters like the x-men). so, they're a powerful mutant, and they're openly nonbinary. it's something people aren't entirely cool with. and, Valentina expresses this in a way that indicates she probably sees some truth in it.

this is based purely on how i would react to a similar situation so apologies if this doesn't align with other readers' personalities. but, like the malice is unmistakable and he fully gets it's fucked up and he watches you just take it. you don't argue. you don't fight back. maybe you kinda agree with it too. he can see in your eyes that you're kind of resigned, as though you're used to it. that or you've shut down. normally, Bucky and Yelena will be the first ones to fight your corner. you can even see them going to retaliate when it's clear you're not going to do that for yourself. but, John beats them to it.

"Do you want to say that again?" he'd say.

and, it surprises you, that the guy who had to be goaded into gendering you correctly stepping in to defend you like that. it surprises everyone.

Val is taken aback and indignant.

"Excuse me?"

"They've saved people's lives and that's all that matters? Everyone in this room's probably killed someone, but the problem is that they're fucking nonbinary?"

you still don't say anything, and that really annoys him. he tells you to stand up for yourself, that you don't need to take this shit.

to him, this anger comes from his own experience in having to prove himself and falling short. he knows how soul-crushing it is. and, at the end of the day, he is someone who wants to do what's right. as an ex-soldier he respects people who put themselves on the line. he thinks it's barbaric that you've done that and you're expected to sacrifice part of your identity for the sake of being palatable.

hopefully, that feels in-character? i honestly can't tell. but, i'm looking forward to probably making this into a more fleshed-out one-shot.

[madara-fate]

Being recent on Tumblr and in the Naruto fandom in general (I've been there for 04 months), this fandom has really made me see all the colors.

As a die-hard fan of Sakura and Sasuke who didn't particularly care about the prospect of them as a couple before, I tended at first to subscribe mainly to individual pro sakura and pro sasuke accounts, something I I quickly regretted it because lord, these two fandoms suck. I love both of these characters and it's very difficult to see their two fandoms being so vicious towards each other. If you don't like one of them, why talk about it? why make so many passive-aggressive comments to provoke the other party? They despise each other so much that it's difficult to have a moment of peace for those who truly love both.

And then, let's not even talk about the strange takes they have about them.

I swear if I ever come across something like "Sasuke was right" or "Sasuke Revolution" or "Sakura deserved better - that is, she deserved everything except Sasuke - or "Sakura lost all its development", I'm going to lose my shit.

Their views are biased, self-centered, misinformed and so oc for many that it sometimes makes you wonder if they even understand the characters they say they love. It seems more like they… project their problems and their insecurities onto these two and it's frankly disappointing to see. They like the fanon version of Sasuke and Sakura that they have built in their head and not their canon character and it's quite sad that such characters are reduced to stereotypes by their respective fandom. Not all of them are like that of course, but I've encountered so many of them that it ended up exhausting any good feelings I had towards these two fan bases.

All of this ended up pushing me towards the SS fandom because it's easier to find fans who like both characters. And finally, even though this fandom also has its own absurd points of view that sometimes make me want to throw myself out of a window as well as a blatant bias towards one of the two characters that bothers me, it's still better than the shit I've seen before. here at least I don't have to worry about reading crap like "Sasuke is toxic", "Sasuke didn't do anything wrong", "Sakura objectifies/is obsessed with Sasuke", "Sakura is poorly written" etc and I admit it's a relief. Plus, it's nice to see the fans celebrating them and their relationship, which is what I signed up for after all.

Not to say one is better than the other because the whole Naruto fandom is shit anyway but at least there is more room to like these two characters without getting attacked in this fandom than in the other two.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

You know, your experience of the pro Sasuke and pro Sakura fandoms hating on each other, essentially being what pushed you towards the SS fandom, kinda echoes what pushed me to being a SS fan as well. When the series ended, I was fully neutral on them, but I definitely expected them to get together because it was just obvious. But after seeing some of the absolutely absurd takes that a lot of the fandom had towards them, it made me want to defend them because what they were saying just wasn't true. So much like you, I was also pushed towards the SS fandom due to fandom hatred.

And yes, the SS fandom also has it's fair share of absurd points and biased takes, as I've certainly had to argue against some of them before. Yet, it's still better than the toxicity and the sheer delusion exhibited from a very loud portion of the anti fandoms.

[diseasedpossum]

Movie Recommendations

Okay these are just two movies that I don't hear a lot about that I enjoyed and wanted to share... i do recommend giving them a watch and they both have elements that could appeal to alt subcultures in a way kinda

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Really good adaptation of Pride and Prejudice based on a book series. Honestly Darcy in this version is peak and his outfits are amazing. Also, it is not as cheesey as the title sounds. it still has the same themes as Pride and Prejudice and follows the storyline, just has a bit of a zombie horror twist - honestly one of my fav goth horror type twists on classics

My Summer As A Goth: Okay hear me out, this is one of those movies where it is so poorly written and aboslutely terrible that it somehow is good... Like it is so cheesey and bad at times that it is funny. I feel like it is something anyone should watch if they like cheesey comedies and/or are alternative, like it just is so bad that it is good

[aquaburst3]

I've seen TikToks where people dunk on Rollo and Honest Fellow, and others, mainly in the Spanish and JP fandoms, being confused about this reaction. To play devil's advocate, the main reason is how the game handled them and that they're poorly written characters. I can pinpoint a few reasons why that is...

Honest Fellow: His motivations to make him sympathetic and his actions are at odds with one another.

In that arc, Honest Fellow gleefully turns people into puppets to sell off to the highest bidder, even hinting at some people using them for sexual pleasure in the JP version. Why is he doing this? Because the school system is hard and he wants to get back at rich people. Yes, really. That's one of the dumbest villain motivations I ever heard! How does that justify what he did or put his actions into perspective? He's a human trafficker! By making the reason why he's doing this something so disconnected from the story makes him seem like a sociopathic monster on par with the Coachman. It's like if someone murdered your pet and said they did that because had a hard time in school. That's horrible, but that has nothing to do with that action nor does that make you like that more any more.

(Personally, if I was writing this arc, I would've made his boss the TWST Coachman, who is threatening to turn Giddel into a puppet if he doesn't do what he says. That makes far more sense, and makes his actions more understandable. I think a lot of us had shitty bosses that forced us to do things we disagreed with or would do a horrible act to protect a loved one. It makes him more like his movie counterpart due to Honest John and Gideon being threatened by the Coachman to convince Pinocchio to come to Pleasure Island, despite Honest John thinking it was fucked up. Idk, that's just me.)

Rollo: While he's better written than Honest Fellow due to his motivations at least making sense, he's still not the best written character either. Shitty and lazy character name aside, being a woobie and not adapting the character in a...questionable manner.

A woobie, for those of you who don't know, is an older fandom term used to describe bland pretty characters with a tragic backstory that the author expects you to feel sorry for them and get away with everything. Oh, boy. Does he fit that definition in spades. He's pretty bland. His only real standout personality traits are that he hates magic and the fae, prideful, traditional and possibly athletic. That's it. He has a sad backstory where his brother died in a fire after his magic got out of control. Fine, that's cliche, but it works. Hell, it's kinda clever in a sense where it's inspired by the Hunchback of Notre Dame off-broadway musical. Characters like Idia point out the hypocrisy in Rollo's ideology and that he is really doing this thanks to his own guilt for his brother's death, which is a good thing. The problem is, outside of him being boring as a character, that despite wanting to suck out all of the magic in the world, he got away with it scott free, and his only form of "punishment" was living with the guilt of knowing everyone thinking that he was some sort of hero…despite Malleus wanting revenge on him five minutes earlier. (I don't get it either.) I think a lot of this problem plays into a reoccurring one the game has a whole—the character stagnation and Yana's utter unwillingness to let them face any consequences for their actions. Rollo is also prejudice against the fae if him covering his nose whenever he's around one is to be concerned, which is also never addressed.

