#they are all excited and jospeh is like 'okay! time to go to the middle of no where in some wheat field in Wyoming' and they all are

[repost-haven]

Bahahaha please- poor jotaro is over here trying not to take out half of his traveling party while polnareff is playing circus music in the arby's while Joseph and kakyion jump around with hermit purple and Hierophant green like spider man X)

Sbvbdusj homophobic dog real- I agree I avdol has probably shown interest in men and his dad knows or it's just a feeling ol' pop pop avdol has X) just the mental image of avdol being sat down by his father like 'Muhammad. I love you, no matter what. You can like anyone you want I dont care, but- a frenchman??? Really!? I believed in you"

Shocked abt the fact we are all sleeping on the fact that we can now play (with the purchase of doc sigh) Avdol cosplaying his dad on ASB-Rs

The listing for him (on switch at least-) is 'Avdol's father? Yes I am!!' And I love that personally.

[tearinmyheartforjosh]

Hey! Could you do a Tyler imagine where the reader is at one of their concerts, in the pit and then passes out? Tyler stops the show to help get her out and then once the show is over he immediately goes to check on her and it's all fluffy and stuff (:

(This is my first time ever writing for Tyler and it was a lot of fun! Hope you like this! Feel free to request something else!)

The venue was starting to fill up, every few minutes more and more people being let in, causing you and your friends to be pushed into the people in front of you. The tightness in your chest was growing. You hated large crowds. You hated feeling like you couldn’t breathe. But you loved Twenty One Pilots even more than all of that. So you push down the feeling of panic for right now, reminding yourself that you’re safe here.

“If I get elbowed by one more person, I’m going to snap,” Your friend says, throwing looks at the people behind her.

“Just think of how great the concert is going to be,” you reply. “That’s what’s helping me right now.”

And almost like you were the cue, the lights dim and everyone starts to scream, including you. This wasn’t your first Twenty One Pilots concert, it wasn’t even your second. You had gone to an embarrassing amount of Twenty One Pilot concerts, but each time hit you like it was your first.

You see Josh position himself on his drums and you know it won’t be long until you see Tyler. His voice is so calming and he makes you forget about your anxiety, at least for a little while.

The concert is in full swing when the tightness in your chest hits you again. The band is in the middle of playing Car Radio when the panic sets. You try to reach out to your friend, but as the drums build, she gets pushed further and further away. You claw at people around you, trying to get someone’s attention as your breathing gets shorter and shorter. You see Tyler stand on edge of the stage, you swear you make eye contact with him, and then as everyone begins to jump, everything goes dark.

Tyler’s POV

The crowd is responsive, they’re feeding off his energy which in turn gives him more. He loves his job, he loves that he gets to play music with his best friend every night to people who need it just as much as he does.

They’re at his favourite part in Car Radio when he notices her. He’s building the crowd up as she’s reaching out for her friend, falling short. A panic sets in him, running through every scenario. The drop hits and everyone goes crazy and Tyler watches the girl fall limp, people around her scrambling to catch her.

“STOP!” He shouts into the mic. The music drops, the lights switch on and Tyler is frantically searching for the girl.

“Over here!!” He hears a shout from someone in the crowd, and he can see the unconscious girl being held up by the people around here. He looks down at security, but they’re already moving towards her.

“Bring her to the back,” Tyler instructs security. “Hold on guys,” He tells the crowd. “We’re just going to make sure she’s okay and then we’ll get things going again. We always want to make sure you guys are safe, first and foremost.” Once the crowd settles, Tyler gives a look to Josh before quickly jogging back stage to make sure the girl was okay.

“Where is she? Is she okay?” Are the first words out of his mouth when he enters back stage.

“She’s right over here, Mr. Jospeh,” Someone guides him to his dressing room. He turns the corner to see her laying on the couch, what seemed to be a cold cloth across her forehead. Everyone in the room is quiet, which gives Tyler slight anxiety.

“Is she okay?” He asks again, slowly walking towards her.

“I’m okay,” She groans. “A little embarrassed but, I’m okay.”

