#so you get sparknotes version of my characterization thoughts

[baalzebufo]

HIII. can i just say. absolutely ADORE your gravity falls stuff!! i'd love to hear more of your headcanons (especially abt gideon) (that's my SON)

yes yeeees i was part of the Original Wave of Gideon Enjoyers back when like, episode 4 aired and it was about ten blogs who didnt hate his guts. i mean, i still want to throw him out a window, but I also think he has really interesting character stuff going on that some people just didnt wanna look at bc they hated him! which like, fair, he's a villain, but that freaky little dude will always be one of MY faves, haha

this post got. very long im sorry I had to put a readmore here haha but I haven't had an excuse to infodump about this for ages so here's a couple Things I like Thinking About... also a doodle I did the other night to break up the wall of text below

ok ok to start i LOVE him so much as a foil to dipper (and to an extent ford too) as examples of what the journals/that kind of power and information can do to people. its why im so adamant that he does actually have albinism, even if its not Technically Canon. dipper and ford both have a like, 'physical oddity' about them (birthmark, sixth finger) i think it makes sense for gideons to be his albinism as something that set him apart. all three are 'weirdos', were ostracised to an extent by the world, had that longing for something special or important, and then found it. and its what they DO with that which sets them apart

especially as a foil to dipper like... from time to time in the show, he gets a bit gung-ho about abusing the journals power for his own gain. but he has friends and family to reign him back in. he has more of a moral compass about not wanting to hurt people, generally. dipper never became like gideon did

this is getting into headcanon territory here but, my general summary of gideons childhood is an isolated one. only child, fairly sheltered, had some medical complications early in life which led to a lot of time on his own in hospital, attended school briefly and was subjected to significant bullying. and without a real support network outside of his parents who were very doting to the point of spoiling him because hes their Little Miracle he wasnt exactly well-adjusted even as a kid

but basically, that kid ends up finding this journal and learns about spells and evil artifacts and suddenly he has the power to make people like him. not only that but Fear him. he goes from feeling powerless to an absolute ego-trip. and his only close relatives would never tell their little boy 'no' about something, so they're not disciplining him in any way. its a perfect storm for a disaster to happen

it stems from this childish desire to go 'look at me im important and special and everyone likes me' and hes become so embittered already by people being dicks that he doesnt care if he hurts people on the way

that only really changes when mabel shows up and is the first person in town to approach him from a like... normal level. shes nice to him but not in the overly-saccharine and doting way his fans are, just in the way a girl who wants to be friends is. she treats him normally and is nice and he thinks she's pretty and that ALSO becomes a perfect storm of 'well shes nice to me and i like her so i must be in love with her and she is with me!' and, of course. kid who has never heard the word No before. so the later rejection becomes a HUGE sticking point and grudge to the point of being flat-out murderous

later in life with a little Introspection i think he'd realize it was less love and more just. basically imprinting on the first person to be normal and kind at him in years

UM. I should wrap this up i have so much in my brain. gideon was one of my earliest roleplay muses i'd write and draw with my pals, so I subjected him to a LOT of personal characterization stuff and also making a thousand AUs for fun. (aus always come in two flavours either its 'im going to make you marginally more well-adjusted' or 'im going to make you so, SO much worse')

ive got a soft spot for con-men and fake psychics and generally shitty little weasels and gideon just stormed into the show being a jerk with an aesthetic i adore and i was like ahhh. i want to punt him. hes my favourite.

ok im going to shut up now. last minute headcanon. gideon got into wood carving in prison art therapy because using a knife to stab something in a non-murder way helps soothe his urges. he whittles little people figurines

✨

[therentyoupay]

hellooo !!! I’m a super huge fan of your work and I’ve had this question on my mind for WEEKS:

the accuracy and depiction of your vision of jelsa is absolutely fantastic. the amount of depth and thought definitely shows and I’m curious: besides searching up “jack frost rotg”, “elsa from frozen” and potentially “burgess / norway speech and casual dialect”…

how do you know what to search in regards to their personalities, mannerisms, good / bad traits ??? or I guess when you shape your idea of jack, elsa and the two of them as a pair, what kinds of thoughts or sources do you use when you write them ?