I think the way he was handled was in poor taste. Frollo is one of the most realistic villains in the Disney canon and is triggering to a lot of westerners due to his ties with the Catholic church. Unlike the other Great Seven, there's no way to possibly turn his story to make him seem like a hero nor are their any admirable traits. The fact of the matter is that by making Noble Bell honoured after Frollo, who is such a realistic character and is tied up in a lot of religious baggage for westerners, the game is glorifying his actions to an extent. While I know Christianity is a minor religion in Japan, so adding Christian elements to "spice things up" is common in anime, the developers know that the game is being distributed internationally and should've known better. The game should've made Rollo like the staff where he has no dorm or school honoured after his counterpart. That would've lessened the impact a lot.

Both of them: Like I said with Rollo, they completely get away with their crimes, despite everything they did. That is asinine. All actions have punishments, and that goes for them. Plus, the NRC boys are based on villains! Wouldn't they want to exact their revenge on them, especially in Honest Fellow's case who wanted to turn them into living household items and sex dolls! You are based on villains, act like it!

(This is also a huge problem with the game as a whole, but I wrote other posts about that before, so I don't wanna get into it here.)

So, yeah. There reasons why many English speaking fans dislike or despise these characters. Hell, if anything the reason why they are so beloved in JP and Spanish fandom circles is more bizarre to me. I get it. Honest Fellow is hot. But outside of that...Really? So I guess it goes both ways and we can be baffled at each other's choices. xD

[divorcedwife]

Oh pls tell more about your opinions on Eight Little Talons!! I really really hated that story personally and I was shocked to learn it's many peoples favourite (overall Tevinter Nights was a very mid book, most stories were forgettable to me). But yeah I was just sooooo mad about the crows in eight little talons like youre telling me those lame ass idiots are THE BEST the crows have to offer??? I did not stop to analyze sexism much but I am definitely interested in your view, for me Teia and Viago were mostly cringy for how shitty they seemed as assassins. For most game characters reading tevinter nights made me like them more (Antoine and Evka, Myrna, even Neve) but I kinda just want to erase Teia and Viago from my mind so I can headcanon them a) older (Teia especially) b) more competent.

oh, is it a fan favorite? it did have some things i liked, like viago's poison obsession and his backstory is interesting, i just found lots of issues with this story

i found a lot of it clumsy and too hurried to get to the exciting parts to have any suspense or tension. most talons in this story barely have a character trait between them all to share, and i felt it was pretty obvious who the murderer was on account of how he otherwise had nothing to do. and i am the #1 red herring believer! if i could tell, i consider the situation dire as hell. i feel like borrowing an agatha christie format set up expectations that were not fulfilled. the set up mostly felt to me like a way to have teia wear ball gowns and dramatic murders, but it felt like the writer skipped all the mystery building parts that weren't interesting to her lol. part of why it felt like bad fanfic at times to me, like the kind i read on deviantart in 2010. like most characters are going to die, so let's not bother giving them any traits or anything, let's skip to the Good Parts. but if they don't have traits, it makes it obvious they're just here to die, so i don't care when it happens, im not surprised

but still that's pretty minor to me compared to my issue of how sexist i found the writing. it's not a murder mystery, it's a story about viago and teia flirting and i found their dynamic painful as hell. and i did notttt come in as a hater, i found their banter cute in game! this story, though... the story is mostly told through the eyes of viago, who has feelings for teia he refuses to act on, and teia constantly flirts with him and looks for excuses to be near him. it's truly a both of worst worlds situation for me, and i felt both behaved in ways that reflected poorly on their character. teia's flirting felt too pushy - i, the reader, know he's into her, but he's rejecting her at every turn, so it feels weird that she's pushing herself onto him so hardcore. and viago's gaze on her felt creepy as fuck... he wants her, but he pushes her away, but he's bitterly jealous when she's around other men. it straight up reminded me of like, frollo. move on, man... pick a path... good lord, what a disaster

i also didn't like how teia was written in general. she's someone who worked hard to be a talon and got that rank very young, but she's written like she's a teenager! all she gets to talk about are how much she loves clothes, and flirting, and wanting everyone to get along and act like a family. almost all she gets to do is flirt with viago, and also flirt with that other guy, and interrogate that other guy (through flirting, of course). i feel like her writing would have been dated in 2009, and that this was written in 2020 boggles my mind. im sure it's possible to write an assassin lady who charms her targets and make it good, but teia felt like a bad fanfic version of herself to me. i really disliked that story viscerallyyyyy

[sandraharissa]

Even tho ‘Nina makes Crowley realise he’s in love’ has become quite a popular interpretation I’m still sticking with my previous interpretation of ‘Crowley knew the whole time, likely since the Eden wall scene’. It’s bcos this twist on their relationship does nothing for me and all I see from other ppl who liked it is ‘Oh Crowley’s such a dum-dum, of course he’d just do all those things but remain oblivious, he’s so silly’.

Now I’m not mad at anybody specifically for having a different interpretation but I wanna share my own thoughts about the interpretation itself, and by ‘share my thoughts’ I mean bitch about it.

In s1 so much of Crowley’s behavior is so intentional, he’s the one always pushing for them to have more interactions, he was the one who suggested the arrangement, he’s always inserting himself in Azi’s life, he’s the one insisting they are on their own side, he’s suggesting running off to Alfa-Centauri, he’d do anything like postpone Satan and any other of Azi’s whims just for him, he’s the one who at the end when they’re waiting on the bus appeals to Azi again trying to reinforce that they’re together on the same side, but probs the most obvious example of all the ‘you go to fast for me’ scene. There’s so much potent drama and tragedy there for Crowley if he’s pursuing Azi the whole time, how else would you even call what he’s doing in s1?

“Well, can I drop you anywhere?”

“No, thank you. Oh, don’t look so disappointed. Perhaps one day we could… I don’t know. Go for a picnic. Dine at the Ritz.”

“I’ll give you a lift. Anywhere you want to go.”

“You go too fast for me, Crowley.”

So when I watched this exchange the first time and assumed it has a deeper meaning cos they’re both talking in code and using the car as a metaphor for being ready to take their relationship to the next level I wasn’t right and the scene isn’t really that deep or romantic cos Crowley was really just suggesting spending more time together that evening like always and had no deeper desire or meaning to convey and also completely missed the meaning of Azi’s words?

For the love of God he walked into a church burning his feet for Azi’s sake in this grand sweet gesture just completely unaware of why he’s actually doing it? Doesn’t it take away so much depth and agency and meaning from that interaction? If it’s not intended by Crowley as a grand sweet gesture cos ‘he’s the love of my life, I’d do anything for him’ but as far as Crowley’s aware he’s doing it just because?

I think that’s why I dislike it so much, it exchanges the imo super compelling drama and a tragic angle to Crowley’s character with ‘oh it’s just so typical of them to be so smart yet stupid ha ha’. Like honestly, yeah sure, I get it, it fits the Pratchett-esque type humor, it IS in character for them to be dum-dums but it’s kinda disappointing imo if this comedic aspect of their characterization was taken so far as to be used as an explanation for really serious aspects of the development of their quite tragic relationship.

I think part of this is also this paradox of how having inhuman characters in stories doesn’t mean anything cos fundamentally they still need to behave human in order to be relatable to the audience and not come off as flat and simplified versions of ‘human’, what ppl often think of as poorly written characters. And oftentimes attempts to create ‘otherworldly’ characters that are still compelling simply result in cishet writers making all their robots/aliens/angels aro/ace/trans, so creating completely human characters with human experiences. I think there’s a limit to how far you can take a character who’s lived with humans for 6k years and presumably loves them and say that he wholly misunderstands the most basic and important aspect of humanity like ‘feeling love’ before the character becomes ‘silly’ beyond understandable or relatable.

Azi being clever yet stupid cos his internal character conflict results in him not knowing how to reconcile his relationship with heaven to his relationship with Crowley? Fantastic. An extremely human experience of dealing with an abusive family too, and not at all anything truly celestial/alien.

Crowley knowing Jane Austen personally from a heist but missing the fact that she wrote novels and their cultural relevance, a la grandpa who lives under a rock? Or him organizing a heist to *looks at notes* steal holy water, a la demon who doesn’t know how christianity works and that he could get it for free by asking? Hilarious. Crowley having character quirks like his thing with ducks? Great.