Tyler can’t help but chuckle, pulling up a chair to sit beside the girl. “Well I’m not too sure what we can do about that, but how about you finish the show backstage?”

Her eyes open, and she turns her head and the realization hits. “T-Tyler?” She stutters.

Tyler gives her a sweet smile. He finds her cute, maybe it was the whole damsel in distress thing but he feels a sense of protection over her. “In the flesh,” he jokes. “Don’t get up too fast,” he warns, putting a hand on her shoulder when she tries to sit up. “I watched you take a pretty nasty fall.”

“Yeah, I can feel that,” She laughs, rubbing the back of her head, slowly moving to a sitting position. “Thanks for checking on me, but you really didn’t need to stop the whole concert.”

Tyler scoffs loudly and waves a hand at her. “Of course we did, how else was I going to get a chance to talk to the pretty girl that passed out at my good looks?” She giggles and Tyler feels butterflies in his stomach. “I should probably get your name though, if I go back out there without it, everyone is going to think I’m insensitive or something.”

She smirks. “Tyler Joseph? Insensitive? I didn’t think it to be possible.” She’s cheeky, and Tyler really likes that. “I’m Y/N, by the way.”

“Good to meetcha,” Tyler awkwardly shakes her hand before standing up. “I’ll get someone to set you up back stage to finish the concert, and as much as I’d love to sit and talk with you, I should probably get back out there.”

“I agree. Thank you, Tyler,” Her tone is sincere, and Tyler can’t help but smile softly at her. “I appreciate your concern.”

Tyler isn’t sure what to say, so he offers her a high five and a wink before turning and heading back to the stage. Josh gives his friend a questioning look as Tyler makes his way to mic, and Tyler gives him a thumbs up.

“Our friend Y/N is okay!” He speaks into the mic and the crowd cheers. “She’s set up back stage. Thank you guys for your patience. This is why we love you guys. Now let’s get back to this. Jishwa,” He turns to the bright haired boy on the drums. “My friend, would you do the honours of counting us in?”

Josh grins and does exactly that and the concert picks up where it left off. But this time, Tyler is anxious for the ending. With Y/N in mind, he finds that he’s actually looking forward to the end of a concert for once. And he does his best not to look at her too often, but she’s grinning at him; eyes lighting up every time he sneaks a look, and he can feel the butterflies growing.

Trees comes and goes, and he and his best friend take the stage one last time to bow and say goodnight. This time it’s more rushed. Tyler never wants to leave the stage, he’d live on one and play endless concerts if life allowed him. But this time, he was more excited to see the girl waiting for him off the stage. So as soon as an acceptable amount of time passes, he jogs off stage to meet her before she leaves.

Her back is towards him, talking to a security guard as he points down the hallway. Tyler assumes she’s getting directions to leave. “Y/N!” He shouts to catch her attention. She turns at the sound of her name, and her eyes instantly light up when she sees Tyler. And the butterflies grow more.

“Tyler!” Her voice is sweet as she turns to face him. “I wasn’t sure if I’d get to see you after the concert. It was amazing!”

Tyler wants to reach out and pull her into his chest. He feels the ache in his arms as he keeps them tight to his side. “Yeah, I was hoping I’d be able to catch you before you left. I actually have a question for you.” He had been thinking about asking her out through the whole concert, and now that he was here in front of her, he couldn’t remember a damn thing he wanted to say.

She’s waiting for him to continue and his mind is blank, and he’s starting to panic as her expression moves from waiting to confusion.

“I think you’re really pretty,” Tyler blurts out, and when she blushes he takes that as the OK to keep going. “And I’d really like to get to know you more, so I was wondering, um, if you’d like to, ah,” he’s tripping over his words but he can’t stop talking.

She reaches out for his arm and he freezes. “Tyler, if you’re asking me out, the answer is yes,” She grins and now it’s his turn to blush, cheeks hurting from smiling so much.

“Alright, cool,” he tries to be chill about it. “I should probably get your number,” he mentions, pulling out his phone and creating a new contact for her. They’re both silent as she puts in her information, and once she’s done they hug quickly with the promise that Tyler will call.

