#this isnt meant to be meta bc i dont say anything new or i dont analize anything just my random thoughts

[shebsart]

this isnt gonna be coherent but thinking about Sandor and his relation to death..

he calls his horse stranger (just alone him identifying with the stranger, the seen-as-a-monster god of death and outcasts), constantly talks about how many people he has killed and how it gives him joy, keeps this "butcher" persona that thinks killing is necessary to survive even when its innocents, talks proudly if his sigil that was based on three dogs that died trying to protect someone,fights and kills a literal undead man-gets burned in the process- only for him to come back again lol (ok this ones kind of a reach but worth mentioning for the undead gregor parallelisms) , shows arya how to give the gift of mercy "that's where the heart is, thats how you kill a man" and he denies to dig him a grave.

and after arya denying him the gift of mercy(and goes on to train to become a death giver no less lol). and then "the hound is dead" but he is "revived" by a monk-like figure and becomes a literal grave digger.. almost like hes digging graves for all the people he has killed before, maybe its also like hes serving the stranger in a way. death has become from a violent act to a quiet state of being for him at this point of the story

also i like that he dies and starts over with a different identity figuratively while his brother dies literally and comes back with a different name( if you can call it coming back)..

i dont exactly know what to make out of this as a whole because i was having seperate thoughts but i love that its there and always loved the The Stranger part to his character.

bonus from his wiki because they remind me how much i love these books and how every character connects to each other and the story so seamlessly:

[irkenheretic]

GKxlgzlhcp MY TAGS ON THE FIC REC POST WERE NOT MEANT TO BE GUILT TRIPPY I PROMMISE i just want to write something stupid good so fucking bad!! And you have rly good taste!!! In your opinion what makes a good iz fic??

no no dont worry i didnt take it as guilt trippy!! tbh the reason space trash isnt on there is bc im.... not caught up on it sdjkfkjsdnf i KEEP SAYING “im gonna read space trash!” and then i do not read space trash. rip that and a bunch of other series i want to read and then just forget to. ive read the first chapter of space trash, fucking loved it, wished there was more Right That Fucking Second, and then when more came i just did not read it because the things i do make no sense to anyone, least of all myself

and ooohhh ok so the main thing that makes a good iz fic to me is dialogue and characterization. like, if i cannot imagine these characters doing these actions, it’s a bust. and really i can suspend my disbelief for pretty much anything as long as the characters stay acting like themselves and their voices are good. my general rule of thumb is if i cant imagine the dialogue in the characters’ voices, its a bust. i try to keep this in mind while writing and imagining the characters’ voices as i go

(pretty much every fic on the rec list fucking nails this but im gonna shine a spotlight on canvas because if it didnt fucking nail the narrative voice then the entire thing would fall apart because it’s first person and the concept is one you need to get the reader used to, so diving right into it is a risk)

another tenant is like.... ok you know ur tags on that “the tallest r two different people” post? shout out to basic media literacy??? that. some people just extremely miss the mark on the characters so hard it makes my brain hurt. even some really popular stuff imo just, COMPLETELY is off the mark and i cant get into it at all. if i cant tell that you know basic facts about the characters just from reading the text you have presented then maybe it is not very good imo. if i need like, the text and 10 metas specifically about the text and an additional 5 metas to explain the characters in the text just to understand like, one fic, then.... imma keep it real i am not reading All This Shit: By You

(a good example is the ponytail dib au- you CAN read the answers to the asks dissecting the characters and how they do things, but the au itself doesn’t seem threadbare and confusing if you don’t. the motivations of the characters are either very clear, or its clear that they will be revealed eventually. i will refrain from saying what i think is a bad example because i do not feel like dropping a molotov on this fandom tonight)

a third tenant is pacing. i can really get into whatever wack ass plot you want me to get into (barring the first 2 tenants are upheld) but if you try to rocket me there too fast im gonna go “what?? what the FUCK???” ESPECIALLY if you’re introducing new info because i will 100% get overwhelmed if its too fast. or inversely i will get bored if its too slow. if it takes like 10 chapters to actually get to the main plot then i will lose interest, especially if there is zero foreshadowing that anything is going to happen at any point. again this is something i have to be careful with because ANX is like, 95% new information and characters so lets just say i know about this fucking intimately at this point so its like.... really easy for me to read a fic and go “holy shit too fast too fast too fucking fast” or “um.. *checks watch* wheres . the plot”

