#talk about rewriting the narrative omg

[blu-xp]

namemc spoilers for wildlife !

hey guys um can we talk about the fact that there's a good chance Scott might not make it to top 5. yknow like he's done for every single life series in the past.

it just kinda clicked in my head like I was thinking about his skin and how he's matching with pearl fun! then I just stopped and oh wait oh my god hes RED-

[louferrignojrofficial]

one thing that really annoys me and that i normally wouldn’t bitch about on main but i’m just not feeling all that great today so i’m gonna - is how some people who ship buddie but liked tommy - both in general and with buck - are acting. (editing this to say it got really long and a little off topic so proceed with caution)

before 7x10, they’d be like omg he’s so funny, so considerate, he’s so cute/handsome!! with an added disclaimer of (i still ship buddie and i think they’re gonna be endgame but i’m enjoying tommy and him with buck in the meantime!)

and then after that dinner scene, it was like a switch flipped. he’s so disgusting, insensitive, how dare he make a daddy issues joke when buck was talking about bobby basically being his father and when he was basically dying!!! how dare he!!!! i’m not gonna go into how that’s a gross misinterpretation of the scene and just plain wrong because that’s a whole other rant.

it was a drastic change. there’s all these posts hating on him, on everything they’d liked about him before. having the most negative misinterpretations of things they’d literally praised about him saying/doing before. all but rewriting canon dialogue to create this narrative of how much characters, mostly eddie, feel towards tommy.

now i see so many of these people making and/or reblogging posts saying they can’t wait for buck to break up with tommy because he either somehow mistook his feelings for eddie with feelings for tommy because they’re baSicaLly tHe sAme pErSon, or that eddie and everyone else will be like we never liked him in the first place, or some other insane post about how they’d kill tommy or rant about how much they hate him for things they literally had no problem with before.

like i’m not saying you can’t change your mind about a character, but i just think it’s crazy how much people can start to hate someone they literally had no problem with after ONE comment.

and this is another thing partially related, but seeing how the tommy hate has gotten so out of hand, i see comments on twitter and tumblr and even on instagram posts from the cast hating on him that veer towards sounding just plain homophobic. like the killing tommy ‘jokes’ ??? you’re not funny. you sound homophobic. ‘but i’m not homophobic for not liking a character and making a joke!!’ okay so imagine literally anyone else who knew nothing about the show making a comment like you’re doing. it’s not a good look.

to me, it seems clear that to these people, tommy was just meant to be a placeholder. he was meant to only be there for buck to realise his bisexuality, and then buddie was meant to be canon and so tommy is in the way somehow. because people took bi buck being shut down back in season 4 to be proof that buddie was meant to have gone canon (which i’m not saying wasn’t the case, but it’s never been confirmed or really even hinted at.)

so now anything to do with tommy just makes people so mad, because he’s still here and buddie isn’t happening. so they’re purposefully having the most negative interpretation of anything to do with tommy to make themselves feel better.

hating on tommy makes it easier to deal with the fact buddie doesn’t seem to in the cards (at least rn). so people don’t have to really consider that it may never happen, so they don’t have to shift the blame onto the actors and writers and anyone else. so they can continue to read into any oliver and ryan interaction into meaning canon buddie, anything they say in interviews that doesn’t point towards canon buddie, to misinterpret anything they do say (including ryan continuously calling eddie heterosexual, that’s a big one) because they can’t give away anything yet, it has to be a surprise!!!

tldr: people are hating on tommy after 7x10, and it’s less to do with anything he said in that scene and more to do with the fact that he’s still on the show and buddie doesn’t seem to be going canon. and that hating on him makes it easier to deal with that fact.

[taylortruther]

ik this has already been discussed at length but it literally is starting to make me feel insane how many ppl just...do not seem to understand what denial IS lmao. like i keep reading shit that makes me feel like i'm from another planet suddenly bc wtf is half of this fandom even talking about. "i thought everything was great when i wrote this happy love song but looking back now i realize i was overlooking/ignoring a lot of red flags at the time" "how dare you rewrite history and try to change the narrative you immature little brat, you weren't in denial and that's FINAL" like?????????????

or, "SEE she was in denial the whole time now all of you should stop acting like she was happy, i knew she never was!!!" like... that's not what she's saying either omg

[butwhatifidothis]

Man I miss when you were posting more on here. I get that it's gonna be way less fun and way more stressful with Mr no boundaries panopticon hanging around but I do miss your fandom writing. Not even just 3h, I remember you made a few really great posts about bleach, and I don't even know bleach that much. I've always enjoyed the doylist approach of analysing story structure and narrative more. But also stuff like the fandom's refusal to allow Claude to be biracial. I get why you're not posting as much, the shitstorm would be massively annoying, but I enjoyed reading it.

Omg thank you so much 😭😭😭 I'm so glad that you liked my stuff so much!! Happy to give that enjoyment!

I do wanna clear up something real quick though! I've just been drawn to other stuff rn, like trying to polish up a TLOU DnD setting idea (and with that learning how to DM) and playing Hades 2 and being HYPE AS FUCK for Bleach Cour 3 and trying to get back into drawing (HARD!!!) and BANGING MY HEAD THROUGH THE WALL TRYING TO GET THAT DAMN GW REWRITE DONE THROUGH WRITER'S BLOCK and yadda yadda. It's not so much that it's become less fun or more stressful to talk about fandom stuff and more that my brain's been being pulled in this and that direction lately lmao so no worries there!!

[compacflt]

i’ve got a question about your writing process: in order to write a 30 year narrative, you create it out of hundreds of individual moments & actions, and each one has to function by itself and also part of a whole—have truth to itself and emotional resonance in a timeline. imo the key to doing this successfully is to care about each moment and make each one memorable, which seems very difficult: you have to get at the meat of the human behavior, believably, in a way that matters and explains and progresses the story, every time. and to write 200k words of it you do it hundreds of times! could you talk a bit about idea generation for each moment and how you brainstorm and write them?

omg an excuse to make more diagrams ! Thank you so much for this lovely ask!

okay: in case you don’t want to scroll through like four/five months of my inane icemav Poasting, I’ve done a couple other posts that go into my process — here about specifically chapter 1 and here about the fatal flaw of my fics from a construction standpoint

but from an idea generation standpoint… it’s pretty boring and cynical. I literally just make checklists. “things that HAVE to happen.” here’s my notes app check list of stuff that HAD to happen for the story to make sense in my rewrite of what is now chapters 8 & 9. this is from last december lol

and here’s a checklist/diagram of the major story beats and the changes in relationship dynamics throughout the story. any one of these dynamics changing reflects on the others in a way that‘s worth talking about. the hard part is finding a framing device or scene to talk about them.

the A plot of the fic is ice’s relationship with the navy, primarily. his arc is defined by his rank. so that’s the number 1 dynamic I wanted to focus on in such-and-such scenes, and why I stuck as stringently as possible to the “one rank per chapter” formula until ice got to the top & had to reckon with what being at the top actually means. His change in ranks is inspiration enough for most scenes because it shifts the dynamics in a way that is worth remarking upon in and of itself.

as an example im thinking of this scene (mostly because it’s short but also) because i think it’s kind of representative of how my idea generation process works

It fills a lot of gaps that i needed filled at that specific juncture in the story. the idea started with a stupid little section of dialogue in my head (mav would be surprised that ice’s official Navy docusign signature isn’t his actual signature) that happened to be symbolically relevant too (of course ice would have two different signatures for his two different personas). Then it morphed into a discussion of Ice’s canonically unhappy-looking compacflt portrait, which is canonically unhappy-looking. Then add onto that ice admitting he’s only happy at home (home obviously meaning with maverick, given that he’s literally in his house right now and still doesn’t feel like he’s home) and maverick telling him, “well that’s a problem that has literally the easiest fix in the world. youre making this way more complicated than it needs to be. just come home to me.”

so it’s literally just checking off boxes of things I wanted to talk about. as I said, a very cynical creation process. ✅ ice and mav doing the long-distance-relationship phone call thing (framing device for the whole scene). ✅ mav knowing ice’s real vs fake signature ❤️. ✅ ice’s canon unhappy compacflt portrait that makes an appearance in TGM. ✅ ice not feeling at home in Hawaii. ✅ ice not being fulfilled by the job & only being fulfilled by mav. ✅ ice coming up with excuses to see mav at any possible chance he gets. ✅ ice still obviously thinking of mav and Bradley as his family & maverick as his home. Etc etc. You see what i mean? how many stupid little ideas, symbols, and dynamic shifts can i cram into a page or so? that’s pretty much my thinking.