Crowley spends 6k years consistently and vigorously pursuing one person (one!!!) and performing grand romantic gestures but sike, it was unintentional cos he’s so removed from the human experience and emotions that he’s got no self-awareness? Meh.

It’d be another thing if the whole time Crowley was shameful and in denial of his feelings and behaved like Azi e.g. “we’re not friends and I don’t even like you”, with him I totally agree that he must have realized recently and has still not processed it and his family trauma, but the intent and purpose and intensity with which Crowley pursues a relationship, even just a friendship, with Azi in s1 really makes it unbelievable to me that he’d do it completely unaware. During the talk with Nina he may have realized that his relationship with Azi is comparable to the human romance and opened his eyes to the possibility of e.g. kissing and realized he needs to make a move and stop dancing around the topic but I completely reject the idea that he didn’t know he loved Azi.

Warning. Bitterness incoming: Currently waiting for s3 to inspire an interpretation that *that scene from s3* is when Azi realizes he’s in love, cos he hasn’t done so in 1941, s1 and s2, and during the kiss scene apparently.

[this-is-chaos-magick]

I agree that the Wanda hate feels very disingenuous and not made in good faith. Hell, I think Wanda is harder to hate vs other characters in fiction in general, including characters people suck off like Homelander.

Wanda is a character that I view as a kind character. Someone who has a view on herself akin to Rocket, aka hating herself and doesn’t view herself as a good person, but she has done selfless things throughout her life. It’s like people only view her as the government in the MCU view her and I don’t think that’s fair, but more importantly, it’s also not even a good way to look at her and her character.

Idk, point is I really love her, and I really wish people would actually talk about her character in good faith.

me too, I wish people would just see how interesting her character is,

I think one of the reasons that there are so many 'Wanda hate' ....is because she's a woman, I know they wouldn't admit it, and they are always going to say that it's she's because 'she's poorly written'...well she's kinda is after Wandavision....(Also saying them her in Dsmom don't make sense is kinda not true at all like sure her villain arc is rushed but where her anger is not hard to understand)

you can tell they didn't care about the writing either because that doesn't stop from loving badly written male character before

Wanda Maximoff have everything they would like to a character, if she was a man, they would be all over her by now, but since she's not they so "can't relate to her" or "she wasn't cool enough"

I once see a post on TikTok making edits about characters with "aura" or whatever trend thing is trending there and all of the boys in the comments are whining about her being included....

Like I don't understand how in hell somebody could think that someone like Homelander or the joker to be better than Wanda? Oh wait because they think those characters is 'cool' and have a "valid or cool reason to be villain" and is "well written" ... totally not because they project their horrible "sigma" or whatever fantasy to these characters....

And they always use the reason that 'Wanda stans' are annoying... but most of them are literally just defending Wanda's "crimes" which is fine because she's a fictional character, or is saying she's the most powerful avenger...which she is...Feige himself said so....and they don't like it

Like it's fine to hate on mcu's version of Wanda Maximoff if it's because of the casting choice... it's understand to be upset about that...or you understand the character but you simply don't like her? That's fine....but come on if the hate is simply because it's a 'trend' or because you're upset about a female character being stronger than a man....then 😐😐😐

Sometimes I feel like the "Wanda hate" is more annoying than Wanda stans...like a fan could literally be talking about Wanda like a regular fan and somebody is always going to fucking whine... that's why I left twitter I can't even post about Wanda without some asshole replying or quoting it....you couldn't watch a viral Wanda edit on TikTok without a manbabies talking about how a [random male character from another popular media] is better...they were always so fucking upset...like it's so obvious that its not because of anything she did or the casting problem and it's just annoying you can't do anything to defend Wanda against these freaks either because if you sounds to agressive you're now apparently a "toxic Wanda stan"...like omg toxic toxic toxic...all of this started because since WV ended these people couldn't stand that Wanda is someone that is powerful I swear the strongest avenger debates is hilarious in earlier days but God after that "you surpass the sorcerer supreme" line thingy [if I remember it correctly] in WV drop I feel like that's where all hell Break loose...and then it got worse pre and post dsmom,....like obviously Wanda stans are you going defend Wanda... that's our favorite character....and it's a normal thing in a fandom.... I don't understand why these people are upset other than misogyny....

It's so obvious...like you don't have the right to talk how 'horrible' Wanda's action were....if the character that you like is someone that is worse... like

And also I hate how people downgrade Wanda's reason on being a villain....like they always say how her motives "weren't enough"... like they ignoring everything that happens to her on purpose...like what happens during her childhood are literally a valid reason to be a villain and no idc if other people suffers more than her', different people process sadness and anger differently...this woman at the age of ten loss her parents in one of the worst way possible and probably did not get to chance to bury them properly and process her emotion at such a young age....and then her brother die years later and just like that she's alone all over again and everyone around acts like she's a walking time bomb that can explode any time, she's in a foreign country that she used to hate and is the same county that where the bombs that kills her parents come froms a country that worship the man that is literally the reason her parents died,...and then there is vision... somebody who is an outcast like her... I hate the fact that everybody treats vision like a sextoy shut up shut up no he isn't, that man is the only person in there that love Wanda truly....they understand each other and they were happy.... before Thanos ruins everything...and then boom their happiness is shattered and suddenly she have to kill the only man in the world that cares about her....she have no choice..she have to kill the only man in the world that loves her that understand her for people that don't care enough wether she lives or die,....God she was probably so happy when she got turned into dust.....and then she's back to life again...and she realizes she's alone again....

Wanda is literally a good person...she cares about people...she care about those who she hurts...

Because if she was somebody who is 'evil'

She wouldn't switch sides during AoU, she wouldn't cry during the Lagos incident, she wouldn't kill vision and would probably just escapes and she wouldn't let go of Westview....but she did all of that because she cares to much about the lives of people who don't even think about her....she just wants people to accept her...man like she just wants somebody to understand her...all of the stuff that happened in dsmom is because people treat her like shit

...she makes me so freaking sad I am sorry I am rambling with my bad English...I was just so upset that people downgrade Wanda's character....and I am glad other people get me

[stinkrascal]

Do u get nervous to post ur version of Vlad/the vatores when so many versions of them exist? I have a townie I want to post but they’re popular in another story and Im scared lol

with vlad, no, bc ive written with him for so long, and ive developed so much about him over the years, that i feel very confident writing about him. i feel like there's a very obvious distinction between other ppls interpretation of vlad, and My Vlad, so no anxiety there.

with the vatores, definitely, bc i am not as confident writing w them, sometimes i fear they aren't as developed or as interesting as other ppls interpretations of the vatores.

but at the end of the day everyone's interpretations of canon townies will always be influenced by your own experiences and by the narrative you wish to tell, so honestly i wouldn't be that worried about it. i think ts4 is really unique in the sense that the canon townies don't really have set personalities, i mean like they kinda do bc of the poorly implemented trait systems, but it isn't the same as a tv show where you see the characters in real time behaving in certain ways that furthers the narrative of the story. as a ts4 storyteller you create the narrative from scratch, even if you're using the townies as templates, they have such vague lore that if you want to tell a story to its natural end you would have to fill in the blanks. there's a lot more room for interpretation just based on the way ts4 plays as a game. and i think in regards to your question, this fact can be used to your advantage!

like lilith vatore for example, some people write her to be extremely good-natured, some people write her to be morally grey, and some people write her as straight up evil and none of them are wrong bc that's just what the narrative calls for in their stories. those versions of lilith don't read like a misinterpretation of a canon character, but rather bringing a character to life thru the story each individual wished to tell. while they're all different imaginings of the same character, they feel like Real Characters bc those characters fit appropriately into the narratives. it's almost like having 3 different women who are all named lilith vatore but are otherwise completely different people with their own wants, desires, thoughts, and feelings. does that even make sense?!?!?!?!?!? i hope it does lol

basically at the end of the day i don't think most people care. if anything i think a lot of ppl enjoy sticking to certain townies, i know i certainly have my favorites who are also basically everyone else's favorites lol. but as long as the characters feel thoughtful, nobody's gonna care that you have interpretation 103040825 of lilith vatore. bc at the end of the day there would still be a piece of You that's detectable thru the characters, and that's the thing people latch onto, the interesting and various ways in which we think about the same set of pixels. the end goal is you wanna treat them like your ocs, don't feel restricted to what other ppl are doing or what vague lore ts4 gives us just do whatever you think works for your story and have fun 🤸‍♂️

