#this specific set of dialogue doesn't work as well for their original personalities

[kalinara]

So one thing I really love about the Original Five in the future issues is how so many artists have such wildly different takes on Scott Summers's design, but each one works incredibly well for their respective contexts.

Take this one, from All-New X-Men #1:

This is the first look at Baby Scott that we get. Immonen's Scott here looks a lot like the Scott we see in the original issue that this is referencing:

I included the third panel because the resemblance is the most striking there. All cheekbones and suit that's just a little too big. A very young man trying to fill a big role and doing it about as well as anyone can.

I'm going to put the rest of these behind the cut, because this is a very image heavy post.

Anyway, as soon as we get to the past, the depiction of Scott changes sharply.

Six issues and one day later (All-New X-Men #007), Scott looks profoundly different:

He looks younger, softer, and that furrow in his brow is not going to be going away any time soon. Understandable. This poor kid has been through the wringer and life is not done with him yet.

Dauterman's Cyclops in...Cyclops #2 is pretty consistent with this portrayal:

He looks young, adolescent. A bit softer in the face. Perpetual furrow is still there. Well, not actually in this particular shot, but trust me, there's lots of furrowing in this series.

See? (Cyclops #03) Corsair can really bring out the furrow in a kid.

Actually, I hate to say it, but Corsair actually seems to have done this kid some good. The Cyclops that we see in the SECOND run of All-New X-Men actually seems almost confident again.

Bagley's Scott still got his issues, but aside from the scrawniness, he looks damn near adult. But also mostly content. This road trip that the team is on, away from the adults and the pressure, seems to be good for him.

Even injured, he seems to be doing pretty well (from All-New X-Men #12):

This is notable to me, because this issue came out in August 2016. Fast forward to late 2016 (specifically Champions #3), and we get:

Ramos's Scott is completely recognizable of course, but he is, very clearly, a CHILD, in a way that none of the previous versions really get to be.

And it works. It makes perfect sense. Because this is the first time since the plane crash where Scott has been able to actually be a CHILD. He's not leading the group, he doesn't have to set an example. He can just play too. He can, as he tells Ms. Marvel much later, actually relax.

But all sweet things must come to an end, and the Scott in X-Men Blue #01 is back to form:

Jean's actually leading the team, which is nice. And there's some very nice banter. But Molina's Scott is very much back to proto-adult here. (And while Jean is leading and starts the scene in front, Scott's positioning makes complete sense when the next page reveals who they're actually reporting to - Magneto).

I'm not really an art person. Generally I pay a lot more attention to things like plot, dialogue, and character development than I do the art styles. It's how I got through the 90s. But this has been a neat thing to go back and notice. Each depiction is excellent. Each one is immediately recognizable. But each one says something a little different and fits the story in its own specific way. And that's really cool!

[storm-and-starlight]

revisiting my opinions on which doctors could pull off Heaven Sent

could do it with minimal alterations to the original episode's plot and dialogue

Twelve - obviously

Eight - could 100% pull off the speeches and the angst and, of course, the memory loss. The episode would definitely be focused a little more on the great tragedy of dying over and over and over again just in the hopes of making it through enough loops to break out, and Eight would be much much more of a sad wet cat about it all, but he could totally pull it off.

Seven - would take a bit more tweaking than Eight (specifically to change the focus of the episode to the puzzle of it all, finding the right room and figuring out the secret of the Veil), but would 100% punch his way through the wall and be able to pull off the speeches.

could maybe do it? but with pretty major edits

Four - definitely has the charisma and the ability to give the speeches, but I don't know if the speeches as written would fit well into how Four talks, and he'd also need the same tweaking at Seven to make it more about solving the mystery, rather than the very atmospheric style of the original. The wall scene would also probably have to be reworked, since Four doesn't really seem like the type to punch through it in the exact same way as Twelve.

Three - could and would punch through the wall and would do it in half the time of Twelve but couldn't carry off the angst or the atmosphere, so you'd need some pretty dramatic rejiggering of the major stylistic choices in order to make it work. Honestly, you might have to really lean into a, like, horror/thriller kinda thing, with the pursuit of the Veil?

could pull off a focus episode but would need a fundamentally different style

Ten/Fourteen - absolutely has the screen presence but they need someone to talk to in order to get it, and the same is true of their problem-solving style. They need someone to bounce off of as an antagonist and as a companion -- basically, they need the same setup as Wild Blue Yonder, which is basically exactly what Fourteen's version of Heaven Sent would be anyways. (Also Ten doesn't do speeches like Twelve does, and definitely wouldn't punch through the wall -- his problem-solving style leans more towards the whole "push a single button that sets off a chain reaction that solves everything" rather than sheer stubborness. He doesn't have the attention span for the wall.)

Nine - Nine also has the screen presence but his comes when he's angry at something, which means that he needs something to yell at, so he would also need another speaking being present in the episode for him to get really really mad at. Think Dalek but without the Rose subplots?

probably not (note: the major reason why none of these work for Heaven Sent is because they're all Doctors that work best with an ensemble cast around them -- they sacrifice intensity and screen-presence for the sake of letting other characters shine)

Eleven - doesn't have the screen presence for that kind of intensity, alas. He could pull off the speeches in his own style, but he's not hypnotic while doing them the same way Twelve is, and he definitely doesn't have the type of personality to pull off the wall. His best emotional episodes are smaller and closer to the heart, and Heaven Sent is anything but small.

Five - could not pull off the speeches or the wall or the puzzle. He's a sweetheart and a golden retriever but he's not nearly dramatic enough to carry a solo episode like that.

Two - same as Five, really

One - just... no. I can't pull out any reasons (it might just be that he's from an era of television that was so very different in how it constructed stories), but no

no clue

Fifteen - hasn't been around long enough for me to get a sense of his personality

Thirteen - never really had a consistent personality in the first place. or any good emotional episodes so I don't feel like I know her well enough to make a judgement call

Six - just straight-up haven't seen very much of his run so I couldn't say how he'd fit in Heaven Sent.

[madeup-community-episodes]

Theoretics of Bisexual Lighting

Background: The Dean rents out a gaudy hotel venue for a Greendale faculty only dance and NOTHING ELSE THIS WAS ALWAYS HIS PLAN (lying). Its all nicely decorated and he even got some LED lighting, specifically bisexual lighting, which is pointed out by Abed. A-Plot: Troy and Abed decide to go together as each others platonic dates, but the atmosphere gets Troy REALLY thinking about his and Abed's relationship. (More under the cut)

He looks back and sees that for the past 6+ years he has always been with him, save the rare moments they fought. Troy starts to think about spending the rest of his life with Abed, but the thing is he doesn't want to stress Abed out with anything romantic, he doesn't even know if this feeling IS romance, but he also doesn't think its platonic. Abed notices Troy is avoiding talking to him and asks if he wants to go, but Troy says nothings wrong. Throughout the night Troy gets more and more caught up in trying to categorizes his feelings of Abed into romantic or platonic or even familial. Later on in the night Troy confess he loves Abed and wants to kiss and all that with him but still doesn't know what he wants call it, and Abed's just kinda like 'I mean we could make something up, just for us', which helps Troy a LOT and yeah they kiss under the bisexual lighting and to the song 'Somewhere out there' by Linda Ronstadt :] B-Plot: Jeff and Duncan, the night before, decide to stay the night at the hotel to treat themselves, in separate rooms. HOWEVER, the hotel had a system glitch so Duncan's booked room was given to someone else. Jeff lets him stay in his room. That room happens to be a 'Honeymoon suite' because Jeff wanted to treat himself okay? So first off, they take a name in the middle of the day because the room situation kept them up until late in the night, but someone forgot to set an alarm and they end up missing one hour of the dance. THEN Jeff takes an inordinate amount of time in the shower, missing 30 more minutes of the dance. After THAT Duncan can't find the suit top he was going to wear, only realizing he forgot it at home, which loses them another hour. and after more comedic shenanigans ('dont you dare wear that tie, I am NOT matching with you' 'its the only one I brought Ian.' 'idc'), end up missing 4 hours of the dance, Jeff tries to go down without him- he really doesn't know why he didn't while he was looking for the jacket- but the lock on the door breaks and they're locked in and instead of yknow, calling the front desk, they argue about it. Duncan's like 'Why the hell didnt you just go without me?' and Jeffs like 'maybe I like being around you??' and Ians like 'bullshit, you started ignoring me after I didnt get you the test answers' Jeff is all like 'jesus christ, I know I sucked back then but MAYBE im a different person now and want to actually put in effort to be friends again' and Ians like 'Well-' but his ankle does that thing where it just twists while he's pacing around and he falls HARD into the lighting system of the room and, through the divine power of comedy tropes, turns on the Honeymoon Suite bisexual lighting and jazz music. Jeff goes over to him to check if he's okay and yknow after a heart to heart like that (pretend the dialogue was more emotional Im not good at writing emotional dialogue), emotions are racing and they are looking into eachothers eyes all deep and shit and and gay kiss and make out for the first time. First time SOBER, that is C-Plot: Annie meets one of the caterer girls and she tries so hard to get her number because hoooolllly shit she was so pretty omg. She embarrasses herself a lot and at some point just walks away to the bathroom to cry. Britta finds her and is like 'girl you dont have to bust your ass for anyone just go and ask the world wont explode i prommy' and so Annie works up the courage, goes over shaking and lands the girls number. :]