[xbomboi]

Hi, hello, you’re stuff is absolutely amazing and all the praises.

(Seriously everything eah you’ve made so far feels so canon plausible it’s hard to believe, are you planning to make a career out of these skills/have one? You’d do amazing)

Onto a very generic question I would not be surprised might already be sitting in your inbox.

I am aware that your current project is to continue on ever after high with all the cannon (mostly the cartoon I think, but I can assume the books count too? And maybe doll boxes/diaries? It’s a lot).

If there was one subject you would want to rewrite or remove from canon entirely, what would it be (challenge would be to not name the disaster that is epic winter).

And on a lighter note, favorite/stuck-on-repeat part of the series (I’m sorry this ask is so long, Idnk how to shorten things)?

omg no this isn’t too long at all i’m actually so thrilled to be given something this long to look at!

for starters, in terms of continuing ever after high, my thing is that i want to follow the show canon above all, but i do want to conclude a lot of the stuff touched on in external media such as books and dairies etc. though in doing so i’m not going to treat anything that doesn’t come straight from the show as something to abide by completely. because the show and the books and what not have inconsistencies in numerous ways, such as defining what a royal/rebel is, or characterization, or even the novelizations of the specials having alternate tellings of the stories. i don’t even want to really necessarily change anything mentioned in the books when adapting it so much as ADD to the information provided in ways that aid the story in which i aim to tell.

i.e. the evil queen turning raven’s puppy Prince into a bone rat. what about Nevermore? where was she? WHEN was she? well i think the evil queen could have perhaps, upon feeling remorse, secretly gone and sought out a dragon for raven, and brought Nevermore home without telling raven it was her doing, so that she would have a new pet companion.

anywho, as for your actual questions, for the first one, i’m probably gonna have to go with the whole sequence in Way Too Wonderland when they’re going from class to class. see, when i first watched it, i got this feeling they were going to go from class to class and in each one a different girl in the group would demonstrate their strong point in solving how to pass the class.

if not that, i think i’d change who got to go and do the whole storybook page thing in Thronecoming. i think it should have just been the core four + ashlynn there, really. and less of them could have opened the door for more time getting to see briar seeing what raven’s point of view is like when faced with the reality of her story.

on a more basic note i’d just go back and make sure everyone were not introduced to from the start is actually there. at least, there for Legacy Day. they don’t have to talk or do anything, it would just be nice to know they were THERE.

anywho, in regards to your other question, that’s a tough one. i mean, i have a few. basic answer is raven’s Legacy Day declaration. it’s just iconic and a real powerful moment that shapes the narrative. i love it. there’s also pretty much all of briar’s scenes in Thronecoming. (and obviously her snapping at apple moment. that shit’s too funny.)

BUT also when raven signs the real book in Way Too Wonderland and gets that dark magic power up. i’m a sucker for fight scenes and especially ones with extra narrative weight, so i always appreciated that one + the aftermath of it. and when apple declares raven as a hero. it’s great.

thanks for the ask!

[s1urpjuic3]

More Scathing hot takes

RANDOM DISCLAIMER I have not watched not a nan lick of g3 Monster High, this is entirely based off of Tumblr post, y'all please inform me of wtf be going on over there.

Tonight, I will be touching on Monster High, because honestly, I don't see enough people talking about my opinions so I'm forcing y'all to see it lmaoo

THE WORLD SHALL KNOW PAIN

Anyways, I feel like this is gonna come out so wrong omgggg but

I DON'T LIKE HOW THEY BROKE OFF ICONIC SHIPS AND MADE EVERYONE LGBT+!!! I don't even care that their gay, it's just the fact that I feel like when shows/media wants to be inclusive when they remake/bring back old shows, they get lazy and just rewrite the existing characters to fit their agenda.

The only time in media it really makes sense (to me) is when a character is going through change, or left a traumatic situation, OR they were always written as a queer character

ie: Harley Quinn. Yeah, I (think) she's always been Bi, but i'd definitely wanna stay the hell away from men after The Joker. I say this as a lifelong Jarley fan. #GoJivey.

And before I go any further, girlllll everybody alr new Clawdeen was lesbian she wasn't fooling nobody💀 it makes SENSE for her character.

Like I know there are now hardcore Cleo x Frankie shippers, and that's fine, I love when people ship characters like that, it's expression of the love for the show, but making it canon??? *Faints*

Maybe i'm just a diehard Cleuce fan idk lmaooo

What I (personally) think they should have done is just introduce new queer/gender neutral/LGBTQ+ characters! I think that would have been so cute and unique cs I feel like no show does that and it's lame.

Like, I just feel like it's such a missed opportunity to make their love interest dynamic, y'know? Like, give them actual depth outside of liking their ghoul.

ie: Deuce. They could've gone into depth about his career and his hopes dreams and aspirations was, and it still ties into Cleo because of her dad and things of that nature.

(Sidenote: Clawd & Jackson/Holt could literally take over the Monster High fandom if they wrote him better in all the gens but y'all not ready for that Convo.)

THERE WAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL FOR JACKSON/HOLT OMG

I WANT NEW QUEER/LGBTQ+ CHARACTERS

Especially the boys ;)

Anyways, that's my hot take for tn, first moderately sized post (Hooray)

Post Script: What is this narrative that G1 Frankie liked too many boys?? Y'all be so frl. She liked 2 people. Jackson and Holt were the same people stop playing in my Tumblr space like that :|

Post Post Script: They had low-key pmo not giving lala some depth we all know she a bad bitch stop acting like she static.

[sendmyresignation]

hi! i really enjoy your music writing, every once in a while i read the mcr analysis you've done (hiii heavy metal mcr manifesto!!). but in particular some of the comments you've made on revenge have really struck me and i would absolutely love to read your thoughts on the whole album!! idk i was just listening to venom today and had your post about the serpent son line bouncing in my head. have a good day! :D

hi omg thank you for such a kind ask! always very overjoyed to hear that the way i talk about music resonates but sorry i didn't see this until just now (footnote see most recent post haha)

as far as revenge goes... basically my meta white whale is a reading of revenge through the lens of multiplicity and transness (ie the perspective and fragmentation of revenge lends itself to configuring into a trans narrative). i started writing this track by track but never finished and considering a lot of the original writing is 3 years old now (oh my god.), it would require pretty heavy rewriting for me to ever feel comfortable sharing. maybe one day.

to sum it up, for me, revenge is really fascinating because it was clearly interrupted. it requires you to engage with its own incompleteness. i mean a lot of my chems work is about loss but there's a way in which that is literally a tangible presence in revenge's form. anyway, this sort of break up of the original concept album structure creates a lot of space, imo, for incidental narratives. like. revenge isn't totally coherent and, as a result, there's fissures in perspective! which demo lover is speaking? who is actually dead? for me it's interesting to read this as the duality of one narrator (since gerards perspective- shorthanded here obv theres additional layers at play- ends up taking over with the orientation of the album toward reconciling with personal loss). and from there you get the trans reading and all it's possibilities!

