#while using none of the story's actual canon traits for that character

[starcurtain]

respectfully the reason people mischaracterize aventurine in the specific way you mentioned in the tags of "canonically not caring about wealth or power" at least is a lot more simple than you'd think; because the devs said otherwise. in the livestream where acheron and aventurine were revealed (so right before we actually got that tb quest where we learned everything) the ceo and the writer outright state that he seems to have an obsession with amassing wealth.

now obviously we can now look back on this with hindsight, they said a lot of things in there that make more sense with context (example; mentioning that his original kit being focused around dodging left him the only party member alive was scrapped even though they joked about it being fitting might have made him look like a jackass, but now recontextualized as being about his luck only saving him) but i would argue that when the writer of the story and the ceo of the company look into the camera while revealing behind the scenes details and say he has an obsession with wealth (even if there are now multiple interpretations of that, from thinking he intentionally plays into that facade to thinking that's how he coped after losing his reason for going on) and that is the first impression a lot of people had of his real character if they didn't follow leaks, it's kind of no wonder that it's so common of an interpretation.

Yeah, I think I take this with a strong does of skepticism though, because:

A) Everyone knows the devs lie in previews in order to keep secrets about characters, and, as you note, what they say about characters tends to be wildly out of context. We all remember those comments about Gallagher not being plot relevant at all lol. Should we still believe that just because it was said by the devs once?

B) At this point, why would you be engaging in the fandom for a character if you skipped or put off doing any of his content in the actual game? Playing through 2.0 alone, let alone 2.1, would reveal to anyone paying attention that Aventurine is a very duplicitous character who puts on a specific persona as a mask to hide the fact that he thinks of himself very differently on the inside.

I feel like we can use the "the devs said this" as an excuse for a little while, but once the character's content has been out for months and provides a completely different picture of the character, if you're not willing to update your "first impression" of the character to an more accurate portrayal of them based on what's actually in the game... then like... why be in that character's fandom at all?

That's just my opinion anyway. This might not be the nicest thing for me to say, but I do feel like if people refuse to move on from an impression they formed of the character before the character was even released... then what they've created is an OC, not a portrayal of the actual canon character anymore.

[valtsv]

can you pitch tsv to me fandom propaganda style… like sell it to me. hook me in. what is it about

the silt verses is a folk horror/political satire/weird fiction podcast set in an alternate ambiguously modern-day reality that asks the question "what if gods (and their saints, and angels, and miracles) were real? what if they formed the core infrastructure of the society you lived in? what if they were sustained by human belief and sacrifice? what if this was just the accepted Way Things Are?" and then introduces you to a cast of characters for whom this is their normal daily routine, and shakes them up through a series of intersecting arcs and plotlines. it deals with a lot of compelling themes - including identity and personhood, how institutions of power are formed and maintained and the potential for abuses of that power even by the most well-intentioned who wield it, action vs. rhetoric and the power of words; whose story is worth telling and whose is erased or adulterated by those privileged enough to write the version that becomes the widely accepted canon, and how struggles for control of something as conceptual as narrative can become very real and legitimate fights for the right to have one's autonomy and personhood recognised, human connection and why it's both so valuable and so destructive, etc. - but the central question it unceasingly begs is "why do we continue to live like this? why do we accept that this is all there is? what will it take for us to care about what's happening all around us, every day, right before our very eyes? what will you do when you realise you've spent your whole life drowning, and every option for relief comes at a cost? how long can you keep telling yourself that you're not really drowning before the water closes in over your head and swallows you like all those before you?"

tsv takes a magnifying glass to the horrifying exploitation and cruelty that so much of our own society runs on, and literalises it, leading to what is often rather heavy-handed satire bordering on the parodic - but it does so with such grace and unflinching, grounded honesty, without preaching to its audience but without letting them off the hook, either. it recognises that we are all both complicit in and victims of our own collective slow grind towards annihilation, and it asks us "isn't this absurd? isn't this horrifying? is this really all there is? is there nothing we can do in the face of this seemingly insurmountable, inescapable self-defeating routine-turned-ritual? why should we, or shouldn't we, care? why should we, or shouldn't we, try to make a difference?" and it's brave enough to admit that it doesn't have all the answers. but it still tries. because the silt verses is, fundamentally, a story about hope - real hope; the difficult, unglorious, unrelentingly in need of maintenance kind that is, nevertheless, still worth every effort to inspire it. the silt verses is a story about why we get up in the morning and try again, even though it might never be enough.

it's also a very character-driven story, and the character writing is truly second to none. every character is a person, in all their infinite messy, human complexity. every character has the capacity for abject cruelty and incredible kindness; to be a significant influence on their reality and to be utterly meaningless in the wider context of things; every character has the potential to be both the hand that pulls someone to their feet in their hour of need, and the boot that grinds them further into the dirt, and every character is both of these things, at some point or another, to someone. every character is both the martyr and the one holding the knife. no character is a saint - not even the actual, literal saints. and while this isn't necessarily something that should be used as a selling point, the way this podcast handles the diversity of identity is fantastic, and never used tokenistically, or as a character's sole defining trait (though not all aspects of identity get equal consideration; the creator has acknowledged that he didn't tackle race as a topic much beyond examining the developmental factors of broad strokes "us vs. them" nationalistic identities, and the arbitrary nature of patriotic loyalty to one's nation when it runs on the same oppressive systems as that which is painted the aggressor, and some fans have pointed out that while diversity of gender and one's lived experiences according to one's gender identity gets plenty of focus, some things are left to implication and inference in a way that doesn't necessarily strengthen the story's themes).

anyway. not sure this is the "fandom propaganda style" pitch you asked for, but listen to the silt verses. it's a brilliant work of fiction and to my mind deserves to be considered a landmark piece of art (even if that does mean that some of my more fandombrained takes would likely come to be seen as unflattering misconstrusions of the source material that betray my personal deficiencies. well whatever it was fun i had fun.)

[ultfreakme]

I can't believe I'm saying this. It burns me to say this. But holy fuck the people were right Sakura is annoying. It takes very little to convince me to like a female character and far too much to make me get anywhere near dislike. I don't think I've ever.....actively hated a female character. Ever. I've watched a lot of shonen anime and often, the female characters are not treated well but I've never once looked at a character and gone "you're hopeless". (I watched Fairy Tail for a solid 3 years and read the manga, and all my faves were the girls).

Every one of them had something.

I thought I'd walk away from Naruto liking Sakura and seeing her potential but she just. Sucks. This is not the first time I've engaged with a story with badly written female characters. I used to watch Supernatural and Teen Wolf for god's sake.

Usually, sexist writing leads to underdeveloped female characters for whom obvious plots go unaddressed. This frustration and general lack of involvement in plot + audience misogyny often leads to female characters being hated. But personally, none of these have ever made me hate them because when writers write them, regardless of future exploration, they are written to be likeable.

They don't WANT you to hate the character, so they are given base-level compelling motives and personality traits, shallow as they may be.

Sakura through and through is written like we're supposed to hate her. Naruto as a show is so focused on empathy. Talk No Jutsu might be boring and often misses the point, but it exists to emphasize Naruto's ability to reach out. The show's all about friendship, camaraderie, and loyalty to one another. Sakura is none of those things.

I truly began hating her when Five Kage Summit happened because of two things:

Her confession to Naruto

The way she talks about her feelings towards Sasuke

In both these cases, she seems to think she has both of them all figured out and centers herself, start to finish. She makes that fake confession to Naruto because she took Sai's word for why Naruto was doing it. Shizune said Naruto was doing it for Sasuke and not because of her, Sai doesn't KNOW any of them on a deeper level, and Naruto's her teammate who she's known for a while.

Yet she went with "oh he's just doing it for me". And okay fine I can sorta forgive it. But the confession itself was so shallow. She sounded like she was trying to be sincere but all she could talk about was how Naruto was a hero worthy of acknowledgement now that he had proven himself through achieving an impossible feat. She's confirming all of Naruto's worst fears and the source of his anger while thinking she understands him. She was spinning her actual thoughts regarding him into a love confession- and her actual thoughts are she thought he was a fool who knew nothing but is cool now because he's gained status.

Then with Sasuke, she gets a whole episode dedicated to thinking about him as she chased him down. I thought we might finally know why she was so dedicated to him.

The answer, in canon, as Sakura herself says is because she thought he was hot and cool. When she looked past it, all she saw was "darkness" that disgusted her. She thinks Naruto is trying to beat the darkness out of him. The only thing she sees in Sasuke is his physical appearance, which she likes, and this nebulous "darkness" which does not even want to try to understand.

She doesn't remember his kindness, his smile, his empathy, his willingness to put his life on the line for those he treasures. None of it, even though she was there to witness most of this.

