#to create character arcs and flaws ect.

[lifegrowsfromashes]

Grian can taste Death.

The metallic, cast-iron taste of Death, lingering in the back of his throat. The schizophrenic visions of Death, in the corners of his eyes, flickering like static.

Death follows Grian, like the last thing that’ll stay with him. His friends can get sick of him, his enemies can disappear, but Death, Death remains. And Death is out for him.

He can’t let his friends help; can’t let them get in the way. This fight is between him and the End, only. So, no, he won’t let Scar save him. And no, he won’t let Scar run off, like he’s trying to right now.

They’ve been keeping their distance from each other over the past few days, but Grian can tell when Scar’s planning something. He’s been unpacking less and less, when they settle down to sleep. His agreements to Grian’s plans have been more and more reluctant.

So, yeah, okay, Grian’s been hard on Scar recently. But Scar doesn’t get it. 

Ever since that incident, with the creeper, he’s kept his guard up. He can’t let him go down to red. And, okay, maybe shouting at him and calling him useless isn’t the bast way to do that. But- If Grian doesn’t save him, doesn’t tell him what to do, he knows that Scar will die. 

And he cannot let Scar die. Not again.

So cannot let Scar run off, like Grian knows he’s trying to.

He tries to confront him, when they’re settling down to sleep, in the dirt house. 

Hiding behind his wings, Grian shares across at Scar. The wide, jagged lines of burns raise the skin over his face, distorting his eyes. He’s staring up at the stars. 

“Are you going to leave?” The words startle Scar out of his stupor, and he looks across to where Grian’s laying on top of his sheets.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen you, these past few days. Since that creeper. You’ve been unpacking less and less.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to leave.”

“Well, what- what about the way I acted? The way I was, with you. After. Didn’t you think- you’d be better off alone?’

“No.”

Grian tenses. He watches Scar’s eyebrows knit together.

“Is this your way of trying to apologise? Because it’s not working.”

“I just-“

“I’m not leaving, Grian. What do you want me to say?”

“Well-“

“That you’ve been acting like a dick? That you haven’t been taking my feelings into account? That your brashness hasn’t just jeopardised me, but both of us? I know this is stressful and I know it’s scary, but we have to work together on this. There’s nobody else we can turn to. So no, I’m not going to leave you. And you’ve got to stop thinking like that.”

Scar’s breathing heavily, now. His voice is raised. They both turn towards the door, and watch for something to happen. And then he sees it. 

The shriek. The death call. 

The darkness.

[funkylilworm]

Why I think that killing off Adam was the biggest mistake Viv could make

TW: ranting and spoilers

This entire blog is just gonna be me going on a rant about my opinion on why I think Adam shouldn't of been killed off and why he shouldn't be killed off so early and shit , not only did I not see it as unnecessary for the plot, but there's so much Vivienne could of done for his character other than just throwing the whole character away in just one season , I'll be listing things for what they could of done for Adam's character

1. Plotholes

I'm just gonna say it right here and right now, Adam was killed off waaay too early and not only would we be left with many many plot holes like, where is both of his sons (Caine and Abel), the potential they could of used for his character, and ect.

2. Character potential

^^this fucking scene^^ , because the thought of when Adam first pulling up and being like "Hello, Adam here!!" Is just so fucking funny to me (just less plagiarized, and more unique)

and maybe his arrival leads to his words "Hell is forever" ,his own song gets used against him sense not only did he have the audacity to go to the hotel to get back into heaven but he has said it himself, how redemption isn't possible

But references aside ,Adam can have some potential for his character, like maybe he not only comes to the hotel not only for the intention of going back to Heaven because he hates being down in hell but also for the intention of plotting some revenge for what the hotel residents all did to him

,but the longer he stays there the less and less he tries to plot his revenge , the more and more he realized how flawed heaven and heaven's people are most of the time, and ect.

And ect. and he's so indenial of it at first and doesn't want to believe it but no matter how much he tries there's no denying it , deep down he knows it's true but he doesn't want to believe it

3. Character potential (again)

Like maybe Adam has become fallen in the first place because not only did him sinning in Heaven eventually catch up to him, but maybe also because after finding out the exterminations were unnecessary after Sir Pentious entered the heavens gates, it was finally time for Adam to take his fall

They can also actually start touching on Adam's trauma and how it affects him, his trauma being : being forced into a relationship the moment he was created (Lilith and Eve) , having to be the father and/or decendant of all of the human race , having been kicked out of the garden after Lucifer has second handedly invented evil into the world , and said evil causing his son to kill his other son(which is his and God's fault also)

Like maybe sense Vivziepop is putting a slight different spin to things to Hazbin hotel, she doesn't really having to follow the entire list (sense it's her show) , she can still do something with some of it and still find a way to bring it up and with that it could be the reason behind how he behaves , his personality as a whole, and why he wears that narcissistic mask (while it doesn't necessarily excuse his actions)

4. Character design

If Adam was to somehow end up coming back as a fallen angel, as a sinner. Viv can find a way to go crazy with his fallen design, like any other cartoonist in this world, I know that those cartoonist has seen fanart and fan creations of their shows, movies, and characters

I've seen my fair share of seeing really really good fallen designs for Adam and I'm fucking here for it , they're all so good

,it just needs to happen

5. Character development & redemption arc

Like mentioned in Character potential 2 , Adam can have some potential for his character, like maybe he not only comes to the hotel not only for the intention of going back to Heaven because he hates being down in hell but also for the intention of plotting some revenge for what the hotel residents all did to him

but the longer he stays there the less and less he tries to plot his revenge , the more and more he realized how flawed heaven and heaven's people are most of the time, and ect.

And ect. and he's so indenial of it at first and doesn't want to believe it but no matter how much he tries there's no denying it , deep down he knows it's true but he doesn't want to believe it . Like maybe Adam just still acts the same but without him realizing it or acknowledging it he's just becoming a better person and maybe even comedically he just thinks that the misfits gave him a disease /illness when that's not the case

Maybe in the next seasons he could even become a better father to his sons, Caine and Abel but similar to Lucifer, let them do their own thing sense those two are basically adults now and hey, Adam could be more like a cool dad

I feel like Adam has more cool dad energy

6. The relationships he'll end up making

Just imagine the relationships Adam slowly but gradually builds during his redemption arc, like maybe him and Charlie ending having like an fun uncle and niece kind of relationship or something, maybe slowly but gradually he becomes like another friend of Angel Dust's, and ect.

As he processes through his redemption arc he can end up making friends and building relationships down in hell , possibly in the near future Charlie, Vaggie, Angeldust, Alastor, Cherri bomb, Husk, Nifty, Razzle, and Lucifer doesn't fight against him but with him if another threat were to come

7. There could be another antagonists that's worse or maybe even a bigger threat than Adam

Maybe another antagonists could be made that's more of a mystery and even a bigger threat than Adam , that's just like Adam (or not) but amp up the bad traits he has, maybe this time Adam could be the one helping the others fight and rebel against this guy in his own way

8. Another musical number

Another musical number with them singing badly about heaven in song in the near future but this time with Charlie ,Vaggie, Angeldust, Alastor, Cherri bomb, Husk, Nifty, Razzle, Lucifer, and most of all Adam but the reprise has a metal spin to it and this time Adam joins in and does it with his guitar

9. Another reason she shouldn't of killed off Adam is because she'd be killing off fat /plus size representation

Another reason I feel like Viv shouldn't of killed off Adam is because she'd be killing of fat character representation and I wouldn't want a chubby character like Adam to be killed off

,of course we have Mimzy now but she doesn't count sense she's just one character and only just one character and as much as I love Mimzy I feel like the show needs more than just one or two fat characters

And for the people that think "He isn't chubby" , try again and look at him again , how he sits , lays down (like how he was laying after her got shanked in his arm by Charlie), and ect.

10. I just want some vulnerable moments with Adam

Whether that be Adam bawling his eyes out, having a panic attack, having a mental/emotional breakdown, or ect. I just want to see a vulnerable side of Adam, Adam angst if you will

Okay I'm done ranting, bye <3 <3

[xostrawberry-milkyox]

Hello, I was wondering if you could do a quick thing on some of the popular Gintama men and why they would get broken up with based off of actual bad traits they have in the anime. Like Hijikata would probably get broken up with cause of his dedication to his job. Just why you think they’d get broken up not a headcannon or anything. Came to the realization that Gintama has no decent datable men 😅

I'd actually argue the gintama men aren't 'undateable' but just difficult when it comes to dating. It's only a slight difference and why I constantly say in hc's that they require a special kind of lover.

This also just further proves on why I think Sorachi-sensei never intended to make a canon couple. He created such flawed characters (both men and women), it's no wonder they're all single. It takes a lot to be with these men.

But anyway since they're difficult, here's why someone might break up with them.

(some reasons overlap due to characters having similar experiences/lifestyles).

Breaking Up w/Gintama Boys

• laziness - there are very few people who would put up with laziness. even the people close to gintoki run out of patience at times with how lazy he is.

• gambling - gintoki has multiple unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with his trauma. gambling is one of them. while gintama uses gintoki's gambling addiction for humor purposes, the sad truth is it's considered a disorder.

as well as something veterans and those with substance abuse being more prone to. this is also behavior that requires a lot of patience to handle. some may find it exhausting in a romantic setting.

• alcoholism - another unhealthy coping mechanism. I cannot stress enough that a relationship with gintoki requires an incredible amount of patience. dealing with these addictions can be very stressful, for everyone.

• trauma - he snaps at others easily, he still has nightmares, he has a hard time expressing his emotions, ect. trauma does a lot to a person.

• sadistic - sadism is all fun and games in the bedroom. but gintoki still has his sadistic tendencies outside of the bedroom as well. he says pretty harsh things at times. if his partner ends up being emotionally sensitive, they won't be able to handle gintoki's sadistic nature.