[mischiefashale]

If all of these people turning into mist is supposed to be an explanation for why Alison isn't dead then she should have turned into damn mist too.

I wish these guys remembered that the light comes from the same place as the music. I wish to see these battles.

Remember who you are. Is this the Lion King?

Eli wolfing out for the first time right after he loses his dad is a much better narrative.

OMG Allison is about to push Scott off of Pride Rock bahahaha. Lion King indeed.

Of course he would stab himself instead of just knocking her out.

Jackson continues to give me life.

Peter Hale crawling around sniffing on pride Rock is going to live rent free in my head forever.

He had to be that close to the ground to smell blood? I don't even care it's just amazing.

"don't fight the Oni, kill them." Leave it to Lydia to be the voice of reason.

He knew that was the plan and still stabbed himself anyways. Oh for the love of God.

Lydias love of chemistry is showing.

How did Jackson not know that Rowan trees become mountain ash?

Okay fine I can ship Malia and parish as long as it means her getting a man who's on her level.

"Then I'm definitely not dying tonight.." lol

She should be having flashbacks to her sewing Scott up.

This shit is killing me.

That wolfsbane should have gone to his heart and killed him already.

He's definitely gonna stick his claws in her neck.

I love Derek's excitement at Eli learning to heal.

Yassss obligatory lacrosse scene.

So is BH big enough for a college or did they walk across Beacon County.

Supposed to be dead is now just "starting to become a recurring theme" STARTING!?!?!

Omfg it's been awhile since I read spoilers I forgot it's HARRIS as the big bad. HARRIS!?!?!!

I hope someone punches Jeff Davis.

Omfg I have so many better Ally resurrection stories.

Only responds to fire and the wolfsbane you shit him with! FFS

What in the fucking rewrite of canon is happening here?

You want to live or not? With a road flare? I guess it makes sense since he almost died by one oh wait and there's the flashbacks.

That is Def Stiles Jr

And then she just leaves to find her dad? Like omg maybe stick together.

Jeff Davis really has no qualms about giving big grown up feelings to emotionally stunted children.

Jackson can touch mountain ash now?

Omfg yes it is HARRIS. I can't decide if it's Pete Jackson to not remember the teacher that had a hard-on for him or not.

But I am dying at Jackson being like I was in London for all of that.

I'm also loving the look on a coach's face as soon as he see Scott McCall. "you are not ruining this for me."

HE IS NOT PLAYING LAX! NO NO NO WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? Why is this Coaches solution?

We all know that should say number 24.

If I didn't hate this narrative so much I would think that Harris would be actually a good villain.

Coyotes breaking into the house is why Derek doesn't transform? I would most certainly think that the smell of a predator like a werewolf would have kept the coyotes at Bay.

And why wasn't Derek turning into a wolf all the time to let his son play with him and his puppy self.

I hate that this is the reason she left Stiles.

How the fuck is Harris alive? Tho?

Bahahaha Greenburg.

But really was there a reason that Scott had to join him on the field?

Of course Scott can take being stabbed legitimately in the heart and still talk but Peter gets a little cut on the hand and he's down for the count.

Omg Malia is my favorite. "Okay what do you need? You need a pep talk one of those you can do this speeches? I don't do speeches I don't do pep talks. I'm not here to boost your ego. And I'm not going to be your cheerleader. So whatever you need to do to get your shit together, you're going to do this for yourself, and you got to do this right now."

[steelycunt]

just love your writing style honestly think you’re so talented. can I ask how you’ve honed it and what your process is when writing a new piece? kisses xx

hi omg!! this is so lovely thank you!! honestly i think it is very generous to say i have. honed my style BUT the fact that it seems that way to you?? WONDERFUL i will absolutely take that xx i always feel sort of silly talking about these things as if i know what im doing because i absolutely don't i never do i post. pretty much everything i write with the intensely nauseous feeling that actually maybe it is terrible beyond repair like a house built on wet sand like. well i could not sleep for the terror last night xx i think i actually woke up at one point and very clearly thought to myself christ i wish i hadnt posted that. but that happens every time you just have to push through innit xx will put my actual answer under the cut!!

i think in general while i wouldnt claim to know how to write well i would say i know how to write. exactly what i enjoy. which is really the point of this anyway this is really just a hobby for me i have no desire to push things any further than that really. and for me that is mainly all in the details!! i am not a plot writer by nature i feel most comfortable writing very dull mundane scenes and so the really big + fun thing about bringing those to life for me is just. details. about everything. and i think they're a really fun + effective way to communicate things about characters and their relationships in a very short space!! so anything i write is usually very full of. what music is playing what people are eating what are they wearing + what condition are their things in + what is the room like + what is laying around + how are people interacting with each other through props/objects + what are the little bits of. life moving around them which prove they are not just existing on the stage of the scene. i think it gives them more life for me personally to include little details that wouldnt matter much to a fictional character in a narrative but would matter to an actual person with no narrative driving them other than just. being alive from day to day :-)

as for the actual. process! as i said im a terrible plotter although i have made a conscious effort with my recent writing to plans things better and more thoroughly (believe it or not. as plotless as tsah may seem it is actually. the most extensively plotted thing i have EVER written lol) so usually i start with a feel/one specific scene in mind and start writing until i come to a point where i think well okay. you're going to have to actually figure out what's happening now. so once ive cobbled up a little bullet-point plan i write each scene (unfortunately i cannot write anything unless i do it chronologically. which makes everything take much longer xx) and after each scene i will immediately rewrite it once/twice until its roughly where i want it and then. once the whole thing is done i go through and rewrite the entire thing once more and fix anything that stands out as clunky or in need of alteration :-)

[cedarbranch]

for the fanfic writer ask meme: 2-4, 30-35, 41-50, and 77!

wheee thank u!! this is so many omg (/pos) definitely putting these under a cut lol

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

when DOESN'T this happen honestly... most recently, steve's mom insisted that she MUST make an appearance in my stranger things wip, but the first instance of this happening on a dramatic scale was wayyyyy back when i was writing my frerard ghost au. frank decided to have more significant Issues than i originally intended which ended up with me rewriting half the fic from scratch (which now i do more often than not)

3. on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

hmmm... 9! i love romance :) i love writing Romance As Exploration. figuring out what makes characters tick, then how and why they'd make each Other tick. i do struggle with writing entirely romance-centric stories though, it tends to be one plot thread out of many

4. what is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

jeeeez... there are SO many ideas i've written and then abandoned... keeping it to ones i actually intend to finish, it's gotta be my pacific rim chance-meeting fic, but part 5 of magnolia 'verse comes as a very close second! i think about it constantly. i know exactly why i haven't written it yet: it's partially because... i HAVE written part of it (i rewrote the same 20k of the intro 5 fucking times), and also because after those 5 times i lost the hyperfixation and have been caught up in other fandoms ever since. still Thinking About It though.

30. most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.

i'm not gonna hunt down the exact quote, but there's a post floating around here disparaging the idea of going to an art museum and saying "i could do that!" in an insulting way because yeah - you could! the only difference between the artist in the museum and you is the fact that they Did and you Didn't. that concept was big for me. it's a great reminder that nothing i do has to be perfect, i just have to make it Exist. the first step to being a writer is words on the page

31. tell us about one of your characters who’s an absolute joy to write?

oh that's so tough, i have so many i love writing!! in terms of who makes me giggle and kick my feet the most, though, gotta be eddie in my stranger things wip or newt geiszler. love me a character who is an Annoying Little Shit On Purpose

32. do characters influence your writing style?

i would say less characters and more the source material itself. i'm someone who likes to match character/narrative voices as closely as possible, so the way i write dialogue obviously reflects that and changes from fandom to fandom. it's not always super noticeable, but i think it shows the most when i'm writing pacific rim or hannibal. (writing hannibal fic is its own beast, that's the only one that's really changed my entire approach to writing and not just dialogue)

33. do you start with the characters or the plot when writing?

they inform one another so closely it's hard to separate them! i guess the first inklings of plot are where it begins, and then the characters generate what the rest of it looks like.