Extra: The dean rented the venue originally for a furcon but that fell thorough and it was a LOT of money to just waste.

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Okay so. I've been sitting on my full first impressions of the game until after the gameplay reveal, cos I know shit can get twisted in marketing.

I was NOT a fan of the trailer. The vibe was off; I cringed a lot; it gave a off very bog-standard hero team saves the day kind of vibe which I inherently dislike because it seems like Dragon Age has just given up on giving you the freedom to be a bastard, or any kind of character that isn't on rails to be everyone's favourite boy. It also failed to bring any dark fantasy to the table. BUT I know from experience, namely the DA2 trailer (not the CGI one. the other one), that marketing is intent on making Dragon Age look like the goofiest shit possible to appeal to the dregs of society (normies). I watched it. Hated it. Moved on to life stuff.

Now with the gameplay reveal out of the way, I have some more solid takes on everything we now know about the game overall.

Things I liked:

The companions all look pretty cool; I've been excited for Devrin for years now, and seeing that he's a Dalish Elf as well as a Warden is quite exciting to see; everyone else are also not only well designed but don't feel like rehashes of our previous companions (apart from Harding)

The return of multiple weapon sets. Thank fucking god. This may even make archer a viable build again. Also I noted that you only have a set number of arrows which the UI tracks, which I'm a huge fan of

The look and style of Minrathous. I like that Bioware is showing their hard work in coming up with a unique area based entirely around magic-tech and I think the result looks great; I am really intrigued by the dark panopticon vibes and hope that becomes a major theme going forward

Different demon designs. I hope there's a bit more variation as the game progresses, but I liked little details like the Pride demons having some kind of armour aesthetic

Dialogue wheel. No notes; she's here, still the same comforting presence as ever. Praying with fingers crossed that it doesn't turn into a super bland protagonist situation like Inquisition

Choosing a faction in character creation that isn't locked to one's race; this one is a really cool idea and if origins don't come back it can be a decent alternative if the reactivity to your choice is the same as in the prologue

Things I didn't like:

Action wheel. Like. I'm a PC person, so I have no idea what the final UI will actually look like for me. But Bioware hasn't elaborated on their UI style at all and if Inquisition is anything to go by, I'm stuck with shitty console-centred UI for the whole game. I would rather just have the ability bar back, for my sanity.

The two-person companion limit. It automatically restricts people into a specific party build depending on their class and I hate that

The Mass Effect-style gameplay. Party tactics was a HUGE draw to the DA series for me, and is what got me into retro RPGs in the first place. Seeing it replaced completely to the point where we can no longer manually manage our party is a huge disappointment. I am willing to keep an open mind, just because I love Mass Effect that much, but it hurts knowing for a certainty I'm never gonna engage with Veilguard like I did with Origins or 2 as a result

The voice acting. Was this an out of date take, or did everyone sound super flat to anyone else? Especially Neve, who didn't seem to know what she was reacting to, just really wooden. It was disappointing, cos I love her voice overall. Wasn't a fan of Rook's voice but I don't plan to play a man anyway

The breaking pots method of looting. This is gonna feel like such a nitpick but I immediately pulled a face seeing that cos I could TELL some suit somewhere asked the Bioware team to "make it more like breath of the wild" and now for some reason it's not dynamic enough to just click on a crate and choose what loot to take; now Tevinters are storing exactly one (1) random health potion in decorative clay jars around the city (more likely than you think!)

The aesthetic of the veil and spirit stuff so far; it's just all a bit bright and noisy, doesn't really grab me as something fun to explore or fight (again, I'm an Origins girly so I'm biased)

Harding coming back. I know she's cool and everyone likes her and I like her too. In Inquisition. This is just a preference, but if I'm gonna start a new game as a new person I don't want to be inheriting pre-bought friends from the last protagonist ://

Things I HATE:

Why does everyone look like play-doh; it's disconcerting.

Like guys I know DA2 is having a renaissance but I don't think anyone was getting nostalgic over everyone's pudding faces.

Everything put out so far has basically crushed any hope I had for this becoming Dwarf age :/ No new dwarf characters, no mention of Kal-Sharok, Harding being the only dwarf companion basically confirms that dwarves will be unromanceable AGAIN. not a fan

TLDR: This is still definitely not a day-one buy for me. The series has just strayed completely from the genre and format that I loved about the previous games into a full action RPG derivative of games from four years ago. Without the focus on party tactics and the low-tech, dark and gritty worldbuilding from the first two games it just fails to excite me. It looks too much like other games for me to really register it as a Dragon Age game.

I love the story and the world of Dragon Age though, so I do still intend to buy it when it goes on sale, but this is definitely a "wait and see the reviews" situation for me, which is a first when it comes to this series :/

[ceterisparibus116]

Do we know if Matt was blipped or not? How do you think it would be in either case?

AAAAAAA

So yeah, I wrote out a whole essay about how I think Born Again could/should/shouldn't address the blip, and then realized you weren't actually specifically asking about Born Again.

Sorry!

But there are some general non-Born-Again-specific points here, so...I hope this covers what you were asking?

Ahem.

I don't think we have any confirmation one way or the other yet, and I wonder if Born Again will address it. It's been long enough since the blip that I could see them kinda just...ignoring it, unless the blip is a big plot device. But if they want to stick closer to the gritty realism of the original show, it makes sense to not make the blip a big plot device. So I would be very understanding (and even, I think, appreciative) if they chose to just kinda ignore it.

That said, if they include it, I really hope they address the legal implications. TFATWS tried to touch on it (operative word being "tried") but Matt could actually take on clients who've been displaced by the blip or otherwise been affected by the blip.

And then there's the question of how it would affect our characters personally. There, the logistical questions (e.g. "Did Matt lose his apartment?") are less interesting to me, personally, than the psychological questions. Like, how would Matt feel about being blipped? My headcanon, as addressed in my post-No-Way-Home fic, is that Matt would blame himself for not being around to help people for 5 years. Or if Matt wasn't blipped, how would he cope with the trauma of hearing so many people vanish, and then trying to deal with the aftermath as both a lawyer and Daredevil? Like, that man would probably go a week without sleeping just trying to help everyone. Either way, Born Again could address that.

However, it would take a lot of work for Born Again to address the psychological impact of the blip, one way or the other, well. Why? Because your options are either:

a) inform the audience after the fact (e.g. through exposition, dialogue, or inferences) about how, exactly, the blip was traumatic for Matt, so that we can appreciate his healing journey; or

b) show the audience (e.g. through a flashback) how the blip was traumatic for Matt, so that we can appreciate his healing journey.

And both approaches are kinda clunky. Informing the audience about something we didn't actually experience with the character will never be as impactful as watching it unfold. But flashbacks pull the narrative backwards rather than advancing it, and are notorious for bogging down a story.

