#that the thing the most consistently appreciated is the least representative of what you want to do artistically

[rawliverandcigarettes]

genuinely I do not understand why skylines is my most popular fic 😭

[eff-plays]

Ok so I watched the interview with Stephen Rooney, Astarion's writer, and here are some highlights. (I'm an aspiring writer and current game design student who wants to write for games so I'm sorry if some of these insights aren't as interesting to you as they are to me <3)

He calls Astarion his "horrible little vampire boy"

He loves seeing the fandom around Astarion<3

He did write other characters in the game, but mostly NPCs surrounding Astarion or his storyline, so it mostly revolved around Astarion

Astarion is not as connected to other companions/Origins as, for example, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, or Wyll and Karlach are to each other, but he is still reactive to their stories, even if it's just to stand off to the side and laugh when something terrible happens

He had a clear sense of where Astarion's story would start and end, but it got "muddy in the middle", but those are also moments where the best ideas come from

They write from the general idea that every character has one "good" and one "evil" ending, in order to give the player choice. RIP Ascendant apologists :(

According to Stephen, two of the most important aspects of Astarion's character (to keep consistent when bringing him to Idle Champions, at least) is that he enjoys violence, but is also fun about it

"He has a certain appreciation for violence, I guess? A bit of a murdery streak. [...] He's a vampire, he's all about blood, and he's all about, kind of, those darker sides of humanity. [..] But at the same time, he is ... He is really fun, he's really fun to write, he's really fun to have in your party, and it's very important for me that that is also represented."

"He's gonna stab you, but will have a smile on his face as he does it? I mean, I dunno. That's kind of him in a nutshell."

Larian would not have allowed for Astarion to be a typical brooding Dracula type, and there were scenes that were shot down for not being original enough

The main thing about Astarion was trying to get a "sense of fun." It would be easy to write a character that was very unlikable, and they absolutely did not want to do that

Rooney says Astarion is consistently terrible throughout the game and awful in a whole lot of ways, but he also needed to be charming enough that you could tolerate his presence and wanted him around

Rooney also had a lot of input on Astarion's stats (meaning the 10 Charisma is probalby 100% intentional)

He also had input on how certain lines should be delivered, even though the writers didn't directly work with voice actors

The way Astarion moves and poses is "all Neil"

Apparently, Neil Newbon worked on the character for years and Rooney did not speak to him once, though his voice work did influence how Astarion's lines were written and it became a "feedback loop" (Possible context for "ONLY SLIGHTLY, NEIL")

There were no points where a line delivery drastically changed Astarion's writing; rather it was a constant, slow evolution

However, there was one very spoilery moment where Neil gave such emotion to some "basic" lines that it fundamentally changed the scene (WHAT IS IT OMG)

It's difficult to balance approval, as you don't want to straight up write a monster. Every character needs to have some humanity in them. So if it comes to leaving the party, it needed to be the result of something central to said character. They wanted to be mindful of situations that would cause actual rifts between characters. (I assume this is why most generic disapprovals/approvals are +/- 1 or 2, while character-related ones give +/-5 or more)

However, as they don't write straight up horrible people/monsters, it doesn't come up as often as one might think.

The interviewer makes a point about how characters like Astarion and Lae'zel are good examples of how to play "evil" characters, as they are maybe not the best people but are still eager and willing to stick around the other party members

They worked to make sure the characters would work as a group, no matter the configuration of the group. The characters needed to be on the same path, even if they don't always agree or walk that path the same way.

Stephen Rooney is very proud of the "climactic" scene of Astarion's story. (AS HE SHOULD BE.) He even had to step away from the computer and have an emotional moment. Me too, man.

He's also "extremely pleased" that there's a point where you can punch Astarion in the face. "Actually, that one might be my favorite part" A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!!

Stephen Rooney's tip on what specific thing you should try out with Astarion: When he's trying to get a "sneaky nibble" at night, you should "probably" let him bite you. Way ahead of you there, sir.

No discussion about Astarion's romance unfortunately, but that's that!

[yanderes-galore]

Hello again! Can I request some Velvettee vs Carmilla Carmine headcanons? (As you can tell Respectless is my favourite HBH song lol)

🐋~ anon

I can try my best, sure! Carmilla is already a bit difficult to write so I hope I at least get Velvette right. I couldn't do much as I wasn't sure what pairing you wanted.

I ran out of ideas near the end... so @okchijt had to help me ^^;

Using the extra info you provided here.

Yandere! Velvette vs Carmilla Carmine

Pairing: Platonic/Romantic - Rivalry

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Jealousy, Manipulation, Possessive behavior, Isolation, Threat of violence, Forced companionship/relationship.

Taking in what you said for how their obsession acts... it makes me think you'd try to keep things neutral.

You're an Overlord, a part of The Vees, although much nicer than your peers.

Someone has to be considering how The Vees primarily consist of arrogant Overlords.

You certainly try to help keep things together.

Mostly because your peers often cause trouble with others.

It's enough to give you a headache, really.

The fact that you aren't like your peers is enough to make Carmilla find ease in your comfort.

The rivalry would begin at the Overlord meeting, the very same meeting we see in the show.

Vox and Valentino do not attend, the only Vees who do attend are Velvette and you.

Carmilla isn't too fond of Velvette joining, even less so when she realizes you're a newbie to The Vees.

Carmilla fully expects you to be a nightmare like the rest of your peers, especially with Velvette.

However, when she meets you in person, she is pleasantly surprised that you are nice.

In fact, Carmilla enjoys the fact you're respectful towards her and her daughters.

Velvette understands you're nice to keep up appearances with The Vees, yet she also knows that's just your personality at times.

Although she finds herself irritated when you engage in such casual conversation with Carmilla.

You see, due to being part of The Vees, Velvette feels you should be most at home speaking with your peers.

I already think, like most of The Vees, Velvette is an easily jealous person.

So while Velvette is jealous, Carmilla mostly pities you for having to deal with The Vees all the time.

The start of their tension is no doubt around the time the two start arguing during "Respectless".

It's not just about war for Velvette, she is also tense due to thinking Carmilla is too close/influencing you.

The entire argument you're trying to calm both sides.

You're trying to pull Velvette back, apologizing to Carmilla for the behavior of your colleague.

Carmilla appreciates the fact you care enough to apologize and try to wrangle Velvette.

Her obsession occurs after Velvette's due to Velvette knowing you longer... It all starts with your respect and determination to keep things civil.

Traits Carmilla did not expect coming from a Vee as your peers are usually... temperamental.

Meanwhile Velvette always had an obsessive bond as a fellow Vee.

Bonus points if all The Vees have positive bonds with you.

By the end of the meeting you're escorting Velvette out, yet are invited to meetings with Carmilla to represent your fellow Vees.

It's probably best you do anyways due to your personality.

You're sent to represent The Vees for Overlord meetings due to the Velvette incident.

Which ends up allowing Carmilla to have more time with you... and Velvette less time with you than she wants.

Carmilla is happy to have more time with a respectable member of The Vees.

Meanwhile Velvette is often in a mood about it... even if you see her more often.

The funny thing is, they both have similar ideas.

Carmilla doesn't understand why you're always around Velvette, isn't she too rowdy for you?

You seem much more at home with her and her daughters during meetings, often diplomatic and knowledgeable.

Velvette has no idea how or why you can tolerate someone like Carmilla.

Doesn't she bore you? Wouldn't you rather help Velvette test out new trends and styles?

Seriously, meetings are such a bore and Carmilla is a hypocrite.

Why would you make weapons and not use them?

Their differing personalities make them much different to deal with.

Carmilla often hides her disdain for Velvette.

Although Velvette doesn't mind being loud about her disdain for Carmilla towards you.

Velvette often tries to provoke Carmilla due to her silence.

Velvette is a demon who often uses social media to brag about the fact she spends more time with you.

The thing is... Carmilla probably doesn't have or use social media often.

So the only way she'd notice it is due to her daughters showing her.

Either way, Carmilla is still rather stoic about how she feels for Velvette, she knows the social media demon is just trying to provoke her.

All so she can look bad in front of you.

The two don't understand how you manage to stay neutral the entire rivalry.

You show little preference, often just trying to see them as colleagues.

But, obviously, they view things differently.

Velvette often tries to keep you out of Overlord meetings.

You don't need to see Carmine of all people...

No, you have much more work to do with The Vees.

However, Carmilla is insistent on having you attend her meetings and speak to her.

Which means the two often fight due to Velvette's nature.

Their rivalry is intense regardless of the pairing.

I can see them both being manipulative and condescending.

There's no kidnapping on both ends as they're focused on messing with your head more than anything.

That and sabotaging one another, or atleast Velvette is.

To most their rivalry seems to be about business.

Yet you know better.

The two could be fighting over you for the sake of your attention...

Or maybe it's more than that?

Maybe both Overlords like you romantically and hate each other too much to care what you think?

You can't go a day without hearing complaining... or some other issue between them.

Carmilla at least tries to keep it civil.

But you're tired of having to track Velvette down due to her trying to antagonize Carmilla....

Velvette is definitely more bark than bite.

She talks and threatens a lot, she even resorts to playing dirty.

But Carmilla is the opposite.

She doesn't bother with idle threats, in fact she doesn't want to hurt others unless she has to.

I feel most of their rivalry is just tension.

They have a tension of ideals and desires that tightens until someone snaps.

Poor you has to play mediator as the two constantly try to get into your head and at each other's throats.

I feel a physical fight between them would take a long time to brew.

Even when it does, there most likely is others around them to stop it.

You're most likely going to neither of them.

But, of course, that's not entirely your call to make.

Velvette continues to be overconfident, thinking she already has you wrapped around her finger as a fellow Vee.

Meanwhile Carmilla is a silent tactician, treating you with respect and affectionate gestures to show you're welcome to be beside her.

All while thinking of ways to get you away from your fellow Vees.

In a fight, the odds lean towards Carmilla.

But for your own good... it's best to continue preventing a fight.

If you're lucky, a brutal fight won't happen...

Yet there's always that constant tension brewing between you and them... anything can happen if it means one of them gets to keep you.

[elllisaaa]

Can you do sub Beomgyu smut?

[cuz I'm a female dom, and I absolutely fucking love hove bratty he is and his whines make me- well, wet]

uk those fics where the reader, teases them in public and they punish xer/xim in the bathrooms/public???

can you do that with sub beomgyu, and rough and dom reader[any gender is fine, preferrably female]?

only if you're comfortable though...