34. how do you name characters and places?

most of the time i don't have to bc i'm primarily writing fic ❤️ but on those rare occasions when i'm writing original fiction, it's purely based on vibes.

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

literally any character i'm invested in. i'm always most compelled by characters who are very much unlike me, especially the bitter angry types. right now it's will graham :3 i love RIGHTEOUS RAGE yay yippeee!!!

41. what is the weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.

hmmm. quite possibly the crack fic i wrote for tma where jon is confronted with the horrors of homestuck. (IN MY DEFENSE: WAS NOT ACTUALLY MY IDEA, WAS WRITTEN AT A FRIEND'S REQUEST, but i did make it exist).

42. describe the aesthetic of a story in 5 words.

ough this is Hard. i can give a bad 5-word summary of a fic, but its aesthetic? let me give it a shot for the hannigram wip: bloody knuckles, sick with yearning

43. how did writing change you?

got me a girlfriend :)

serious answer: i am always thinking about craft when interacting with any kind of written art. i deconstruct, i nitpick, i analyze. sometimes it's criticizing bad writing from a place of love (as with stranger things), sometimes i'm frustrated by what could've been done much better (THE MAGICIANS!!), sometimes i'm just in awe of the skill of the creators (succession, hannibal).

44. any writing advice you want to share?

for fic writers: don't stop reading actual books!!

45. name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

three is too few!! i'll just say i'm currently rockin with emungere and zipegs, and always w my gf @stoplightglow :)

46. what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

hmmm. late evening, maybe?

47. what story are you most proud of?

in terms of completed works, moth to light. for my entire body of work including what's yet unfinished, my hannigram wip! (it'll have a title... eventually)

48. do you reread your own stories?

oh absolutely. partially just because it's fun, but mostly as a learning exercise! it's helpful to get some distance from a fic and then go back and see how reading it feels compared to how writing it felt. gives me a sense of whether my intentions came across how i meant them to in the end. also lets me identify some of the flaws i'd like to work on!

49. do you want to be published some day?

i don't really know! i used to want to be a novelist once i'd "gotten good enough" by practicing with fic, but i've since realized that fic and original fiction are very different skill sets and i'm just not as interested in writing original work. i do have a few short pieces that i'd like to finish one day and i hope they'd be publishable but it's sooo intimidating to have a partner who actually is a successfully published author and get a firsthand look at how much rejection and persistence it involves :'D i think i'd like to give it a shot when i'm ready, whenever that is. maybe for poetry too!

50. do you plan or do you write whatever comes to your mind?

i plan obsessively. my planning documents are pages and pages of outlining, character notes, snippets of scenes i want to write, etc. but to be fair the actual act of writing once i sit down to it is whatever springs to my mind, the story often takes off and guides itself into deeper levels of nuance from there

77. how do you write kissing scenes?

ummm. they're kinda formulaic in my work tbh which is smth i want to change... i do think my kiss scenes are improving as the rest of my writing improves, though! there's one in the hannigram wip i'm pretty fond of. will kisses hannibal and then punches him in the face ❤️ for the second time that evening

[nancydrewwouldnever]

The Receipts: Anna Faris Unqualified Podcast

We need some levity and diversion up in this shithouse! Let's start the trip down Mr Dumb Dick Decisions Memory Lane!!

OMG, the Anna Faris: Unqualified podcast. The favor for a friend that probably was equivalent to an atom bomb for poor Megan, lol.

So, the AF:U podcast at first seemed to be one of those things that helped to support the rewrite of the Chris/Jenny timeline narrative to the friendlier PR timeline, because of the fact that it released on April 5, 2016, and a lot of people assumed that meant it had been recorded like a week before.

Nah. Nah. It was recorded on February 22, 2016.

So, in February, they're already way overly familiar in both the way they talk to each other, and the way they physically interact (all that play punching and hand holding under the table, really?). And Jenny lets loose little nuggets of info like they went to see Anomalisa at the theater together (note: Anomalisa was only in the theaters in L.A. between Christmas 2015 and January 2016), thus showing they've been hanging out together frequently. Oh, but the real kicker: he breezily offers to send her a dick pic in the actual recording. Like, what? To the chick who's talking about her husband through the whole interview? Yeah, something's not kosher here.

Oh, and then there's the photos taken the day of the recording:

I know everyone goes on and on about her look to him in the group shot. But look a the way he's holding her arm in the couples shot. His pinky finger is stroking her arm.

But, wait, there's more! A short time after the podcast release, the producers of AF:U do a basic "bts" podcast of the episode (sorry, that's since been deleted). Sim, his then-gf-now-wife, and another woman are talking about the situation that has since come to life between Chris and Jenny. The women both go over how uncomfortable they were that day with the way Chris and Jenny were acting with each other. Both believed then that something was going on between them, but wrote it off because of the fact that she kept talking about her husband.

And, wait, there's even more yet! In summer 2016, Anna Faris did a Vogue interview where she said:

So, thanks Anna, thanks. Thanks for outing that.

But wait, there's even more than that!!!

So, that timeline... so Anna's saying "a week and a half or two weeks later", but could it have been sooner than she's remembering? Because, three days after the podcast recorded, Jenny posted this to her IG while she was alone in NYC to do promo for Zootopia:

Your heart has a future heart-mate, Jenny? Doesn't your heart have a husband?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

M-E-S-S-Y.

[kanmom51]

My Masterlist

About me as a Blogger

JM JK timeline - how they grew over the years masterlist

Jikook/ Kookmin masterlist - part 1

Jikook/ Kookmin masterlist - part 2

Jimin masterlist

Jimin 2021 birthday masterlist

Jungkook masterlist

JK’s tattoos masterlist

JK’s songs & covers masterlist

Bon Voyage & ITS masterlist

Run BTS masterlist

BTS interviews masterlist

Vlive masterlist

Bangtan bombs, packages & other official BTS content masterlist

Unofficial content:  Award shows, concerts, red carpets, Fansigns, fancams, etc.

2019

SY LY Final Seoul masterlist

2020

Memories 2020 masterlist

MOTS ONE masterlist

BTS in LA 2021 masterlist

2021

BTS Sowoozoo 2021 muster + dvd

2021 BTS Zoom fanmeet masterlist

Memories 2021 masterlist

2022

PTD Seoul 2022 masterlist

BTS LV 2022 masterlist

Festa 2022 masterlist

BTS Proof masterlist

TMA 2022 masterlist

Yet to come Busan masterlist

BTS fanservice/ Queerbaiting masterlist

Jikook “You are me I am you” masterlist

Hardcore Minkook Exposes masterlist

Cont./

My other posts:

Blue neighbourhood

Rewrite the stars - Jikook

Just putting it out there

My support message for JM on Weverse

Freedom of discussion

Met JK today

Admin announcement

Is this a coincidence?

Not all LGBTQ+ people in the public eye WANT to come out

This is my message to all the asses out there spreading this f**king hate

Stop trashing JM and grow up

When there is sexual tension and when there isn’t

I will not post TKK content

Tae the clingmaster

JK reacting to Vmin

Tae asserting dominance with JK

Tae’s “get out of your imagination”

Luca - my impressions

Vminkook are great friends

Vmin, Taekook and Jikook - the difference in dynamics

Homosexuality was always around - legal or not, acceptable by society or not

I make it a point not to be on Twitter

Koreans tell their parents they are gay

BTS Bubblegum talk - true translation of JM’s words

The not so hidden agendas behind the misinterpretations of the bubblegum talk

Jealousy and possessiveness are not healthy and can be criticised; Cont. to anon

Ikon Bobby announcement he’s getting married

OMG JK said “I love you” to Tae + stop the “JK never said I love you to JM” narrative

Tokopedia - JK saying “I love you, I love you” to Tae - actual meaning explained by K-army

If you have something to say don’t hide behind anonymous asks

Stop trashing JM and grow up

To the haters

When there is sexual tension and when there isn’t

My top 5 favourite BTS duos

Jin/JM talking JK out of quitting?

