#what a complex and fine evil blorbo he is

[galactic-rhea]

Omg your art lives rent free in my head and i'm so happy that i finally found someone who loves anakin as much as i do! Also fun fact: i'm aroace and anakin was the only reason I thought i was straight (didn't understood the aesthetic attraction then lol). Lots of love💖

Omg hiiiii!! Hello, fellow aroace, I'm aroace too! :D

You're so nice, I'm glad you like my art! I was very hesitant here at first because of my previous fandom (which I basically ran away from) was tremendously hostile, so I didn't know what expect from SW fandom and being fan of Anakin of all characters, but hey, I found my niche! There's a lot of ppl that love him (otherwise I wouldn't get that many notes, i think 😆😆).

Maybe there's a very loud angry crowd out there that think you're bad for liking him, but compared to what I experienced on previous fandom, SW fandom as I have experienced it so far, is a walk to the park

Anyways, thank you!!!!

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Likable vs Complex vs "Good"

EDIT: Couple people came up to me thinking of alternatives for category 3 "Good" and my favourite is Kimberly's suggestion of "effective". I think "effective" is great because it means well utilized. It's pretty much exactly what I was going for when writing the descriptions in this post.

I feel that when it comes to describing characters, there are strong differences between a

Likable character - Someone you enjoy watching, like to have on screen, might want to share a drink with. Most protagonists. Usually a blorbo with a mass fandom who says they were done wrong if theyre a side character.

Complex character - how many layers does this one have? how much do you have to talk about them to explain them? Do you see people defending them with massive text posts? Do you follow this blog? You have experience with complex characters.

"Good" character - I don't mean a good person. That is more of a "likable" characteristic. I mean, does this character serve a solid role in the story? Do they have a job, and do they perform it well? This can include minor characters you don't care for, and it can actually exclude complex characters if their motivations don't seem to make sense or have relevance to the story.

I think a "good" character can be further broken down into subcategories but it's impossible to define whether a character is good by a basic description for all series. It requires comprehension of the source material and what it's trying to do.

Allow me to illustrate this with some examples.

I was considering what show to use for this. Let's go with She-Ra for now because it's my current thing and I don't want to be roasting SU or Owl House, and I think Adventure Time is a bad fit due to how episodic it is. I'd have to categorise by season for each example. Let me know if you want me to talk about any specific characters.

Sea Hawk

Likable: Yes Complex: No Good: No

Sea Hawk is a side character in She-Ra who gets kinda sidelined. He hasn't got much to do with anything but he makes me smile when he shows up. I don't think Sea Hawk has a purpose other than to make chaotic background noise. I think that's fine? But he's not a good character and the show would lose almost nothing if he was gone.

Edit: I feel kinda bad for implying sea hawk is not a good character so remember that I mean he isn't used effectively, he doesn't have much involvement and presence. I think a key example is his absence from season 5 entirely when he could have been used more effectively and wasn't.

Light Hope

Likable: Not really Complex: Not really Good: YES

Light Hope is Adora's mentor as She-Ra who is actually manipulating her. Light Hope has a tragic story that adds to her complexity but she's deeply overshadowed by other characters in the story.

What makes her a good character is how strongly Light Hope ties to the themes of the story. Her reveal as being "actually evil" could have been shallow and bad in a different series (anyone else playing Halo recently?) but Light Hope having her agency stolen from her, just like Adora, makes it liberating and heartbreaking when she is destroyed alongside the Sword of Protection.

Light Hope represents the oppressive regime of the First Ones and the ways they would control Etheria, while being a victim herself. She heavily parallels Adora. She does not require being complex or likable to have an important impact on the story.

Micah

Likable: Yes Complex: Yes proportional to screentime Good: Not consistently

I really like Micah. He's one of my favourite side characters. So why can I not call him a good character?

It's because he only serves to drive the actions of others, and when he is onscreen as an actual character, the show doesn't know what to do with him.

Micah was "dead" for most of the show and his life and death drove the decisions of plenty of others. He learnt from Shadow Weaver and was an important part of her corruption arc, being better at magic than her but scared away by the dark magic, which ended up attacking her. His disappearance is why Angella and Glimmer's relationship is so strained, why Glimmer is so determined to prove herself, and when he was in the Portal World, both characters had to give up the "wrong future" with him to restore the world.