• trauma - we may not have seen how the joui war affected him. but it'd be no surprise that losing friends in battle, never being able to wield a sword again, and finding gintoki and the devastating impact of losing shōyō had on him, katsura, and takasugi would haunt sakamoto. we at least know he's always reminded by the physical scar on his hand.

• stupidity - at first glance as a merchant, one would think sakamoto is really smart. but as we got to know him, we know that's not true. even those close to him get annoyed at having to correct his errors. especially when he makes pretty massive ones (renho arc for example).

trauma is a heavy weight to carry and can be overwhelming when someone doesn't know how to help.

• irresponsible - mutsu. mutsu is constantly annoyed by his behavior. he's always going off to host clubs and ignoring his duties as captain.

• dangerous lifestyle - he's a literal terrorist. it's one thing to be prepared to be with a terrorist. it's another to actually be in the relationship. if a partner cannot handle katsura always putting himself in danger, but also putting themselves in danger just by being with him, it won't work.

• most likely to cheat - sorry sakamoto stans, this goes in line with his addiction to host clubs. it's become routine at this point. he has to be head over heels madly in love with his partner for me to see him stay loyal. otherwise if he eventually gets bored, he'll fall back into old habits.

• trauma - katsura's nickname on the battlefield was 'runaway kotarō'. so you can probably guess how he handles his trauma. this means lack of communication in terms of this topic by deflection.

if a s/o feels that they’re distance to katsura by not knowing him, it could lead to a break up. though really some unwanted topics should be respected. this only applies to a nosy s/o who doesn't respect privacy (just saying I'm not going to act like a s/o is always innocent, everyone has their negative traits).

• dangerous lifestyle - again, a literal terrorist. one that's even worse than katsura. he's even willing to go off by himself as a means to not be hesitant in his actions by those close to him.

• stupidity - similar to sakamoto. having to constantly solve issues that really shouldn't be problems at all can be tiring. katsura lacks common sense at times, it takes some patience to deal with.

• smoking - someone can get into a relationship knowing their partner smokes. but it's another thing when you're actually in the relationship (like the terrorism). he'll blow smoke in his partner's face because he finds their reaction funny. second hand smoking is a thing, and smoke stinks.

people have broken up with others due to smoking, so this one's not really a surprise.

• workaholic - it's as you mentioned, he's always busy with work. he'd have little time for dates or even things like dinner together since he comes home late. not only does he work so much, but he won't talk about it (I'll get into later).

• trauma - takasugi handles his trauma in the worst possible way. violence. I'm not saying I think he'd be violent towards his partner. but imagine seeing someone constantly killing others for revenge purposes. if his partner isn't already desensitized to violence, they'll never survive being with him.

• smoking - same thing as takasugi. either his s/o smokes themselves or can handle him smoking for it to work.

• dangerous lifestyle - hijikata gave up on the woman he loved because he was going into a dangerous job. it'll take a lot for him to feel comfortable enough to be in a relationship tbh. considering this, he's also likely to never talk about work.

• sadistic - think of gintoki, but worse. even if his partner can handle harsh words, sōgo has a bad habit of bringing s&m outside the bedroom. not everyone is into public humiliation. his s&m fantasies may be overwhelming.

never, he doesn't want his s/o worrying about the dangers he's in. so if they don't feel comfortable accepting this, the relationship will eventually fail.

• dangerous lifestyle - he doesn't talk about work like hijikata. mostly because it just doesn't interest him. the most his s/o can get out of him is 'what do you think? you want me to tell you I killed someone? that's pretty sadistic of you.'

• dangerous lifestyle - he's constantly on the lookout to get stronger. constantly seeking to fight new opponents to gain more fighting experience. he's a yato, abuto can handle it because it's literally in his blood to feel comfortable on the battlefield.

his condescending attitude could be a turn off and something a s/o doesn't want to deal with.

but say he's with a s/o who doesn't come from a fighting clan. they can be strong but if their love for fighting isn't as strong, a burn out could end the relationship.

• ungrateful - if someone doesn't live up to kamui's strength standard, he will consider them weak. the moment a s/o falls behind he's not going to wait for them, he'll leave them in the dust. mock them and say things like 'if you can't keep up, you must be weak. 😊'

it's harsh and if his s/o doesn't have a competitive spirit, they may just leave.

[sldlovescartoons]

My mixed feelings about Bakugo in general haven’t really made me any less mad that he’s dead. And it’s mostly because I know it won’t stick. It’s not that I wish him dead, it’s that I could respect it if was pulled off correctly. But he’s definetly coming back. Jeanist is going stitch him up and he’ll get brought back. Which I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with if it weren’t for the fact that mean all the great imagery and reaction we have seen is wasted. Plus, Bakugo might have lost, but he’s apologized to Izuku, and appears like he might have contributed to a change in the weather (because I assume Dabi and Endeavour also contributed) like All Might. I could see this being an good end in a better written story, but it’s been a long time since BNHA has been truly great. In a well written story, Bakugo’s death would lead to Deku becoming a more rounded hero. Instead of them being two halves of the hero coin, he takes on Bakugo’s drive for victory to honor him and be a hero who Saves and Wins. Like Almight, thus completing his character. But that’s not going to happen.

The writing in bnha has been very flawed for sometime, and one of the characters that those flaws emanate from is Bakugo, which is a shame, because he’s such a fun character to read/watch, and his potential in the story was great, but then it went in a… boring direction. The primary problem: Bakugo is functionally the first antagonist of the story. He spends the first few arcs acting like an antagonist. Now, this is fine, but the problem is that Horikoshi got very attached to and fond of Bakugo after he drew him crying after the first heroics class. But, he couldn’t change Bakugo’s behavior to be more soft at that point, because him being a jackass is important to certain plot beats he would have had in mind. Because if Bakugo doesn’t act like an asshole, he doesn’t get kidnapped, and doesn’t fail to get his provisional license the first time. Then we get to Deku vs Kacchan 2 and the cracks start. Now that all his asshole dependent beats had been hit, the favoritism starts. Because instead of Deku finishing his humbling by winning the fight, and giving him the final push to accept his inadequacies and become better, he wins, and they get set up as equals. Which is weird. Because this is Deku’s story, or atleast, up till that point it was. This also marks the start of the story pathologically avoiding having Deku be drastically better than his classmates even though he has the world’s most busted quirk. Because instead of going for “It’s okay to be lesser, just because people aren’t equal in all things, doesn’t mean they are worth less or deserve poor treatment” they go with “no, they are all awesome, everybody is equal.” Which so… disappointing, because it’s real problem with the fight for equality is the inability of people to recognize weakness in groups and acknowledge that as an okay thing, at least most of the time. It’s okay if some of Deku’s classmates to fall behind, it’s a normal part of school. It’s okay for Bakugo to be the second best, it doesn’t make him less awesome! Quirks create inequality inherently, it’s kind of several villain’s schtick, so it’s important to establish that it’s okay to be lesser, it doesn’t make you worth less as a person. Let the classmates and Bakugo be secure in supportive rolls and secure in themselves and their abilities as heroes. Because if you don’t, suddenly you have a bunch single quirk having teenager’s fighting multiquirk having monstrosities. It’s a fight between inhuman strengths, even with quirks, and they don’t have a place in the thick of it.

Oops, I got distracted there… right, anyway, the Favoritism. Bakugo, outside his open sore of a personality is sort of perfect. He’s smart, good at battle, he plays an instrument, he can cook, ect ect. So after that fight, he’s just a perfect guy who swears a lot, except when he just randomly starts acting feral or gets violent for comedy, making it so some people miss his development altogether. The favoritism has its roots in Deku himself: after Deku acts like the sun shine out of Bakugo’s butt, especially after their second fight. Bakugo’s development is completely divorced from the main character because wether or not he does change, all Deku wants from him is to be his friend again. And from a broader story perspective, the existence of Endeavour and his public persona of being mean and scary, I don’t believe that Bakugo couldn’t be a hero without improving himself mentally and emotionally. Bakugo’s character arc is entirely self motivated. I find it difficult believe in this world that Bakugo actually needed to change. So we end up this Bakugo who is amazing, and almost unstoppable, but who is also just allowed to be a loud asshole with no social repercussions. A hero class would be full of goodie goodies, an ass like Bakugo wouldn’t thrive socially there. His classmates shouldn’t like him, but they do. And we don’t see anything wrong with that as readers because Deku is the main character and he has a deep admiration of him that is severely misplaced.

Bakugo Kasuki was introduced as an antagonist, as something Izuku needed to over come, and then he just stopped being that, but didn’t change his behavior, while the main character continued to admire the person who bullied him for years. Our view of his poisoned by the love Deku and the writer have for him, so of course we love watching this loud, capable characters. People don’t even question wether or not it’s a good or right thing for him to be the second protagonist. Wether it’s good writing to have the character who is seen punching the main protagonist in the stomach on page one, to hammer in that quirks make people unequal right off the bat, become a secondary protagonist and be framed as equal to the main protagonist who now has strongest quirk ever. Or even, is it right for them to become a secondary protagonist before they have any major change in behavior or goal. From a broader writing perspective, Bakugo being treated as and becoming a secondary protagonist before he actually completes a character arc or changes meaningfully and obviously, is like if Vegeta and Goku were being buds, raising their kids, and Vegeta was still trying to attacking the planet from time to time. You need to wrap up the antagonist being the antagonist and acting like the antagonist before you put them elevate them like that.