Toxic Jikook narratives

The Truth Untold - Fukuoka Dome Japan

Nay sayers and what they are unwilling to see

2018 BTS contemplating disbandment - Suga’s messages to JK & Tae

JK billboards removed for promoting homosexuality

Jinkook sibling dynamics (find the differences)

BTS members fathering styles, lol

Why is Hobi ignored

It’s not always about Jikook

Jikook showing their love is not disrespectful

BTS and Lauv - why wasn’t ‘Who’ promoted by BH

BTS and the question of enlistment

BTS’s Dynamite makes it’s way into Rolling Stones list of top 500 songs of all times.

BTS 2018 thoughts of disbandment & the renewal of contracts with BH

BH are not ‘pushing’ Jikook to ‘service’ the LGBTQ+ community

Jikook are a winning product

Not gonna accept hate in my blog

‘My universe’ - Coldplay BTS colaboration

BTS on nightline

Watch original content

JK ignoring Tae

The 3J’s

The difference between friendship and relationship

Josh Cavallo a brave young man

Eight by IU (Prod. & Feat. Suga of BTS)

Girls like us Zoe Wees

The 3J’s - Hobi the protector

Oh my god (G)I-DLE

The line in the sand needs to be drawn

Merry Christmas from BTS over the years

Jessi doesn’t know Minkook are a couple - must mean they aren’t - or does it?

Vmin are close but not romantically involved

News flash:  You can be gay and still find someone of the other sex to be atractive

Josh Cavallo - take a stand against homophobia

Tae refocusing JK

Tae and JK’s boxing IG convo

Happy birthday Hobi - our ray of sunshine

Stay away from Quora

JM is Jimin and has been for years now

BTS Oscars 2022

Being army is about loving BTS not hating other bands

The racist BTS coverage of the 2022 Grammy’s  by The Project

People see what they want to see

That that - Run BTS version

A born singer

Love is love - seeing it, supporting it, even if you’re the odd one out doesn’t make you wrong

I guess I’m in love - Clinton Kane

BTS friendship tattoos

A new level of insanity

Boundaries crossed once again

Jhope ‘MORE’ MV Shoot Sketch BTB

Jhope W Korea

Equal signs - Jack in the box

Mary queer

Seoul Pride 2022

Jhope W Korea more photos

W Korea missing pics from Hobi’s party

Do you really love BTS?

W Korea Hobi B-side

This is not ‘a moment’

Something to learn from Hobi’s comment

Poly C’s autograph wall

Poly has JM and JK tattooed on his arm

They got married

I just love Hobi

My thoughts about their military service

Do You Really Love BTS...A Time for Reflection!

Don’t become what you despise

Some JinJikook love

Letter to troll

Let’s talk about Tae’s birthday

A little rant

Me Myself & I J-Hope "All New Hope" silhouette photos

Me Myself & J-Hope “All New Hope” clip

Me Myself & J-Hope “All New Hope” photos 1

Me Myself & J-Hope “All New Hope” photos 2

Hobi’s birthday 18 Feb 2023

Tae’s IG story 18 Feb 2023 - Hobi’s birthday

Hobi birthday live

South Korea LGBTQ+ rights - a step forward

Jhope live 26 Feb 2023

Sope on the street

Jhope On the street photo sketch

Vhope on the street

Jihope, Sope and Vhope

This is not OK

1 April 2023

Masterlist part 2 - Interesti

ng asks

Masterlist part 3 - Recommended posts

[baltears]

hello spookyshai!! its cool if u dont want to, but i was wonderin if you'd elaborate on what you like about william? i just like thinking about/mentally rewriting westworld and its characters in my free time, and your fascination with william's got me fascinated, mostly bc i see him as a stinky bastard. so obvs you'd definitely have a more nuanced take on him, which i'd also like to develop for the imaginary westworld rewrite fic that i'm never going to write ;)) regardless if u answer or not, just wanted to say i'm a fan of your blog and i hope you're havin a good day!!

omg so first of all thank you so so much for sending this, especially asking unprompted about a character you don't even like and giving me a chance to explain my feelings about him which is just incredibly cool of you. i love and am obsessed with william so giving me any excuse to talk about him at length is like gifting me $1000. if you want to know more about my meta thoughts about him after reading this, (I'm gonna talk A Lot – sorry – but i can't possibly get through everything because he's just a very complicated guy and it's a very dense show), you can always look in my william tag. I have a lot of text posts about him, but I also often talk a lot in the tags of my own posts as well as reblogs. This is gonna be a lot of totally disorganized and unedited infodumping of a lot of different meta, but i've talked about all of it at length elsewhere too and I can also totally elaborate more if you have any specific questions (you could send another ask if you wanted, but also feel free to just message me about it anytime). I'll do my best not to get too emotional (lol) but it'll be tough because this character is so close to my heart. but I'll try!

this is a huge wall of text lol so i'll also be adding more bold and italics than i normally would just to make it a little easier to read.

so first of all let's be clear, he completely is a stinky bastard. he is a horrible, awful, faithless, pathetic specimen of a man. not liking him is totally justified. just wanted to get that out of the way. personally I think not liking anything for any reason is totally valid and justified, but there are certainly good reasons why a lot of people don't like william. he is not a good dude, at least not after a certain point. No one is obligated to relate to him, empathize with him, feel bad for him, whatever... like, no one's obligated to like anything, but especially this guy. sometimes people can get a little shirty about the fact that i do, like me liking him means i think they have to. I don't think that. I do love finding other william stans, and i am very unapologetic and open about my love for him, but him being widely hated makes complete sense to me.

sigh like why i love him so much though… it's kind of hard to even put into words. on one level it's just extremely personal, like, there are a lot of things about him that i really resonate with and identify with, although I know that sounds weird (it's definitely gotten some very shocked reactions before, lol). i'm a villain liker in general, i tend to be able to relate to those types of characters easily and it kind of takes a lot for me to really dislike one on a personal level (though that's true of any sort of character, i just tend to like the majority of the characters in any work that i genuinely enjoy regardless of how shitty they are – to me the only truly bad thing a character can be is annoying, like, the kind of annoying where you just want them off your screen). Characters being any degree of evil or shitty or problematic doesn't bug me at all, personally, I tend to feel no deep internal urge to have them 'held accountable' for the things they do, unless they exist in a narrative that genuinely doesn't seem to understand that they are in the wrong, which does irritate me when it happens. But anyway, I don't want to get too oversharey but there's definitely a very high level of just personal resonance to the character for me in terms of the kinds of conflicts he has, the things he struggles with, the dominant emotions of his life, etc. so that's part of it. also though he's just… a very complex and beautifully constructed piece of character work, so I also love him just on a technical level as a writer.

He has such incredible significance in the story too, being the thematic representative of humanity, both to dolores and to the wider narrative – his capabilities for good and evil are humanity's capabilities for good and evil, right. Dolores' opinion of humanity and feelings towards humanity are very colored by her opinion of him and her feelings towards him, and thematically their relationship is sort of a microcosm of the broader relationship between hosts and humanity and very much a central piece of the narrative. Even when it's out of direct focus it's being constantly referenced and pointed back to, such as with the caleb storyline in season 3 – caleb himself is basically one big callback to william in s3, parallels out the wazoo, and his function of turning around dolores' opinion on humans is very much related to him reminding her of william – hence why her storyline in season 3 ends with her remarking on how her memories of william as a young man indicate to her that humanity is capable of goodness, because caleb's capacity to choose echoes william's capacity to choose, caleb's goodness echoes william's goodness, it all goes back to that, etc.