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Im about halfway through Party Crasher rn and its insane how bland Adrien is normally and how endearing he is when we get to see him hang out with his friends without him being on this pedastal by Marinette. Its not even like hes always that boring when Marinette is around or like this show cant write them being cute together because when they were hanging out as "just" friends in season 2 they were honestly pretty adorable! I also really liked them when they thought they were a couple in Oblivio, but for some reason the writers insist on writing Marinette as this bumbling fool whenever shes around him so anytime theres an opportunity for them to spend time together and develop their relationship, we need to get through this barage of bullshit hijinks where Marinette can barely get a word out and then the episode ends with a small moment where something kinda cute-kinda romantic happens but it doesnt actually affect their relationship in any meaningful way

I honestly think focusing more on Adrien would make the romance so much better because it would actually gives us reasons for Marinette to like Adrien because as it stands she really only seems to like him for shallow reasons but the show doesnt really acknowledge that? Like, they try to paint characters like Chloe and Lila as in the wrong for only liking Adrien for his looks and money but its fine for Marinette to do the same thing because idk, shes nice ig not a poorly-written caricature of the Mean Popular Girl archetype ? Granted, MLB has that False Ideal Self/True Flawed Self dichotomy-thing going on with Adrien obviously being that false ideal self in contrast to Cat Noir so you could say it kind of is calling her shallowness out but idk, this just reeks of misogyny to me

Also, before anyone accuses me of anything, I dont mind Marinette being the sole protagonist of the show while Adrien is just the love interest rather than the co-protagonist like you would think from the full title, I just think romances inherently work best when all of the people involved get an equal amount of focus and get fleshed out equally. I think if they wanted to have Marinette be the sole protagonist, it wouldve been better to focus more on female friendships (which is what actual magical girl shows tend to do anyway) and spend more time exploring the relationships between Lila and Chloe and Marinette/Ladybug. That would be a pretty interesting way to handle the theme of Persona vs Real Self with Chloe bullying Marinette but idolising Ladybug and Lila despising Ladybug but wanting to be friends with Marinette (ik that doesnt actually happen but shhhh Im trying to dream up a better version of this bad show) and you could even do something with Kagami outwardly being the type of person you would expect to be Ladybug but no actually being Ladybug and maybe even wanting a life closer to the one Marinette has

Also, to kinda bring this back around to Party Crasher, one of the things that I do apperciate about the show is how the Miracuclass feels like a big 'loose' friendgroup with smaller more close-knit 'sub' friendgroups within it. I dont exactly know what french school culture is like, but it seems like once the classes are picked, youre gonna be spending most of your time at school in the same group for several years. Its like that in germany too and since most popular media is american and about The American School Experience, I dont often get to see that dynamic portrayed in media and I appreciate that. I just wish we could have a few episodes that focus a bit more on those smaller dynamics, like Max and Kim have a pretty sweet unlikely friendship going on, the person Nathaniel texts his bad excuse to is Alyx and they have similar interests and seem happy to sit next to each other but I feel like they hardly interact, it'd be nice to flesh out Marinettes Girl Squad and some of their individual relationships a bit because aside from Rose and Juleka and Marinette and Alya I kinda feel like the only reason they hang is just that theyre all the girls in their class who dont suck ass. Also, this isnt really based on anything in canon, but I recently had a thought that Nino and Luca would probably get along well since theyre both musicians and theyre both meant to be Cool Guys, just in different ways and I like Adrien and Ninos friendship and the few times Adrien and Luka got to interact I thought they were cute and idk, ive been getting really attached to the idea of Adrien, Luka and Nino as a trio

[icarusthelunarguard]

This Week’s Horrible-Scopes

It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along. It really doesn’t matter. Better yet! Check out “Heart of the Game, Fredonia” - they can sell you those D12’s with the symbols on them! Get in contact with them on Facebook, shipping to the U.S. only, and tell them “Shujin Tribble” sentcha. “Hail, Hail, Fredonia!” Home of the Blue Devil!

Everything OLD is NEW again! Doesn’t mean it’s good or that it’s quality. But this week we’re helping you realize you can be inspired from the past to get things working again. So ditch your worries about coming up with new ideas and creatively acquire some old ones. But try to do it better than some of these selections.

Aries 

Originally composed in 1943 by Aaron Copland, Emerson Lake and Palmer recorded a version of ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ in 1977 - which was quite the hit! Apparently Copland himself objected to the extended keyboard solo that forms the last half of the album version. Because of that his estate has put a ban on people covering it any more. So This Week… It’s an AMAZING musical experience. Go see a symphony orchestra performing it sometime before the end of the year.

Taurus 

Keeping the spirit of musical reinvigoration alive, let’s get you to a song that was written by Irving Berlin May 1927, but got a new lease on life TWICE. The first was almost 50 years later when performed by Gene Wilder and Peter Boyle in the film ‘Young Frankenstein’ in 1974. And then 1982 Dutch Musician Taco brought it back to the pop circles with his pop-synth edition! So This Week… The original song is almost a century old! Start planning for its birthday now!  

Gemini 

Let’s go Heavy Re-creation Shift this time! Pictures At An Exhibition” was written in 1874 by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, and is a longer piece - having 10 movements. But if you want to really bend your understanding of how it could sound, may we suggest finding the electronic music adaptation by Isao Tomita, done in 1975. It has all the hallmarks of sounding like it could be the soundtrack of a 1970’s sci-fi psychedelia movie. So This Week… Put this piece on while you watch the 1976 movie, “Logan’s Run” and tell us it doesn’t just FIT.

Cancer Moon-Child 

We’d be totally wrong for leaving out one of the most iconic of classical pieces and its most famous modern cover. So, of course, it’s time to mention A Fifth of Beethoven as recorded by Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band in 1976. Naturally you should know that it was adapted from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 written between 1804 and ‘08. Meaning it took over 160 years for Disco to catch up to Beethoven’s success. So This Week… If you want to be a hit with the masses, consider re-creating something that’s about 150 years old. It just might work.

Leo 

Let’s not stop with just ONE Disco Recreation, because we’ve got another for you. David Shire arranged a new version of another Mussorgsky classic from 1867; 110 years later gave us Night on Disco Mountain in 1977. Yes, these two were specifically for a movie soundtrack, but they got lots of radio play back in the day too. And, best of all, No Royalties to the original composer since, you know… kinda Not Around Anymore. So This Week… You claim to not like Disco, but we’ve seen the sequin-encrusted chunky-heel shoes you’ve got in the back of your closet. Let your freak flag fly this Halloween! The World Deserves To See!

Virgo 

Not so much a music as a film, and not with a happy ending. You remember a writer and illustrator named Theodor Seuss Geisel? Yes, that is Dr. Seuse’s real name! And you know what 50-years-later modern recreation of his works that ended poorly? The Cat in the Hat starring Mike Myers. Reminding you that the live-action version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas was a hit three years before, his estate hated this rendition so much that they’ve stopped authorizing any new reimaging works on his projects. So This Week… Try to stick closer to the script. If it fails you can always blame the writers.

Libra

Let’s get back to music again. For you we’re not only suggesting a song to hear, but reminding you of how to spell it. The song in question is "Sabre Dance", a movement in the final act of Aram Khachaturian's ballet Gayane from 1942. Yes, this is a fairly new addition to the list, but it’s still worthy. Because in 1991, in a concert in Spain, Dave Edmunds played the song on electric guitar and totally killed it! You should look that one up on YouTube sometime! So This Week… Only 50 years later this time? See, Libra! We bring you the Fresh New Stuff when we can! And remember, it’s spelt “S-A-B-R-E”. 