You know what? I’m going to go on a tangent in this gaint ranty rant, but the media literacy of large chunks of the internet but it seems especially bad in bnha spaces and I don’t know why. And this is on both sides of the Bakugo Fence TM- folks just don’t know how read and critically think about media. It’s so sad. Like yeah, no shit he wasn’t staying dead, the story had shown such blatant favoritism for him that that was never going to happen with how this story is written. But you have folks saying “Duh, this is Shonen, of course he wasn’t going to die.” Removing all nuisance from the situation and the writing of death across shonen. Characters perma die in shonen all the time. Characters die and come back all the time too, both have tropes around them, and wether or not it’s good writing depends on the stories told and the details of how. Most, but not all, series that do it well: have some sort of magic. Quirks weren’t written to be magic until recently. Quirks tended to function in specific ways. There were some magic-y ones, but they normally weren’t busted. Over time, as the writing degraded, quirks became more magical (Stars and Stripes *cough cough*). That’s bad. The reason people expect more realism from the story is that there were lots of elements early in that made the fantastic world feel grounded. Quirks had physical links and backlash, and had obvious societal effects. Of course people are disappointed that it’s going the way of less grounded series. It’s disappointing. There’s so many folks who say ‘this is how it’s was told’ without asking why, or wether that is good thing for the story told.

The story opens up with this stark image and message ‘People aren’t born equal, that’s a hard lesson I learned at four years old’ with Kacchan gut punching Deku with his quirk for defending a different kid he was bullying. Quirks=Inequality, right off the bat. The story is about someone at the bottom (or near it) if the social higharchy, because quirkless, and is given a the best quirk, and gets into the best school, for one of the most looked up to and seeked jobs in this setting. Thus thrusting someone from the bottom to the top. It sets up a great from the bottom to the top story. But now the story is just… batting that away with flowers and equality. And it starts the second Bakugo wins Deku VS Kacchan 2, because I’m sorry, but he should have lost. The minute Deku starts to get a hold on his absolutely busted quirk, the focus of the hero journey should shift to more emotional and phycological. Things like him growing a spine, and working on his spotty people skills. Yes, his people skills are spotty, because while he’s managed to get in and help some folks, he’s known for things like having no presence and being a nervous wreck, which is an issue for someone looking to be a symbol.

And this is where Bakugo could have came in clutch! Bakugo, throughly defeated, having failed on his own in multiple facets, gets up because he’s never one to give up. Immediately resolves to help Deku become the next Symbol of Peace, confusing the shit out of Deku. Then we get to spend time in Bakugo’s POV. He’s not stupid, he’s faced All Might, and facing Deku now, even with it being so small, the power was the same. He’d never be that strong, and trying would get him to being Endeavour 2.0 and fuck that guy. He wouldn’t be number 1, but he’d be the best number 2 anybody had ever seen, and he’d drag Deku up the number 1 kicking and screaming if he had to, so that All Might didn’t lose his power for nothing. Bakugo becomes an advocate for Deku, and teaches Deku how to advocate for himself. And Deku can teach him to be softer. Because both of them have strong quirks, but if they are going to be their best, they both need to conquer their emotional deficiencies.

But noooo, we just go along, having Bakugo being unchanged in behavior except select moments, painting his development with a nail brush instead of the roller he and story deserve.

God, this is incohesive, and it’s not get better. But I’ve written too much to shelf. Fuck it.

[rachelbethhines]

Hi, I just wanted to say that I adore your salt marathons! It's such a shame to me that the show could have been improved so much if they didn't create convoluted ways to have Rapunzel inserted into storylines that she didn't really fit into, or solving problems that she wouldn't really know how to deal with (even in the book as you recently mentioned where she was somehow teaching Cassandra to swim??) Unfortunately, I think this sort of 'main character must be perfect and able to solve everything/be a part of every situation' ideology is becoming a lot more common in modern cartoons (Ultimate Spiderman, Miraculous Ladybug etc). I was just wondering if you had anymore ideas besides what you have mentioned already in the salt marathons about how they could have balanced characters better, or even wny this sort of thing seems to be beckming more common? (Sorry for the long ask, and thank you for providing fair critiques of the show 😅)

Thank you.

I don't know about becoming more common as this is a problem that you can see spring from way, way back in folk lore like the American tall tales... Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, and the like. Which bled into American comic books, ect.

You can even see the problem arise in certain anime, were the favored protagonist overshadows everyone else.

People see heroes as a power fantasy. So the hero can't have flaws or do anything wrong.

Now in a short subject, like the Superman shorts from the 1940s, or a medium where there are few characters, like Bugs Bunny's solo cartoons. Having the protagonist always win and take center stage isn't a huge problem.

But when you get into longer story arcs, with more subplots, and large ensemble casts, you can't make the lead 'perfect' and always right, without risking thier relatability or derailing your story.

Wonder Over Yonder pulls it off, but only because it allows the characters to get annoyed by the main protagonist and even he isn't always right all the time and can make mistakes, even if it's rare.

It takes a lot of self awareness to pull off that type of story.

Now good ways to balance characters and story is to ask yourself, 'who needs what?'

What does Rapunzel need? She needs to grow up. She can't do that if she's not allowed to learn. She can't admit she screwed up if the people that she wrong can't call her out for it.

Rapunzel isn't just hogging the limelight here, she's failing to serve her role in the narrative. That's why she feels superfluous in her own damn show.

So story wise, the audience needed to see consequences for Rapunzel's actions and have the character acknowledge why those consequences are happening, and then alter their behavior as need be.

And while Rapunzel suffers the most from not getting what she needs out the narrative, the writers underserved all of the characters in similar ways.

Rather than asking what the character needs/wants they forced the characters to do stupid shit for the sake of plot and everything just falls apart.

Cassandra did not need to steal the moonstone. There was no reason for it, the writers never provided one, so her arc flies off the rails.

Varian needed justice and a reason to trust people again. He never gets that closure so his presence in season three feels unsatisfying.

Eugene needs to become comfortable with who he is. But is never allowed the agency to do so, so his identity crisis is left unresolved.

I'm sure there's more examples here, but you get the idea.

So when writing, ask yourself, what does the character need? What do they want? Why can't they get either? What's the conflict? How do you resolve the conflict in order to provide what they need, which may or may not be what they wanted?

You answer those questions first and you then have your story. Plot always follows character. It stems from characters making choices. Characters need reasons to make the choices that they do.

If you try to work backwards and have the characters just do things for the sake of the plot and you'll wind up with the mess that is Tangled the Series.

[unohanadaydreams]

Hello again! I'm probably gonna chuck a few different asks at ya but first I wanted to invite that ramble on Mayuri and the dynamic he has with Jizo or about him in general if you'd like~ I'd love to read more character analysis about our fave clown scientist.

I am reserving my spot to over analyze Mayuri. It’s very rambly sorry.

Okay, so Jizo is a protector of people/deceased souls of children.

This tells us a few things.

1. Mayuri is protected by Jizo.

2. Mayuri craves protection.

3. Mayuri either died as a child or went through something traumatic enough as a child that it immediately ended with the event aka. the metaphorical death of childhood. My guess is on the latter.

Mayuri is protected by Jizo through the obvious means of poison. But also by his zanpakuto itself. Jizo’s appearance and abilities are off putting. This heavily reflects Mayuri--his appearance and abilities (extendo arm, ect) are off putting to most people.

I believe Mayuri calls attention to himself through his appearance, while also masking himself in strange, off putting attire so that people do not look TOO close. They see what he wants them too.

And likewise, people see what they want out of Jizo, while ignoring the meaning of the zanpakuto’s name and TRUE nature. Jizo is part of a shield Mayuri has constructed to hide his vulnerabilities as a person with feelings and flaws. (He refuses to alter his brain in the same way he alters his body bc Intellect)

Mayuri craves protection and it’s evident in how he raises Nemu as well as how he attacks others AS WELL as how he treats Jizo. Nemu, from the very start, bodily shields him even when it isn’t explicitly necessary. She was created by him and therefore her feelings of gladness for him continuing to live and her arc of understanding that her true objective was ALWAYS to protect him was pretty fitting.

Mayuri can not even face let alone acknowledge his love for his daugther until she is dead and he does so vaguely, merely calling her a great Experiment. His kindness was relayed only through Akon and even then, he does not refer to her as anything other than an accomplishment to lord over Urahara (which like BIG LMAO).

Literally admitting to Nemu that he even viewed her as his biggest accomplishment, as one would speak about an object, was embarrassing for him.

He straight up can’t admit he is PROUD of making Nemu because that would imply he in any way cares about her. Fucking astounding, the lengths he will go through to deny he knows what affection or love or anything approaching those emotions are.

With his attacks--he often uses methods physically impede his opponents from approaching him. He prefers long range or ‘stealth’ methods. Blowing up his own people, stabbing opponents through Nemu, ect. He does not have any large, impressive displays of sword fighting. He prefer to flex his mind and be creative in proving he is Superior to others.

And with Jizo, he literally punishes his sword for attacking him. While many captains would understand that an enemies abilities were at fault, Mayuri isn’t one of them.

He snaps off Jizo in Szayelaporro’s body and states directly that it’s because the sword attacked him. Obviously there is a large theme of ‘control’ going on here in tandem with his need to be protected. But nevertheless: he purposely breaks his sword like a kid having a tantrum that caretaker didn’t keep them from scraping their knee.

Mayuri’s childhood ended suddenly/early or he simply never had one. It was gone before he realized he should’ve had one, maybe.

This is evident in how he treats Nemu, yes, but also how he treats Akon. From the very start, Akon is not treated with the same kiddy gloves we see Hiyori, Nanao, or even Byakuya given in the pendulum arc. And Mayuri isn’t even fully in control here.

And that’s not even getting into how Urahara releasing Mayuri with no further consequence or stipulation and then leaving him the research & development center was essentially rewarding whatever behavior got him in isolation within the Maggot’s Nest and is the start of his decent into what he be becomes.

Or that Urahara knowing he was down there means he knew what he did and knew that only the promise of Control and Power would sway him out--presumably a promise to restore or trump what he lost when arrested.