(ersatz has stellar pacing honestly, the plot moves along and balances out the angst and emotions tremendously. the emotional stakes are there as a breather for the serious mystery plot, the serious mystery plot serves to break up emotions and not have them go stale- ill explain later)

and i have some personal disliked tropes like the trope where zim 100% assimilates into human culture to the point where u cant even tell that hes irken anymore, it feels like he gets so watered down and just becomes.... safe

or when an author makes alternate names for red and purple (which is fine in of itself) and then immediately switches to them in the narrative without giving readers a chance to acclimate. bonus if both names are switched at the same time and im like huh what who where please give me time wha

i do not like tall zim and refuse to read any content with it and thats just a pet peeve of mine honestly

ANGST is a huge thing of mine. ive been writing and reading angst for 10 years now so i have a lot of gripes on how its done. the number one thing i do not like with angst is that at some point, it “goes stale” as i call it. what does that mean? it means the work is all angst all the time, that readers get fatigued to the constant barrage of sadness so it just feels... mundane. 

i also really dislike Sadboy Angst. again what in gods name am i talking about? its when angst is shown with the characters just kinda, schmooping around. again thats fine in small doses but if its most of the work and every character has depression, then it stagnates. hard. 

when the time comes is a bit of a paradox in that zim does schmoop around for a lot of it but dib is a very active character so imo its never stagnant. there’s always a little bit of hope that maybe things will get better...but they dont. (until the most recent chapters it seems) and it never increases too exponentially. 

idk, whump is a bit of a weird beast because the point is to be all angst all the time, but i go into whump knowing what im going to get. if there is an actual serious heavystakes plot and the characters are just sad all the time, im gonna wonder where the hell that plot went. a story with a more simple easygoing plot works a bit better as an angstfest because theres no looming threat or mystery. if wttc had a greater-scope plot id be ripping my hair out at the 3 straight chapters of zim angst, but its a fic about zim and dib having a relationship together and thats pretty much it. 

also this is more a medium thing but schmoopfests in comics and fics are totally different beasts bc at least in fics theres an internal monolouge but in comics its just “zim laying there sadly” and fics update with 1000-ish words per chapter and comics update a panel at a time. in my opinion (and i am NOT a professional at comics) the t92k1 guy was amazing at comic-based angst. fucking stellar. why am i talking about comics this is a post about fics

anyway yeah those r my Rules As To What Makes A Good Zim Fic. i am the ultimate authority and i am also secretly jhonen vasquez pretending to be non-binary and also 20 and from new jersey so you all have to listen to me

in all honestly i have read fics that have broken some of these rules (mainly the one on dialouge) because i just really liked other aspects of them- hell even fics on the rec list dont hit all these checkmarks so my real advice is dont stress about some arbitrary Standard Of Goodness because it doesnt exist, not even with my picky ass. im not gonna look for High Art when i read fics, just when i stumble across something i sing the praises of, ill sing! and even if its not High Art or perfect but it still does some things well, its worth a shoutout in my book

also i will read space trash i promist

[delusionland]

the iron man vs wanda maximoff beef is the center imo of the marvel cinematic verse politics and it drives me crazy bc u CANNOT make two people the center of two ideological movements and still be full fledged characters that appear in 17 movies each. but they try anyway and u can see half the flaws in disney political bent thru them tbh. ( meta )

(mcu criticism and talks about hydra / nazism under the cut but this is NOT vagueposting i love the portrayals i see of wanda exactly for what they, and i LOVE wandavision and i JUST LOVE WANDA IN GENRAL but i would feel terrible if i never stated this somewhere on a blog that analyzed disney / mcu)

we’re meant to find endearing two powerful & sympathetic but flawed characters. they both fuck up a LOT and are kind of meant to be looked at as fucked up but at the end of the day they are both placed on a pedestal of power & sympathy and more importantly---’audience perspective.’ 

bc wanda specifically blames Tony Stark for all her problems and not america itself and that that is the catalyst---the audience is expected ignore the problems with america OUTSIDE of tony stark. the real problem is not with the foundation of america (&its ties to nazism bc SHIELD ISNT EVEN A THING ANYMOREEE DONT WORRY AOUT ITTTT), and it’s certainly not with wanda’s fantasies of america and american culture as an eastern european in a country destabilized by america & hydra (nazis), a country where we see NOTHING about their actual culture besides the mcu’s maximoffs terrible on-and-off accents.

it is scary to me that somehow in wanda’s eyes, the problem&source of her trauma is One Man, One Manufacturer of Weapons. to the point where she can join the nazis, STILL seem to believe the nazis are freedom fighters, and still cope with the death of her lover and her stability by saying ‘i will literally live in the american sitcom dream & force reality to mold around me and that wish’ which tbh implies the american dream of the 50s+ is Not Incompatible with the ideals she fought for WITH THE NAZIS.