sparknotes version: how do you (personally) perceive jelsa and what kinds of information do you look for when you write them ? both personality and casual dialogue ?

hope this made sense LMFAO — I know it’s a difficult and very complex question.

hello, my love. ♡ first of all, thank you so much for this ask AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL SUPPORT!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭🙏💕💕💕💕💕

@da-awesome-one asked me a similar question in january, and i wasn’t quite sure how to answer it, so i opened up the conversation to others on tumblr, and we had some fun making observations in the replies!

however, this week, two similar questions on this topic have popped into my inbox (including yours!), and so i’ve started to really ask myself about what is going on in my interpretations… what am i doing, exactly?!

and once i started to think that way, i couldn’t really stop. 😂😭 so i will do my very utter best to try to answer this question comprehensively, as clearly as i can!

TRYP thoughts on characterization

jack frost // elsa | PART I: ground rules + intro

💕ground rules:

this goes without saying, but it bears mentioning anyway: whatever follows under this cut, please remember that these interpretations are just that—interpretations! my thoughts and opinions have formed over the past twelve or so years (at the time of writing this post), and you’ll notice in some of the syntax that follows that i am referring to the characters as if they just are the way that i interpret them, but this is due to convenience of getting the point across; it is not to say that these ideas are the “real” or “true” characterizations of these two fictional characters remember, nothing is real everything is all made up lmao. but for real, though. 

that said, feel free to ignore or disagree with all or any of what i say below! the beautiful thing about (fan)fiction and fandom is that someone’s interpretations of a character or story may often demonstrate just as much (if not more) about the reader, in many cases, than it might about the author.

thus, please remember that, if whatever i say below contradicts or doesn’t align with your personal beliefs—that’s okay! there is no real expertise here. it’s just fandom! the world is your oyster. don’t go changing your worldview just because a random lady on the internet who’s written a bunch of stories about them says that she imagines the characters one way or the other; that’s not the point! this is not a how-to guide. just a fun reflection and self-analysis of my writing style, for funsies, because we love creative hobbies. 💕

however. if you read something below that resonates with you, that makes sense in the context of your story, or makes you consider fiction, the characters, or the universes in a different way, then by goodness you are invited to adopt and adapt whatever your heart desires. 💕 spread the love! create! generate! do what your heart desires.

also, i have done my best to keep this relatively organized, but at times it does get stream of consciousness-y (remember that this is a fun hobby y’all because LITERARY ANALYSIS IS FUN but ya girl’s other stuff to do, so just roll with it 😂) also tumblr has a word limit now who knew, SO THIS SHALL BE ANSWERED IN MULTIPLE PARTS (links inside, to updated as they are posted in installments)

on that note, everyone—after reading this post 👀—should feel free to reblog/reply/etc. and add to the discussion. 💕 WE LOVE A SOLID ANALYSIS!PARTY.

does all of this sound good? if so, please carry on. 💕

sources.......? oops UM

i'm so sorry, i don’t know if this is bad news or reassuring news, but in terms of sources, i…………. have: 

my memory of the rotg movie

my annual re-watches of frozen, frozen 2

occasionally, for extra fun lore, the original snow queen novel 

tiny details from the guardians of childhood book series that i have accidentally picked up purely 1000% from rotg fanart on tumblr and unfortunately i don’t think i could even provide proper list of what i “know” (sometimes i prefer headcanons to canon, and i tend to forget what i have cherry-picked! if you want more on this, i can add a bit more to the post, too, in an edit), but think in broad terms like "mother nature is pitch's daughter," pitch's tragic!backstory, toothiana wields two swords, nightlight exists but i don't know much about him... microscopic knowledge of this canon, tbh 🙏

i have never read any of the rotg books, or any of the other related frozen-universe stories

(all of my recent canon knowledge is all that i have gained from @callimara in her 2-hour long video lolooool, but even then, i would not have sought it out had she not so lovingly crafted it!!) 

to me, canon is a set of guidelines! 

for better or worse, my interpretations of these character types have solidified in my head. 🙏 after writing them for so long, they’re just… jack and elsa.

in my previous attempt to answer this question in january, that was about as deep as i could get into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of it all. 

but i shall try. after 12 years... I SHALL TRY.