ALL MINE - C. BEOMGYU

-> pairing : brat sub!beomgyu x fem dom!reader

-> words count : 1.6k

-> genre : smut

-> warnings : dom/sub dynamic, teasing, dirty talk, praising, semi-public sex, face slapping, cock slapping, gagging, humiliation, bondage, choking, use of 'good boy', 'whore', 'slut' and 'miss', handjob, cum eating

+ the way i'm depicting beomgyu does not represent him, it's only a work of fiction.

-> 18+ content bellow, minors dni

-> reblogs and feedbacks are appreciated ! sorry for any mistakes, english is not my first language

-> author's note : i fucking love to write subby men, and beomgyu and his bratty attitude gives me the perfect opportunity to do so. as you said, he gives out that vibe so much ! it was so fun to write this, thank you anonie, hope you'll enjoy this !

-> masterlist | txt masterlist

Going out with your friends had always been an activity that you liked, the feeling of joy when you reunited with them couldn’t be compared to anything else. But now that you were taking Beomgyu with you, it was even more fun. Why ? Because he wanted to impress your friends so badly, he wanted to make a good impression on them. That’s why he kept trying to present himself in a good light, and acting as if he was the one leading your relationship when you both knew that behind closed doors, you had him on his knees for you. 

Despite that being well established, and your rules being really strict, Beomgyu had been not so subtly touching you the whole night : putting his hand on your thigh, leaning in to whisper some dirty things in your ears, and even taking your own hand to bring it closer to his crotch under the restaurant table. Not that you particularly minded playing this type of game in public, but it wasn’t how it was supposed to go. You had made it clear to him before going out - that he will get his reward for having been good all week if he did one last thing for you, which simply consisted in behaving and not teasing you during this dinner out. 

After spending two years together, you thought that you would have finally succeeded in taming his bratty attitude. But no. It was coming out every now and then, and always when you were the most frustrated and had the least patience left. It was almost as if Beomgyu had a second sense that allowed him to know when to mess with you just so he could get punished harshly. Well, truth be told, maybe it was exactly why he was doing this - because he knew that the way you were going to torture him will be delicious. 

“- Haven’t I made it clear, baby ? Keep your hands off me tonight and you’ll get what you want, okay ?”

Beomgyu threw his best pleading eyes at you, still not listening to your orders as you felt his fingers creep up higher underneath your dress. You let out an exasperated sigh, pushing his hand away from you. Under the guise of getting closer to you, your boyfriend nuzzled his head in your neck, whining in your ears.

“- But I need you so bad, I’ve been good, just let me touch you, I’ll be quick.

- You know what, you wanna be a slut and a brat ? You’re gonna get punished instead. Go to the bathroom and wait for me.”

For once, Beomgyu listened, getting up from the table and excusing himself. You let some minutes go by, and when you felt like he had been marinating for long enough, you got to the bathroom too, saying that you were going to see if your boyfriend was doing good.  

“- You’re not even able to not touch yourself for ten minutes ? You’re a fucking whore Beomgyu.

- Y-Yes but only for you.”

His cocky smile despite his shake voice and his hands stroking his clothed boner made you want to break him, to wipe the smug look in his eyes. You entered fully in the small cabin of the bathroom, pushing him to sit down on the toilets. You locked the door behind you and detached the ribbon you put in your hair before going out. 

“- Give me your hands. 

- No.”

The loud sound your hand produced when you slapped him echoed in the bathroom along with the moan he let out. You grabbed his hair roughly, tugging on them to get him to look at you. His once confident look was now completely gone, his eyes glassy and he was almost ready to drop on his knees. But he loved to test your patience even more. So he still didn’t give you his hands, and moaned again when you slapped his other cheek. 

“- You’re getting on my fucking nerves Beomgyu, if you wanna cum you better give me your hands.”

Without saying a word, he did it and you tied them together with your little pink ribbon. It was quite funny how you were always dressed so cute, with cute little make-up and cute little hairpins, but once you were alone with him, you turned into the nastiest little demon. And Beomgyu loved this contrast, loved to know how people could never suspect the real dynamic of your couple. 

“- See ? You know how to be good so behave.

- But I don’t wanna.

- You will when I’ll make you cry. All it takes is for me to touch your small dick and you’re begging for me to let you cum, right ?”

Beomgyu wanted to protest, to say something, but you were already squeezing his hard cock through his clothes, stroking him at a quick pace, that had him squirming in place and whimpering out loud. Your other hand came up to his throat, getting a firm hold of it, enough to shut him up a little. 

“- Y/N… Baby, baby…

- What ? You’re complaining now ? You’ve got what you wanted though, or is it still not enough for you, fucking slut ?”

Your boyfriend nodded as he tried to free his hands from the ribbons, but you had grown too used to tying him up because he was constantly acting up. It felt good to be completely at your mercy, but he also wanted to touch you, wanted to feel and lick your skin, wanted to grip on the flesh of your ass while you bounced on his cock and milked him dry. 

“- You’re so greedy. You’re gonna take what I give if you wanna cum, understood ? 

- A-And if I don’t want t-to ?”

A sinister smile spread on your lips, your hand squeezing his throat harder, making him choke on his own words. 

“- Then you don’t cum at all.”

You let go of his cock, going as far as taking a step back and Beomgyu’s eyes opened wider. He tried to reach your hand and pull you back to him, but his tied wrists wouldn’t allow it and he let out a desperate whine. 

“- No, no, no, I need to cum !

- Beg for it.”

He shook his head and earned himself another slap, his cheeks starting to get red, and not only because of the unbearable heat of his body. But he loved how much it stinged everytime you hit him again. Beomgyu let out another loud moan when you slapped his cock over his clothes this time, and you shoved two fingers inside his mouth, smirking at the way he gagged around them, and at how quickly his eyes welled up with tears.

“- I said, beg for it. Are you ready to be good now ?”

You slapped his hard on once more, staring at his face when a tear rolled down his left cheek, saliva starting to drip down his chin and neck. When you pulled your fingers out, he was a mess, and you knew you had finally ruined him for the day.

“- Please, please miss I’ll be your good boy now, I’ll do everything you want, just let me cum please, please !

- There we go baby, was it so difficult, uh ?”

When you slipped your hand in his boxer to touch him for real after having been deprived from the skin to skin contact for such a long time made him cry out so loud you had to shut him up with your fingers again, fearing that someone would hear him.

“- You want everyone to hear you, is that it ? Screaming like the slut you are because you love the attention ?”

Beomgyu tried to protest, tried to say that he only wanted to be good for you, that he made all these noises because he knew you loved it when he was loud, but the pleasure was already overtaking his body and all his senses. The rush of adrenaline this situation was giving him made him feel so overwhelmed he felt like he could cum right now. He grabbed the only thing he could reach -  the fabric of your dress - to catch your attention, his muffled noises giving away how close he was to his release. 

“- What is it baby ? You’re close already ?”

You chuckled when he vigorously nodded his head, closing his eyes to focus on him and trying to delay his orgasm because you hadn’t given him permission to cum.

“- I’ll let you cum then, but on one condition baby. You’re gonna stain your pretty pants with your cum, and then we’re gonna leave. And if you follow my rules for once, I’ll reward you once we get home. Did you understand ?”

He nodded once again, his hips jerking into your hand as if they had a mind on their own. 

“- Then go on baby, cum all over yourself, be my good boy.”

The last praise that you whispered in his ear did it for him. He came all over your hand and himself, a wet patch quickly forming on his blue jeans as he whined around your fingers, his own hands tugging on the material of your dress to pull you closer to him. Before he could even register what you were doing, you showed him your hand covered in his cum, and Beomgyu didn’t need you to ask him before he started cleaning you off, eating his own release from your skin. Once you were satisfied, you finally detached his hands, letting him pull you into a hug and bury his head against your stomach while you threaded your fingers through his hair. 

“- You did so good for me baby, such a good boy.”

He hummed in agreement, his hands sliding from your lower back to your ass, giving them a squeeze. 

“- Does this mean I earned my reward ?

- Don’t get too confident now, you still have to make it up to me for ruining my night out with my friends.”

And Beomgyu agreed with you, because that meant he would spend the next two hours with his head buried between your thighs - his favorite way to apologize.

-> i don't allow any copies, translations or reposts of my works.

txt taglist (fill in this to be added) :

@bbgnyx @hann1bee @iraisswiftie @lichyuu @foxinnie8

[streets-in-paradise]

The Real Deal - Matt Murdock x Witch!Reader

Warnings: I haven't wrote for Daredevil in a long while, so forgive me if i have mistaken details of the show.

Summary: You want to help your lawyers in their most challenging case, but the controversial nature of your skills leaves it up to question.

Tags: @chezagnes

Matt and Foggy meet you as one of their early clients and, in their perspective, you were a simple fortune teller unfortunately caught in a legal issue. Your case was so absurd that it represented easy work for them. Even in the strange times they were living in, it still made no sense. A matter of police profiling through the mass hysteria in the post Loki New York making you suspicious for carrying symbols of norse witchcraft. Runic readings weren't the only service you offered and your practices weren't culturally límited to what then started to be considered an asgardian danger. However, society was still adapting to the discovering and the clueless officers couldn't tell the difference between an asgardian sorceress and the neighborhood's witch. Your lawyers realized of that, and the instant fondness of you that at least half of the firm developed closed the deal for you to get out of trouble.

Unlike most of their clientele, you were managing to pay them in cash. Slow, but consistent payments that also worked as a way to stay in touch. Despite they were highly skeptical of your activity, they did appreciate their owned share of its product. Catholic belief wasn't an obstacle for Matt's flirting and his friend would never miss the chance to tease him for that when you were arround. That precise combination of factors made you be always welcome, but with each visit you noticed they were struggling deeper than just financtially.

They got in serious trouble attempting to legally save the neighborhood from gentrification taking down the lead of the dirty business surrounding it. Even their secretary was involved in the investigation, huge deal that made you feel quite concerned for all of them.

You were relatively new in the city, but that didn't mean you weren't inclined to help. The chain reaction would screw everyone over, except for the top rich.

You weren't an asgardian terrorist, but neither the easy to underestimate facade associated with your business. To some of your clients, the ones coming for meaningless issues or unethical things, you would ocassionally sell advice disguised of bullshit.However, you were a real witch performing unmistakeable results for causes that justified it.

Overhearing the plotting of your favorite lawyers, you found one that was worth all your efforts.

" Let me help you out with Fisk." You interrupted them instead of awaiting for Karen to take your payment. " … A full name, birth date and a personal object is all I need, for a start. "

Foggy couldn't believe what you had just proposed, taking it as absolute nonsense.

" Not in the mood for jokes, Princess Opal. We have a serious situation here, but we will call you to join the search if someone goes missing. "

You didn't let the demeaning comment bring you down, it was exactly what you expected of him.