It’s further evident in how he acts as a person. He explains things to excess, a sign he did not feel listened to or his opinion valued as a child, and will go off if he feels ignored.

He is quick to throw literal foot stamping fucking fits. Like a toddler. Over small things. He seeks approval from people like Urahara and intellectual opponents alike--he wants it to be acknowledge that he is Smarter.

Trauma wise, he has low empathy for others and the people he does care about are still treated like shit. This is VERY common for abused children. He does not value his physical form. He’ll turn himself into fucking goo--he doesn’t care. That goes beyond ‘scientific improvement’ and straight into ‘i have only been valued and validated for my intellect so that’s all that matters’.

He also hides his physical body behind clothes baggier even than the soul reaper uniform already is, paints over his skin, and generally wears eye catching clothes that distract from HIM. Making one’s body repulsive and offputting is specifically a common response to sexual abuse.

Which would also help to explain his adversity to affection tbh.

It’s very possible that all of this happened while he was a living soul and his arrival to the rukongai was after for a further and more literal interpretation of ‘deceased soul’.

ALSO Look at literally anything the science department designs and tell me it doesn’t fall into the following categories: 1. edgy my chemical romance teen who reads cosmic horror or 2. legitimately cute and child friendly designs that activate your Animal Crossing brain.

IN conclusion:

Mayuri was abused, he craves protection, he finds any form of emotion that pertains to human connection horrible, he portrays only valuing intellect, and Jizo is not ironically named such.

I DEFINITELY went off on some tangents but uuuuuuuh (:

[faelapis]

you're overthinking it. also, being structural has to do with social systems, not just characters having motivations for their actions.

no, characters having motivations for their actions is not enough to be structural. i’m not saying that.

however, SU sees patterns of causality between character arcs. being in a position of privilege is more likely to have a negative impact on yourself and others through creating imbalanced relationships. it shows how societal factors - such as homeworld’s hierarchies of idolization and dehumanization - contribute to these outcomes, rather than blaming “bad apples” who are seemingly acting out of some Intrinsic, Biological Badness.

THAT’S when you start seeing structural storytelling at play.

many people prefer the morally individualistic narrative, because it stresses autonomy. it says society is no more than the, well, individuals who make it up, but i’m very tired of that lens. it often sort people into good vs evil based on arbitrary character deficiencies without a real cause, rather than questioning the societal forces that shaped them.

some people protest to that - they say that this implies, for instance, that people in unprivileged positions can never cope with their circumstances. to which the structuralist replies - they can! but these systems still exist, and impact people.

THAT is where steven universe excels. not merely providing character motivation, but showing how every character is impacted by their socialization. how the idolization of the figures on top leads to suffering for everyone in the hierarchy - including the diamonds themselves. not because the individual diamond is good or bad (rose had to give up the diamond role before she could adequately challenge it - it was never enough to be a “better” diamond), but because the system itself is deeply flawed.

this is also replicated in “smaller” systems, down to individual character parallels.

for instance, take jasper and amethyst. what really separates them isn’t some biological moral difference - they have rather similar temperaments. what matters is their socialization. how one grew up with an overall supportive family who, albeit flawed, valued her for herself, while the other’s main source of structure was the unjust hierarchies of homeworld. one was taught such social systems were good, the other was taught their own value outside the system.

that’s why amethyst sees jasper as a kindred spirit. she knows that, in another life, that could easily have been her. 

as someone who’s taken developmental psychology can tell you - even in those miraculous recovery stories where individuals overcome tragic odds, there tends to be more resources available to them than maladaptive cases. very few people become maladaptive without any struggle whatsoever, and very few people rise up without any kind of resources.

and most of those resources? you guessed it, are sociological / structural in nature - a secure attachment to a caregiver, supportive family, friends, access to a safe neighborhood, the values instilled by society, ect.

heck, pearl very specifically calls out individualistic narratives in season one:

as her rant continues - “they want to blame aaaaall the world’s problems on some single enemy they can fight, rather than a complex network of interrelated forces beyond anyone’s control”.

like. pearl TOLD YOU this was going to be a structural story in season one, and yet you all kept making these weird assumptions about how there’s Totally gonna be a 100% evil villain above white, who is just super duper evil, and just wants to control everyone for no reason and Definitely can’t be redeemed.

pro tip: next time you’re making a steven universe theory, do it from a structural lens. discard your individualistic assumptions. it will save you so much trouble.

[student-film-lying-piece-of-shit]

that's it im fucking saying it

heavy content warning for rape, abuse ect

okay i warned yall

If you're gonna make 'ticci toby realistic' okay fine i don't FUCKING care anymore that's JAZZY make him a heartless monster who eats kids like whatever you see him as is vaild to me just know ill never accept that sorry

but im SICK and TIRED of y'all fucking taking that and making fanfictions where he's in relationships or even x readers as a shitty abuser

you can't have both. you can't have a romantic ship story that glorifies rape, abuse and gaslighting i am so fucking tired

yesterday i found like. god knows how many fics with toby being a rapist and it made me deadass cry because seeing a character ive projected into for years be butchered into such a despicable human hurt. and with edgy toby none of you know how he works

'Dark' or whatever toby: think Alex Kraile from mh I guess? Withdrawn, kinda a dick, but is VERY loyal to his cause with working to the slenderman. he does everything under his name. toby doesn't kill for his own gain, yea he might get some pleasure from it, but if we're gonna go by david near's toby interpretation, he obviously cares about lives to an extent

(spoilers up ahead hdiwsbsi for jeffs final sleep/ticci toby patient interview)

he even has a giant character arc in one of his stories where he refuses to listen to slender and detaches from him

in the patient series, he begs Dr. Wilson to let him go because he knew zalgo would be there to kill his thearpist and everyone in the building. the small things in that interview shows he's empathic outside of being a proxy

he apologises for snapping. he gets scared by slenderman. He respects Dr. Wilson

for fucks sake

HE ISN'T A MONSTER HES A KID WITH PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DISABILITIES AND IS BEING CONTROLLED BY AN ENTITY NONE OF YOU UNDERSTAND HE HAS NO FREE WILL!!!!! NONE!!! HIS DRIVE TO MURDER ISN'T EVEN HIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE'S BRAINWASHED!!!!!!! STOP ACTING LIKE YOU GET THAT WHEN YOU DON'T FOR ABSOLUTE FUCKS SAKE. SLENDERMAN GETS NOTHING FROM HIM RAPING SOMEONE

RAPE IS A SELFISH ACT. STOP THROWING IT AROUND LIKE NOTHING!!!! AS A SURVIVOR OF CSA IT'S FUCKING PAINFUL TO SEE THIS! THIS FANDOM NEEDS TO STOP JUST THROWING AROUND THAT CRIME LIKE NOTHING! AND CLAIM ITS IN THE NAME OF BEING REALISTIC !!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!! I DON'T WANNA READ A HEAVY DETAILED RAPE SCENE IN A FUCKING FANFICTION!!!! NOT EVEN BETTY KRUGER DID THAT!!!!!!!!! BECAUSE HE UNDERSTOOD SHOCK VALUE HAS FUCKING LIMITS

TOBY WOULD NEVER, NEVER, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER KIDNAP AND TOTURE SOMEONE OF HIS OWN WANTS AND NEEDS. HE'S, DEEP DOWN INSIDE, JUST A SCARED TEENAGER / YOUNG ADULT

"ghost stop being angry"

okay. i will when a trauma survivor stops being portrayed as an abuser. ill stop when you stop writing ship fics (keep in mind if you do a x reader that counts) that directly romanticizes abuse and rape. (Intentional or not you are) i will stop when you shit on kids for having a go-lucky, smiling toby because they wanna have a boyfriend / big brother figure to cope. i will stop being angry when you stop making him kill his mom and blame her for toby's abuse. i will stop when this fandom accepts he's bisexual and stop hearing "why does everything have to be gay" from another cishet fan. i will stop when you all do

if i see any comment that says "kastoway said he's an ignorant asshole" i will fucking delete it because y'all use that a vessle to make him horribly ooc and an abusive asshole and you're missing the point of this entire rant

im not ranting about a cocky toby. im angry because y'all don't understand what makes toby scary

toby isn't a scary character in himself. but he shows slenderman's power. it shows how he can break a kid so bad. and you guys take that and say :3 toby said homophobe rights, says the n word (oh I've SEEN that) and rapes girls. him being rewritten doesn't give you a card to make him do anything

y'all compare? him to jeff a lot???

jeff did everything on his own. he's a natural selection kinda bitch. he's brutal and tbh he's like, the only pasta i can see being that nasty-brutal. but id never write an x reader where he rapes someone Jesus fuck.

the biggest difference between these two is that one cares and one doesn't. one willingly started killing. the other didn't. toby from the start never did it for his own want, but he thought it was. he was takened over. slender used his soft points to be used against him, ie lyra and hatred towards his dad

jeff got bullied and said "fuck this i said homophobes have rights" aka he 'snapped' and killed.

y'all pretend you know toby's character bur reality y'all look like this: 🤡 🤡🤡

"ghost ur bias"

you know what the fuck i am because toby's a giant projection character and one of the most important pieces of fictional work to me!!!!! i know everything abt toby!!!! nobody on this god forsakened app has dedicated years of their life anaylizing and picking apart every interpretation of toby and yeah there's stans here and theyre vaild and it isn't a competition but nobody here will understand how important he is to me.

ive said it before: he helped me realise i was trans. i cut my hair to look like him. ticcimask was my gateway to at the time, bisexuality and now being gay. these characters shaped me as a person. tbh, it wouldve took me 10x longer to find my identity if i never got interdouced to this fandom. kastoway created one of the most important characters to me.

i grew up with i guess the silly old toby. and i guess this comes from an unfair place bc i always enjoyed a goofy toby more than an asshole toby. i can't and never will grow too fond of a dick toby! but a broken, scared hollow kid? yeah, yea i would and do.

and now i understand why :3 we can't have nice things

also fun fact! David Near headcanons toby as a csa survivor so stop using his voice claim if you make him a rapist :3 you lost :3 your David Near rights

okay im done im so mad i might rewrite this to be calmer but rn you're getting this fuck the cops eat the government captalism is a flawed system

tldr; leave toby alone please he's gay can't count to 10 and doesn't know breeds of cars

edit: i know a lot of people also potray jeff wildly different and that's vaild too!!! this probably just applies for like. all of them

don't romanticize abuse basically thanks

[aesthetic-survivor-of-twd]

I love characters development in this season but I feel like it's not the same level like it used to be in Season 1? Don't take me wrong please. I really love Louis development in episode 2-3 but I just feel like in season 1 characters have more of it?