So… I guess I'll just jump in lol. William's Thing, the fulcrum of his character, the main feeling or sentiment that underlies all of his evil actions and kind of his general turn away from the kind and gentle person he used to be, is alienation, right. He lives his whole life (as he tells dolores in 1x07) not fitting in anywhere, not making connections anywhere, not having any sort of community or any experience with love or companionship of any kind… he's just been totally alone and alienated his entire life. like, the closest thing he had to a friend was logan, and he hates logan. I think this is the major thing people miss about him – there's this perception that his turning evil was out of some form of entitlement, that he was just angry that this woman he liked didn't like him back and it's just an issue of wounded masculinity, but to me that completely misses the mark. Like yes wounded masculinity is a piece of his character (the way he performs and weaponizes masculinity in general is… really fascinating, I'll go into a bit more detail about it, but the kind of showy machismo that he displays is definitely a tool that he intentionally developed for his own use rather than a really integral part of who he is) but it's not at all the core emotion happening there.

To William, Dolores was not only a person he was in love with or a person he was attracted to. She was also his first and only genuine human connection ever. She was his first true friend, she was his first love, she was the first suggestion anywhere in his life that it was even possible at all for him to experience a sort of deep mutual understanding and care, that somebody could actually genuinely see him and let him see them. He literally just had not ever experienced any level of real emotional intimacy before, which is a feeling i actually think a lot of people relate to if they grew up feeling very lonely. And then ultimately not only was that relationship taken away, but it was kind of retroactively deleted. When he saw her again back in sweetwater, his thought was not, "i don't have this relationship anymore," but "i never had this relationship," and further, "the single person i've ever thought i could have this kind of relationship with is actually not capable of having any kind of relationship with anyone, including me, and i literally just made all of this up in my head." After losing Dolores he is not just sad and lonely – he literally comes to the conclusion that he can never have any kind of intimate human connection or be genuinely loved, ever, because the one person in his entire life he thought he connected with is not even a person at all, but just a thing. It's very much a rug pull moment on a level that's hard to describe, it kind of takes some thought-experimenting to get to that emotional place because it's a level of shock and hurt and betrayal and like, paradigm-shifting that most of us don't regularly experience (which I think might be part of the reason why a lot of people don't seem to really understand his character or be able to parse what's going on with him emotionally). Suffice it to say it's a wound deep enough that he was pretty much never going to recover from it.

After that happens he is completely destabilized, he loses all sense of meaning and self, and he never gets a grip on it again. He had totally reconstructed his idea of his life to include the genuine possibility of meaning, and meaningful relationships, when he met Dolores. And with the loss of her, all of that suddenly went away and he basically was just left with nothing. So that alienation that he grew up with is now not just a part of his life, not just a thing that he suffers from, but he starts to feel that it's inherent to him and that it comes from him, which is partly why we start getting all the anti-social behavior he displays later in life. He develops and kind of fosters that lack of empathy in himself not because he's truly incapable of empathy (as we see when he's a young man and at a couple of later points here and there, he is in fact very capable of it) but because he feels fundamentally cut off from other people – he can't reach them and they can't reach him.

So that fundamental sense of alienation is really what informs 90% of the things he does after that point. He starts building this persona, inside and outside the park. The real world feels meaningless to him at this point because the only hint of meaning he's ever had in his life was in the park, so he buys the park, and simultaneously starts trying to "win" at life in the real world like he would in the park. The real world honestly doesn't feel any more real to him than the park does, he just knows rationally that it's different and so he behaves differently outside the park… he builds all this wealth and power for himself, he becomes a famous philanthropist. Inside the park he starts creating this character for himself, this sort of hyper-masculine, hyper-competent, totally emotionally composed, merciless, badass villain. And he makes a very concerted effort to stay in this persona as often as he can.

It's all a performance, though, right. As early as 1x05 we have Ford pointing out (to his face! legend) that his barely-hidden desperation to find meaning in the park is giving the game away. In that flashback near the end of 2x02 we get a glimpse of what's underneath, because he's performing this cold, heartless persona in front of Dolores literally while his voice is shaking because he's having to try hard not to start crying as he's talking to her. Deep down he is still very wounded, he still loves her, he still desperately wishes deep down (as jimmi simpson explained) for her to just tell him that all of it was real, for her to be real and truly be a person the way he thought she was. When he's an older man that wish is still in there, it's just been buried very deep, covered up with a lot of other things, twisted. But it's always there, it's his most closely held desire, the only thing he truly wants, and it comes out all the time in the things he does. All his tormenting of dolores, and especially his desire to make the park "real" in order to find meaning – that's that. That sense of deep confusion that's always there in his character too, the constant inner monologue of "who am I, what does this mean, does anything mean anything, what is real or not real, what is going on," that's that too, that's his destabilized sense of self and reality and meaning that came out of losing Dolores. And by this point he has also come to feel, as he says in 2x09 to his wife, that there is something very fundamentally wrong with him, in a way that's kind of at odds with how we as the audience have historically understood him.

The thing is, we saw him be a kind, loving, gentle, thoughtful person. He certainly was not perfect, for instance his later narcissism started out as a sort of basic self-centeredness, but he was a fundamentally good-hearted person who put most of his energy into trying to do the right thing. But he starts saying that he feels like that wasn't the real him, that he thinks deep down he was evil and poisonous all along, that his turn to darkness was inevitable, and that there's a sort of helplessness to his evil. There's this deep sense of shame that permeates his character along with his loneliness and alienation and resentment. He hates everything, he hates the world, but above all he hates himself – kind of amusing considering the god complex he's developed over time. But that really does seem to be the underlying emotion, that he truly thinks that deep down he was always bad. It's very heavily implied that his philanthropy outside the park and his attention to his family, his kind of good-guy persona, is something that he constructed to try and make up for his true nature, and all but stated that he doesn't feel like he's succeeded. To him, no amount of good he does will ever balance his level of evil, evil that as he says doesn't come from anything he's done but something deeper than that, something immutable, something he is. So that's why we eventually have him getting to the point of going "I might as well not bother with this anymore. I might as well just be evil, because I can't change what I am."

I've also said in other posts that the things Juliet says to him come off as obviously abusive. Like, she's technically correct that there's some sinister things going on with his private life, but listen to how she says it. You're a virus, not a person, a thing that mindlessly infects and destroys and has no other purpose. And he agrees with her! He doesn't question it at all, he just says, yes, you're exactly right, I'm not a human being with good and bad attributes, or potential to do both right and wrong. I'm a virus. Like, again, I know people get weird about having empathy for villain characters, there's the whole "cool motive, still murder," thing, because we don't want to be excusing anyone's bad actions with a sad backstory (personally I don't really care, but I understand where the concern comes from). But when he said that to Juliet it just… like I don't know how else to put it, it broke my heart. He really believes that about himself. And later he starts to question it because he's not sure anymore if he actually chose to do any of the things he did… but the way his hallucination of Emily puts it, these are his two options: you are evil, or you had no choice. One or the other. He never puts aside the idea that he is a monster that does not deserve to live, and his suicidality persists from season one (when he encourages Dolores to shoot him in the head and reacts with honest disappointment when she can't) to the end of season four when he actually does manage to engineer his own death. He is deeply, agonizingly, pathetically miserable existing the way that he is, he seems to see his even being allowed to live at all as some sort of cosmic injustice. But he doesn't know how to change back to the way he was.