Micah has a character with way more depth than you'd expect from a dead dad. He has a funny likable personality and is a highly skilled mage with a variety of relationships, who has survived on an island for god knows how long.

However, this kind of speaks to him being the protagonist of his own story, and She-ra is so chock full of characters aiming to a specific goal. Micah actually being alive has very little to do with the story of season 5. He isn't part of the space mission. He has an episode with Frosta, another character who has little to do with anything, and then he gets chipped for the rest of the show.

The reason Micah ended up this way is because he's a complex character in a story that has no room to do anything with him. He's not the only victim of season 5's crunch time, far from it, but he never got any screentime or "arc" and his actions don't tie in to the show very much.

Glimmer

Likable: No Complex: Yes Good: Yes

Edit: I'm guessing this one was what got me flack? But Glimmer is easily in my top 3 favourite characters and imo she is the character i by far most greatly resemble. I used her here because I think she's a much more interesting example of a disliked yet very well written character than Catra for this post. But it's evident, if you look at the fandom behaviour, casual viewers don't like her much. People either love her for her everything or kind of hate her, and she's treated badly in a lot of fanfic. The reasons for this exist in the show's writing and framing and how people interpret her. She's far from the first blorbo of mine to exist in these conditions, i mean just look at PB from AT who is a thousand times more hated but also the best character.

So Glimmer's likability yoyos significantly across the series, she's far from the most offensive abrasive friend character, but she's one of the least likable characters in She-Ra. This is down to the show not having any particularly unlikable characters apart from Shadow Weaver, if I'm honest, and Glimmer's constant rubbing against other far more liked characters such as Adora, Bow, Catra, so on.

Glimmer is annoying as a bare minimum and nasty as shit at other times, going through challenges that turn her against her friends and make her seek power and lash out against others.

However, these are flaws the show is hyper aware of and has baked into her story. They are all part of what makes her Glimmer, they are all what makes her so memorable and interesting.

It is the push and pull of Glimmer's courage, her desire to be there for her friends, with her insecurities about being weak, her failure to protect her mother, that mean... When Glimmer is handed the powers of the moonstone and offered tutoring in magic, you're giving a powerless beaten down puppy a MACHINE GUN. Of course she's going to use that power ineffectively.

Complexity doesn't always make a good character. If you look at Steven Universe or even Adventure Time, you have a lot of complex characters in that series who fail to serve any strong role, or who zigzag in so many directions taht you can no longer make sense of their motivations.

However, Glimmer's motivations are not only internally consistent across the entire series, the show gives her a complete character arc where she goes from a powerless brat, to a responsible commander, to a brokenhearted powerhouse, to someone who understands where she fucked up and is trying very very hard to lead her friends into a hopeful future using the very same character traits that led her to go astray - Her love, courage, and rage.

There are a couple of weaknesses for Glimmer. I would say mainly that the show goes too far to make her snap at Adora in season 4. I don't think she needed to go that far, and it would've been fine if they dealt with it properly in season 5, but Adora and Glimmer's relationship is completely brushed over in season 5. Adora and Glimmer aren't the only victims of this - there is Micah, and season 5 is the difference between Scorpia being a good character vs an "ok" character - but it is a very very good story, and it's hard to say how it could've improved these characters with the timeframe that it had.

Entrapta

Likable: Yes Complex: No Good: Yes

What makes Entrapta different from Micah and Glimmer and Sea Hawk is that she's a very basic, likable character, but she has a severe impact on every single season on the show. Entrapta is second to Catra, in my opinion, in terms of making a "good" character in She-ra, but she doesn't require any of Catra or Glimmer's complexity to get there.

Entrapta's character does not change much, but she does have challenges, which tie strongly to the base themes of She-ra - understanding, acceptance and love. Entrapta is thrown around the plot like a pinball but her movements are being noticed by all the other characters. When she joins the Horde, it changes both the Horde and the Rebellion. She puts Hordak on his path to independence. She's a big reason Catra descended into desperation, going through a repeat of the cycle of abuse. She's also why Adora and Glimmer went into hardcore martyrdom, though that has less to do with Entrapta herself and more to do with how her "death" triggered their prior conditioning. She did the runestone experiment, and created the portal. And when Entrapta is removed from the equation, it is a major catalyst for other characters to step into the hole she left behind.