" Believe it or not, I am a worker of justice just like you." You corrected him ríght away. " When your system fails, some people come to me hoping to rush the action of karma. Others want me to give them the hope in justice that their practicers can't provide. Do you have any idea of how many clients i get that are currently in legal battles, but don't trust the courts to give them what they need for the sake of it? How much work with justice i get demmanded? It's insane! Regardless of what you believe about it, you can't deny it says something. "

Matt was very silent, untill the tease got him snarky.

" We are working to make things better, I hope you will not resent us for winning that hope back. "

You smiled, already struggling to resist his charm. Despite he obviously couldn't see it, you could swear he noticed the effect he had in you.

" On the contrary, I admire you. I know of the kind of hard time you get when trying to do the ríght thing." You admitted, not realizing you were already toying with the tips of your hair. " When an obsessive weirdo comes asking me to magically force someone to love them, or to curse a coworker they envy, I sell them teraphy disguised with self satisfying witchy-sounding talk. Placebos, so they will get someting to come back for and not search for an unethical bastard that could either scam them worse or do the damage they want for the proper price. When worried parents bring a sick child, I do the real healing ritual for free and make up my costs doing readings or charging an asshole tax on the crazy ones. That's who I am, my concience makes me loose money, and i believe we are on the same page when it comes to business models. "

The comparison was strange, but it showed perfect understandment of their situation found in the weirdest of places.

" I was not aware there were ethics in witchcraft. "

" For you only, I'm willing to ignore my code. " You snarked back in a flirtatious tone. " Let me hex Fisk, show him something that would make him regret to mess with the neighborhood. "

Foggy was cautious of your slightly sinister expression at the end and started to think you trully believed in the power on your threat.

" Sounds like a mobster message, clearly not our style. "

" How would that work?" Karen interrupted him. " It won't kill anyone, ríght?"

Her friend stared at her in disbelief.

" You can't be serious. "

" Foggy, gods have fallen from the sky ... I say we let her give it a try. "

" Those were aliens, not gods. " Matt corrected. " I don't believe in curses, it comes with being a catholic. "

He did make you chuckle with that one.

" Well, hipocricy also comes with catholicism. "

" She got you … can't beat the allegations! " Foggy teased him ríght away. " Your fault for making us jump in defense of the beautifull savage for you to play missionary with. "

You both were left in evidence on a matter of seconds.

" Thanks, Foggy! It's the first lovely thing about me you have to say today."

He didn't intend to sound harsh, but he couldn't possibly understand you.

" Try to see things from my perspective: i feel like i'm being mocked. "

" If it eases your concience, the methods are mostly a facade. I'm the real deal, it runs in the blood. " You confessed, wondering if you would regret it later. " Mom thinks i got it from my father. I don't know, I never meet him and at this point i don't think I want to. Don't waste time asking me about that."

" Can you cast the honesty curse from ' Liar, Liar'? That would be really helpfull. " Foggy mocked you once more. " We seek to expose Fisk, get him in jail. Even if we could believe you, I don't see how your offer can be any usefull. "

At least you could say you got him Interested. Weirded, maybe, but attentive.

" I can curse his business. Mysterious incidents will keep happening and he will loose money. Of course, I believe the Devil is doing his part on that, but why not giving him some help? Fisk will be easier for you to legally take down if he has too many things to attend at once. A vigilante and the curse of a real witch should be enough to do the dirty work for you. One problem, he may attempt to solve, but who is going to warn him about me? Even if they would … Do you think he would believe it?"

The next objection came from Matt, but that didn't surprise you as it should.

" Well, for a start we don't work with vigilantes."

" Too late, i think he is working with you." You snarked back. " Sounds like a good plan to me. After all, your church believes witches are the devil's consorts, ríght?"

In that simple comment he obtained all the proof he needed to believe in your gifts, realization that stayed between him and you.

[hyperraduo22]

my dps roman empires

cuz i keep seeing those videos with my love mine all mine on my feed with consistently ugly-sob-inducing stories and roman empires so now i have this long list i wanna share

+ may include some little facts here and there for anyone new in the fandom

• anderperry’s entire relationship and dynamic

literally no explanation needed on why it’s the top of the list and the first thing i wrote down

the whole hourglass and icarus x the sun dynamics makes me sob every time without fail

someone rewrite the script so they have a happy ending please

also me: wym they already do?? they got married and went to new york??????

• charlie and neil :(((

• thinking about charlie’s experience and dealing with grief post-expulsion

• todd’s entire character

bro makes my quiet x anxious kid heart go brrr

like just thinking about the little implications of his behavior and what’s said about his brother in the script makes me wanna cry and scream and throw a tantrum

he really represents the epitome of all quiet shy kids out there and i really appreciate it

• dead poet’s society but from cameron’s perspective

i understand y’all wanting to punch and yell at him and show no forgiveness but i also think you should give a bit of sympathy for this kid

he doesn’t know any better just like charlie or any of the other poets

damn this movie does a great job of showing reality and the fact that there’s no real enemies

• dead poet’s society but from pitts’s perspective 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

like i’d pay to see this honestly

• pitts’s screen time :((((

my underrated boy :(((((

• pitts and cameron’s dynamic

i KNOW we see these two talking in the background and seeing him make cameron laugh and smile the most compared to everyone else

like??? i wanna see more?????

cameron being outwardly comfortable around someone finally???

• the fact that all the movie's events ensued as they’re all high schoolers

like idk if there’s a canonical age for any of them but whether they’re juniors or seniors the trauma is still the same

• the thoughts of the kids who stood up on their desks at the end of the movie

how are they dealing with keating being away now? how do they view life in general?? did they really appreciate keatings class???? would they join the dps if they had the chance???????

• hopkins’s portrayal

its kind of a 50/50 since bro barely has screen time, yet i see his character oftentimes being portrayed as the class asshole

i think it’s clear that him and his friends commit tomfoolery and are overall jerks but to think that he’s the more sensible, level-headed guy makes a lot of sense to me—kinda similar to charlie in a way

like he knows limits and when to not push them even if he doesn’t come off that way. all bro does is chill in class and stare off into the windows daydreaming (as shown in the whole ripping out the poetry intro scene). bro doesn’t wanna be there. he’s just chilling and honestly same💀

• spencer’s actual treatment in the movie

ik we love this man, and our headcanons (or at least what i’ve seen and my own for the most part) say that people treat him well but low key everyone be on his shit

like it brings up the question of whether or not this is considered bullying cause any scene i see he’s either blatantly shoved around or even the guys around him purposely steal his medicine and pass it around so he can’t have it (including stick participating in this)-

like i think there’s some limits to being a jerk and idk how spencer really feels throughout the movie cuz he’s a background character :////

• HANDSOME ASS BACKGROUND CHARACTERS AND THEIR SCREEN TIMES = UNFAIR! CRIMINAL !!!!!

• the fact that ginny’s character just gets completely cutout. like she has a few lines to begin with and then the movie comes out and she ends up being a non-speaking extra in the play like i’m- what happened???

• tina and gloria / girl characters portrayed in dps in general

let me explain cuz i love them but also feel bad for their characters

like low key they’re just used as experiments for the cave (implied by charlie in a deleted scene that wasn’t recovered although i think this part is in the original script as well if i remember correctly)

although he brings them back a second time in a deleted scene where they’re all dancing around outside of the cave on the night of the play only for him to make out with one of them in another deleted scene that wasn’t recovered… (( this was revealed in an old interview on someone working behind the scenes btw ))

so like i kinda feel bad for them. like y’all just there for show but i wish you had more lines and other purposes besides possibly not passing a bechdel test ://////

^ lowkey this same concept is kinda seen with chris’s character too. like all she’s there for is a romantic interest for knox. like cmon now she’s one of the main female characters and THIS is what she gets. i wanna know more about my girl chris!!!!

and i kind of understand why it’s set up this way since y’know it’s an all male boarding school in the 1950s—how do you fit female characters in and how are they viewed? it’s not the greatest setup of all time

• ANDERPERRY DELETED SCENE ON THE DOCK NOT MAKING IT INTO THE FILM LIKE OUT OF ALL DELETED SCENES THAT ONE IS THE REALLY IMPORTANT ONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

• the deleted scene of the poets carrying neil’s coffin 🚶‍♂️

like goodbye. doors closed. tears shed.

kinda glad it’s not in the movie cuz i would’ve sobbed uncontrollably even more than neil’s death

• todd’s poem

another deleted scene that really rearranges my internal organs

the fact that him reading this poem was supposed to be in tandem/include shots with neil’s death-

why do the writers want us to cry rivers?????

BUT ALSO ITS FUNNY ASF IF YALL WATCH THIS DELETED SCENE WHEN TODD IS TELLING THEM WHAT TO REPEAT BETWEEN VERSES, ONE OF THE POETS GOES “what??🤨”

I’M SORRY TODD IK YOURE TRYING BUT THAT LITTLE AIRHEADED ASS “what?” IS SO FUNNY TO ME

• the fact that in the very first version of the script, keating was supposed to have cancer

I FORGOT ABOUT THIS UNTIL LAST MINUTE

LIKE Y’ALL ADMITTED THAT YOU WANTED TO HAVE A SCENE OF KEATING DYING IN A HOSPITAL AND WERE PONDERING ON WHETHER HIS CHARACTER SHOULD HAVE A FATAL ILLNESS FOR THREE DAYS ?!?!?

thank god y’all made the right decision and rewrote the script to take that out

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

What are some major differences that you've noticed between the Japanese and international TWST fandoms in regards to characters they like? Why do you think that's the case? (One I've noticed on the top of my head is Trey being more popular in Japan while he's completely written off as a "big brother" character in the west.)

The main differences in character popularity that I’ve noticed (or at least the most immediate ones I think of) are that Trey is much more popular in Japan than he is internationally and that Malleus is much more popular internationally than he is in Japan.

I think a lot of trends in character popularity (including the cases of Trey and Malleus) can be attributed to differences in demographics and culture. (Please note that everything I say in this post are vast generalizations which are NOT representative of every individual, nor each group.)

To begin with, the JP audience is predominantly older/working women, whereas the EN audience is skewed younger (adolescents and young adults). This age shift between the parts of the fandom can have an impact on general tastes in characters.

I genuinely think a large part of the reason for Malleus’s popularity overseas (and especially in the west, more specifically America) is because he happens to be designed and written in a way that appeals to the demographic of players there (ie younger people). A lot of the media marketed towards adolescents and young adults in the west often involves edgy/dark, brooding protagonists or love interests (bonus points if they’re also some kind of supernatural being). These are your Twilights, your A Court of Thorns and Roses, etc. It’s what people are used to as a trend in western media, and it is what is sold as “desirable” or as “the fantasy” to young, impressionable minds—and it keeps happening because it has proven to be effective. Then here comes Malleus, who is so very close to what many young fans are already familiar with and may already enjoy the tropes of. It just naturally falls into place.