🥹🙏 BEAR WITH ME BELOW.

my answers:

when i think about elsa and jack as characters (in ANY universe, setting, etc.), i find always myself drawn to their complexity, their depth, and the way they navigate the emotional landscapes that define them—particularly their relationships with others. 

are you ready for some contradictions, dualities, and dichotomies???

in this essay i will

okay but actually i think i wrote an essay

let’s: 

ground rules + intro

overview: the tl;dr of my personality + dialogue choices

deep dive: characterization, personality, + identity

shared ice powers (or AU-equivalent) + shared connections

questions/points to consider as you write

LOVE YOU ALL 🙏💕

[seesgood]

what is your take on people expecting their followers to memorize all of their super detailed rules, only to fly off their handle if one’s broken. without considering that they might have other followers and rules of theirs to memorize too and it is not a human demand or right to have them abided, but a request for simple decency to try to and on their part, accept the human error?

In general what are your thoughts on how maybe tumblr wasn’t meant as a *safe space* but to be a place of creativity unfolding and ideas clashing? as well as opinions? and all these rules are creating the discord?

disclaimer: the following is entirely my opinion. i’m not telling you what to do on your blog or how to feel about certain things. you probably feel a completely different way, that’s fine.

to preface, i’ve been here steadily since like 2016 and before that i was here from like 2013-2015 so i’ve seen a lot of changes in what kind of things are included in people’s rules. i’ll be honest, i have friends that literally read every single person’s rules when they follow them, i’m really bad at that mostly because i KNOW i’m not going to remember anything. i’ll read rules and stuff when i reach out for interactions, or when we’re writing and i’ll check for specific triggers to be tagged and such, but other than that in my experience the majority of people kinda have the same rules.

i have a post somewhere floating around that says that i personally don’t care if you mess up and forget one of my rules ( because none of my rules are major ). but that’s me. i think people that have major triggers that need to be tagged or people that have very specific characterization / divergency things in their rules probably get more upset about it because they took the time to write it there and having it constantly forgotten makes them feel like people didn’t care enough to look and then it gets frustrating. 

i don’t think any space was meant to be a “safe space” but i think that we collectively should try to make places safe in regards to certain things. like, okay, are you always going to be able to filter out people with different opinions? no. but compared to other social media sites like facebook and twitter and instagram, tumblr has a really unique and great tagging system that gives people the option to do so. so they should. i love freedom of creativity and unfolding ideas, but there are also certain things ( like major triggers and such ) that should be tagged because people don’t want to see them or can’t see them or seeing them will put them in serious mental harm. but overall i think, like on any social media platform, most of as are adults, or adult-adjacent, or adult enough to know how to manage our own content and feed and therefore it’s partially on you to filter out the things you don’t want to see, but that’s again why people have rules that dictate what they do / don’t want to see. 

SO TO SUMMARIZE:  i personally don’t care if people read or remember my rules because i have a really hard time remembering other people’s rules. so because it’s not a big deal to me sometimes i’ll have the “why are people making such a big deal out of it” reaction, but there are things that people put in their rules for a reason and it’s a sign of respect to abide by it as much as you can. i think the bigger problem is probably this double edged sword of “message me if i get something wrong” but then “i’ll get defensive about it if you do” and overall i think that type of communication is just kind’ve awkward and can potentially lead to more friction, so people don’t do it as much because we all just hate direct conflict.

THE SPARKNOTES VERSION:  try and be nice, but also maintain and respect both your and other people’s boundaries.

[thepoliticalpatient]

Having Crohn’s Sucks Pt 1: the unavoidable stuff

In my first post I said that having Crohn’s disease sucks for a lot of reasons, but that some of those reasons - those caused by America’s broken healthcare system - feel avoidable and are thus extra infuriating. That stuff’ll be the main focus of this blog, but it doesn’t feel like it makes sense to get into it all without first explaining what Crohn’s is, what I’ve been through, why this issue is so personal to me.