But while these feats are impressive, they don't say much about Entrapta herself. What makes her a good character and not just a plot device?

Well, Entrapta has an internal logic and a strong sense of personality that is present throughout the show. While other mad scientists might act randomly and not have much character going on, Entrapta has an entire arc that has less to do with science and is instead focused on her goal of connection. She has a deep love for science but also for friendship and she wants to connect those things together, she wants to express love through her science and be liked for who she is.

That's what makes her compelling and likable. It's not that deep but it ties in to everything she does. It's what connects her to the other characters.

That's why Entrapta can seamlessly work with the good guys, and the bad guys, and be ideologically opposed to the true big bad of the series just as the rest of the characters are, without having to change much as a person or to be that complex. The show moves her around where she is most effective at serving its story themes as her current self, and she never has a period of inactivity in the story even when absent. And she never has to do anything that contradicts her previous actions.

I have strong opinions on other series. I'm thinking a lot about SU, because it's full of complex characters who get discarded, but also I'm thinking about Princess Bubblegum. I think I'd rate Princess Bubblegum differently for every season of Adventure Time.

[nelyoslegalteam]

You should talk about antar from dnd on here due to they are neat

FINE but only if you finally run that gondolin campaign and give me an excuse to PLAY THEM AGAIN (threat (affectionate))

okay!! so antar is one of two (2) tolkien ocs i have, both made for d&d purposes. they’re a character i made for a fall of gondolin one-shot game that jaz ran one time. being a fall of gondolin one-shot, the idea was that we were all going to die horribly, it was really just a matter of how.

something that should probably be known about me: i keep wanting to make d&d characters to have get killed off dramatically, but i literally never can, because i get way too fucking attached to them.

so therefore, this is fun, right! i get to make a fun little doomed character, they get to die horribly, i am not going to have them long-term so it literally doesn’t matter!! blorbo for my torture!!

i rolled antar up like an hour, not even, before this game. i chose everything about them to be about as doomed as possible. i even gave them the oathsworn background!!! and, at jaz’s absolutely evil suggestion, to which i went oh that would be SO bad for them,

i had them swear two oaths.

one, they are oathsworn to turgon, to protect gondolin at all costs.

two, they are oathsworn in complete and absolute loyalty to maeglin.

(over the two hours in question, i would come to frequently and almost exclusively refer to maeglin as “my son, who is also my boss.”)

i spent the entire two hours wondering how, exactly, this was going to play out, which oath they were going to inevitably break, what they would do when confronted with what maeglin had done.

well.

antar sees maeglin on the cliff with earendil.

drops literally everything to try to get to him immediately.

gets there, and realizes that morgoth has done something to his mind.

tries at first to convince him that he’s safe, that they’ll protect him from literal morgoth himself if they must.

and when that fails.

declares that they will prove that he is safe.

and immediately breaks their oath to the entire city to defend maeglin, genuinely believing that they could save him, and save everyone.

understandably, they then immediately took twenty shadow points at once, in a game where straight-up murder makes you take five, and then naturally proceeded to die falling off of said cliff.

also understandably, they then immediately proceeded to make me insane about them forever.

several weeks later, they would still be living in my brain enough for me to decide that, as a member of turgon’s guard, they bore extremely direct witness to eol’s attempted murder of maeglin/successful murder of aredhel, and probably also eol’s subsequent execution. they were extremely affected by watching a child lose both of his parents in one of the most traumatizing ways possible and just. sorta decided that anything this kid needs, they’re there for. truly i do not want to backstory build deeper than that until i get to play them more, because it’s more fun for me if things come up naturally, but they’re an absolute thembo ridden with a deep and unshakable responsibility complex who has just absolutely mentally adopted this poor kid. they’re the house of the mole’s secretary. they’re a polite ball of sunshine. they will kill for you if they love you. and now jaz uses them whenever maeglin needs to have a secretary in fics, which is truly the highest honor.

and @ jaz for asking me this, actually let me play them more i WILL break into your apartment and start getting the dice out myself this is a THREAT <3

[licncourt]

We all know Louis is quite vain and he knows he is attractive, but that's not enough for me and I have questions

Does he himself think he is attractive, or does he just know other people find him so?