Now, Japan also has a lot of media featuring angsty characters and supernatural beings. A lot of your typical isekai shows and manga/light novels come to mind lookin’ at you, Kirito from SAO. So why is it that Malleus is not as popular in his country of origin than he is overseas?? Well, I’d probably (once again) chalk it up to demographics. The wish fulfillment fantasies featuring edgy characters are primarily aimed at a juvenile/teenage audience, and, as I’ve previously mentioned, this is not the case for TWST’s audience in Japan. It’s mainly older women, and because of their maturity and life experiences, they may be more likely to appreciate subdued/subtle characters that the younger international fans would maybe deem “boring” (like Trey).

I think another reason for Malleus’s popularity, particularly in the west, is because he actively notices Yuu compared to the other characters. A majority of the things that happen in TWST can occur without Yuu really being there; however, because Malleus’s friendship with Yuu is consistently mentioned throughout the course of the main story, it actually lends weight and importance to Yuu’s presence. This aligns with “main character” culture in the west, which emphasizes “standing out” and the protagonist playing an active role in the story rather than being sidelined. I don’t think the “main character” culture is as prominent in Japan as it is overseas because Japan values collectivism over individualism. (This is even reflected in many Yuusonas of Japanese creators not having super fleshed out profiles/backstories, or the designs being more lowkey.) Therefore, Malleus would lose some of the appeal he gets from actually acknowledging Yuu.

Again, I want to stress that these are just my best guesses to explain character popularity discrepancies. These generalizations are not representative of everyone, nor are they entirely accurate.

[decaffeinatedparadisemaker]

2022 Year in Review

 Tagged by @kitausuret hiiiii kita <3

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 8, 2 of which are in-progress

2. Word count this year: 81,374

3. Fandoms I wrote for: MCU, Spider-Man (comics, Webb, Raimi), Spider-Gwen

4. Pairings: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Peter Parker/Gwen Stacy, Peter Parker/Michelle Jones, Michelle Jones/Gwen Stacy, Jian Mei/Peter Parker

5. Stories with the most...  Kudos: Long Road Home - 24 Bookmarks: Long Road Home - 3 Comment Threads: Long Road Home - 15 Complicate Me, Elevate Me (Symbiot3) - 8 Word Count: Long Road Home - 38,375

6. Work I'm most proud of... Amazing Jian Mei, hands down, no contest. I have never seen any take on a Chinese MJ Watson, or an Asian MJ Watson outside of Meera Jain, who hasn’t had a lot of page time and has had zero screen time (a travesty). So, I rolled up my sleeves and tackled it myself, and I’m doing my absolute best to represent Chinese and Asian culture and traditions and everything and still make her MJ Watson, and y’know what? I kinda like what I’ve done. And her story is just beginning! Please please please I am begging you please read it and comment and recomm to others; I really really really want more people to understand appreciate Chinese culture outside of the usual food

7. Work I'm least proud of: Probably Unfamiliar & Unknown, but only because I’m stuck tbh hahaha

8. A favorite review I received: Honestly, anytime I see a comment on Amazing Jian Mei I die of love, but if I had to pick a few (no way can I just pick one):

@weoffendedshadows ‘s comment on Chapter 1:

As promised - there is something amazing about seeing a character whom I have built up an image in my mind, of how they look, act, and just generally exist, and then is challenged so thoroughly and deeply that i can't help but look and see the same character in a new light. This is MJ, the same one I've been reading for years now, and I am loving how that same personality shows up here.

I also love the importance of culture within this story, how MJ struggles with the new world she finds herself in, while holding onto what is herself. I'm looking forward to seeing Peter here.

- Honestly after I had posted the first chapter I was so petrified that people would hate the idea of a Chinese MJ Watson, and to see this comment gave me so much encouragement and justified my decision to put this out. Because writing AJM isn’t pulled out from nowhere; I’m ethnically Chinese myself, and almost everything culture-specific is something I either experienced myself or something that I personally know has.

Em jeet ‘s comment on Chapter 6:

Oooh MJ got a lil spicy in this chapter! I adore the way you write her btw. She’s so perfectly wonderfully in character while also being Chinese. Idk, it’s just nice to see you let her be both, because some people can only manage one or the other.

Good lord, but the tension building (in her head) between her and Peter is fantastic. I hope to get a confession— Spider-Man or otherwise— at some point

- Em has been one of my more consistent commentators, but if I had to pick one this is it. The balance between being Chinese and being recognizably MJ Watson is, well, something I had dearly hoped I hit, and to see someone recognize my efforts? No words

@kitausuret ‘s comment on Chapter 7:

WHEW finally I made it to the last of the updates!

Oh! I forgot to mention earlier I think it's interesting that Liz is a journalist in your universe! I wonder if she's ever worked with Betty, or Robbie, or anyone kind of adjacent to the Bugle fam like Ben Urich. Fascinating stuff!

I like the conversation between May and Mei, it's so good. May knowing Peter's secret identity is also kind of a neat development here, but at least it sounds like here she didn't discover her nephew was Spider-Man because he was collapsed half-dead in her home. Little things~!

Aaaaaand of course, gotta love that little bit of tension between Peter and Mei. It's fate. ;)

Oh, one more thing: what inspired you to have Mei pursue medicine, out of curiosity? I really liked in 616 how MJ started pursuing a psychology degree so that's what I immediately thought of, but I love learning where people pull inspiration from. 💖

- @kitausuret is completely unhinged because of Mei, but this comment dug deeply to me, because she picked up something so important - the medicine thing, which is an important cultural discussion. I am so, so, so glad she picked up on how important this was to me <3

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: It generally is hard because I think the fandom is dry right now, but two periods in particular tested me: the first is right now with regard specifically to Unfamiliar and Unknown, simply because I find writing a Far From Home adaptation Very Hard. The second was when I was writing that certain scene in Chapter 3 of Amazing Jian Mei - you’ll understand what scene I refer to if/when you read it (although I will not judge you if you wish to skip it), but I literally cried while writing it and was crying myself to sleep that night.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: Hmm not sure. I’ll have to think about this one.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing: I’m not sure I can call it my absolute favorite, but this scene from Chapter 1 of Amazing Jian Mei is definitely up there:

Mei blinked and focused on the screen, where, truth be told, she had the fewest requests from Rainbow’s list of models. Part of it was undoubtedly because she was new, but… “I do not understand what that has to do with my name.”

Andy grimaced, looking visibly uncomfortable. “Mei, in my years working, I’ve noticed that models with more, uh, Western names, tend to get more bookings. It’s why I changed my stage name myself; my real surname is Karim. I’m an American citizen, was born and raised here, and Andrew Joseph are my real given names, but for a while it was difficult for me to find bookings with an Arabic surname, so I picked O’Conner from a phone book. In the same way, Jian Mei is an obviously Chinese name, so…” he spread his hands helplessly. “I don’t like it either, Mei, but it’s an option I recommend.”

Mei nodded. “Dawn told me something similar, but she only said it was because she was tired of people mispronouncing her name.”

Andy nodded. “She chose Dawn from her surname.”

Mei raised both eyebrows. The surname 萧 had absolutely nothing to do with the word “dawn”, but thinking about it, she realized that the almost identically-pronounced 晓 (minus the vastly different intonation, which any Chinese speaker would immediately pinpoint, but which most non-speakers would probably hardly notice) translated to Dawn. So… “What if I make a stage name similar to mine?”

Andy nodded. “Most non-speakers would butcher your name into Jane May, which is a start.”

Mei thought about it. “Is that a good name?”

Andy rubbed his chin in thought. “It’s just, they’re both first names, and they’re not so catchy.”

“How about May first? It is the correct pronunciation of my real name anyway.”

“Hmm,” Andy was visibly perking up, and looking intensely at Mei (which gaze, however, she didn’t mind; unlike the other gazes she was used to, Andy’s was pure thought and focus and creativity). “May Jane, May Jane. It’s still a little softer than I’m used to, but-ah!” A snap of the fingers. “How do you feel about Mary?”

Mei thought about it. “Mary Jane is not so far from May Jane.”

“Mary Jane, Mary Jane, yes, I can see it.” Then she saw Andy realize something, as his shoulders slumped and his eyes defocused. “But that can’t be just it, because Mary Jane can also be slang for marijuana, and we don’t want your stage name to be immediately associated with, well, that.”

Mei sat back and pursed her lips. “How about if we add something to Mary Jane?”

Andy’s eyes refocused on her face. “Like a third name? Something Western? Yes, yes, that could work. Do you like anything?”

Mei slumped. This was hard; she didn’t know that many Western surnames that she liked. Chewing her lip, she looked around Andy’s office for inspiration, and finding none, thought about the contents of her bag-ah.

Mei smiled, and Andy immediately noticed.

“What is it?”

She reached into her bag, pulled out the book she had bought the previous week, and showed it to Andy, who tilted his head to one side in puzzlement. “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Mary Jane Holmes?”

Still smiling, Mei shook her head. “I was actually thinking of Dr. Watson.”

Andy’s eyes lit up in excitement. “Yes, yes, yes, it’s excellent. Excellent! A good addition to our team.” Rapidly, Andy snatched back his laptop and started typing furiously, then hit the enter key and leaned back. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the newest model of Rainbow International, miss Mary Jane Watson.”

Letting a grin spread across her face to match the one on Andy’s, and feeling a surge of confidence and adventurousness, Mei stood up and reached a hand across the table. “You can also call me MJ.”

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: I started writing. I have never written anything before, except for the usual creative writing classes way back in high school and college, which were all more than a decade in the past.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: If I can continue bringing Mei to the page that’ll be the greatest thing ever.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year: Too many to mention. Uhh. @seek--rest of course, @promiseofthepremise, @jenniboo311, @pepperminttegan @kitausuret @dyde21 @evil-pony @mysterycyclone @anarchyduck @inkpenparker @weezly14 @demigod-of-the-agni GOD I AM FORGETTING SOMEONE I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY PLEASE LMK I WILL ADD YOU HERE I’M SORRY

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year: Like I said. Everything culture-specific in Amazing Jian Mei either came from my personal experience, or from something experienced by someone I personally know

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Just write. I know how scary it is. But I promise you, there will be that one person who reads it and loves it and tells you that they love it, and you’ll fall in love.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: I’m looking forward to continuing Amazing Jian Mei (not sure so much about finishing, but definitely continuing). Plus another couple ideas marinating.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read: I think everyone I tagged has already answered this but again if I forgot to tag you as a positive influence please don’t pitchfork me I am sorry again

And before I forget:

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BELOVED @seek--rest !!!!!