which could be an interesting character point that honestly makes sense with the themes in catws & what i’ve seen of agents of shield (nazis are everywhere) and make her a really fucking scary villain if she was NOT A ROMANI/JEWISH WOMAN IN THE COMICS which makes this A COMPLETE SLAP IN THE FACE TO ROMANI/JEWISH PEOPLE?

it’s also interesting bc wanda represents??? such a strange compulsory heterosexuality???? do we EVER see her without a man except in wandavision where she has literally formed reality into her sitcom nuclear lifestyle and then traps the ACTUALLY queercoded witch into a heterosexual fifties marriage because she threatened that lifestyle---even tho she did hardly anything wrong compared to wanda who imprisoned and mind controlled a town of 4k+ people? wanda isn’t queercoded, she’s explicitly a vessel for male sexuality to the point that elizabeth olsen said she had to control her facial muscles while using wanda’s powers on screen bc ‘nobody wants to see that’ regarding GENUINE HUMAN EMOTION.

tony on the other hand flirts with rhodey in iron man as easily as he breathes. if he’s not queercoded---he’s metrosexual coded. he’s the kind of character lgbt kids look at in 2012 and go ‘oh wow he would paint his nails and fall in love with captain america and be like me.’ tony stark is extremely objectivist One Great Man themed. but he’s also in his story very much the ‘my daddy never loved me enough so now i project a needy self-absorption that gay kids can relate to.’

i’m not saying wanda is oppressing tony for being gay bc thats stupid. but i AM saying wanda vs tony feels very much like a ‘fragile cishet white woman who is also extremely powerful iSnT sHE fLAWEd and iNTEResting’ vs ‘purposefully annoying New Generation of money meterosexual who never did anything wrong but also was an IMPERIALIST WARMONGER but stopped but didnt isnt that a fun quirk’ and it’s like. driving me crazy bc the problems of racism and imperialism go far deeper than just two people ever could and the mcu slaps a face on every institutional problem and CALLS IT A DAY

[tacittherapist]

((HS2 Spoilers under the cut!))

((For all the shit I give the epilogues, it does have its moments. Specifically highlighting this bit of dialogue here: ROXY: you think you choice mattered so much that no one elses could measure up? ROXY: n then what ROXY: did u get what u wanted? ROXY: did your life end and the points got tallied and you came out on top or like what? ROXY: still p much seems like were movin to me ROXY: and you sure dont seem like ur winnin so wheres all this good shit you got that you gotta go around handin out apologies for? ROXY: also damn dude while were at it!! ROXY: u forgot to actually say sorry in that apology! JOHN: no, i didn’t — i just meant... JOHN: i’m sorry for fucking up your life, or making it not— ROXY: i like my life!!! ROXY: i mean it aint perf and i got my share of fuckups n mistakes in there but you dont get to tell me its fucked up ROXY: or that it isnt real or somethin ROXY: its mine!

First: criticism. The writers wield this little section like a crude cudgel. They use it to underscore the weight of ‘canon’. This is the ‘candy’ timeline, so it supposedly ‘weighs less’ than the ‘meat’ timeline, but its characters still have meaningful thoughts and emotions. Here, John supposedly makes a choice that supposedly invalidates a bunch of supposedly important events, and Roxy here blows it all out of the water by claiming she made these choices too and that part of the blame rests with her in the direction her life has taken... which is total dogshit used to justify a bunch of really overt swings in character thematic. Continued here: ROXY: you wished i was one way the whole time we were married ROXY: but i wasnt ROXY: but now that youre all convinced ur the only real boy in a crowd o puppets ROXY: here i am bein me just like you ordered only i did it without your help ROXY: widen ur zoom my man!! ROXY: im not actin like this now because you want me to or bc you dont want me to ROXY: i was bad at standin up for myself then and im learnin to be good at it now ROXY: ive got my own self actualization train ROXY: ur just pullin in to one of my many roxy figures some shit out stations right as i built it JOHN: but... JOHN: you were never like that before i... ROXY: dude ROXY: where tf do u get off trying to decide what is or isnt me being “like me” enuff ROXY: do u think ppl stay the same their whole damn lives or what JOHN: you’ve really never felt like anything about our lives here was... off? ROXY: off from what exactly?? JOHN: the way things should be? ROXY: what does that mean???

Roxy here argues that there is no ‘one right way to be’ as a half-baked wink to the audience that all this gross mischaracterization is intentional and that it diverges so grossly from the established character arcs in order to demonstrate that nothing is set in stone. While technically true, this also makes for some pretty terrible writing.