He has a permanent smile on his face as he walks confidently back to Josh, who watched the whole interaction happen.

“Nice, bro!” Josh claps him on the back in congratulations.

“Yeah, I still got it,” Tyler jokes, pulling out his phone to look at her number. “Is it too soon to call her?” He asks Josh, who only shakes his head with a laugh at his friend.

[zak-graphicarts]

The Dramatic Code: When Narrative and Audience Theory Meet

In this post, I’m beginning to consider the similarities and differences between narrative theory and the importance of the audience’s needs with a piece of media.

Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

Firstly, I think a good place to start would be to define both ideas, to establish a base understanding. When I’m talking about narrative theories, I’m going to be discussing the ideas of Tsvetran Todorov’s Five Act Structure, Vladmir Propp’s character archetypes describing each characters role in a traditional story and writer John Truby’s definition of story. 

With audience theory, I’m primarily looking at the idea of a hierarchy of needs from an audience, suggesting that we as an audience use media to be gratified in certain ways, whether that be entertainment, escapism or personal identity. 

Todorov’s five act structure suggests that all stories are cyclical, with a clear beginning, middle and end. Beginning with an equilibrium, experiencing conflict, and reaching a resolution that brings us back to a similar state of calm to the beginning. This is a theory that holds up remarkably well to most modern day examples of visual storytelling, such as film, books and television shows. 

Like writer Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, which is obviously cyclical, this structure gives the audience closure. Its a simple, easily consumable story that inspires hope in everyone that they can be better, and that ultimately, everything is going to be alright. It’s an entertaining, formulaic structure that allows for some conflict in our main character, but they eventually overcome the problem and they all live happily ever after. There’s a safety, a naieve, childish charm to the structure, and its harmless nature is why we see it in hundreds of blockbusters following this cliche, now so uninspired formula. For fantastical stories in imaginary realms and epic quests, I guess there’s no harm in using this structure to form a story. 

However, for character dramas and introspective stories, this formula shouldn’t apply. Tododov’s structure creates a safe, harmless story where there’s no real worry or struggle, with a calming, relaxing effect. Its an uplifting story, one that reminds us that life is simple. Only thing is though, life isn’t always that simple. And when writers apply this structure to a real-life story exploring grounded, realistic characters - the result feels cartoony and fake. I can definitely see the appeal in this, and it’s a safe bet for writers of big budget block busters, but for audiences who want something a little more original and inspired in their storytelling, we have to look elsewhere.

As mentioned, also following this idea of a cyclical narrative is the Story Circle, a modern-day distillation of the mono myth The Hero’s Journey, established by Jospeh Campbell.

Art by Austin Kleon, 2015

It focuses on those ideas of descent and return, a cycle from order, to chaos, and then back to order again. The story starts with a character in a zone of comfort, like Todorov suggests, in a state of equilibrium. Over the course of his eight steps, the character wants something, sets out to achieve it, and then return having changed, in a new state of equilibrium. With both of these theories, there’s a need for the audience to follow a character want something, and then return to a state of calm, tranquility, of predictable peace. As Harmon discusses when explaining his theory for the first time on a podcast, this cycle is relevant in life. We are born, and then we die, and then new life grows - its a cycle. Not a vicious one necessarily, just natural. Despite how relevant this may be to the bigger picture of humanity, however, this isn’t the case with our everyday lives. Not everything we experience is wrapped up in a little bow - we don’t always get afforded the luxury of closure. And its this, the stressful and ephemeral nature of life, that leads me onto discussing how we as an audience use this media.

Audiences have power over what media they consume - we are active, reactive and never passive to the things we watch, listen to and read. As mentioned in a previous project, it’s common knowledge now that we consume media for a reason - a purpose. Political scientist Elihu Katz explored this idea that the audience actively use media, and suggested that we use this media to be gratified in certain ways, discussing film and television in particular. Among the list of uses Katz presented, escapism and entertainment are the most important to consider today. In a society that is barraged with meaningless politics, the vapid and isolating nature of social media and the seemingly banal, monotonous reality of everyday life, it’s no suprise that people want to bury their heads in the sand, and get lost in a great box set or cinematic experience. 