All that having happened, though, we also keep getting these repeated suggestions in the story that he actually is still capable of goodness somewhere in there. The narrative keeps asking what William is exactly, what his fundamental nature is, and keeps refusing to land on one answer, instead choosing to keep things ambiguous in a way that would be sort of odd for your garden variety villain. In 2x04 we see him experiencing regret, feeling empathy and pain on behalf of others, and acting genuinely heroic, only to later backtrack and say it didn't mean anything. In 2x09 Emily tells him he is in his essence "a lie" but makes no attempt to locate what the "truth" of him would then be. In 3x06 he tries to figure out the answer to what's going on with him again only to decide he still doesn't really know, in 3x08 we get this reminder that he still stands for Dolores as a representation of both humanity's evil and its goodness, in 4x05 when his host duplicate asks him what he is, he says "Jury's still out." He is too far down his current path to turn back, but he still does not and cannot definitively and finally choose evil, because despite his self-loathing it seems like he senses deep down that his other side is still in there. All that to say I think he's getting a redemption arc in season 5, if we get a season 5 – season 5 is supposed to be the do-over season, and the character who most desperately needs and could most benefit from a do-over is William.

Um, closing thoughts… I think he's really funny. Sometimes intentionally, like, I do laugh at his little quippy comments, but I also just think it's really funny how pathetic he is and what a mess he is and how he basically imploded his entire life on accident. I do feel a lot of very genuine care and empathy for him (obviously), but he's also such a garbage fire of a human being that you sometimes just have to laugh. He's just my funny little guy, also he sucks, also I love him and he's my lil angel, also he's the worst man ever in history and deserves to be drawn and quartered (said with love). You get it. :) There's dimensions.

Trying to think of other characterization notes for your imaginary fic… oh, did you notice he puts on an accent in the park? He does this fake Southern drawl when he's playing his park character, but it's not his real accent and he drops it at other times, kind of like how Dolores sometimes does or doesn't use her "rancher's daughter" accent when she's being Wyatt in season 2. Uh… Total nerd, at heart, seeing as "all he had as a kid were books." (I kind of suspect that childhood memory might not have been totally real, by the way… made a post about that recently that's a little ways down in my tag if you're interested.)

There are more things I could say, but I think I've probably gone on long enough for the one ask lol so I'll cut it off here. Thank you again, so much, for sending this. I hope you enjoyed and got something out of this response, but if not I still do very much appreciate you asking and being curious. I hope you had a great day too!

[darlington-v]

I know different interpretations of a work are generally enriching and cool... but c!dream villan interpretations is like how to tell me you only watch Tommy without saying you only watch tommy.... which would be fine but its not a great place to be making statements about the whole nature of the dsmp lol

Wild speculation, but sometimes I wonder if like, because the dsmp didn't really start as a narrative, and a lot of fans don't nessecarily enter it expecting a narrative, but then there is one and the fandom is really discourse heavy and everyone is sort of excpeted to have an opinion while maybe not expecting to form one from the begining or not having a ton of experience with narrative in a way that would "expect" them to have an opinion or not take things at face value??, I don't know if I explained that well at all... and I don't really even think thats right nessecarily... but like wow sometimes some of the takes about power and government and villany...

Honestly, it makes sense!!!

I think something interesting is like.... looking at how animatics have shaped the like tone and culture of the fandom essentially. Like, an interesting fact that I didn't really fully grasp until SUPER recently is like...

c!Wilbur out the gate admits he is manipulating c!Tommy. Like his first youtube video on the Dream SMP he admits his goal is to manipulate c!Tommy and people like c!Tommy into helping him achieve a potion ("drug") empire to monopolize on potions because there were a lot of people on the server who like to min-max, which is to put all of your effort into this one specific skill essentially. so like... i know minecraft doesnt have a skill tree but if it did, it would be putting all your points into that one specific branch of a skill tree. So he wanted to exploit the labor of all the TommyInnits to.... maintain a Potion Empire.

THIS IS A LONG POST BC I GOT CARRIED AWAY SO BUCKLE UP

And I don't think a lot of the fandom who joined later on knows this. I certainly didn't until like a week or so ago? Like... I knew c!Wilbur had been manipulative from the start because I'm a mod of (shameless self promo incoming) @dsmpanalysis and we have a lot of different POVs in that mod team and discord and we talk about it really frequently. I joined the fandom as someone who was really big on L'manburg ESPECIALLY crimeboys, and have turned into.... *gestures vaguely to my blog*

And ngl I owe a lot of it to @1-michibiki-1 in terms of c!Dream "Apologism" but all of the mods there have expanded my thoughts and views on the storylines of this narrative.

My application consisted of like largely essays about like... how I think Dream was the villain but he was meant to be the villain because you don't get any insight into his character WHICH.... IS A FAIR ASSUMPTION AT FIRST GLANCE. People are easily villainized when you cannot get a glimpse into their thought process. It's easy to dwindle someone down into this flat character and starting out I knew Dream didn't stream the SMP on purpose.

And I personally came to the conclusion of "Oh! So Dream is supposed to be the villain." However as the story continued and I learned more about what Dream went through I began to realize that... it's more than likely a form of a red herring. My opinions on this were immediately solidified when I watched Ranboo's 2 MIL stream because both Ranboo AND Dream agree on enjoying red herrings.

There have been MANY times were Dream has said that c!Dream is a complex character and he's not a wholly evil guy and there have been times where the narrative has honestly just proved that.

Anyways, what's important though was that... I learned most of this from other people who were more focused on c!Dream rather than myself. Eventually I shifted from c!Tommy to c!Ranboo and c!Techno after c!Tommy betrayed c!Techno and I began to realize.... everything I learned before hopping in wasn't exactly what it seemed.

Part of this is because I'm older, I heavily identify with c!Techno's sense of loyalty and philosophies on government, but I especially identify with the anguish c!Techno voiced in... a lot of lore but especially the lore around Doomsday.

I'm not 16 anymore. I don't always feel wronged by adults, or older people in my case, whenever they absolutely have done something wrong by me, but I do feel wronged by my close friends. I also felt like c!Tommy's sense of loyalty didn't line up with mine after what felt like him constantly flip-flopping and refusing to understand c!Techno's morals on government didn't line up with his.

In short, it was easier to identify with Tommy in these animatics versus in the actual stream content because c!Tommy is played by a 16 year old. I'm not a teenager and my line of thinking doesn't entirely line up with people that age anymore. It's harder to place myself in the same shoes of someone's OC who is played closer to their actual age, because I'm not that age.

Regardless, I was still on the c!Dream is a villain train. I wasn't ever like... c!Dream is repulsive I hate him, but I was like omg hot villain lad go brrr.

Even when the first like... mellohi, panic room, Ranboo lore stream popped up I thought "Oh! c!Ranboo corruption arc?"

And I was excited because I really wanted this shy, nervous character to turn into villain buddies with his good pal c!Dream. I'm a total sucker for villains and corruption arcs and all that good shit.

SO I STARTED GETTING REALLY INTERESTED IN ENDERSMILE. I'VE BEEN ON ENDERSMILE SQUAD OUT THE GATE. NOT THE SAME WAY I AM NOW, BUT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED THEM TO TEAM UP.

So... upon not really keeping up with c!Dream and being relatively??? indifferent? I don't think I started arguments on c!Dream back then, but I might have. But I remember like... starting to participate more whenever c!Dream came up and looking more into Dream's character BUT ESPECIALLY TALKING WITH OUR SERVER'S C!DREAM SPECIALIST MICHI ABOUT DREAM A LOT MORE.

And because Michi has been a watcher since day one and was a DTeam fan rather than a SBI fan, she was able to provide me with more information on how the server worked pre-Tommy but especially pre-Wilbur.

Now, you could definitely argue well Michi probably has clear bias but it made sense to me when I looked back on how the storyline had been constructed and was going along, and everyone in the server talks a lot about our own biases and how we want people to maybe not lean so hard on them. Michi would also provide like anecdotes on what had happened and I'm sure links were probably provided at one point but the point was I felt like Michi had no reason to lie or manipulate how the story was told and if she did, eventually someone would have pointed it out because... Group of like... right now it's around 20 or more analysts but I don't remember how many at the time there were. POINT BEING, WE'VE ALL GOT POINTS TO PROVE AND IN MY EXPERIENCE NOT MANY OF US HAVE BEEN SHY TO PROVE THEM.