That’s a perfectly valid opinion, anon.

At first I was going to agree with you, but when I actually compare the both seasons objectively I don’t know if I do agree, personally.

I DO think season 1 had the *most* characters with proper development to them, but in terms of actual character growth I think The Final Season overtakes it.

S1 has the most development in quantity, but S4 has more in quality (as in character development is more defined).Season 1 has arguably the more “realistic” written characters in the series. That’s not to say that they are necessarily better than TFS - in fact I’m admittedly biased towards the final season’s cast. But TFS felt very much like game characters (though very complex and really well written ones). Whereas season 1 they felt more like actual “people”.

You could see a lot of familarity in the season 1 cast and it was easier to relate to them as flawed people. I think this makes their development a little more easier to notice than The Final Season.

When I say that TFS cast feel very much like characters, I mean it in the sense that though they ARE very human and relatable, the setting of which they are a part of and the roles each character has in the story makes it harder to compare them to real life like the season 1 cast. This is not a jab at the writers - it’s not even a bad thing. It’s just when you have a group of kids essentially being badass and taking down a group of adults,ect and creating these insane traps and stuff, it starts to drift even farther from the realistic part of the series (I know i’m saying that about a game with zombies lol). Which I totally get given that we are 7 years into the apocalypse and obviously they aren’t gonna be the same kind of survivors as S1.

However I feel like the relatibility of the season 1 cast has a tendency to make people remember more development for them than there really was for the characters as individuals. Because if you actually think back to season 1, though we learned about all of the characters on a pretty close level (unlike S4 where we have Omar, ect who is just kind of there) their actual development throughout the season really wasn’t that developed beyond learning more about them.

Not many of the characters really change much in Season 1. Kenny is the closest we have to a fully rounded character (this is assuming he died in Season 1 and we never even saw him again in s2). His entire arc from protecting his family, to losing them and cracking, to his hatred of Ben, to his sacrifice, to his relationship with Lee, ect all change elements of his character throughout the season.

But besides Kenny we dont really have that for any other character? Maybe Ben I suppose towards the end during the bell tower scene and standing up to Kenny (and maybe Lilly too but I think you can argue against that), but characters like Christa, Omid, Katjaa, Duck, Larry, Chuck, Carley, Doug, ect don’t really go that far with their characters beyond just learning some facts about them.

I feel like the quantity of characters combined with getting to know almost everyone gives the impression of more development than there really is.

Whereas TFS is the opposite where we didn’t spend as much time with a lot of the side characters as we did in s1 but the characters we did spend time with really changed throughout the season.

Louis and Violet both go through major development in this season based on who you spend time with. We learn about them both on a very deep and personal level - their flaws, their insecurities, their wants/needs, ect. Hell they are almost deconstructions of the season 1 cast where you think you know them from a few convos - only to find even more layers beneath how they portray themselves outwardly to people and may even take some people by surprise.

But not only do we get that up close and personal with them, but we also get to see them grow and show visable change (hell, in some routes it’s *literally* visible) each episode and by the end of the season they are very much different people than who they were at the beginning. Louis steps up and becomes a far more reliable member of the group and eventually stops pushing problems away and goofing off to distract himself from issues as if nothing’s wrong (and because of Clem drops his “act”). Violet learns to become more vulnerable around someone else and learns to truly trust people again, and she and Clem are basically co-leading the school together. They have so much character development you can literally write an entire essay on them individually.

Outside of them we also have Willy who takes on much more of a prominent role when Mitch dies after appearing in the season as just the odd kid who hangs out with Mitch. He goes from being a sidelined character who gets his idea mocked by Aasim into the dude who created the bomb that saves us all and like Louis - seems to step up more in the group.

Tenn to a lesser extent is also this if AJ lets him survive in episode 4. Though maybe not as prominent, the ending definitely implies he is losing that naive streak of his and depending on your choices will start improving more as a survivor.

James also counts. Especially when you compare him to episode 2 James and Episode 5 James if he lived. Though his development is interesting in the sense that his story ended the way it began when he is back to staying away from groups (since usually the cliche is that they will eventually join the group by the end).

And these 2 characters are a little different because we didn’t really get to see them before their drastic character development in the game but I want to include them since the others inform us of their previous versions of their character that we see - Marlon and Minnie.

Both season have an amazing cast of characters with great development. However I feel like TFS has more actual development with the characters that it does decide to focus on, whereas S1 focuses on all of the characters but the actual development for most of them doesn’t really change as much.

It’s interesting and fun to compare them both, for sure though.

[perhaps-a-pencil]

Character Construction

Making intriguing characters with great chemistry isn’t always easy, but they can transform a good story into a great one just by their sheer spark. Here are a few general tips to keep in mind about characters, plus a look at how I design my characters in case my methods work for you, too! :)

 In General...

Tropes are okay. In fact, building your character off of a few key characteristics can help keep them grounded as the story continues. Find a few traits that stay constant throughout the story so you always have something to return to. For instance, one of my characters can be broken down to these 3 traits: curious, smart, logical.

Identify how you want your character to change over the course of the story. Character growth can emphasize a theme within your story and highlight the good/bad within human nature. 

If you have a plot already, make sure your characters grow in a way that makes sense according to the events they go through. 

If you don’t have a plot, you can build one around character growth. Ask yourself: what events can cause them to change this way? For example, if you want a character to go from someone who doesn’t believe in altruism to someone who trusts in the kindness of others, maybe they are saved by the help of others where they least expected it and slowly began to realize there are plenty of people out there trying to make the world a better place. Maybe they end up becoming someone who helps others themselves.

For characters that spend a lot of time together, it’s easier to have good chemistry if their personalities click. In other words, choose traits that are complementary. If one character is notoriously reckless, try to pair them with someone who might exhibit more caution. A character who is studious to a fault could benefit from someone outgoing and impulsive to drag them into adventure.  Even if it doesn’t drive character growth, it can so much more entertaining to write and read.

Use complementary traits to drive the plot. So many great scenes can come from small conflicts between characters that lead to growth. Maybe that impulsive character rushed into battle, but now they are in danger. The cautious/logical character is now faced with a dilemma: act as they are used to, or change and do something they know isn’t logical. Putting characters in situations that highlight their different traits pushes character growth.

FLAWS = STRENGTHS. Or, more accurately, a character’s flaws and weaknesses come from the same trait. Whether or not it is a strength or a weakness depends upon the situation. Take a character who is very empathetic. They understand others well and are eager to help, but someone wittier and a little more villainous could easily take advantage of this to manipulate them. On one hand, being empathetic is a strength (this character can relate to others and may serve as a confidant in hard times), but it is also a weakness (they are easier to manipulate and exploit).

How I Design Characters

Character sheets have never been my thing, but they can help a lot of people break down important traits and events in a character’s life and have helped me think of things I might have otherwise missed. Aside from considering the tips above, I try to write up a character guide with the following format:

Past. Everyone has one, and everyone’s past experiences shape their beliefs, impulses, and perspective. This is the place to explore: 

The character’s family/friends. Who were they? Did they get along? Who had the strongest impact upon them and why? How have others supported them, and how have others created challenges for them?

Their best/worst times. Why are these memories so good or terrible? Who were they with? How do these events shape them?

Events/trends that build key traits. Why is your character the way they are? What small moments of character growth have they already undergone, and what lessons did they learn from that?

Their old goals/aspirations. Most people don’t end up pursuing their childhood dreams. What did your character want when they were younger? If it changed, why? If it didn’t, why not?

This one’s a no-brainer: events leading up to the beginning of the story. How did they end up where they are? How do they feel about it? Do they have any regrets? What are their goals now?

Plot-Based Goals.  Depending on the story you are writing, your character’s goals might create the plot. For the stories I write, my character’s goals are secondary to the plot because they are mostly in situations where they do not have complete control over their actions or futures. Here, it is good to identify:

What does the character want in the context of the story? 

What items/people are important to them? In what way? Do they want to protect this person from others, acquire a rare item to get rich, uncover information to better understand a nagging question they have, or defeat their worst enemy? If so, why?

Endgame. No, not the one from MCU, but the one for your character in their story. What is their final goal? Why do they want it?

I look back on this section to help me construct the plot. Here is where I ask why; the plot is where I ask how.

Key Traits. I talked about this earlier, so basically jot down the key traits of your character. Kind, creative, bold? Uncertain, curious, athletic? What do they fear the most, what do they love the most, and why? 

Depending on your story, it can also be helpful to get logistics on other character aspects. For instance, how educated are they? Economic status? 

If your story has magic, unique tech, supernatural powers, ect., then consider the character’s relation to this magic/tech/power. How much do they know about it? Can they use it? If so, how? What are their limitations? What is unique about the way they use it or make up for not being able to?

Character Arc. The shortest, but sometimes most important, piece of the puzzle. Here, outline what trait your character will develop or change in the story. Consider what theme this will send, how it will relate to the plot, and which other characters might help spur this development.