[shadowetienne]

Etienne’s Top Fives of 2022: Kpop Edition - Soloists

Moving on to my next post in my top fives! In general, I’m not as in to soloists as I am groups just as a rule. One of my favorite things in music is use of harmony and voices working together, and that’s just something that groups are better suited to than soloists (and why a lot of my favorite songs of soloists are ones where they feature someone). That being said, the solists that I am into, I tend to be very into.

The category of soloists is going to consist of people who are (at least these days) purely soloists, and any members of a group where either their group did not have a body of work as a group this year or I only enjoy them as a soloist and not as part of the group. Someone who is debuting as a soloist but has previously been active in a group doesn’t count as a rookie for me, so all my soloists are in this list.

The list with representative MVs is under the cut!

Here’s a shoutout to the soloists that made my preliminary lists, but didn’t make it to the top five list (in approximately the order that I ran into their music this year): Woodz (”I Hate You”), Yein (“Plus N Minus”), Lee Sujeong (“My Name”), and Choi Suhwan (“Chance”).

5) Ryeowook

Ryeowook’s mini album, including “Hiding Words” (above) and “Bluebird” (https://youtu.be/fDIi1XFUWMs) was an amazing showcase of his voice. While he still participates in Super Junior comebacks as they happen, I pretty much only follow his solo career of the still active Super Junior members. His voice is beautiful and really captures his preferred genre’s emotions so well. I do appreciate the sort of magical realism of the MV for “Bluebird” though, and dithered over which one to pick as the representative song. In the end, “Hiding Words” is my favorite for how incredible his vocals are here.

4) Ryu Sujeong

I am so excited for a few of my Lovelyz biases to be starting to release solo music post Lovelyz that I actively like! Yein is in my honorable mentions above (as is Lee Sujeong who wasn’t one of my Lovelyz biases but had an excellent song anyhow), but Ryu Sujeong’s “Pink Moon” (above) was definitely my favorite solo release from a Lovelyz member post leaving Woolim. It really showcases the versatility of her voice and a direction that her style could be going as a soloist. Definitely looking forward to what she does next!

3) Lee Chaeyeon

I was so excited for Chaeyeon to finally have her solo debut! While I’d been hoping for her to eventually re-debut in a group post Iz*one because I feel like she really thrives in a well balanced group environment, I’m pretty happy with this album and MV. I was able to listen through to the album several times after it released and found it enjoyable and noticed new things each time. I love her voice, I think that the overall concepts present in the album and MV suited her, and most of all, I was relieved she was doing things again. Many of the songs off the album went on various of my playlists, and I do come back and listen to a lot of them just to listen to that song. I think that “Danny” (https://youtu.be/GOP_bBJ1pOo) also deserves a special mention here for having incredible storytelling based choreography that really captures my interest to go along with an awesome song.

2) Chungha

Chungha’s “Sparkling” really did a good job of showing off her voice and is yet another song and MV in her growing list that show off how versatile as a dancer and vocalist she is. She’s got such a nice voice, and this release is catchy. She’s such an amazing performer, and as I always, her releases make me want to see what she will do next along with really appreciating her current work.

1) Changmin

A thing that a lot of incredible vocalists in Kpop don’t have yet is vocal maturity, and Changmin’s “Devil” is really showing off just how complex and interesting Kpop gets when you have vocalists into their thirties who are really getting into the strength and maturity and richness of their voices. Very few vocalists in their teens and early twenties could execute this even a fraction as well, Changmin couldn’t have executed this even remotely this well in the early stages of his career, and I’m glad that he’s stuck around long enough to give us this incredible song. His voice is so rich, and he’s exploring new styles to him that showcase that. I am really hoping that we keep getting incredible solos from him that showcase that vocal maturity and richness.

While I’m not generally as into soloists as I am into groups, feel free to recommend things to me! I’m sure that I’ve missed people that I would really enjoy.

[observeroflaplace]

Now you may have noticed, but my submissions have been to Ao3 this year; which have been mostly easier to edit and submit. Mostly. I do appreciate a lot of the in built systems there so expect most of my stuff going forward to go there.

Still, this has been once again very fun! I did lose steam after 25, long before I realised, but it’s still a good exercise.

Now for the fun part.

The highlights of the challenge for me.

“Horizon” just plays into some visuals. The open sky during an apparent day contrasted with the reality of a distance sunset. However, I show Izayoi “failing” at first, and revealing a success through a hidden plan from the start. Also, “measured and proportionate response”

“Third-Rate” ”Reticent”, and “Cloud Nine” somewhat act as a trio, with Cloud Nine explicitly following up the present day part of “Third-Rate”. “Third-Rate” is especially important to me, as this character has really been inspiring to play in roleplay on Light lately, and this expands on some very traumatic background themes which lurk behind a character initially conceived as “a more down to Earth and approachable Izayoi”. The warning tags are mostly to be safe, but it also contains my hardest hitting internal monologue.

”Stamp” is worth a mention as it explicitly ties into a piece by Koi, as an in-character reply to that. This is one of many pieces this year that I’ve written in a Mielikki-WoL continuity, with Izayoi here having been coincidentally requested by Koana prior to Mia being sought out by Wuk-Lamat; and here I play a little with some Urianger-adjacent vibes of having promised to be open and not lie to those few Izayoi genuinely holds dear, only to be expected to anyway and it tearing her apart. Don’t worry though, she makes her frustrations towards her current employer very known in “Morsel”, which might just be the funniest thing I’ve written all month.

”Telling” acts as another example of “Izayoi uses an apparent defeat as a ploy” and also “means entirely divorced from raw strength to succeed”. Granted, “not-Bonharve” gets his ass beaten, but as he says, that wouldn’t help their case. What did, happened before that. My tongue in cheek nickname for the villain comes from him being inspired by an antagonist from an rp plot which didn’t quite take off.

As per my usual trend of avoiding the actual word itself (where I can), “Hackneyed” proved especially difficult for me as I didn’t know what, in-universe, had lost its appeal. So instead I went for light-hearted meta commentary about observations in roleplay in the LRC.

“Stable” was the result of some MAJOR “future child” brainrot, as well as wanting to write about one of the possible “bad timelines” we know about. Very Future Trunks/Silver the Hedgehog. After a lengthly discussion with Koi about details, this is what I came up with. Since this is the Black Rose timeline, some details are different from Koi’s own piece about this character later. I don’t name drop him here, ironically for future-proofing. Stable refers to the unstable device/temporal travel, but also to emotionally ground himself for a moment.

Length alone should tell you that I had fun with “Duel” - which I notice was also one of last year’s prompts. The challenge here was figuring out a way to write Izayoi’s ancestor working against a vastly stronger foe and impressing her (for consistency with some rp backstory things), without all of Izayoi’s tricks for a true “anyone could beat you this way” win. But it also let me write some direct power mixed in to represent the unrefined form of this character motivation from the ancestor, as well as toy with aesthetics, ability, and personality more or less from scratch.

Last but not least, “Perpetuity” gets a mention for letting me experiment with intentional repetition for dramatic effect. I hope it feels just as spooky when they layers come apart as intended.

I'd love to see a follow-up after the event is over of people sharing their favorite piece from the event. We just wrote for thirty days! What are we proudest of making?

YES, I love this idea! Now that the challenge's 24-hour deadlines are officially closed:

Writers, what were your proudest moments in FFxivWrite this year?

[wreckclan]

Moon 2 - Willowchest and Rimepaw

Rimepaw has been apprenticed to Willowchest.

Willowchest knows that Stormstar and Puddledawn had wanted to mentor Rimepaw at first, and Stormstar was especially insistent that he get his first apprentice (yet another reason why Stormstar’s leadership is so unusual). And to prevent any further argument between her leader and deputy, Willowchest had swooped in at the last second and, being the big hero she is, dramatically declared that she will be Rimepaw’s mentor!

And then left without giving either of them the chance to argue.

Well, it’s nice to know that at least someone can appreciate her theatrics.

Now Willowchest is asking herself what she was thinking as she takes Rimepaw out to gather moss, and the younger molly’s paws are stamping against the ground as she reluctantly follows her. “But can’t we do something more…I don’t know, exciting?” Rimepaw asks, her tail drooping low. “Like practicing hunting and seeing who can catch the most amount of prey before the sun sets! Or beating each other up–without claws, of course. Or putting a thorn in Baysplash’s nest. Or collecting bugs! Why gathering moss?”

“First of all, I already thorned Baysplash’s nest a few days ago,” Willowchest says. “Second of all, I think you’ve already got enough dead bugs in your nest. Third of all, this will really help if you do it consistently. I mean, I get it, I get it, gathering moss isn’t the most exhilarating thing to do in the world but does everything have to be? This is only moss-tly harmless, after all.”

Rimepaw flicks some dirt onto Willowchest’s snout.

“Okay,” Willowchest coughs. “Not my best, I’ll admit. But I promise that gathering moss is going to help build up some strong muscles and make you the best warrior that you can–hey, where’re you going? You know, if you fail to gather all the moss all of it is just going to clump together and create the Mossster! You don’t want any Mosssters lurking around in our beaches, do you?”

Huh. Did the Mossster only ever work on me?

No matter what Willowchest does, however, she can’t quite get Rimepaw to take it seriously. And by the next morning after Rimepaw’s received a thorough scolding from Puddledawn, Willowchest finds her waiting by the fresh-kill pile. Willowchest approaches Rimepaw again, raising her chin slightly. “Alright, well, I hope that you’re ready to learn again today, otherwise Stormstar might just put both of us on moss duty for the next moon. And trust me, you don’t want to hear what either Puddledawn or Baysplash would have to say about that–stuff of nightmares, you hear me?”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Rimepaw asks, tilting her head.

“That depends, do you consider smug looks and condescending mews ‘that bad?’” Willowchest retorts, lashing her tail. “Nobody likes a stuffynose, alright? They fill your ears with dust and make you sneeze on it.”

“What?”

“Now come on,” Willowchest says. She sighs, and lowers her voice this time. “Look, we can do something more exciting this time, okay? I’ll even let you catch the biggest, fattest fish in the ocean…so long as you don’t challenge me. Then I’d catch something even bigger, but when has a little competition ever hurt anyone? But–no, I should focus on teaching you. So…can we at least try to work together today? So we can both learn things from each other.”

