#what i never knew i always wanted

[fernandoswarcrimes]

Ghost of You Series

“What happens when you lose the one you love the most?”

Warnings: talks of breakup, fighting, makeup and new love.

Ghost of you - Travis Konency

A little too not over you - Matthew Tkachuk (part 2)

First man - Matthew Tkachuk (part 3)

Hearts don’t break around here - Matthew Tkachuk

What I never knew I always wanted - Matthew Tkachuk

Will possibly add more to this in the future if interest is there🪄

[hinamie]

spiraling

[secriden]

Something about how Fadel’s first instinct after he finds out the full extent of Lily’s betrayal is anger at Keen and then later guilt and anger at himself.

Something about how Fadel never even considered the possibility of her being his true enemy when his ex disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Something about how Fadel — fastidious, paranoid, cautious Fadel — refused to noticed any of the red flags until the accusation was put into words and something in his brain slotted into place because suddenly all the things he has been ignoring for years made sense.

Something about how thoroughly effective Lily’s brainwashing was because Fadel desperately wants to have a mother, wants to be treasured and protected and loved with gentle and soft hands.

Something about how Style gives that to him without thought or prompting, all instinct to reach out with a delicately soft touch, because his love for Fadel enables him see true, to see the broken heart Fadel tries so hard to hide behind a harsh exterior, before Fadel has even uttered a word, and in so doing, loves Fadel with all the careful tenderness that he so richly deserves.

(Something about how Fadel trusts Style so fully that he does not show the slightest bit of hesitancy or caution when Style touches him so intimately.)

Something about how Fadel was searching in all the wrong places for someone to simply hold him, and found it instead when he wasn't even looking, in the arms of the most unlikely and wonderfully perfect person.

[bertoyana]

Erik, what are you doing?

X-MEN: DAYS OF THE FUTURE PAST (2014)

[lazylittledragon]

ok i swear i'm not going to talk about my breakup forever but the thing that just keeps bothering me:

i know that not getting what you need in a relationship is a COMPLETELY valid reason to end it but also. i feel like having a very vulnerable moment where i opened up about my struggles with intimacy and being relieved that i didn't have to keep doing things i wasn't comfortable with, then being dumped a YEAR later because of my lack of intimacy. is something i should be allowed to be very hurt by???

[citrusai]

taash said "they were doing it" and people ran with the interpretation of an npc that doesn't know solas or the history of the elvhenan even when bellara interjected and said, no, that's not right. that's not how it was for the elvhenan. they formed bonds before they had physical bodies. and people ran to doompost or create weird anti-solavellan shit even though mythal & solas refer to each other as old friends and when she releases him there is no tenderness or love in it. it is the act of unchaining a dog from his post, the stepping down of a general. but to each their own ig.

[harrowedsoup]

Anyway Wake lives in my mind rent free and the fact that she’s the Mary to Gideon’s Jesus and John’s god is just!! So crazy to think about!! I’m not catholic enough to really appreciate it but I LOVE that about her and I wish I saw more people talk about it.

Wake, who had an incredibly messy relationship with two people at once, being cast as the Virgin Mary? Having God’s child only for them to be killed for the good of mankind?? Yet Wake’s hard refusal of anything related to motherhood because Gideon was never supposed to be anything other than a tool?? OG Gideon/Pyrrha being her own twisted version of Joseph????

[p4nishers]

i just cant get over how desperate abed was in geothermal escapism. like the way he was practically begging for troy to understand. he never did that before. he wasn't ever desperate like THIS. not even once. he needed troy to understand that this wasn't his fault, that it wasn't intentional, that it wasn't manipulation. he never had to explain the way his brain worked to troy before. but this was different. troy was LEAVING him and he literally saw lava and had to kill his "real" self and be a clone bc he genuinely could not have let troy go otherwise. that whole ep is just screaming how troy is the most important person in abed's life and he cannot live without him unless he's not himself. and he knew that. and troy almost stayed bc that's how important abed is to him. god. just. GOD.

[bonefall]

Hey, what makes a character a 'plot device but not a character'? And how do you not do that? I'm trying to do it on purpose but also I need to still make them interesting because it's on purpose, yknow?