She so hilariously and embarrassingly misunderstands both of her teammates who she apparently cherishes with such blind confidence it's hilarious. She's WRITTEN, INTENTIONALLY, to be shallow as fuck and uncaring for either of her teammates true feelings. She makes an assumption and runs with it, with zero urges to examine it.

She doesn't ask about Itachi when Naruto said the name in front of her during the bridge scene, she's not curious about him, she never initiates in trying to discern the situation. The person she evolves into in the future is also disgusting to me. Like she's such a nothing-burger of a character who exists to highlight Naruto & Sasuke's bond by showing how distant she is to either of them.

And this is not because of combat strength. Sasuke has openly expressed his dislike towards her because she has no spine. She says she'll kill whoever as a 12 year old on Sasuke's request. And she's exactly the fucking same when she hits 16. He hates liars and people with no conviction. Sasuke values strength but he also values integrity, intellect and tenacity. Karin is objectively far weaker than Sakura and he respects her. Same for Cat Baa-Chan and a lot of other characters. It genuinely doesn't take much to gain, at the very least, Sasuke's fundamental respect. Just believe in something and don't fucking breach his boundaries.

Sakura is so dismissive of his trauma and is wet noodle of a person with no ideology or goal beyond him, of fucking course he's annoyed by her.

idk her character is so fucking annoying after a point

[thankskenpenders]

Amy's fortune cards

The Sonic fandom has long been the kind of fandom that takes minor details very seriously, for better or worse. On the one hand, this means fans will really dig for the diamonds in the rough, latching onto fun character interactions, animations, bits of background worldbuilding, and more in pieces of Sonic media that many would write off as "the bad ones." But it also feels like every week another needlessly hostile debate over Sonic minutia erupts on Twitter, whether it's over individual lines of dialogue, fanart that makes Tails' shoes blue, or the ideal length and volume for Sonic's quills.

So it was probably inevitable that a fandom-wide debate would erupt upon seeing Amy's new gameplay style in the DLC for Sonic Frontiers, which takes the once-obscure fact that she enjoys reading tarot and shines a spotlight on it like never before.

I mean:

The thing is, while I basically always try to tune out Sonic fandom bickering... for once, I kind of sympathize with the detractors? Don't get me wrong, I like Amy's tarot stuff, and people on all sides of the discussion are being overly nasty about their opinions, as usual. (Sonic Twitter remains my personal hell.) But when I set aside the hyperbole and zoom out, I do think I understand why some fans are put off by the sudden shift in focus for the character, even if I think it's cool.

It's complicated. Let me attempt to present the cases for and against Amy's fortune cards

For years, I was always one of those fans who thought it could be fun if they played with Amy's tarot reading, or even leaned into some kind of magic with her. Part of that is my own biases showing, but there's just something that makes sense there, especially when you look at Sonic, Tails, and Amy as a trio. (I would argue that's the real "Team Sonic" these days, especially in the comics where Knuckles is more likely to be stuck on Angel Island or otherwise doing his own thing.)

You could argue that Tails is all about logic, relying on science and technology and deductive reasoning to solve problems. But Amy is all about emotion. She wears her heart on her sleeve, is extremely empathetic, and is very prone to magical thinking - both figuratively and sometimes literally. Her origin story has always been that her tarot cards told her it was her destiny to meet Sonic on Little Planet. She's claimed to be able to "sense" peoples' presences - particularly Sonic's. She's the type to believe that The Power of Love is a literal magical force. So, on some level, it makes sense to mirror Tails's science by having Sonic's other best friend believe in magic. And then Sonic is somewhere in the middle, primarily following his own gut instincts but taking advice from both of them as needed. This isn't totally accurate to how their dynamics actually function in canon stories, but I think it's a mode that could work for them.

Going off of that, it's fun to lean all the way into Amy being a magical girl, or even a witch, using her fortune telling as a foundation. Take, for example, this version of Amy from Diana Skelly's old Sonic cast redesigns from before she freelanced for Archie and IDW. This is one of MANY such redesigns for Amy.

Fast forward to the 2020s, and Amy's tarot cards are, in fact, finally getting brought up again in canon. Which is fun! I like seeing that. I like all of the individual stories involving Amy's fortune cards. This is a fun character trait for Amy, a fun nod to old lore, AND a fun storytelling device, all in one. It's really cool that the Sonic universe has its own thematically appropriate arcana, and that the cards are getting made as physical merch. And sure enough, the official card backs and borders were designed by none other than Diana Skelly, in yet another cool example of an ascendant fan leaving their mark on the series.

BUT... when you step back and look at the big picture, I get why some fans find this shift in focus jarring. At the moment, it's starting to feel like every new story about Amy involves her fortune cards to some degree.

The most recent mainline comic arc to feature Amy as the lead character, 2021's Trial by Fire arc, prominently features a sequence where she reads fortunes while camping with the girls. The Origins version of Sonic CD now bookends the game with scenes of Amy and her tarot cards. Sonic randomly mentioned it in a scene in Frontiers. And now, just this week, we got the (very cute, gorgeously illustrated) Amy's 30th Anniversary comic with a story revolving around Amy's tarot cards, followed the very next day by the Frontiers DLC in which she gets a brand new tarot-based moveset. Even her base melee attack now has her throwing tarot cards instead of swinging her hammer. Again, I like all of these individual things, but after years of it almost never coming up at all, it's VERY noticeable that Amy's tarot cards are suddenly everywhere.

To be fair, I'm looking at this from the perspective of a superfan who's actively following ALL Sonic media. Casual fans - especially kids - aren't necessarily going to be reading the comics every month, buying the thousandth rerelease of the Genesis games, or playing the ultra-hard new alternate ending DLC for a game that came out last year. Each of these stories is going to be someone's introduction to the idea that Amy can read tarot, and that's probably part of the idea behind this unified push.

But to play devil's advocate, for my fellow superfans, I understand why it feels like a very minor footnote of Amy's character is suddenly becoming the entire focus of her personality. While Amy has always been said to enjoy fortune telling, that wasn't really a character trait in and of itself, but rather an example of her being a typical girl who hopes she'll be able to find true love one day. It's less that Amy can literally predict the future and more like her using a cootie catcher or going "he loves me, he loves me not" while picking the petals off of a flower. So I get not vibing with this stuff, or feeling like it's being pushed very hard out of nowhere.

What I don't agree with are comparisons like "it's like if they made Knuckles' moveset revolve around him liking grapes." Like, I get it. Ian Flynn loves shoehorning in his little winking references for us nerds, and mentions of Amy's tarot cards were previously on the same level as other random bullet points from old Japanese manuals. But a multifaceted hobby like fortune telling that opens up so many narrative and aesthetic possibilities is obviously very different from having a favorite food. It's ALWAYS been a part of her story, not just a random fact, and there's no reason why the fortune telling can't be elevated to something more.

And, hell, even if it wasn't an established character trait, there's nothing inherently wrong with injecting new ideas into a character. One of the best Amy stories in recent years, the Free Comic Book Day special "Amy's New Hobby" written by Gale Galligan, came up with the idea that Amy's secretly been drawing little comics about her and her friends. Is this based on Lore? No. But it's cute, and helps tell the story of a younger Amy who's still coming out of her shell as both a hero and a friend.

Certain fans are also looking at Amy's Frontiers moveset and using it as evidence that once again the Vile American Contributors like Ian are CORRUPTING Sonic Team's perfect vision of Sonic with their misinterpretations. And like. Come on. Ian does not control the gameplay. He's a freelance writer. The tarot stuff is clearly something that Sonic Team likes if they made it the basis of Amy's new moveset - and, you know, if they keep approving comics and animations about Amy's fortune telling. None of this gets made without their blessing, and lord knows how much they can micromanage shit and shoot down ideas over the most minor of details.

Like, yeah, Amy's fortune telling was probably conceived less as a sign that she Knows Magic and more as a pretty mundane hobby for a lovesick young Japanese girl to have. But you're gonna sit there and tell me that using Amy's tarot cards for more than that could only be the result of a cultural misunderstanding? That nobody in Japan uses tarot card theming and aesthetics (or the general idea of magical cards) for the cool factor? Stardust Crusaders? Persona? The Astrologian class in FFXIV? Cardcaptor Sakura?? Hello??? Do you think Capcom put Gambit in Marvel vs. Capcom ironically because they thought using magic to throw cards at people was stupid? There's tons of precedent for this! It's nothing like Knuckles throwing grapes at people, be for real.

Giving Amy a very magical girl-esque moveset also just makes a lot of sense. For decades her hammer attacks have literally made sparkly heart shapes appear around her. Leaning into both that and her tarot cards in her new moveset makes a lot of sense to me.