Roxy was a caring, almost too involved individual before the epilogues. Her ditching Calliope for John and this messy marriage business and just letting Jane warp into a full-blown dictator makes no sense, even couched within the idea that ‘characters change.’ Yes, characters change, but there’s generally a reason for it! And not a shitty deus ex machina reason such as ‘John makes a choice!’ What even fucking happened to Candy Calliope anyway? She just fucked off somewhere? How do you sincerely throw a character away like that and then have the gall to wink at the audience as if what you’ve done makes sense? Changes in character are generally brought on by catalysts in their life! Trauma, joy, death, new settings, new ideas, events! Not... John deciding to eat a plate full of candy. If we had insight into Roxy’s thought process behind ditching Calliope and marrying John and having a kid on a whim, this might be saved. But we don’t even get a glimpse. Instead we’re pawned this shitty excuse for a very glaring departure from what we knew about Roxy. Character development is just that -- development! As in to become more complex or advanced! Roxy has made wrong choices in the past, yes, but her reasoning was laid bare in such a way that those wrong choices made sense for her to make. She then makes different decisions later because she learned from her wrong decisions. This is development! Her character is learning and changing behavior because of the things they’ve been through! Her reasoning for this awful series of bad choices is just... not explained, despite going against a ton of shit Roxy has learned. It’s slipshod. It’s careless. It’s sacrificing the tree to showcase the topper. The audience isn’t vested in this Roxy because she’s seemingly robbed of her agency, and then they’re trying to foist this idea that she somehow still has agency on us as if they didn’t preface the entire timeline with ‘well, all this shit is going to happen because we decided it and no other reason!’

Now: the praise. This bit of dialogue has huge implications for ‘non-canon’ dynamic. No, not ‘non-canon’ in the cheeky way the epilogues and HS2 claim to be ‘non-canon.’ I mean ‘non-canon’ as in this blog that I run and all the blogs that you, the reader, are writing and reading as well. Roxy’s insistence that characters change can swing the other way, too. Characters can develop in bad ways as well! Not bad as in bad writing, but bad as in flawed character reasoning! Suppose what Roxy learned from her time in HS1 was that most things can be solved by unvoiding fix-all solutions into existence? Then we might be able to see her trying to fix the human-troll-population issue by just... making more planets! Or unvoiding some sort of device trolls could wear that inhibits hivemind tendencies! That would be interesting and perhaps morbid to write about!! It would at least track with her past experiences!!! Or better yet: perhaps she actually takes a side against Jane (as she has done in the past) but instead of using their friendship as the moral plating, she went right into sarcastic arguments FOR eugenics to demonstrate how bigoted Jane was being? That’s a very Roxy thing to do!! She could have made the argument that if trolls need eugenics to suppress their violent tendencies, then so should humans! Having read about the Condesce’s eugenic practices during her formative years, this should have been fairly obvious to Roxy that what Jane was suggesting was from the same playbook, at least.

But I digress. What this bit of dialogue really does is give credence to us, the audience, in exploring these stories we’re currently writing for these pre-established characters. YES, canon Rose likely didn’t dabble so thoroughly in game magics, and she likely didn’t have as much anxiety as my Rose. BUT I prefaced my Rose’s current state with a bunch of events that make sense! She missed her rendezvous with the others! She had to float adrift, alone in a broadcast satellite, for nigh on a decade! She’s had a long fucking time to develop all these anxieties and mental illness because that’s what happens when you’re isolated for years! It is a tool I use to express my own anxieties and explore how someone might somehow overcome them! And most importantly: she’s still Rose. She has unprocessed mother issues. She cherishes her friends. She’s more than a bit gay. And she knows when the meta is using her and when it’s not, because she’s had a traumatic experience being used by Doc Scratch as a plot device. And that trauma isn’t going away (well, unless she gets therapy, but given the setting we’re writing... not likely), so she’s going to be overly cautious when it comes to big decisions involving her friends. What she’s not going to do is suddenly abandon everyone she’s departed from because uhhh Jade ate some bread the wrong way or whatever.

tl;dr: What this section of the epilogues/HS2 (well, really just this bit with Harry Andersen, Tavros, and Vrissy that is somehow more interesting than virtually EVERY OTHER PART of HS2) is telling us, the audience, is that it is good to diverge from canon. Non-canon characters will still have very real feelings and face very real consequences for their actions. Just... don’t do it like they did it. All these characters we’re writing for and all these events we’re writing around them... they’re valid! They matter! Just because they’re not canon doesn’t mean others are willing and wanting to read them, and that makes them important! Unfortunately, this also means the epilogues/HS2 are important, but let’s ignore that for now. What I’m trying to say is: be indulgent! Write the things you want to write! As long as they’re well-reasoned, they’re good writing! Characters can be overpowered! They can be cliche! They can have teenage problems as an adult! Just... give them a good reason.))