Frankly, I just don't have a lot of faith that Disney can pull off a blip arc well. I'd much prefer they focus Matt's emotional journey on things that are happening to him now, in Born Again, rather than on things that happened somewhere between the Netflix show and Born Again.

Unless:

c) Born Again is literally set immediately after the blip (if Matt doesn't get blipped) or immediately after Matt blips back (if he does get blipped).

That would be fine, except I don't know how that would affect Born Again's relationship to other Marvel projects like No Way Home, She-Hulk, Echo, etc. And, I mean, personally, I don't care whether Born Again is before or after any of those other shows. I'm watching Born Again for Matt, not to see how it syncs up with Matt going to California to see Jen or anything like that. But Marvel at least claims to be serious about cohesive timelines, so I don't think they'll go the route of (c).

[qqueenofhades]

Do you have a favorite character relationship, platonic or romantic, that’s your favorite to write purely from an author format?

I feel like I’m wording this terribly, but I know for me personally, my favorite relationships to read and write from like… a fandom perspective based on what I ship? is different than the relationships that are interesting to me as an author, because trying to figure out how characters interact, trying to capture their relationship and banter and dialogue and mannerisms, I find in some ways is more fun and interesting and dynamic to write over even some of my absolute favorite relationships, because with my favorites, I read and write them so much that I’m very comfortable with them and sometimes it’s nice to know that I’m just able to go for it and write them because I trust my internal instinct about how to write them and how they act and talk.

But the ones that are more challenging to explore or more unique are in many ways almost more interesting to write, they scratch that author itch when I can pull them off, and especially enjoy.

Like, there’s the things fandom author me enjoys, and things literary author me enjoys, and while there’s a LOT of overlap I have different preferences and favorites on both sides

And honestly I think this goes for ALL writing, not just necessarily relationships? So yeah, there’s the question and I’m so sorry for the rambling, but what would you say are your favorite things and relationships and plots etc to write as a fandom author, and favorite ones as a literary author? I’m happy to try to explain more if I’m being confusing. Words. Hard. Sorry

Are you asking in terms of abstracts (i.e. overall character types/dynamics/broad themes) or specifics (i.e. actual characters/ships from particular media properties)? In general for fandom, I have certain tropes and dynamics that I gravitate toward: i.e. Trashy Garbage Man Falls For Tiny Fierce Woman Who Doesn't Take His Bullshit; Sunshine and Grumpy (any combination thereof); Stupid Homosexuals are Stupid and Cannot Communicate, Cause Problems for Themselves; Now With Even More Literal Centuries of Pining God They're So Fucking Stupid, and more. Most of my favorite and long-term ships, such as Garcy, Fivan, Dreamling, etc. fall into one or more of these categories. I also particularly enjoy or have enjoyed writing Flynn (Timeless), Hob (Sandman), Ivan (Shadow and Bone), and their associated relationships, for various reasons. I know all of their characters well and they give me joy, so it's easy to slip into their POV, create scenarios or headcanons, and put them in various settings and give them problems. So there's that.

In terms of my original stuff, I am much more experimental and interested in a broader range of styles and outcomes. When you're writing fic, you are usually heading toward a certain ending (a happy ending for the blorbos after various tribulations), and I therefore have a certain writing style for fic that reflects that. My original fiction is different and in some ways considerably darker, and pushes character boundaries, plotlines, and interactions beyond what you'll normally see in my fic. For example, I have two currently finished original novels that (and I KNOW I have said this before) I should just quit procrastinating on and publish, especially since I badly need the money. One of them, The Wives, is a dark feminist murder-version of #MeToo with an unreliable and extremely feral female narrator. The other, Wormwood, is an alternate-history science fiction saga that is a combination of The Man in the High Castle and Chernobyl. They're both considerably different from each other in tone, style, and character relationships, and they represent more experimentation, complicated morality, and plot conflict than is generally reflected in my fics, because long-form fandom writing is one kind of thing and original long-form writing is another. So hey.

I likewise am currently working on an original version of my fic The Key of Solomon, entitled The Empire of Bones, which is an epic ensemble political-magical fantasy set in a historically inspired world. @silverbirching has read Part 1 and very much enjoyed it, so I am hoping to finish that one sometime in the new year (probably not sooner, but we will see?) It is likewise quite different from The Wives and Wormwood, and will (I hope) readily appeal to fans of my fics, because it preserves some of the same themes, styles, and character dynamics, while also including a ton of original stuff, extensive world-building, and new plots, themes, and content.

Thanks for the question!

[whatyourusherthinks]

A Quiet Place: Day One

So I wasn't really forward to this. Not because the trailers were bad, they were fine I guess. But because the original A Quiet Place is what I would call a diorama horror movie. It works exclusively in the specific scenario it sets up for itself. Once it starts expanding outward, you start to ask questions that it isn't prepared to answer. I didn't watch the second Quiet Place, by the way. I heard that it wasn't that good so I skipped it. I also keep thinking the title of this movie is A Quiet Place: Year One, so that's a good sign for how well this will stick to my memory.

What's This Movie About?

A dying poet is in New York City when the aliens from the Quiet Place invade, and she teams up with a British law student to go get a last slice of pizza.

What I Like.

At the start of the movie, there wasn't much to like, not gonna lie. The main character was very unlikable and her goal seemed completely random and stupid. But as the movie unfolds and she eventually explains herself, I actually was on board with the pizza plan. (Yeah, you thought I was joking about that. But I wasn't!) I like the law student a lot. The two best scenes in the movie are when they can just relax for a moment and connect. I also think the tension in the movie is very well done. It's not as good as the first movie, as the background music and more dialogue doesn't create a better atmosphere than the first Quiet Place, but A Quiet Place: Fortnite One does one theme that I personally find really horrifying. The idea that a human's instinct in a crisis is to make noise. When we get scared, we scream. If we're hurt, we yell for help. All of our emergency services use cars with loud sirens and to convey information to each other we talk. All of that gets you killed in A Quiet Place: First Century BCE. It's definitely the scariest idea of the setting and the movie takes full advantage of it.

What I Didn't Like.

The aliens in the movie. I don't know if they have official names for whatever they are, so I'm just going to call them the Motherfuckers. The Motherfuckers in the original A Quiet Place were terrifying. They were so fast and strong, that basically making any noise louder than shush became instant death. You basically never saw a bit of them until the end, which is when the family discovers how they can kill them. They were basically an existential threat. You couldn't run from the Motherfuckers, you could only hide by being quiet, and the happy ending of the movie is the discovery of how to fight them.

Meanwhile, A Quiet Place: One Day In Shangri-La turns the Motherfuckers into a horde of idiot grimblies that mindlessly chase anything that makes any sort of noise. My biggest problem is that you see way too much of them. And they look stupid. Their rippling faces are sort of gross, I guess, but I can't not get over their super long arms and giant hands. They look like cartoon characters, especially when they start moving in herds and climb all over the buildings to chase down helicopters. Plus, they get severely nerfed in this movie. There are several moments where characters can out-run the Motherfuckers. That would have never happened in the original movie. Yes, they use car alarms to distract some of them, but still. Plus, in the original movie everyone had to walk on sand barefooted to avoid detection, but I guess walking over shattered glass and rubble in shoes makes the same amount of noise. They also retcon the "can't swim" weakness from the second movie. It's not that the Motherfuckers can't swim, it's that they don't know how to hold their breath. That's fucking stupid.

I have a couple other complaints. The movie is pretty slow, and while I generally liked the pace, it felt a bit shaggy in places. A lot of this movie I wasn't sure if I liked or not, and while I came out mostly positive on them. The cat isn't really one of those things. It's just basically a dog in the movie, but I guess as the weakest justification to keep it alive through some really dumb moments. The cat is the catalyst for the weirdest scene in the film. The law student needs to chase it into a destroyed construction site, where there's this alien fungus that all the Motherfuckers come to eat and I don't know what this is in the movie. Maybe to explain what the Motherfuckers actually feed on since they don't eat the things they kill? But if their only food source came from the planet with them I feel like they should've all died out before the first movie.