But, admittedly... I do think it's very odd that her hammer is treated as a secondary element here, rather than having her primarily use her hammer and adding the cards for extra flair. If hitting the attack button made her swing her hammer instead of throwing cards, I'm not sure we'd even be having this discussion right now.

But the tarot-cycle and Amy riding her hammer like a witch's broom are fucking SICK and I will not concede on this point

The thing is, this whole fortune card discourse is but a small piece of a bigger problem. Amy's been a character who needed some work for ages, but there's basically nothing you can do with her without pissing SOMEONE off.

Years of stories where Amy's crush was her primary motivator and Sonic went "Ew, cooties!" have lead many casual fans to believe that being Sonic's obsessive fangirl is Amy's entire personality. At best people might call her Sonic's Minnie Mouse. This isn't just a matter of Amy having haters within the fandom - venture outside of that bubble and you'll realize that this is how MOST video game playing people seem to see her to this day. I don't feel like this is a fair assessment of the character, but this idea didn't come from nowhere. No matter how much good deeply entrenched Sonic fans may see in their old dynamic where Amy perpetually chases Sonic, this is a very real problem that Sonic Team has to contend with for their leading girl. Of course all those games where the way-past-cool protagonist thought Amy was annoyingly clingy and tried to get away from her made people think less of her.

If new stories were to go back to emphasizing Amy's crush on Sonic a little more, they'd probably be taken as confirmation that Amy's just the girl with a crush on Sonic and that this is her entire personality. Conversely, when the crush is played down, you piss off the hardcore SonAmy fans who don't seem to understand that they're Charlie Brown and Sega is Lucy holding the football. You can't win.

And so here we are. In the absence of what was once her defining trait, now reduced to an occasional blush or wink in Sonic's direction, new stories are trying to mine Amy's past for additional material to work with. Having been a thing fans wanted to see for years, right now we're getting a lot of tarot, but we're also getting reminders of her compassionate nature and her desire to go out of her way to help the little guy. This is an ongoing process. I continue to hope that her bubbly, exuberant demeanor can shine more in future stories. Now, I also hope that the tarot stuff gets balanced out a little better with other traits of hers. But I don't want it to go away. I think it's fun.

This course correcting is far from exclusive to Amy. Knuckles is getting stories that remind us that he's a competent fighter, an experienced treasure hunter, and even a self-taught archaeologist after years of him being perceived as either the dumb one or just the guy who stands in front of the Master Emerald all day. And Tails has been getting some stories reminding folks that he's a capable hero in his own right and not just Sonic's timid kid sidekick.

But no supporting character will ever compete with the sheer number of new ideas Sega has tried with Sonic himself. Like Amy, his Frontiers moveset has also given him half a dozen new superpowers that he never had before, from the Cyloop to air-slicing projectile attacks to his own take on Shadow Clone Jutsu and beyond. He's also been a hoverboarder, a swordsman, a time traveler, an Olympic athlete, a racecar driver, cursed with a Flame of Judgment, imbued with alien power, a fucking Werehog with stretchy powers, and on and on and on.

If Sonic can do all that, Amy can try out using a tarot-cycle.

Anyway TL;DR the REAL problem with Amy's current characterization... is where the FUCK is Amy's bestie, Honey the Cat???????

[styxxsyringe]

DESIGN DEEPDIVE:

OCTAVIA KRANKENSTEIN

due to popular demand, here is my first DESIGN DEEPDIVE, where i explain all my little character designs! character design is really important to me, so i hope you guys appreciate this TwT

this deepdive goes over octavia krankenstein, the main character of my series reassassination. firstly, we'll go over shapes and color pallete, the first things you notice when looking at most character designs.

when it comes to octavia's shapes, we can see that she's primarily made of squares and triangles. this establishes two things about her right off the bat:

- she's sharp, and personality wise, probably dangerous and active.

- she's strong, and possibly stubborn.

however, a detail that i want to point out is octavia's singular circle, in the form of a button on her dress under perfect pendant. i've added this button to indicate that behind the sharp, tough exterior, octavia has some empathetic traits. the location of the button is also important, being at the heart. (this exerpt is from my own personal factfile for octavia):

"...Octavia is a particularly self-contradictory character - while she's apathetic to the idea of killing, she can't stand the idea of harming innocents - meaning she often feels the need to justify her homicidal tendencies."

the color pallete of octavia is also important. as you can see above, she's made up of two colors and a tone - black, scarlet, and seafoam green. i want to focus on black and scarlet here.

when it comes to black, i think it's an interesting color both technically and in terms of character. black was used to give octavia's design the vibe of an executioner or medieval assassin. it blends into the night, and hides bloodstains, so it makes sense for octavia to wear it as an assassin. however, this is juxtaposed by flashy red details, which indicate several things about octaiva -

- she cares a lot about fashion and the way she looks, even if it isn't functional. the style of clothing that octavia wears is heavily inspired by 2000s "mallgoth" and the general nu-metal scene, which was often red and black clothing. (cybergoth was also a small inspiration!)

- octavia is a character with a lot of freedom. this might seem like a stretch, but in color language, red indicates action, confidence, danger, passion, and power, along many other things. in canon, octavia's dress was given to her by another character (dr. krankenstein) completely black, and then octavia edited the dress herself to include red details. this on its own might seem like nothing, but the thing about octavia is that her design is complimentary to another character's; vivica de la crux.

vivica is a character who wants freedom, but has next to none, to say the least. therefore, her "red" qualities (passion, freedom, etc), are stifled, so she has very little red in her design compared to octavia. side by side, you can see that their designs have a strong contrast in this regard.

- and lastly, octavia is vulnerable in that she wears so much of her personality literally on her sleeve. while octavia may seem stoic and mysterious in terms of character, and possesses strong physical strength, she lacks social awareness and struggles in that regard, being a social outcast within the story.

alright, now it's time to go over body type, hair and outfit! these are all pretty important in my opinion.

firstly, body type. octavia's heavily exaggerated thinness which is actually inspired by that "scene kid" artstyle that you've probably seen before, and 90s/2000s cartoons and comics in general (SPECIFICALLY the art of jhonen vasquez, who made invader zim and JTHM)!

of course, octavia's hair gives her design more depth and volume, and a strong silhouette - one resembling a ghost or spiky monster. as you can see in her ref sheet, there are 3 spiked ends on either side of the hair. in fact, there are a lot of matching pairs of threes in octavia's design, aren't there?

- three bottom eyelashes on either eye - 6 in total

- three bows on either boot - 6 in total

- and of course, three hair spikes on either side - 6 in total.

that's right! octavia's design hides a secret 666, which relates to her alternative name - experiment-666 - and the fact that she's literally seen as a demon to the clear crucifix org, the antagonists of the story.

but let's look at octavia's outfit entirely. or maybe not? the thing about octavia's design is that i wanted it to be one where you could deform and modify it in various ways, and no matter how many details you remove, it's still clearly octavia. kind of like hatsune miku!

in the end, octavia is supposed to feel like a character from the 2000s, rather than just one based off of 2000s alternative culture. i don't know if i really succeeded with that, but i'm still proud of her design regardless. if you read all of this ramble to the end, thank you so much! i might do more design deepdives for other characters if people are interested. you can even request specific characters of mine if you'd like!

[thechurchoftheradiodemon]

I've been mulling over something. I read one of Vivzie's interviews lately and I've come to some conclusions about Alastor's character (these are just my own theories, though, so we'll see how everything actually develops in s2).

Unfortunately, I believe, canonically, Alastor is NOT aromantic. Maybe on the aro-spectrum, and deffinitely asexual, but not aro per se. In this interview, Vivzie confirms Alastor's asexuality, and plays with his aro identity saying something like "I don't want to ruin people's fun with him". This could be queerbaiting in a sense (I don't actually think so, when Vivzie is high on queer representation, but aro people are very left behind in the community, sadly).

But she continues to add on that there are plans for Alastor in the future of the series, saying something like "I can't confirm that he is aromantic". To me, this reads like we will see romance in Alastor's life in season 2, wether it's a past lover/romantic interest or a new one I could not say. She would've had no problem in confirming Alastor as aromantic otherwise, and I interpret this as Vivzie not wanting to spoil part of the plot.

I used to think that Alastor's deal would most surely be with Lilith, but, while it could be the case, I'm not so sure anymore (although it could be a fun dinamic). But, nontheless, I think Lilith's and Alastor's 7 year absence and his deal are intertwinded somehow.

My bet, for the future romance plot, is that it could be one of these three: either Lilith, whom the fandom is already considering in a sense; the mysterious Eve, or... Lucifer. HEAR ME OUT. I don't say this as a Radioapple enjoyer. The reasons I think it could be Lucifer are the same that I think it could be Eve (although we know absolutely nothing about her).