Scorpio 

One of the most popular singer/songwriter in the late-1970’s and 80’s, a one living legend Mister Billy Joel. His chorus from his song “This Night” from 1983 was taken from another Beethoven piece, “Pathétique Sonata” from 1798 - meaning nearly 200 years old! So This Week… Even legends deserve a little help once in a while. There’s only 88 keys on a piano.. You can expect someone to repeat something eventually.

Sagittarius 

This time it’s all 20th Century, both the original and the cover. In 1901, just into the century, Rachmaninov created “Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor”, which was… let’s call it “borrowed” by Eric Carmen in 1975 for his song, “All by Myself”! There was a whole To-Do discussing the influences and the inspirations and the possibility of plagiarism… And there was a settlement in it all, fortunately. So This Week… There’s nothing wrong with letting someone have co-writing credit on your stuff if you used their stuff. Try not to use something that visible next time. Meaning.. Learn to be a better thief!

Capricorn 

We don’t need to tell you what modern songs have been accused, usually correctly, for having been recreations of the original. You’ll get it. Originally from 1690… SIX-TEEN-NINE-TEE! Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” You know the song. You know the rant by Rob Paravonian. So This Week… SCREW YOU, Johann! On behalf of every Cello player… SCREW YOU, MAN!

Aquarius 

Ok, this time we’re actually caught off guard! Remember that Elvis Presley did a lot of cover songs, but how about this one? His 1960 single, “It’s Now or Never” can be traced back to 1898’s “O Sole Mio” by Eduardo di Capua! (*BEAT PAUSE!*) You just mentally sang both songs in your head, didn’t you? Yeah, we had to, too. So This Week… Learn how to sing at least ONE song in a language you don’t normally speak - something OTHER than Latin, at least. And remember: Opera was written because Italian is a THING!

Pisces  

Another song with a modern cover, which itself has a cover twist. Barry Manilow released his song, “Could It Be Magic” in 1975, which was based on Chopin’s 1835 song, “Prelude in C Minor No. 20” And now, as Dalan puts it often, “BUT WAIT! It gets BETTER!” Barry’s version, itself, is a cover of a cover! The song was initially released in 1971 by a group called Featherbed, which was a group of session musicians featuring Barry Manilow, and the song was produced and co-written by Tony Orlando of “--and Dawn” fame! So This Week… Stop staring into Infinity Mirrors. They’re starting to stare back at you.

And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know - or check out the Ko-Fi page ( https://ko-fi.com/icarusthelunarguard )! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Discord, and BLUESKY.

[petegrammarman]

Monthly Consumption - October 2023 Part 3: Books and Watchables

I read more books than I watched stuff, but didn't even read that much. Anyway here's some more stuff.

Books

Nine Liars

Probably the last one of this series I’ll read, the mystery was kinda bleh and wrapped up in a boring way. The teen drama was also becoming too much, but maybe that’s what people read these for. ANYWAY not a series I would recommend but I did read five of them so who am I to say.

Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone

It was certainly a fun read, another mystery resolution I didn’t really like. It made sense and wasn’t telegraphed poorly or anything, it was just a sour conclusion I suppose. A funny page turner of a book, maybe the tv show version would be better, it is certainly written that way.

Wool

Currently reading, so far so good. Gives me (and probably everyone else) a Fallout vibe. Also written like a tv show and already has a tv show. I decided to read this to get away from murder mysteries but whoops this is another one of those (kinda).

TV

Like one episode of Our Flag Means Death

Rhys Darby is my favorite

<picture of Rhys Darby>

Movies

Clue

A rewatch but still brilliantly funny and clever. I was mostly scooping pumpkin guts during this viewing so I missed a lot of the physical gags.

No One Will Save You

A bit repetitive but a fun watch for the most part. I enjoyed the symbolism after my roommate explained it to me.

[lunaekalenda]

sweet version - chocolates for satoru (part one)

You were sure that Satoru's locker would be full of chocolates, presents and love letters. You knew it was stupid to leave some for them yourself but, still, you're baking some in the middle of the night, a glass of coffee half empty resting near your phone on the table. You rap rhythmically on the counter with your fingernails, waiting patiently for the chocolate to melt on the microwave. The card, decorated with a simple kitty drawing and a heart, looks at your from near the bag you're gonna use to give the chocolates to him. Every second on the microwave makes you think. Are you really doing this for Satoru? The one that has half of the college students behind? Do you really think he will care about some more chocolates on Valentine's Day?

You're about to drop the chocolates but the cute mold you got for this stops you. Kitty chocolates. It was too cute to leave it at the store and, plus, that's kinda how you started to like Satoru, during that cold winter day, when a fluffy white kitty looked at you from inside his coat. When his eyes met your fascinated ones, he just smiled and took your hand, slowly resting it on the kitty's head, letting you pat him. "It was too cold for him to be outside. He doesn't seem to have a home, so he has now." That exact moment, when you took your eyes up and they collided with Satoru's blue ones, and he smiled so softly to you, with your hand still near his chest and the cat between your bodies, purring softly at your touch.

And, almost a year later of seeing him on the corridors, sharing classes and feeling your heartbeat race with every tiny interaction you had, now you're baking him chocolates. Pretty hilarious. Probably he won't even look twice at them. But, what do you lose?

After hours of mixing chocolate, sweet fillers and exasperating over bad-explained tutorials, your kitty chocolates are ready and on the fridge. With a last sigh, you close the door and go to sleep upstairs. You need to rest. Tomorrow will be a hard day.

His first chocolates were on his locker time before he arrived to school. There were also notes on his desk. Even on his chair. Satoru has definitely something (something more than his looks and his charm) that attracted everyone to him. It was so early and everything was so full of chocolates. Heart shaped ones, expensive ones, notes with cute calligraphy and even gifts could be seen on Satoru's place.

The kitty chocolates seemed to laugh at you when you looked at them, and the poorly-decorated card you were so proud of yesterday gives you a look back. Taking them on your hands, you search the closest exit to the gardens. Once outside, you feel how the fresh air takes the anxiety knot of your chest away. Sighing, you sit on a bench, in front of the pond. Taking your eyes to the chocolates, you look again at your creation. They really do look tasty.

You hear steps before a long sigh comes from your left. Satoru plays with a bag on his hands, before sitting by your side. It's maybe this your opportunity? Or are those his favorite chocolates between all the pile he has been collecting today. He takes a quick look to your hands.

"Valentine's present?" he asks. You stay quiet and silent, before sighing long. You nod once, twice, before speaking.

"Yours?" he nods again. You both sit on the bench, bodies close, but far at the same time. His long digits keep playing with the sweets inside the bag.

"Isn't it ironic?" he murmurs. "I've never took the first train to college." his whispers are audible when he sits a little closer. "I've never baked before." he gives another twist to the bag on his hands. "And I've never wanted to be here first than anyone." He releases a long sigh. "But, still, I couldn't be the first one." With a sweet smile, he stands up, letting the bag of chocolates fall in your hands. The card attached to it is written in big red colors, and your name is displayed on it.

It wasn't a gift for Satoru.

It was his gift for you.

Standing up quickly and reacting as soon as possible, without letting the cute smile leave your mouth, you run towards him, stopping Satoru near the entrance of the building. He mistook your sweets with a gift from someone. Standing in front of him, and keeping your eyes on his, you put the chocolates on his hand. His pale cheeks blush softly when he sees the "For Satoru" on the card. His eyes travel to the chocolates, and he can't help but smile when he sees the kitty shape. The moment reminds you to when you fell in love with him: close, with something making you both smile between your bodies.

"Is it Tami?" he whispers. "You baked chocolate Tamis... for me?" he seems incredibly grateful and moved. You nod under his attentive gaze. "Why?"

Taking all the air you could into your lungs, you leave your mind blank to avoid making any mistake, since you want your confession to be heard clear.

"Because I like you, Satoru."

[certifiedlovergirlsstuff]

an awkward encounter

summary: its a small house. 

WC: 906

warnings: kinda gets a bit steamy (🔥) (poorly written tbh) and just cursing.