Final Summation.

A Quiet Place: Day One is fine. I kinda liked it even. It really does come down to the characters though, speaking with my coworkers who watched the movie with me, a lot of them thought it was too slow and was putting them to sleep. But it worked for me.

[agent-cupcake]

hellooo! i admire your writing so much and would love to hear more about your ~process~. how much do you plan, what do you like to know before diving in, that kinda thing <3

Oh I love talking about myself you really shouldn't have opened up the floodgates

(but since you did...)

I don't really have a process I follow. Even if I do plan things out, I can't ever stick to it so mostly it's not worth the effort. For the most part, everything begins by taking story concept and character and writing down little scene snippets in an empty doc, or on my phone. Usually this is dialogue or sensory stuff, and a lot of times it doesn't make it into the final draft because my obsession with keeping to what I feel is more character accurate. The point is to set the tone, I guess.

Not that its relevant, but some of my favorites of these starting snippets that were in the final product is Junpei showing reader her own funeral and Emet-Selch dunking on reader's hopes and dreams at the end of Devil's Bouquet.

Anyway, from there, I flesh out that starting line, add more little snippets or even ideas for other scenes, and almost always write the ending, or at least write out the portion of the ending that I see as "the point" of the fic. This can be a segment of dialogue, a paragraph of emotional language, or even just a sentence to remind myself of the moment that every word I write is building up to support. That's the break of tension between the characters which, in my case, is usually the part right before or around the smut (but usually not the smut itself, as I see that as the tension builder or tension release rather than the "climax" ((haha)) itself). I didn't used to do it this way, but it's so much easier to write when you have a working knowledge of the core of your story.

You know, like your basic moral lessons: Make sure your mother doesn't marry into a family with a stepbrother who is a bully and pervert. Don't engage in a power struggle with Claude. Think twice before being too friendly with old British men.

Obviously this is a joke but yeah, I definitely could come up with single sentence explanations for any of my fics. No matter how far along in a story I am, before I decide on "the point", it's kinda a mess. Often times when I am cutting scenes, it's because it doesn't fit this specific vision. In cry foul, Sylvain and reader originally met at the wedding and he was a lot more honest about his intentions throughout, but rewatching scenes with him made me realize that my starting premise was flawed and so it all got cut and my focus shifted more onto the games he was playing with her. In Asteria, I have the scheme between Yuri and Aelfric set, but reader was going to be more of a sleuth about it (the original plot of this fic was unhinged ngl) but then I changed to make her a lot more of a charming country bumpkin sort of character so it could be smaller scale and more self contained, more focused on how reader feels about Yuri. I want to account for as much of the world and setup as I possibly can to make the payoff more satisfying. Somnambulant exists as it does because I kept adding little notes for scenes I thought were necessary which then saw a lot of elaboration to justify itself. Also characters have a tendency to run away from me. I'll add scenes or segments simply because the characters demand it. Sylvain wasn't supposed to take reader's panties but then it happened and I had to deal with it. There are a lot of small things too. In heavensent, I added in that she was sitting in a chair last minute because I felt like it smoothed out their movements and the DP thing just happened because I thought it was... Not funny, but contextually... Yeah. Forever ago when I wrote Welcome to Dead House, I straight up retconned reader's personality entirely because she was too well adjusted, so I added the therapy scene and mental breakdown.

Um. Yeah. I think the point of me saying all of this was just to say that I don't really go in with much of a plan or anything as I maybe should, I just live my bliss and see what happens. The stuff that I love the most in anything I post is usually the unintended things that spring up when I'm "in the zone" because that's when I feel like I get the best banter/dialogue and most intense scenes.

Anyway thank you for coming to my TED talk

[caparrucia]

I just finished God of War Ragnarok, and I wondered what your thoughts on it were? I loved all the little callbacks to the first one throughout the game

I hope you enjoyed it, anon!

I really enjoyed my playthrough right until I hit post game and the combat really started to piss me off. It was a bit disappointing. It's not unique to Ragnarok, I had similar issues with the combat in 2018, but the fact Ragnarok had so many moving pieces to its combat (4 weapons, if you count barehand/fists, and different amulets and two arrow sets, and artifacts, and such an emphasis on special effects in armor sets... etc.) really made the places where battles became essentially puzzles with very specific answers, and if you're not willing to meet the game in its own terms, you're gonna have a Bad Time. My bone with gear-based combat is that it reaches a point where your skill level doesn't matter. Your understanding of mechanics and combat doesn't matter. If you're not geared up appropriately, the game will not let you through, or will make the experience excruciatingly obnoxious. I found the valkyrie fights, and specifically Sigrun, to be one of the best combat experiences in a game, because it became... a conversation, of sorts. I did not feel that way, about a lot of combat encounters in Ragnarok. Some of the berserkers were incredibly infuriating because it seemed like anything I tried to respond with resulted in a loud "NO, WRONG! TRY AGAIN!" from the game, because I wasn't spec'd properly, and I mostly ended up overleveling to tank damage and get through some of the toughest fights. The fight with Gna was frankly disappointing, when compared with Sigrun, because it had a lot more about status effects and pushing towards specific needs in your gear load out to make your way through it. Which to be perfectly fair, it's a logical extension of the original gear-based combat in 2018, it's just not one I particularly enjoy.

That's about the only thing I didn't like about the game. Everything else?

Holy fuck.

The music, the visual compositions, the camera work... I've heard quite a few criticisms about rushed writing, but I think the writing of the entire game is superb. I think it's definitely much more effective than 2018's - I think the "Atreus goes mad with power" sections of 2018 are pretty maligned and often blown out of proportion, but Ragnarok definitely doesn't have a section like that. I think the writing reveals a deep understanding of the component blocks of each character and a clear, chartered plan to where they're going. I love that the twists are very well setup and you can actually call them if you're detail oriented (@darkpuck clocked The Spoiler in my streams over an accent mark!) and that the development feels like pay off. Most of the story and writing in this game is just. Aggressively to my taste. People in my streams called out that Kratos echoes a lot of my personal choices writing characters like Cor and like... yeah! Yeah! He's pure Rie-nip. It's great.

The music is absolutely gorgeous and works fantastically well with the visual design. I love the care put into every bit of everything that appears on screen. There's a lot of love and thoughtfulness put into every aspect of this world, distinct design that creates tiny dialects and languages across the different groups of people, the different cultures. I specially loved the way the team clearly knew the mythology, and every specific choice they made, that changed or contradicted the mythology, was done purposefully and with enough build up that it felt like a fucking wink. It was amazing.

I'm going to be having feelings about Kratos, Freya and Mimir wandering the realms and having adventures and figuring out shit for approximately forever. It was a GOOD game. (I just got really salty about the post game combat.)

Speaking of callbacks, the way the most important scenes in the entire game reuse dialogue from the previous one, but fundamentally changing its meaning in the process just... GodDAMN.

I seethe with envy and jealousy at the master skill on display.

[unhumanrights]

Potential Lower Decks fanfic and fanfic-adjacent ideas (and it turns out some talk about writing insecurity, which is the first four paragraphs so you can skip if you want)

LONG INTRO

I'm about to type a LOT of stuff. This whole post got longer than I thought it would.

So, I have my AO3 account, finally. I don't have any other creative projects. What's stopping me from writing some fanfic already?

MYSELF. I AM THE PROBLEM.

Okay, I'm exaggerating for comedic effect! I will admit to still being nervous about writing something that's not my own brainchild, though. "What if I get it wrong?" I ask myself. "What if it doesn't sound anything like the show?" I am working on convincing myself that neither question is that important. I may not get it EXACTLY right, and it may sound more like my versions of the characters than the canonical versions, but...who cares? As long as I'm doing my best and being true to the spirit, isn't that good enough? That's what I'm trying to tell myself. And also, self, no, it's not going to sound like the show. That doesn't make it WRONG. You're not a professional comedy writer, are you? No. You're not writing this for a paycheck, are you? No. So stop worrying about it!

I'm trying to tell myself this.

So, anyway, that was a long intro to say that I'm going to now do the other thing that writers do when they are scared to actually write: I'm going to talk about writing. And also plan a research project!