Plus, she’d look ridiculous if that whole dramatic mini speech she made to Stormstar about being ‘the best possible mentor for Rimepaw’ would go to waste.

Still, what she said is enough to make Rimepaw nod her head tentatively, her blue eyes deepening with contemplation. “Alright,” Rimepaw finally says. “I’ll try harder this time. Sorry, about, uh…yesterday. I just thought I’d do something more–”

“–Dramatic?” Willowchest purrs. “Totally representative of all your future potential at once? Yeah, I get it. But let’s just start with small bites at that fish for now, okay? I’ll teach you how to hunt and use your claws and teeth for things other than nagging at other cats–which is also a very useful skill!–and then we can hold all the hunting competitions we want. I can’t promise that you’ll win many of them, though.”

“Okay, I get it,” Rimepaw says, her voice hardening–not out of hostility, but out of eagerness. “Fine! Show me how to fish then and I’ll catch anything better than you can!”

Well, that’s done it.

As Willowchest and Rimepaw playfully bicker with each other on their way out of camp, Willowchest starts feeling a little better about her impulsive decision to mentor Rimepaw. She can see all the potential in her now.

[inkedtae]

Hi!! I really appreciate your personal experience and explanation as to why you write ‘curvy’ reader insert fics.

I always thought it was interesting when I saw a surge of writers using that specific word bc even larger people have different body shapes. Even as a plus sized person, I’d never consider myself as curvy… bc I’m more round than anything else. So especially in smut fics where they’ll be an emphasis on certain parts of the body is quite triggering for me. Many fics have large, voluptuous hips, breasts and butt as being the most desirable. And well, if you don’t fit into any of those descriptions you can’t help but to wonder if anyone would want you in that way.

Obviously everyone has different beauty standards which are valid!! I think it’s super important to engage in media that makes you feel comfortable and worthy of love and friendships. If they don’t exist there is no harm in creating that media for yourself. Bc who knows there might be at least one person who feels the same way. There are many reasons why writers choose to write their oc’s a certain way and all of them are valid!! ☺️💜

Hi!! I totally agree with you and I feel like I should explain why I use that specific word when describing a plus size reader before every fic. I also want to make it clear once again that this is not to bash anyone for what they write. This is my personal opinion.

When I began posting fics about two or three years ago, I was not as confident in myself and my body as I am now. I wasn’t as hateful towards myself as I was when I was a teenager but I still had a long way of self love to work towards. At the time, ‘curvy’ is the word that, to be frank, triggered me the least. When I would read plus size reader fics on Tumblr before, it was usually written by slimmer authors (and you can always tell based on the content—if you know you know) who described the reader as “chubby” which was their way of reassuring us that we are not fat, just “chubby” as if being either one is a bad thing but I digress. I did not like that descriptive word and the message I interpreted from it so I used ‘curvy’ for my own fics.

Now, based on what you pointed out about different body types, it can be argued that ‘curvy’ is also not the best word to use and I would agree with you on that. I have been thinking about changing it for a while but I like consistency and don’t have the time to go through all my fics to make that edit. I also am not sure what word I would replace it with as I personally don’t like ‘plus sized’ or ‘big’ either. And I don’t want to trigger anyone as well because as someone who is plus sized, I know how much damage words can do to the self esteem.

Anyway I hope that, despite the wording of ‘curvy’, you are still able to relate to the content of my fics and find yourself represented. Thanks for your ask!! ☺️🌷

[tahri-nhupuju]

I gotta say, I did not expect this particular post to get so much attention, nor so many replies. I guess saying that Gridania is an Ascian plot is less controversial than saying Emet-Selch is kinda mean!

(That's a joke, I do genuinely appreciate all of the replies and this is far from an Emet-Selch hate blog)

I want to add that I love Emet-Selch as a character, and maybe calling him "uniquely nasty" ended up sounding like far more of a condemnation than I intended.

I see a lot of people bringing up the unimaginable amounts of trauma that Emet-Selch has vis-a-vis the sundering and the sundered, and how that colours his view of them, and I'm not denying that, or trying to paint him like some kind of mega-hitler inherently predisposed to hating "non-humans" (even if -let's be real- he did found at least two genocidal totalitarian empires), I was just musing about how interesting it is that Emet-Selch's justification for his actions (That every "real human" would be disturbed by what has happened) is sort of debunked by the Speaker and Emissary of said "real humans", the representatives of their entire culture in a way, not only don't share his views, but indirectly condemn his (and their own) actions.

Especially since it pairs so well with one of his other major pieces of "pro-rejoining" propaganda: him returning Y'shtola from the aetherial sea and blithely playing off what he did like it was no big deal by the standards of his people, and that he's a little disappointed we're so awed by it, when we later find out that Emet-Selch was in fact The Guy In Charge Of Doing That Kind Of Thing, chosen for his prodigal skills at Doing That Kind Of Thing.

It blurs the line between what's The Truth, what's Emet-Selch's Rose-Tinted Glasses, and what's Emet-Selch Just Straight Up Lying to the WoL to try and convince them to join him.

This turned into a massive tangential ramble, but what I was trying to say is that I do think there's a reason that while Elidibus settled on "I am the hero trying to save the world and you are the villains, therefore everything I do is justified" and Lahabrea seemingly embraces his role as The Villain, complete with evil maniacal laughter and over-the-top evil monologues, Emet-Selch settles on "You are not even truly alive, therefore killing you isn't wrong" as his ultimate coping mechanism.

Like, yes, his mentions about consistently getting let down by the sundered explains his actions, and it's clear the death of his son hurt him deeply, but considering he was raising said son as heir apparent to the violent, expansionist,racist, revanchist, military dictatorship driven by war crimes and xenophobia that he himself built, maybe there's some deeper issues at hand, you know?

Again, I love Emet-Selch, he's an amazing character and one of my favourite villains of all time. I just feel like it's a missed opportunity not to examine whether the kind-of assholeish guy who 100% goes to bat for a deeply flawed and fucked-up society, and who -at least as far as I recall- defends said society the most, and is shown to take to extremely fucked-up measures (see aforementioned genocidal, slave-economy empires) to reach his goal, might actually be a little bit flawed.

It's interesting to me that despite being the only unsundered that doesn't appear, Pandaemonium actually does show us a bit about how uniquely nasty Emet-Selch is as a person.

Like, he has his whole spiel about how the sundered are not even human to him, and how all the unsundered would agree with him if they saw us.

But then a rejoined-with-Hephaistos, from-right-before-the-summinging-of-Zodiark Lahabrea sees the unsundered and goes "Oh, there are people here! Surely this means my plan succeeded and we saved the star!" Like he not only doesn't have any issues with the sundered, he just immediately accepts that they're people.

Likewise Elidibus and Erichtonios also don't seem to have any issues whatsoever accepting the sundered as people, but Lahabrea is the one who talks about/interacts with them the most.

When he finds out what he ends up doing to the sundered as an Ascian, he immediately accepts it, and describes what he does as monstrous, and pushes the point that it was the right thing to do to oppose and kill him.

And yes, sure, they all get tempered and go mad in various ways, but Emet-Selch is constantly shown as the most complete, the one who is the most like his old self. And while the Amaurotines are shown to have a fucked up relationship to non-human life, Emet-Selch is really the only one of the Unsundered shown to view the sundered as Not Human.

[talenlee]

The How To Be Covers of 2022

New Post has been published on PRESS.exe: The How To Be Covers of 2022

Once more we make our way to an end of a year, and I take an opportunity to reflect on my monthly How To Be articles. Or really, I show you all the covers again because I’m really proud of them, in part because they’re funny and in part because I worked hard on little details and you will appreciate them.

In January, I looked at the sprawling leviathan of media culture known as Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and how to create a character who had the vibe of a Jojo character, rather than trying to replicate single, specific characters in that space. What I think, the most, about this kind of article is that I’m not trying to replicate a character as much as I’m trying to replicate, like, the vibe of the advertising and promotional material.

In February, I looked at another Ranma 1/2 character and I am already thinking about the next time I visit that universe. It was Akane Tendo, the second most important character in a story full of big dumb idiots who fight things rather than talk to them. She’s a really cool character – I know, I know, it’s amazing to hear that, right? – but her whole vibe is just being the most normal thing in a world of weirdoes.

In March I looked at Zelgadis, a character made for a D&D game in a different generation and edition and cultural background. I had to look at how you could take a character like Zelgadis and reconstruct him in a different (also old) game system.

Uh, this was just a joke, like last year’s Sonic The Hedgehog cover.

Then in April, when I outed myself as a person who’s been playing Final Fantasy XIV, I did a special article to focus on a character that Kate loves a lot. Since Kate loves Minfilia, I thought I’d do a special article focusing on Minfilia, as a character, and that got to be a fun exercise in creating a character build to reflect a negative space. There’s nothing about Minfilia that exists, really – there’s almost no positive ‘Minfilia does this’ or ‘Minfilia does that’ but you can tell there’s some stuff Minfilia doesn’t do, and can’t do – so you have to create a character build that doesn’t violate that experience. Interesting article!

Then there was May, where I continued my quest to find a How To Be Article about a melee fire character who could actually use the fire support in the game. Weird. But this is another fight game character and opened the conversation around ways to do something that mixed fire and not magic melee combat. It was about Kyo Kusanagi!

Each June I ask Fox what she’d like to see, because I pick characters she likes in the month with her birthday. I also got to see some truly beautiful fanart of Sheik here, and that made it a perfect opportunity to do a piece on that character.

Huh, this was a fun chain of characters with heavily queer themes or from queer-media darling shows. I don’t think there was any reason to pick up Scorpia, but she was a fun, interesting character to build.

Oh man, remember how absolutely ridiculous things were around August? When Bridget Guiltygear was on everyone’s mind and there were all these high resolution pictures of her for the first time in years and also I was doing a theme of tricks and she did this whole thing with a like, yoyo and stuff.

Man.

Man.

August, man.

That was a time.

But okay, at this point the How To Be articles are all building around kind of a consistent core of a single, specific idea space. And like, 4th ed D&D is already pretty much an anime game, what with the way that people with swords can actually do things and the way healers can shout your arms back on, it’s great, I love it. Using it to represent anime characters and fight game characters is kind of just what the engine can do.

I had to branch out, I wanted to pick something that would leave people going ‘huh?’ or at least maybe trick Kilo into clicking the link. And that’s why I did one on Lalo Salamanca.

Much like the Jojo article, I made a Meguca article because I wanted something for looking at a larger variety of things in a more shallow way. There are a bunch of characters in this space who we see more in terms of their trauma than their problem solving, so this was more about ‘how do I make a character who can wear this vibe?’