In general, keeping track of all this in a document really helps guide me while writing. I can figure out which characters fit together, which might clash, and how to build the plot both around them and from them. For my main characters, I also did a writing exercise where I just describe them in as much detail as possible, focusing on who they are as a person. I also like to have a Pintrest board of art to help me picture them (since I can’t really draw lol)

Also, don’t feel bad if you don’t stick to your plan! Writing is an evolution, a process of change and growth. You might discover a lot about your characters just by writing them, and if it goes against the plan, that’s okay!

Hope all of this helps! Feel free to ask if you have any questions. Good luck and keep writing! 

[thenightling]

My problems with Avengers: Endgame

Someone on Youtube described Avengers: Endgame as being like The Emperor’s New Clothes.   The emperor was given clothes “so fine” that only the most enlightened and wise could appreciate / see them.   There were no clothes but no one wanted to be the one who didn’t “get” the fineness of the material.   Finally a child blurted out “He’s naked!” and that’s when people relaxed and admitted yes, the emperor was naked.    The way Avengers: Endgame is like The Emperor’s New Clothes is that no one seems willing to admit the film is flawed.   It really is flawed.   At least, I feel it is.  Here are my biggest complaints about Avengers: Endgame.

_____________  

1.   The Time travel.  Taking a dig at Back to The Future doesn’t suddenly make the Avengers version of Time Travel more sound.   The lore indicated in the film is that when you alter the past you create a deviated timeline (actually enter an alternate universe.  For each possible outcome of an event there is an alternate universe.)  But the film claims you won’t come back to that new timeline when you come back to the present, you come back to the original timeline where things went as they originally intended.   This contradicts everything Stephen Hawking has ever suggested in A brief History of Time.   It is more likely that you would be in the new alternate universe timeline and not the one you originally came from, going home to your original continuity would be exceedingly difficult.

But supposedly this is how time travel works in the MCU because that’s why Valkyrie is still there (the events of Thor: Ragnarok happened).  Yet those events did not happen in the timeline where Loki escapes with the Tesseract. 

This also heavily indicates that the Loki that had the most character growth is definitely dead (the directors said so) but the AU Loki that had no character growth after Avengers will get a TV show?

2.   Another problem I have with Endgame is they want to have their cake and eat it too.  Loki escapes so that’s a new Alternate Universe (AU) / Alternate timeline yet Cap goes back and he’s still in his original timeline so that they can see him as an old man- contradicting their own earlier statements about time travel and the multiverse.

3.  Cap should not have aged.  In the original comics Super Soldier serum greatly slows down or even stops aging.  Black Widow is a super soldier in the comics and actually in her 80s, not her twenties or thirties.   She just looks young.   Why did the films feel the need to nerf super soldier serum?   He could very easily have lived out a life with Peggy AND come back as youthful Cap to continue to be Captain America.  I am tired of powers being reduced by Marvel.  I look at things like DC’s Doom Patrol and most of the characters haven’t aged in decades.  Why is Marvel so afraid of things like that?  Come to think of it, I hate how Marvel downplays its supernatural side just so they can get that coveted Chinese release.  From Odin saying “We are not Gods!” to The Ancient One disappearing after her body dies...    Can you really imagine Blade and Dracula existing in this universe?  Yet they are supposed to.    I’ve lost faith in Marvel respecting its own Supernatural side ever since  The Darkhold (Marvel’s Necronomicon) was turned into “Alien tech” on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

4.    Valkyrie should not have been left ruler of what remains of Asgard.   My problem here is Valkyrie has not had the character development she needs to lead.  If she had her personality from the comics it would be one thing but when we meet her in the MCU she’s a slave trader who has delivered people to the arena to die all because of her own chip on her shoulder and resentment.  She never shows any remorse for this but she’s going to lead a people now?

5.   I don’t really like Thor “passing the torch” at all considering his entire story was teaching him how to be a good king.  I ultimately feel cheated in regard to the Thor films and their purpose that he’s just going to travel the stars now and leave his people to someone who hasn’t had the character development she needs to be a leader.

6.  Thor got fat after just five years for a cheap laugh... Do I really need to go into detail here?

7.    I have no problem with Sam eventually becoming Captain America but I feel they should not have skipped the step where Bucky becomes the next Captain America first (see the comics).   There are still Tony Stark fans out there who wish Tony had killed Bucky.  Fans who somehow do not grasp what it means to be under the mind control of another to such a degree that Bucky could not even make the choice of if he wanted milk or not.  He had no free will at all, he was literally a puppet.   And yet there has been no pause in the narrative for Bucky’s exoneration to be understood by those who still want Tony to kill him for something he had no control over after his mind was scrambled. In the comics Bucky went on trial for his crimes as Winter Soldier and it was Black Widow who presented video footage of the physical and mental torture, hypnosis, ect, used to destroy Bucky’s free will and personality and how miraculous it was that he recovered.   Even now many fans don’t get how innocent Bucky truly is because they haven’t seen the brain washing processes shown in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D or the comics. Bucky’s arc should have included his redemption and forgiveness for what ultimately was never truly his fault anyway, this (in the comics) reached its climax when he took up the mantle of Captain America.   Later in a different storyline when Steve’s Super Soldier Serum was removed from his blood stream (somehow causing rapid aging as being a Super Soldier in the comics greatly slows or even halts the aging process) that was when Sam became Captain America.    

I don’t mind Sam becoming Captain America but I wish Bucky’s story and redemption and acceptance by others had played out first.

 8.  I hate that they killed Black Widow.  I already felt like they were trying to overshadow the established female heroes with Captain Marvel and this did not help matters.  We gain a female hero so we have to lose one?  Is that how this works now?     

Also I found out the writers of Endgame “Had no idea” (Yeah, right) “a Black Widow movie was in the works” when they killed her off.   So is that an official “Oops, our bad.”?  Half the audience still doesn’t understand multiverse if they make the Black Widow movie an Alternate Universe.   And a good portion that does understand multiverse wouldn’t want to watch a film about a Black Widow that is not actually the one they were attached to, just the same actress.   And if they make it a prequel some don’t want that either.  They have already cripple the potential audience size for the Black Widow movie.  

9.    I hate the idea of the main continuity versions of Gamora and Black Widow souls being trapped for all eternity.   That’s not how this works in the comics and it’s unfair here that good people should be trapped for all eternity.   

10.  (Warning: This one is petty.) “I love you 3000″ is cute.  And I get the original source.  But this is a slight nitpick. Wouldn’t a child with Tony’s intellect be more likely to say “I love you, infinity”?  No, not for the film title, but because it means... well, endlessly.  Three thousand is actually quite limited, as any genius would know.  (I said this one was petty.)

11.  “Although I’d like to join the crowd in their enthusiastic cloud, try as I may it doesn’t last...” - Sally’s Song from Nightmare before Christmas.  Avengers: Endgame isn’t really bad but I do feel it is overrated and everyone wanted to like it so badly that I feel like many people are willfully ignoring the flaws because they are still riding the high that it has finally been released.

[toads-treasures]

16, 38, 40 and B for Nora Mai :)

What makes their stomach turn?

Nora doesn’t handle blood very well. Her own or anybody else’s. She’s no medic by any means and she hates needles. She still has nightmares about super mutant gore bags and she threw up the first time she ever saw one. There’s a lot about the Commonwealth that makes her stomach turn but gore is the biggest one.

What memory do they revisit most often?

Some of the good ones are when she first met Nate, the day Shaun was born, the first time her grandpa Sean picked her up from the airport. Bad ones have a habit of making a more permanent and vivid impression however and unconsciously she revisits Kellogg shooting Nate, and then her encounter with Kellogg which ended much more violently than she’d ever anticipated or wanted. Things that really haunt Nora are the times were she didn’t let the people she loved know that she loved them. When she left her parents behind in London she didn’t tell them she loved them because she was angry at them for sending her away. The last time she spoke to her grandfather she berated him for being so stubborn. Those are the kind of memories that keep her up.

How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

She has to first see them has flaws lol. If someone calls her out on being a know it all she completely denies it. She doesn’t see anything wrong with pedantically correcting people on tiny issues, (’Poisonous and toxic are two very different things, thank you very much’ ‘Actually, the mechanics of baseball were not nearly so violent or complex.’ ect.) Other flaws though she’s hyper aware of. she’s always very aware of lying, which she does a lot, and also being selfish, which she feels she is a lot. She’s just waiting for the people she cares about to figure that out and condemn her for it.

What inspired you to create them?

I love the female sole survivors. It’s been pointed out before that Fallout 4 was pretty much made with the husband’s role in mind, and so I love that we as a fan base were like ‘nah. this pre-war lawyer turned housewife is gonna be the hero and she’s gonna kick ass.’ I read about Danse’s character arc and I loved it and I wanted to create a character that would mesh with his specifically. I wanted to write a character who was soft and didn’t let the Commonwealth make them hard, but then Nora kind of got out of hand, lol. She’s not very soft. She’s not hard either though. She’s not terribly brave, or at least she doesn’t consider herself to be so. She’s ambitious and terrified and full of contradictions. The more I added to her backstory and the more I fleshed her out I started to worry that she’d grown away so much from my original idea that maybe she and Danse wouldn’t click, but it was an interesting experience for me to realize that in order for two people (or characters) to have good chemistry and to fit together they don’t have to be really similar. They have to have the same values, and she and Danse do, even if Nora feels like she doesn’t embody those values very well sometimes. I remember being very inspired by Gemma Chan’s character Astrid in Crazy Rich Asians but even then, Nora changed from that too. Gemma Chan is my biggest inspiration for Nora’s face claim and her voice and everything but she’s really taken on a life of her own. 