LOWER DECKS RESEARCH PROJECT

Actually, let's talk about the research project first. I thought I might do a second rewatch of Lower Decks, with the goal of writing dossiers for each character. Gather known facts, of course, but also take special note of dialogue and interaction. What the characters say, how they say it, what kinds of jokes are usually targeted at them, how they are with specific characters, you get it. A real resource for my own writing, and something I'd also like to put out there for others who might want to use it. Seems like a lot of work for fanfic, but I do love having a project, and this is a long-term one. Plus, it will train me to make detailed characters of my own. Also plus, it will make me feel like an anthropologist or a spy, gathering intel on my subjects, and I am a creep like that.

Okay, and now to talk about what I might want to write!

ACTUAL FANFIC IDEAS

I've already talked about some ideas I've had. Mostly, the AU stuff. My mind keeps going back to it, so it seems it may become a reality someday. I was thinking of changing the tentative name of "Spell Trek" that I came up with for my fantasy AU, since it's the name of a board game, but I figured it doesn't matter that much because it's not like I'm selling these stories, and I don't think there will be market confusion. Haven't come up with much else beyond some scattered thoughts for the setting, but I'm pretty sure it will be a straightforward conversion. You know, swap sci-fi for fantasy. Probably have them all flying around in airships instead of spaceships. Might be interplanar travel instead of interstellar. Phasers? Well, that's just a stun wand. Shields? That doesn't really change, it's just a magic shield instead of a science one. The biggest question I have right now (just popped into my head) is how to handle "warp." I have to figure out how planar travel works, I guess. I'd also have to think about whether I want to keep all the species intact or kind of play around with them a bit. Wouldn't be that hard to make Vulcans elves, or Klingons orcs. Plenty of worldbuilding to do, is the point.

The second idea I had, which is actually still applicable to the first, is the matter of story format. I've been toying around with different ways to write lately. I COULD just write in the traditional prose way, like you would find in a book. DIalogue, action, description. First or third person. You know.

I was thinking, though, that I might want to write scripts instead. I've toyed around with it when writing original fiction. I don't really follow the proper TV format, though. Very loose style. But I figured, if I wanted to emulate the show as closely as possible, then maybe a script makes sense for me. Not sure how many people want to read scripts, but maybe SOMEONE out there would like them.

Oh, on a related note, I was also thinking of writing stories as transcripts. Similar to the script, but particular style. I had three possible notions to go with this idea:

The Lower Deck Five (T'Lyn for the win), or maybe just a couple of them, decide to make a piece of ancient Earth entertainment known as a "podcast." "The Cerritos Experience," or something like that. Just a place to talk about missions, gossip, whatever. So, my stories would be transcripts of their podcasts. I think this one is my favorite.

Stories told through personal logs. Could just be one character's, or could be multiple characters' talking about the same events.

Perhaps Captain Freeman decides that she needs visual records of all missions from now on, so now away teams wear bodycams or have drones or something. Transcripts of the videos that they produce.

I don't know, there's just something I like about the simplicity of scripts and transcripts. You still have to have a good story to tell, but it feels easier, in a way. For my, anyway. Eh, I'll probably end up writing traditional prose, too, but I do want to experiment with one of these ideas (probably the podcast).

Sorry I wrote so much. Hey, you didn't HAVE to read it. Thanks if you did, though. Let me know if any of this sounds interesting.

[pebblysand]

Hi there, I’m extremely new to fic writing and I have trouble making the characters thoughts and speech feel natural, everything I write feels very mechanical.

I can’t describe actions in a way which feels realistic. I have no idea how to proceed with my fic right now because I don’t like how I write.

Do you know how to improve my writing?

hi anon! my apologies for the delay here! welcome to fanfiction writing!

your question is very broad. you're not only asking how to improve your dialogue, but also writing character thoughts and actions, which are all very different things. i will try to give you advice that applies to everything.

1. read things out loud

this is particularly applicable if you are writing in your first language, but i find it really helpful to read out sentences when i want to assess whether a line of dialogue sounds natural, or whether a line of narration is readable/sounds the way i want it to. ask yourself: would myself or someone i know say this? am i having trouble articulating certain words when I read this out? maybe then, you should rephrase. i know a lot of people feel self-conscious about reading their own writing out loud (and that sometimes, it's not possible) but i think it can really help get your writing flow better. i read everything i put out at least once before publishing.

2. study people you like and/or get a beta

if there's a writer you really like, either fanfic and original fiction, try and notice the way they do certain things. what kind of dialogue tags do they use? how do they create rhythm in their sentences? how do they do transitions? if there's anything, writing-wise, that is giving me grief, i always find looking at how other people do it.

and, if you want to take things further, you can of course try and get a beta. i personally think that when you're starting out, getting any extra set of eyes on your work can be helpful, even if it's from someone you don't know. that said, as you grow as a writer, you might find it helpful to get beta-ed by someone whose writing you vibe with, as they might be more likely to give you advice you find valuable. getting beta-ed by someone whose writing i truly admired and whose advice i, thus, really valued was essential to me growing as a writer in my late teens.

3. own your "filler" words

in order to improve your flow and sentences, you will find that a lot of writing advice tell you to cut down on "filler" words. these are words like "in fact," "well", "actually", "really", etc. that allegedly damage the rhythm of your sentences and weaken your prose.

i - personally - think this advice is terribly misguided and comes from people who don't understand that these "filler" words actually create rhythm in our sentences, and relay the personality of our narrators (assuming the narration is a restricted POV of some kind). everyone in the world has a favourite "filler" word they use all the time without realising, it's a very human trait, and everyone has a very specific way they formulate thoughts and sentences in their heads that may need all the "actually-s" and the "well-s" and the "really-s". i think you should definitely use "filler" words, especially if you're trying to give your narration personality, and want to make your writing less "mechanical". filler words, pauses, and hesitations make your narrator feel like a person, rather than a robot telling a story. chat gpt never uses filler words, and you can tell, you know? that's why the prose it writes is so dry.

that said, it doesn't mean that you should litter your work with filler words and never edit anything out. that's dumb and will make your reader roll their eyes. it means that you should use them intentionally. know what they are, where they are, and why they are there. what is your "really" or your "actually" accomplishing, there?

for example: if your narrator is a valley girl in the 00s, have her use all the "like"s she wants in narration, that's fantastic! if your narrator is a pompous lawyer? have him "thus" and "notwithstanding the fact" all the time. and, you can not only use filler words to add grit and personality to your narrator, but also a rhythm to your sentences. because, often, people will read over "filler" words without realising, but their brain will still pause to skim over them, in a way that almost mimics a comma or a pause to think. use that to your advantage.

4. cut (cut, cut, cut)

now, this is particularly true when it comes to dialogue (at least for me), but i find that i often tend to write dialogue that is too verbose. in my first drafts, my characters always explain things in long sentences where it takes them two paragraphs to get to the point, etc. this is a) boring for the reader and b) actually makes your dialogue more stilted and unnatural because most people don't actually usually speak in paragraphs. that's not how human conversation happens.

so, remember to cut. chances are, if you're like me, about 70% of the dialogue you write on first draft can be cut out without it changing the meaning of the scene. also, let your characters say the wrong thing. be imperfect, or unclear. that's how human conversation really occurs and that's how you make your characters sound less like robots who just need to say Everything All Of The Time.

5. tell it like it is

finally, with regard to you not being able to "describe actions in a way that feels realistic", remember that honesty is always the best policy. by which i mean, realism is mostly rooted in just letting things stand and exist the way they are. if your character is getting themselves a glass of water, just say "they got themselves a glass of water." write the way you would say it, and as simply as you would say it, if you were telling this story to a friend. you do not need to tell your reader that the "sun glittered in the flow of liquid as Amanda pulled the shiny piece of metal above the sink and a fountain erupted..." -that's the kind of trying-too-hard sentence that makes me say "fuck off!" and close the tab. if you want your actions to feel realistic, make them sound realistic by narrating as close as you can to the way your character would actually talk.