Mainly, I draw these conclusions from the early comic Zoophobia, from where we know Alastor's character was taken. In this comic, his character is supposed to have a crush on the character of KayCee, a powerful being with whom he could have made an alliance to reign chaos.

KayCee's descriptions could match either of the three romantic interests I mentioned, but what strikes me more are her defining traits: white and gold colour palette, and the apple. We know not all of Vivzie's characters stem from Zoophobia, and the ones that do have (understandably so) went through important changes through the years, mediums and aesthetics.

BUT these could be some clues into what we might discover in s2 of Hazbin. And, so long, the character we've seen fit this palette and apple motif is none other than Lucifer himself. Eve, on the other hand, is also shown during the intro sporting some sort of apple motif, which could be indicative of her future appearance in the series. But we know so little about her, and, knowing Hazbin Hotel will only have 2 seasons confirmed, I'm not sure we will see more of her.

I personally don't like the idea of losing Alastor as an aromantic character. I'd much rather not see him in a romantic relationship whatsoever in the canon series. But that is not my call to make, and he will always be our ace-king no matter what. Also, that wouldn't mean his story or character will be less interesting or developed. So we'll have to wait and see...

(This is visual representation of me reaching these conclusions, btw)

I would love to hear what other fans think about this, so if you want to leave and opinion in the comments we can discuss!

[foolsocracy]

Hi, hello, I’m new to your blog. I’ve made myself at home. Lovely carpet.

Can I please know more about your spider Robbie pie? Can’t seem to find the silverware.

but of course, kind anon

Spider Robbie is an au in which Robbie Robertson takes up the spider mantle after the death of the one before him. He is the third, following Ben Urich and, most notably, Peter Parker.

This au is very much canon divergence from Eyes Without a Face, where Peter makes it in time to save Robbie from his original fate but dies in the process. Peter is shot while rushing Robbie and the others out. In his panic and elation at finding Robbie physically unharmed, Peter outs himself as the Spider Man to his best friend. Robbie stays with him as he bleeds out and resolves to continue to hide Peter's identity.

Peter is buried and remains that way for... an undetermined amount of time.

Robbie is left with a mask, a jacket, and the question of just who was this other half of his friend. As he learns more of who this... Spider Man was, he gets more and more involved in the spider's cases and conflicts. Robbie gets more sure of his own abilities and makes a bit of a name for the Spider Man within his own community, though the people of Harlem are largely unaware that the appearances of a masked vigilante match the interests of one Robbie Robertson.

It is to be noted that none of these aforementioned abilities are spider-god-induced powers like Peter's. Robbie, especially at the beginning of his spidering career, leans more into Urich's role than Parker's. To me, Robbie has been passionate about the press and journalism in a way that Peter never was. For Pete, his job as a photographer and reporter was a job he took until he could get into college and study science. Robbie has a way with words and communication that Peter frankly lacks. Of course, that isn't to say that Robbie won't be kicking ass, because he will. It will just take him a bit of time to get some of those skills as he's, well, a normal guy. Not everyone can get their biology scrambled like Pete.

And just because Robbie hasn't been scrambled doesn't mean he's completely separate from all things supernatural either!

I think the marvel noir universe is at its best when there's a magical, supernatural undercurrent. This concept isn't super prevalent in the actual comics, but HoplesslyLost on ao3 has done some really cool world building with it.

I think in Robbie's case, where he would be the narrator, "magical realism" would be an interesting avenue to take it. I use this term in particular because I most closely relate it to Toni Morrison in my head, when I first learned about it through her work in high school. For Morrison, the concept was inseparable to blackness and I think for Robbie, where his blackness is so central to his character and his motivations, drawing on that could be more of a service to his character. It feels better to do that than ignore how incredibly racialized his society and story is. It will make his relationship with the spider god, Peter (who I will get to very very shortly), his community, and his own mythos as The Spider Man really interesting and complex.

So it's been established that Robbie doesn't have spider powers. And we all know that Peter did-- or should I say does. One of the spider god's abilities is to bring Peter back to life. She does this in the comics, but not in any of the runs from 2008-2010 (the runs that make up this au). When Peter dies on Ellis Island, he does not think he is coming back from that. Waking up again is a surprise.

Here's where I think the au really takes a left turn. Do I think the Spider God is purely evil and spiteful and has it out for Pete? No, not really. Will I be ramping said traits up to 11 for the au? Yeah, I guess I might. This is because I love a little bit of horror and the came back wrong trope. I will hopefully be fleshing the spider god out in the near future, but I really haven't given her the many hours of thought I have the other characters. For that I'm sorry spider god </3

Peter digs himself out of his grave, more spider than he ever has been. For much of his new, waking life he is more animalistic than not. There is clearly something wrong with him; his joints are too flexible and loose, he's got some eye-shine going on, his skin is pale and his veins are starkly dark beneath it. He's possessed. Someone is puppeteering him, someone who knows a lot-- almost everything about him, but it's clear that the someone isn't him.

And Peter--- the body, it can't be Peter. At least, that's what Robbie thinks when the figure catches his eye the first time. Because Peter is dead and buried, and he has been dead and buried for weeks.

[redux-iterum]

With your track record with your ‘favourite chapters’, I am deeply afraid of what trauma is going to occur in chapter 45. Also, here’s that opportunity to rant about the Erins’ crippling allergy to characterisation that you asked for!

Chapter 45's a great time. I promise. For me.

Now! Characters and the Erins.

So the characters in Warriors are extremely inconsistent. I think we can all agree on that. Firestar, for example, goes from murder-happy to altruistic and loving to completely apathetic, sometimes in the span of one book. He's constantly said to be a paragon of goodness and a soft-hearted nice guy, but if you actually read the damn story, you can see he flipflops around as the plot progresses. There's a lot of characters being said to be one thing while they behave entirely differently in the story itself.

The main thing that I believe when it comes to canon is that almost none of the cats having a consistent, present personality is more-or-less on purpose, or at least extremely convenient for the Erins. They focus on the plot first and foremost and shove characters into the slots that need to be filled so that the plot they have in mind can progress or be halted whenever it's most useful for them. Would Leopardstar be stupid enough to let Tigerclaw walk all over her in the first arc? No, but we needed the Clans to be split in two for the future battle at the end of the books. Is ThunderClan truly that eager to listen to a clearly battered, befuddled and bizarre-acting Bramblestar, especially when he starts kicking cats out of the Clan? Not logically in any respect, but how else are we going to facilitate drama and get multiple cats out there to help bolster the numbers of the secret rebellion? So on and so forth.

Is planning a plot first a bad thing? Not necessarily. Anyone with enough skill can create a plot and then create characters to service that plot and its themes.

But the complete lack of personality about 95% of the cast displays is much more harmful to this series than a bad plot (of which there are many). The entire premise is about a community of cats and their interpersonal drama. You can't do that well if your readers can't tell you what kind of personality Snaptooth has, or how Mousefur and Runningwind interact with each other. I've talked before about how even families don't feel like families, to the point of not grieving when their child dies at some times (never forget that Yellowfang's own mother is one of the first to demand her be cast out as if she could believe her own daughter would murder her siblings - likely because the writers forgot they were even related). The most we get for personal relationships is romantic subplots, and because there's no character between the partners, there's no chemistry, and therefore romances are more annoying than interesting. Not having real characters is poisonous to the story.

If I were to alter one thing - a singular aspect - in the books, it would be to give characters actual traits, and have them act consistently with those traits. I genuinely believe that if everyone had a personality they stuck with, we could have much more interesting drama, plots that are much easier to come up with and navigate through the different Clans and their members, and an overall higher-quality series with a fandom that could actually ship characters instead of slapping two designs together and pretending they had any chemistry or even interacted in canon.

As it is, though, I can't even say we're stuck with a bland flavor of cats. We have no flavor at all. No sprinkles, no vanilla, not even really any flour to begin with. We have nothing to work with. And it annoys me greatly.

[bambiraptorx]

I think the reason people, myself included at first I'll admit, are/got so hype for missing sis' design is because it's a 'canon' (I can't remember how canon the comics are) appearance of a character reveal that was planned to happen in Rise but we never got. Now that my hype has gone down I'm disappointed too :(. I'm semi-willing to forgive the snatched waist she has because Leo has it too. I do think the face marking are cool though

Yeah I do appreciate the facial markings, they're a different enough shape from Leo's (and the fanon ones the others often get) that they stand out nicely. The idea of a flame-like pattern that doesn't seem to be fully symetrical is very cool. But honestly? It's one of the few things I like about her face reveal/comic design, the rest I'm neutral on or mildly annoyed by.

this next part got ranty, so I'm just gonna put it under a read more. Absolutely nobody has to read this lol. TLDR I get heated about the design for Big Mama's Assistant in the comic.