Then finally, I did a piece examining pets, and ways to have a lot or a few of them. This one stuck with me as something I kind of thing I’d want to do going forward – like maybe a character could benefit from picking up a Cool Monster Pet.

Oh hey, what’s that? Of course I made a spreadsheet to examine this kind of thing! I was curious if there was a bias in the types of characters I was drawing inspiration from, and it seems that since its inception, roughly half the articles have been women, and the rest haven’t been. This is useless data that means nothing but I like charts.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#HowToBe

[gostosadeazulpassando]

How am i going to organize my Miraculous' remakes: Part 1/2 - Redesigning the heroes outfits

*Remember, these are just my personal thougths. It's up to you if you agree with them or not.*

First of all, I want to make it clear that I actually LOVE the canon heroes designs. It's not a sudden thing though; It takes me a while to get used and process all the information on the outfit, but after that, I start to appreciate it. It's just that sometimes I miss some few extra details in the costumes, or I think something else could replace the original idea they decided to go with. So, instead of waiting for some random artist to magically know how to make a hero design that satisfies me, I decided to do it myself.

And let me say that I always found it interesting when someone describes and explains each choice and meaning behind a character's design and how they came to the conclusion that it made sense to them, so I'll try to reproduce the same here.

Below I'm leaving a bunch of listed basic and concrete information (at least for me) that I plan to use with Miraculous characters so I can proceed with the outfit redesigns. Wanted to share cause this may help some of you that also want to start your own redrawings:

1. Every superhero will have a jumpsuit as the base piece of clothing

Just so I don't freak out trying to decide what to do. I know that Thomas probably based himself in the classical comic-books heroes. And when a pattern is set, I avoid deviating from it. Even for aerodynamic reasons the best thing would be that the clothes didn't have a lot of weight, although the other way around might be more fun.

By the way, speaking of this, I would like to thank @officialfanbug (who, ironically, is not a fan of the ideia of everyone using jumpsuits) for inspiring me to start this Miraculous blog based on redesigns and rewriting in general. Your criative mind and thinking, especially for someone who wants to work with animation/design (even though I ain't sure about the specific area right now) is one of the reasons for me to think about exposing my drawings publicly on a site that I like

2. I try to be consistent with the character's style, behavior and wills

That's why I don't want to change any of the characters looks, both as civilians or akumatized villains; I rely on some of their forms as akumatized villains or simply in their everyday style attribute (for colors tones, custom extra garment). Even things that were shown or said in just one episode have an effect when designing the outfit. I will specify each of these things separately per post when addressing a particular holder.

3. Following the Miraculouses', Kwamis' and the animals which the Kwamis were based appearence is important to me

So I just have this ideia that the official miraculous' holders should portray all of their respective kwamis aspects, as they represent the kwami, the animal and the miraculous itself most of the time (THEY NEED TO BE THE BEST OUT OF THE BEST BECAUSE OF THEIR SCREEN TIME!!!!! MY EYES MUST BE PLEASED EVERYTIME THEY APPEAR) and yes even the smallest of the details such as the position of a mark in the kwami's body. That being, I prefer to be coherent with these 3 things. It's like a mix, in short.

I feel like this whole post is a bit disorganized and that I would like to add so many other things with another words, but for now, I'll leave it like this. Also I didn't check my english spelling, so this text might have a BUNCH of errors. But anyways, just ignore it

[khmemeries]

Why Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days has Depth: Storytelling with Meaning

It’s not very often that a video game tells a complete and compelling story. But when I played 358/2 Days, I immediately thought it was a “Grand Argument Story”—a type of story that explores a problem and argues for the correct way to solve it, described by the Dramatica Theory of Story. 

If you’re unfamiliar: Dramatica is a framework to understand and construct narratives. Its central idea is “the story mind”:

The Story Mind The one unique concept that sets Dramatica apart from all other theories is the concept that every complete story is a model of the mind's problem solving process. To fully explore any issue, an author has to examine all possible solutions to that issue and make an argument to prove to an audience that the author's way is best. (1)

These stories tend to feel meaningful—you know instinctively that they want to communicate a message to you, even if you can’t verbalize what it is. You learn something alongside the characters. This is the sense I get from 358/2 Days; compare that to Kingdom Hearts III, which is not a Grand Argument Story and has no appreciable message. It feels emptier.

Character Elements

There’s a lot to Dramatica, but we’ll focus on one specific aspect of character in story.

Under Dramatica, characters are the tools used to make the story’s argument as they each take on specific points of view or approaches that your own mind takes while trying to solve a problem. You can argue with yourself: “Do I follow my heart, or my brain? Do I take the easy way out, or think long-term and avoid distractions?” Dramatica takes these possible approaches and spreads them out among characters so they argue among themselves how to approach the problem in a story, just like your mind would.

These approaches are called “elements,” and ALL of them have to be represented in a story for the problem to be fully explored. There are 16 elements that can motivate a character (2):

Dramatica considers characters who have at least one of these elements to fulfill a “dramatic function” in the story—that is, they participate in the argument the story is making. That’s not to say that other characters aren’t important—they can flesh out a world, for example. This is the case in 358/2 Days, which has a large cast, but the consistent dramatic characters are basically only Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Saïx.

The interesting thing about these elements is that they have conflict built straight into them. You can tell immediately that a character representing “control” is going to have a hard time dealing with the character representing “uncontrolled.” Or “faith” and “disbelief,” “pursue” and “prevent,” etc. The diagram below arranges these characteristics into quadrants. Pairs of elements diagonal to each other within each quad have the most potential to generate conflict (2).

The elements can (but don’t have to) combine in complementary pairs to make what are called “archetypal characters.” They’ll sound familiar as characters that pop up in stories all the time. These archetypes each have one specific decision-making element and one specific action-taking element. They will both either be “driver” elements, which serve to drive the story forward, or “passenger” elements, which are more passive.

Protagonist Action Characteristic (Pursue): Pursues the goal. The traditional Protagonist is the driver of the story: the one who forces the action. Decision Characteristic (Consideration): Urges the other characters to consider the necessity of achieving the goal.

Antagonist Action Characteristic (Prevent): The Antagonist physically tries to prevent or avoid the successful achievement of the goal by the Protagonist. Decision Characteristic (Reconsideration): The Antagonist urges the other characters to reconsider the attempt to achieve the goal.

Guardian Action Characteristic (Help): The Guardian is a helper who aids the efforts to achieve the story goal. Decision Characteristic Conscience): It represents conscience in the mind, based upon the Author’s view of morality.

Contagonist Action Characteristic (Hinder): The Contagonist hinders the efforts to achieve the story goal. Decision Characteristic (Temptation): It represents temptation to take the wrong course or approach.

Reason Action Characteristic (Control): This character is very calm or controlled in its actions. Decision Characteristic (Logic): It makes its decisions on the basis of logic, never letting emotion get in the way of a rational course.

Emotion Action Characteristic (Uncontrolled): The Emotional character is frenzied or uncontrolled in its actions. Decision Characteristic (Feeling): It responds with its feelings with disregard for practicality.

Sidekick Action Characteristic (Support): The Sidekick supports, playing a kind of cheering section. Decision Characteristic (Faith): It is almost gullible in the extent of its faith—in the goal, in the Protagonist, in success, etc.

Skeptic Action Characteristic (Oppose): The Skeptic opposes—everything. Decision Characteristic (Disbelief): It disbelieves everything, doubting courses of action, sincerity, truth—whatever. (2)

Plenty of stories don’t use these specific element combinations to make the archetypal characters above; instead, they combine the elements in different ways to make more complex characters. You can pile as many elements as you want into a character, or only have one.

Now, there aren’t eight archetypal dramatic characters in 358/2 Days. We have only four characters to work with. Which is where things get interesting. All of these motivation elements ARE present in the story, but they’re distributed among Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Saïx to make some complex characters.

Axel

Pursue Axel pursues the story goal by making plans to keep the group together and survive in the Organization. He’s the one who makes the plan to cover for Xion when she can’t summon her Keyblade, despite not really wanting to get involved. He also proposes the plan to Roxas to look for Xion after their missions.

“C’mon, Axel, think of something!” Roxas insisted. Why can’t you think of something? The retort nearly left Axel’s mouth, but he gulped it back down. Roxas was the only one of them who could use the Keyblade. It wasn’t like Xion could take it… “Like I said, there’s just no way to— Wait.” Axel paused, looking back at Roxas. He noticed the look and blurted in excitement, “You thought of something?” Beside him, Xion was still hunched over, hidden under her hood. “Roxas, what if you worked double duty?” Axel suggested.

Temptation Axel almost always takes the path of immediate benefit. A natural improviser, his approach is to solve the problem now and deal with the consequences later—even when he is well aware the consequences will be serious, as in this scene.

“This is right,” Xion said firmly. “It’s better this way.” Axel hated that argument. Nothing was better any which way. All it came down to was what you wanted to do and what you didn’t.

Uncontrolled Axel agonizes over what to do, but ultimately, he acts impulsively and outside the rules to solve his problems. My favorite way this is shown is in his relationship with Saïx.

Axel kept pace with him. “Nah, this is about Riku. There’s something I want to look into. So I figured I should probably ask you first.” “Hmph. I’m sure you’ll look into whatever you want with or without my permission.”

Also, Axel is constantly being pulled in all directions, so his focus is all over the place. Xion and Roxas need him. The organization needs him. Saïx needs him. He needs a nap.

Feeling Axel is absolutely driven by his emotions. He does a whole lot of justifying his actions to himself, and it invariably comes down to his heart.

I just did what I thought was the best thing at the time. For Roxas, for Xion, for the Organization—and for Isa. But most of all for me.

He acts directly against the logical course of action, and even acknowledges it.

”Xion, what are you gonna do?” She answered plainly. “I’m going back to where I belong. That’s all.” ”You know, I always thought that’d be for the best. But it still bugs me. Something about this is just wrong.”

“You both think you can do whatever you want!” He summoned his flame-wreathed chakrams to his hands. “I’m sick of it. Go on, you just keep running. But I’ll always be there to bring you back!” It was a plea, a cry, a bitter lament, and a vow. No matter how many times you leave, I’ll bring you back. Every time. Both of you. For my sake and for yours.

Disbelief Axel is suspicious by default. He questions Saïx all the time.

There was no one else in the vicinity. Why was Saïx delivering his message so evasively? Axel’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

He also counters Roxas’ naïve optimism.

“Relax. We’ll be fine,” Roxas encouraged, but she didn’t look up. Sensing her anxiety, Axel turned away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. They’re not that stupid.”

And, most importantly, he doesn’t believe that he, Roxas, and Xion can stay together forever. To him, their separation is inevitable.