-

i hope this helps, anon, and sorry again for the delay in answering. let me know if you have any questions :)

[fandomacademy]

Fanfiction 101 - Lesson 1

Today we're going to look a broad overview of necessary knowledge for writing compelling fanfiction. Fanfiction is a release, a way for fans to engage and explore media. It doesn't have to be a work of art, simply a fun thing to do in one's spare time. But the better you are at writing, the more you'll be able to share your work and connect with others.

Fanfics and original works share the same basic recipe. You need characters, a main character (or two), a plot, a message, and a setting. The only difference is that some of the ingredients are already provided for you when writing a fanfic. These ingredients are usually the characters and setting, although AU (Alternate Universe) works tend to change the latter. One of the most popular settings to change to is a fantasy one.

. . .

Now that you know the basic ingredients, let's take a closer look at what goes into a riveting plot.

Plot is what happens in your story. And usually the main character (along with side characters too) has a character arc during this adventure. A character arc gives depth to your character, and shows them growing. This growth can be either positive or negative, although positive is the usual kind, and is easier to pull off well. Positive character arcs are easier for the audience to identify with. It makes it easier for them to identify with your character, as they can see them becoming a good person. Maybe even one your audience wants to be like.

There are multiple different road maps that have been made over the years to help writers plan out their plots. Different ways to structure the path from the start of the story to its end. The most popular one is the three act story structure. Story structures are especially helpful for pacing. Pacing is exactly what it sounds like: making each plot point happen in a timely manner. It is incredibly important for making any and all plot points in your story feel relevant to the reader. This is usually more evident in angst fics, but it's an important tool for any genre.

. . .

Character voice and POV (point of view) are indispensable tools in your writing arsenal. Character voice is the unique way a certain character talks. More specifically, how you write their dialogue and inner thoughts. This makes characters feel more real, and helps give them personality. Here's an example: "This is a bad idea" vs "Yeah...I'm not sure that's such a good idea, guys." Both give different vibes. The first is very blunt and unfiltered, while the second is more unsure of itself.

POV is whose perspective the story is being told from. Is it from the view of a random narrator? The main character? A side character? This also determines what pronouns you use to refer to the narrator. If the narrator is a character in the story for example, the entire work would be them telling their tale, and would be peppered with "I" statements. whereas if it were a random narrator, the events would be told from third person.

Make sure to keep the POV consistent throughout the work. Unless you explicitly tell the reader you're switching, usually done by putting the name of the person whose POV you're switching to at the start of a chapter. POV changes by chapter are the most common, and the least jarring. Changing it while in the middle of a chapter is harder to pull off.

. . .

Let's say now you have the what and who of your story all figured out. But you're still wondering about the why.

The why of your story is the message, or theme. Not all stories are written with one in mind. And they don't have to be! A message adds a bit more oomph to the story, but it's not strictly necessary (especially for fanfics). However, if you have a character arc in your story, chances are you've already got a message. You just don't know it yet.

A message or theme is essentially what your story is trying to say. What do you want readers to take away from your work? Maybe your story is about a teenager who has an abusive and manipulative family, but eventually finds friends who love them, and they create their own found family. The message of your story might be, "blood isn't thicker than water" or, "there's always hope" or even, "if your family is abusive, you should get out".

But now imagine the same story, except instead of finding their found family, the teenager accepts their abusive family and decides "well, there's nothing wrong with this. it's just me." The message would be completely different! Your message and plot are carefully intertwined, even if you don't see the former yet.

. . .

Homework Read a oneshot of your choosing and take notes of what you like and dislike about how the story is told, then look back and see if it can be connected to one or more of the factors we covered today.

[magpiejay1234]

I guess it is also time to discuss the Vanitas-PoH plot a bit, though we will need another time to discuss it more in detail.

So the Japanese term for PoH is Seven Princesses in Katakana, and apparently, the seven princesses existed before X-blade was shattered, so X-blade's light dividing into 7 pieces was actually caused by an original set of princesses, and not 7 original guardians of light, which were basically the reference to Warriors of Light. This I presume dates back to the cosmic fight between Kingdom Hearts, and Original Darkness during the early days of the multiverse, not the War of the Foretellers. So the princesses have been around for a very, very long time, which I guess also explains why there are 13 darknesses, ie. there were likely 13 lights originally, 6 warriors of light, 6 princesses of light, and one who is both, which sort of fits with the current structure of the main cast.

It is unclear, though, if the seven princesses exist for a specific part of the galaxy which is where the new worlds were born, exist for each galaxy specifically, or there is a universal constant for them, which means other universes have their own seven princesses (which would mean Realm of Unreality would have its own set of seven).

The dub also makes it confusing by using the term for all women with pure hearts of light, though Japanese dialogue states the term only refers to the seven maidens most powerful in light. This causes a bit of an issue

**English, and Japanese dialogue both basically confirm that there are an indeterminate "n" amount of women in the multiverse that have pure hearts of light, but each iteration of seven princesses only have the universe select the specific seven most powerful, or appropriate.

***Given the nature of X-blade forging, this would then imply that Xehanort could have simply chosen a pure heart of light that was not part of the main seven, this probably would have caused complications, though Xehanort's actual goal is not to forge the X-blade, but use Kingdom Hearts to restart the multiverse, so even an improperly forged X-blade would have worked for him, as seen in BBS.

**The usage of term "maiden", going by Japanese context, implies that once a pure light hearted maiden enters a marriage, their status as one of the seven lights is lost, and the more literal readings have more hilarious implications. This makes some sense in the Japanese context, with Shinto beliefs about purity, and youth, but as a magic power system, this is just odd.

***This also implies that since Elsa, who is implied to be into women in the mainline Disney continuity, can theoretically remain a seven heart of light in perpetuity, since Japanese context would not consider a marriage with a woman "true marriage", but Anna cannot.

***This is doesn't cause much issue with the original princesses of heart, since besides Kairi, they all gave up their power to stop Ansem SoD before their marriages (well, Alice is the exception).

Of course, Kairi not being reshuffled, while explained in canon with KH1, causes a bit of thematic confusion. While it is true that there is generally one Chaos Emerald, or Dragon Ball that remains in place whenever they are reshuffled, the one Chaos Emerald, or Dragon Ball that remains in place is generally depowered. Kairi was not when the Princesses gave up their power, she was depowered due to the creation of Naminé, which means the seven lights do not have work in concord with each other (and whatever light elemental power the person with pure heart will remain regardless whether they carry the seven lights, or the universe selects them as one of the seven princesses, which are independent events that occur in parallel).

****

Now that is over with, let's talk about the Vanitas part.

So Vanitas needs the seven lights within the princesses to reforge the X-blade, and Xehanort is using that as a cover for his actual goals in BBS. Cool.

However, Xehanort already has Maleficent steal one of the pure lights with Aurora, which means Vanitas should attack Maleficent in Enchanted Dominion, not Aurora's body with its vestiges of light.

Granted, Vanitas heavily implies that whole thing was a means to get training enough to absorb Ventus (Deep Space events particularly occur because of this, since Jumba's Experiments, being biological superweapons, serve as decent opportunities for this), which is his actual immediate goal, but that also causes issues in the BBS plot structure.

That said, rather than dwelling on the seven princesses, it would probably made more sense if Vanitas was seeking to disrupt light wherever, though it would still cause issues with Deep Space, where the Unversed are tormenting Jumba, and Stitch before their respective redemption arcs.

This may be another artifact of BBS's earlier concept as a Sora solo game on PSP*, where Unversed were supposed to be the minions of a sealed evil from the past, rather than manifestations of Vanitas himself specifically (which seems to be what the current canon is, ie. Unversed are the most basic form of corruptive darkness, manifested by the pieces of 13 Darknesses, and other dark beings associated with them, not something unique to Vanitas whatsoever), but in the finished story proper this causes issues.

*Though this also makes me wonder what was Nomura's original plan was for a prequel. He was obviously not going to make a prequel about Apprentice Xehanort, and others, since Days sort of covered that, maybe the original, original plan was supposed to have Purebloods instead, with Unversed being associated by the different 13 Darknesses instead.