I do want to clarify upfront, most of my issues are with the design of Big Mama's Assistant (Venus/Frida) as shown in the comic specifically. Given that it does not (and isn't meant to) fit into the show's artstyle, it's possible that her show design would have looked different. But the fact remains that this might be the closest we ever get to having an actual canon design of her.

And... it's not all that great a design in my opinion.

(That said, I do still like the markings that she's given in that design. Those are cool. Thumbs up.)

My main issue is with how there's so many little details intended to scream "I am a Girl Character that's G-I-R-L and don't you forget it". Like, I genuinely hope that's not the design she was supposed to have in the show, because it feels like it's being almost shoved in your face that This Is A Girl.

The traits I've noticed so far:

She has lips. Or possibly lipstick, but in either case the appearance of lips. None of the other (male) turtles have lips, but all the important female characters in Rise do.

She has heavy eyeliner/mascara, as in the upper line of her eye is noticeably thicker. Yes the boys look like they have winged eyeliner at some points, but hers is much heavier.

This is more subtle, but she seems to have larger pupils than the other (male) characters in the comic, giving her something of a doe-eyed look.

Her plastron shape has been rounded out/simplified, giving her the appearance of boobs and an hourglass figure. (Interesting note here: in the show, the male turtles have comparable or perhaps larger sized bumps in their plastrons. Yes there's a slight difference in shape, but it defintely doesn't look like she has boobs in the show.)

They made her have an obviously lighter skin tone than the other turtles. Yes it may well be a result of dramatic lighting, but enough people have taken it as her canon skin tone that it still counts.

Long story short, all these items are things often used in visual media (especially in cartoons) to code male and female animal characters as, well, male and female. And it's important to note, most of the time this coding is *completely divorced* from the sexual dimorphism actually seen in those species. We can speculate all we want on if she's wearing makeup or not, but the fact remains that turtles don't have lips or cinched waists. She doesn't *need* all that to emphasize that she's a girl. Even just two or three of these traits would be fine!

(And while I also have issues with the whole "you have a brother and sister" thing when it was previously discussed as being two sisters, maybe it would have been fun to see a design that gave us a little more room to debate if this was a brother or a sister. Yeah we'd heard from the creators that Big Mama's assistant was a girl, but that's also where we heard that the turtles had two sisters.)

It also kind of bothers me a bit to see the fandom response, in that there's a lot of people who are taking the design as is I guess? And sure, there's plenty of people who *aren't* drawing her as is and remove some of the intense girl coding, but there's also people who do draw her as close to the comic design as possible. And while there's nothing automatically wrong with that, I do hope those people are at the very least aware of the tropes that her design falls into.

Now to perhaps the more controversial part of this post outside of just the visual tropes she falls into. For me personally, there's nothing (outside her markings) that makes the face reveal all that interesting design-wise? And there's basically nothing that indicates anything about her personality.

She wears makeup. So what? Not only is that the societal standard for women and girls in real life, it's basically the standard for how female characters in Rise are designed. It's also a hugely common design element of female animal characters. It tells us nothing about her, except, again, she's a girl.

Her outfit is the same as canon, so there's no new information there.

Her expression is carefully neutral, and doesn't really tell us anything. Heck, everyone else in the scene is having more of a reaction than she is. The other turtles have shocked expressions and Big Mama is angry. Venus... has her eyes open I guess? There's a lack of expression on her part in an otherwise very expressive comic.

And (again in my opinion) her design honestly isn't particularly unique. She has a face shape relatively similar to Mikey's (the main different being his chin is rounded and hers is pointed) and she has facial markings like Leo. And while it's not a bad thing that her design resembles the other turtles given that she's supposed to be related to them, many of the design traits that make her stand out are the Girl Design Traits.

It's also worth pointing out that there's a very specific way Rise draws important female characters, with them all having similar body types and facial details, and this design plays right into that. It's a further example of a Rise girl/woman who's thin with a small waist and lips and a small nose and no obvious musculature. There's been other posts that break this down more than I'm going to here, but the design for Big Mama's Assistant just... continues all that.

And I don't have a problem with characters looking feminine, but when they're all feminine in similar ways, it gets a little... boring? Even a little body type diversity would have been nice (like giving Casey muscles instead of the same slender arms as everyone else, for example.) The assistant doesn't have to follow the same pattern (she's an entirely different species, for one), but she does.

And in some ways it's like, yeah, we got to have confirmation that she's a character. She exists. Hooray. She said nothing and she did nothing besides take off her mask. We all knew there was gonna be a face under there anyway! And seeing her finally appear in canon, only to be drawn using so many visual cues to show her as The Girl Turtle is... a little underwhelming, I think.

But the fact that I've already got a design for Venus/Frida is probably also a factor here. I'm more attached to my design and I like it better lol. Rant over.

[hawkogurl]

Tell me good things about Harry so that I'll like him more.

I don't really like him for some reason, but to write good Norman & Harry one-shots/stories, I need to actually like Harry (and loving Norman but not liking his son is ridiculous). I thought you'd be a good person to ask since you're writing a fic about him and seem to like him a lot.

I mean you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but I assume, like me, you'd love to rant about your favorite character.

Have a good day!

So I’m gonna warn you in advance, I have severe insomnia and I haven’t slept in more than a day so I’m not firing on all cylinders. This is also why this is taking so damn long to write. Also none of this is necessarily directed at you specifically if I mention something. It’s probably a general observation.

While I do think it’s valid to dislike him for a lot of reasons—I think it’s valid to dislike him on the grounds of what an absolute piece of work James Franco is alone—there are some things I will posit for my son boy. It’s worth noting that one, he is seventeen years old in the first movie, he is a baby, and he dies at either 20 or 21. Additionally, most of the more overt shitty things he does are things he’s shown to have developed as a direct result of Norman, namely his treatment of MJ being an explicit result of Norman being a misogynist. And on the topic of reasons I think he’s liked, I know for a lot of people his reaction to MJ commenting on Norman, while not pretty, is just so, so real to a lot of victims of similar abuse.

While at the end of the day I do sort of think that trying to quantify morality sort of misses the point of the Raimi trilogy’s core cast. Whether or not they’re good people is less important than the fact that they are human, with human flaws and human problems who are all for the most part trying to do their best, or in cases where they actually are acting maliciously like Eddie and, not to slander your blorbo, Norman, acting maliciously for very human reasons. I think Harry is a great example of this.

And I do think Harry is a better person than he’s generally given credit for. He maintains his 616 trait of not having it in him to kill, even having a line in the novels where MJ mentions he couldn’t kill a frog in science class. He keeps a lot of the 616 core of his character when it comes to fragility and gendered tropes, having a complex relationship between traditionally female and male tropes as used in those movies. He is subversive as a male character. But that’s getting off topic, even if I could go off about that for hours. He’s more respectful of MJ’s romantic decisions than most secondary male leads in fiction, maintaining a platonic relationship with her long after they’ve broken up. Norman is a weapons manufacturer, yet Harry’s job in OSCORP has him working on accessible green energy with Otto. He’s far more loyal to Peter than people want to give him credit for, resisting his hallucinations and the revenge he’s obsessed over for two years at that point for no other reason than the fact he loves Peter. And it’s important to me that you know the original ending of the third movie didn’t have him going to help Peter after being told how Norman died but instead after seeing a shattered photo of himself, Peter and MJ. That boy cares so damn much. While poorly executed, the amnesia arc in the third movie is very important in my opinion because of what it’s meant to demonstrate. Harry isn’t a malicious or malevolent person at his core, he’s just deeply traumatized and struggling.

And I know well that all that is buried six feet deep beneath his mountains of issues, but that’s half the reason I like him. I think it’s easy to admire Peter, and he’s well written and deserves it, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that there’s such a decent amount of affection for Harry on tumblr specifically. He’s the character with the subversive gendered tropes, the canon schizophrenic, the one I think a lot of people connect with out of this feeling he was treated unfairly. And I think it’s reassuring to see something that reminds you that no matter how much has happened, no matter how many mistakes you’ve made, it isn’t too late. You can always choose to be better.

There’s also a fantastic video essay about Harry and the stages of identity development somewhere on YouTube that I think is absolutely fantastic because that also is a massive part of his character. Along with his genuine psychological issues, his development of identity has been stunted. He’s soft spoken and tries to make himself as unobtrusive as possible in the first movie, basically molding who he is to try and please the people around him. He swings in the opposite direction in the second movie, where he’s perfectly capable of interacting like a normal human person at Peter’s birthday party, he almost deliberately paints himself as obnoxious as possible around Otto. I’ve written full posts about that before, so I’ll keep it short as the idea that he twists who he is to make himself feel safe. And feeling safe isn’t necessarily what’s actually safe for him, but often just what’s he’s used to. There’s a sense of completion to him simply deciding to go and help Peter. He’s choosing who he wants to be for himself and nothing else, choosing whose love actually matters to him.