A good skill to pick up is to learn to criticise criticism itself. A "plot device" is simply a thing that moves the plot along, it's a neutral literary analysis term! Usually, when people are angry that "a character has been used as a plot device," it doesn't mean they hate plot devices. It means they're gesturing at something deeper.

Runningwind and Bumble are equally plot devices in their deaths. They are both killed by the antagonist to escalate political tension. Runningwind is rarely "accused" of just being a plot device, and yet, we're talking about Bumble for the same thing.

So, why?

Well, Runningwind is just a background character, but in life, he was a part of the community. He was characterized as impatient but responsible. Yet, he wasn't SO important that he died with a bunch of unresolved plot threads.

He is mostly an extension of the entity of ThunderClan. His killing by Tigerstar, and the fear and paranoia that settles on the group after this, feel like a progression of the story insteas of something forced.

Bumble, on the other hand...

Is hated immediately by Gray Wing, when she's established as Turtle Tail's friend. Bumble's abuse at Tom the Wifebeater's hands invites even MORE investment. The rejection is shocking and upsetting. There's a story there about our main characters being imperfect; jealous, bigoted, and judgemental.

But, she is simply killed off. Everything they set up for this character is gone with little personalized fanfare. It's not a tragedy with a lesson about cruelty, or something anyone regrets.

It's just... plot. Gray Wing whinging that no one will like his shitty brother now that his body count is 2.

More than that, in the discussion of women in particular, "Fridging" was coined to give a name to the way women characters often don't get their stories told at all. There is a CULTURAL trend of female characters facing disproportionate violence, for the sake of advancing male plots.

Bumble has a lot going for her. Petal had a lot going for her. Turtle Tail had a lot going for her. Bright Stream had a lot going for her. When they died, they took their potential with them.

It's not always wrong to kill off a character of high potential, mind you. In Gurren Lagann, Kamina's death is sudden and shocking, leaving a massive hole in the hearts of the cast that never heals. Grappling with that loss, but also letting his memory fuel them, is a major theme of that story.

All that to say... there's no formula for avoiding it. You've gotta identify what the deeper issue is, in your specific narrative.

I can't say for certain what that will look like for your story, but here's some things I keep in mind;

When you make characters who exist to die, make sure they're people before you axe them.

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

If they just miss them because they were (pre-existing relationship), go back to the drawing board.

Fluttering Bird as an example. Who was she? Dead sister. Why do they miss her? Dead sister. No traits until after her death.

Runningwind was short-tempered and helpful. Kamina was a valuable leader who made people believe in a brighter future. Swiftpaw was fiesty and desperate to prove himself. The better characterized, the more profound the loss usually is.

If this is a female character who is dying just to serve the plot, be aware of cultural bias and tropes. How is the gender ratio looking in your cast? Is this happening disproportionately with your girls?

Note how Quiet Rain's litter had both a boy and a girl, but the girl was chosen to be "weaker" and wither away.

And how most of the time in DOTC, whenever a man had to be upset, a girl would get killed for it.

If you ever feel like the character on the chopping block is NOT a full character, ask yourself why it needs to be a character at all. You don't need to spend narrative time building out someone when a literal object of high value might suffice.

"My sister died when I swore to protect her and I can't face my family" = Old. Tired. Ive seen this.

"I lost my heirloom sword when I swore to protect it and I can't face my family." = Fascinating. Why was the sword so valuable? Will they really not take you back? How did you lose it?

When you do kill off "high value" characters, try to make sure you're not leaving too many plot threads hanging. Or at least make a point of how they will never get closure.

[zehl0w]

Zenitsu agatsuma has got to be the biggest egg I have ever seen in my entire life

[morganafayes]

the last dragonlord 2.13 // the darkest hour part one 4.01 // diamond of the day part two 5.13

[waitineedaname]

okay I've finished making my big spreadsheet of how mp100 characters refer to each other! some thoughts on this under the cut because it got long

the Kageyama brothers are very polite in how they refer to people. their parents must have really instilled etiquette into them bc no one else is as consistent about using polite honorifics/titles as they are. the only people Mob doesn't give an honorific/title are his brother and Dimple, and the only people Ritsu doesn't give an honorific are Dimple and Shou, who he just calls "Suzuki"

Reigen, on the other hand, is pretty inconsistent and casual with his use of honorifics. he says "Mob-kun" a couple times and "Ritsu-kun" once, but usually they're just Mob and Ritsu (or "Mob's brother" lmao). the only honorific he consistently uses is "Tome-chan"

it's infrequent, but both Reigen and Dimple refer to Mob as "my boy" at some point :') he's their boy!