A/N: ALL PARTS UNDER THE TAG -The Byers Harrington Story-

was gonna do a different version where there were three different encounters: nancy and reader, jonathan and steve, and then steve and nancy. but that might be a separate post in the future. kinda wanted this longer, but whatever, its fine.

series masterlist

previous chapter  next chapter

June 14, 1985

“Hand above the shirt, sweetheart.”

The smirk on your lips stopped the scene, “aye aye, captain.”

And that just caused Steve to groan and you to laugh at his annoyance with the phrase, especially during this current moment.

Both of you lay atop the bedding, Steve under you with you straddling his waist, knees digging into the mattress. Steve is shirtless, but wearing sweats, while you’re wearing an oversized shirt, but no pants, only your light blue underwear peeking out. His hair was sticking out and twisted in different directions from the pull of your fingers, even your hair was falling freely around your face, Steve using the opportunity to tuck strands behind your ear every few minutes.

Both your smiles could rival the sun that was shining brightly outside your window, cheeks starting to ache from the nonstop tug. Skin buzzing and tingling from the trail of electricity left behind by each other's caressing touches. Bellies started a gentle fire, slowly building in intensity as the kisses got deeper, more lust-filled, the hands holding skin more firmly.

Steve’s hands started to wander below the seam of your shirt, fingers resting just above the band of your underwear.

“Thought we were keeping hands above the shirt, Harrington?” Kisses trailing along his jaw, his head moving to give you more access.

“I’m not a very good rule follower,” his hands slithered further up, resting on your waist.

Your lips were set in a groove, one they’ve memorized over and over again, dancers doing their daily routine. Soon Steve’s tongue slipped into play, a sign telling you he was getting more heated by the minute and you couldn’t wait for the coming dance.

Steve took the lead and grabbed at your shirt, silently asking for permission. You pulled away and lifted your arms above your head, your shirt thrown to the floor and your bare chest was on display.

“Beautiful,” Steve voiced, your heart rate picking up a beat or two with a slight heat forming on your cheeks. You didn’t say anything further, not knowing how to take compliments and just wanting to get back to indulging in Steve.

One of Steve’s hands tangled at the back of your hair, keeping you close, while his other hand slid further and further south until the tips of his fingers were buried under the underwear's waistband. You shuddered a breath as his fingers teased you, stopping just above where you needed him. He was being a fucking tease and you weren’t having it.

“Steve, if you don’t put those fingers where I need them right now… this will end early.” Your breath skated across his agape mouth.

“So bossy today, aren’t we? Thought you liked foreplay?” He reached for another kiss, but you pulled away.

“I do like foreplay, but also, this is my house. Privacy isn’t always guarant-” Steve stopped your talking short when his fingers dived in.

Your hands on his shoulders kept you from collapsing atop his chest, back arching causing your chest to stick out even more. Steve moved the hand from your hair to one of your breasts, giving a firm squeeze before pulling away, licking his thumb and forefinger and returning them to your nipple and twisting. A low moan was pulled from your throat with your head thrown back. Moving your right hand from Steve’s shoulder, your hand touched his cheek before moving to his chin. Your thumb tugged at his bottom lip, then pushed in just a bit, enough for your nail to run along the bottom of his top teeth.

“Ste- Steve, oh, right- right there.” You moaned and sighed as his fingers moved in and out, working their magic.

“Doing good, baby?” His deep voice added fuel to the fire.

You couldn't respond, only nodded your head when a moan was ripped from you. 

“Steve-”

“Oh god!” A voice yelped.

Your eyes flew open at the intruder, arms instantly covering your bare chest. Steve ripped his hands away from you, allowing you to fall off his lap and onto the floor with a dull thud. You peeked over your bed and at your door, taking note that Steve rushed to get under the sheets. With the door closed, you looked for a shirt and threw it on before rushing to see who it was, hoping it wasn’t Joyce.

You only allowed a crack to see who was on the other side, Jonathan with his back leaned against the wall with his hands over his eyes.

“What the hell! Haven’t heard of knocking?” You screeched.

Jonathan just sighed, “I didn’t think. Steve’s car wasn’t in the yard and the music was pretty loud… I need to flush my eyes.”

“For the love of- what was so urgent that you needed to rush into my room?” Your exasperation showing.

“Honestly nothing, I wish I actually had something. Just scared myself for nothing.” He ran a hand through his hair, “I’m just- I’ll be in my room.”

He rushed to his room, “at least we’re even!” You blurted out.

Jonathan just sighed again before his door was shut behind him. You closed your door and took five steps back to your bed. Steve had a sheepish expression plastered across his face, cheeks and ears burning red from embarrassment.

“Even?” His brows were raised.

“Walked in Jonathan and Nancy one day,” you shivered, “the image just flashed before my eyes.”

----------------------------

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[thephantomcasebook]

So I'm really trying to be positive with the Alys casting but I saw an interview with her and her accent is kinda ummm harsh sounding. Like really? Is she going to be another"strong progressive female character " on the show...cause I highly favor the book version of Alys. I really am fond of the show characters and adapted to them but this is a stretch for me. I was just wanting Ewan Mitchell to have a relatively feminine love interest on the show for his Aemond.

Like I've said, I was sold completely on Jessica Brown Findlay before she dropped out last minute.

Her voice just has this beautiful lilting quality to it that just screams magical or Elvish.

But, if wishes were fishes, eh?

Umm, look, I don't think Gayle Rankin is a bad actress at all. She's interesting looking, and I know from watching some of her stuff that she's good with accents - her American accent is spot-on. She's, you know, fine enough as a last minute replacement with zero prep-time.

But you're right, because she didn't go through the process of auditioning and chemistry reading like JBF probably did, Rankin is going to be wholly reliant upon the writing and the strength of the script that she is given. Which means that if Alys isn't well written or well realized in the scripts than they're basically setting Rankin up to fail.

I don't know if you saw the Alys audition tapes that got leaked and then quickly taken down, but the characterization ... isn't very good. She's more like a vessel for Condal to take out his frustrations on the Daemon fangirls and fanboys. She was written as a mouthy girl-boss that in the ASoIaF Universe would've gotten her raped and her tongue cut out ... especially a no-name bastard woman.

So, yeah, I don't know. There are some really talented female actors like Jessica Brown Findlay and Jenna Coleman who can take the sort of Mary-Sue and Smug insufferable poorly written female character and find humanity in them that makes them actually likable much less tolerable. But, Rankin just kinda got the phone call and showed up for early shooting basically the next day. So, I don't know if she'll have the time or the instinct to ground Alys if the writing is as bad as the Audition scripts.

As for her chemistry with Mitchell, I mean, I don't think those characters even meet till the end of the season. Alys - reportedly - spends most of her time with either Daemon at Harrenhal or Daeron in the outlaw lair this season. So, if anything, I would imagine that JFB and other Alys actresses tested mostly with Matt Smith or the actors going out for Daeron.

Time will tell, but, with the production Hell and the nightmare stories about how bad some of the scripts for Season 2 were - so much so that HBO hired someone third party to come in and script doctor them into something coherent ...

I don't think Gayle Rankin deserves any of the blame if shit goes south this season.