We all love a good story, and we especially love those that inspire us to be better, and reassuringly remind us that everything is going to be okay. It’s the cyclical nature of the above two narrative theories that allow for this inherently optimistic structure of storytelling. These sort of stories comfort us, ultimately returing to a peaceful and reassuring state of calm, after showing a brief idea of an exciting conflict. In reality, everyday life rarely, if ever, follows this set structure, and narratives that conform to this safe formula of telling stories are able to engage, entertain and interest their audience whilst also being blissful escapism for the consumer.

A final idea that I think is worth mentioning is Vladmir Propp’s idea of character archetypes. He suggested that all characters could be classified into seven broad character functions. These archetypes can be applied to almost any story, and feature a singular hero or protagonist. It’s this idea of a solo heroic figure that I’m interested in, a main character. This figure is almost always a heroic, brave character possessing aspirational and noble qualities, and as a result, the other characters tend to like him or her. The hero always thwarts the villain, beats the badguy and saves the day: resolving any problems and conflicts in the process. They are the character all of the others look up to, they who make things happen, and who the audience normally associate with the strongest. 

Focusing on a singular character removes any potential queries on who the audience should relate to, and easily allows us to know who to root for. Again, exploring ideas of escapism and entertainment purposes, this allows us, as an audience, to identify with that heroic protagonist - a good filmmaker allows the viewer to truly understand what the hero is thinking, and thus they are able to project themselves onto these powerful characters. Just like a cyclical story structure, having a righteous hero allows us, the consumers, to be better people. We want to be like these aspirational characters; after all, we are the hero of our own story.

An idea that I find interesting and truly believe, is writer John Truby’s definition of story. To him, as described in his book Anatomy of Story, a story communicates the dramatic code, an artistic description of how a person can grow or evolve in the face of adversity. In all good stories, the characters change in some way. They learn something new, identify and act on an inner flaw, or overcome a problem that’s been troubling them for a while. Something that all narrative theorists suggest is this idea of a personal development within their main character - they should ultimately change over the course of the narrative, no matter how small. It’s a way to express the idea that human beings can become a better version of themselves, and it’s why stories engage an audience - through ideas of escapism, entertainment and inspiration.

In our own proposed animated short, Scrappers, we wanted to creatively follow the idea of a cyclical narrative, but subvert the theory’s inherently optimistic and uplifting nature. Our approach to this was subtle, but I feel as if it works well, successfully challenging the narrative ideas I’ve explored within my studies.  

While the story does follow the basic ideas of Todorov’s structure, and the story circle to a certain extent, what challenges the narrative conventions is the conclusion - Jason 5 walking away with his hand. If it simply ended like this, the film would end in a new state of equilibrium. But that doesn’t happen, the hand falls off, and Kevin takes it back to the scrap yard. This time, it really IS a vicious circle, with our characters doomed to repeat the same events in an infinite loop of chaos and never-ending conflict. Instead of beginning and finishing in a state of equilibrium, the narrative opens in a state of disorder, and closes with that same chaos about to repeat itself. Able to work as a looping animated short, we were able to construct an original story that attempts to be fresh and challenging whilst also remaining engaging due to the appealing character designs and simple plot.

In this post, I’ve begun to evidence an understanding of both narrative and audience theory through comparing the two, looking at the importance of audience needs and how story structures described by narrative theorists cater for these needs. I’ve been able to discuss my response and ideas towards these narrative concepts, why I think they are useful to certain areas of society and in storytelling as a whole. 

Ultimately, what an audience member (usually) wants from media is a sense of closure, established in all of the narrative theories and structures I’ve discussed here. Whether its an introspective character novel, a cheap monster movie or a big budget block buster, they are ultimately telling allegorical stories of how people can grow and be better, in the face of adversity. And it’s that idea, the desire to be the best possible version of ourselves, is the most engaging story of all - the narrative of the human condition: it’s our story.