[yourbookcouldbegayer]

Quick Character Creation

Sometimes you have to build a character quickly and just need to get down the basic stuff. Maybe they’re a side character you just introduced. Maybe they’re someone you didn’t expect to have a role. Maybe you need to write more in order to really develop them but you need a jumping off point. Maybe you’re about to start a campaign and forgot to create an NPC. This isn’t for major characters, but characters that walk that line between “merely mentioned by name” and “characters I develop a personality and arc for.” Here’s some basic stuff you can jot down:

1.  Their Role

What role do they have in the story? Are they providing information? Did they mess up some paperwork that was essential to the plot? Did they look like they flirted with the love interest? Did they die and leave someone heir to a throne? Did they make the first contact with aliens? What’s their role in the story, even if it’s a small one.

2. Reason for that Role

Why do they have that role? How do they know that info and why are they telling it? Why did they misfile the paperwork? What led them to contact the love interest? How did they die and what did they do before dying/ what did they leave? What led them to contact aliens? This is similar to their motivation, and you can list that as well if it’s separate, but it does make thinking of motivation for a smaller character easier

3. Dominant Personality Trait in 3 Situations

Since people are different in a different situation you might want to consider if their current role is normal, if their behavior is normal, and what their behavior says about their role. One situation is with your main character or whoever communicates with them, whatever situation that can be. I recommend jotting down what they might be like with their friends versus at work versus meeting strangers, ect., whatever might be more useful depending on the plot.

4. Flaw

It’s possible you thought of this in reason for the role, and yes, it can be role specific. It doesn’t have to be a fatal flaw that interrupts their personal plot but it also shouldn’t be completely irrelevant (For example, being naive may not be what the one thing Nancy has to get over in life, but it might serve the plot. Or maybe David is very blunt and this affects their speech) It doesn’t have to though, maybe the character’s conscious of the flaw and ends up doing something else.

5. Personality

This can be a small thing... Maybe you got it from a character quirk generator. Maybe it’s weird to wear suspenders. Maybe they’re a little sarcastic. Maybe they have a super specific system for doing something. Maybe they wear mismatched socks on purpose. Something like this isn’t something you have to spend a lot of time on like when you’re making a major character but something the narrator may take note of when describing encountering this person.

After this, I’d guess you’d have some idea about who they are enough to create an interesting side character who feels like a real person and not merely a plot device or a throwaway name.  Good luck and happy writing!

-Mod Emma

[concerningwolves]

On Writing Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

A frustratingly long time ago, @futureauthor-mabye put out a question about post-apocolyptic masterposts. Without stopping to think why none seem to exist, I said I would make one and dove straight in. On realising the sheer size of the task at hand, I decided to make this instead, a springboard starting-point to building your post-apoc world.

All genres have their own conventions that allow us to recongise them. Post-apoc has gained a reputation as being “the genre where zombies take over the world”, but that is far from the case.

Genre conventions:

Internal v External Danger - Whether or not there are external threats, such as zombies, the presiding theme has always been that the real danger of an apocolypse is humanity itself.

Desolation, Isolation and Death - Aka, the three inescapable truths of a post-apoclyptic world. Usually, the PA protagonist will feel alone; the world they are now inhabiting is falling into a state of desolation and disrepair, and there is always the danger or reminder of death.

Humans to Animals - this ties in closely with the idea of internal danger outweighing external danger. In order to survive, humans often become “like animals” and abandon their morals.

Cold Nostalgia - The inhabitants of a PA world are rarely allowed to forget how everything has changed. Although different, hallmarks of the world before still exist in the form of abandoned cars, trucks and famous landmarks ect etc

No Hope - an apoclyptic event is usually regarded in fiction to mean that civilization is over, and will never rise again to be as it was. Therefore, although there might be some hope in the form of a small band of survivors, this hope is never more than a temporary relief. Everyone usually has to accept that what is done cannot be undone.

Existentialism - If the world as we know it is lost for good, why continue to live? All purpose that you had before is gone, so why keep on surviving when survival is meaningless? These are questions that arise time and time again, as characters struggle with accepting their new fate.

Misinformation or no information - Without communications, as the power grid and telephone lines invariably shut down, any word at all reverts to being word of mouth. This results in rumours, speculation or no information at all.  

Power Struggle - As new civilizations form (or try to form) they tend to give rise to idealogies that would never have been accepting en mass in the world before. This results in a power struggle between people following various extreme idealogies.

Return to Nature - Nature starts to reclaim the human world, and humanity has to learn to adapt to nature in order to survive.

The beauty of the post-apoc genre is that it can be a sub-genre, or a genre in itself; the lines are there for you to bend. I’ve already mentioned that zombies are thought of as the trademark of the genre, but there’s so much more you could use!

The clearest route to writing PA is to look at the world around us and think about what is widely considered the biggest threat. For Stephen King, it was mobile phones, hence the novel Cell. For others, it’s robitics and AI, our sun dying, or the destruction of nature at humankind’s hands is suddenly punished by an inexplicable natural disaster. To get started, here are my top three favourites:

Zombie

A zombie-apoc lends itself really well to the conventions of Return to Nature and Internal vs External. Looking at the roots of the trope, the only hard and fast rule is that these are people who have come back to life without speech or free will, as found in the root lore of the Haitian Nzambi. There’s no reason why you can’t have a zombie apocolypse in a high fantasy world. Maybe the necromancers abused their powers one too many times, or some ancient curse was triggered? Maybe aliens descend and bring with them some technology or a virus that re-animates the dead?

Science behind a zombie apocolypse

Technological

AI, cyborgs, synthetic humanity, robot takeover... This one is my favourite. The main themes you could run with are Return to Nature in conflict with Technology vs Nature, as well as the question of what makes us human. Artificial Intelligence could re-programme the human mind and turn them into mindless killers, or shut down the power grid and plunge the world into darkness or cold. Computer viruses, hackers, seizing control of the nukes... yeah, there’s a lot to work with.

An overview of an AI apocolypse

More thoughts on AI (video)

Online debate on “are we too dependant on technology”

Body-hacking and cybernetic organisms

Nuclear

I love this one for its sheer relevance. No matter what happens, the threat of nuclear warfare has been around for a long time, and doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon. We’ve all heard about Hiroshima and Chernobyl, and considering that on a global scale is terrifying. Such franchises as Fallout have taken this fear and expanded it as far as they can into (what I understand from Temp) something amazing.

Effects of radiation on humans

Mutations and radiation (with further links at the bottom of the page to more information)

Science behind fallout four

And a list of other apocolyptic events

Plotting a Post-Apoc

The post apocalyptic genre tends to stick to the same tropes, and so long as they're done differently each time, it works. For example, the "one person is immune" trope applies frequently to zombie apocs, such as Znation (series) and The Last of Us (videogame). I read The Girl With All the Gifts the other week, and playing on the themes of family, relationships and child-adult bonds, the author transformed the immunity trope into a fantastic new take. I'm not going to spoil, but by adding the twist of natural human evolution and resistance to the idea of immunity, the whole trope was freshened up.

Themes are very important when choosing a plot for your post-apoc story, since it is a genre that often studies the more profound question of "what does humanity mean?". The genre's thematic backbone tends to be "Humans will always find a way to survive", but there are many different angles that you can take on this.

Possible themes for your plot:

family/found family

Humanity against humanity

trauma and recovery

unlikely allies

search for hope

cure motivation (either for a zombie virus or the state of the world)

the next generation

the world after the end

power struggles

fanatics

military control

meaning of existence

human nature

unlikely heroes

keeping faith

finding hope in the face of adversity

overcoming flaws in order to survive 

These are only some of the most popular themes woven into post-apoc plots. They can be combined in any way that you like, and don't always have to lead to brutality or "greater good" plotlines. I remember watching The Book of Eli which was about one man taking the last copy of a holy text to the last print in the country (or world? I can't quite remember) in order to return faith to the humans. Whether it was good or not is a question I can't answer, but the different take on a typical post-apocalyptic plot was refreshing to see. It was simple and didn't offer a cure for the world, but mapped one man's internal journey instead.

But What About Sub-Plots?

The really beautiful thing about post-apocalyptic fiction is that all of the day-to-day runnings of life no longer matter. Bills, taxes, work, the annoying neighbour, car insurance... all means nothing now. But this can also be a scary thing, as one of the biggest prompts for creating sub-plots is to use real life on your characters.

For those who don't know, sub-plots are the key to an enthralling overall plot. They're single threads that make up the whole plot of your story, driving character arcs, development and keeping the pace going. Common sub-plots are created by a character's need to maintain their life, be it managing an alter-ego in our world (superman, spiderman, supergirl) or dealing with the running of a castle, keeping good relationships and hiding secrets. Post-apoc removes the more obvious routes towards sub-plots, but there are still ways around - by using a certain theme, a subplot can be added.

For example, you're writing a post apocalyptic world wherein one woman is on a mission to discover whether or not her daughter is still alive, but you need more stuff happening under the main layer of plot. Perhaps consider how the relationships theme impacts her. Does she have anyone else in her group? Or is she too stubborn and working alone? What happens to her to change her worldview? If not relationships, try "meaning of life". How does she find it? What are her low-points? How does she overcome them? Try to look at your character’s personal journeys in relation to the wider world, and examine how their internal landscape conflicts with that of the new world.

This has been another installment of my On Writing series, a long-standing collection of writing advice posts covering everything from genre to sensitivity. All installments can be found under the tag “art on writing”. If you need help on something else, feel free to drop an ask!

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Under Raps

My feelings on this episode are pretty neutral. It’s not anything amazing, but it’s not the worst thing ever either. It’s just there, I guess. 

Summary: During a love festival, Corona displays a book full of signatures of lovers in honor of an old ruler's falling in love with the leader of a rival kingdom. Cassandra suddenly turns very secretive; Rapunzel learns it's because she's been seeing a guy named Andrew. Cassandra doesn't want Rapunzel's meddling, but the princess suggests a double date and they all go off in a hot air balloon. However, Andrew turns out to be part of an old faction that didn't like the unification of Corona and wants to steal the book.