I’m happy to talk about the guy in messages or asks upon request. Also have like 293 posts this length or longer about the dude tagged under harryposting he is so important to me. I should probably make a specific analysis tag.

[docgold13]

On the Scale of 1 to a Villain's Circus themed torture chamber, the amount of unnecessary, painful and contradictory loops taken by the retcon for Nightcrawler's origins goes beyond that limit. Because Azazel cannot do a single takeover without Nightcrawler existing as both his biological child and a mutant with his exact teleportation abilities. You remove any of those things and Azazel's plans can't come to fruition whatsoever (he really needed him for both a possible one on earth and the one in Heaven). So literally making sure Nightcrawler or someone like him doesn't exist would have made none of Azazel's takeovers happen (which is easy because none of Azazel's other bio kids have his powers or even look that much like him and Kurt was literally the only one that did)... It also doesn't help that every time Nightcrawler did stop Azazel, he needed his blood ties to him to pull it off (no really, every magic seal required his blood to work). To even be part of the first takeover and "stop it", Nightcrawler had to be related to Azazel too because Azazel had to bring all of his children in one place which was easy because he has mindcontrol powers that only work on them. To pull the Heaven one, Azazel used Nightcrawler's soul (which he is tied to as his father) to pull himself up there and he found him right away because he has a passive ability that helps him know where his children are (and who is his bio child too, it keeps him from accidentally thinking someone is his child when they're not and has always worked). The icing on the stupid cake is, Azazel is just a mutant, who was even on Krakoa since before the laws were made there and they only allowed mutants back then. The last time Nightcrawler stoped him, he put a power nullifier on him... And it was all over. He would have went to Rikers island and be sentenced if he didn't break out of his transport vehicle and Mystique didn't give him a job

And then you have Mystique and Destiny's first canon X-Men story which is Days of Future Past where, after they assassinated Senator Kelly, they created a dystopian future for mutants that has them near extinct... And Nightcrawler is one of the first to die in it, right after Kelly's assassination actually. He also already died in 616 protecting Hope Summers and stayed as such for years while they were ready to sacrifice baby Hope to save Rogue right after M-Day, which would have doomed Mutants. Then you have Age of Apocalypse where Mystique raised Nightcrawler since birth and did it all as a single mom after picking his father for his fuzz, where he never met Destiny until he was in his 30s and where Azazel never did a single takeover because a lot of other components were missing to pull it off (and you know, APOCALYPSE took over and killed almost everyone). Then you have Cardinal, a Chimera made from Nightcrawler's DNA (+ three other mutants) which makes Kurt Wagner his bio grandfather, who just looks like Azazel with red hair and red eyes so all of Azazel's traits were passed down in Kurt's family line. Then you have the fact any of Azazel's takeovers happen years after Destiny dies in 616 (they would have taken much longer if Nightcrawler didn't exist, if not never happened at all) yet she appears in the vision of his takeover. Then you have characters like Doctor Doom, Jean Grey and the Scarlet Witch as part of the people Azazel managed to defeat (Scarlet Witch depowered 99% of mutants with a few words and can scramble powers on a whim in an average day, enough said). Then you have the fact the only reason Azazel is even on Earth is thanks to Margali Szardos getting him there so literally convincing her not to do that would have meant Azazel would not be at the point he was in 616 (the retcon has it that Destiny made a deal with Margali to KIDNAP Nightcrawler from the spot Mystique left him at under a tree in a SNOWY forest, since she never threw him to his death to save her own skin in this take even tho Azazel remember that happening), ...

Unnecessary loopholes doesn't cover it : We're on an essay's length in tomfoolery

TL;DR - The X-Men's Nightcrawler has a very complicated backstory. Efforts to retcon and streamline his origins have been clumsy.

No offense to readers out there who are fans of Azazel, but the best option moving forward might be for the X-men comics to never mention him again and just move forward.

[warsamongthestars]

There is a term I use known as "arguing in-story". I means, when you build an argument for why characters or story or settings are what they are, you are specifically using elements presented in-unvierse / in-story / in-canon.

Honestly its an interesting and entertaining phenomena. Especially when it fails.

Episodes, that, while existing, are completely disregarded because they break some fundamental point in the current development. Sequel Series that are abandoned because they fail to match up to the tone / story / character of a prior work.

For me... If my suspense of disbelief has had a snap-back, I find it difficult to argue anything in-universe without immediately seeing the conman behind the wizard.

I can't argue anything in-universe for TBB. To argue in-universe is to know or use character or setting elements to make a cohesive understanding of a episode / story / plot.

... And there isn't any of that in TBB. Oh yeah, there's aesthetic, you could even say it has Personality--but that's it.

Yes, there is the Crosshair thing. Yes there is the Omega thing. But none of their stories really hit the mark do they? Grips you emotionally, but if you think about them for five minutes, there's gaping holes in the characters.

Made worse because its explicitly a Sequel to TCWs, which had set fundamental character, setting and rules to how things go, which TBB disregarded entirely.

I've seen alpha-beta-omegaverse fanfics with better character and plot writing.

The characters act "Logically", in the sense that they act logically for the values--which is to say, they act logical according to plot demands.

Omega is important, therefore, she holds not just the focus, but also is the heart of the plot, like a poorman's Steven Universe.

In exchange, the plot has no development for clones, so tosses out anything but the bare bones. Enough to get you excited, like discovering a brand new pokemon, but not enough to really know the clones like we could back in TCWs.

Crosshair's struggle is important mostly because he's popular, and not because of anything he really did. Name one thing about Crosshair that has nothing to do with the Empire or Omega. Now make it a paragraph. Now show an example. If you can do that (And I know damn well many of you can), how come the main writers didn't?

Because its so oddly self-centric, you don't actually know a damn thing about the characters that isn't a Reaction. They have no goals, no character development, that isn't a reactive response, or isn't revolving around Omega.

Which, back in the ye olde days of 2000s--would've gotten you bullied off of ff.net for writing donut-steels.

The only decent episodes are those where the central character has nothing to do with Omega, and has goals that get reflected in their actions--Tech races, because he's damn well good at it and he likes the thrill, even if he won't say it, so he makes the risky payoffs. Crosshair saves the reg, because Crosshair actually does care a lot about people, no matter how snippy he is, and he will absolutely go back for you. Both of these traits can be seen in TCWs, and the contradictory nature of these traits, in comparison to the character presented, is what makes them compelling.

A lot of the problems in TBB do not boil down to "in-unvierse elements", but in fact, boil down to writer's intentions. What are their values in logic that produced this. Why did they write it as they did. And, is it actually acceptable?

I will be the asshole nad say, no the fuck its not. I came to TCWs in a hard time in my life, and focusing on it, got me through a lot, gave me hope for a lot of things. That's the power of story telling, no matter what form it takes, and you'd be amazed by what you can handle if you just have hope.

TBB, however, actively drained that hope because its such a unthinking sellout. Instead of hope, I ran off Rage, and it was whole sale destructive. And like the child who burned the village, I will bask in its destruction, no matter what form it takes.

Can't argue for it, because the writer's intentions was not the art. Can't argue in it, because the writer were writing at he seat of their pants and thus didn't care to make a better story. Can't argue with it, because it fundamentally breaks elements from TCWs that are established canon, and thus, makes itself non-canon.

Any arguments after that, without explicit acknowledging that you have experienced a non-canon work, is just arguing that "its canon because its marketed"--and frankly I will never accept a Corporation's idea of Art in anything.

[the-blossica-fan]

Greetings!

Actors Au Schneider interacting with Schneider (ehhh just have either her be alive miraculously or this is before she disappears).

What are your headcanons for Sonetto and Schneider for actors AU? Either as a pair or individually is up to you!

Whats the tea between Arcana and Constantine?

Ill guess the seasons for the actors au are the patches, and the mysterious narrators are like the mysterious voices that appear in the beginning of eps. Grandpa and Grandma could be old famous actors (maybe the Grandpa was the narrator in Disco Elysium since Ive heard his voice has been compared to that game) or related someone in the cast!

Hello again, Comrade!

Schneider talking to AU Schneider could probably happen after the storm, a surprising apparition of another - less healthy and tired looking - Schneider was quite a surprise, and naturally both wanted to see each other.

AU Schneider is healthier and more active than Canon Schneider due to their difference in pasts, but still maintains that similar personality trait that characterizes them. This didn't last long, as the others, but Schneider was able to leave this alternative universe in peace after knowing her family is safe, even if not in the world she comes from.

Canon Schneider: Is My Lord alright?