Ritsu doesn't refer to the Awakening Lab kids at all until he asks their names after being kidnapped lmao the only exception is when he calls out to the older Shiratori brother after the younger one is taken away and he calls him "Shiratori-kun." considering the fact that after asking their names, he refers to both of them as Daichi-kun and Kaito-kun, I think there was absolutely a moment when everyone was freaking out about the Shiratori brothers where he was like "ohhhhh that's his name"

also he switches from "Onigawara-san" to "Onigawara-senpai" when he realizes he's friends with his brother lmao fakeass

even though Mob starts calling Teru "Hanazawa-kun" as soon as they exchange names, Teru doesn't give him the honorific until they decide to raid Claw together. I guess that's the point when he decides they're friendly enough for it? he calls Ritsu "brother-kun" as soon as he realizes they're related and never refers to him by his actual name

everyone calls Teru some variation on his nickname EXCEPT Mob and Dimple. Dimple actually only calls him "brat" and "that guy" for a while until he managed to track him down again during the alleyway incident, which I realized is because he was exorcised before learning Teru's name lskdjflkdsf from the Seventh Division arc onwards, he just calls him "Hanazawa"

I love that Dimple tries to refer to the brothers with cutesy nicknames and both of them are like "if you do that again I'm killing you all the way dead" and he's like "understood." and then refers to them by given name from then on lmao

Teru refers to Dimple as "Dimple-kun" and Tome calls him "Dimple-chan," both of which are SO funny to me because he's way older than them. rude as hell, this evil spirit deserves no respect

Shou doesn't use honorifics or titles for ANYONE. Ritsu is just Ritsu, the Ultimate 5 are all their last names, his dad is just Pops. he also exclusively refers to Mob as "Ritsu's brother" dkfjldskfj

Serizawa alternates between "Shigeo-kun" and "Kageyama-kun" with no real rhyme or reason to it. just seems to depend on his mood I guess

[until-another-one-comes]

Curly originally not having a pre-crash model makes SO much sense to me. When I first watched this game I genuinely thought that that was how it was going to go too and we'll finish the entire game without ever seeing Curly.

While I don't mind that we know what he looks like (and prefer it that way), I also think it would've been very fitting if we never get to see Curly. It matches one of the focus in the game which is the continuation of the objectification and dehumanization of Curly. We only get to see him after the crash, whatever he looked like before that is never focused on, we only see him after he got everything taken away from him. We only get to see Curly through Jimmy's POV after the captain is now 'useless' and a 'burden' meant only to be kept quiet and whose pain is an annoyance to him.

But even before that, us not knowing Curly is already kind of prevalent, because Curly doesn't know who he is either. A big chunk of his character is that he's unsure and confused on what he wants in life and has no clear direction. He's 'on top of the ladder' but he doesn't even want to be on it but he doesn't even know what he actually wants to do outside of working for Pony Express. Us not knowing what he looks like feels very fitting on how Curly sees himself.

And the thing is, Curly hid a lot about himself to everyone else, too. He refused to open up to Anya, instead choosing to do so with Jimmy, who's view on him is way more idolized and deitified thanks to his twisted perception on Curly, and then villainized when he's angry with him. Curly closed himself from everyone else, and the person who knew him longest chose to twist Curly into something he isn't.

Thematically wise it would've made a big impact, the character who continues to haunt the narrative being known only after he's basically unrecognizable and who's face is never truly shown before, Curly only being known through his unsureness of himself and Jimmy's twisted perspective.

[xinyuehui]

—— The peach blossoms were all blown away, the springs and autumns had all passed. The clearest understanding came in that single moment within a dream. Life was long and full of drifting. When I woke, I was once again a wanderer. What does it matter how vast the earth is, or how beautiful the spring light is? I cannot ask for it.

Lyrics ♪ 不才Bu Cai - 寻常歌 Ordinary Song

[spadefish]

i haven't posted anything in a while, so here, hold this. one of my commissioners wants me to draw dragon seteth + flayn, so here's my first stab at their designs.

[anna-scribbles]

do you think émilie agreste knew, on the day she became too weak to leave that house, that she never would again