This Backstory Doesn’t Add Up

So we open up with Big Nose narrating about the history of a war between Corona and a group of people called the Saporians. This is important for two reasons. First, because the Saporians are reoccurring villains in the show, and secondly, because it reveals where the underground tunnels running between Old Corona and the Island Capital come from. These tunnels are a reoccurring plot device in the show, along with the book that maps them. 

The problem is that what the story tells us doesn’t match the other information we are given. If it was only the Saporians who invaded then why does an Old Corona, with its own castle, exist to begin with? Why do the tunnels extend from both if King Herz Der Sonne made them? What purpose did they serve if he was only defending the island? Why are the Saporians led by a general and not a ruler? Why would marrying only a general unite the two kings and where was the Saporian kingdom to begin with? Why did they invade? Why are there still Saporians who haven’t accepted the merger centuries later and why do they live on the go outside the kingdom? If  Herz Der Sonne is such a good guy then why did he curse his grave with a zombie apocalypse? Ect. 

We keep getting hints throughout the show that Herz Der Sonne isn’t all he was cracked up to be, and you keep expecting a reveal that it was the Coronaians who started the war and oppressed the Saporians and then rewrote history, but it never comes. The show wants us to accept this very black and white conflict at face value even as it constantly undermines itself and muddies the waters. 

Pointing Out That Something is Stupid in the Show Itself Doesn’t Make it Any Less Stupid

As I stated back during Rapunzel’s Enemy, the show has a real problem with tone. Constantly showing us festival and holiday after festival and holiday only undermines the more serious elements in the ongoing story and creates mood whiplash. Also anything that reminds me of Cinderella 2 is not a good thing. 

Ahh Friedborg, You’re Such a Wasted Opportunity 

So she actually first appeared in Cassandra V. Eugene but I forgot to bring her up there. My bad. Friedborg is something of a fan favorite in the TTS fandom, and I like her too, but she adds nothing. She’s a joke character in a tv show already oversaturated by joke characters. More over the joke is actually offensive on some level since it all hinges on her being less conventionally attractive then the other female characters and the mains finding her weird because she never talks. 

The show tries to justify her existence by making her Big Nose’s girlfriend, but she’s not who he ended up with in the movie. And once again it’s kind of offensive to imply that only people who don’t match society’s contrived beauty standards can only find love with those that look like them. Thereby completely missing the point of Big Nose’s character arc. 

I’ll say it right now, Friedborg should have been Zan Tiri, or Demantius. Take your pick. I think ZT makes more sense, but etheir way she should have been a setup for something more important to the plot rather then just be being a vauge oddity that just pops up from time to time. 

I Miss This Version of Eugene

Throughout the first two seasons, Eugene and Cassandra were willing to point out Rapunzel’s BS. Forcing her to confront her flaws and re-examine her positions.I would argue that the show could have pushed this even further but at least it was there. By the final season no one was doing this. Rapunzel is allowed to be as awful as she wants to be without consequence. Meaning she never learns anything and stops growing as a character and the show acts like this a positive thing. It is not. In fact, it is the biggest flaw of the whole show as it fails to achieve the one thing it originally set out to do; which is to tell a coming of age story with Rapunzel. 

It also has the added effect of making Eugene a doormat to Rapunzel’s bulling, thereby regressing his character as well and presenting an unhealthy relationship as a goal to be achieved to younger viewers. I can not stress enough to young girls and young men in particular, that Rapunzel and Eugene are not ‘relationship goals’ in this show. Not after season 3. 

Xavier Doesn’t Get a Proper Introduction 

So Xavier is actually pretty important to the ongoing plot. He’s more or less the exposition fairy for the show, but he’s not really established. He just suddenly appears here with no prior meeting and he just so happens to know what the main characters need to know with no explanation as to how he knows. 

His part here is so forgettable that I legit forgot who he was when he reappeared in the mid-season finale. I had thought that the writers just threw in a random character for plot purposes. And to be fair they did. Just they did it here instead of in Queen for a Day. 

If the showrunners wanted Xavier to be historian who knows everything and tells stories, then he should have been introduced as the narrator of the history of Hearts Day instead of Big Nose. 

Another Lesson Not Learned 

We get this big heart to heart moment of Raps and Cass coming to an understanding, with Rapunzel promising not to intrude and Cass promising to being more honest about her feelings. This is walked back on several times and made part of the core conflict of the last two seasons. 

Once again, any problem that can be solved in less then five minutes of talking isn’t a strong enough conflict to drive multiple seasons. If this had been a show without an ongoing narrative, like say The Rescue Rangers or even Batman the Animated Series, then the repeated lessons wouldn’t be a problem. We expect characters to be static and to reset after each episode since they’re not shows that you watch in order. 

But if you do go the overarching arc route for a story, then people expect lasting character development. Even in shows like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, where the change is more gradual and the characters do repeat mistakes occasionally, there’s still a marketed change by the end. One that indicates improvement by the characters, and the inter conflicts are never exactly the same each time with exactly the same lesson over and over again. 

 Oh Look, Cassandra Once Again Achieving her Goal of Validation 

Cass is awarded a medal by her father for stopping Andrew. Don’t expect her or the show to remember this. 

Also more Cass and Cap interaction that we don’t get to see. 

Can We Not Imply That Cassandra Still has a Crush on the Guy Who Lied to Her and Then Almost Killed Her, and Can We Not Act Like This is a Good Thing?

So this flower was given to Cassandra by Andrew and her keeping it makes zero sense. 

First off lets not have one of our few strong independent female characters crushing on the show’s stereotypical ‘nice guy’, okay? That’s all kinds of gross. Secondly, if the intention was to show that Cass was now more willing to open up about her feelings, then wouldn’t her keeping one of the gifts Raps made her earlier in the episode make more sense? After all, that’s the relationship that actually matters to Cassandra and is the basis of the whole show. 

But this all boils down to the fact that the creator sees Cassandra as straight, always has, and thinks her crushing on the guy who manipulated her is somehow better than ‘no-homo’. Now you can headcanon Cass as whatever you want and ship her with whomever you want, as canon doesn’t matter. But I find it hilarious that most of the head showrunner’s biggest supporters are mainly Casspunzel fans and yet he’s the one who made them ‘sisters’ and sees them as such.

Like I hate to break it to you guys, but a Cass led spin-off headed by Chris won't be the lesbian rep that you’ve always dreamed of. You’re better off just watching the She-Ra reboot. 

But things gets even worse when Rapunzel approves of this stupid ‘crush’ ...

Don’t Ever Tell Someone That You’re Proud of Them For Going On a Date

Dating is just something some people choose to do together and some people choose not to engage in that. It’s not an accomplishment and it shouldn’t be treated as such. This is insulting to both people who don’t date, for whatever reason, and to women who hate being being defined by their relationships, which is most of us. 

Even if you’re being charitable and try to make this about Cassandra self esteem and her learning she’s worth ‘loving’, which is the reason some people have offered up for this scene, it still falls apart when it’s not established that Cassandra ever had such self esteem issues to begin with and was not looking for romance anyways. And if that is what the show is going for then it’s still problematic to suggest that being found as attractive by someone else is need for self esteem. In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of what self esteem is.    

Conclusion 

Overall this episode was ‘meh’. Like most season one episodes the problems stem from the ongoing narrative and lack of follow though in later seasons. However there’s enough stuff in here on it’s own to rub me just the wrong way that I can’t actually call it good either. 

It doesn’t help that I don’t see the appeal of Andrew at all. Watching the character is just a cringefest for me. He’s too similar to real life men I’ve unfortunately met and therefore sends alarm bells ringing in my head. And I agree with Eugene; he’s not all that handsome. 

[opendoorlorien]

*emerges from the shadows* you've seen Inuyasha too? Who'd you like in that show? Sango and Kirara were my favorites :3c

Yeah!!! Inuyasha was actually the first anime that propelled me into becoming complete irredeemable anime trash. It was like the first one I got deep into aside from like Pokemon and Digimon which dont really count afaic. I’ve gone through a few phases over the years where I hated it, pretended to hate it to look cool, phases where I got back into it and revisited it after YEARS and ect. 

Actually a few years or so ago I actually made a point to rewatching every single episode of the TV series along with all the movies and the Final Act, which I’d never watched before. But a long time before that I also managed to get through the manga too so I knew the story, I just wanted to watch all of the anime to revisit old episodes and see a few that I’d missed over the years and so that I could say that I really had seen every episode and all the movies. So since I did all that I feel like Inuyasha is kind of done for me. I’ll always like it no doubt but if I ever rewatch it or reread the manga that won’t be for YEEEAAAARRSS. I still want to play a kind of passive role in the fandom, and every now and then let it be known that it’s a series I enjoy. Like I recognize the series has its flaws but honestly those don’t really matter to me too much and I don’t take it too seriously. It’s still an enjoyable anime for me.

Sesshomaru was actually my first anime husband LOL. And I think he’s the origin point to a lot of personality traits that I enjoy seeing in the husbands I have to this day (like being stoic and composed and ect. I think he also created my love of the princess and knight troupe with his relationship with Rin. They were cute really LOL) So yeah I definitely loved him a lot, and honestly he’s still probably my fav character bc he was always doing some cool stuff. But honestly now that I think about it, I don’t think there’s a member of the cast that I hate??? Like even Naraku has a ‘you love to hate him’ kinda vibe.

But yeah I also really love Sango and Kagura. Kagura’s story and character arc were great I love her x’(

also the Band of 7 arc was probably the high point of the series. 

Also if you want to check out other Rumiko Takahashi series, there’s Kyoukai no Rinne. It’s totally more comedy oriented with less drama and PLOT but I like it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ALSO S3 SOON