AU Schneider: "My Lord"? You mean Vertin? Yeah, she must be spending time with her girlfriend

Canon Schneider: Girlfriend? Is she dating Sonetto?

AU Schneider: Nah, Sonetto is dating me

Canon Schneider: What?

As for Sonetto and Schneider, it's not that long of a story actually.

Sonetto used to study with Vertin and Mesmer Jr in the same class and held nearly the same activities, when it comes to filming, she's quite camera shy.

One of the most extroverted ones is Schneider so she always ended up helping Sonetto during scenes, trying to get her to crack open that shell. One would say they're complete opposites, which is why they somehow attracted each other.

They're not dating per say, it's that stage where they both know but haven't been able to give that step further, either for outside reasons or simple nervousness.

Sonetto is definitely more shy than in the series, though she does develop alongside her character. This is her first time actually acting, unlike some of her classmates (Matilda is pretty experienced in this field due to her family name but ofc, they're just acquaintances) and she's very, very nervous, which prompts her to often make mistakes

Meanwhile Schneider is not necessarily new but she's not been in the filming industry for long, she's slightly older than Sonetto after all. She knows some stuff and decides to help a fellow.

Gotta say, Sonetto did have a crush on Vertin a while back

How do I explain Constantine's and Arcana's relationship... It's complicated.

They're friends and have been for a while, they were one of the first members to be cast and have had enough time to connect. And by friends I mean frenemies who got it for each other but will not admit it.

They're their biggest supporter and hater at the same time. Saying they're enemies is getting rid of every friendly interaction they had, saying they're friends is a bit too little but saying they're lovers is quite the lie.

It's... Complicated.

Smoker grandpa and Sarcastic grandma ate quite a famous couple the directors had to beg for them to give their voices for the series. They're married and have children who are older than half of the cast, who already have children, they are grandparents after all. None of their children actually act on R1999, they truly enjoy the series but only they are a part of it

The narration happens at the start of a chapter or during a change of scene, offering more information on the background of the characters and current situation. The narrators also have a part to play on separate projects (Like Three Doors, for example) but they gain relevance as a storyteller for the series.

[pynkhues]

People getting mad about character interpretations that differ from their own is funny because none of what we say on here is going to change how the characters are written. We already know for a fact that Lestat’s POV will be different in some capacity. And they’ve told us explicitly that we haven’t seen the real him outside of the reunion. Reading from IWTV to TVL gives him a lot more nuance, though obviously what the show changes we don’t know yet. I can’t help but feel that some of the fandom backlash is because people are worried that their headcanons will be rendered obsolete, which TVC might be the very worst property to get attached to in that way, and especially at this point in the story. Anyway, your analyses are always great to read, please keep on posting them!

Yeah, I was actually percolating on this last night as I cooked dinner, but I do wonder if some of this doubling down on Louis as being submissive / a 'housewife' / feminine / bottoming has been partially motivated by Louis explicitly becoming a dom in his relationship with Armand in s2?

I could be way off base here as while I watched s1 as it was airing, I actually wasn't involved in the fandom at all really prior to s2 starting, but I do wonder if with s2 leaning into certain traits (and not even just with Armand, but with the boys in San Francisco, his violence to Lestat prior to the drop [again, not defending Lestat for the drop at all, or diminishing it as a singular act of abuse] and his coldness to Claudia at the end) has created a bigger divide between the canon Louis and the fanon Louis, and if it's that that perhaps creates a certain degree of protectiveness/defensiveness over that fanon version who clearly means a lot to a subset of fandom?

I don't know, like I said I could be way off base, haha, but it's interesting to consider.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Red's characterization is frustratingly inconsistent (based on the viz translation)

So I tried to do a "Red centric" FS reading the other day and honestly:

Red as a character lowkey pisses me off the more I think about him.

Trying to write him doing ANYTHING in FSR just, breaks my brain because: What character does he actually HAVE?

To explain further: WHAT CHARACTERIZATION DOES HE HAVE THAT IS CONSISTANT?

Because I can list a fuck ton of his traits, but none that remain consistent and reliable character traits that I can make into a rule set for me to follow to write him properly and which rules I could BREAK depending on the scenario.

I'mma admit this rn: This might be extremally bad faith reading and I'll admit that with my whole chest but it just bugs me the further I try to think about characterizing him.

Buuuut on the other hand. Venting my frustrations might help me get a grasp on what he's MEANT to be like and that'd be useful.

TLDR: I genuinely think Akira has no fucking clue what they were doing with him and I think he's the worst written Link of the set of four/Shadow Link. (This admittedly could also fall hugely on the fault of the translation team too with botched dialogue.)

And I even hypothesis they cut a whole chapter about him for time. (We'll get to that)

Full rant:

Okay. So you'd think this idiot would be pretty simple to figure out.

There's a lil page dedicated to each Link describing their traits, which are all pretty accurate. (This to my knowledge i only in the legendary???)

EXCEPT IN MY OPINION, RED'S. (Green's too but maybe I'll get into Green at a later time...)

His is just. Wrong. Upfront wrong depending on how you read his character...Which...is imo inconsistent based on the canon events of the story.

Let's go down the list of traits from this page

Easygoing - this is accurate since he takes the mission the least bit seriously between the four and gives everyone silly nicknames.

Bright- ...I'm going to assume this is in reference to his personality being "Optimistic" not his intelligence, as we'll get into soon.

Innocent - ...I have some counter arguments to this one but go off I guess. He's SUPOSIVELY more innocent than the other 3.

Simpleminded - again there is a shit ton to suggest the opposite, but well, get into that shit.

So, depending on how you read the word "bright," there are already inconsistencies with "simple-minded" (I'm trying real damn hard not to be obtuse as fuck here but I'm a stickler for wording...)

So for the "innocent" thing...okay this one particularly rubs me the wrong damn way. Because of a few diffent things.

Let's go over smth first:

Identifying the links, you can always tell its red in a panel due to his even screen tone tunic and white sleeves.

Blue has a gradient that goes almost black with screen toned sleeves. Green also has an even screen tone but black sleeves, and Vio has a noise screentone with white sleeves.

Now, Red's "Innocence" or imo lack there of.

Now thought bubbles are hard to pin to anyone specific without like, tails to lead to characters. The fs manga is guilty of not having proper word bubbles often or pointing at the wrong damn character. But here were lead to think the one who assumed the knights were dead were Red and Green. Green starting the thought and red finishing it here.

Red is the first one willing to stab who they assume to be very close people to them. Green as we know is the one NOT willing to fight and rather just defend himself.

So much for "innocent"

Tangent time: I'm not unconvinced the screen tone artist didnt fuck up here, and this was meant to be Blue, but...uh that's not what it ended up being

It's hard to tell because the eyebrows could be either red or blues from my guess.

Until coloring the first volume of manga I ALWAYS ASSUMED this was Blue.

It's for sure not vio or green since their eyebrows are nearly always blonde/not filled in while Reds are thin but occasionally have a bit more thickness, especially when giving heavier expressions. And if this was meant to be Blue. It would be a bit on the thinner side but would match way more personality wise.

Further on the whole "innocence thing"

Wtf was all this shit

Like...I get it. It's for comedy haha. But it just feels so out of character for him this scene just ends up annoying me.

Like it makes him feel so fake. It makes ALL HIS PREVIOUS AND SCENES HERE ON OUT FEEL FAKE.

His tears feel so crocodile considering he doesn't cry when stabbing someone he assumes to be his friends and does THIS SHIT immediately after assuming blue is MAYBE DEAD???

Seriously I kind of hate this scene it feels so two-faced, out of character, and mean-spirited for no fucking reason.

I get it. It was a joke haha. But why the fuck is he joking around and being a goof when his response to green possibly being dead TWICE was to panic and cry and be terrified for real. Why am I meant to take one seriously and not the other from a character standpoint.

From a character stand point: it just feels like he gives less of a shit Blue is in danger/dying vs Green and considering later character interactions I don't think that's meant to be cannon/intentional. (He also calls out to green exclusively on occasions so like...Again was this on purpose or on accident...)

I'm just not a fan of writing characters shittily and out of character for the sake of comedy that doesn't even land.

From a character context: it just looks like he doesn't give a shit about blue here. Which, fine write him mad blue has been a dick but this feels like such the wrong way to go about it to me. Idk.

Onto his intelligence:

Imma be real it feels like he just is only smart when the writing needs him to be for plot reasons and not for characterization reasons.

His intelligence fluctuates so damn much it drives me insane. He's either dumb as a brick or literally smarter than vio, and there's no in-between or reason behind why. It's not like he's good at certain things and dumb as fuck at other things it's literally just because Akira pulls it out of their asses and said so and that kind of writing especially character based pisses me off. 😭

Examples of red being smart:

I don't have a problem with Red having intelligence of his own, but they had to give vio 1 functional brain cells for this scene to work the way it did. Like red can be smart, it'd be great if he was in some instances! It'd even make sense they're all dumb at some shit or excel at others. That'd make them a good well rounded team!