What does he really think about his appearance and how it changed from when he was human to after he became a vampire and then throughout the decades as what's considered attractive changed? (Undoubtedly he was considered far less attractive when thin=poor and unhealthy than when heroin chic was all the rage) What decade's style was his favorite?

Though he is vain, how much does Louis actually like being this beautiful, and how much does he resent it, because it did put him into 'Helen of Troy' situations?

If you have anything more to add please do because I can never get enough of you talking about our blorbo

I am SO sorry, this is an ancient ask!! I just found it in my drafts along with a couple others!! I do have a lot of thoughts on this though

In short, I do believe Louis thinks he's attractive (and probably enjoys it to some degree), but like with plenty of other things, I imagine that comes with a lot of shame. The sins of pride and vanity would have been drilled into his head along with all the others, so I assume any enjoyment he derived from being considered attractive would've been overshadowed by that, another reason to consider himself a bad person.

I imagine that increases even further when his looks are the main reason he attracts Lestat and is chosen to be turned, and then it definitely becomes a Helen of Troy situation with Lestat and Armand, not to mention the attraction characters like David, Marius, Merrick, and even (gagvomitscreamcry) Claudia express for him. I can't see a situation where Louis feels like inspiring copious amounts of "immoral" (especially gay) lust would be a positive, especially with Lestat and Armand coming to blows over it. Yet another reason for him to see himself as inherently evil.

None of that is even mentioning the way his beauty leads to him being reduced to a pretty object by essentially everyone he considers a friend. That alone would make him resentful of it I think. Everything he's done for himself, all of his complexity as a person, gets reduced to that by friends, enemies, acquaintances, and even partners. It must hurt to be characterized as a pretty face with nothing to offer anyone even by those you love and/or would hope respect you.

All of that said, Louis strikes me as a greener grass person. I'm sure he thinks his beauty is a curse in a lot of ways and wishes he were plainer looking, that he'd be left alone and taken more seriously, but I fully believe he wouldn't like it much if he lost his looks. Louis has an ego and I think his looks contribute to that a lot, to his sense of superiority in general more than he realizes. It's another trait that makes him naturally "better" than others

As much as it's a hindrance to him, Louis' looks also add greatly to his power over others, especially Lestat, which is something he seems to enjoy very much. While in many cases he's taken less seriously because of it, being so mythologized and revered as this incredible beauty gives him significant sway when he wants something. This goes double with Lestat. Obviously Lestat loves him as person, but it's pretty obvious how completely infatuated he is with Louis' beauty and how weak he is for it.

Basically: Is he annoyed when people interrupt him reading to ask for his number? Yes. Would he psychologically collapse if that ceased to be the case? Also yes.

As far as beauty standards throughout time, I guess that comes down to how exactly you picture Louis. Personally, I imagine him as very slender and fine-boned (the way he's described), but not skinny and skeletal. He spent a lifetime in the upper class, so he would've had access better quality food, a lot of more of it, and significant leisure time. That would suggest to me that he would probably reflect that physically with a fairly healthy frame, thin, even willowy, but still proportionate and filled out. This is just my interpretation obviously, there are lots of reasons that could be different, but I think the fact that he seems to have been considered attractive as a mortal lends some credence to that.

Still, the tall, thin, sad prettyboy look would've gotten him a long way in the 90s, so that, combined with the lower maintenance clothing styles, makes me think he would've liked it. It's undeniably nice to your personal features be "in style", even if you're Louis. If the fashion matches what you like, even better. Layers, dark colors, earth tones, artfully unbrushed hair, comfort and functionality as a staple of fashion, all if sounds very Louis. The 80s and 00s seem way more Lestat-friendly in terms of fashion.