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

while i decide on formatting you get the sneak preview of my two first reviews of my deeply deeply deeply subjective opinions about batman and movies. these are not objective value critiques these are my personal taste

batman returns (1992) - as with the first michael keaton movie, the style of these is just so different from what i like in the storytelling of a movie and what i like about batman that is hard for me to open my heart to it, but this one is much more coherent than Batman (1989). The focus on the origin stories of catwoman and the penguin was interesting, and I liked Shreck as an asshole ceo type antagonist. The hard thing with the penguin is that while i know this predates always sunny and i know that danny devito can act with range, everything he says as penguin just registers as frank reynolds to me. Catwoman did do the important furry behavior of licking her glove and cleaning her face for no damn reason which is important to me but I wish her dialogue was more than just zingy one liners. Bruce feels like he is barely in this one tho. that's what having two villains does i guess. And i don't like that Penguin beefed it at the end. I don't feel like Batman was concerned enough with the sanctity of life in this one tbh. It does get points for committing to a strong aesthetic and campy vibe. It has personality. It does feel like a world that can handle a man dressed as a bat. Also made me realize that this is what the lego batman games draw heavily on for batcave design, gotham design, and soundtrack so that was a pleasant familiar surprise. A good alfred portrayal as well. Visually, I don't love michael keaton as bruce, he just doesn't match in my mind. Also the rubber cowl is so stupid.

Batman (1966). my beloved, my childhood friend, my joy of joys. This movie makes me want to throw up it is so funny in a specific way. The absurd lines delivered with the most serious gravitas. It makes me want to hurl its so perfect in the contrast. The riddles make less than no sense, they are incoherent. The plot holes are gaping and the dialogue full of shovels to enlarge them and it just keeps plowing ahead. Burt Ward is honestly an amazing dick grayson for the balance of immediate rage and cracking his knuckles ready for violence with Holy Sitting Ducks Batman sparkle to him. Joker with his painted over mustache also serves. The plot makes no sense. Not a damn thing makes sense. It is beautiful it is a work of campy sixties art. It is a parody of the much earlier serials that does not register as a parody today. It is a comic book come to life. The aesthetics, the costumes, the sets, the vehicles - chef's fucking kiss. This movie is absurd and is acted with seriousness. The villains almost win bc Dick doesn't want to watch his father figure make out on the date they're surveilling. Alfred however is down to voyeur. Everyone should watch this movie at least once with an open heart. downside is 60s batman is best buds with the police and operates in broad daylight most of the time. but i can forgive that for such glorious lines as an abrupt cut to

Robin: Gosh, Batman, the nobility of the almost-human porpoise. Batman: True, Robin. It was noble of that animal to hurl itself into the path of that final torpedo. He gave his life for ours.

[erdasmcnonsense]

Okay I'm gonna put this under a readmore to spare everyone following either of us that did not sign up to listen to my long ramblings from having to scroll over a miles-long post, but

The original text is a snippet of Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, the Debate of Finrod and Andreth, which is a draft of... well, a scene, a dialogue, between Finrod, an elven king, and Andreth, a human wisewoman, on the nature of humans and elves and why humans are mortal and... a bunch of other things. I have a catholic (and autistic about catholicism) friend who said something about original sin being relevant? idk my understanding of christianity is very surface-level, i'm not even nominally protestant christian on paper the way most people in Finland are, let alone devout catholic christian the way the author was, so. yeah, idk. Anyway point being, as far as I can tell it's largely a worldbuilding text exploring certain metaphysical aspects of the setting that are relevant but not necessarily explained in detail in the bigger stories.

However the last 1300 or so words of the text are less devoted to philosophical worldbuilding debate, and instead focus on the fact that Andreth was in love with Aegnor, Finrod's brother, and Aegnor was in love with her, and it was just a whole thing. That part is in my opinion easier to translate just because while there's the issue of the archaic language (which, in my opinion, my translation does not sound archaic enough in Finnish, but it's kinda like, so much of that tone comes in the original text from the use of the archaic informal second-person singular pronoun thou, which... well, we both know that sinä is not a particularly archaic word in Finnish, so i'm struggling to find grammatical structures and words in Finnish that would create the same archaic tone, tbh), at least the topic of conversation is fairly straightforward, and the characters' emotions and attitudes and what they're getting at when they're speaking are fairly easy to get.

Meanwhile most of the rest of the text is like... there's just so many meanings and intentions and like, really kind of big and complicated concepts of very fundamental parts of the way the setting works, that I need to first manage to grasp in the first place despite the purposefully archaic language myself, before I can translate it right. Because it does no good translating the words themselves if you're failing to understand the nuances and deeper meanings of it. And then through it all, although this is a fantasy setting, there's that weird undercurrent going on between the lines that I can kinda tell is like, there's some what i suspect to be heavily christian ideas in there, and I feel like there's the possibility that one reason I'm struggling so much to comprehend certain elements is that I don't have a deep understanding of christian mythology and worldview to provide me context to them. So that fact that the topics of conversation in much of the text are very complicated theological-philosophical-metaphysical stuff is what's making it hard to translate.

The author of the original text is J.R.R. Tolkien, so, you know, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion and all that (i'm a huge Tolkien nerd). Athrabeth is one of the many posthumously published things Tolkien wrote, specifically published with his son Christopher Tolkien's commentary in Morgoth's Ring, the tenth volume of the History of Middle-Earth series (the HoME has never been translated to Finnish, and i don't know whether it's because the Finnish publisher doesn't believe it'd pay itself back well enough, or because they can't or don't want to get anyone to translate the really long stretches of narrative poetry, sometimes in meters difficult to do in Finnish (the Lay of Leithian for example is written in rhyming couplets of iambic pentameter, and iambic meters generally tend to be a pain in the ass to translate to Finnish due to the way Finnish does word stress) that some of the volumes have).

But like, for example here is a small bit from the harder part of the text:

'Nay, I do not believe this,' said Andreth. 'For that would be contempt of the body, and is a thought of the Darkness unnatural in any of the Incarnate whose life uncorrupted is a union of mutual love. But the body is not an inn to keep a traveller warm for a night, ere he goes on his way, and then to receive another. It is a house made for one dweller only, indeed not only house but raiment also; and it is not clear to me that we should in this case speak only of the raiment being fitted to the wearer rather than of the wearer being fitted to the raiment. 'I hold then that it is not to be thought that the severance of these two could be according to the true nature of Men. For were it "natural" for the body to be abandoned and die, but "natural" for the fëa to live on, then there would indeed be a disharmony in Man, and his parts would not be united by love. His body would be a hindrance at best, or a chain. An imposition indeed, not a gift. But there is one who imposes, and who devises chains, and if such were our nature in the beginning, then we should derive it from him - but that you say should not be spoken. 'Alas! Out in the darkness men do say this nonetheless, but not the Atani as thou knowest, not now. I hold that in this we are as ye are, truly Incarnates, and that we do not live in our right being and its fullness save in a union of love and peace between the House and the Dweller. Wherefore death, which divides them, is a disaster to both.'  

and it seems i haven't gotten around to translating that passage yet, so here's a quick and dirty translation (mind you this will not match the earlier in quality even because it was something i did on the spot and haven't really polished):