So if anyone ever had any differing opinions they would be talked about and we literally had and still have discussions.

REGARDLESS.... I DIDN'T FACT CHECK IN DEPTH BECAUSE I THOUGHT PEER REVIEW WAS ENOUGH WHEN YOU HAVE LIKE HOURS UPON HOURS OF STREAMS TO WATCH.

Anyways. Eventually I started paying closer attention and looking more into c!Dream lore but only recently have I started to triple check before speaking about c!Wilbur lore because I know everyone has biases and while I did trust everyone's thoughts and analysis in the discord, whenever I make essays I typically like it to be largely air tight and if theres a mistake, I want it to be because I forgot not because I just trusted what was said. Plus, I wanted to get down to the specifics of how Wilbur had always started with manipulation on the mind.

SO I WATCHED HIS FIRST VIDEO ON THE DREAM SMP.

AND WHAT I WAS NOT BY ANY MEANS EXPECTING WAS WILBUR TO SAY WORD FOR WORD, VERBATIM,

"SO WHY DON'T I START AN INDUSTRY WHERE I USE THE TOMMYINNITS OF THE WORLD TO WORK FOR ME, TO CREATE THINGS THAT THE MIN-MAXERS OF THE WORLD WILL WANT."

Like... this is in no way an attempt to like hardcore villainize c!Wilbur like everyone does Dream, it's just more so to like REALLY outline how far off a lot of fandom interpretation of c!Wilbur is....

Because of SBI focused animatics.

Now, when I joined I watched A LOT of animatics that really highlighted like... Wilbur being this self-loathing JD-esque, "I destroyed it because I had to because the world was against me because no one loved us, Tommy" type of character. At least... that's what it came across as.

And it definitely highlighted the fact that Tommy was a victim, which he is. He is undoubtedly a victim and no not even any dream apologist can change my mind otherwise. Tommy, despite being an instigator sometimes, didn't deserve the abuse he received.

But these animatics never shown the fact that c!Wilbur started L'manburg as a shady ploy to exploit people like c!Tommy and vilify c!Dream so he could have power.

And that was easy because Dream and Tommy had wars before. They had spars and pranks and here's the plan to take back my disks and here's the plan to out smart the thieving little child etc etc.

And all of the animatics I watched never mentioned this. Neither did the recaps though. The recaps gave the events flat out, there didn't sound like there was bias, and honestly I don't really know if there was rather than like... a lack of nuance. And it's hard to provide a recap with that much nuance in a short period of time for a youtube video, to be perfectly fair.

However, this creates a perfect formula for entirely rewriting the history of a server. c!Wilbur quite literally fucking succeeded TO A META LEVEL. He slandered and ran smear campaigns against Dream and like he even does that with Sapnap in the beginning. But what's crazy is that it transferred over into the meta! Most of this fandom understands Wilbur as a victim of mental illness, and yeah maybe? He definitely wasn't mentally well by the end of pogtopia, but he never started out with honorable intentions. L'manburg was never a victim, only its citizens. The TommyInnits of the world.

I just think it's like... such an interesting case study. Because this is like... an opinion like shared by at least half of the fandom, but the vilifying of c!Dream is shared by MOST of the fandom I would argue. Which is like even more crazy for me because that was c!Wilbur's goal!!!

LIKE I GO INSANE WHEN I THINK OF THIS BECAUSE HIS REACH IS JUST TOO POWERFUL. HE'S NOT EVEN ENTIRELY REAL, JUST A MANIPULATIVE PERSONA OF SOME BRITISH GUY.

And I mean... maybe people who have watched Wilbur's video on the SMP still maintain this idea that Wilbur wasn't always the bad guy, but honestly... I wouldn't be surprised if their introduction was still an animatic. Like bias is hard to check and I'm not going to lie I could have sworn I watched both Wilbur's AND Tommy's video on the SMP in the beginning and yet I STILL was a ride or die for tragic yet on some level still honorable Wilbur and a resilient Tommy.

Like... upon watching Wilbur's first video... possibly again I was surprised because I thought I did watch it like right before I even started watching the streams and yet I was still so invested in c!Wilbur as this tortured anti-hero.

It took 6 months of... not being in an echo chamber, full of multiple different people of different ages, different stream POVS, and people who joined the fandom at different points in time.

IDK IF THIS WAS EVEN ENTIRELY RELEVANT IT JUST FELT TANGENTIALLY RELEVANT AND THIS WAS SOMETHING I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT FOR A HOT MINUTE AFTER LIKE WATCHING WILBUR'S FIRST VIDEO AGAIN.

TLDR;

SBI CENTRIC ANIMATICS HAD A LASTING AFFECT ON THIS FANDOM AS IT'S HARD TO GO BACK AND ACTUALLY CHECK THE NARRATIVE FOR SOLID FACTS FOR YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION BASED ON THE FACT THAT THIS NARRATIVE SPANS OVER HUNDREDS OF HOURS WORTH OF TWITCH STREAMS.

[lowpawly]

Can you give more details about your lapis comic? Like what time is it set in or is it an au or a rewrite? I'm sory I'm just curios 😔 it's really fun seeing your occasional posts about it

omg yes ofc thank u so much for asking 🥺🥺🥺 YEAH so its basically intended to just fill in what I would consider as a missing arc for lapis, everything in it is written so that it could believably have happened in the show offscreen similar to how other series spinoff comics have done things. Its not an au and not intended to be a rewrite, I'm doing my best to just expand on her character in a way I think was implied in the show but was never fully fleshed out (imo). I have a prologue that takes place right before Super Watermelon Island, then parts 1 thru 4 take place between seasons 3 and 5 and I have an epilogue that takes place a month after Change Your Mind. Hopefully the end result fits decently within the narrative of the show without too much suspending of disbelief necessary. Also gonna fill in missing development with her and Peridot obviously.

I'm writing it with the intention of it being a psychological horror while not being jarring different toneally from the show aha. I've actually been going out of my way to watch and read more surreal and psych horror based media to try and get more creative with it, its been a good way to get myself to finally pick things up that I've been putting off looking into! The horror elements are definitely secondary to keeping things feeling natural within the universe and I'm not introducing anything that would feel absurdly out of place (at least I hope not!) I would say the peaks are maybe equivalent in tone to Keeping It Together with maybe sometimes veering a little darker but nothing crazy.

ANYWAYS I'm hoping that I'm not overwhelming myself haha, I'm being really careful about how much I'm public about before I at the very least have everything completely scripted because I know from personal experience that jumping the gun on starting huge comic projects before you're prepared can quickly lead to a ton of stress and burnout. The comic has a title and each part has a thematic name but I'm gonna wait until everything is more solid before I actually say what it's called lol, its just another way to keep some pressure off myself until I feel like I'm ready. I am working on making a set of pages for a scene that I really wanted to see visualized so I can feel out the style and look that I'm going for and once I'm done I'm gonna post em here! I'm probably gonna release it one part at a time but I'm gonna wait until I at the very least have everything sketched before I go that far, once I'm ready I'm gonna make a little neocities website to host all the pages on ^__^

Ok sorry this is kinda going on for a long time, I wanted to be a little more specific but there's like a lot I wanted to cover LOL I really the commentary and interactions people have with my art esp anything having to do with this project 🥺 staying motivated with big projects can be really tough especially with things like comics and I don't wanna expect too much out of myself but people interacting with my art on here has really put me in good spirits about creation and I'm really excited to share everything one day <3 if anyone ever has any other questions abt it u r very encouraged to ask i love to talk about my projects