[v2xe]

i got too carried away and ended up hitting the tag limit 🫠 hope it's alright if i just put this here instead

#SDJFGSDFNM asgsdfasd AGSDF GURGLES LIKE IM CHOKING ON MOUTHWASH FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD#I CANT BELOIEVE IM ONLY SEEING THIS FIVE DAYS AFTER IT WAS POSTED good lird#see i understand why there would be a split in the fandom abt this bc there is also a split in tumblr user v2xe#when i first played my reading was that sarah and jack's relationship was INTENDED to be portrayed as romantic#only the writers kind of expected them sharing some friendly lines + jack being the protag and sarah#being the princess would be enough for the audience to go “ah yes. romance”#and that the tragic and borderline romantic subtext jack has w astos was just incidental in the way it happens when writers#accidentally end up developing male characters and their relationships more than female ones#esp since se's games' track record w this is…….not great#(<-she is haunted by secondhand accounts from the tranches of ff16's writing)#and tbh i was ready to just assume this was my own little interpretation where it isn't that deep but it could be. and i could just build#myself a fun little sandbox in the hole i dug where the story could have expanded certain themes further but didn't#but after reading that one interview where the writers were like "maybe sarah was in love with him maybe she was just infatuated with what

#he represented" i turned into one of those shitty gore stick figures because what the fuck!! the writing agrees??#which meshes perfectly w her being sheltered which!! while i thought abt it i never really went into it like this and it makes!! sense!!#& a the same time yeah!! sarah IS a symbol. which having played ff1 i think was a cool way to go about expanding her role from that gam#oh so she's a symbol? she's a reward? the motivator that pulls you along to start your journey? ok fine then. i'll give you a Symbol#and if you asked me i think jack genuinely cared/s(?) about her (just not in a romantic sense)#and unlike other things i say here i can say w 100% confidence that the writers wanted us to notice he cares#like it always fascinated me how in the jp version jack's speech patterns change DRASTICALLY whenever he's speaking to sarah#idk much japanese but the formal/respectful way he spoke stood out massively compared to his usual form of speech#i get that this could be harder to portray in english without seeming unnatural but i'm sad they didn't include this tbh#bc we don't see him talk to ANYONE like this in the game i believe- not the king or queen not astos not anyone#they WANTED you to notice. they put a big neon sign pointing at jack and sarah there's SOMETHING important here#(tangent for some reason the spanish version got this backwards and it's ash and jed who address sarah formally while jack speaks in the same blunt manner...but that#version was so rushed it still has placeholder text in the script so i woulnt put too much faith in it having like…authorial intent lmao)

#& in general there are some very slight differences between the eng and jp ver that imo carry v different implications?#like how in eng jack just kinda sounds annoyed at sarah's request and his “of course” comes across as exasperated and sarcastic rather than#genuinely polite- which makes the scene of him tapping his foot seem like an intentional gesture of “stfu already” rather than “desperately#trying to contain the wave pure compulsive rage that drives me for 2 minutes so i can be polite to this girl" yknow? #anyway what i mean is that its interesting how his affection for sarah was also "weaponized" for the plan like the one he has for his friends #and yet sarah's role is more as a symbol than an emotional catalyst? to me at least-& i keep wondering WHY it's diff for her in particular #&it's not bc she was WRITTEN poorly i feel-if the writers did fall for that kind of trap we wouldn't have sophia or neon imo #it almost feels like theres all these conspicuous arrow signs pointing at something but i cant fucking see what it is??

#but after reading this i can see how that was kinda the point i think #at the end of the day this is jack's story. and us experiencing everything from his pov at all times is a big part of why the story works so well #it makes sense he wouldn't care for anyone's emotions or inner thoughts until it's too late- therefore the game doesn't show them #& sadly that includes sarah and what's going through her head #bc i kind of wish we couldve seen more of it- what was she thinking as she died? what did she feel? was it clean and straightfoward? #hope? despair? sadness? nothing at all? too many things at once? did she feel betrayed as she remembered? did she feel resentment for the #one man who could change her world by watching her die? how was she any different from the organic reconoissance unit Iving dead in a floati #-ng island somewhere surrounded by dead bats and FUCK I haven't even talked about astos yet #it's a tragedy that despite them having canonically interacted multiple times we never get to hear any of it :(( #tho i have to put a big * on all this because i know that this could very much be me critiquing the game on what i WISH it did #rather than on how it archieved what it was actually trying to do #imo sarah has the markings of god's little lamb(symbol of hope) most likely to be slaughtered #dare i say final fantasy's very own anthy himemiya #there's something about a character whose purpose is to essentially be a symbol #and who is also a sheltered young woman whose hopefulness is not a flaw but who is perhaps too idealistic for her own good that really intrigues me!! #and from that view i like how you can see her unwavering idealism as sheltered naivety or as something good and celebrated(? in the narrative #anyway sarah both as a character and how she fits into jack's story leave so so much room for fun stuff and i really appreciate that #in a better world i think they would have a lovely friendship

#ok running out of power now so ill stop and hope this doesnt read like gibberish or realize i missed sth if i reread it in the morning #i am so so sorry for the wall of tags none of this has much of a throughline this is just thought vomit bc this post made me Think #by which i mean this post is rearranging my brain and activating neural pathways i didn't even know i had rn #& in all seriousness im so so so glad i saw this!! even if i wish i had done it sooner!! its great to read someone's thoughts like this <33

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

[balioc]

The Gender Trinary: Hero, Maiden, Monster

I've talked about this before, but maybe it's worth doing so in a more comprehensive fashion.

----------

I should start by saying: this is not any kind of commentary on how the world really works.

It is an exploration of a symbolic paradigm that is meaningful to me, personally.  (A paradigm that was, to be sure, more meaningful to me when I was younger and angstier and less-well-integrated into my life.  But still meaningful.)  It tells you far more about my own neuroses than it does about any external reality.

I have found it noteworthy, in fact, how poorly the gender trinary paradigm ends up mapping onto the reality of my experience.  Feminism has made a hash of the Maiden role and its broader social salience, to no one’s surprise, but it’s the Hero role that really fails to sync up with the world around me.  It’s rooted in a vision of normative masculinity that just...doesn’t line up with what men actually do, or how men actually feel about themselves, at least within my field of vision.  Maybe that’s an artifact of my living in a rarefied nerd-bubble where no one really cares about the conventional masculine ideal.  Maybe it’s an artifact of modern society being different from earlier stages of society.  Maybe it was just an illusion to begin with, fostered by consuming too much genre media.  I dunno.  

In any event -- the point is that this concept-suite will probably break if you put any weight on it.  If you find yourself inclined to poke around at it with questions, I’m probably happy to field them, but don’t be surprised if they end up being grounded in “I found these ideas powerful when I was an alienated bookish teenager, and the resonance of it has never really gone away, as the resonances of such things generally don’t.”  

OK then.  Moving on.

What is the basic idea of the gender trinary?

There are three “genders” -- hero, maiden, and monster.  These correspond to the roles in a primordial, mythic passion-play narrative.  

As it is written:

The Monster, who is transgressive, lays a claim on the Maiden, who is desirable and pure.  The Hero contests this claim, defeats the Monster, and saves the Maiden.

Rama / Sita / Ravana is probably the best example of the pure, uncomplicated version of that story from “authentic” mythology.  Many gender-trinary-tangent myths either have a monster who isn’t remotely personlike in any way (Perseus / Andromeda / Cetus) or complicate the interaction to the point of near-unrecognizability (Gilgamesh / Shamhat / Enkidu).

Modern culture has provided us with a lot of very pure, very recognizable gender trinary instantiations.  Mario / Peach / Bowser and Link / Zelda / Ganon are absolutely textbook.  Modern culture has also provided us with a lot of trope deconstructions (Braid, Dr. Horrible).

Versions of this story with a focus on the Monster form the core of the gothic-romance trope suite.  Beauty and the Beast and The Phantom of the Opera are foundational texts.  

Are those roles really “genders,” though?

Well, to some extent.

The trinary paradigm is definitely an overlay on the male/female gender binary, not a replacement for it.  In particular, while the Hero role is undeniably masculine in its construction, and the Maiden role is similarly feminine -- even if you allow for female Heroes (which I do, absolutely) and male Maidens (which I do, kinda) -- the Monster role doesn’t really have its own parallel suite of gender tropes.  A Monster can embody either extreme masculinity or extreme femininity, in ways that work within those concept-suites rather than subverting them.  There are classic extremely-monster-y monsters who code as hyper-men (King Kong, Beast) and ones who code as hyper-women (vampy succubi etc.). Monsters can also certainly be androgynous, or display traits that are off-the-gender-spectrum entirely...but that tends to come across as ambiguously gendered or un-gendered rather than distinctively third-gendered.  This is particularly relevant when discussing romantic and sexual attraction, which tends to be plugged into a very low-level set of physical and behavioral cues in a way that isn’t amenable to being warped through high-level narrative abstraction.  Saying, e.g., that Adam is “bisexual” because he is attracted to both Lilith (Monster) and Eve (Maiden) feels pretty dumb.  