Vio randomly being shit at directions would be a hilarious character trait.

IS this why he gets lost in the tower of winds? Idk if that's a genuine intentional writing reason, but I'm going to assume/head cannon. Imma say that's why, for my own sanity and making this scene make any sense. But i shouldn't have to justify vio being an idiot here with head cannons.

I'd have loved for a scene where Vio over thinks to shit about smth and red is just like "lol the answer is just this silly" but red and vio literally never speak sooooo...thats off the table.

That almost feels like that's what this was trying to be but just...failed at.

He randomly grows a brain again in the temple of darkness. But it just feels so out of nowhere, considering how he's such an idiot most of the book. Like his competent moments, feel SO out of character in comparison.

Like I can see what I THINK they were trying to do with him but it just doesn't land. It just feels like he randomly grows a brain every so often instead of always having one but he he just lags behind the other three in terms of other contexts.

What i think they were going for is "red IS smart. He IS capable. He just needs to be in the right scenario for it to shine. He has such a unique mindset compared to the other three and hes a valuable team mate"

What it comes OFF as... is bad writing.

Onto his like "crybaby" persona the manga and the Fandom itself likes to fall back on

I've touched on it but it feels so fake.

Like I genuinely cannot tell if this is meant to be a character trait I second guess but it's thrown out the window all the damn time.

-him stabbing that one knight with no fucks given really

-him quickly getting over blue being frozen in lue of a stupid joke

Okay let's see when he DOES CRY...

Virtually all the damn time but here's smth I noticed:

He doesn't cry when shadow dies lmfao.

But he does when they kill random rock babies.

Yeah sorry but that rubs me the wrong way too.

Like Reds whole reaction and facial expressions to shadow dying just gives "I wonder if we're having Wendy's of McDonald's later"

Like I think most people are too distracted by vidow to notice that shit but it's so off-putting from a guy who will take the change to bust out the water works at any given change doesn't shed a damn tear when a version of himself kicks the damn bucket.

Not even a reaction to vio being upset about it. Like wtf.

This is what I mean about him being inconsistent. Literally the entire manga is just "He does x sometimes but not other times when you think he would" I genuinely cannot find rhyme or reason to half his character traits and it drives me up a wall. There's no consistency to ANY OF IT and it just leaves this sense of fakeness and it rubs me such the wrong way.

One last thing:

I'm pretty sure he had a cut chapter centered around Red.

I don't have concrete evidence but here's smth i noticed:

This is the last time we see him before his next apearance

And then...suddenly. THIS IS HIS NEXT APEARANCE:

I'm sorry WHAT.

DID WE MISS SOMETHING???

Randomly:

He has a fairy. They've apparently been looking for the other three. TELEPORTATION IS JUST A THING WITHOUT EXPLANATION???

Like, Wtf????

What my opinion?

And SUDDENLY later Red's all like "I'm so independent!😇 "

WHEN. WHEN DID WE SEE THAT RED BECASE IMEDIATELY AFTER YOUR TOWN SCUFFLE YOU'RE WITH A FAIRY AND GET BLUE SO STFU.

If you want what I THINK happened in this hypothetical cut:

Red got away from the towns people and ran into the fairy, and Shadow shape shifted out of being that kid that stole his shit.

Because like...I never knew that kid was meant to be shadow Link until someone pointed that out as a possibility because...Literally I thought Red having his sword and shield gone after he left the waterfall was an art error and not because of the kid.

Like the fact that is even up for debate whether or not that kid was shadow or it could be misinterpreted is a flaw in the writing imo but whatever.

Like it was never solidly conformed. There's evidence but it wasn't stated/shown directly and having the idea Shadow can shapeshift to THAT DEGREE is very interesting/cool lore. (We know he can look like green/Link but still. Would have been nice concrete powers around him he can be random ass people too and he's not bound to being just Link.)

If you think about it:

Green got the Pyramid segment

Vio gets the whole shadow link subplot

and Blue gets the temple of darkness.

Wtf does red get. He gets tacked on in the temple of darkness KIND OF but that felt like it was ONLY because he didn't get his own chapter and they had to mash Blue and Red's arcs together making both of their arcs WEAKER. And it just, annoys me idk.

Aaaaanywaaaay. That's my rambling nonsense.

I think with the idea of what they were TRYING TO DO with Red's character I can get a better grasp of where to take him in FSR.

It's so hard to describe why Red gives me "uncanny valley" vibe in his characterization but I hope I did a decent job explaining my thoughts.

You probably noticed: When smth about red doesn't make any fucking sense. I try to rationalize it. But I don't think there was any thought behind a lot of what he does. Which is why it makes me annoyed. 😭

[gnarly-websurfer]

i understand and really enjoy the transfem kris vision but i also worry that it's somewhat enbyphobic.. like amab trans kris makes A Lot Of Sense (they seem to present more androgynous instead of fem but the general understanding im getting is that tfem kris = amab trans kris)

but isn't it also kind of misgendering as well? because kris being they/them nonbinary specifically is a thing the game has gone out of its way to emphasize repeatedly, and saying they're going to grow up to be a she/they woman or that they're just hiding/ignoring the fact that they're transfem feels no different from the people who insist kris is up to the player's interpretation (read: male because "men are the default") in that it ignores the canonical nonbinary representation. i think the "breaking out of a man's world" reading works just as well if they're they/them nonbinary with no elaboration

(i say no elaboration because tbh as a nonbinary person i get most like me dislike speculation on what a nonbinary's agab is, both real people and characters, because it's generally trying to sort them into "girl nonbinary" vs "boy nonbinary" instead of acknowledging their experience as not just being a girl or a boy)

(additionally I don't think kris is boymoding they seem to solidly be nonbinary? as the idea that they're pretending to be a man, or that they're going to change to a woman or hiding the fact that they're woman-aligned is kind of offensive because it plays into the idea that being nonbinary is a phase or an inbetween state not a real gender)

sorry for bad english it's not my native language. and sorry if i said anything offensive, feel free to tell me if i'm wrong and where i'm just trying to understand since there's been a lot of misgendering of kris recently and i'm a bit paranoid :') sending this ask to you because you seem to be an expert on kris as well as the transfem interpretation

Ok I feel like this ask was meant well but a lot of the stuff in here is really transmisogynist. For one, I certainly wouldn't call myself an expert, because while I do love some good media analysis my personal experience as a pretty cut and dry (trans) woman, and a straight one at that, certainly hinder my analysis in this instance. However to actually respond to your points, I never said anything about Kris being a woman (nor have I seen anyone else who thinks Kris is transfem say that either), and importantly, someone can be a woman, use she/they, and still be non-binary. None of those traits are contradictory. I don't even think Kris has to (or will, honestly) use she pronouns at any point, but even if they did that wouldn't make them suddenly not non-binary.

And also I'm sorry but AGAB is actually very very important when telling trans stories of all kinds including non-binary ones because gender assignment is the primary means by which the gender binary is maintained and enforced. Being real, it's the very thing transness is defined against, without that binary and gender assignment to enforce it, the transgender identity (as we currently understand it) wouldn't really exist! And that's not a bad thing, that doesn't mean trans people aren't real, just that we as people are necessarily products of the environment we came up in (something that's patently obvious in all other areas of life as well).

So like, bottom line, if you're creating a protagonist whose whole narrative purpose is to draw a line between them and the player by giving them an actual detailed life beforehand and their own goals and motivations, and that character is trans, then I would argue giving them an actual concrete history that required them to CHOOSE to transition, that we actually see/hear of, would be much much more impactful then leaving it vague and undefined just so people can project their own experiences onto them. This isn't sorting a character into "girl nonbinary" or "boy nonbinary" it's acknowledging that they have their own history separate from the players POV in which they chose to adopt an identity contrary to their birth assignment!

And in all honesty, if that ISN'T done, if it is left vague, I think Kris will be worse enby representation because of it! If you can't be bothered to actually represent the lived experiences of the demographic you're "representing" then does it really qualify as such at all??? This is my core issue with a lot of enby rep that comes in more fantastical forms like robots or aliens, because most of them end up being effectively cisgender non-binary (their chosen gender matches with their birth assignment), which isn't a thing that happens in real life!

Anyway, to your last point, I wore the same outfit for several years straight even after realizing I was trans and coming out because I lacked any and all confidence in myself. Presentation can be deceiving. I'm not even saying that Kris wants to present differently but doesn't feel able, just that they COULD, and that's why I made that joke (which was not meant at all seriously or as an actual read of Kris' character).