I started to write a pretty detailed account of my worst times, but it started to get very long and painful, so I’m going to give the Sparknotes version. You are always welcome to ask me questions - I’m willing to elaborate on any of this if asked.

Crohn’s is a disease in which any part of the digestive tract can become inflamed, develop ulcers, and bleed. It is thought to be autoimmune at its root - the immune system getting confused and attacking the body’s own cells. Its sister disease is ulcerative colitis, which is basically the same thing but confined to the colon. These diseases fall under the umbrella term “inflammatory bowel disease” or IBD. Both are characterized by periods of sickness called flare ups and periods of wellness called remission. Both are chronic, life-long diseases, although ulcerative colitis can be “cured” by the total removal of the colon. Crohn’s has no cure because we need our digestive tracts.

When I was fourteen, I began having bloody diarrhea. Sorry, it’s gross, but there’s not really any way to beat around the bush - IBD is gross and unpleasant and I’m not going to try to dress it up in lipstick or whatever. I was diagnosed via colonoscopy with ulcerative colitis. It’s not terribly uncommon to be misdiagnosed with the wrong form of IBD at first.

Here’s the super condensed version of how this shit went down for me over the years that followed:

When I was fourteen, I weighed 74 pounds and couldn’t stand for more than a minute or two at a time due to the severity of my anemia. I had my first blood transfusions. I would eventually go on to have eleven of them total.

When I was fifteen, I had my first kidney stone (it’s not completely clear whether these were related to my Crohn’s or not). I would go on to have 2-3 more; I don’t recall the exact number.

When I was sixteen, I went on IV nutrition (TPN) to try to heal from my worst flare ever. During this part of my life, I used to accept my death every night before I went to sleep because I did not feel confident that I would wake up in the morning.

When I was seventeen, I got an infection in the catheter that was delivering my nutrition, went into septic shock, and came very, very close to dying.

When I was eighteen, I tried to go to college, suffered a flare up, and dropped out after only seven weeks. I very nearly lost my mind during these weeks.

When I was nineteen, I went through a series of three surgeries to remove my entire colon and replace it with a new internal structure, constructed from the tissues of my small intestine, called a j-pouch. This process was grueling and horrible. But I was cured!

I went back to college. Soon after, I developed a recto-vaginal fistula, which is something that typically only happens in Crohn’s patients. My diagnosis changed. I was no longer cured.

When I was twenty, I had my first bowel obstruction. This is a relatively common complication from my surgical procedure. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced, but it was the kind of thing that’s completely solved by a few days in the hospital, as opposed to the months-long illnesses I used to have before my surgeries. I was feeling pretty lucky.

When I was twenty-one, I had my second and third bowel obstructions. I wasn’t feeling so lucky anymore.

When I was twenty-two and twenty-three, I had a few years without any health catastrophes! It was awesome. I graduated from college.

When I was twenty-four, I had my fourth bowel obstruction. This one could not be solved with the same non-invasive procedure that had solved my first three, and I had an emergency surgery. I was in the hospital recuperating from this surgery when Donald Trump was elected president.

I’m twenty-five now, and I haven’t had any health catastrophes since last November.

Crohn’s is by far the hardest part of my life. The flare-ups I had in high school and the surgeries I’ve been through are by far the most difficult experiences I’ve had. There have been many times where I have felt that, if things didn’t change for the better, my life would not be worth continuing to live.

But I have had insurance through it all. I am not in financial ruin. My parents are not in financial ruin. Imagine if they’d had to choose between their house and the bags of TPN their sixteen-year-old daughter needed, which if I recall correctly were about $500 per day. This is a reality for many people in this country. I only barely made it through all this shit alive even with access to top medical care. It is an absolute travesty that some people in this country are resigned to face this disease or other diseases with second-rate treatments or no treatment at all because of financial factors.

I will not stop this fight until healthcare is universal in America.

Later I will write part 2: the avoidable stuff.