But genders come with gender roles.  And, to a large extent, the point of the trinary is to create (or make explicit) a set of three different gender roles that are all legible to each other, that all have their own distinct boundaries, and that all cohere internally.  There are important ways in which a hulking manly brute monster and a slinky witchy siren monster and a totally inhuman bug monster all expect to play the same role in the broader context of society, and all expect to engage with Heroes and with Maidens in basically similar ways.  Certainly, if you use social narrative as a guide, there are important ways in which all of those Monsters can expect to have similar standards of success and to be perceiving their own identities in similar ways. (Or so I posit.)  And once you’ve gotten that far, well, “gender” doesn’t seem like an inappropriate term.

Your mileage may vary. 

Aesthetics

This is basically a place for me to point out that there isn’t a single iconic image for any of these roles.

Heroes, in the full flower of their Heroic physicality, can run the gamut from lithe twinky bishounen to jacked Spartan hoplites with huge beards.  “Wispy pink-and-purple fairy princess” and “voluptuously sensual earth goddess” are both overwhelmingly Maiden looks.  

Monsters, as suggested earlier, get even more of a range than that.  Their appearance can exaggeratedly emphasize physical power (ogres) or exaggeratedly de-emphasize it (Jabba the Hutt).  They can possess extreme masculine beauty (Dracula), extreme masculine ugliness (Lord Voldemort), extreme feminine beauty (succubi), or extreme feminine ugliness (night hags).  The only real commonality to a “Monster look” is that it should be somehow wrong.  Ugliness is wrong by default; inhumanity is obviously wrong by default; beauty must be cast as somehow sickly or unwholesome.  You can have Monsters who don’t look particularly wrong (Dr. Horrible), but this makes them “less monstrous” in the way that physical traits can make someone “less masculine” or “less feminine.” 

Associated Concepts

Or: “What do these words mean, anyway?”  The part for which you’re all here.

Perhaps it is easiest to start by saying: the “point” of the Monster role (in some sense) is that it is unsocialized and transgressive, and what it gets for those costs is self-expression and freedom.  

Both the Hero and the Maiden are, essentially and necessarily, socialized roles.  To be a [successful] Hero or Maiden, you must be embedded in some kind of society; you must be bound to the ideals of that society; and the success of your gender performance is, in the end, a reflection of how well you can embody those ideals.  

(“Society” can mean a lot of different things here, and it doesn’t have to be particularly big or expansive or civilization-y.  In particular, when you’re talking about Heroes, a little mutually-reinforcing “band of brothers” is very definitely enough of a society to qualify.)  

The Hero role is obviously very related to the “male gender role,” although it’s not identical.  At its absolute most basic core, it is about having the competence to fight in defense of your society and your Maiden.  This radiates out to “competence,” in most senses of the term -- especially most pragmatic senses -- being a Hero power concept.  Heroes do useful things for others.  They fix the car, pay the bills, save lives on the operating table, etc.  

(Domestic labor isn’t particularly Hero-coded, because [for mostly dumb reasons] it doesn’t have tight narrative associations with competence.  Cooking and cleaning are not things that you do because you’re stepping up when others can’t.  But domestic labor also isn’t particularly Maiden-coded in this schema.  It’s not really anything-coded.)  

Competition is also very close to the heart of the Hero role.  Heroes compete with each other, with Monsters, and with the obstacles presented by the uncaring universe.  I assume this is a direct outgrowth of the competence thing; you continually test, and continually show off, your power by pitting it against forces that will resist.  

The Maiden role is, to be honest, the least-fleshed-out in abstract terms.  (Probably because I was never in any particular danger of being seen as, or of seeing myself as, a Maiden.)  It has a lot to do with love and sex, unsurprisingly -- in a standard Feminism 101 “Women are the Sex Class” kind of way, physical and emotional intimacy are part of the Maiden concept-sphere.  It has a lot to do with emotional and social power, with the ability to change what people are thinking and feeling by interacting with them.  

It has a lot to do with inherent legitimacy.  Maidens in good standing are always valid.  (Heroes must prove their validity, at least once, probably over and over; Monsters are always invalid.)  This gets tied up with a certain, uh, avatar-of-the-society’s-ideals-ness.  

One ramification of all this is that leadership is a Maiden thing.  Most forms of political and institutional leadership, at least, and also probably household leadership as well.  Maidens are the ones who contain the highest values of the society within themselves, and therefore the ones who are properly helming the ship of state, telling others what to do; they’re the ones who are good enough with people to wield command.  Often they act through Hero subordinates or champions.   

A Hero being in charge, in this schema, means that something is somehow off -- he’s probably dominated by his own ego and love of victory, rather than having the best interests of the society at heart.  

(Exceptions apply for fully Heroic sub-institutions like the military.  But those are “supposed” to be subject to some kind of higher Maiden-controlled authority.)  

Both the Hero role and the Maiden role come with a strong baked-in requirement of desirability.  Heroes and Maidens are supposed to be beautiful, outwardly and inwardly.  Occupying either role means that you are obliged to be appealing to members of the other role in a romantic/sexual sense, and to be appealing to the society-at-large in terms of embodying its ideals and meeting its needs.  Failing to appeal is...well, a failure. 

Monsters are driven by their own internal, asocial urges.  They act contrary to the ideals and the needs of their societies.  They are freed from the requirement to be desirable by being automatically anathemized.  

Needless to say, of course, it is possible for Monsters to appeal -- romantically/sexually (as in gothic romances) or even on a broader cultural level (if a Monster is faddishly fetishized, for example).  This is never [in the theoretical conceptual perfect-spherical-gender sense] because the Monster has fit itself into a template of desirability; it is because some other party has perceived the Monster’s idiosyncratic self-constructed identity, hidden or overt, and found it lovable.  It is [in theory] always sui generis and always the fruit of a unique, un-ritualized interaction.  

“Doesn’t fit into society” covers a lot of conceptual ground -- a lot more ground than “does fit into society.”  Monster-hood manifests in many very-divergent forms, because there are so many ways to be different and taboo.  

Alienation is pretty central to the role concept.  Normatively monster attitudes range from “grumpy and desirous of being left alone” to “omnicidally angry.”  

The role-syntonic (positive) Monster ways of being in love involve pedestalization, possessiveness, and focused obsession.  It is important to distinguish the loved one from everyone else.

The Monster role is neither particularly active nor particularly passive.  “Has a scheme to remake all reality and will stop at nothing to achieve it” is a very Monster deal.  So is “sits in a cave, contemplating its own strange thoughts, and will never interact with any part of the world unless disturbed.”  

The archetypical Monster is an egomaniacal monad, but for narrative purposes it’s possible for a Monster instead to be a foreigner -- to be beholden to the ideals and structures of a society, so long as it’s an alien one.

Gender Interactions in the Trinary Paradigm

It’s worth remembering that the quintessential gender trinary story is a struggle.  In a high conceptual sense, it’s a struggle in which all three roles are thrown together to find out which two of them will pair off.  

(In theory, I’m sure, you could end up with a balanced triad.  But I don’t think we have good stories about how that would work or what it would look like.  The dyadic nature of human reproduction has a lot of concept influence.)  

The most common pairing, of course, is Hero/Maiden.  The Monster is defeated -- we assume that its influence was generally a bad one, even if somewhere along the way it might have had some appeal -- and the pro-social lovers unite, bonded by their shared ideal. 

Maiden/Monster is an essentially psychological pairing in most cases, driven by deep interpersonal communication that supersedes social expectations.

Hero/Monster is the least common pairing.  Which is no surprise, because (as mentioned) Maiden is the role that’s associated with love and sex; the Hero and the Monster are fighting over the Maiden, in theory, and something weird has to happen to change that.  But there are a few well-established narratives here.  The often-bromantic-rather-than-romantic Gilgamesh/Enkidu story is one.  There’s also the version in which the Monster is made very feminine and the Hero shifts to the center of the love triangle.  This gets you a sort of gender-reversal of the Maiden/Monster pairing; the Maiden ends up being portrayed as shallow or bland, and the Monster provides a truer / spicier / more genuinely personal sort of love.