(I'll spare y'all on this post, but ask me about my Louis and Lestat NPC outfits)

[shiroi---kumo]

these are my favorite memes to submit omg. brace yourself this will be long. and probably a bit incoherent. i tried to keep the blocks spaced out i hope it works

1 cloud: he's handled very VERY well as a "muse of power". he's balanced and still flawed but he's trying his best. he really covers the full complexity of being alive. i literally love him so much. he is the truest blorbo by proxy that there ever was and i am rotating him in my brain near constantly

cid: insert lovegrip emoji. he's so great. he's sweet and weird and i love him. he brings me joy and happiness.

usva: i live and breathe for "what do you mean child of white? wtf. he's just my dumbass little brother. look at him. he'll be whining and crying that he can't sleep later. he isn't special. he's just pilv'"

aurinko: goddddd he is SO. god there's so much there where do i start. i love papa sun. i think that if "trying to do the right thing but it accidentally ends up being collossally fucked up by the end" were a genetic trait then kumo got it from him

kuu: if she were real i would ask her to adopt me. she's so sweet. she loves her kids. k bye

taivas: we don't see him much but the amount of "tired" he feels is just. palpable

punaista: idk much about her yet but we love a friend we can chat with over tea!!!

safiirin: takes no bullshit. also she looks so friendshaped but she could so totally kick someone's ass. do not fuck with safiirin. befriend her so you get 😊 instead of 😠

sinfonia: tragic irony. kills me every time. RIP sinfonia

vuorovesi: she was so close to understanding the point! alas. she did not understand The Point.

liekki: green misterican turned medical person? we love to see it. fight the stereotypes ✨

sumu: i fucking loathe him as a person but FUCK is he such a good villain. he's smart and that's a problem.

kultaa + kupari: perfect "evil henchmen" . part of me loathes them and part of me feels bad that they probably got manipulated into this somehow

ok now buckle up because now we get into

✨ them ✨

palo: she's so fucking funny. i adore her. she's not the comic relief but at the same time she's definitely comic relief you know? palo is the queen of part-time work

sydän: she's just vibing. she's soft and friendly and very nice. i would be her friend. we would be besties i think. (until she finds out what i have done to her brother and then she would End Me but ANYWAY)

aamunkoitto: listen. listen to me very carefully when i say this. i am telling you that aamun is one of my favorite characters in the entire history of the universe. and it's only partially because he is also a visually-impaired military kid just like me fr. he has so many layers underneath all the grump and 😠 . love is stored in the hopefulness brought by the dawn. and to think i didn't like him as much as valo initially... god. where was my brain. not in the vicinity i guess.

valo: magical history man who got caught in the trap of "it's just chronic pain, no one needs to be bothered by it, i'm fine" and then lying about his feelings. i want him to get some catharsis someday. he deserves it. holds him in my arms. love is also stored in the valo but the valo needs to be loved too.

revon: if i were gonna ask someone to adopt me i changed my mind. i'd ask revon. sparkle dad is so . he. i love him ok. he's such a good person but he doesn't see it and it KILLS me in like the best way ever. also i always have an affinity for muses who just go "oh. oh i have suddenly acquired four children." he deserves a blanket and some nice insoles. and maybe a trip to like a cat cafe or something. somewhere he can be surrounded by creatures full of no thoughts just love. let him experience inner peace and let him hug all his kids.

Favorite Detail || Accepting

I'm not crying. You're crying.

Theo this is so sweet and quite frankly I needed this. I am so happy you see all of this in them. I am so happy they're alive for you and you see the differences in each and every one of them. I feel seen. They feel seen. I'm so glad the differences in all of them are shining through and I just have never really had OCs before this (not to this depth and extent) so to have someone tell me that one of them is their favorite character ever (Aamun my baby I adore you) is just so special to me.

Like I am over the moon that you love one cloud and that he has a spare room he can rent in your brain (for when he needs to hide from storms and cuddle his radio man)

but the fact you love my OCs just squishes my heart with a hug I cannot describe. I was so ready to have no one give a FUCK about them but me and be okay with that but here you are holding them all so close whenever you can. Sun Papa, Moon Momma, Sparkle Dad and all the rest.

God Theo. I love you and I appreciate this so much.