'Ei, sitä minä en usko', sanoi Andreth. 'Sillä se olisi ruumiin halveksuntaa, ja on ajatus epäluonnollisesta Pimeydestä kaikissa Ruumiillistuneissa, joiden elämä turmelemattomana on molemminpuolisen rakkauden liitto. Mutta ruumis ei ole majatalo, jonka on tarkoitus tarjota lämpöä matkalaiselle yön ajaksi, ennen kuin tämä jatkaa kulkuaan, ja vastaanottaa sitten uusi vieras. Se on talo, joka on tehty vain yhdelle asukkaalle, eikä pelkästään talo vaan myös vaate; eikä minulle ole selvää, että tässä tapauksessa tulisi puhua pelkästä vaatteen sovittamisesta pukijalle, vaan pukijan sovittamisesta vaatteelle. 'Uskon siis, että ei tule kysymykseen, että näiden kahden erottaminen voisi kuulua Ihmisten todelliseen luontoon. Sillä jos olisi "luonnollista" ruumiin tulla hylätyksi ja kuolla, mutta "luonnollista" fëan jatkaa elämää, silloin ei tosiaan Ihminen olisi sopusoinnussa itsensä kanssa, eikä hänen osiaan yhdistäisi rakkaus. Hänen ruumiinsa olisi parhaimmillaankin taakka, tai kahle. Pakote se tosiaan olisi, ei lahja. Mutta on yksi, joka pakottaa ja joka luo kahleita, ja jos sellainen olisi alunalkaen ollut luontomme, silloin meidän täytyisi saada se häneltä - mutta sitä ei sinun mukaasi tule sanoa. 'Voi! Pimeydessä ihmiset sanovat niin kuitenkin, mutta eivät Atani, kuten sinä tiedät, eivät nyt. Uskon, että tässä suhteessa me olemme kuten te olette, todella Ruumiillistuneita, ja että me emme koe todellista olemustamme ja sen täyttymystä paitsi rakkauden ja rauhan liitossa Asumuksen ja Asukkaan välillä. Missä tapauksessa kuolema, joka erottaa ne, on onnettomuus kummallekin.'

I hope you can see what I mean when I say that this is more difficult than the "oh i love him but i'm sad because he loved me but he still rejected me" bit, haha

Lyricstranslate is such a fun website and I wanted to make an account for it but I found out that apparently I have had an account on it for few years already! And I had just completely forgotten that I made it. Well I made a Finnish translation for Where Is Your Rider by The Oh Hellos, if someone wants to check it out. It is probably not the best because the original uses so many odd words and sentences which don't seem to make any sense but I think I managed to translate it at least somewhat nicely :]

Here is the link!

[alectoperdita]

First fill for my @warmandfluffybingocards​​ prompt: kiss on the hand fandom: YGO DM pairing: Seto/Joey

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Nuh-uh!"

Seto paused at the entrance to his kitchen to consider the scene: the Wheeler siblings locked in heated debate and sniping each other across his kitchen island. Nope. Call it a well-honed sense of preservation, but he refused to get involved. There was no way this would end well for him. He'd ask a maid to fetch him coffee instead.

But as he turned to leave, Serenity demanded in the most authoritative tone he'd ever heard from her, "Explain why not!"

Joey audibly faltered. "It's, I dunno. It just sounds like a weenie move."

Now, Seto was inexplicably and increasingly fond of his boyfriend. But sometimes, the words that came out of Joey's mouth could give him an aneurism. Unable to help himself, he spun on his heel and growled, "Weenie? What are you? Five? That's your best counterargument?"

Joey shot him an irritated look. "Can it. Nobody asked ya. Ya dun even know what we're talking about."

Seto bristled. Once again, he prepared to storm out and leave the two to whatever childish argument they were having when Serenity called out to him.

"Wait! No, this is perfect!" Serenity beamed as she slid out of the barstool, crossed the kitchen, and dragged Seto by the elbow. Once they reached the island again, she released him and gently shoved him in Joey's direction. "You can help me demonstrate my point," she chirped.

Seto and Joey shared a look.

Warily, Seto slid his gaze back to her and coolly asked, "What am I supposed to demonstrate?"

That sunny grin never left her lips or dimmed for even a microsecond. She clapped her hands together and declared, "Why a kiss on the back of the hand is the most romantic kind of kiss!"

"I'm not kissing you," Seto blurted out before he could stop himself.

Both Wheelers burst into laughter, causing heat to creep up the back of Seto's neck. He cast a dirty look in Joey's direction, and his boyfriend merely hugged his stomach and laughed harder.

"No, silly," Serenity managed around a mouthful of mirth. "On my big bro, duh."

Seto stumbled a bit under the warm weight falling against his side. He reached out to grip the counter edge and craned his head to glare at his boyfriend, mischievously smiling up at him, his chin planted firmly on Seto's left shoulder. A quick shoulder shrug didn't dislodge Joey, who reacted by threading his arms around Seto's waist. Seto would have to admit defeat, for now.

"She's been binging those Victorian chick flicks," Joey offered as a way of explanation as he leaned even more heavily against Kaiba.

"They're called period dramas," Serenity corrected airily.

"Well, I call 'em snoozefests." Joey let loose a jaw-cracking yawn next to Seto's ear.

She ignored the jab and directed her attention back at Seto. "My point is that you should kiss Joey's hand, so he can admit that I'm right."

"Hey, why I gotta be the chick here?" protested Joey, his arms momentarily tightening around Seto. "I could be the one doin' the kissin'."

Serenity rolled her eyes. "The best way to prove my point is for you to experience it, big bro! Plus, Seto's already your boyfriend, so he's the best candidate." Then after a beat, she added, "He also looks more like the male leads than you do."

"So you're saying he's betta lookin' than me?!" Joey screeched.

Serenity artfully quirked such a thoroughly unimpressed eyebrow that Seto would have applauded her if that wouldn't get him punched. To play along or not... He had no dog in this fight one way or the other, but it was always entertaining to antagonize Joey. Just because. Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched Joey's face fluidly transition through several expressions as he squabbled with his sister. At this point, Joey was entirely relying on Seto to support his weight, nearly blowing out Seto's hearing whenever he raised his voice.

"Joey," he called.

"Wut?" Joey huffed, clearly annoyed at the interruption, but his grip loosened enough in response for Seto to finally slip free of his embrace.

Seto spun to face his boyfriend, who now met his eyes with a newfound wary light. As quick as a viper, he clasped one of Joey's restless hands between his own. Serenity squealed, but they both ignored her. Joey said nothing as Seto ran his long fingers over scarred knuckles and the calluses at the base of Joey's thick fingers. Normally, in private, this would be where Seto would lace their fingers together, and they would sit comfortably in silence with their palms pressed against each other. But Serenity wanted theatrics, something Seto was well versed in.

"Joseph," he added softly. A stroke of inspired genius if he could say so himself.

Wide-eyed and mouth parted, Joey startled at his full name. His entire body jolted as if Seto had zapped him. After ensuring he had Joey's complete attention, Seto transferred his grip to the side of his boyfriend's hand, using both of his own to support Joey's as he turned it palm down. Reflexively, Joey's fingers curled inward to hold his. Biting down a smirk, Seto smoothed his thumb across each knuckle again, never breaking eye contact with the other man. Next, he lifted Joey's hand up. Joey didn't fight the motion and allowed him to raise his clenched knuckles until they were right before his lips. Seto held his gaze and continued to rub small circles into Joey's skin until finally, an unmistakable pink rose in Joey's cheeks.

How far could he push this? Could he wait until Joey turned cherry red?

"Set— C'mon, man, quit playin'," Joey muttered, tortured and almost miserably.

Seto supposed it had gone on long enough. There was a fine line between teasing his boyfriend and tormenting him. Ducking forward, he pressed his mouth to the back of Joey's trembling hand. The skin under Seto's lips was clammy. He lingered there for several seconds, peering at Joey from under his lashes. Joey's flush was nearly crimson now. Seto's heart started fluttering in time with Joey's erratic pulse beating against his fingers.

He broke eye contact and released Joey's hand, but it remained frozen in mid-air for a second after Seto had withdrawn his. Seto glanced toward Serenity, who had both hands clasped to her chest and wore a dopey silly grin that was identical to her brother's, and asked, "Is that enough of a demonstration?"

Her smile threatened to crack her face in half. She tossed a sly glance past Seto. "I dunno. What do you think, big bro?"

Chair legs scuffled across the hardwood floor. Glancing over his shoulders, Seto watched his boyfriend collapse into a barstool and faceplanted on the granite countertop. Joey's face was still visibly beet red from this angle. Even his ear was a crimson blotch standing out against the straw yellow of his hair. "Yeah, it was enough," Joey confirmed in a thready voice.

With a final nod at Serenity, Seto took his leave. As he reached the doorway, though, he heard Joey begrudgingly admit defeat, "Alright, you were totally right." Seto didn't stop the grin spreading across his lips this time.