“Well, nothing lasts forever,” Axel mumbled, looking off to the side again. “Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies.”

Roxas

Help Roxas participates in achieving the goal of staying together by implementing Axel’s plans, like when he teams up with Xion. He doesn’t take initiative himself.

Consider Roxas is the character who makes the case for staying together.

“I hope we’re always together like this,” said Roxas. Xion nodded. “Yeah… Me too.” Axel scratched the back of his head. “What’s gotten into you two?” “I just…want these days to last forever,” Roxas murmured, slow and pensive. “Hanging out after the job’s done, eating ice cream, watching the sunset…”

He sticks to his guns when he’s faced with the reconsider element.

Support A lot of times, Roxas is more of a cheerleader and emotional support for Axel than he is useful in terms of actual help. I think if 358/2 Days were told from Axel’s point of view, it would be pretty easy to see Roxas as the sidekick. Or like... pet.

Even in his mission with Demyx in the manga, Demyx is the one who steps up to the plate to solve the problem while Roxas just rolls with it.

And he’s got so many “thanks, Axel”’s. Lots of appreciation and support!

“The two of you are friends, right? Tell you what—I’ll pick Saïx’s brain and see what I can find out.” Roxas nodded eagerly. “Thanks, Axel.”

Faith Roxas is the only character who actually believes their group can always be together. Xion even says that Roxas isn’t ready to know the truth, and Naminé then muses about his childishness.

“I know. I’m ready. I just don’t know how. That’s why I came to see you.” Xion exhaled. “And Roxas should be going back with me, shouldn’t he?”

She looked away, as if that was the only part that upset her.

“But I don’t think he’d understand that... not yet,” she went on.

Xion seemed to reflect all the best parts of Sora. And maybe Roxas carried the more childish parts of his nature—so Naminé suspected, although she had yet to meet Roxas.

This panel is late in the game, but Axel never believed they would be together forever, and Xion doesn’t either pretty early on. Roxas keeps believing loooooong after it’s clear that it’s only a dream.

Xion

Hinder Xion is constantly in the way of keeping the group together. Constantly. She’s always a problem Axel has to solve to get everyone together again, whether she’s passed out, lost the ability to use her Keyblade (thus putting herself in danger), running away, learning the truth about herself, or hiding from Axel and Roxas because of her problems. Of course, it’s never her intention to do this, but it happens nonetheless.

Conscience Conscience is about putting more weight on long-term consequences over immediate benefit. This is at the center of Xion’s major decisions in the story. She loves her friends, but she can’t be with them anymore.

She heard Roxas pleading, “No, wait!” I’m sorry, Roxas. Axel knows what I am, and he’s going to tell me to come back. Riku gave me this chance, but…I can’t take it. Not like this.

She even acknowledges her conscience element is going to cause conflict with Axel’s temptation. Conscience is what drives her to run away and also to fight Roxas at the end, once Axel has exhausted her other options.

Saïx

Prevent Saïx (and the Organization, really) makes it impossible for the trio to stay together. He doesn’t just hinder, like Xion does.  He’s involved in the plan to have Roxas and Xion fight and destroy each other. He’s specifically driven to prevent to them being together, permanently.  

Reconsider Saïx argues with Axel about him spending time with Roxas and Xion, urging him to reconsider his goal on multiple occasions.

“Or put it this way,” Saïx said, as if he’d heard himself. “Which one would you rather suffer the loss of? Some idiotic charade of friendship or Roxas himself?”

Saïx had no response for that. A moment went by before he spoke again. “You’re letting yourself get too attached to them.” “Right, sir, of course, sir.”

Oppose Saïx opposes everything, all the time. He makes sooooo many oppositional comments.

“You have your own mission, Roxas,” Saïx told him before Xion could answer.
 “I can’t trade with Xigbar or something?” “What an extraordinarily childish notion. Do you need Axel to walk you everywhere now?”

Logic Saïx is cold and logical in everything he does, to an extreme. He delivers some very cold lines that reflect his reliance on logic.

“Look at you…” Saïx shook his head faintly. “All up in arms over a creature that shouldn’t exist.” “What, like a Nobody? We’re all Nobodies!” Why won’t Saïx understand? Is it because he’s a Nobody? But so am I! “You have nothing to worry about,” said Saïx. “Xion may be beyond repair, but that does not affect your standing with us.” “My sta—? Argh, you’re like a broken record!” Roxas fumed. “I’ll do my mission later.”

Icy. Like he has trouble understanding emotion at all.

Controlled

Saïx is quite robotic in his focus.

“Things are finally right again,” Saïx went on. “Of course, we’re better off this way.” Axel had no retort for that. Maybe because he didn’t want to alienate Saïx anymore. “Xemnas is exasperated from all the ‘fixing’ we’ve had to do. We have to set things right. There is too much on the line…Lea.”

He’s also depicted as calm and expressionless. It’s intentionally in contrast to his berserk state, where he temporarily embodies “uncontrolled.”

Depth from Complexity

The combination of elements that each character has is complex (as opposed to archetypal), giving depth. One reason that Axel is so fascinating in 358/2 Days is that he has both the pursue and disbelief elements. He doesn’t even believe the goal he’s pursuing is possible! It’s such a powerful way to communicate his emotional desperation. Mixed with feeling, uncontrolled, and temptation, he’s a total spiraling disaster.

Roxas’s elements sum up his character: help, consider, support, and faith. He is naïve (faith), but that’s why he’s the only character who can argue with Axel to find ways to keep everyone together (consider). Despite this, he takes no initiative himself, only supporting Axel’s plans like a cheerleader (support) or by following his directions (help). He’s immature, but earnest. Because he has both consider and support, he has this childish dynamic where he asks Axel for help and then cheers him on while Axel solves all his life problems. But it’s cute. No wonder Axel adopts him.

Xion comes off as much more mature than Roxas with the conscience element. She knows that she knows the right thing to do. And that’s why it makes narrative sense for her to have the hinder element—the “right thing” is in conflict with pursuing the goal to keep everyone together. She should get in the way. I love how she is constantly a problem for Axel throughout the story because of the interplay between these elements. She is regularly more of an obstacle than Saïx himself. It’s quite a refreshing combination since she’s taken elements from the helpful “guardian” archetype as well as the subversive “contagonist” archetype.

Saïx has both of the classic antagonist elements (prevent and reconsider) as well as the reason characteristics (logic and controlled). He’s a cold and calculating bad guy, turned up to the max with his literal lack of emotion, as well as his perfectly composed demeanor that’s contrasted with his wild berserk state. He gets extra stubborn jerk points for having the oppose element as well—he’s constantly an obstacle for everyone all the time, doesn’t matter what it is. It elevates him from villain to complete bastard. You love to hate him.

Interpersonal Conflict

Besides character complexity, the multiple, diametrically-opposed purposes between each character weave a spiderweb of conflict.

Of course, Saïx is the main villain of the story and naturally there’s conflict with him. He has three elements opposed to Axel. Most of this conflict occurs with Axel in a surprisingly subdued fashion, however. For example, Axel is constantly approaching Saïx from an emotional angle, getting a detached logical response, and absorbing the impact (feeling vs logic).

“Can’t you just let things run their course?” Saïx complained. “What course? Whose plans am I ruining, exactly?” Axel retorted, still staring at the empty space where Roxas’s portal swirled into nothing. “The Organization’s. I trust you.” Axel let out a low chuckle. “Yeah? Because your heart tells you to?” “Just the memory of it. But if you continue to interfere, I’ll have to overwrite that memory with everything I’ve learned as a Nobody.” “…Should I take that as a threat?” “More or less. Keep it in mind.” Finished with the conversation, Saïx walked away. Axel didn’t move for a while.

He might only snap once?

And this short interaction illustrates the subtle conflict between Axel’s uncontrolled and Saïx’s control:

Axel kept pace with him. “Nah, this is about Riku. There’s something I want to look into. So I figured I should probably ask you first.” “Hmph. I’m sure you’ll look into whatever you want with or without my permission.”

Axel and Saïx’s prevent and pursue elements come into conflict through actions, such as when Axel stops Roxas and Xion from fighting each other in Halloween Town. 

Saïx’s other two elements conflict with Roxas. For example, Roxas’s confrontation with Saïx is a physical fight as much as it is a battle between consideration and reconsideration. This feels like the most “traditional” conflict in the game to me—the fight where the villain and hero argue about what’s right and wrong. It’s because consideration and reconsideration are elements in stereotypical roles here (those being the main character and the villain, respectively).  

Xion faces so much trouble in the story because (in addition to having her hinder element mercilessly employed), the most active character, Axel, who has the pursue element, also has temptation that’s in conflict with Xion’s conscience. The conflict between those two elements is the obvious driving force behind this confrontation:

“This is right,” Xion said firmly. “It’s better this way.” Axel hated that argument. Nothing was better any which way. All it came down to was what you wanted to do and what you didn’t.

Her hinder element also creates conflict with Roxas’s help element. That’s what “flipping the switch”/“the wrong button” was.

Roxas and Axel come into conflict because Roxas’s faith that they can always be together opposes Axel’s disbelief. Axel avoids confronting Roxas with the truth about Xion for so long to delay this very conflict. 

Many of the clock tower conversations also involve this tension between faith and disbelief.  

“I just…want these days to last forever,” Roxas murmured, slow and pensive. “Hanging out after the job’s done, eating ice cream, watching the sunset…” Axel peered at his profile as he did just that. The sunset’s glow touched Roxas’s face and Xion’s with warm red. “Well, nothing lasts forever,” Axel mumbled, looking off to the side again. “Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies.” At that, both of their expressions fell.

I think this conflict is part of why Axel is so difficult for Roxas to understand. Axel seems like he cares, because he’s pursuing the goal of keeping everyone together… but Roxas is the one who believes in it, not Axel, and Roxas interprets this as indifference. They never reconcile over this difference in the end.

“You can’t turn on the Organization!” Axel cried. “You get on their bad side, and they’ll destroy you!” Now Axel was upset—nothing like before. Roxas smiled thinly and paused a moment. “No one would miss me.”

In short, the conflict that emerges is so natural and interesting because the characters represent all the problem-solving approaches, giving them depth. This full exploration of all possible sources of conflict between the characters’ motivation elements makes stories meaningful. The tension within the sea-salt trio is part of what makes 358/2 Days so emotional compared to simpler stories where conflict is reserved for heroes vs. villains only. Hopefully, future entries return to this approach to storytelling to successfully communicate the beliefs about love and friendship that Kingdom Hearts has at its core in a sincere way.

(1) https://dramatica.com/about (2) https://dramatica.com/theory/book/characters